[Dialogue] 8/18/2022, Progressing Spirit: Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox: Before & Beyond the Nicene Creed, a 1st and 21st Century Credo; Spong revisited

[Ellie Stock]

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Before & Beyond the Nicene Creed,
a 1st and 21st Century Credo
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|  Essay by Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
August 18, 2022
It is well known that the fourth century Nicene Creed has its limitations.  Yet it is still mouthed piously at many Anglican and Roman Catholic churches every Sunday.  It is filled with fourth century Greek philosophical phrases that are hardly on the lips and minds of 21st century spiritual seekers.  Yes, there is much in it that we can attest to, but surely we can do better now that our understanding of the universe  and Biblical and spiritual awareness have moved on.  After all, St. John Henry Newman, a serious historical and theological scholar, did assure us about the development of doctrine over 185 years ago (and 14 years before Darwin’s Origin of Species).

More recently, John Dominic Crossan raised some of the glaring  political problems surrounding the Nicene Creed called in 312 and nearly 300 years after Jesus’s death by the Roman emperor Constantine.  He writes that it is “hard not to become very nervous in reading this description of the imperial banquet celebrating the conclusion of the Council found in Eusebius’s Life of Constantine: ‘Detachment of the bodyguard and troops surrounded the entrance of the palace with dawn swords, and through the midst of them the men of God proceeded without fear into the innermost of the Imperial apartments, in which some were the emperor’s companions at table while others reclined on couches arranged on either side.  One might have thought that a picture of Christ’s kingdom was thus shadowed forth, and a dream rather than reality.’”

Responds Crossan: “Dream or reality?  Dream or nightmare?”  Now “a Christian leader writes a life not of Jesus but of Constantine.  The meal and the Kingdom still come together, but now the participants are the male bishops alone, and they recline, with the emperor himself, to be served by others.”[i] 

Enough already.  We know the story and how it persists up to today.  The pope’s recent visit to Canada to apologize for the horrors inflicted on indigenous peoples and their children at forced kidnapping and cultural and personal trauma ripping children from parents and their language, religion, culture while inflicting physical, cultural, and even sexual abuse on to children in the name of Christian empires tells one element of the story vividly.  The Doctrine of Discovery enshrines it in law, even in American jurisprudence thanks to chief supreme court judge John Marshal in 1823, and then on to English jurisprudence and more.  The right of Christians to steal, plunder, render slaves those peoples who are not “saved” by Christianity and its empires reigns.

What might a Creed that represented Jesus’ teachings more, and Constantine’s less, look like?

Let us start with the beauty and glory (doxa) of creation since that is how the Bible Jesus knew begins: With the goodness, beauty and original blessing of creation (re-read Genesis one).  And this is rewritten in the creation story of John 1 where Christ is the light “in all things”--much like today we understand there to be light waves or photons in every atom in the universe--this universe of two trillion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars.   This same “Cosmic Christ” is celebrated in the earliest writings of the New Testament, the letters of Paul (including Col 1 and 2 Cor: 3:18 and Phil. 2: 9-11).  Christ is the pattern that connects all things in heaven and on earth.  Also in the Gospel of Thomas and in the four gospels--all the great events in Jesus’s life from nativity to baptism to transfiguration to crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and Pentecost are set in a cosmological context.[ii]  Also see Hebrews (Heb 1:1-4) and other epistles.

Why has the Cosmic Christ, so important and early a concept, been so readily abandoned over the centuries?  (To the Nicene Creed’s credit, it does not mention “original sin,” since Augustine came on the scene later in the century).

What about an updated “creed”?   Here is one effort:

We believe in one universe, created and birthed out of the “sheer joy” of Divinity eager to share the divine joy and glory with as many creatures as possible. 

A universe that has unfolded for 13.8 billion years and which ultimately, 9 billion years ago, birthed our solar system which 5 billion years later birthed the sun and earth and eventually all life on earth. 

We believe in the primal goodness, the original blessing, of our earth and in our responsibility as humans to preserve its goodness, to resist our penchant for greed and narcissism that so often results in our abuse of earth, our mother.

We honor the Cosmic Christ that mirrors the sacredness of creation and the presence of the Holy One and doxa, divine radiance, therein.

