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!important;} }@media screen and (max-width:480px){ #yiv0275444691 #yiv0275444691templateFooter .yiv0275444691mcnTextContent, #yiv0275444691 #yiv0275444691templateFooter .yiv0275444691mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important;line-height:150% !important;} } Can Christianity in its theology, liturgy, institutions, and practices evolve to meet rapidly emerging new textures of reality in the 21st century?
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Why Traditional Christianity Must Die
Column by Rev. Brandan Robertson
October 4, 2018
At the end of his most recent book Unbelievable, Bishop Spong poses a question that should be grappled with by every person of faith in this modern era. Essentially, he asks, “Can Christianity in its theology, liturgy, institutions, and practices evolve to meet the rapidly emerging new textures of reality in the 21st century?” As a Christian pastor and public theologian, I have often grappled with this very question, especially as I have witnessed my own worldview shift dramatically away from a “traditional” Christian perspective towards a new way of seeing and being that could only scarcely be called “Christian” by the standards of the dominant institutions within the religion.The more that I’ve leaned into this question, the more that I have come to believe that the religion called “Christianity” itself may be irredeemable. It is common knowledge in progressive circles that the imperial religion that has dominated the world for the past 2,000 years is almost nothing like the radical ethical and social movement initiated by that first century rabbi named Yeshua. What he initiated wasn’t primarily a religious movement at all, but a socio-political movement that challenged the fundamental ordering of his society and called for an egalitarian and communal way of existing as a human community.Along with these ethical and political teachings, Rabbi Yeshua incorporated what could be called a perennial spirituality which called for each human to move beyond our egoic projections in the world and to embrace our Divine nature within which unites us to all things. By moving beyond our “carnal” desires and identities (to use a Pauline term) and seeking to live from our truest nature, we could overcome both our struggles with “sin” (all of our greedy impulses that create inequity in the world) and our identification with the false constructs of identity that we’ve been conditioned to own as our identity. Only from that place of inner union could we truly create a united and equal society that Rabbi Yeshua dreamed of.If you think about how a social and spiritual movement like this could be institutionalized into an organized religion, it seems nearly impossible. The early movement of Rabbi Yeshua was one that could be adapted and adopted by any culture or tradition, incorporating their own spiritual practices and language, their own legal codes, and their own social customs to create a contextualized spirituality and social ordering for each individual community that sought to follow in this path.At the core of this movement are a set of values and principles rather than dogmas or rules. At the core of this movement is a fundamental push against patriarchy and dominator hierarchies that would make any traditional institutional structure nearly impossible to create. At the core of this movement is a critique of empire and religious institutions, which is precisely the reason Rabbi Yeshua and his earliest followers faced such severe persecution even unto the point of execution. How does one create a religion built on such a radical and evolving set of ideals?Over the past 2,000 years, there has always been a faithful remnant of those who caught a glimpse of the radical nature of the movement that Rabbi Yeshua began and sought to embody and teach it to the masses. In almost every case, these luminaries were forced outside of the institution and were condemned as heretics by religious leaders and treasonous by the political powers of their day. For in the Yeshua movement, there is no allegiance to any power or hierarchy other than to the Creator who created all, is in all, and is for all. It is this consistent pattern that makes weary of believing that there can be a new “Christianity” in the future, in any institutional sense.On the other hand, there are always new movements and moments of awakening that give birth to new and renewed ways of seeing and being in the world, and I believe that we stand on the brink of a new era in humanities evolution, the likes of which we have never seen before. We’re entering into an era in which billions of people around the world are beginning to question the way things have been for much of human history and begin to experiment and dream about what could be a new way forward. And a key part of this new moment in humanities evolution is to remember the wisdom of our predecessors- to resist the enlightenment notion that only new knowledge can be good for us and return to the ancient wisdom that has remained beneath the surface of the consciousness of humanity since the dawn of time.We’re all aware of the multitude of surveys which suggest that the world is not getting less spiritual but it is getting less religious. I see this in my own day to day life as a Pastor of