Sneak Peak: A Reading List for Advent 2016

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and forever. Amen.

What I'm (re)reading (though maybe it's a little ambitious):

Karl Marx. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, ed. by Dirk J. Struik (New York: Internaitonal Publishers, 1963).

William Stringfellow. Essential Writings, ed. by Bill Wylie-Kellerman (New York: Orbis, 2013).

Bayard Rustin. Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin, ed. by Devon W. Carbado and Donale Weise (San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2003).

H. Richard Niebuhr. The Kingdom of God in America, (Hanover, NH: Weslyan, 1988).

John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress, (New York: Pocket Library, 1957).

Ἀμήν· ἔρχου, κύριε Ἰησοῦ.

William Blake, The Great Red Dragon the the Woman Cothed with the Sun (1805).
(Via Wikimedia Commons, PD-1923)

Yes, the Reformation Still Matters

Luther before Cardinal Cajetan (Holzschnitt, 1557)
(PD-old, via Wikimedia Commons)

"Does the Reformation Still Matter?" So asks the headline of an RNS from earlier this week by Jacob Lupfer. The author lifts up shifts in society and culture, especially recent developments in U.S. cultural history, that pose the question whether the Protestant Reformations (not the plural) that began 499 years ago are still germane to Western Christians today.

For example, according to Lupfer, ecumenical relations between Rome and Protestant bodies have warmed under the pontificate of Pope Francis (I welcome this development, by the way). What's more, markers of identity have shifted in recent decades, such that like-minded Protestants and Roman Catholics are more likely to find common cause politically and socially across the confessional divide than they are to do so with members in their own respective communions with whom they clash ideologically. Lupfer also quotes Stanley Hauerwas, who alludes to the ways Roman Catholic theologians have creatively rethought their doctrinal tradition to answer the critiques of the early Protestant movements. One thinks, for example, of promising ecumenical statements between Lutheran and Catholic theologians on the question of justification. Again, all this is true, as far as it goes, and I wouldn’t want to minimize or dismiss any of it.

This is a brief piece, of course, aimed at a popular audience. Still, it invites response. My answer is "Yes." From where I sit, the Protestant Reformations indeed still matter. Lupfer doesn't address what is, for me, the decisive area: Ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church.

It's a much more complicated question, of course, than I can deal with in a little blog post, but here is the rub for me: The Roman Catholic Church -- much as I love, admire and (indeed!) envy its richness, its traditions, the better aspects of its socio-political witness and spirituality, and its inimitable, trans-cultural global reach -- still holds that the church is infallible -- that, in some way, there is some corner of its life and witness that are beyond human error (of course, through the power of divine providence, and not from its own finite resources).

Note what the Catechism says about the Magisterium, about the authority of its historic teaching office:

(889) In order to preserve the Church in the purity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a "supernatural sense of faith" the People of God, under the guidance of the Church's living Magisterium, "unfailingly adheres to this faith.”

And again:

(891) "The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful - who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. . . . The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium," above all in an Ecumenical Council.418 When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely revealed,"419 and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the obedience of faith."420 This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.

The retort, for example, that papal infallibility rarely has been invoked -- though that is fortunate, indeed -- is not to the point. The claim, if I understand it correctly, is that Jesus Christ has endowed his earthly body with a share of the infallibility that is proper to his Lordship to his human followers, whether collectively, as a whole, or to some portion of it.

I cannot accept this doctrine. To that extent, count me still a "Protestant." That makes me and my community vulnerable – absolutely defenseless, in fact, under the Word of God who is Christ himself. Devastatingly vulnerable, under the sign of the cross. But what can I do but cling to that Word?

"Hier stehe ich!"

Orange You Glad I'm Not a Scientist?

In writing, as in life generally, it's felicitous to branch out on occasion.

Today, therefore, on this blog (where I hardly post anything anymore anyway), I'm going to take a short break from theologizing and explore a field of inquiry that's always interested me: Natural science.

My young son enjoys "fact books." In perusing one of these recently, we came across this factoid: It is possible to start a fire using only the contents of an orange

Really? I wonder how that's even possible.

(One caveat: Many of the purported "facts" in these books are undocumented and remain, on the face of it, suspicious to me -- for example, this notion that the earth spins on its "axis," whatever that might be. When in doubt, this is my fallback rule: If an ostensible scientific fact is not affirmed in the national Republican Party platform, I don't buy into it.)

(Another caveat: Need I say, don't try this at home, unless you happen to be a Girl Scout, duly supervised, and your parents have signed all the requisite medical release forms?)

But let's assume, just for the sake of argument, that it is indeed possible to start a fire using an orange. When pondering this, something struck me, and I flipped to another page in the book, where we learn that a grape, sliced in half and cooked in a microwave will burst into flames.

Boom. There you have it.

I freaking love science!

The "Good" Samaritan as Antiracist Parable: A Bishop's Sermon, Ripped from the Headlines.

My bishop, the Right Rev. Douglas J. Fisher of Western Massachusetts, has posted this sermon, which we heard at the Episcopal cathedral in Springfield yesterday. The title is: "There is no 'us' and 'them'. There is only 'us.'"

The main text for the homily is the parable of the Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37.

Bishop Fisher writes

By telling the story that he does, about a man beaten, robbed and left to die in a ditch, Jesus changes our question about Eternal Life by “plugging us into a world of violence.” Following Jesus will not mean escaping violence – it will mean engaging it. Sound like 2016 yet?

Read the rest here.

