Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

What to Say to Suffering and Death.

The Spirit of Things (ABC Radio National) recently featured a show under the title: What to Say to Suffering and Death.

The following is from the first part of the show. It’s an excerpt on reading scripture, and the interviewee is Deborah Masel who was a Jewish spiritual teacher in Melbourne whose gifted interpretation of the Torah gained many accolades. She wrote In the Cleft of the Rock and Soul to Soul while dying of a brain tumour. 

Here’s an excerpt on reading Scripture:

“…She'd [Debbie Masel] just published In the Cleft of the Rock, prose poems on the Five Books of Moses, and here she explained how they grew out of a mystical way of reading scripture: 

Deborah Masel: Well, the mystics say there are really four ways of reading the Torah, which is called by the mystics Pardes, a Hebrew word that means 'orchard'. It is understood to be the mystic orchard, for ways of entering the Torah. The first Pardes is an acronym for the Hebrew word Peshat, which means a narrative reading of the text, just understanding the ritual meaning of what's happening in the text. The next is Remez, which means 'hint', that there's something in the text that is hinting towards something deeper. 

The next level is the level that we call Derash, which is a homily and is often very frequently the level that the rabbi will access when he is giving...and I say 'he', but of course in the conservative and reformed congregations it could equally be she...is giving a sermon in the synagogue to give some kind of educational point, spiritual point that can guide people. But then there is this fourth level which is this level called Sod, which means 'secret' or 'mystery' and that's certainly the level that the mystics who coined this phrase, Pardes, were trying to activate…”

And the following is a quote from the second part of the interview. It featured Jesuit Priest Richard Leonard whose sister was left a quadriplegic after a terrible accident. Leonard remembers that the words of 'consolation' by the faithful were far from comforting. As a Catholic priest and a movie critic, Leonard plumbs the theological and movie archive to find truly meaningful responses to suffering and death that strengthen rather than diminish faith. This part of the show deeply moved me.

“…Richard Leonard: Christianity can't settle on pious statements and throwaway lines and quick getaways because people are in real pain. I've discovered lots of people have walked away from faith, all sorts of faith, because their respective religious collective did not have an adequate…”

You’ll find the podcast (downloadable) here. 

Doubt is Nothing New, But it is Important

James K A. Smith recently offered a short little reflection under the title: “(Liberal) Skepticism vs. (Orthodox) Doubt”. Here’s an extract: 

“…There are certain streams of "emerging" Christianity, which seem to think that doubt is some revolutionary new stance that has finally had permission to emerge now that we are "new kinds of Christians." 

… It seems that those who think permission to doubt is some radically new possibility for Christians are the same people who think that a concern for justice is some "secret message" of Jesus heretofore hidden from Christianity--when, in fact, it just means that it was hidden from them in the pietistic enclaves of their early formation. In a similar way, doubt is as old as faith. As Kierkegaard suggested in one of his journals, "doubt comes into the world through faith." As I've suggested elsewhere, some of our greatest saints have been our greatest doubters, too. Some of our exemplary believers have also been masters of suspicion. The new kind of doubters have nothing on the likes of Graham Greene or Mother Teresa or Bernanos' country priest or Endo's Jesuit missionaries…”

You can read the full post here. Note to self: I must re-read my copy of The Diary of a Country Priest, a novel by Georges Bernanos. 

Doubt and the questions which doubt gives voice to have been important parts of my journey; a journey characterized less by certainty than a willingness to live – to some degree – with mystery and with darkness. But its more than that; its also about being willing to have courageous conversations, to being willing to live on the edge rather than at the centre, to being willing to take responsibility for resourcing ones own journey; to being willing and able to be deeply self reflective and critical, and its about what a recent correspondent and fellow wayfarer described as “remaining consistently enquiring over the years.”

 

God’s Box

really like this (via Jonny Baker) – lots to reflect on… and for me anyway, a recognition of the naming of the realities of a faith journey.

From jane upcurch's inner wellies

God’s box

When

the box that I’ve built

to define the things of god

breaks

it feels like

I’ve lost god

But I haven't lost god

Just the box.

Jane Upchurch’s book sounds fascinating. More information via the link above (or here). 

