Orthodoxy is a funny thing. Yes, it’s a word that has been hijacked by the more conservative wings of most religions, and it is a word that has been wielded for millennia to achieve the selfish aims of so many sick-minded theologians who are trying to make God into their own image. As we struggle to regain our sense of what Orthodoxy is and is not, we must take care, as you suggest, to err on the side of the inclusive embrace, or else run the risk of missing the core message of Jesus’ ministry (which I would define as reconciliation).
I would, normally, fully embrace the general understanding of orthodoxy that you describe: "that Christ lifted up on the cross drew all people to himself as he had taken all of human life to himself, moment by moment throughout Jesus’ life among us.” But I think that what you are affirming is not the availability and desire of God to embrace us all through Jesus Christ – what you seem to be suggesting is a universalizing blessing of God’s embrace on all that we might encounter or endure as a definition of salvation – and I’m not sure that this is true. While I do believe that God’s blessing is universally available, indeed, woven throughout everything as a product of creation – I think that there is also an element of intentionality and reception that are necessary.
Yes, I do believe that God would like for all of us to warmly receive him, and to believe in his Son, and to know the richness of that relationship. That is what was/is behind the Incarnation itself. But to say, “what Christ did not assume, he did not save” is not the same thing as saying that everything is good and right and blessed because God became Human. Yes, God ennobled Humanity when Jesus became human (Anselm?), but that ennobling does not override the necessary function of Human choice and the freedom of the will. These are still factors that must be considered, and it remains a part of the human condition that we can and do reject God – and it remains a part of the Covenant that God lets us.
It must be so. Without our ability to reject God, and without God’s allowance for us to reject him, we would be nothing more than mere puppets playing out a sick game – and I don’t think that any of us believe that.
No, we must choose God – we must choose the loving embrace – and even if blessing is forced on us, love cannot be compelled. I am focusing on “choice” because Orthodoxy itself suggests that there must be some kind of choice – even the kind of Orthodoxy that you suggest Irenaeus defends that “holds an opening for universal salvation, union, and knowledge of God.” Even your words suggest that there is only an “opening” – and I imagine that your words suggest a door that is open (invitationally), not a black hole that is sucking us all in. If that is the case, then, as we contemplate the choice of God, we must also contemplate what we are choosing, and what we are excluding.
The very same Ecumenical Councils that you cite as wrestling with Christology did, indeed, come up with some exclusionary language for what is and what is not Christian. The creeds themselves are at once doctrinal, theological, devotional, and prayerful (if I may take language from Jaroslav Pelikan), and as such betray our human wrestling with an imprecise language that is trying to articulate universal and relative/personal experiences of God at the same time.
Even so, the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 stated “The catholic and apostolic church anathematizes any and all those so-called Christians who presume to deviate from their creed or alter it in any way.” So, even as you say, "orthodoxy consistently rejected enlightened, high-minded efforts to narrow, refine, protect, and make wholly consistent the church’s faith and practice," I must object and suggest that there *were*, indeed, very successful attempts to narrow, refine, protect, and make consistent the faith and practice of the church.
Yes, in general, I think that we are being called to reconcile the world to Christ – to bring the world to Jesus Christ in a radical way, in an inclusive way – but I disagree with your interpretation of Irenaeus’ own ministry and theology, and want to suggest that any definition of Orthodoxy requires some lines, even the most radically inclusive definition.
You seem to be working very hard to defend the election of Kevin Thew Forrester, even to the point of claiming a sort of Gnosticism on the part of bishops and Standing Committees of the Episcopal Church (using words like elitism and secret knowledge in the process). Perhaps it is more innocent than you presume.
We have a process of consent in the Episcopal Church in order to evaluate and maintain a sense of unity, orthodoxy, and identity. I do not believe that we are attempting to create cookie cutter processes, and generally dioceses are free to use whatever process of election seems good and right to them… generally. But a Bishop is elected and “called to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church” (BCP 517) – which is the answer to your question: “Why would we subject any preacher who is actively engaged in pastoral and missionary theology to a line by line scrutiny of sermons-once-preached to see if phrases drawn from ancient Christian and contemporary cultural sources might be taken to imply something that deviates from a central ‘core of orthodoxy.’”
I do not think that we are attempting some kind of Gnostic perfection by examining any preacher’s writings as part of the Episcopal Election Consent Process. Rather, I think that it is an attempt to be faithful to an understanding of our faith and polity, while exercising our responsibility as an ecclesial body that is called upon to ask these questions without the presumption of a foregone conclusion. The consent process is not meant to be a rubber stamp process, and for it to have integrity, I believe that those involved must attempt a faithful examination. I trust that this is what they have done – prayerfully, faithfully, and with deep love for the people of Northern Michigan.
1 comment:
Fr Cramer has offered a nice Irenaean response, and I a broadly Anselmian one.
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