god-talk

By: A. J. Woods

Where some might think that God’s hiddenness justifies believing there is no God. Within contemporary Christianity there is a flip side to the coin which says God can not be known, we must simply believe.  This strikes me as a kind of fideism which says, contrary to evidence I am going to will myself to believe.  Trust in God is perhaps another example.

There is however a story within the Christian tradition which says otherwise.  It is this other story that I want to draw out and make more explicit.  It is a story about knowledge of God. More specifically it is a story about how liturgy, how spiritual practice brings about knowledge of God.  So I am not simply talking about willing myself to believe that there is a God, though I think that happens.  I am not even suggesting that one simply justifiably believes there is a God, though I think this happens too.  I think we can know there is a God in the same way that I know that I am typing this blog post.

The story begins with Origen a third century Christian theologian.  In his On First Principles he writes, “Let us rather consider that god does indeed consume and destroy, but that what he consumes are evil thoughts of the mind, shameful deeds and longings after sin, when these implant themselves in the minds of believers; and that he takes those souls which render themselves capable of receiving his word and wisdom and dwells in them according to the saying, ‘I and the Father will come and make our abode with him [Jn 14:23]’ having first consumed all their vices and passions and made them into a temple pure and worthy of himself.”  I want to draw attention to those who render themselves capable of receiving his word and wisdom.  This hints of what we have seen in Nazianzus and Symeon which I have mentioned in earlier post.

For each of these folks, the experience of God is a kind of tangible reality bringing forth knowledge of God.  The experience, the seeing of God is manifested in quite distinct ways in Origen and Symeon.  To this I will turn in a later post.

By: A. J. Woods

It occurred to me that many may have no idea why liturgy and practice are important.  More specifically, as we are here trying to reign in, liturgy within the broader umbrella of theosis (Christ-likeness) is that out of which one does theology.  But why would that be important?  We here at God-Talk have simply assumed its importance and continued to point to it as an expressive feature of what it means to be an Episcopalian.  In that case, I thought it might be helpful to motivate its response.

It probably goes without saying that God is in many ways, for many people, hidden or at least elusive.  Many people take God’s elusiveness to be evidence that there is in fact no God at all.  The question tends to be, if God exists, then why does he not show himself, remove our doubt?

Paul Moser, a philosopher in Chicago, has recently written a response to this kind of question in his book, The Elusive God.  God’s elusiveness is purposeful on God’s part in order to draw humanity into a humble loving relationship with God.  A god worthy of worship will not be paraded before all to see so that we can sit in judgment of god.  This would be cognitive idolatry.  A god worthy of worship would call humanity to align their will with the will of God.

St. Symeon had similar ideas about a thousand years earlier.  As a 10^th century Byzantine mystic, he did not deny that for many people God was hidden from view.  Symeon argues that we have been blinded to the presence of God on account of our misplaced desires for things of this world.  Lust, pride, greed all have tangible effects for how we see not only our present condition but also our relationships with others and ultimately with God.

To remedy this predicament of blindness to God, Symeon prescribes a healthy does of liturgical engagement.  One must acquire virtues, humility most of all.  One must obey the commandments and follow the guidance of a spiritual mentor.  One must pray the Jesus Prayer with tears, meditate on scripture, and contemplate all of the above.  Baptism, Eucharist, and service to the poor, oppressed, and unwanted are all central to our transformation from blindness into the image of God and ultimately Divine Illumination.

This is the sense in which I understand Liturgy under the larger umbrella of theosis to be that which from we do theology.  Obviously, not that this way of thinking of things is always actualized within the Episcopal communion.  But I submit that it ought to be.

George Herbert

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back, Guiltie of dust and sinne.

But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack from my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning, If I lack’d any thing

A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here: Love said, you shall be he.

I the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah my deare, I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the blame? My deare, then I will serve.

You must sit down, sayes Love, and taste my meat: so I did sit and eat.

by: A. J. Woods

“Not to everyone, my friends, does it belong to philosophize about God; not to everyone – the subject is not so cheap and low – and, I will add, not before every audience, nor at all times, nor on all points; but on certain occasions, and before certain persons, and within certain limits.  Not to all men, because it is permitted only to those who have been examined, and are past masters in meditation, and who have been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least are being purified.” 

So begins Gregory of Nazianzus’s Oration on Theology.  The tinge of elitism might strike our modern minds with a degree of discomfort.  This discomfort is particularly true of those who confine theology to the Bible which, in our time, is accessible to anyone who knows how to read.  Surely anyone today can open the Bible, read it, and philosophize about God.

Now obviously, it is empirically the case that anyone can read the Bible and philosophize.  The question, for Gregory I think, is whether you are going to do it well?  Anyone can buy a guitar and start playing, the question is: will you do that well?  The art of playing an instrument is not so cheap, as Gregory suggests, how much more so for thought about God?  Training and practice are pivotal to such realization not only for guitar playing but also for philosophizing about God.

