Speaking at the University of Noter Dame’s Centre for Social Concerns, on the 50 Anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris issued in 1963 as a call to “Universal Peace in Truth, Justice and Liberty” Sister Joan describes the “Common Good” as the Holy Grail of politics. She divines the common good as “a vision of public virtue which engages the individual citizen, energizes the government, shapes the public system, and points the public direction in all its policies, all its institutions, and all its legislative intents.”
Fear of diversity has relegated the notion of the common good to the status of an endangered species. Str. Joan points to Pacem in Terris’ insistence that nationality is trumped by one’s global citizenship and responsibilities and warns that pathological individualism threatens our ability to articulate a vision of the common good. She reminds us of the core of our Abrahamic traditions to discover what we hold in common as a seedbed for the reemergence of our desire for the common good in what Chittister describes as a Constitution of the Good Community”.
Sister Joan’s lecture begins at about the 12 minute mark.
Today, Harvard Divinity scholar Karen L. King went public with new evidence that indicates that the early followers of Jesus believed that he had a wife. King insists that the idea that Jesus did not have a wife does not arise until about 150 years after Jesus’ crucifixion.
King points to a newly rediscovered papyrus fragment from the second century coptic manuscript in which Jesus refers to “my wife.” That pundits commenting on today’s news should call the notion that Jesus had a wife “shocking” is in and of itself shocking to those of us who take the bible seriously. If Jesus was not married, now that would be shocking for a first century, Jewish peasant!
Herald of the Divine Feminine, reformer of the church and green prophet! Today is the feast day of the Christian mystic Hildegard von Bingen, a woman of great vision, a woman centuries ahead of her time. During her 81 years Hildegard’s talents as an artist, musician, poet, healer and theologian ought not to be ignored. And yet the Roman Catholic Church only got around to officially canonizing this giant of the church this past May. Rumour has it the Mr. Ratzinger plans to elevate St. Hildegard to the status of Doctor of the Church next month.
In 2009, German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta wrote and directed the movie “Vision”. The DVD version is available from Amazon and I highly recommend it!!!
Matthew Fox’s new book “Hildegard of Bingen a Saint for Our Times, Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century” will be released next month and I am eagerly awaiting my copy. You can listen to an interview of Matthew Fox on the subject of his new book here. Fox describes Hildegard as a Trojan horse whose teachings he hopes will shake up the vatican.
At Holy Cross we have developed an Evening Prayer Service inspired by the work of Hildegard. The worship bulletin and an audio recording of the service are linked below. Enjoy the video of contralto Karen Clark who preforms Hildegard’s antiphon “O Virtus Sapientie”
As our thoughts and prayers turn to that horrendous day, I can’t help wondering about all that has transpired since and wondering “What if…..?” In the days following the terrorist attacks the following email message was circulated the world over, I’ve kept it all these years.
“Bomb them with butter . . . .”
A military response, particularly an attack on Afghanistan, is exactly what the terrorists want. It will strengthen and swell their small but fanatical ranks.
Instead, bomb Afghanistan with butter, with rice, bread, clothing and medicine. It will cost less than conventional arms, poses no threat of US casualties and just might get the populace thinking that maybe the Taliban don’t have the answers. After three years of drought and with starvation looming, let’s offer the Afghani people the vision of a new future. One that includes full stomachs.
Bomb them with information. Video players and cassettes of world leaders, particularly Islamic leaders, condemning terrorism. Carpet the country with magazines and newspapers showing the horror of terrorism committed by their “guest”. Blitz them with laptop computers and DVD players filled with a perspective that is denied them by their government. Saturation bombing with hope will mean that some of it gets through. Send so much that the Taliban can’t collect and hide it all. The Taliban are telling their people to prepare for Jihad. Instead, let’s give the Afghani people their first good meal in years. Seeing your family fully fed and the prospect of stability in terms of food and a future is a powerful deterrent to martyrdom. All we ask in return is that they, as a people, agree to enter the civilized world. That includes handing over terrorists in their midst.
In responding to terrorism we need to do something different. Something unexpected. Something that addresses the root of the problem. We need to take away the well of despair, ignorance and brutality from which the Osama bin Laden’s of the world water their gardens of terror.”
This morning as the September sun shines as brightly as it did eleven years ago, I can’t help wondering what might have happened if we had paid attention to our better angels. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it… Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate…. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
We will never know what might have been. But I wonder if we are ready to learn to forgive. On this bright September morning can we turn our hearts, prayers and minds to the challenge of peace? Can we begin to forgive? Do we have the courage to ask for forgiveness?
As one who strives to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, I am struck by how quickly my own hunger for justice can so quickly devolve into an acceptance of measures that only appease my own desire for security. The challenge for me is to follow Jesus beyond what seems prudent to a place beyond fear. Do I have the courage to forgive? Do I have the courage to ask for forgiveness? I wonder???
So many new beginnings: Back to work this week; a new beginning. Team Ministry; a new beginning. As students and teachers head back to school, churches begin a new program year. At Holy Cross we are are using the Alternate Lectionary (scripture readings) for Creation and this Sunday’s readings call for a celebration of Humanity. The first reading is the Hebrew creation myth found in the first chapter of Genesis; the all too familiar story. Churches have been telling this particular story of our beginning for centuries. Standing here at the beginning of a new century makes me wonder why we don’t tell a new story of our beginning.
When I begin to study the Genesis story with Confirmation Students, I ask them to imagine our ancestors sitting around a campfire asking one another, “What’s it all about? Why are we here? Where did we come from? Who are we?” Looking back at how we once approached these questions of meaning is a perfectly fine exercise. But we can’t stop there. It’s time for us to change the scene so that it better reflects who we are here and now. Gone is the campfire. Gone is the three-tired universe. Gone is the belief that Genesis is history.