“…Inner Wellies is written for those who feel on the outside of religion to share ways of being on the inside of God, and for those whose faith lies within the form of religion to find expressions of God beyond the boundaries…”

 

Ian Mobsby on Fresh Expressions, Dechurched and Unchurched

Paul writes – Friend, Ian Mobsby reflects from Cambridge MA on a question I’ve thought about a lot over the years, especially given that I experience myself as “de-churched”. 

A good number of years ago I used to be a part of a church community, however today I no longer regularly, or even often, attend a church gathering – a reality as much about form and my own journey, as content and context. Am I anti-church? Not in the slightest! Can I imagine myself belonging to a church community again? Yes! But not church as I’ve experienced it across my lifetime. 

“De-Churched”, or for me a better term in relation to “faith” is the one Alan predominantly uses: “Churchless Faith”. Both are terms that for me emerges primarily and implicitly within the work of Spirited Exchanges and Alan Jamieson’s research work published in his pioneering book A Churchless Faith. “De-Churched” is in the title of another book on the theme of the “de-Churched” – The Church and the Dechurched: Mending a Damaged Faith by Mary Tuomi Hammond (pub. 2001).

Ian Mobsby writes:

“…From [my recent] discussions, I have been struck by something I had missed before.  Many of my pioneering and mission orientated colleagues in the UK have been frustrated that the projects [that have emerged from their hopes and dreams] seem to have started with not being able to make an impact on the totally unchurched - the primary focus, and instead have started with a ministry that began with the dechurched. 

Now, it has struck me that this is my experience too in the Moot Community, something that we have faced some criticism for in the early days.  But - it has struck me, may be this is the intentions of the God outside of our own needs and desires.   Jesus himself in the Gospel, very rarely goes directly to the unchurched from a Jewish perspective - I can think of the Samaritan Woman at the well and a few others.  No, instead Jesus associated with those who were Jewish who were outside of the powerful temple system to build up a new community of disciples with Jews who were very similar to the dechurched. It seems that Jesus was intentional about gathering around him a community of the dechurched, who through God’s death and resurrection are empowered to become the Apostles, and the beginning of the Church through mission to the Gentile unchurched.  May it just be that ecclesia, and the building of ecclesial communities begins with pioneer missioners building small communities of the dechurched to create deep and radical Christian community that then has the maturity to start and sustain mission and evangelism to the unchurched.

In the Moot Community we have spent 7 years building up a community of the dechurched, which now is intentionally starting out to seek to service God by reaching out missionally to the unchurched.  Maybe - focusing on the dechurched first is right strategically, as long as this then is matched by a commitment for the previously unchurched to mature into the call of seeking to serve the unchurched. 

So pioneering missioners, don’t be disappointed that what you are doing seems to attract the dechurched and not the unchurched, just maybe this is the starting place to build community to be able to reach out to the unchurched effectively.  I think this is true…” 

Also of value in terms of thinking about or exploring some of the experiences of those for whom faith is expressed outside of traditional expressions or understandings of “church” are the two books co-written by Philip Richter & Leslie J. Francis: Gone But Not Forgotten: Church Leaving and Returning (pub. 1998) and Gone for Good? Church Leaving and Returning in the 21^st Century (pub. 2007).  Another useful text is Changing Life Patterns: Adult Development in Spiritual Direction by Elizabeth Liebert. As is The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith by Janet O Hagberg & Robert A. Guelich. 

Another really important book is Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (or his audio series An Undivided Life: Seeking Wholeness in Ourselves, Our Work & Our World) by Parker J. Palmer. I think it speaks into the kind of space many find themselves in both within “faith transitions”, but also within the kinds of transitions that can mean that growth, liberation and life are best gained outside of a traditional church context; apart from belonging. Add Alan Jamieson’s often overlooked book, Called Again: In and Beyond the Deserts of Faith (The title of the NZ publication – a title I like better than the title of its UK edition) and as a corollary Rowan Williams’ Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert, which explores the themes of Life, Death and Neighbours, Fleeing, & Staying.

Also useful are the back issues of the Spirited Exchanges (NZ) newsletter, especially Alan’s essays (for example issue 36) – one of which is re-printed in the most recent (March 11) issue of the UK Spirited Exchanges newsletter. 

 

Lost Things, Lost Faith and the Wonder of Shaun Tan

Paul writes - One of my favourite storytellers is Shaun Tan and his story The Lost Thing – turned into a 15-minute animated short film – took Best Animated Short prize at the 2011 Academy Awards. Here’s the news story from the Huffington Post. 

