Cycles of Christianity
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:date: 2016-11-17T02:10:02
:category: faith
:tags: ecumenism, theology, Luther
I was just listening to the series of three podcasts by Dave
Schemlzer on the Hero’s Journey and Fresh Christianity (episode
one_, two_, and three_).
I haven’t came with some opinion on the series itself, but Dave
also mentioned on the side a book_ by Phyllis A. Tickle: “The
Great Emergence”. I haven’t read it either (under the impression
from Dave, I have just ordered it on Amazon), but Dave (and
reviews_) mention that the book suggests Christianity changing
every 500 years or so. That is an interesting idea (I am not sure
whether she is not missing the revolution of St. Francis, but
that is not the foundation of the thought itself, I think).
However, I do not like the idea of *transitions*. That sounds
like changing the church according to the latest fashion of the
world, and throwing the old clothes to the bin for homeless.
I would suggest slightly different picture. Instead of
transitions, I would talk about God’s visitations, God sending
his messengers (whether they are Biblically prophets, teachers,
or apostles) and changing the face of the Church. Christianity
does not need “reboot”. Instead, I would see each of these
visitations like an eruption of volcano. Raw energy flow through
the Church and changed everything. Immediately after this
eruption theologians, and other Church thinkers, started to
process this magma into something more useful, think about and
rebuild the Church thinking around it. I have absolutely nothing
against scholarship (being a son of the University professor and
ABD for PhD in sociology, I value scholarship highly). However,
in subsequent generations (and sometime pretty fast) by chewing
upon the original lava, it becomes rather dry, boring and in the
end it is as fascinating as the last generations of the medieval
scholarship, or current Protestant theology. Fortunately, when
God cannot watch the misery we created from his original message
he sends another portion of lava so that we have something to
chew upon for next couple of hundred years. And yes, I believe
we are in the middle (or preparing for) such visitation right
now.
What matters on the difference is that discoveries of previous
revolutions should not be discarded as old trash, but rather that
we should listen more to the Humanists of the fifteenth century
and to their battle cry “Ad fontes”. I have spent last year by
repeated listening to the lectures_ on the theology of Martin
Luther. I have been always fascinating by him, even earlier than
when I read “`The Young Man Luther`_” by Erik H. Erikson.
However, when thinking about the Luther I truly feel like sitting
next to the erupting volcano. So much energy! On the less
poetical note, it seems to me that many of his ideas far distant
from then current Catholic thinking were later reduced by the
Reformed theology to something a way more mild and actually
returning back to the original thinking (e.g., his ecclesiology),
and what is more important the Luther’s magma ruminated into
Reformed theology became the foundation of the Modernism. And by
five hundred years of chewing, the result is currently truly
distasteful and worthy of another revolution.
.. _one:
http://www.hellohoratio.com/node/137
.. _two:
http://www.hellohoratio.com/node/138
.. _three:
http://www.hellohoratio.com/node/139
.. _book:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources?isbn=0801013135
.. _reviews:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4024780-the-great-emergence
.. _lectures:
https://www.biblicaltraining.org/martin-luther/gordon-isaac
.. _`The Young Man Luther`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Man_Luther
.. _`Adversus Judaeos`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adversus_Judaeos
.. _`The Lost History of Christianity`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources?isbn=0061472816
.. _`The Last Will and Testament of the Dying Mother The Unity of Brethern`:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:The_Last_Will_and_Testament_of_the_Dying_Mother_The_Unity_of_Brethern
.. _`Jesus Wars`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources?isbn=0061768944
