[Oe List ...] Brian Robins and the Order

[Jaime R Vergara via OE]

JWM was great at being both a cognitive and affective giant, and we all followed in his steps.  The memory of Brian and our other colleagues allow us to appropriate both the archival needs of what remains of the Order, and its relational reality exhibited in the OE list.


I stopped teaching Sept. 30 because I am physiologically challenged but had enough finger power to take the four terms of our RS1 and gave it a whirl.  Ben Ball of Houston appreciated the gesture.


Some got a copy of an earlier version and the final one will hit the Marianas Variety editor on Thursday, October 20.  Here's the current edited version, if Tim has a way of letting the membership get a read:



For October 24 to 27 inthe Marianas Variety
 
(24) G-O-D
 
Here are four words used frequently and extensively in manycircles: God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit,and Church.  My take is confessional more thancatechistical, conciliatory more than polemical, the testimony of one deeplyrooted in the Christian tradition, still evangelical though inactive in organizedChristianity. I go beyond the current discourse that is stuck in the medievalskyward looking of “the Santa Claus in the sky that sits to determine the fateand destiny of humankind,” an image that tickled one of my students butnonetheless current in Christian discourse.
 
Let us get first to the etymology of the word “god” thatEnglish translators use to name YAHWEH (the Way Life Is), Adonai, Elohim, and Messiahin the Judeo-Christian Bible, Christosfor the Messiah in the Septuagint version.
 
“God” derives from “good”in English, “gott” in German, atranslation of the Anglicized “Jehovah” ofYahweh, reaching out to the Zeus-Deux of the Greco-Roman realm, theSanskrit dyauḥ, and Zhongguo’s Mandate of Heaven.  The word means “reality”, the only real andtrue condition that one can live before, as everything else is a mirage and anillusion, a heritage from the desert, witnessed by the Torah and commentedextensively to this day.
 
As one of the 20th century theologians clarified,“god” is a devotional term; it is at once a “what, when, where, who, and why”dynamic not the limited designation of “who” in current usage.  As Episcopal Bishop Spong observes, “God” isoften referred to as a being in outer space orchestrating our daily existenceon Earth, and we can influence that power with prayer.  That is not his Christianity.  
 
Humans in current Church discourse are designated aschildren of God, and those who receive that reality in the manner of JesusChrist, called to be his disciples, are the chosen ones in the world.  It is the self-understanding of chosen-nessthat set the Jews apart.
 
God, and in the world of scientific cause-and-effect, refersto the religiously recognized power that creates and innovates the evolution ofhumans and the universe.  Just think of14.3 billion years where the solar system includes a planet with a biospherethat waters molten lava at its core, and a human history that is, at best,40,000 years.  “God” in its stumbling“belief” system is huge beyond Einstein’s imagination, which is only 10% ofhuman brain cells, and our insignificance infinitesimal, but a dear colleagueinsists on praying for open space in the parking lot before she goes shopping,assured of the efficacy of her prayerful piety.
 
It was an unknown Gabriel Vahanian who wrote a book in 1961on the Death of God, which raised thequestion on whether the word was still appropriate to designate the call totake life in its raw reality and celebrate it, when it has become personalizedas the old man in the sky.  Time magazineboldly asked in a 1966 issue the question, IsGod Dead?  Pascal and Hegel alreadyraised the same question that was a heritage of the Enlightenment against thestuffy medieval theology of Aquinas and Luther. Nietzsche popularized the phrase and Christendom went on the defensive.
 
Time magazine got Paul Van Buren, William Hamilton, JohnRobinson, Thomas Altizer, John Caputo, and the rabbi Richard Rubenstein into aserious conversation that got labeled as a movement.  Van Buren went ahead to write a scholarlysearch for the Secular Meaning of theGospel but preferred not to beidentified as part of the group.  The movementname got stuck, nonetheless, and the question of the non-existence of Godremained relevant.
 
The fact is, the skyward looking of religious metaphors hadlong ago relinquished its hold when we started sending rockets upstratosphere.  The human imagination gota great image in the earthrise photo of 1968 when Apollo 8 mesmerized the worldwith a lunarscape view of the Earth.  Itushered a turn in human consciousness.
 
The skyward view got turned around towards the earth, andsuddenly, the monastic practices of meditation, contemplation and prayer tookspecial significance over the more externally demonstrated virtues of poverty,chastity and obedience.  The external dictatesof deity took a back seat in the shift on practices of deciding to be human.
 
“Lord and Master” as metaphor revealed the meaning of divinityto be nothing but a leftover from medieval liege-hood, when one was “saved”from the infidels like the Moors of Spain, or got cleansed by the sword of theCrusaders who wrestled Jerusalem from the unfaithful.  The social stratification of the empire lentitself to the language of “lord and master” but when it entered the religiouslexicon, the metaphor got stuck, still used by catechists today.
 
