Abbot Gregory's Cloister

Gone Garver

2006-08-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

With the semester ramping up and demands on my time at an all time high, I am laying off this blog. Catch some of my occasional posts at Reformed Catholicism.

Ouch!

2006-06-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son." - Dean Vernon Wormer

Spirit of Truth (Maybe?)

2006-06-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

This is actual footage from a Los Angeles-based televangelism program. The Future of Preaching is Now!

WARNING! EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE!

Madonna Plays Show in Effingham, Illinois

2006-05-22T19:04:00.000-07:00

Madonna has been (pun intended) clinging to her controversial twenties with a death grip for the last decade or so. How shocking, then, that she played a recent outdoor show in the downstate Illinois truckstop known as Effingham. The night show, hosted at the sight of the famous 198 foot Cross at the intersection of Interstates 57 & 70 was an unusual choice for the artist more used to arena venues. The cross was erected in the nineties to serve as a beacon of hope to the 50,000 travelers estimated to pass by each day. Adding some ecumenical spice to the normally bare cross, Madonna paid homage to her lapsed Catholic heritage by playing the part of the corpus and creating a crucifix. Observers agreed that the portrayal was her best acting performance since Desperately Seeking Susan.

Jaroslav Pelikan (1923-2006)

2006-05-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

Christ is Risen!

Dr Jaroslav Pelikan, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University where he served on the faculty from 1962-96, fell asleep in the Lord in the afternoon of Saturday, May 13 after a long battle with lung cancer.

Recognized by many as the most noted historical theologian of our times, Dr Pelikan was a member at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Church in Crestwood, NY from the date of his reception into the Orthodox Church along with his wife in 1998. He is the immediate past president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is one of the world’s leading scholars in the history of Christianity and has authored more than 30 books including the five volume The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (1971-89).

Memory Eternal!

Torture and Eucharist

2006-04-24T09:07:00.002-07:00

William Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ (Malden, Mass: Blackwell, 1998) 286pp.

William Cavanaugh is a professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. He is one of the leading lights of a new generation of theologians trying to forge a new conversation between theology and politics. Torture and Eucharist is a revision of his 1996 Duke University doctoral dissertation: “Torture and Eucharist in Pinochet’s Chile.”

The book is not really about him but about the embodied theological practices of Chilean Christians under the regime of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte from 1973-1990. Cavanaugh argues that when Pinochet rose to power, the church in Chile was dominated by a disastrous ecclesiology of Pius XI and Jaques Maritain that relegated all political activity to a merely social and secular sphere. Because of this, when Pinochet sought through violence and torture to impose a totalitarian state on Chile, the church was left without a sense of its own resources as an embodied political entity. The shepherd being absent the laity were left to act individually and impotently.

Telling the story of Pinochet’s inhuman regime, Cavanaugh contrasts a regime of torture with the eucharistic community: “[T]orture is a kind of perverted liturgy, a ritual act which organizes bodies in the society into a collective performance, not of true community, but of an atomized aggregate of mutually suspicious (p.12).” As such, torture is “the regime’s strategy to fragment society, to disarticulate all intermediate social bodies between the individual and the state—parties, unions, professional organizations—which would challenge the regime’s desire to have all depend totally on it….Wherever two or three are gathered, there is subversion in their midst (p.38).

Cavanaugh writes that in the early years of Pinochet’s regime, the destructive ecclesiology in which the Chilean church had been formed failed them for it assumed a secular state that the church could then inhabit as conscience or soul. The church had no political sense of itself independent of the state and could not combat the violent fragmentation of society. Over time, however, the Chilean church discovered this political sense by ressourcement in the Eucharist. In 1976, Cardinal Silva formed the Vicariate of Solidarity which boldly reasserted the identity of the Church as a social body. In 1980, seven Chilean bishops began to excommunicate (literally, bar from the Eucharist) anyone who was participating in acts of torture. In 1983 the entire Chilean episcopal conference determined to do so as well. In fits and starts, the church in Chile constituted itself as “contrast society” with the Eucharist being a “counter-politics” to the politics of torture. In urging the use of the church’s unique disciplinary resources—Eucharist, penance, virtue, mercy, and martyrdom—habits and consciences are formed that subvert the totalizing vision of the state and transcend the secular-sacred dichotomy established by modernity.

Hi! I'm Tom Cruise. You Might Remember Me From Such Films As...

2006-04-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

Tom is morphing into Troy McClure before our eyes. Last week his cooky self-promotion wandered into insisting that his girlfriend had renounced Christianity in favor of Scientology and would have a completely silent birth (sans medication). Today he announced that he will eat the placenta and ubilical cord after the happy event. How long before we hear about Tom's bizarre behavior at a local aquarium?

The Little Flower: Story of a Soul

2006-04-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

John Clarke O.C.D. trans. The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, 3rd Edition (Washington D.C.: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1996) 306pp.

Sainte Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus et de la Sainte Face (1873 – 1897) was born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin in Alençon, France. She was the daughter of Louis Martin, a watchmaker, and Zélie-Marie Guérin, a lacemaker. Both her parents were very religious and had aspired to religious life before their marriage. Lacking vocations themselves, they vowed to give all their children to the church. Thérèse was the youngest of nine children (only five surviving to adulthood).
Zélie-Marie died of breast cancer in 1877, when Thérèse was only four years old. Afterwards her father was unable to continue to work and sold his business. The family moved to Lisieux where Zélie-Marie’s brother, Isidore Guérin, a pharmacist, lived with his wife and two daughters.

When Thérèse was nine years old, her sister, Pauline, entered the Carmelite order of nuns. Thérèse too wanted to enter the Carmelite order, but was told she was too young. At 15, another sister, Marie, also became a Carmelite. Thérèse renewed her attempts to join the order, but was prevented the bishop of Bayeux. Thérèse accompanied her father on a pilgrimage to Rome. During a general audience with Pope Leo XIII, she importunately asked him to allow her to enter the Carmelite order, but the Pope stood by the decision of the bishop. Shortly after, Thérèse’s bishop relented and she entered the Carmelite community. Upon the death of her father another sister, Céline, joined the order.

The Story of a Soul was written at the behest of her mother superior. The autobiographical account of her life discloses her so-called "Little Way" approach to spirituality. The pursuit of holiness, she argues, does not require great or notable acts, but only little acts of sacrifice and great love for God:

Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.

The book bears all the marks of a woman religious who was very young. As such, much of the work is tinged by melodrama and, frankly, unworthy approaches to the spiritual life. One such flaw is when she compares herself to a ball to entertain the baby Jesus.

I had offered myself, for some time now, to the Child Jesus as His little plaything. I told Him not to use me as a valuable toy children are content to look at but dare not touch, but to use me like a little ball of no value which He could throw on the ground, push with His foot, pierce, leave in a corner, or press to His heart if it pleased Him; in a word, I wanted to amuse little Jesus, to give Him pleasure; I wanted to give myself up to His childish whims. He heard my prayer.

At other times, however, Thérèse’s determination to serve God in the little details of the ordinary are quite mature and profound. In these places, they suggest a happy affinity with the “sacred ordinary” we also find in Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God.

Reformed and Catholic readers are well reminded that the sovereignty of God is ultimately a pastoral doctrine. The Dutch Calvinist, Abraham Kuyper, once wrote that “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” This confident reality underwrites our ability to abandon the willful pursuit of our own wills in favor of an active, involved, and considered self-offering to him. Nothing that we offer him is truly lost for in saying, “Not my will, but yours” we consummate the gift that is our very selves.

Knute Rockne the Great 1888-1931

2006-03-31T12:38:00.000-08:00

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the death of Notre Dame's legendary football coach, Knute Rockne. He was 43 and at the peak of his career, having just coached the Irish to two undefeated seasons. He had a 105-12-5 record in 13 seasons.

In Absentia...The Catacombs

2006-03-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the recent dearth of posts. I have had some stuff up over at Reformed Catholicism, but other projects have sucked up my time...

For those unawares, the Catacombs of Rome represent a fascinating window into earliest Christianity. I have never been to Rome and I am suprised at how deeply politicized every aspect of catacomb study has become, but this essay and this presentation represent a non-specialists guide to the state of the questions.

Appalling...

2006-03-11T23:09:00.000-08:00

I saw the parents tonight on television. To the extent that the information in this story is true, its hard to imagine a greater desecration of the Eucharist than denying it to an autistic child because he cannot swallow it wholly or entirely. Even on the most literal grounds, some molecules from the consecrated host remain in the child's mouth, but that's not the point.

Church denies Communion to autistic boy

Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 4, 2006 12:00 AM

The Catholic Church has told the parents of a 10-year-old autistic boy that, because the child cannot consume the host, he is not receiving Communion properly. Until he does, church officials say, he cannot partake of the church's most meaningful sacrament.