“…Tan, 37, co-directed the movie and was only 25 when he wrote and drew "The Lost Thing," the shadowy but playful tale of a beach-combing boy who sees what others can't – or won't: a lumbering rust-colored being with little red bells on lobster-like claws and an industrial shell wandering unnoticed in the sand…” 

You can find a pre-Oscar podcast interview with Tan about the film here. 

The website for the film, including a trailer, can be found here. 

Tan’s story’s can be read at a number of levels. For example, Alan and Sandra Jamieson read The Red Tree in the context of lost faith, and disillusionment as a story of rediscovering hope and small signs of faith when all looks and feels bleak. The Arrival can similarly be read from the perspective of the journey of a growing and changing faith… of setting out on a journey beyond the familiar and into the unknown. I suspect too that both stories could be fruitfully read in some spiritual direction contexts, as a way into exploring seeming experiences of lostness and distance / discomfort with the familiar, or the fear of the new and the uncharted. 

While the story of Eric (a visit from a nut-sized foreign exchange student) in the wonderful Tales from Outer Suburbia can be read from the perspective seeing and experiencing the surprise oftentimes unnoticed and to all intensive purposes hidden in the midst of the ordinary and everyday. 

I enthusiastically recommend Shaun Tan’s storybooks and look forward to seeing the award-winning The Lost Thing. 

 

Changing Faith

Paul writes – Richard Sudworth has a great little article on faith featured in the October 10 online issue of Emerging Faith.info. For more on these themes I’d highly recommend Alan Jamieson’s A Churchless Faith (and his other books), and another of really helpful texts, including of course James Fowler himself. I increasingly think its helpful to see “faith” as a responsiveness that grows and changes – if we let it – over the course of ones journey; what nourishes and sustains our faith also changes across time. I often liken it to our diets. Reflect on how your diet and food preferences have changed over the course of your life – whether becoming more complex, or increasingly simple and nourishing…

Here’s an excerpt from Richard’s reflection. You can read the full post here.

“…As individuals we should also be open to faith development at a personal level over time. Professor James Fowler has postulated that there are stages in faith development that reflect the long-recognized stages in intellectual, social and personal development. Religious leaders are often very effective at helping their members to move through the early stages of faith development to the point of commitment. Many seem far less skilled in supporting those who are ready to progress further. A friend of mine described attending church as like being kept down in Class 2 year after year and always repeating studies at the same level. Some people leave formal religion because they outgrow the image of God from their childhood and they have never been helped to progress beyond that level of understanding to one more appropriate to their stage of maturing spirituality. As J.B. Phillips recognized over 50 years ago, these people are rejecting a "God who is too small". There is an understandable reluctance among many religious leaders to accept the questioning of doctrines. This is more likely to be seen as a loss of faith or as a challenge to the church's authority than as a necessary part of progressing spiritually.

Professor Fowler suggests that the final stage in faith development is a universalizing faith that transcends the limitations and conceptions of one's own tradition and culture and is ready for fellowship and co-operation across faiths. The few who achieve this stage are "grounded in a oneness with the power of being or God" and their visions seem to free them from the paradoxes and polarities for a passionate spending of the self in love and a commitment to overcoming division and oppression that anticipate an in-breaking of God's commonwealth of love and justice. Challenging existing power bases is never easy. Since such people work across and beyond existing religious traditions, they can be seen as subversive of those structures which promise the security of salvation and God's protection. They may even suffer the consequences of this through being ostracised or worse…”

 

Barry Taylor on Books, Music and Films

Paul writes – The blogger who has put me onto more interesting books, films and music than any other blogger over the course of 2010 is Barry Taylor. Not sure why, but there you go. I’ve really been engaged by a good number of the books, music and films he’s reviewed or commented on. Interestingly too, they haven’t always been well reviewed by Amazon.com reviewers. But as I’ve said, they’ve engaged me and I’ve enjoyed the experiences, and interesting and transformative ‘places’ they’ve taken me to. Perhaps it's that they're not mainstream, and that to many 'Christians' they'd be called "outsiders".They are voices from the 'edge', and often controversial and provocative as a result. For example, one Christian blogger writes of Regis Debray: "...He’s a staunch atheist so I really shouldn’t be enjoying this book..."

