In the latest issue of Westar Institute’s periodical The Fourth R (for “religion”), long-time editor and member Tom Hall argues with Vanderbilt Divinity School Visiting Scholar Gerd Lüdemann about who can claim the name of “Christian” in today’s post-modern, post-Christian context. Hall demands, “Who says we must ‘save’ the doctrine of the risen Christ? Who says we may not disavow clearly obsolete elements of ‘the faith of most early Christians’?” Professor Lüdemann fires back: “After the bodily resurrection and other supernatural propositions are recognized as fictions, the heritage that remains is simply Judaism. So why shouldn’t Christians join the local synagogue and become Jews?”
Unfortunately, The Fourth R is not yet published online, and I can’t quote much of it (“fair use,” and all that). But the question raised is at the heart of Christian identity crises today. People who have joined the 21st century in terms of cosmology and want to distinguish ourselves from biblical literalists (fundamentalists) can choose between “liberal” and “progressive.” But what about theologically conservative Christians who staunchly support all of the social justice positions of the political left? Should they give up the designation “evangelical”? Is it fair that they get lumped in with the rest of the libertarian right?
My favorite quote from the online discussion at Sojourners God’s Politics is: “With a glass of champagne in one hand and a smile on his face, Rob Bell, former pastor of Mars Hill church in Michigan, answered, “An evangelical is someone who, when they leave the room, you have more hope than when they entered.”
Showing posts with label progressive Christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label progressive Christianity. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Biblical Literacy: Who Cares?
Atheists care. Mormons care. “Evangelical” “born again” Christians don’t care. “Spiritual not religious” refugees from organized Christian churches don’t care. Unitarians don’t care (unless they are atheists). Keli Goff ranted on Dylan Ratigan and the Huffington Post that:
Liberal and progressive Christians need to bone up on Revelation, the Revised Common Lectionary, and the Gospel of John (see John Shuck’s sermons, and my Liberal Christian Commentary Archive), and then join the Westar Institute in its continuing, paradigm-shifting work on the historical Jesus, the development of early Christianity, and – most recently – the Bible itself. Want more help? ProgressiveChristianity.org provides resources, guiding ideas, and spiritual networking opportunities for progressive individuals, churches, and organizations.
. . . an overwhelming majority of those who believe in God are ignorant of basic Biblical facts, and facts about other religions. A 2010 Pew study found only 2% of those surveyed could answer 29 of the 32 questions asked correctly. Most could answer about half. This means that people who aren’t well-versed in their own religious beliefs, or anyone else’s, are making decisions in the voting booth fueled by prejudice that isn't even well-informed prejudice.More important than voting based on religious prejudice is indifference to Christian fundamentalist Zionism, and the fervent desire on the part of Christian fundamentalists to establish a theocracy in the United States. Christian Zionism poses a direct threat to world peace because of its belief in the literal return of Jesus to establish a “new Jerusalem” and usher in the "Kingdom of God." Christian Zionism is at the root of right-wing Christian foreign policy espoused by all three Republican candidates still in the race for the nomination.
. . . Atheists were among the top scoring groups on Pew’s religion pop quiz. Mormons also scored well. . . . So . . . If most of us are not knowledgeable enough of our own faiths to truly know if another faith is at odds with our own, then how can a vote based in part on someone else’s designated religion be rooted in anything other than prejudice?
Liberal and progressive Christians need to bone up on Revelation, the Revised Common Lectionary, and the Gospel of John (see John Shuck’s sermons, and my Liberal Christian Commentary Archive), and then join the Westar Institute in its continuing, paradigm-shifting work on the historical Jesus, the development of early Christianity, and – most recently – the Bible itself. Want more help? ProgressiveChristianity.org provides resources, guiding ideas, and spiritual networking opportunities for progressive individuals, churches, and organizations.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Luke 12:54-13:5
Who knows why Luke strung together the sayings that he did, why he chose them, and why he put them in the order he decided? The verses from 12:54-13:5 seem to form a progression. Luke’s Jesus starts with another example of his frustration with his followers. “You phonies!” he yells, “You know the lay of the land and can read the face of the sky, so why don’t you know how to interpret the present time?” He follows that with what seems to be a clarification: “Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right?” He finishes with a warning that is pure Luke: “. . . If you don’t have a change of heart, you’ll all meet your doom in the same way [as those Galilean sinners who had their own blood mixed with the Roman sacrifices, or the Siloamians who had the tower fall on them]. In other words, “Repent or Perish!” Luke made up both the incident of apparent cannibalism perpetrated by Pilate, and the accident that killed 18 workers in Siloam.