According to a letter from Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, delivered to the Lake Havasu City family on Feb. 12, the boy cannot accept Communion in the Catholic Church until he can "actually receive the Eucharist, actually take and eat."

Because of his condition, Matthew Moran cannot swallow foods with certain textures.

So Matthew, who received his First Communion nearly three years ago in Pennsylvania, participates in Communion in an unusual way. As his father watches, the boy takes the Communion wafer and places it in his mouth. His father, Nick Moran, then removes it and consumes the host himself.

Otherwise, Matthew would spit it out, his father says.

Moran, who takes only the one host for himself, says it remains in the boy's mouth for several seconds.

He says the bishop's letter has caused anger, anxiety and frustration in his home.

"We are out of our minds over this," said the father, who with his wife, Dr. Jean Weaver, has two other children, one of them also disabled.

Phoenix Diocese officials contend that Matthew has not been prohibited from Communion, only that the bishop is "not able to approve the present practice," according to his letter. He offered assistance, which has come in the form of various hosts for Matthew to try, educational material and other recommendations for the parents, including respite care, in which trained personnel would look after the children while the parents took time for themselves.

"Matthew deserves to be able to take the Eucharist fully and completely," said Isabella Rice of the diocese Office on Disabilities and Pastoral Care. "As long as he is unable to do so, we will keep working with him."

The issue carries extreme importance for Catholics. Communion, a sacrament also known as the Eucharist, is the center of the church's worship life. In his letter to the family, Olmsted says, "The Eucharist is the great treasure of our Catholic faith."

Unlike other denominations with Communion, Catholics believe the hard wafer of unleavened bread, called a host, becomes the actual body of Christ when the priest consecrates a much larger host by holding it up and repeating the words of the Last Supper. The belief in the true presence of Christ results in prohibitions against consumption by those who are not Catholic, those who have not confessed serious sins and those who have not properly prepared.

The church's concern is that the host or wine not be desecrated in any matter. The key rule is that the recipient must "consume" the host before leaving the area of reception. The consumption rule is written in both the directions for the Mass, called the "General Instruction of the Roman Missal," and in a Vatican document called "Redemptionis Sacramentum," the "Redeeming Sacrament."

The bishop is the final authority for matters in his diocese, according to theologian William Cavanaugh of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.

The diocese is not questioning Matthew's preparation or understanding of Communion.

"I took my son to CCD (religious education) classes for two years to prepare him," said Moran, a stay-at-home father. "He deserves it."

Moran also said his son realizes that he is doing something special. When he was not allowed to go to Communion on Feb. 26, "it was terrible," said Matthew's mother. "Matt screamed and cried because he did not get his Communion."

Matthew received his First Communion in May 2004 in Pittsburgh. His father says the Pittsburgh parish his family attended both recommended and approved the boy's method of receiving Communion. Phoenix officials say that is not true, based on their talks with Pittsburgh Diocese officials.

Pittsburgh officials declined to return phone calls. The Rev. Patrick Barkey, an assistant pastor at St. Bernard Church in Pittsburgh, where Matthew received First Communion, signed the boy's certificate but says he does not remember the family.

"This is a large parish, with 4,500 families," he said. "We have a large ministry to the disabled."

Moran said the Rev. Michael Deptula at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Lake Havasu City, religious home to 2,500 families, was fine with the matter until recently.

It is another point of dispute. Moran says that his wife met with a church deacon and the pastor to discuss the question shortly after they arrived in town in June 2005 and that his son received Communion from Deptula many times before.

But diocese officials say the family never met with the pastor and had never approached him for Communion before Jan. 1, when Deptula told the parents that Matthew was not showing proper respect.

On that day, according to Moran, Matthew was not acting unusually. The family says it does not understand why the matter came to the bishop's attention. But Deptula contacted the diocese.

Deptula declined to return calls. Elaine Guitar, parish manager, said parish officials had no comment and referred calls to the diocese. Olmsted also declined to answer questions, assigning Rice from the disabilities office and Roz Gutierrez from the Office of Worship to work with Matthew and answer questions.

Rice said she never has seen a similar case. The closest would be people who are in vegetative states, in comas or near death. In those cases, a tiny flake of the host or a drop of wine often is given.

Matthew will not swallow even tiny amounts of the bread or wine, his father says.

Autism, a neurological disorder, manifests its symptoms in a variety of ways. Verbal skills and social interactions often are affected. Because autism is a spectrum disorder, the symptoms can range in severity, and each individual can be affected in different ways.

Autistic children frequently have difficulty eating certain kinds of food, among other disabilities. Moran says Matthew is extremely sensitive to certain colors and textures, and the boy eats and drinks only specific things.

Matthew has "moderately severe autism," his father said. "In spite of his disability, he is reading, doing math and making friends."

"How terrible, how difficult for the family," said Denise Resnik, board chairwoman for the Southwest Autism Research Center and the mother of a boy who is dealing with autism. "We often seek comfort in our religion, and it would be nice to think the church would support them to the best degree possible." Diocese officials said they are doing their best to accommodate Matthew's needs, including hosts that are thinner than the norm, thicker, even smaller. Moran says none of the hosts has worked. Matthew will not swallow even a tiny crumb of the host or a drop of wine with any regularity, frequently spitting them out, he said.

Rice and Gutierrez say they have had extensive talks and e-mail exchanges with the family. They admit their service to the family is hampered by distance. Lake Havasu City is about 200 miles from Phoenix.

The Morans responded that Deptula has barred employees of the parish, the only one in town, from speaking to them.

"How does the diocese intend to help us when (parish) employees are threatened with the loss of their jobs for speaking with us?" the parents asked. "Where is the effort and support from this church?"

Rice says the diocese is trying to remain true to church teaching on people who are disabled.

A document of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Guidelines for the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities," says, "Cases of doubt should be resolved in favor of the right of the baptized person to receive the sacrament. The existence of a disability is not considered in and of itself as disqualifying a person from receiving the Eucharist."

Nick Moran said he believes Olmsted is not following those guidelines in the case of his son.

In his letter, Olmsted says, "Just to touch it to one's tongue is not to 'take and eat.' In other words, it is not the reception of Christ in the Eucharist.

"So while your desire is for your son to receive Holy Communion, he is, in fact, only simulating doing so."

Roberto Dell'Oro, a theologian at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, says concerns about whether Matthew is consuming the host miss the bigger point.

"I'm sure God knows that (Matthew) is receiving Communion," said Dell'Oro, whose son has autism.

"The Eucharist is a symbol of deep sharing in love. It seems hypocritical to point fingers at these kinds of nuances. If the father is taking care of the host (so it is not thrown away or destroyed), then what is the big deal?"

That is the question Moran is asking.

"We didn't make this a major issue," he said. "They did."

Old Home Week - Straight Outa Muncie

2006-02-21T20:42:00.000-08:00

As I said below, I'm from Anderson, but I actually lived somewhere between Anderson and Muncie. Home boyz can represent! Caution: Not for young ears.

LAZY MUNCIE

First the Bad News and then the Good

2006-02-20T22:52:00.000-08:00

I grew up in Anderson, Indiana. At one time it was a huge General Motors factory town and most everyone I knew was employed there. Since the early 80's, however, GM has been in decline and the town has fallen on hard economic times. Yesterday the New York Times did a story on Anderson. This is the bad news...

Company Town Relies on G.M. Long After Plants Have Closed

Now the good news is that Anderson has not been completely depleted of brains. This guy has recently begun to pull victory from the jaws of defeat like Joe Montana in the '79 Cotton Bowl. He's my hero for so many reasons...

Check out the interview:

Indiana Business Spotlight: I Power Energy Systems, LLC

Great point from Chauvet

2006-02-16T20:52:00.000-08:00

"The presence of Christ is indeed inscribed in the bread and wine" but "is not circumscribed there"

Chuck Norris Facts

2006-02-14T15:16:00.000-08:00

Hillarious site...

http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/

Great Article

2006-02-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a great article from the Japery:

"On the Need for Ecclesiological Education Born-Again Yesterday"

Some choice quotes...

As Noll and many others have noted (confirming my own experience as well), “Most ex-Catholic evangelicals … were not well catechized, and often their Catholic experience was nominal, mechanical, or (in some instances) abusive; by contrast, many ex-evangelical Catholics reasoned themselves into Catholicism from articulate evangelical positions.” In other words, immature Catholics are more likely to become evangelicals, while maturing evangelicals are more likely to become Catholic.

Tradition must become inheritable, or always-already inherited, to be wholly itself. It must become a gift of givenness, given to the point of being so formative it is ineradicable even from minds that turn against it. It must be so given that it is liable to be taken for granted, in need of rethinking and renewal–but without schism and interminable question-filled “conversations.”