“Nietzsche is dead; God lives forever” is a slogan to revivepiety of a heavenly creator.  It works amongschizophrenics that separate their belief system from daily life.   But when Christian theologians like Vahaniantake the Nietzsche phrase to the sanctuary, a new chosen-ness has begun.
 
(25) Yoshua
 
I learned in the anthology of faith that the designation“Christ” is a role, not the last name of Jesus of Nazareth, as commonlyunderstood.  Having spent time on theWestside of Chicago, that phrase itself is a polite expletive to indicatedismay, in the same way as “God Damn” does.
 
Before devotion on Jesus got formed, written up in the fourgospels, and elevated into Kristo Rei in Gualo Rai of Roman Catholicecclesiology, Jesus was but a barefoot boy in the foothills of Galilee whoseexemplary life earned him a following. Their metaphor rooted in the mindset of the times followed thechosen-ness of the Jews, but with a Christological twist.  Being a disciple meant going to “dolikewise”.
 
We have the Christian canon that chose the accounts ofMatthew, Mark, Luke and John as authoritative (sufficient for faith andmorals), each written for a particular audience. Matthew convinced the Jewishsynagogue that Jesus was the expected King of Israel of the line of David.  Mark wrote a brief write-up for the practicaland no-nonsense Romans who were sufficient with the title Son of Man.  Luke addressed the gentiles, particularlythose of the Greco-Roman world that longed for the Son of God to descend fromthe lofty heights of Mt. Olympus to dwell “with us”.  John, the last in the series, took theMediterranean mysterious creative force, infinite but dynamic sustainer oflife, the LOGOS, and identified theNazarene carpenter as the One.
 
Letter-writing Paul gets into the picture, a formerprosecutor turned convert to the “redemptive-salvific” role of Jesus to turnback those who missed the mark (hamartia), a “sin” from realistic living so thatthey may return to their chosen authenticity rather than live in illusions, thelater moralized as the original depravity of humans.  
 
>From Paul and the Gospel accounts, Jesus was not popularplaying this role, thus, crucified.  Infact, as revealed on the scene of upsetting the tables set outside the templeof Jerusalem, he was perceived to disrupt more than console.  Here lies the enduring image that later madeJesus as “lord and savior” in medieval metaphor where royals donned shield andsword to “save” the unfortunate, mostly those in the lower rung ofsociety.  The image was not to affirmheavenly divinity as to assert the reality of our common humanity we refuse tolive.
 
The cruciform lifestyle spawned a religion that led not intosaving one’s life but into spending it. Jesus-the-Christ role is sheer expenditure, and the practices itspawned, especially meditation, contemplation, and prayer, had the latteraddressing the stance of confession (refusing to live the way life is),gratitude (nevertheless, TY for reality’s mono-tenacity), petition (forstrength not to keep running away from reality into illusions), andintercession (intentionally living one’s life expending it on behalf ofothers).
 
The skyward looking propensity of most religious practicesbefore the earthrise consciousness of 1968 stayed with the image of old grandpain the sky, and with the formulation of the triune personhood of the godhead,it did not take long for the Son to reign over all with the promise of livingin heaven unto eternity with disciples and followers.  Jesus of Nazareth became a sovereign metaphorto whom prayers were addressed, primarily as a deux ex machina, thank you, and Amen.
 
Earthrise consciousness pulled down the entrapment of theadored Jesus-in-the-sky. The barefoot carpenter once again joined the ranks ofhumanity and the table-up-setters in the colonnades of the social temples ofour Jerusalem.
 
Not too many would extricate the Jesus of faith from thegold-plated crucifixes and the altars of adulation, for the sting ofdiscipleship is precisely that, a “sting” in the call to “go do likewise.”  The cruciform lifestyle is not to be trifledjust so one gains widespread acceptability; it is a lifetime of totalengagement and absolute expenditure.
 
Just as the prayer of intercession is not wishful thinkingthat “someone” will make things happen for us, it prays that one puts one’slife on the line, and this is where fakery is called into question.
 
In the desire to gain registration in the CNMI, there arethose who came with student visas and converted them to contract workerstatus.  Now the CW window is closed for2017.   One of the construction workersin my dwelling bewails the fact that he has difficulty changing his studentvisa to a CW category.  He physicallylooked my age, though I am sure he is younger, but coming to the CNMI, or stayinghere on a student visa meant someone was paid to get him one.  Neat-to.
 
Those who pray as if divinity can suddenly change the lawsof the CNMI to fit someone’s religious beliefs, is playing with heavenly fire,if one will excuse the hyperbole.
 
Devotion to Jesus is not hoping for a miracle worker inheaven.  It is to follow one who affirmedwith his life that to pray without ceasing is to lay one’s whole body on theline on behalf of others.  That’s it.
 