what could be called a progressive “evangelical” congregation (I use that term to describe our style of worship, not our politics or theology). We practice a mix of modern and ancient rituals that are unique to the Christian faith, we use the language of traditional Christianity, and frankly, while many newcomers enter into our church every week, very few of them stick around. One can only conclude that the tradition that we’re promoting is not meeting the long term spiritual desires of the majority of the population any longer.Where we do see a growing edge, however, is among holistic and indigenous spiritualties. I was recently at a leadership retreat for young spiritual leaders hosted by Union Theological Seminary in New York. As I looked around the room and listened to the stories of my colleagues (primarily non-white, by the way), I heard story after story of the power of reclaiming indigenous spiritual traditions, of relying on the wisdom and spirit of ancestors, and of incorporating the health of our mind, body, and spirit into our “spiritual” practice, all the while, leaning heavily on the radical socio-political message of Rabbi Yeshua. These spiritual leaders led our group in a mix of indigenous chants and rituals, tied with a few ancient Christian contemplative practices, and eventually led us into conversations about creating local movements of subversive, grassroots justice for the good of the marginalized and oppressed.As I sat in the room, I felt a deep sense of gratification in my spirit. There was something powerful about leaning into organic, indigenous expressions of spirituality which highlighted the profound diversity of humanity, but which also reminded us that though our language may be different, all of our spiritual paths and practices lead us to the same place. And once we moved from our spiritual grounding, we all began speaking in ways that echoed the words of Rabbi Yeshua, seeking to understand and undermine the power of our modern day “Caesars” in order to create the more beautiful, just, and generous world our hearts know is possible.Everywhere I travel in the world and in every community I speak to, I have found this to be the trajectory of our social and spiritual evolution. These trends are consistently noted by spiritual leaders, from Bishop Spong to Ken Wilber to Pope Francis. The writing seems to be on the wall that whatever the future of humanity is, it will be either post-institutional or there will emerge a radically new form of spiritual and social community that allows for the renewed social and spiritual vision. And, it’s because of this that I have a hard time believing that “Christianity”, as an institutionalized religious force will survive in any way that is helpful or significant in the future of human evolution. However, I am more convinced than ever that those who follow in the radical path of that renegade rabbi named Yeshua will continue to be led by the winds of spirit along an evolutionary path that will create a more beautiful life and world for us all.At the end of the day, my vocation remains to be a Christian pastor, and I do sincerely believe there is much good that can still be done from within the institution of the local Christian church. The local church, for me, has become a gymnasium of spiritual practice and a laboratory of social innovation, where my small but committed community can regularly harken back to the principles and values of Rabbi Yeshua and ask, “Where are these values leading us in our world today?” That remains an incredibly valuable practice and I am committed to leading a community in this path for the foreseeable future. However, I also must admit what is simply the truth: the traditional institution is no longer the primary spiritual or social vehicle of choice for the majority of the world anymore, and we must begin to dream beyond the traditional confines of religion to imagine what this next era of social and spiritual evolution can look like for our world.~ Rev. Brandan Robertson
Click here to read online and to share your thoughts
About the Author
Rev. Brandan Robertson is a noted spiritual thought-leader, contemplative activist, and commentator, working at the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal and the author of Nomad: A Spirituality For Travelling Light and writes regularly for Patheos, Beliefnet, and The Huffington Post. He has published countless articles in respected outlets such as TIME, NBC, The Washington Post, Religion News Service, and Dallas Morning News. As sought out commentator of faith, culture, and public life, he is a regular contributor to national media outlets and has been interviewed by outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, SiriusXM, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Associated Press. |
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Question & Answer
Q: By Brandon S.
I want to ask you, what do you believe will happen in the afterlife? Are we as the human race going to be okay? Should I worry about what's going to happen to me after death? My Girlfriend who believes in god but struggles with what to believe in exactly, is she going to be okay? I'm terrified right now, you seem to be one of the very few looking past religious Dogma. I need your help, just at least some insight into what I should be doing, praying for, anything.