Old Testament Survey

2006-02-12T19:32:00.000-08:00

After a short hiatus (since July), I am active again teaching in the church. Our rector at Anglican Church of the Resurrection in St. Louis has graciously allowed me to offer a survey course on the Old Testament. I am calling the course, "The Hebrew Bible for Modern Christian Goyim." Fortunately, I have been blessed with what seems to be an excellent group of participants.

I have designed the course on a kind of sliding-scale format. Occasional attendees will benefit from a self contained lesson while more ambitious folks will have collateral reading so that the course will approximate a college-level offering.

Interested folks can check out the syllabus here.

A Cottage Industry...

2006-02-07T18:13:00.000-08:00

It never occured me to ask before, but how do seething Muslims manage to come across the National flags they routinely burn? I mean, I would have no idea where to go to buy a Danish flag, but these folks seem to have a ready supply at hand.

This article explains how there's money to be made in protests:

Gaza Shopkeeper Stocks Up

Taking the Bus to Canton

2006-02-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

Jerome Bettis said the Bus stops in Detroit at Super Bowl XV. I think there is one more stop in Canton, Ohio.

Thanks for the memories. This will always be my favorite from the '92 Sugar ("Cheerios") Bowl.

Cheer, Cheer for Old Jerome Bettis!!

2006-01-31T15:43:00.000-08:00

I'm pulling for Jerome Bettis to win this year's Super Bowl. Cheering for the Steelers was made much easier when the team showed up in Detroit yesterday wearing Notre Dame Green with #6 on them (Bettis' number at ND).

New Audio Sermons

2006-01-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

I have just added some new audio sermons from my time in the Peace Reformed Pulpit. These messages seem fairly relevant for these days...

Streaming: Peace, Purity and Unity: A Sermon on 2 Cor. 13:5-14

The download is here for you podcast types.

Streaming: When God Tells You to Jump in the Lake - 2 Kings 5. Download here

Streaming: The Others - Romans 1:1-17. Download here.

It's All About the Christology!!!

2006-01-17T11:53:00.000-08:00

You scored as Chalcedon compliant. You are Chalcedon compliant. Congratulations, you're not a heretic. You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved in 451.

Chalcedon compliant

100%

Pelagianism

58%

Monophysitism

33%

Modalism

25%

Socinianism

25%

Nestorianism

17%

Adoptionist

17%

Arianism

Apollanarian

Docetism

Gnosticism

Monarchianism

Albigensianism

Donatism

Are you a heretic?
created with QuizFarm.com

I guess I made it, but I don't know what the heck happened to Wayne.

December 5, 1971

2006-01-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

I called the rectory in my home town today. I am somewhat embarrassed that I did not know this before, but the above date is my spiritual birthday. I was baptized on December 5, 1971 at St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church in Anderson, Indiana.

Many Christians can name the date of their evangelical awakenings. I suppose that I have had such experiences now and again over the years, but I have never been able to bring myself to name one of them as the date of my conversion. I have always said and written that my life as a Christian began with my baptism as an infant. Now I have a real space and time day to go with it.

Thoughts on the AMiA Winter Conference 2006

2006-01-16T22:23:00.000-08:00

For a good time now I have been fearful of whether the African face of AMiA was the real deal. Not that I had any particular reason for this suspicion, mind you. The folks that I have met over the past couple of years in Chicago and now in St. Louis have been of exceptional quality and integrity. They have manifested a deep concern for the catholicity of the Church and fidelity to the Apostolic Faith. Put simply, I feel very proud and humbled to know such people. The concern was the manner in which the Mission came into being in the first place. Episcopalians have permitted so much revisionism to flourish under their aegis that one is rightly suspicious of the sudden retreat toward orthodoxy when a gay bishop is ordained. After all, if you can embrace all the other terrors of modernity, what could occasion the sudden exclusion except a pernicious homophobia?

Of course, I have long given up this fear when it comes to the AMiA folk that I know personally, but the question has remained when it comes to the broader organization. I already know that St. Louis and Chicago are the catholic strongholds of AMiA where other places give greater latitude to the “happy-clappy,” church growth element of American evangelicalism. I could stomach that as long as the Liturgy of the Prayer Book remained intact, but the bigger question was whether the realpolitick that drives more banal evangelical church practices drives the Anglican Mission’s ecclesiological self-understanding as well. Put simply, are the bishops of the so-called Global South really bishops, or do they merely function as a wax nose giving ecclesiastical cover to otherwise disaffected, maverick evangelical conservatives?

Fortunately, the Global South bishops are true bishops. Far from disconnected or ignorant of the specific cultural challenges in North America, they demonstrate a far subtler understanding of our situation than most of us are of there’s. Archbishop Datuk Yong Ping Chung of South East Asia addressed the gathered crowd in his opening night homily and felt no discomfort whatsoever in admonishing us as our bishop. Our Primate, the Most Rev. Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda demonstrated his ease with being in charge by extending the Liturgy an extra half-hour while inviting the other seven visiting primates to address us individually. Turning to the American missionary bishops, Kolini then told us that he has “never regretted laying hands on” the Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy and the Rt. Rev. John Rogers. Now, it’s pretty hard to get at the flavor of these actions, but they communicated to me a certain comfort with ecclesiastical authority – not lorded over those under their charge, but humbly expressed without self-consciousness.

The general African flavor of AMiA also plays out in the manner that the churches relate to one another. Far from being beholden to the money that comes from the richer Western churches, the Africans have declared themselves in broken or impaired communion with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada despite the financial cost. In AMiA, there is certainly a monetary benefit to Rwanda and other African provinces, but there is no hint of our playing the role of condescending benefactors. Rather, it is they who consider us impoverished for the poor state of the Church in the West. One Archbishop told us of his conversion at the age of eighteen because of the efforts of Western missionaries. To paraphrase his comments, Americans had brought the light of the Gospel to that which was formerly called the “Dark Continent,” but now that a great darkness has settled on us, those to whom our grandparents had brought enlightenment were bringing a little of that light back to us.

If it is to be believed that in the next millennium the center of gravity in Christendom will shift away from Europe and North America to regions south of the Equator, AMiA stands to be a leader organization in the United States. AMiA is already working on the question of how to more closely integrate the theological and clerical formation of priests on both continents. Africa stands to benefit from the great Western theological tradition and the West stands to benefit from the development and appropriation of distinctive African theologies.
There are some 76 million Anglicans worldwide and the numbers will increase principally in Africa. Archbishop Bernard Molango of Central Africa told a small number of us that he is confirming at least a hundred new converts annually in each of the parishes of his diocese. Other of the bishops gathered confirmed this general sense that God is working powerfully in Africa.

I have long been concerned about the real power of Reformed Presbyterianism to really go the distance in the new millennium. Its confessional tradition, liturgical minimalism, and general suspicion of symbol, ritual, tradition, and embodied spirituality seem only appealing to rich white-folk. The problem, however, is the seeming absence of an alternative. Now, I am the last guy to buy into a fad or a sales pitch and I am generally post-cynical, but this week was truly amazing and it has stoked both my enthusiasm and imagination for what shape my vocation may take in the future.

Calvin's Eucharist and Local Presence (Part 2)

2006-01-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

In 1 Corinthians 11 the Apostle Paul is writing to a community that had failed to embody Christian koinonia. In that community, the eucharist had not yet been separated from the larger communal meal. Apparently when the Corinthian Christians came together, the meal would begin with the breaking of the bread, then each believer would “take out” (v. 21) his own meal to consume it without sharing (v. 21) or “waiting upon” (v. 33) others. This lack of mutual sharing, one getting drunk while another went hungry, underscored the social and economic inequities within the community and compounded the oppression of the poorer believers. The Apostle chastens them saying, "When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat." (v. 20). To paraphrase, St. Paul is saying, “You are celebrating a supper all right, but don’t deceive yourself into thinking that it is the Lord’s supper.” What is being described, then, is not a general instance of the manducatio impiorum, but the specific instance where a professing Christian congregation invalidated their eucharist by failing to discern their own identity as the ecclesial body of Christ. St. Paul looked at their foodways and saw no evidence that they had really understood the kingdom Christ was bringing into the world. The Corinthian church didn’t look like the Kingdom of God at all. It was as though Jesus had never been crucified. The scandalon is that this cognitive dissonance took place even as they communed in Christ’s sacramental body.