Le bon Samaritain (1880), by Aimé Nicolas Morot
Image in public domain in USA
(via Wikimedia Commons)

Tributes to Professor John Webster (via DET)

I have not posted here in a while. Unfortunately, this is a sad post . Last week Professor John Webster, an inimitable scholar and constructive thinker in the field of Reformed systematic theology -- and, I would also point out, an Anglican clergyman -- died suddenly at the age of 60. He was one of the greatest interpreters of the work of Continental theologians Karl Barth and Eberhard Jüngel.

May light perpetual shine upon him.

I commend to you this post, compiled by W. Travis McMaken, which links to numerous online tributes to Prof. Webster, including remembrances from colleagues and students of his.

My Latest Book Review: Christ Crucified in a Suffering World by Nathan Hieb

Check out the newly revamped website for The Center for Barth Studies There you will find, in addition to many excellent resources for the Karl Barth researcher, my latest publication, a review of Nathan D. Hieb's superb study, Christ Crufied in a Suffering World: The Unity of Atonement and Liberation. In this volume, Hieb provides one model for doing what I should very much like to accomplish constructively: He integrates a Christocentric theology, complete with a strong doctrine of the atonement, with contemporary efforts on socio-political transformation and liberation. As I write:

All too often contemporary theologians create a false binary between traditional atonement doctrines and theologies of liberation. Nathan Hieb seeks to bridge that gap by means of a fresh reading and retooling of Karl Barth’s doctrine of atonement.

I hope this might whet your appetite to read the review and, more than that, to get a hold of Hieb's book for yourself.

Picasso, La Crucifixion (1930)

The Gospel According to Elizabeth Warren Running for President

I have always longed to inhabit sacred ground, but alas, I live a very long way from the Holy Land.

True, I have lived in Alabama and Georgia (the Bible Belt), Illinois (Land of Lincoln) and Pennsylvania (Penn's Peaceable kingdom, except in election years). Now I live in Northampton. According to the internet, Northampton is 5,580.1 miles away from Jerusalem. For you international readers, that's 8980.3 Kilometers (or Kiloumeters, British spelling) and 4845.8 Nautical Miles. Nor have I ever been anywhere near Isreal-Palestine, where the Lord lived, ministered, died and rose again.

But I've learned it does't really matter, because when the Messiah returns, her home base is going to be much closer to home -- Cambridge!



No, no, silly! Not THAT Cambridge. Cambridge, Massachusetts, a mere 102 miles from where I live in Northampton.

No MASSACHUSETTS!

Yes, that's more like it. And the one who will save us, the one for whom we have hoped will come from none other than the hallowed halls of Harvard.

Mike Huckabee's views on the matter notwithstanding, Harvard is not a dirty word in this neck of the woods. Harvard is where we send and brightest and best (=most richest) to earn A minuses and learn how to rule the world. Because legacy.

Who is the Child of Promise, then, who emerges from this esteemed institution -- in particular, from its faculty? Why it's none other than Elizabeth Warren Running for President. For those of you unfamiliar with the U.S. national political scene, Ms. Warren is one of two Democrats representing Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate. She's fiesty, confrontational and reform minded. And she formerly taught at Harvard. But this piece is not about her per se. Note my language carefully: I didn't say that Senator Warren herself is the fulfillment of our messianic hopes and dreams. Only the most clueless space cadet among left-liberal punditry could imagine that Warren could ever actually be elected President of the United States. Rather, what I'm arguing is that it's the very idea of Elizabeth Warren running for president itself is the mechanism that, in the last days, will finally turn the wheels of history and redeem the unfulfilled American dream for freedom, peace and democracy.

You see, the prophecies go something like this: The idea of Elizabeth Warren Running for President will emerge in the last days of 2016. All the elect will rise up in concord and the sleeping beast known as the national Democratic Party will be awakened from its globalist, militarist, centrist slumbers and get about the business of establishing the Millenial reign of Democracy in the United States, a notion that is implied by certain obscure passages in the U.S. Constitution but that has never been even remotely realized in the present evil age.

"And the Chosen One shall arise in the Back Bay, and the Great Donkey shall awaken, and an internet petition drive shall lead them," according to one version of the prophesy.

And, just as in California politics, it all begins with a petition drive. The details can all be found in the Sacred Oracle, "Run Warren Run," from an outfit known as moveon.org.

Hear what the Oracle Saith:

In the wake of the Great Recession, Senator Warren stood up to the big banks and led the successful fight to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—an act that’s already recovered more than $1.5 billion for Americans who were ripped off by Wall Street predators.

This is all true, by the way. It's all been fulfilled. I checked it out.

And furthermore:

Senator Warren is leading the fight for students and graduates who are struggling under the weight of crippling student loan debt and is transforming the Social Security debate from whether to cut the program to how to grow it.

Also true! Are you starting to get excited yet?

Here's the key bit, the John 3:16, if you will, of the Gospel According to Elizabeth Warren Running for President:

Our country will be better off if Elizabeth Warren runs for president.

Cryptic? Yes, apocalypses always are. Note the key thing, though: It doesn't read our country will be better of if Sen. Warren becomes President. That would take a divine miraculous intervention that would make the Red Sea incident look like a wading pool in an Orlando hotel. No, the true change will come from her running for President. Or perhaps even just the idea of her running itself.

Of course there are always naysayers and skeptics. Our age abounds in them. That's why it's important to have faith -- to trust the Gospel of Elizabeth Warren Running for President. But to all of those folks, the preacher saith: "Quit your braying and get with the program."

And all the people said, "Amen."