A: By Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
Dear Brandon,Regarding “Dying, Resurrection, Reincarnation,” I have written about this about 20 years ago in my book One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Flowing from World Faith Traditions as one of the 18 themes I treat that seem to me to be common to all world religious traditions. All ask and posit answers to the mystery of life (or not) after death in their own ways. One point I make is that the Reincarnation motif has more in common with the Resurrection motif than we usually recognize. Not only the idea of the “communion of saints” but also the notion of the purgatory hypothesis for example, which posits that if we don’t learn love this time around we will learn it someplace (called purgatory) another time around so to speak, echo many teachings on Reincarnation.But what I would stress today in answer to your question is this: St Thomas Aquinas has a remarkable teaching about resurrection where he says there are two resurrections. The first is waking up in this lifetime and if you do that you don’t have to worry about the second (meaning, it will take care of itself).The Biblical term “eternal life” is saying the same thing: Eternal life begins in this lifetime and does not cease. Meister Eckhart says that at death life dies but being goes on. Thus if we have learned to live life at a deep level, that of the true self and of the Christ within, we undergo his death and resurrection, we are “in Christ.” Thus we move beyond our fear of death which is a fear of the death of the ego, but does not include the death of being. Hildegard of Bingen said that “no beauty is lost in the universe” and Einstein said that no energy is lost in the universe. To the extent that we live our lives at the level of being and drink beauty and birth it, and imbibe energy and share it, nothing is lost.I disagree with some Biblical commentators who want to throw out all the resurrection stories as fiction of some kind for this very simple reason: I hear stories of resurrection all the time from people even today. Just yesterday I was in a dialog with Bernie Siegel and he was talking about how his wife, since she died a few years ago, communicates with him on a regular basis. I have had such experiences too, as for example with my Lakota teacher and friend Buck Ghosthorse who died several years ago. I have a friend who is not a religious person at all but tells me this story: A few months after his mother died she appeared to him at the end of his bed and they had a conversation. She said, among other things, to live the life of values that she had taught him. This man, who is a blue collar worker who builds things with his hands, is not the least bit new age and is utterly grounded. Every time he repeats the story his eyes fill with tears.A number of times I have addressed audiences and told this story and then told them to shut their eyes and then asked: “How many of you personally have had experiences like this with a person you knew who died?” Usually about 80% raise their hands. And I also ask: “How many know others whom you trust have told you experiences like this?” Usually about 75% raise their hands.There you have it—Resurrection is a common human experience for many and our Biblical exegetes should spend perhaps less time with texts trying to debunk the resurrection stories and more time hearing peoples’ experiences.Then there is this story. The late Navajo painter David Palladin suffered profoundly as a young soldier in a concentration camp during WWII, a suffering that his elders said initiated him as a shaman. After he died I visited his wife in their home where he painted and she told me, “frequently dead painters would come at night and dictate paintings to my husband.” She then left the room and came back with a painting which I identified immediately as a Paul Klee painting. And sure enough, in the bottom corner, it was signed Paul Klee (who had been deceased for decades). “I remember the night that Paul Klee came and dictated this painting through my husband,” she said.Yes, life is more interesting and more multi-dimensional than many people—including I dare say many Biblical exegetes—are aware. All the more reason to wake up in this life time, to undergo Resurrection # 1. Waking up to our role in making gratitude and love and justice happen is the first Resurrection. What comes next will take care of itself.Finally, a word from the great psychologist and student of culture, Otto Rank. He says that the very meaning of “soul” is humanity’s quest for immortality and there have been many efforts over the centuries to identify immortality ranging from the tribe itself, to pyramid building, to beauty; to children, to law itself. Yet for him there is one revelation that stands out: That of Jesus and Paul who by their teaching of resurrection actually democratize immortality and by removing the fear of death for everyone make full living possible (the first Resurrection). Now please note this fact: Rank was not a Christian but a Jew.Thank you for your important question. I hope my response opens up some doors for you and your girlfriend.~ Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox
Click here to read and share onlineAbout the Author
Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox holds a doctorate in spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has authored 32 books on spirituality and contemporary culture that have been translated into 69 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. 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. Recent books include The Lotus & The Rose: Conversations on Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity with Lama Tsomo; Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God...Including the God Without a Name; new paperback version of Stations of the Cosmic Christ with Bishop Marc Andrus. A Special Eckhart@Erfurt workshop in June, 2019.With young leaders Fox is launching a new spiritual (not religious) “order” called the Order of the Sacred Earth (OSE) that is welcoming to people of all faith traditions and none and whose ‘glue’ is a common vow: “I promise to be the best lover of Mother Earth and the best defender of Mother Earth that I can be.” |
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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited
The Gospel of Judas - A Hyped Insignificance
Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April 26, 2006
“Calculated sensationalism and scholarly complicity” were the words Peter Steinfels of the New York Times used to describe it. “Consciously misleading” were the words applied to the story by Professor James M. Robinson of Claremont Graduate University. What was the subject of these quotations? It was the “newly-discovered” Gospel of Judas presented during Holy Week by the National Geographic Magazine with a great public relations campaign, designed to titillate the insatiable media with a seasonal religious story. The reason for the hot promo one liners was quite simply to build the audience for a National Geographic Television Documentary scheduled for the Monday before Easter. The press releases talked of “rehabilitating Judas,” calling this a story “that could challenge our deepest beliefs,” destined to create “a crisis of faith” by turning “tradition on its head.” One can only hope that these words served National Geographic Magazine’s purpose well. They certainly did not serve well either truth or scholarship.The “discovery” of the Gospel of Judas actually occurred years ago. It was a 3rd century copy of a 2nd century Gnostic work. Scholars, while not having a full text until recently, have long known of its existence since it was quoted, usually with dismissive contempt, by several of the 2nd century “fathers of the Church.” This gospel probably tells us something of the flavor of life in the Christian Church about 100-175 years after the death of Jesus. It also may have helped to establish the point that Professor Bart Ehrman of the University of North Carolina, has emphasized in recent books, which is that the picture of single-minded unity in the early generations of the Christian movement is absolutely not so. The defenders of traditional Christianity like to pretend that there was always one true faith that reached back to Jesus and the apostles. The study of Christian beginnings reveals that to be only a pious fiction.Some greeted this “discovery” with the hope that it might help to dispel the anti-Semitism that rises so significantly from the figure of Judas. That hope was dashed if they bothered to read the text for it describes the God of the Hebrews as a “despised deity,” who created an “evil world.” To seek to drive a wedge between the God of the Jews, who was portrayed as dark and sinister, and the God of Jesus, who was thought of as light and goodness, was the theme found in the writings of a 2nd century Christian named Marcion. However, about the year 140 C. E., the Church had condemned Marcion and his writings as heretical. The Gospel of Judas appears to have been influenced by Marcion. I was amazed that reputable news media like PBS’s Nightly News with Jim Lehrer made this story a feature in its hour long newscast; that the New York Times made it a front page story on a slow Saturday, and that Bloomberg Radio called me the next day for an interview. Why was this non-event being treated as a great discovery, I wondered? The only real story line was the eagerness to believe in its importance.Recently, there has been great interest in the general public about the so-called rejected gospels. That interest has been fanned significantly by Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel, “The Da Vinci Code.” In that book, Brown builds a conspiracy theory into his plot seeking to show that the books that make up the canonical New Testament were chosen as late as the 4th century in order to promote a particular agenda on the part of the church’s hierarchy. Perhaps, Brown implied, the omitted books held the key to new insights. “The Da Vinci Code” is a wonderfully exciting well-written piece of fiction that, like many historical novels, deals with a period of history and with characters that actually lived. Yet Brown makes no claim that he is writing history. The fact is that long before the 4th century the books that now form the canonical New Testament had been pretty well established. Furthermore a look at most of the rejected gospels will reveal that they are not only later creations, but are also filled with fanciful details and miraculous, supernatural stories. They were written to excite the imagination of their readers in the same way that “The Da Vinci Code” was written. There is no question that what came to be called “traditional Christianity” opposed and defeated the Gnostic teachings during the 2nd Christian century and the Gnostic Gospels reflect this tension. That debate, however, was far more about church order and authority than it was about ideas and history.The New Testament was essentially completed in the 1st Christian century, and some of the controversies marking the Christian Church at that time are quite evident in its