A New Christianity

Section Internet Links	Wayne's Notes	Jock's Notes
Jock. Ch 1 - A Place to Begin: The Old Is No More; The New is Not Yet Sometimes in the course of wanting answers, it is questions that show up first; sometimes wanting to know what is true, we first have to wrestle with what is not true. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventures of the Beryl Coronet. So it is that Bishop Spong begins with "The Fundamentals", a 1910 response to modernism and Darwin. These are the 5 (with some editorial brevity): 1. Scripture is the literal and inerrent Word of God. 2. Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. 3. Jesus Christ saved us from our sin by his atoning blood. 4. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. 5. Jesus Christ will come again to judge us for heaven or hell. These are pretty much still the mainstay belief of much of the Christian church, and so it is well to begin with them for they are very much as Spong declares a stumbling block to the modern mind. We note that we can find proponents of these fundamentals readily at hand. But also we note the increase of the Christian church in the third world and that it is of a more conservative nature. So our deliverations may seem strange and heretical to their ears. And we observe that many of those who reject the church have done so are rejecting these fundamentals and are generally unawares of an alternative church response. Borg in a recent talk commented how he took delight in sharing with the students that came to him complaining they couldn't believe in such and such a thing, that neither could he! Like many of us Spong declares that he is a Christian and that these old beliefs are neither tenable nor true. That that way of thinking is in contradiction to everything we know in the modern world, and this includes a century of theological study as well. Spong carries the torch John Robinson passed along. This was also Robinsons complaint, that the church was publically ignoring the work of its own theologicans and archeologists. It is the theme that Robert Funk picked up when he founded the Jesus Seminar, which has grown from 30 to 200 scholars since 1985. Spong is a fellow of the Seminar and has made significant contributions in this effort to bring modern religious scholarship to the people, and also in theological insights of his own. An example of this is introduced later in this current book, when he shows the gospels to be written not as histories but as mishrashic constructions to serve the Christian element in Jewish society. In these introductory remarks he continues to list the things he does not believe. That healing stories are necessarily supernatural miracles. That virgin birth stories are anything but mythical. That Jesus founded a church. That human beings are born in sin. That women are less human and not to be part of ecclesia. That homosexual persons are abnormal. That the Bible is the "word of God". That our religious practice has strangely primitive practices an outsider might see as remnants of blood sacrifice and cannibalism. That much moral stance of the Christian church is predicated on an underlying belief that sex is unholy and very much connected to sin and punishments. The problem in a nutshell is the tendency towards literalism within the church. That the general understanding of society that the rich tapestry of religious and mythological tradition in the human family makes false the competitive claim to exclusive truth of some sects and faiths. The church has no power to stop free thought as it did in the days of Galileo. Then wearying of this tilting at windmills, Spong declares his resolve to stop deconstruction and commence reconstruction. And although he feels "mainline churches are far more dedicated to preserving institutional power than they are to confronting these "life and death" issues" he commences the reconstruction himself. The 12 Theses are such an excercise. "Religious systems always represent an evolving process. Christianity, for example, emerged out of Judaism, which in fact had been shaped in part by the worship of Egypt, Canaan, Babylon, and Persia. Christianity's march into dominance in the Western world was marked by its incorporation into itself of elements from the gods of Olympus, Mithraism, and other mystery cults of the Mediterranean.. As Christianity moves today into the modern world, it is beginning to reflect insights garnered from the other great human relgions. Evolution is the mode of the religious journey through history." This evolution Spong speaks of will of necessity contain the spiritual DNA of the past. Here are the words of another radical Episcopalian priest, Alan Watts. Watts was active in California at the same time as Robinson in England. His special contribution was to build bridges of understanding between Christianity and Eastern religions. He felt somewhat like Elliot that we can safely return to where we started. Our journey of spiritual searching takes us out into the wilderness, but then brings us home where we are more content with those difficulties that first sent us away. "Hitherto, Christian theologians have, on the whole, been rather ashamed of their imagery. Since Clement and Origen first tried to make Christianity look respectable in the eyes of Greek intellectuals, theologians have bent over backwards to assure us that heaven is not literally up in the sky, that angels don't really go around in white nighties, and that God the Holy Ghost is not actually a dove. By now they have made their point, and thus we can safely return to rich and colorful imageries, and to churches and temples radiant with figures of gods, saints, and angels." ... Beyond Theology. 1964. In last fall's study on the 75 Spiritual leaders, we found that one of the characteristics of spiritual legitimacy is the interior aspect that all persons, all tribes, all societies report - the element of mystery and revelation. We discovered that this experience when reported to others becomes a holy scripture and religious creed, thus becoming the frequent source of dispute. And yet those with the vision all seem to recognize the universal quality of their experience and seldom make exclusive claim. Rather they attempt to teach us all to listen to each other and to share our vision. As the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi said, to each bring a candle into the room.