We believe that Jesus taught us the way to proper relationship with one another and with all our relations is a way of love and gratitude, compassion and justice.  And we commit to that way. 

We learn from Jesus’s story the dangers of following him on that path and how opposition and even death can occur when one stands up for truth and compassion and on the side of the poor. 

We honor those who have chosen that prophetic way including Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandala, Sister Dorothy Stang, Sojourner Truth and many more. We pray for courage and generosity like theirs. 

We commit to a community consciousness that cares about life lived to its fullest for all and commit to a concerted effort to render that possible, the making of a beloved and just and fair community--one of co-operation, not competition. 

We question the gods and idols of our time and the systems that enforce them that render a few pathologically rich while others starve.  We decry the nations that spend billions on weaponry but too little on human necessities like shelter, food, medical care and staving off climate change. 

We seek a balance of feminine wisdom such as Jesus taught along with healthy (as distinct from toxic) masculine creativity. 

We believe in the need to tame the reptilian brain so that our mammal and compassionate brains may flourish, just as Jesus taught, “Be you compassionate as your Creator in heaven is compassionate.” 

We believe in our species’ capacity for compassion as taught by Isaiah and Jesus, Buddha and Lao Tzu, Mohammad and Sojourner Truth.  And we link arms and hearts with all humans of other religious traditions, Buddhist or Hindu, Taoist or Confucian, Jewish or Muslim, Indigenous or goddess, to stand up to climate change and racism, to sexism and militarism, to corporate capitalism and excessive nationalism that prevent Spirit from blowing where it will. 

We urge the taming of the reptilian brain by way of meditating and stillness, “be still and know that I am God,” as the Scriptures say.

We agree that science can be another source of wisdom and assist us in awakening awe at our existence, at warning us of dangers that await us, and offering solutions to many human problems including sickness and climate change and much more.

We acknowledge the story of Life, Death and Resurrection found in the telling of Jesus’s life and recognize the same template in the processes of creation itself over the eons: That galaxies and supernovas themselves undergo this same “paschal mystery” of life, death and resurrection.  And that hope is vital to human survival. 

We acknowledge the sins of our ancestors and our own capacity for evil.  We also acknowledge our ancestors’ hard efforts to make the world a livable and sustainable place and we call on them and angels everywhere to assist us in our common work ahead.

We acknowledge the Holy Spirit calling us to co-create a sustainable future for humanity and all God’s blessed creatures on earth.   Amen.

David Paladin, a Navajo artist who went through a profound rupture as a young man in a concentration camp during the Second World War that initiated him into shaman hood, spoke about the evolution of dogmas or creeds this way: “All great truths are only myths that exist momentarily in the evolving greater consciousness.  Like individuals, they die to be reborn fresh and glorious in the minds of each new age.  They may bear resemblance to their forebears, but each brings with it new features of its own and seeks to find its place and meaning in the dancing dream that is the cosmos.”

Biblical stories and teachings—as well as the witness of the great mystics and prophets who sought to live out these teachings in their way and in their cultural moment—seem to me to be enhanced by Paladin’s mature statement about creeds.  My modest effort here is prose-based, not poetically based yet.  But it is a beginning that might deserve to be rendered more in poetry.  It is also an invitation to others to create their own Creed for the 21st century, one that links to the deepest wisdom of the past and incorporates the old in the new, a myth that exists momentarily in the evolving great consciousness and find its place “in the dancing dream that is the cosmos.”

For me, dogma and doctrine have always invited imagination and creativity, music to dance by and live our lives by.  And healthy parameters.  They are not meant to be cudgels to kill and dominate but invitations to expand one’s heart and mind in our ever-expanding universe, the one Webb Telescope is awakening us to today.  Ever new expressions of the Cosmic Christ and the universe being “full of God’s glory” as the Scriptures say.

~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox

Read online here

About the Author
Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 40 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 78 languages. Fox has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship (called The Cosmic Mass). His work is inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and has awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. He has helped to rediscover Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Aquinas. Among his books are A Way To God: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality Journey; Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Times; Hildegard of Bingen: A Saint for Our Times;  Order of the Sacred Earth; The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times; and Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic – And Beyond; Original Blessing; The Coming of the Cosmic Christ; Stations of the Cosmic Christ; A Spirituality Named Compassion. To encourage a passionate response to the news of climate change advancing so rapidly, Fox started DailyMeditationswithMatthewFox.org
 

[i] John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994), p. 201.