The Elves fudge the non sequiturs by dividing this portion between Proper 15 and the third Sunday in Lent, Year C. (We will deal with Luke’s version of the parable of the fig tree next week.)
Christian tradition has interpreted these passages as apocalyptic warnings. If they were – if Luke intended them to be – then the parable of the fig tree could arguably be included. The Jesus Seminar scholars generally agree that the advice to settle matters out of court and the parable of the fig tree may go back to the historical Jesus. But they were not necessarily associated with one another. Luke (and the other evangelists) and his community were apocalyptic thinkers. They expected a final judgment, with rewards and punishments, before Jesus would return again to establish God’s kingdom. Present-day scholars argue among themselves about whether or not Jesus himself was apocalyptic. Nor would they agree that the sayings have anything to do with one another.
This blog is taking the liberty of reading another meaning into these passages. That is the only way they can even begin to be useful to 21st century followers who do not believe in a coming non-environmental apocalypse, nor in an afterlife of punishment/reward, nor in the return of Jesus literally from the sky to establish any kind of permanent kingdom on earth. Taking the readings at face value, and from a 21st century point of view, is of course anathema to scholars. But if Luke could do it in the 1st century, we can do it now.
Despite right-wing largely Christian denial, scientists are reaching consensus on the fact of global climate change. It is happening now, and it is irreversible. The task for humanity is to learn how to cope with the inevitable. But what do we hear from self-described “progressive” Christianity? A Google search brings up arguments from the right against global warming, but very little from the left in main stream, presumably “liberal” Christian denominations on how to deal with it. Indeed the silence is deafening regarding so-called “clean coal” technology, cap and trade legislation, mountaintop removal mining, off-shore oil drilling, support for alternative energy resources . . . in short, the Christian “main stream” has nothing to say. The 21st century equivalent to the fictional Siloamians whose tower fell on them might be the 29 miners who died in Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine back in April. What mainline Christian church is going to preach against the continued use of coal and the continued rape of the mountains of Appalachia?
Jesus’ words echo down the canyons of the millennia: “You phonies! You know the lay of the land and can read the face of the sky, so why don’t you know how to interpret the present time?” But who is listening? Bob Dylan screamed a warning in the 1960s that the political times were changing. But now the very web of life that sustains humanity is changing, and the churches are saying and doing nothing.
Repent or perish! Luke’s Jesus says. That means, Change or die. But the change that Christian tradition has insisted upon is accepting as provable fact that Jesus was crucified to save us from “sin”; that he walked out of the tomb and vanished in the general direction of Antares, with the promise that he would return; and unless we turn away from personal petty sin, when Jesus comes back, we won’t be part of the kingdom.
Luke may have shrouded the radicality of Jesus’ message with his emphasis on the wealthy, but the opposition to the normalcy of Roman imperial theology is clear for those with eyes to see. From Mary’s Song (Luke 1:46-56) to the resurrection and appearances of Jesus, the Roman empire (and all empires, whether governmental or corporate) has been put on notice. Repent or perish. Establish systems of justice or face the consequences.
Today, the establishment of systems of justice must be economic, social, political, and ecological. Otherwise, as Isaiah said of old, “. . . the Lord comes out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no longer cover its slain” (Is. 26:20-21). Sure enough, the oceans are rising, the glaciers are melting, whole species are disappearing daily, and human babies are born already alergic to the Planet. No lightening bolts are required from some grandfather almighty in the sky. There are definite consequences for polluting the waters with oil, destroying the mountains for gold and coal, and hiding government malfeasance behind a screen called “national security.”
Repent or perish.