Should we wish to make the secondary application of this passage to general instances of the manducatio impiorum, it is important to keep the question of cognitive dissonance in mind. When St. Paul warns the Corinthian Christians regarding the “unworthy” or better “careless” reception of the eucharist, he is describing their failure to “discern” a body that is really and objectively present both sacramentally and ecclesiastically. If an unbeliever presents himself at the altar of a true Christian church, he objectively partakes of the sacramental body of Christ because he partakes in the objective presence of the gathered ecclesial body of Christ. Now it is true that an unworthy or careless participant in the eucharist, whatever his profession, eats and drinks only “judgement to himself,” but this is because of his failure to discern something that is objectively there. The ecclesial body and the sacramental body stand and fall together. For this reason, St. Paul says that unworthy participants are guilty, not of eating mere bread and wine only, but of “profaning the body and blood of the Lord.” Put simply, faith discerns the body and blood of Christ; it does not manifest them. The incarnation of the body of Christ is an objective reality and his being present is underwritten by the promise: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20).

This manner of resolving the difficulty inherent in the question of the real presence has a real pastoral payoff and an inherent practical benefit. First, the notion that the real presence is restricted to those who receive with true faith would seem to annul the Reformed notion of sola gratia. As soon as the presence of Christ, and thus the validity of the eucharist, depends on the quality or character of our faith, we move from an economy of gift giving to an economy of exchange. Faith becomes the currency that procures the presence of Christ. This would not seem to represent a biblical understanding of how God manifests himself. To return briefly to prophetic conceptions of “day of Yahweh,” the sudden coming of the Lord to his temple is a given (Cf. Mal.3:1). While this coming of God may signal the advent of salvation or damnation—of vindication or desolation—the faithlessness of God’s people is irrelevant to his appearance. Indeed, when Christ fulfills the promise of Malachi it is in his “judgment” (contra “cleansing”) of the temple (Cf. Matt.21:12; Mk. 11:15; Jn.2:14-15). It is for this reason that prior to communing at table, our Book of Common Prayer prescribes the so-called “prayer of humble access” for the Priest who prays “in the name of all those who shall receive the communion:”

We do not presume to come to this, Thy table, trusting in our own righteousness but in Thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs from under Thy table. But Thou art the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord so to eat the flesh of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink His blood, that we may evermore dwell in Him and He in us.

As clergy we can never give the appearance that we are turning people back upon themselves or their spiritual own resources as the means of their healing. Better here on pastoral grounds to prefer the Formula of Concord’s construal of the presence of Christ to that of Calvin:

We believe, teach, and confess that not only the true believers [in Christ] and the worthy, but also the unworthy and unbelievers, receive the true body and blood of Christ; however, not for life and consolation, but for judgment and condemnation, if they are not converted and do not repent, 1 Cor. 11, 27. 29.

For although they thrust Christ from themselves as a Savior, yet they must admit Him even against their will as a strict Judge, who is just as present also to exercise and render judgment upon impenitent guests as He is present to work life and consolation in the hearts of the true believers and worthy guests.

We believe, teach, and confess also that there is only one kind of unworthy guest, namely, those who do not believe, concerning whom it is written John 3, 18: He that believeth not is condemned already. And this judgment becomes greater and more grievous, being aggravated, by the unworthy use of the Holy Supper, 1 Cor. 11, 29.

Calvin's Eucharist and Local Presence

2006-01-07T00:35:00.000-08:00

Although the the Articles of Religion do not directly reference Calvin, their use of Augustine in Article 22 is nearly a direct quote from Calvin’s Institutes 4.17.34, [Battles Vol. 2, 1404]. Unfortunately this seems to represent a rather selective use of Augustine. While it is true that Augustine writes, “he who received the power of the Sacrament, not only the visible Sacrament; and indeed inwardly, not outwardly; and who eats with the heart, not who presses with the teeth” (Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 26.12), Calvin is highly selective when he uses Augustine to support his doctrine. Elsewhere, Augustine is able to make the following affirmations that seem to affirm a local presence:

That bread which you see on the altar, having been sanctified by the word of God is the Body of Christ (corpus est Christi). That chalice, or rather, what is in that chalice, having been sanctified by the word of God, is the Blood of Christ (sanguis est Christi). Through that bread and wine the Lord Christ willed to commend his Body and Blood, which he poured out for us unto the forgiveness of sins. (Sermones 227, PL 38)

Christ was carried in his own hands [Ferebatur enim Christus in manibus suis] when, referring to his own Body, he said, 'This is my Body.’ For he carried that body in his hands [Ferebat enim illud corpus in manibus suis]. (Enarrationes in Psalmos 33:1, 10, PL 36).

None of this is new, of course, but I'm starting to lose confidence with regard to Calvin's rejection of the local presence and in his treatment of the manducatio impiorum. I could use some help if anyone wants to set me straight.

Strike Three ... Throw this guy out!

2006-01-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

This is one of those times where the scandal of a divided Christendom is particularly pressing.

For the handful of you who are yet unaware, Pat Robertson has recently gone on record attributing Ariel Sharon's stroke to the divine judgement of God for his trading away land for peace. Back in the Fall, of course, he was praying for the death of more Supreme Court members and advocating the assassination of a Venezuelan head of state.

It's too bad that we have allowed for a situation in which professed Christian leaders are accountable to no one for their words. Some mechanism should exist to inhibit him. Unfortunately, there is no umpire to call Robertson out on his third strike.

Epiphany

2006-01-05T19:38:00.000-08:00

The EPIPHANY, or the Manifestation of Christ
to the Gentiles.

God, who by the leading of a star didst
manifest thy only-begotten Son to the
Gentiles; Mercifully grant that we, who know
thee now by faith, may after this life have the
fruition of thy glorious Godhead; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

W.W.N.T.W.D?

2005-12-22T16:56:00.000-08:00

This seems to be a blatant defiance of Bishop Tom's authority. We should be in prayer that he will act with integrity and prudence.

LONDON: VICAR'S BLESSING IGNORES GUIDELINES FROM BISHOPS

By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
THE TIMES

December 22, 2005

A VICAR who had his civil partnership blessed at a church service yesterday could face disciplinary action from the Church of England.

The Rev Christopher Wardale, 59, the vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Darlington, Co Durham, and Malcolm Macourt, 58, a retired lecturer, registered their union at a ceremony in Newcastle before having it blessed at a local church. The blessing, attended by Dr David Jenkins, the former Bishop of Durham, breached guidelines issued in July by the bishops of the Church.

Clergy were advised against conducting formal blessings of civil partnerships to avoid equating them with marriage.

In the guidelines, condemned by evangelical Anglican Communion archbishops from the Global South as giving the appearance of “evil”, the bishops said that clergy could enter into partnerships, but only if they would abide by Church teaching that sex should be confined to heterosexual marriage.

The guidelines are an attempt to head off a split between conservatives and liberals over homosexuality and the clergy.

A spokeswoman for Dr Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham, said yesterday: “The bishop is taking advice about what action to pursue.”

A "Converting Ordinance"

2005-12-22T15:25:00.000-08:00

I'm not a player in the so-called "Federal Vision" controversies that are currently plaguing my former denomination (Presbyterian Church in America), but some persons whom I consider friends are.

In any case, I am posting these files because a good number of persons on the wrong side of those debates are constantly whining about "innovators" who treat Baptism and Eucharist as "converting ordinances." The paper I posted the other day treats the Sacramental thought of Solomon Stoddard in a tertiary manner, but it bears repeating that Stoddard's theology of Baptism and Eucharist was actually less "Catholic" than many of his fellow Congregationalists. Rather than the sacraments being "means" they were merely the possible "occasion" for a person to receive an "effectual calling" (i.e. "initial justification by faith" on Puritan terms).

Ironically, it is this sub-catholic sacramentology that brings Stoddard and the current crop of Zwinglians in conservative American Presbyterianism into close similitude.

Anyway, I just thought that people batting about terminology like "converting ordinances" ought to have some small idea of what they are talking about and poor students standing for licensure and ordination could benefit from the historical background. Also, Stoddard is one of the dearer American Puritans and this work is apparently not available online anywhere else:

Solomon Stoddard, An Appeal to the Learned, Being a Vindication of the Right of Visible Saints to the Lord’s Supper, Though they be destitute of a Saving Work of God’s Spirit on their Hearts (2nd ed.;Boston, 1751).

Part 1 (Preface through Book 1)

Part 2 (Books 2 and 3)

What I've Been Up To...

2005-12-18T21:26:00.000-08:00

I finished both of these in the last couple of weeks. I am fairly happy with them, but they have not been beaten around by the experts. Let me know if you find particularly offensive errors.

Making The Invisible Visible: The Puritan Wager And Sacramental Hospitality In New England

Development By Rectification: John Henry Newman’s Conception of the Schola Theologorum and the Oxford Movement

Blessings to you all in this Christmastide.