[ii] See Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ (NY: Harpercollins, 1998), pp. 75-128.  And also Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus, Stations of the Cosmic Christ (Unity Village, Mo: Unity Books, 2016).
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Question & Answer

 

Q: By A Reader
 

Can you offer any advice to pastors and Christians in general who want to speak out on issues that some call political or partisan?Can you offer any advice to pastors and Christians in general who want to speak out on issues that some call political or partisan?


A: By Brian D. McLaren
 
Dear Reader,

For what it's worth, here are four lessons I've learned through the years that have stood the test of time for me in trying to find my voice in the public sector. Each time I've fallen short of them, I've grown more committed to them.
   
   - Whenever possible, try to lead with "I" statements. The sage rabbi Edwin Freedman called this practice self-differentiation. A friend of mine embodied self-differentiation a few years ago when he said something like this to his congregation: "This week, you may see me on TV or social media being arrested. I wanted to let you know in advance that I will be participating in a peaceful protest regarding a cause I care deeply about that will include nonviolent civil disobedience and risk of arrest. I am motivated to take this step by my commitment to Christ, but I am doing this as a private citizen and individual Christian, not as a representative of this church. I do not expect you to agree with me on this matter, but I hope I am setting an example of putting my faith into action. I expect you to respect my freedom to follow my conscience as your fellow Christian, just as I promise to respect yours."
   - Avoid both-sides-ism. Our commitment to being non-partisan is not a commitment to neutrality on matters of right and wrong, help and harm. Rather, it expresses that our highest loyalty is not to a party but to truth, justice, compassion, kindness, and humility, in the light of God. It doesn't hide behind a myth of moral equivalence on both sides. It calls us, not to claim that God is on our side, but rather to seek to be on the side of God, and to do so with the kind of wisdom that is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy" (James 3:17-19). 
   - Don't just say what you are against or will not do. Make clear what you are for and can be depended upon to do. For example, leaders might say something like this:
   
   - We do not advocate for specific candidates or parties, but we do advocate for the poor, the oppressed, the vulnerable, the misunderstood, and the forgotten, as an expression of our commitment to Christ.
   - We do not make deals with political parties, trading support for power or protection. We do challenge all political parties to hear the cries of the earth and the cries of the poor, in fidelity to God.
   - We welcome people from all political parties, and part of our welcome includes a commitment to challenge all political positions in light of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, because for us, Jesus is our example and teacher, not any political ideology, and we promise to challenge you to think bigger and deeper than political slogans ask you to do.
   - We welcome you, whatever your political affiliations in the past, and we will do all in our power to help you rethink your political positions going forward in light of Jesus' great commandment of love God, self, neighbor, stranger, and enemy.

4. Let the safety and well-being of your vulnerable neighbor, not your own comfort, ease, or "brand," guide you on when to speak, what to say, and how to say it. I've seen too many people with "large platforms" become more concerned about protecting their platform than using it, which leaves me asking: why build a big platform, if you're not going to use it when it counts, even if it costs you something? There are times, of course, when we all need to withdraw -- to recharge and reorient ourselves, and there indeed is a time to be silent. If we forget that, we will soon feel that the weight of the world is on our shoulders alone, and that sounds a lot like playing God. But apart from those necessary times of self-care, solitude, silence, and sabbath, when it's time to speak, I've tried to see my voice as a gift that comes with the corresponding responsibility: to use it on behalf of the disinherited, those in with their backs against the wall. It’s not always easy, but it’s always right.