(26) The Holy Spirit
 
In the ancient Ascription, the triune godhead is in the“Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”  That is really ancient since “ghost” lost itspunch long time ago; “Spirit” has also lost any sense of substantive-ness as itbecame simply the “essence” of something, maintained its meaning in thefragrance of a perfume, or the aroma of the chef’s kitchen.
 
I stay with “Holy Spirit” for now since this article is moreof an explication of how the four words are normally used in the lexicon ofChristendom.  The word “holy” forinstance is related to the word “whole”, so wholeness speaks more of holinessrather than the immaculately cassock (sutana)Monsignor we honor with the address of “Your Holiness.”
 
Wholesome spirit would do well as a translation of the ghostsave that the term has been adopted to refer to the sojou of Hangkuk or the baijouof Chengdu.  Japan calls it wain (adaptation of English word); Iprefer osake of the rice wine.
 
The triune godhead, by its progeny, is terribly patriarchal,although the goddess was a mainstay of divinity in ancient traditions, soCatholic ecclesiology functionally created the office of the Holy Mother (theotokos, mother of God) as there isone for the Holy Father, and the Holy Son.
 
I grew up a Protestant, and my preacher Dad’s theologicalmaster’s thesis was on Marian Dogma, written at a conservative Seminary, so itlabeled the doctrine as heresy.  But inmy Mom’s tradition, the nuns were “married” to Jesus, and the priests arebeholden to Mother Mary, involving spirited relationships even in the cloisteritself.
 
We are threading on apostacy, much as the metaphor of theBody Ascension into Heaven of Jesus and the Virgin poses difficulty to modernscience.  “Virgin” was evidently ametaphorical bias not too difficult to explain, but literal bodily ascension inthe era of earthrise consciousness defies the laws of physics of our familiar.
 
So Mary as the wholesome spirit will have to be a role modelmore than just fingering the beads of the Rosary (adopted from the practice ofMiddle Easter prayer beads), or be adored as the Virgin in a pedestal of ouradulation.
 
“Women” has been a subject of our NMC class concern when inlearning how to listen and speak we heard a speech delivered by Hillary Clintonat a U. N. Conference on Women in 1966 outside of Beijing at Hairou.  In the speech, she averred what has sincebecome a cause slogan:  Women’s Rights is Human Rights.
 
That took us to the 30 articles on Human Rights adopted bythe UN and before we knew it, we had members of the class to talk on how, intheir view, do women fare in China, South Korea, Japan, Palau and the UnitedStates.
 
Are we straying too far from the triune godhead, and theimage of the Holy Spirit as embodied in the lifestyle of Jesus’ mother Mary?
 
Today, we are feted by various feminine styles outside thepulchritude of Hollywood’s MM of the sewer wind blown skirt.  Indira Gandhi of India led her country andcontinue the Nehru family’s political presence. We had Golda Meier of Israel leading her kibbutz into the Israel thatEurope begrudged to support.  AngelaMerkel of Germany just announced her country’s ban on the manufacture of gaspowered car engines as we realize how much of our oil consumption contributesto climate change.
 
Meg Thatcher was England’s PM who stuck to the Empire’sremaining far-flung islands of the Falklands over neighboring Argentine’sclaim.  Park Geun-Hye of Korea steers hercountry’s Hyundai-Samsung fame.  MotherTeresa of Calcutta had just been sainted by Rome’s blessings.
 
The CNMI had Rita Inos and Rita Sablan at Education; bothkept the CNMI aligned to the US system. Born in Pea Eye but taking Uncle Sam’s blue book while Ferdie and Imeldafilled Malacañang closets with Marikina shoes, I was impressed byyellow-frocked Cory Aquino’s transition from Martial Law to irreverentdemocracy of Senor Felipe’s former Spanish colony.
 
We note the likes of Norway’s Brundtland, China’sSoong Ching-Ling, Argentina’s Peron, Pakistan’s Benazir, Ireland’s MaryRobinson and Nicaragua’s Violetta Barrios de Chamorro.  Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar smile’s herincarceration, while Anne Frank’s diary reveals a little girl’s take on theNazi occupation.  Billie Jean King atTennis, the tragic Princess of Wales Diana, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, AmeliaEarhart, Helen Clark, Mireya Elisa Moscoso de Arias, J. K. Rowling, Katharineand Audrey Hepburn, Queen Elizabeth II, and Rosa Parks exuded women’s power.
 
The (w)holiness of Mother Mary is an affirmation ofthe Chinese saying popularized by Mao Zedong: women hold half of the sky (fùnǚnéng dǐng bànbiāntiān), and perhaps, if we have God the Father, God the Son,the Mother of God, how far are we from the Daughter of God?
 