Here’s a few examples from 2010: 

God: An Itinerary by Regis Debray (here). The cover picture alone would have grabbed my attention!

Notes from the Edge Times by Daniel Pinchbeck (here)

Just Kids by Patti Smith (here)

Soul Mining by Daniel Lanois

Le Noise (CD) by Neil Young (here)

I Am Love (Film) starring Tilda Swinton (here) [incidentally, my number three movie of 2010]

Below is an excerpt from a post by Barry which featured God: An Itinerary. 

“…"Upon his emergence from the typographical ‘cradle’, in 1500, our God, speaking Latin, formerly polychromatic and couched in calligraphy, cloistered and chained to His shelf, would soon be sprinting through the city in the vernacular. The printing press made the Word 'practical and useful to all'. That new ease caused the Church to lose its monopoly on reproduction and circulation. It would soon oblige it, after the Council of Trent, to unsettle its certitudes and reinvigorate its sources of allure. There was thus propagated, in the wake of the Reformation, an Eternal in black and white, difficult to control, patriotic and erudite, polyglot, and with a certain wanderlust. With the possibility of home delivery. Bad news for the princes of the Church, but excellent for educated fathers of their families. And when the Pilgrim Fathers, in 1620, took it upon themselves to cross the Ocean with the Scriptures in English under their arms, the result was a second Promised Land, North America, an auspicious transplanting of the God of Gutenberg to the Far West."

The God of Gutenberg, a god shaped and formed by technology, I think we underestimate the role that technologies play in our understanding of the divine and the sacred. "The powers that be have always welcomed, somewhat absentmindedly, the medium that would result in their demise." Intense words, those. So are these, "When the arts of memory undergo transformation, it is the soul of God that is transformed."…” 

You can read the whole post here. 

 

Dissatisfaction and the Shape of Australian (and New Zealand) Spirituality?

Paul writes – Philip Hughes has been cropping up a bit lately. The very good ABC Religion and Ethics page features a reflection by Hughes – Dissatisfaction and the Shape of Australian Spirituality, while The Spirit of Things on ABC Radio National features an interview with Hughes. You can find the interview here, and the reflection (noted above) here. 

Here’s the blurb: 

“Today only 55% of Australians describe themselves as religious or spiritual, but the most passionate advocates of Atheism are older males. Dr. Philip Hughes' recent review of Christian ministry in Australia, Shaping Australia's Spirituality, reveals the importance of values like compassion, and the decline of religion as a mark of identity. In New Zealand David Hines, a Methodist lay preacher, has written Jesus was a Psychologist, to help 'secular Christians' like himself.” 

Meantime, here’s an excerpt from Dissatisfaction and the Shape of Australian Spirituality: 

“Australia is a good place to live. It is well ordered. The basic needs of most people are met. There is employment for most people. For those unable to work, there is a good range of social services. There are many opportunities for entertainment, sport and culture. The large cities are highly multicultural, and, for the most part, people of different backgrounds accept each other. Yet, close to one-fifth of young people and older people say that they are hurting deep inside and they are not satisfied with their lives. 

Often the immediate cause of this dissatisfaction is a breakdown in relationships. However, there are underlying problems in the nature of Australian culture itself.”

 

Does Scripture Speak to the World…?

Paul writes – Andrew Perriman kindly responds to the question(s) I asked in this recent post. He offers his own very useful perspective and suggests some more valuable questions that bear reflection valuable questions. 

Here’s a couple of excerpts: 

“…But if scripture is the historically constrained story of the people of God and if theology is so tightly the interpretation of that experience, in what way might scripture speak now to the world outside the church? Can it still function as “Word of God” not for the church only but also for the world? Can it be, as Paul Fromont puts it, “…an invitation to life in all its fullness for the wider world and local contexts within which churched and de-churched find themselves”?...” 

…Before we consider the implications of this assertion, however, we need to note that the story did not end with the conversion of the empire. The story continued beyond the historical horizons of the New Testament and now includes the reversal of the victory of YHWH over European paganism: in broad sociological terms Christianity defeated paganism but over the last two hundred years has been displaced by an unholy alliance of secular rationalism, cultural pluralism, and technologically sustained materialism. In other words, we are again a people in crisis, unsure of ourselves; and as Paul [Fromont] rightly notes, this has consequences for the reception of the text in the world… 

…Staying within the Western narrative, we might ask, first, what prospect there is that scripture might speak directly to a world that has largely disowned its Christian heritage. What would it take for a post-Christian society to hear the Word as though for the first time? Or more to the point, perhaps, how much does the church have to get out of the way before anyone will be surprised by the text? What burden of transparency and integrity does the narrative-historical reading impose on the church? What are the implications for the church of asserting this particular account of our identity and mission?...”