BLOG ARCHIVE
GAIA RISING
Who knows why Luke strung together the sayings that he did, why he chose them, and why he put them in the order he decided? The verses from 12:54-13:5 seem to form a progression. Luke’s Jesus starts with another example of his frustration with his followers. “You phonies!” he yells, “You know the lay of the land and can read the face of the sky, so why don’t you know how to interpret the present time?” He follows that with what seems to be a clarification: “Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right?” He finishes with a warning that is pure Luke: “. . . If you don’t have a change of heart, you’ll all meet your doom in the same way [as those Galilean sinners who had their own blood mixed with the Roman sacrifices, or the Siloamians who had the tower fall on them]. In other words, “Repent or Perish!” Luke made up both the incident of apparent cannibalism perpetrated by Pilate, and the accident that killed 18 workers in Siloam.
The Elves fudge the non sequiturs by dividing this portion between Proper 15 and the third Sunday in Lent, Year C. (We will deal with Luke’s version of the parable of the fig tree next week.)
Christian tradition has interpreted these passages as apocalyptic warnings. If they were – if Luke intended them to be – then the parable of the fig tree could arguably be included. The Jesus Seminar scholars generally agree that the advice to settle matters out of court and the parable of the fig tree may go back to the historical Jesus. But they were not necessarily associated with one another. Luke (and the other evangelists) and his community were apocalyptic thinkers. They expected a final judgment, with rewards and punishments, before Jesus would return again to establish God’s kingdom. Present-day scholars argue among themselves about whether or not Jesus himself was apocalyptic. Nor would they agree that the sayings have anything to do with one another.
This blog is taking the liberty of reading another meaning into these passages. That is the only way they can even begin to be useful to 21st century followers who do not believe in a coming non-environmental apocalypse, nor in an afterlife of punishment/reward, nor in the return of Jesus literally from the sky to establish any kind of permanent kingdom on earth. Taking the readings at face value, and from a 21st century point of view, is of course anathema to scholars. But if Luke could do it in the 1st century, we can do it now.
Despite right-wing largely Christian denial, scientists are reaching consensus on the fact of global climate change. It is happening now, and it is irreversible. The task for humanity is to learn how to cope with the inevitable. But what do we hear from self-described “progressive” Christianity? A Google search brings up arguments from the right against global warming, but very little from the left in main stream, presumably “liberal” Christian denominations on how to deal with it. Indeed the silence is deafening regarding so-called “clean coal” technology, cap and trade legislation, mountaintop removal mining, off-shore oil drilling, support for alternative energy resources . . . in short, the Christian “main stream” has nothing to say. The 21st century equivalent to the fictional Siloamians whose tower fell on them might be the 29 miners who died in Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine back in April. What mainline Christian church is going to preach against the continued use of coal and the continued rape of the mountains of Appalachia?
Jesus’ words echo down the canyons of the millennia: “You phonies! You know the lay of the land and can read the face of the sky, so why don’t you know how to interpret the present time?” But who is listening? Bob Dylan screamed a warning in the 1960s that the political times were changing. But now the very web of life that sustains humanity is changing, and the churches are saying and doing nothing.
Repent or perish! Luke’s Jesus says. That means, Change or die. But the change that Christian tradition has insisted upon is accepting as provable fact that Jesus was crucified to save us from “sin”; that he walked out of the tomb and vanished in the general direction of Antares, with the promise that he would return; and unless we turn away from personal petty sin, when Jesus comes back, we won’t be part of the kingdom.
Luke may have shrouded the radicality of Jesus’ message with his emphasis on the wealthy, but the opposition to the normalcy of Roman imperial theology is clear for those with eyes to see. From Mary’s Song (Luke 1:46-56) to the resurrection and appearances of Jesus, the Roman empire (and all empires, whether governmental or corporate) has been put on notice. Repent or perish. Establish systems of justice or face the consequences.
Today, the establishment of systems of justice must be economic, social, political, and ecological. Otherwise, as Isaiah said of old, “. . . the Lord comes out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no longer cover its slain” (Is. 26:20-21). Sure enough, the oceans are rising, the glaciers are melting, whole species are disappearing daily, and human babies are born already alergic to the Planet. No lightening bolts are required from some grandfather almighty in the sky. There are definite consequences for polluting the waters with oil, destroying the mountains for gold and coal, and hiding government malfeasance behind a screen called “national security.”
Repent or perish.
BLOG ARCHIVE
GAIA RISING
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