I didn’t mean to go further than the triune designations of ecclesia but the spirited style pointingto a Holy Spirit bubbles with life, energy, and engagement.  The wholeness shown by the women in ourdiscourse lies precisely in that vein.
 
(27) Church
 
>From the German kirche(sovereign’s house) Church was sufficient for our religious purposes,richly endowed by the varied and diverse traditions “Christianity” spawnedthrough the ages.  Ecclesia was the popular and secular assembly of Greek’s democracybut adopted and translated as “the household of God” in Christendom.
 
Its use refers to the assembly of g-o-d’s people who do notwaver to live realistically, in the manner of expenditure as demonstrated byJesus, and the energy of the Holy Spirit where “motherly” engagement knows noend.
 
God-Jesus-Holy Spirit is the triune formulation, and thegathered assembly of those who profess this triune persona of divinity is theassembly we now call “Church”.  Two viewsprevail, the Jewish Yahwishtic groundingthat came to be Christian theology, and the Jesus salvific and redemptive role,exemplified by the Crusades who “redeemed” lost souls, and exhibited devotionto the personhood of Jesus the Christ as the only and final savior of theworld.
 
In current usage, it is the assembly of those who still hangon to the feudal metaphors that characterized our series so far.  They continue the medieval metaphors of“God-Jesus Christ-Holy Spirit”.
 
Among the Protestants of Saipan, the Church spirit in feudalmetaphors at its best is exemplified in the gathering around the wall-lessstructure of the Community Church related to the General Baptist Association byBeach Road between the Susupe Beach Park and the Saipan Community School.  
 
Our Lady of Mercy at Mount Carmel not far from the old SugarDock wharf centers the Roman Catholic tradition though other parish churchesthat dot the whole island landscape follow similar religious Masses at theiraltars.
 
Many other confessional congregations (the multifariousBaptists, Assemblies, and Witnesses) and structured denominations (theMethodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal) are scattered around the island, herechurches after WWII before they established their parochial schools, but theChapel without walls by Beach Road is by design and intent a faithfulMicronesian gathering place of celebration and worship.
 
The ekklesia inour narrative is a complex tradition from the Jewish stubborn adherence tofealty in the Way Life Is, to the evangelistic Jesus the Christ marriage withthe Greek notion of “essence” and “identity”. With the Renaissance return to the “originals” and the Enlightenmentpromotion of “reason”, we added the Wesleyan corrective of the affectivepractice that personalized deity in G-O-D, and divinity turned human in Jesus,in my case, especially after the earthrise consciousness.
 
The complexity and diversity of the household has been boththe celebrated and bewailed character of the Christian faith of our time.  It is its feudal metaphors that still reignwithin the congregations and community for which this earnest Christian nowtake exception, not as a denial of what had gone before but as an authenticaffirmation of what has always been the case, that the language of divinity hasbeen about “mankind created in God’s image” turned around into interactive roleof redeeming humanity from itself.
 
The Church at the corner of Main and Elm is presently aninsistence on the household of God rather than the gathering of humankind.  Humankind gets its reality from our secularunderstanding that at conception for everyone, one sperm out of 200 million makesit to fertilize an egg that chooses out of the first arrivals the sperm thatmerge with it, to then create in nine months a complex digestive, respiratory,circulatory, excretory, endocrine, skeletal, and muscular system whosecomplexity and the response of wonder knows no bounds.  Before one is born, one is already a bonafide“winner and free”, and a creative one to boot.
 
The Church of the earthrise consciousness remains adispersed group but the ecumenical impetusthat has always characterized Christendom since 5th century Vincentof Lérins insisted that there is a corpus of Christianity “believed everywhere, always, and by all”(quod ubique, quod semper, quod abomnibus creditum est), one Church universal.  True or not is not a cognitive matter, but itis true as a fundamental life stance of faith that guides anyone when waking upin the morning.
 
In thisunderstanding, ecclesia is more thanjust the Church steeple at the corner of Main and Elm streets.  It is, from my perspective, the “theistic”grounding of the Jewish tradition, and the “salvific-redemptive” thrust of theJesus the Christ faith, in the age of the earthrise duly transformed.  The “spirit” is a human one and the theisticlanguage of the medieval period is convenient but it is still skyward-focusedwhen the events since 1968 of the lunar “earthrise” has born and bred a newkind of earthbound commitment.
 
“How” isfumbling guess work, though there are like minds in the shadows, but as I notein my email byline, “earthrise is a gift; earthbound is a commitment.”  Blimey, I am back at being the invisibleChurch!  Welcome.
 
 



wangzhimu2031
earthrise consciousness, a gift; earthbound commitment, my choice
yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate! in all, celebrate!









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Sent: Sun, Oct 16, 2016 3:53 am
Subject: OE Digest, Vol 55, Issue 20



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