Michael

Man, I Sure Do Miss This...

2005-12-08T16:06:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, this will be our first winter away from Chicago in several years. Although I really miss the guarantee of snow and cold that we would get up there, this is something I am glad to be rid of...

Today was one of those days where a 45 min. commute would take 2.5 hours.

The Practical Roots of Liturgical Reform

2005-12-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

My friend, Mark Horne, has raised some important pastoral concerns regarding the participation of physically and cognitively impaired persons in the sacraments. I contributed the following as feedback, not to chide Mark, but to share from my own struggle to overcome the practical and credal limitations imposed by American Presbyterian/Reformed practice.

Presbyterian Bedside Rites (If there is such a thing)

PCA folk generally won't be able to properly imagine the communion of persons outside of public worship (whether because of cognitive or physical difficulties) without a minor liturgical reformation regarding bedside rites and the reservation of the Sacrament.

First, The Westminster standards preclude private masses, and the usual practice of inviting the elders and deacons to an off-site service would seem to violate the spirit of that precept. If anything, the Puritans who composed the confession would have been working from the principle that the grace of the sacrament is non-peculiar and spiritually available elsewhere, so why go to extremes to provide something nonessential?

Secondly, when the Sacrament is re-consecrated in these services (where it is properly consecrated at all), a real disservice is done to the notion of the common table. The Book of Common Worship prescribes this solution to the dilemma. I used it for a while, but stopped when my conscience got the better of me.

Having a number of older folks in my Chicago congregation, I adopted beside liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer and bought a portable communion kit with a pyx to reserve a portion of our Sunday sacrament. I added to the kit some anointing oil and a small stole.

By the time I left Chicago, my home bound folks came to expect that I would bring Holy Communion each time I visited. Fortunately, the RCA isn't quite so hung-up on these things, and I was able to get away with my "Puseyan" innovations.

Lots of Projects

2005-12-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get some stuff finished for the end of the semester. The good news for those who come for the the theology (as opposed to the latest on Notre Dame and general smart-assed comments), I am preparing one paper on John Henry Newman's understanding of the Schola theologorum and one paper on how the fatal problems of the "Puritan experiment" in New England were actually anticipated and pastorally mitigated by the participants themselves (esp. Solomon Stoddard and Cotton Mather).

In the meantime, I am concerned that many of you might be facing the holiday blues. Here is a nice prescription of cyber-Prozac for you. Just click on the link.

THE LLAMA SONG

Lines from Pants Wars

2005-11-15T18:51:00.000-08:00

Special credit to AKMA for the link.

Lines from Star Wars that can be improved if you substitute the word "Pants" for key words:

We've got to be able to get some reading on those pants, up or down.

The pants may not look like much, kid, but they've got it where it counts.

I find your lack of pants disturbing.

These pants contain the ultimate power in the Universe. I suggest we use it.

Han will have those pants down. We've got to give him more time!

General Veers, prepare your pants for a ground assault.

I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants back home.

TK-421. . . Why aren't you in your pants?

Lock the door. And hope they don't have pants.

You are unwise to lower your pants.

She must have hidden the plans in her pants. Send a detachment down to retrieve them. See to it personally Commander.

Governor Tarkin. I recognized your foul pants when I was brought on board.

You look strong enough to pull the pants of a Gundark.

Luke. . . Help me remove these pants.

Great, Chewie, great. Always thinking with your pants.

That blast came from those pants. That thing's operational!

A tremor in the pants. The last time I felt this was in the presence of my old master.

Don't worry. Chewie and I have gotten into pants a lot more heavily guarded than this.

Maybe you'd like it back in your pants, your highness.

Your pants betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially one. . . Your sister!

Jabba doesn't have time for smugglers who drop their pants at the first sign of an Imperial Cruiser.

Short pants is better than no pants at all.

A Post-Critical Historical Theology

2005-11-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

Beyond Ideology and Utopia: Towards a Post-Critical Historical Theology

I've been wanting to do this ever since I started reading Paul Ricoeur five years ago. It was something of a grind because where the shape of Ricoeur's thought is basically intuitive once you get the basics, the details are really complicated.

I have basically operating with this framework for a while now, but needed the space to map the details. Hopefully it will prove useful to the two of you who read this blog.

Special thanks are due to Kevin Vanhoozer who introduced me to Ricoeur and to Brian Robinette for his proofreading and helpful feedback.

WWJD? (What Would Jesus Drive?)

2005-10-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

You say that your Hummer just isn't enough to drive your kids to soccer? Suburban streets not safe enough and you need the offroad capacity to make it past your mailbox? Check this out:

At 7 miles per gallon, how could you refuse to partake of this symbol of decadent waste?

Christianity and American Religious Diversity

2005-10-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

NOTE: None of this is new and discerning readers will detect retreaded Milbank, Ricoeur, and even Alan Bloom. I just needed to get something posted before you all left for good.

Diana Eck has argued that America is no longer a “Christian nation,” but rather “the world’s most religiously diverse nation.” [A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001).] This can only be received as true if one buys into the premises that precede the conclusion.

In one sense, of course, America has never been a “Christian nation.” Critical historical inquiry into its constituting documents reveals that the United States of America is a deliberately secular project, firmly rooted in the philosophy of the eighteenth century Enlightenment. The Declaration of Independence (1776) recognizes a Creator who endows “certain unalienable rights,” but this is far from the particularity required to affirm the one, tri-personal God, decisively revealed in the God-man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Indeed, this affirmation countenanced a number of differing and mutually exclusive interpretations among the signatories themselves. More importantly, the Constitution of the United States (1787) and first ten amendments constituting a Bill of Rights (1789/91) specifically disestablishes any particular religion or religious expression. Viewed from this perspective, the fact that the majority of American citizens were Protestant Christians is irrelevant to the question and enfranchised representation is merely a matter of which historical stratum one chooses to investigate. The fact that, say Scientology, was not enfranchised in colonial America is more an accident of history (given that the Church of Scientology wasn’t founded until 1955) than an indication of its in principio exclusion.

On the other hand, one must account for religious practice as part of the discourse of American religion. Simply put, for the majority of its existence the United States has been composed of a predominantly Christian majority. Furthermore, whether one wishes to speak of the vitality and orthodoxy of the founding fathers’ personal religion or not, it remains the case that even they were either practicing Christians or men whose intellectual wealth was predominantly composed of borrowed Christian capital. From the perspective of such thoroughgoing Christian inculturation, then, we may speak, as Fr. Richard John Neuhaus often does, of an “incorrigibly and confusedly Christian America.” [See, for example, his “Re–evangelizing a ‘Post–Christian’ World,” First Things 139 (January 2004): 72-3.] It is in this space of schizophrenic tension evoked by the two words – “incorrigible” and “confused” – that Eck is trying to stake out territory and while we may concede the point that the increasing diversity of American religious expression heightens one’s appreciation of the strain, it is also important to realize that this condition is congenital to modernity and to our very modern civil experiment.

Catholicism, Modernity, and American Religious Pluralism

In his essay “The Catholics in the World and in America,” [in World Religions in America: An Introduction (ed. Jacob Neusner; Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 2000) 66-77.] Fr. Andrew M. Greeley is likewise trying to manage this tension. A liberal Catholic himself, Greeley is concerned to distance himself from the hostile receptions of American democracy in the recent, ultramontane Catholic past (ie., the dominance of the so-called Pian papacies of 1846-1958) and to downplay Roman Catholicism’s doctrinal particularity in order to emphasize its capacities for hospitality and malleability. He does this by pursuing two rhetorical strategies: one drawn from the phenomenology of religion and the social sciences, the other drawn from the Catholic understanding of the analogia entis.

Greeley’s statement that, “religion is poetry before it becomes prose,” is a useful summation of the idea that first order practices such as story, ritual, community, and experience precede the second order reflection which gives rise to dogma, cult, and code. From the perspective of phenomenology and the social sciences, the rule of prayer precedes the rule(s) of belief (lex orandi ante lex credendi est). This preference for religious practice over religious reflection allows Greeley to subordinate “official” self-descriptions of the Roman Magisterium to the lived experience of Catholicism in its embodied manifestations. Put simply, it matters less to Greeley what Catholics should be, believe, or become and more what they actually are being, believing, and becoming. The result for Catholics in a religiously diverse culture is a convenient and quite exploitable cleavage between Magisterial apologists for Catholic particularity and the indigenous catholic community which must negotiate between faith and culture. Because “poetry” is polyvalent and thus more malleable than “prose,” Greeley’s vision of Catholicism is more adaptable to American culture than the older visions he seeks to transcend.