pages. For instance, the early Christological debate is reflected in Mark and John. In Mark, Jesus becomes the Son of God at his baptism by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In John, the idea of Jesus as a pre-existent being enters the tradition when the “logos,” the “word of God” spoken in creation becomes enfleshed in the Jesus of history. Mark presents Jesus as a God-infused human life while John portrays him as an invading deity. That debate as to whether in Jesus the human became divine or the divine became human would go on until the Council of Chalcedon in 451 C.E declared both to be true. There is also a battle in the New Testament between Paul and the author of the Epistle of James, who contradicts Paul’s understanding of salvation by faith alone. The New Testament is thus not free of conflicts but none of them ever reached the excommunicating levels of tension that marked the later conflict between traditional Christianity and Gnosticism in the 2nd century. Because the “Traditional Christians” won that battle, our view of Gnosticism was distorted, since we knew of their writings only through the work of its Christian critics. The discovery of the Gnostic gospels from 1945 on has helped to put that conflict into a better perspective.A great part of the reason that I greeted this “discovery” of the Gospel of Judas with a huge yawn is that in my book, Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes, written in 1996, I had argued for an even more radical understanding of Judas than the one included in the canonical gospels. The Gospel of Judas only seeks to restore Judas” reputation from those earlier gospels. I contend that there never was a figure in history whose name was Judas Iscariot who needed to be rehabilitated. My study has convinced me that Judas was a creation of the second generation of Christians designed primarily to shift the blame for the death of Jesus from the Romans to the Jews. The pressure driving this creation of Judas came from the war between the Romans and the Jews beginning in 66 C.E. and ending at Masada in 73 C.E. The crucial event in that war was the destruction of Jerusalem and the razing of the Temple in 70 C.E. Roman hostility against the Orthodox Jews, who they blamed for initiating this war, was overwhelming. The Christians, who at this time were primarily Jewish, needed a way to separate themselves from the Temple authorities and to reach out to the Romans. To vilify a representative Jew, who had the name of the whole nation, Judah or Judas, while exonerating the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, accomplished exactly that. So Pilate was portrayed in the gospels, written either during or after that war, as washing his hands and proclaiming himself innocent of the blood of this man, while the Jewish authorities were portrayed as accepting the blame for Jesus” death and suggesting that it was appropriate to pass that blame on to their children. This shift is clearly shown when the gospels themselves are read in order.Adding data to the idea of Judas being a created symbol, we note that the concept of betrayal enters the Christian story in the writing of Paul in the mid-fifties some 15 years before the first gospel was written. Paul’s word literally meant “handed over,” an action that might include betrayal but does not necessarily do so. Paul, however, never identified this handing over of Jesus with one of the twelve. Indeed, just a few chapters later in this same epistle, Paul wrote that the Risen Christ appeared to “the twelve.” Judas was clearly part of his Easter vision, an idea that is inconceivable if he had been the traitor. Matthew, who says that the risen Christ appeared only to “the eleven,” also says that Judas had hanged himself before the crucifixion occurred. Once that seed of doubt about Judas’s historicity is sown, then the narratives that constitute the betrayal story can be looked at to see if there is another source for their content. For those who know the Hebrew Scriptures, almost every detail in the Judas story can be found in earlier biblical betrayal stories. The 30 pieces of silver as the price of betrayal, for example, as well as the hurling of that silver back into the Temple come out of II Zechariah (11:12,13). The idea that the traitor was one who broke bread at Jesus” table, reflects the story of Ahithophel and King David. When Ahithophel’s treachery was discovered, he went out and hanged himself (II Sam. 17: 24, and Psalm 41:9). The kiss of the traitor comes out of the story of Joab and Amasa (II Sam. 20:9). The idea that a member of a band of twelve betrayed one of its own is found in the story of Joseph and his brothers from the book of Genesis (Gen:37:26). It is worth noting that in that story the one who decides to get money for betraying Joseph is named Judah or Judas. Keep in mind that the first story of Jesus” passion, written by Mark, is not based on eye witness accounts but is drawn primarily from Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. All of these things cast doubt on the historicity of Judas.If Judas was not even a figure of history then a 3rd century copy of a 2nd century fantasy that offers a new possibility about this man’s motives might be of minor historical interest but it is of no great significance. That was when it became obvious that the “discovery” of the Judas Gospel, released right before Holy Week was manipulative. The media bit. The story made a Holy Week splash. It will now fade into the obscurity that it deserves.~ John Shelby Spong |
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