Wayne. Ch 2 - The Signs of the Death of Theism. Quotes: "I see and welcome a radically new humanism emerging which must live in a religionless world" (xxi) "Can a person claim with integrity to be a Christian and at the same time to dismiss, as I have done, so much of what has traditionally defined the content of the Christian faith?" (7) "My problem has never been the faith. It has always been the literal way that human beings have chosen to articulate that faith." (7) "I think it is possible to separate the experience from the explanation and to recognize the increasingly inadequate capacity of ancient words to capture the essence of any experience for all time." (8) "I am required to strip away from (inherited) Christianity... every attempt to literalize the interpretive myths and explanatory legends of the past." (19) Waynes Comments: Spong is like Moses, it seems to me. He can lead the people out of slavery, but he cannot bring them into the promised land. For that he needs a Joshua. By that I mean that, as I read and listen to Spong, I agree with much of what he has to say about the death of the old ways of understanding God. It is from that ²theism² we need to be liberated. However, I do not find Spong very helpful in developing a new, contemporary vocabulary of theism. For that, I need people like Marcus Borg who speak of paradigm change. He describes a paradigm as a gestalt, or a large interpretive framework that shapes how everything is seen. It is a way of constellating particulars into a whole. Using the example of Ptolemy and Copernicus he describes how the paradigm defined by the former had to be transformed into the paradigm of the latter. Christians in North America are living in a time of paradigm change and conflict, says Borg. The conflict is not about a few items of Christian theology or behaviour, but between two comprehensive ways of seeing Christianity as a whole. Borg then goes on to suggest how old terms need to be transformed, or given new meaning. (The Heart of Christianity, Harper SanFrancisco, 2003). Myths, legends and philosophical constructs are human attempts to explain reality; they are not reality itself. We err when we believe in the literal myth (or, as Joseph Campbell says, we get stuck in the metaphor) rather than claiming a myth that helps us describe contemporary reality. Compare two Greek philosophical ideas: Universalia sunt realia - reality lies in universal principles beyond this world. Universalia sunt nomina - reality lies in this world itself, not in some abstract principle. We have lived, for many centuries, believing that real reality lies somewhere beyond this world. We are now living in a time when people are more inclined to believe that the really Real resides essentially in this world and not some place or in Someone beyond it. Summary of Spong's Thought in this Chapter (paraphrased): God as security provider for a 'dependent' humanity is not longer workable (24). To live a human existence is to experience much pain today. Depression, addiction, compulsive behaviour, etc. are all a reflection of that pain. We seek coping mechanisms as a substitute for a cure, because we cannot seem to find a cure for what ails us (28). These dysfunctions are the emotional manifestations of the death of a theistic God (32). Humanity experiences a sense of 'cosmic aloneness' and 'loss of meaning' as a result (33). In the past, we constructed a God who would tame or control our fears and help us cope with the insecurities and vulnerabilities of living. That God has died, or is now dying. New constructs, myths, etc. of God must be created in the place of the old. Fear, guilt, grace and forgiveness have traditionally been tied to the liturgies, structures and clerical ministrations of the church. Traditional ways of dealing with these realities and great religious themes are no longer as effective in helping people deal with their lives. We need to find new terms, new liturgies, new ways, of helping people come to terms with what ails them so that they might come to experience the freedom of the Gospel. Questions: In what ways, if any, does God reveal Godself to us today? (revelation) In what ways do we humans create the God we need at any given time? (humanism)

	Clicking the icon left will activate the e-mail on your machine and direct your comments to us. Comments are welcome and will be posted with usual editorial courtesies.
EMAIL