When Greeley speaks of Catholicism’s ambivalence to, “contaminating God by comparing God to creatures and human experience,” he is invoking the principle of the “sacramentality” of the world rooted in an analogy of being. According to this understanding, particular beings in the world participate in, and thus reflect, the Supreme Being that is God. Because all things in the world live in, move in, and have their being in God (Acts 17:28), these particular beings are a said reveal the Divine in more or less reliable ways. This “analogical” or “sacramental” imagination underwrites a general hospitality toward the world and toward all things human.

Facing the question of emergent religious diversity in the United States, Greeley’s conception of Catholicism’s hospitality towards the human opens some space for the renewed appreciation and integration of religions that are not specifically Christian or Roman Catholic. He cites as precedent several examples from the history of Catholic missiology where pagan religious practices were retained as Catholicism incarnated itself in a particular culture, but were harmonized with and then integrated into the Christian story. This construal of the continuity of human religious experience does have its drawbacks to be sure. Greeley cites Catholicism’s tendency toward, “superstition and a mixture of Christianity with and paganism that is called folk religion.” More important, however, is a danger that Greeley does not name: the tendency toward an uncritical, paternal colonialism that dismisses the integrity of non-Christian religious experience.

Religious Diversity and American Christian Particularity

Helpful though Greeley’s winsome vision of Catholic Christianity may be, it is to the peculiar particularity of Christian affirmation that we must return, for it remains the chief obstacle in our negotiation of the American space between the “incorrigible” and the “confused.” The sacramental imagination of Catholicism must be balanced by the Divine otherness implicit in the principle of Protestantism. As the Fourth Lateran Council put it so well, “In every similarity between the world and God, there is an even greater dissimilarity.” [Maior dissimulitudo in tanta similitudine, Canon 2.]

First order religious experiences invariably result in second order reflection. Doctrine, cult, and code emerge because they are socio-cultural necessities. We are truer to the nature of things when we admit that the rule of prayer not only precedes the rule of belief, but that it is the rule of belief and vice versa (lex orandi, lex credendi). The rule of belief thus names the boundaries of prayer and preserves it from becoming a merely self-referential, self-deconstructive idolatry even as it creates the space in which faith experience may flourish.

Because this reality is attendant to all religious faith, we are bound as students of other religions to attend as much to religious particularity as we are to religious similarity. By neglecting this balance we neither benefit society nor preserve religion and we unwittingly suborn the ideology and utopian vision of what may be the real American religion – the secular. The secular consensus from which American democracy sprang is itself an alternative and exclusive atheology that must be thought and constructed like any other theology. As such, secularity is inimical to full-throated religious commitment and advocacy. In its wake religious experience tends to suffer marginalization and society loses the potential therapeutic value of faith that is lived undiluted.

The implications of this critique of secularity are beyond the scope of this short exploration but it certainly entails the conclusion that there is no such thing as “religion” in the sense of an abstracted “thing,” standing behind and underwriting all particular religions. Christians are not practicing “religion,” but Christianity; Muslims are not practicing “religion,” but Islam. “ Religion” is a construction of secularity and ceases to be useful as a concept in the face of genuine religious particularity. When we subordinate religious particularity to generic “religion,” we are neither very good students of a given faith nor are we becoming adequately self-critical adherents of our own faith.

What then is the committed Christian to do in a religiously pluralistic culture? First, as Greeley’s article suggests, Christian orthodoxy is capable of remaining fully itself and while remaining extremely adaptable and quite patient of human diversity. The complicating presence of human sin creates an already/not yet tension in human redemption that closely mirrors the tension between the “incorrigible” and the “confused.” We can live in a world where everyone is not yet Christian because we recognize in prayer that the Kingdom is yet coming. Secondly, basic honesty requires humble admission that Christianity makes exclusive claims on public truth and public history. Ideology and utopia are necessary for social cohesion. Embracing Christian ideology and utopia with humility and self-criticism is the mark of integrity, not totalitarianism. Thirdly, affirming, public Christianity is a stable ground from which one may engage non-Christian religious similarity and particularity. Once we honestly admit (to ourselves and others) that we are about the business of persuasion we may engage non-Christian faith experience for all it is worth. All religions are telling stories that construe the world in particular and exclusive ways. As we know from our experience with literature, the best writers become so by first being the best readers.

Civil Disservice in New Orleans

2005-10-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

This is nauseating.

When formal F.E.M.A. director, Michael Brown, testified before Congress as to how "disfunctional" New Orleans was, I wondered how correct that portrait was. Of course one cannot prematurely conflate this with that, but from the underwater bussing exhibit to the visible incompetence of Mayor C. Ray Nagin to this, it's hard to avoid the impression that "disfunctional" is putting it lightly.

For those without high speed connections, here is the written link.

Uses of the Bible in Slavery and Homosexual Debates

2005-09-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here are the notes from a talk that I gave last week at SLU...

VARIETIES OF FIRST THEOLOGY

One’s prior reception of Scripture as revelation in its theological dialogue with the world constitutes a “first theology.” If Christian theology arises from a fusion of two horizons – the horizon of the text and the horizon of the world – reflection on how we construe that fusion is all important. Following the useful model of Hans Frei, we may organize various “first theologies” into five discrete types based on how they relate the Bible to contemporary frameworks, philosophies and agendas.

 Type one theologies give exclusive priority to the Bible and its language. For theologies of this type, Scriptural teaching is immediate, obvious, all-sufficient, and immutable. Biblical fundamentalists are largely persons of this type.

 Type two theologies value dialogue with alien frameworks, philosophies and agendas, but give overall priority to the teaching of the Bible. Methodologically, type two theologies proceed with a basic confidence in the language of the Scripture, but recognize its historical and cultural conditioning. This self-critical awareness of the interpreter’s distance from the world of the Bible necessitates engagement and dialogue with other voices. Type two theologies adopt a "faith seeking understanding" approach to a given question, but reject the idea of a neutral posture for dialogue. Because the Scriptures are the Word of God, no outside frameworks are permitted to set the agenda for Christian self-understanding. Type two theologies are widely represented in post-conciliar Roman Catholicism (see esp. Dei Verbum) and most varieties of classical Protestantism.

 Type three theologies can be broadly described as “correlationist” because of their attempt to correlate issues raised by the Scriptures to an indeterminate variety of modern frameworks, philosophies and agendas. The notion of a larger, transcendent “Truth” to which the Bible and the other frameworks correlate is usually assumed. Theologies of this type proceed methodologically in something of an ad hoc fashion, remaining open to multiple avenues of intersection while resisting the temptation to privilege a single framework or agenda above the others. The absence of critical readings, either of the Scriptures or the given external phenomenon is key here. Think Schleiermacher here.

 Type four theologies can be described as “revisionist” in that they privilege a single external philosophy or framework above others and then interact with Scripture from that critical posture. Here the external agenda sets the agenda and the Biblical teaching is judged to be valid or invalid on that basis. Type four theologies are as widely divergent as the cultural frameworks that they adopt. Liberation theologies of all stripes tend (though not exclusively) to fall into this category.

 Type five theologies are “post-Christian” or “non-Christian” and represent the mirror image of type one theologies. In the case of type five, however, it is the given philosophy, framework, or agenda that claims exclusive priority. Type five theologies are usually represented by avowedly post-Christian, a-theological, or fundamentalist members of other religions.

USES OF THE BIBLE IN DEBATES OF SLAVERY AND OF HOMOSEXUAL PRACTICE

How we approach the “great issues” in our theological engagement with contemporary culture depends a great deal on how we frame the conversation. Using Frei’s model, I want to suggest some ways in which we might frame issue of affirming homosexuality and its compatibility with Christian profession in light of a past cultural conversation regarding the compatibility of slave ownership with Christian profession.

A. Charles Hodge vs. Wm. Ellery Channing on Slavery

The readings from Charles Hodge pretty clearly identify him as a type one theologian. Three quotes are telling:

What are the moral principles which should control our opinions in regard to [slavery]. Before attempting an answer to this question, it is proper to remark, that we recognize no authoritative rule of truth and duty but to the word of God. (“The Bible Argument on Slavery” p. 847)

If we were wiser, better, more courageous than Christ and his apostles, let us say so; but it will do no good, under a paroxysm of benevolence, to attempt to tear the Bible to pieces, or to exhort, by violent exegesis, a meaning foreign to its obvious sense. (“The Bible Argument on Slavery” p. 848)

The thing there forbidden is the restoration of a slave who had fled from a heathen master and taken refuge among the worshipers of the true God. Such a man was not forced into heathenism. This is the obvious meaning and spirit of the command. (“The Fugitive Slave Law” p. 813)

Channing is a bit more dicey to quantify because he stands at a historical seam between pre-critical Christian orthodoxy and Enlightenment modernity. His underlying moral sentiments reflect a thoroughgoing Christian inculturation, but he then justifies these by appeals to the “universal reason” of Enlightenment philosophy. That said, I think its fair to speak of Channing as an example of type four theologies:

The first question to be proposed by a rational being is, not what is profitable, but what is right. (“Slavery” p. 688)

It is plain that if one man may be held as property, then every other man may be so held. If there be nothing in human nature, in our common nature, which excludes and forbids the conversion of him who possesses it into an article of property; if the right of the free to liberty is founded, not on their essential attributes as rational and moral beings, but on certain adventitions, accidental circumstances, into which they have been thrown; then every human being, by a change of circumstances, may justly be held and treated by another as property. (“Slavery” p. 692)

Note that this second quotation reflects an application of Kant’s categorical imperative that, while not directed as a criticism of the Bible itself, is a criticism of fundamentalist applications of the Bible.