~ Brian D. McLaren

Read and share online here

About the Author
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group. His most recent book is Faith After Doubt.  He is the author of the illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story, The Great Spiritual Migration, We Make the Road by Walking, and Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? And his newest book, Do I Stay Christian?. He is a popular conference speaker, a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings, has written for or contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership, Sojourners, Tikkun, Worship Leader, and Conversations, and is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs.
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited


The Birth of Jesus, Part III 
The Testimony of Mark, the Earliest Gospel

Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
November 29, 2012
The first gospel to be written, the one we call Mark, was composed in the early years of the 8th decade (70-72). It contains no story of and no reference to the birth of Jesus. To explain this omission, there are only two possibilities: Either the author of Mark had never heard about the birth tradition because it had not yet been created or he knew about it and deemed it unworthy of inclusion. For a number of reasons the first of these two alternatives is generally agreed to be the overwhelming probability.
First of all, it is not just an argument from silence. There are a number of episodes in the corpus of Mark’s gospel that would have been either impossible or incomprehensible, if he had been aware of a miraculous birth tradition. I will look at three of them.

In the first chapter of this gospel we find the familiar story of Jesus coming to John the Baptist to be baptized. The preamble to this episode is not a birth story or a childhood story, but a reference to the fact that Jesus was believed to be the fulfillment of the hopes and the writings of the prophets. Mark builds this case by quoting Malachi 3:1 and II Isaiah 40:3, although he only acknowledges his dependence on Isaiah in the text. Then he launches into a description of John the Baptist that is developed in such a way as to identify him with the prophet Elijah. Mark describes John the Baptist as wearing the clothing of Elijah, a man of the desert, and portrays him as eating Elijah’s diet of locusts and wild honey (Mark 1:6-7 and II Kings1:8). By turning John the Baptist into an Elijah-like figure, Mark was playing to the messianic images that suggested that Elijah must come first to prepare the way for the messiah. John the Baptist has thus been co-opted by Mark to play this role in the first gospel to appear in writing. This is not history. This is interpretive portrait painting, but the synagogue audience for which Mark was writing would immediately understand the symbols he was employing.

Next, in the first act that Mark attributes to Jesus, he is baptized by John in the Jordan River. There is nothing about this gospel’s first mention of Jesus to suggest that he was different or supernatural because of some aspect of his birth. He was pictured simply as an adult, a fully human male. Mark employed the custom of that day, by introducing Jesus by name followed by his home town. If any further identification was needed, Mark would have said, “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of _____ ” and then named his father. That was not deemed necessary for Mark’s introduction. Indeed, the father of Jesus, whether human or divine, is never mentioned in this gospel.

It is only in this account of his baptism that the first supernatural references are mentioned by this writer. First, he said, the heavens opened. The sky was thought of as a dome that separated the realm of God above from the realm of human life below. In the creation story, which would have been quite familiar to Mark’s Jewish audience (Genesis 1:6), the sky was called “the firmament” and was supposed to have served to separate “the waters above from the waters below.” The heavenly waters that fell from the sky as rain formed the earthly waters that became the oceans, rivers and streams. In time, that heavenly water came to be identified with the Holy Spirit. So in this narrative the heavens opened to the dwelling place of God and the Spirit descended from God to fall on Jesus like a dove. Then a voice from heaven rang out across the earth proclaiming Jesus to be God’s “beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Once again in the use of these words, texts from the Hebrew Scriptures were in the mind of the writer of this gospel. II Isaiah (Isa. 40-55) had God refer to the “suffering servant” of his narrative as “My chosen in whom my soul delights” (Is. 42:1) and the Psalter has God refer to the Lord’s anointed as, “You are my son, today have I begotten you” (Ps. 7:2). The Spirit does not come on Jesus just for a season, but has come to dwell on him permanently, so that he becomes a God-infused human life. The Holy Spirit was not the male agent in conception as the later birth narratives would assert. The Holy Spirit dropped from heaven on the fully human adult Jesus at this baptism to indwell him in an ongoing manner. This was Mark’s way of explaining the source of the divine presence that was found in Jesus. Had he known about the virgin birth tradition, Mark’s explanation of the coming of the Spirit to dwell permanently in him would not have been necessary. The later developing supernatural story of Jesus’ miraculous birth had clearly not yet been thought of or composed by anyone.