You can read Andrew's complete post here. Thanks again Andrew. 

Further wondering for me. So, if the church according to St. Paul is the "new creation"; if Lesslie Newbigin has emphatically said, “the Church is the hermeneutic of the Gospel” and as Andrew writes, “The church is the medium of its message”, what is the actual on-the-ground message that the church in the West largely conveys? Or, perhaps more to the point, what are the messages (pl) the church (and churches) conveys, and to what degree are these both hermeneutically and credibly aligned to the gospel and yet also critiqued and challenged by God’s “good news” embodied and enacted in Jesus of Nazareth, by means of the filling of the Spirit…? And, for that matter, is it actually possible for the church to get out of the way of the unfolding drama of God’s purposes for all of creation?

I wonder if the invitation is to dispossession, to a recovered embrace the poetics of silence, gentleness, kenosis, darkness, apophasis, incarnation, patience, cruciform love and mission…? Is it to walk in the way of the desert and cultural insignificance…?

 

Faith, Patience with God, and the Significance of Mystery

Paul writes – Ben Myers via a post on his blog put me on to Catholic Theologian Tomáš Halík and in particular his book Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing in Us.

“Using the gospel story of Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus, Halík issues an invitation to all people who stand (like Zacchaeus did) on the sideline – curious but noncommittal. The fact that Jesus gravitated to the poor and the marginalized means that he also has a special place in his heart for diligent seekers on the margins of the community of believers…”

Ben thinks, “…Tomáš Halík has produced one of the best and most beautiful responses to the new atheism, in his … book Patience with God (Doubleday 2009). His argument is that the real difference between faith and atheism is patience. Atheists are not wrong, only impatient. They want to resolve doubt instead of enduring it. Their insistence that the natural world doesn't point to God (or to any necessary meaning) is correct. Their experience of God's absence is a truthful experience, shared also by believers. Faith is not a denial of all this: it is a patient endurance of the ambiguity of the world and the experience of God's absence. Faith is patience with God. Or as Adel Bestavros puts it (in the book's epigraph): patience with others is love, patience with self is hope, [and] patience with God is faith…” 

Halík worked as a psychotherapist during the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia while at the same time was secretly ordained as a Catholic priest and active in the underground church. Since the fall of the regime, he has served as General Secretary to the Czech Conference of Bishops and was an advisor to Václav Havel. He has lectured at many universities throughout the world and is currently a professor of philosophy and sociology at Charles University. 

In his introduction to Patience with God Halík makes a number of useful and suggestive comments. These, for me, were reflected on against the backdrop of two fascinating pieces of writing by Nicholas Lash: Where Does ‘The God Delusion’ Come From? (2007) And The Impossibility of Atheism (2007 & 2008). 

Provocatively, for some, Halík begins his introduction: 

“… I agree with atheists on many things, often on almost everything – except their belief that God doesn’t exist. In today’s bustling marketplace of religious wares of every kind, I sometimes feel closer with my Christian faith to the skeptics or to the atheist or agnostic critics of religion. With certain kinds of atheists I share a sense of God’s absence from the world. However, I regard their interpretation of this feeling as too hasty, as an expression of impatience. I am also often oppressed by God’s silence and the sense of God’s remoteness…” 

“…Patience is what I consider to be the main difference between faith and atheism…” 

He continues, “…What atheism, religious fundamentalism, and the enthusiasm of a too-facile faith have in common is how quickly they can ride roughshod over the mystery we call God [italics, mine].

Further, he says, “…I’m convinced that maturing in ones faith also entails accepting and enduring moments – and sometimes even lengthy periods – when God seems remote or remains concealed…”

And, one final quote: 

“…We don’t need faith when confronted with unshakeable certainties accessible to our powers of reason, imagination, or sensory experience. We need faith precisely at those twilight moments when our lives and the world are full of uncertainty, during the cold night of God’s silence. And its function is not to allay our thirst for certainty and safety, but to teach us to live with mystery [italics, his].”