Talk is cheap.  It is also empirically the case that there is an enormous amount of nonsense by way of theological reflection.  Gregory therefore insists that those who philosophize must be masters of meditation with purified soul and body.  I will come back to this insistence in later post, however I think it is critical to note that Gregory does not insist that one master scripture.  He does not implore that one master a particular hermeneutical tool.  Why might that be?

I’ll leave that question open.  I want to move forward with Gregory as he later says in his second oration on theology, “For it is one thing to be persuaded of the existence of a thing, quite another to know what it is.”  Theology, for Gregory, is not for those who speculate and reason from scripture, tradition, and history.  Theology is for those who know God.  Knowledge of God comes through the spiritual practices of Theosis culminating in Divine Illumination, being wrapped up in the presence, the light of God.

            Of course, this needs more unpacking, and we are getting there.

By A. J. Woods

“God has continued to proclaim the Good News at the font and the alter, even when men have been darkening counsel in the pulpit.”                                                                           A. M. Allchin, The Kingdom of Love and Knowledge

To say what Allchin here suggests in a different way: despite the confusion, the poverty of thoughtfulness, or lack of insight from the pulpit (man or woman), God continues to transform persons into the image of Christ through Baptism and Eucharist.  This fits quite nicely with our theme asking: what is Episcopal theology.  Here it is presented once again in a different way; it is a focus on the practices (liturgy, meditation, contemplation) which are forming us into the kinds of persons who know God.

If we could travel rapidly through Christian history we could see a plethora of voices laying claim to God.  Whether it is the Trinitarian formulations of Nicea, or Teresa of Avila’s interior castle, or Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics, men and women have wrestled with God, attempting to understand, attempting to articulate the object of their Love, attempting to guide others to such understanding.  However, this has for the most part always been second to the practices which form the participant to become a partaker of the Divine Nature.

Reason giving is important, indeed critical to our development, and we will do our fair share of reasoning on this blog.  Yet we must never forget that this is always second to personal engagement with the communal practice of Christian faith.  As we read in the first chapter of the gospel of John: 38Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”  They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39”Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”  Practice and seeing, union with God is first and foremost.

By A. J. Woods

2 Peter 1:3,4 - His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

The author of second Peter here ushers in the long and distinguished tradition known as the doctrine of deification or Theosis.  Through the life of Christ we become participants in the divine nature.  Historically this notion has been characterized by Patristic thought as ‘God became human so that humans could become god.’  Christianity is not simply the acquisition of appropriate propositions; nor is Christianity simply blind obedience construed as worship for its own sake and manifested by weekly Sunday attendance.  Rather, the point of Christianity is that through such engagement we are being transformed into the image of Christ, we are becoming partakers of the Divine.

Much of early Christianity thus focuses on the practices which actualize such union with God.  As Mark A. McIntosh has put so clearly in his book (Mystical Theology, 1998), “The ancient technical term for teaching that does not merely speak about the divine mystery but helps to lead others to participatory understanding of it themselves is ‘mystagogy’.”  I want to suggest that we understand Liturgy as a part of Mystagogy under the larger project of Theosis.  Furthermore, I want to suggest and continue to work out a distinctive character of Episcopal theology which is embedded in Theosis.  There are hints to this fact in the recent work of A. M. Allchin, “Participation in God: A Forgotten Strand in Anglican Tradition.”

By: Lee

What does it mean to say that a theological perspective is Episcopal? It does not mean that everything contained within the perspective or approach to theology is uniquely Episcopal. It would be quite arrogant to think that this denomination does not draw from those around it and woven into its own history.  What makes it unique is not simply where we end up, but where we start.  In the Roman Catholic tradition, we might start by reflecting on church doctrine.  In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, we might start by reflecting on patristic writings.  We might all come to a similar concept of Christology for example, but we started from different places and that is what makes the theological inquiry unique to the tradition.

As Adrian and Amy have both stated so far in posts and comments to this blog, Episcopalians draw deeply from our liturgy as a source of theology and a seed for theological inquiry. In the words of Leonel L. Mitchell “we Episcopalians are liturgical theologians.” That liturgy, contained in the Book of Common Prayer and supplemental liturgies, is what unifies our community in the midst of diversity. It provides us with a structure for our communion with God and each other. It is out of this communion with God that we then reflect on and talk about God.  We do not just look at the words in the book, but use the experience of the liturgy as well.

By: A. J. Woods

It is a common question, how do you know that there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll?  How do you know the politician means what she says?  How do you know that the doctor is giving you an accurate diagnosis?  How do you know that any particular theological claim is true?