The second Marcan episode that reveals that he had never heard of the story of the virgin birth comes in chapter 3. Jesus, we are told, has broken onto the public scene in a series of rapid-fire activities. He had chosen some disciples; astonished a congregation at Capernaum with his teaching in a synagogue; healed a man with an “unclean spirit,” who then with supernatural insight, recognized Jesus’ divine presence; healed Peter’s mother-in-law; cast out demons and healed the sick of an entire city; cleansed a leper; healed a paralytic; called Levi from his tax collecting trade into discipleship; distinguished himself from John the Baptist; violated the Sabbath by picking and eating grain in the fields; proclaimed himself “Lord of the Sabbath,” and, finally, in the synagogue on the Sabbath healed a man with a withered hand (see chapters 2 and 3). This Sabbath healing was not an emergency act, which would have made it legitimate, since the hand would still be withered on the day after the Sabbath, so it was a calculated Sabbath violation. All of these provocative acts brought immediate public notice.

Then Jesus went home to Nazareth and his family began to hear of these things. They were not pleased, Mark says, “They went out to seize him, for all the people were saying, ‘He is beside himself’” (Mark 3:20-21). This is the first biblical mention of the family of Jesus, other than Paul’s reference to James as “the brother of the Lord” in Galatians. It is not, however, until the end of this chapter that the family of Jesus is defined. Thinking him mentally disturbed, which is what the words “beside himself” mean, Mark tells us that “Jesus’ mother and his brothers came to where he was.” Standing outside the crowd, they sent a message to him asking him to come out. When informed of their presence, Jesus not only declined to accede to their wishes, but he also redefined his kinship to them. Whoever does “the will of God, he said, “is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35).

Note first that the mother of Jesus thinks him mentally disturbed. That is not the behavior of one to whom an angel might have appeared to tell her she would be the mother of the messiah. One does not receive that divine message prior to a child’s birth and then think he has gone out of his mind when he reaches his adult life. No, when Mark wrote this gospel he had not heard of the tradition that Jesus had a supernatural birth because it had not yet been created.

The final Marcan episode that makes it clear that the birth narrative of Jesus was not part of the original Christian tradition, but a late-developing addition to the story, comes in the sixth chapter of Mark. Jesus had returned to his home in Nazareth from a series of adventures described in chapters 4 and 5, which included casting the legion of demons out of a demented man and allowing these demons to enter a herd of swine, causing a stampede that resulted in the drowning of that herd in the Sea of Galilee; raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, and healing the woman with the chronic menstrual flow. The author of this gospel clearly meant to suggest that the people were talking of his power and wondering about its source.

At this point, Mark says, Jesus entered his synagogue and created astonishment at his teaching. The people, who had been his neighbors, could not believe what they were hearing. So Mark had an anonymous member of that crowd ask this question: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon and are not his sisters here with us” (Mark 6:3-4)? Please note the following things about this passage. First, this is the first time in the Christian story that the role of the carpenter has been mentioned and it is Jesus who is the carpenter, not Joseph, who is cast in that role. That will change when we come to Matthew a decade later when the shift is made. Second, this is also the first and only time in Mark that we hear that “Mary” is the name of Jesus’ mother. Third, there is no mention of a father in this family. In addition to his mother four brothers are named and the plural word “sisters” is used, indicating that there was more than one. Finally, be aware that for an anonymous voice in the crowd to call a grown man named Jesus, “the son of Mary,” was pejorative in Jewish society. One did not call a mature man the “son of a woman” unless his paternity was suspect. This phrase meant that his father was unknown. It thus suggested that Jesus was “base born” or illegitimate. Rumors to this effect were clearly beginning to swirl around Jesus and echoes of these charges can be found in the other gospels. These rumors would in time create the necessity for developing the virgin birth tradition, but that time had not yet come.

It is thus clear that the first gospel writer, Mark, had never heard of the virgin birth. When Mark was written over forty years had passed since the crucifixion and some seventy years had passed since the birth of Jesus. Mythological traditions build slowly. The story of the virgin birth of Jesus is one of these mythological traditions. We will pursue this study in subsequent weeks as this series continues.

~  John Shelby Spong
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Announcements




This Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. EST, we hope that you will join us on our Facebook Page or YouTube Channel for our new series, "Things that Matter." 
This week board member Dr. Sharon Jacob will facilitate a conversation on White Christian Nationalism with scholars Dr. Greg Carey (New Testament Professor, Lancaster Theological Seminary) and Dr. Traci West (Christian Ethics and African American Studies Professor, Drew University).    READ ON ...  |

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