B. Observations

Two things must be said here:

First, Channing was on the side of the angels as this specific issue and one may approve of his argument even from the standpoint of a different theological type. Proponents of type two theologies, for example, will regard Channing as an instance of “good theology, bum methodology.”

Second, Hodge is subject to what I think is a devastating critique both from the standpoint of subsequent historical evaluation and on his own terms. Put simply, Hodge’s exegesis is as problematic as his fundamentalism.

THE BIBLE AND AFFIRMING HOMOSEXUAL CHRISTIANS

So to stoke the embers of debate here, let me ask three questions and suggest some tentative answers regarding the Church’s negotiation of affirming homosexual practice as it relates to our use of the Bible.

Question #1: Does the 19th Century debate over the institution of slavery serve as a reliable precedent for dealing with the contemporary question of affirming homosexual practice?

I think it important to note that there can be no naïve equation of our negotiation of affirming homosexual practice with a prior generation’s negotiation of the practice of slavery. This is true both because the issues are quite distinguishable historically and because the debates even back then resist a simple either/or construal because of the aforementioned diversity of types. If Channing can be right for the wrong reasons and Hodge can be wrong for right and wrong reasons, simple moves from one issue to the other only obscure and prejudice the debate.

Question #2: What theological types are operative in the present debate? Is there a privileged or most truly Christian type?

It is so very important that we identify which theological type is being modeled by a particular person or communion. Closely related to this is the question of which theological type should be modeled by individual Christians and the Christian communions to which they belong. Getting clarity on the prior question of how we fuse the horizons of text and world is as important, perhaps more important, than the issues themselves.

Question #3: Turning to the third, communal horizon, is there a difference between the preferred theological type for an individual interpreter and a preferred theological type for a church or churches as a communion?

Frei’s model does tend to be Protestant in that it identifies types operative in the conversation of individuals with the Scriptures. To only speak of how one or another person uses the Bible is to presume that the interpretive community is a secondary, potentially forgettable, concern.

Beyond discrete uses of the Bible in a given debate, we still have yet to speak of the issues and implications of ecclesiology. How to hold these negotiations as a worldwide communion of Christians and churches remains the great unexamined question of this debate.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bahnsen, Greg L. Homosexuality: A Biblical View. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978.

Gagnon, Robert A. J. The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001.

Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation: A Contemporary Introduction To New Testament Ethics. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.

Moore, Stephen D. God's Beauty Parlor: And Other Queer Spaces In and Around The Bible. Stanford, Calif : Stanford University Press, 2001.

Nessan, Craig L. Many Members, Yet One Body: Committed Same-Gender Relationships and the Mission of the Church. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2004.

Pahls, Michael J. “Abraham’s Other Wife: Negotiating Homosexuality in a Situation of Ecclesiologial Chaos.” Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought 20, no. 6 (June/July 2005): 5-10.

Scroggs, Robin. The New Testament and Homosexuality: Contextual Background For Contemporary Debate. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.

Seow, Choon-Leong. Homosexuality and Christian Community. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.

Swartley, Willard M. Homosexuality: Biblical Interpretation and Moral Discernment. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 2003.

Office of Communion of the Episcopal Church U.S.A. To Set our Hope on Christ: A Response to the Invitation of the Windsor Report 135. Online: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ documents/ToSetOurHopeOnChrist.pdf.

Via, Dan O. and Robert A. J. Gagnon. Homosexuality and The Bible: Two Views. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003.

They Live!

2005-09-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

"I came to kick ass and chew bubble gum...and I am all out of bubble gum."

(Las Vegas) A man suspected of killing two tourists and injuring 12 others on the Las Vegas Strip told police he steered his car into the crowd on the sidewalk because they were staring at him like demons.

"They were staring at him like they were `demons,'" the report said. "Ressa admitted he became angry at them, and intentionally steered the vehicle toward them."

Positively Ghoulish

2005-09-13T09:21:00.000-07:00

Planned Parenthood offering abortion to rape victims in New Orleans

BATON ROUGE, September 12, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Exchange reports that the crisis pregnancy centres in Mississippi and Louisiana areas are being called upon to help with maternity cases but Dorothy Wallis, director of Care Pregnancy Center of Baton Rouge, said that the huge influx of donations is not getting to them. “The hospitals are sending their post-delivery patients to us for care. The American Red Cross sent eight families today.”

In an email, pro-life nurse and activist, Jill Stanek told LifeSiteNews.com that as of today, the centres have received only US $5000.00 and that is to cover extra expenses for all the pregnancy centres in the area, including the overflow from the five New Orleans clinics destroyed by the hurricane.

Caring to Love Ministries has set up a website where readers can send in tax-exempt donations for the care of expectant mothers in the Gulf area. The Care Pregnancy clinic of Baton Rouge offers critical personal, prenatal, and post partum support for women and particularly focuses on low-income mothers.

The group hopes to counter the action of Planned Parenthood teams who have already descended upon the refugees offering surgical abortions and chemical abortifacients to rape victims and other pregnant refugees. Wallis said, “I will walk side by side with Planned Parenthood into the devastated area.” “We have something to give they do not. We offer love and compassion. We have the opportunity to give forth life. Devastation and death have already arrived.”

Ugly Wins Are Still Wins...

2005-09-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

Of course this ugly win came against #3 MICHIGAN in the Big House for the first time since 1993!

Go Irish!

Return to Glory (For Real This Time)

2005-09-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

Notre Dame Defeats Pitt 42-21

Trust me, dear reader, I was sitting in the hallowed confines of Notre Dame Stadium last year as Tyler Palko and Pittsburgh hung five passing touchdowns on our defensive secondary. It pains me to this day, but those wounds finally began to heal as my beloved Irish put on an offensive clinic in the first half of last night's game. By halftime Notre Dame led 35-13, scoring more points in a half than Tyrone Willingham's teams had in 35 of his 37 games under the golden dome.

Charlie Weis has brought Notre Dame football back from the brink of extinction!

Bring on Michigan!

Prayer and Action for Hurricane Katrina Relief

2005-09-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

Prayers for the Gulf Coast

O God of all the nations of the earth: Remember the multitudes who have been created in your image but have not known the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ; and grant that, by the prayers and labors of your holy Church, they may be brought to know and worship you as you have been revealed in your Son; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be served but to serve: Bless all who, following in his steps, give themselves to the service of others; that with wisdom, patience, and courage, they may minister in his Name to the suffering, the friendless, and the needy; for the love of him who laid down his life for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and relieve your sick servants, and give your power of healing to those who minister to their needs, that the people of the Gulf Coast, for whom our prayers are offered, may be strengthened in their weakness and have confidence in you loving care; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Several charities allow you to donate online:

Anglican Communion Network

Catholic Charities

The Red Cross

Samaritans Purse

Also, those friends who have Amazon.com "one click" set up, go there and give.

Less Churchy!?

2005-09-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

New poster ads are being distributed in the UK by the Church of England. The general theme demonstrates a concern to convince fellow Brits of a less "churchy" Church. Here are some notable examples:

"The Church. Provider of judo lessons, antique sales, playgroups, ballet lessons, school discos, flower-arranging classes, theatre clubs and, oh yes, church."

"Church. It isn't as churchy as you think."

"More dances are held in church halls than in dance halls"

"You have to be a pretty good bloke to let 40 screaming kids and a bouncy castle in your house"

"Why go to India to find yourself? You might be round the corner."

All the posters end with the line "Church. Part of modern life".

Now I may be completely turned around on this one, but the systematic disenchantment with the church in our culture seems to stem from its being less "churchy" not "more churchy." Sure, koinonia is all about the messiness of one embodied soul interacting with other embodied souls, but when we run away from mystery - from the Holy - we tend to lose the inherent transcendent and transfigurative heart of resurrection faith. No, it can't always be smells, bells, and mystical ascent, but I'm pretty sure that communion with the Holy through the Resurrected Jesus is the only unique thing the Church really offers. After all, any social organization can offer judo lessons, antique sales, playgroups, ballet lessons, school discos, flower-arranging classes, and theatre clubs - and usually of a higher quality than the average cash-strapped local parish.