In the Episcopal communion this question is particularly salient in the form of Gay and Lesbian inclusion.  Regardless of where you come down on these questions, people want to know how you know.  What they are asking for is evidence or reasons for your belief.  What kind of justification or warrant do you have for believing that is true?

Suppose Bob believes the following proposition:

(a) That Gays and Lesbians should not receive full inclusion into the life of the Church

Is Bob’s belief true?  If it is true how does he know that it is true?  This where Bob tells us that the Bible says…

Freeze Frame.  My point is not to make a judgment about Bob or the Gay and Lesbian inclusion question or about the normative status of the Bible.  My point is to emphasize the critical reality in our current life of the question, “How Do You Know?”

Of course since the beginning of Christianity people have wanted to know how you know.  What I want to suggest ever so briefly here, to be worked out more thoroughly as we go, is that there is a remarkable difference in the way that folks answered that question before the Reformation as opposed to after.  Furthermore, in line with our question for the month of what is Episcopal theology, I want to suggest that the Episcopal DNA has greater congruency with the way folks answered the question before the Reformation rather than with what came after.  More on this next time. 

By: A. J. Woods

In my last post I suggested that a distinguishing factor of Episcopal Theology was, as Amy clarified (see comments on last post), the nature of liturgy.  More certainly needs to be said about this.  It is not exactly as if the Church of England in the time of the Reformation simply said, “look at how we pray.”  The Church of England did formulate 39 articles of faith.  Richard Hooker did write Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie which is a massive 8 volumes of theological reflection.  So what do I mean by, “Look at how we pray?”

Thomas Cranmer was a leading figure in the development of the Anglican Church.  Cranmer had the wisdom to realize the significance of liturgy to shape a community.  In Latin the phrase is Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, loosely translated as the law of prayer is the law of belief.  The idea is that what you pray or, more broadly, how you worship is what you believe.  It is quite telling of the development of Episcopal theology that Cranmer turned first and foremost to the formation of the Book of Common Prayer. 

I think there is a strong sense in which, given the Episcopal Churches lack of an established authority like the Roman Pontiff or the Westminster Confession, the Episcopal Church is completely dependent upon the liturgy, the practices of the church to form participants into the image of Christ.  There is no 5 easy steps: belief this, say this, do this, boom you are done.  What it promises is a life time of practicing with and wrestling with God.

Reminds me of some thoughts from Athanasius in On the Incarnation, “But for the searching of the Scriptures and true knowledge of them an honorable life is needed, and a pure soul and that virtue which is according to Christ; so that the intellect, guiding its path by it, may be able to attain what it desires, and to comprehend it, in so far as it is accessible to human nature to learn concerning the Word of God.” (Athanasius pictured left)

By: A. J. Woods

At minimum, theology is thought and speech about God.  So the question asks what would it mean to have a particularly Episcopalian thought and speech about God?  This is in contrast to Catholic thought and speech, Presbyterian thought and speech, or a Church of Christ thought and speech about God.  The emphasis is on the particularity of what it means to be Episcopalian.

The question seems to suggest that out of a particular communal identity there is manifest a distinct methodology or approach to thought and speech about God.  However, this is surely circular.  The community was formed in the midst of doing theology.  The community’s identity is theological.  It was therefore the doing of theology which created the community.

There is much to consider in fleshing out the particular kinds of practices, history, and philosophy which make up the doing of theology that distinguishes the Episcopal community.  I want to focus on one particular move that decisively characterizes and shapes the Episcopal community.  As a decisive characteristic it goes a long way towards answering our initial question.  Furthermore, it will be critical to keep in mind as we pursue theological questions.

The decisive characteristic is simply this: while the Reformers busied themselves about, conflating the canonical heritage (see below for a list) to just the bible and then construing it as a criterion for knowledge; while Rome appealed to the Church as the ultimate authority, which eventually led to the doctrine of infallibility, thus setting up a man as a criterion of knowledge; the Anglican communion, through the Book of Common Prayer, said, “look at how we pray.”

The focus then is on a set of practices and how that set of practices creates and transforms participants into the image of Christ.  Favoring a Way of Life over a body of knowledge resonates deep within Patristic theology and certainly the Bible.  With no canonized epistemology (theory of knowledge) and no formalized dogma, the Episcopal Church is dependent upon the conformity to Christ through engagement with the entire canonical heritage which includes: scripture, creeds, theologians, mothers, fathers, icons, and liturgy. 

Nevertheless, engagement with the canonical tradition cultivates implicit notions of who God is, who Jesus is, what it means to be human, what the Holy Spirit is, how to think about salvation, what the Church is, and how this is all going to play out in the end.  Our task here on God-Talk is to attempt to make these implicit notions explicit.  In seeking to make what is implicit explicit we seek to understand not only where we have come from but also where we are going.  Therefore the task of theology has immediate practical efficacy as we daily make judgments about how we understand this Way of Life.