Perhaps our best advertising is to remain true to who we are: redeemed sinners, becoming saints, mystics, martyrs, reformers, and - yes - resurrected, transfigured humanity. Some words from St. Dominic capture my point:

"It is not the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but by seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth."

By the way - Does anyone under 40 not hear the term "modern" (as in "modern life") in a negative light? To me at least, the advertisement sounds like a saccharine invocation of mid-twentieth century late-Enlightenment enthusiasm. Remember, the pinnacle achievement of "modern life" hubris was Nazi Germany

A Day for Eucharistic Hospitality

2005-08-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

"COMMUNION WAFERS WERE GIVEN TO THE FAITHFUL INDISCRIMINATELY, REGARDLESS OF DENOMINATION."

This Eucharist at the funeral of Brother Roger of Taizé is a poignant example of the way Christians practice better than their offical policies allow when more important things are at stake.

Thank God that Taizé, Kaspar ("The Friendly Cardinal"), and Brother Roger have graced the earth in these days. May we all take heed of the humble example.

At His Funeral, Brother Roger Has an Ecumenical Dream Fulfilled
By JOHN TAGLIABUE

TAIZÉ, France, Aug. 23 - Brother Roger Schutz pursued many ecumenical dreams in his long life, but in death one of them came true: At a Eucharistic service celebrated Tuesday by a Roman Catholic cardinal for Brother Roger, a Swiss Protestant, communion wafers were given to the faithful indiscriminately, regardless of denomination.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Vatican's council for the unity of Christians, who celebrated the Mass, said in a homily, "Yes, the springtime of ecumenism has flowered on the hill of Taizé." Beyond religious divisions, Brother Roger also abhorred the division between rich and poor. "Every form of injustice or neglect made him very sad," Cardinal Kasper said.

Brother Roger's community and friends, including President Horst Köhler of Germany and the retired archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger, attended the liturgy in the vast wooden monastery church at Taizé, while thousands more followed it on a huge screen in fields outside the church.

Brother Roger was 90 when he was stabbed to death by a Romanian woman, Luminita Solcan, 36, during an evening service in the church one week ago. His successor, the Rev. Alois Leser, a Roman Catholic priest from Germany, prayed for forgiveness: "With Christ on the cross we say to you, Father, forgive her, she does not know what she did."

The gathering here in the hills of eastern France under leaden, showery skies reflected the spirit, and also the popularity, of Brother Roger, the son of a Swiss Calvinist pastor, who first gathered followers here in 1940. The monastic community here encompasses about 90 members from 20 or so countries and virtually every Christian denomination. Four Roman Catholic priests from among the members celebrated the funeral Mass with Cardinal Kasper.

Brother Roger's simple wooden coffin, a wooden icon lying upon it, was carried into the church by brothers. It was followed by a group of Romanian children who had been visiting the community when Brother Roger was killed.

Brother Roger founded Taizé as a monastic order only a 10-minute drive from Cluny, the site of Europe's largest and best-known monastic abbey before its destruction during the French Revolution. In the 1970's, Taizé developed into a pilgrimage site where people from different countries and faiths gathered annually at Easter. Many returned, in sadness, on Tuesday. Holding candles, they followed his coffin in procession to the Taizé cemetery.

Petra Simmert, a schoolteacher from southern Germany, came with her husband and two children. She is Protestant, he Catholic; one child is Catholic, the other Protestant. "We're an ecumenical family," she said, with a laugh. Watching the funeral of Pope John Paul II on television, they saw Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, give communion to Brother Roger, even though he was not Catholic. "That struck us," she said.

Political Assassination in Jesus' Name

2005-08-23T00:18:00.000-07:00

Pat Robertson has been on television lately praying for further vacancies on the United States Supreme Court. Now this naturally would entail the untimely demise of lifetime-appointed justices or at least adverse circumstances leading to retirement, but Robertson has been humble enough to not specify terms for the Almighty in his supplications.

Today, however, Robertson seems not to have taken Doug Lewellyn's advice. Not content with taking his case to the heavenly court, he now thinks that we should take the law (and the sword) into our own hands with regard to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez:

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

It's a good thing that Jesus Christ isn't as tempermental as the Hon. Judge Wapner or he would have ordered Rusty the baliff to pistol whip Pat Robertson by now.

Infant Baptism and Dedications

2005-08-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Some Reformed/ Presbyterian congregations are moving to practice both infant baptism and infant dedications. Here are some stray thoughts that I contributed to a discussion regarding the validity of this practice:

First, baptism is a sign and symbol of incorporation into the Church. As a rite of initiation, it functions as the formal basis of our unity in Christ ("One faith, one Lord, one baptism" and all that). To introduce an alternative rite of initiation (though one may not call it that) would effectively create a "two peoples of God" situation which the book of Galatians is intended to counter.

Second, because baptism is a sign and symbol of our incorporation into the Church, it is the formal ground of accountability to the Church and its leadership. Put simply, an unbaptized adolescent would have no formal accountability to the elders of a local Reformed congregation and could not be considered a member, be disciplined, or commune at the Eucharist. Conversely, the vows taken in an infant dedication to raise a given child in the fear and admonition of the Lord would be improperly taken by the congregation because the formal disciplinary component of that responsibility could not be assumed over a child who, at least notionally, must be regarded as a non-Christian.

Third, by creating an either/or choice for parents, we further cater to our culture's penchant for Enlightenment individualism and consummerism. Being part of the people of God requires a critical subordination of the self (Descartes' self-constituting ego) to Christ and to the Body of Christ. This failure of koinonia or
communion was the precise error condemned by St. Paul in 1Corinthians ("Eating and drinking judgment to oneself" and all that). The sacramental component of baptism teaches us that Christianity is all about what God does to us and for us in Christ and not what one chooses for oneself.

Fourth, our culture's deep suspicion of embodiment and of Christianity's sacramental imagination are further eroded when we short sell the sacraments. God really does complete his redemptive work via the agency of physical rites, acts, and gifts. This would be true regardless of whether we speak of the formal sacraments of
Baptism and Eucharist or the foundational sacraments of the Incarnation and the Church.

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For You T.O.

2005-08-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

F.U.T.O: Little Jeremy's Open Letter To Tyrell Owens

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"Life in the abbey comes first..."

2005-08-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

The priority of communio. Thank God that such people exist in the world.

Belgian monks run out of the world's best beer

Thu Aug 11,10:06 AM ET

Monks at a Belgian abbey have been forced to stop selling their famous beer after it was voted the best in the world and was promptly sold out.

The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to some 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labour -- and beer-brewing.

A survey of thousands of beer enthusiasts from 65 countries on the RateBeer Web site (www.ratebeer.com) in June rated the Westvleteren 12 beer as the world's best.

But the abbey only has a limited brewing capacity, and was not able to cope with the beer's sudden popularity.

"Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out," said a message on the abbey's answering machine, which it calls the "beer phone".

And the abbey has no intention of boosting its capacity to satisfy market demand. "We are not brewers, we are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks," the father abbot said on the abbey's Web site.

Monk Mark Bode told De Morgen daily: "Outsiders don't understand why we are not raising production. But for us life in the abbey comes first, not the brewery."

The Ironies of "The Rapture Index"

2005-08-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

The Rapture Index

I was checking in on the "Rapture Index" today and discovered that the death of John Paul II merited a bump in the "false prophesy/false teaching" category.

Ironically, I found this admonition regarding the Trinity and the Church elsewhere in the sight...

A good church will teach the doctrine of the Trinity. This means that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three distinct beings but are one. This is a difficult truth to wrap our feeble human minds around, but it is biblical and must be accepted in faith. It will be made clear to us when we meet the Lord! See, Matthew 28:18, 19 and Romans 5:5-8.

Not that I am one to quibble unnecessarily, but I think the drift of "the rapture index" into polytheism merits another couple of points in the false prophesy/false teaching and in the ecumenism/world religions categories.

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Mackinac

2005-08-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

I took this picture while on vacation the last week of July. I am not well-traveled by any means, but if I could select a place to retire to write it would be Northern Michigan. I dont mind five feet of snow in winter and wasn't bad hanging out in 75F degree weather while the thermometer topped 103F in St. Louis.

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Abbot Gregory's Cloister

2005-08-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome to everyone. Hopefully you found me OK.

Before becoming Pope Gregory I ("The Great"), Gregory was Abbot of St. Andrews. My website abbotgregory.com and this blogsite are named for him.

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