The time has come for us to imagine a different gathering at which the same questions emerge. Only this time those who have gathered can reach into their pockets and take out their mobile devices to access the wisdom of the ages. This time a new myth emerges to capture our imaginations, a new myth from within which we can begin to imagine who we are, where we came from, why we are here and where we are going???
So this Sunday our first reading will not come to us from the book of Genesis. This Sunday we will begin our celebration of humanity by telling a new creation myth, one that emerges from the wealth of knowledge that science offers us. I can’t wait to begin!
Back in 1989, before I ever began entertaining the idea of returning to school to prepare for a life in ministry, a fortuitous Christmas gift in the guise of a copy of Matthew Fox’s newly published The Coming of the Cosmic Christ sent me on a journey that continues to shape my understanding of what it means to aspire to follow Christ.
Barely two chapters into Fox’s challenging tome and I knew that if I was ever to begin to understand Fox’s visions of reality, I would need to begin nearer the beginning. In those days, searching for a book involved more than a web search and so I began travelling from book store to book store to scour the shelves for a copy of Original Blessing.
Original Blessing’s Introduction begins with two questions: “1. In our quest for wisdom and survival, does the human race require a new religious paradigm? 2. Does the creation-centered spiritual tradition offer such a paradigm?” Having absolutely no idea what the word “paradigm” means, I knew I was about to be challenged. So, I got my dictionary off the shelf and prepared to wade into unknown waters.
Lead by Fox, I explored the ancient wisdom of Creation Spirituality and began a love affair with the wonders of mysticism and the marvels of science that continue to reveal ecstasies that intrigue and excite my body, mind and spirit!
Matthew Fox’s work continues to nourish my desire to approach they Mystery we call divinity. In the videos below Fox delivers (in 2 parts) the Jarvis Lecture in which he calls for the Reinventing of Christianity. Fox believes that “if we cannot reinvent our religious then we are doomed, the human species is doomed.” Fox insists that Christianity needs to reset its focus; away from a preoccupation with redemption toward a focus upon creation.
Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teaching, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary If you are looking for an introduction to current scholarship on the man known as Jesus of Nazareth, Marcus Borg’s book is an excellent place to begin.
For those of you (and you know who you are) who tell me you don’t have time to read one more thing: in this video Borg provides a wonderful overview of his book. Borg challenges his listeners and readers to move beyond what they may have learned to believe about Jesus toward a more nuanced understanding of the radical nature of Jesus’ life and teachings. Whether you’re a reader or a viewer, a scholar or a seeker, a believer or a sceptic, I’m sure you will find that Borg’s way of telling the story of Jesus will reveal new ways to integrate Jesus’ story into your life today.
The feast day of Augustine of Hippo is a good time to recall what St. Augustine had to say on the literal meaning of Genesis: “Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.” (from Augustine’s commentary on Genesis: “The Literal Meaning of Genesis” (translated and annotated by John Hammond Taylor, S.J.; two volumes; Newman Press, New York, 1982; pages 42-43 of Volume 1)
“Humans are soft-wired for empathy.” so says, bestselling author and economist Jeremy Rifkin.
“The Empathic Civilization is emerging. A younger generation is fast extending its empathic embrace beyond religious affiliations and national identification to include the whole of humanity and the vast project of life that envelopes the Earth.” Jeremy Rifkin
The first and the shortest video is an animation of Rifkin’s TED talk which provides an interesting introduction to Rifkin’s interpretation of recent scientific insights into the nature of our human species. The animation will wet your appetite for the second video in which Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society.
Matthew Fox’s Creation Spirituality has provided a pathway beyond the constrictive confines of Christian doctrine into the Wisdom tradition of the Mystics. Here he plays with the “ah” sounds of the various names for the divine. The exercise which he demonstrates is a wonderful way to open or awaken one’s self to the playfulness of the Spirit.
Sister Joan was undergoing surgery at the time that this lecture was to be delivered (July 1, 2012), and so the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell delivered Sister Joan’s words to the gathering at Chautauqua.
See the video below.
“INSTEAD OF A COMMON GOOD, WE SEEM MORE INCLINED TO TALK ABOUT THE GENERAL GOOD, AS IF WE WERE WILLING TO LET SOME PEOPLE RIGHT OUT OF IT.” DR. JOAN CHITTISTER
“A common good is a vision, a vision of public virtue which engages the individual citizen, guides the energies of the government, shapes the public system and points the public direction in all of its policies, in all its institutions and in all of its legislative intents,” Chittister wrote. “It is the answer to the question: What is it that we want for this country? What is it that we perceive to be good for everyone, and how should we go about getting it?”
Historically, when the world comprised smaller, more homogeneous societies, the concept of the common good was simpler to define. Since the Reformation, our world has become more diverse, and the idea that there could exist a singular definition for the “common good” seems impossible, Chittister wrote.
“Whose common good would be the common good?”
“In fact, which common good will you yourself have in mind this week? The one that is defined by majority vote? But then what about the minorities, the gays, the people of color, the women?” Chittister wrote.
Other definitions of the common good are based on bridging economic division or attaining the goals many advocacy groups fight for, Chittister wrote. Still other people believe the common good means creating a homogeneous society or taking the big ideas and aims of disparate groups and reducing them to ghosts of their original might so they are universally palatable.
Each of those conceptions of the common good has flaws, and each has been seen before.
“The truth is that all of those possibilities are in order and all of them exist in one place or another — even as we gather here — all of them claim some kind of public allegiance, and all of them have both succeeded and failed over time.” Chittister wrote.
Countless tyrants and monarchs have claimed to work for the common good for centuries. They have fallen.
“How can we possibly have a common good, where the good of the ruler comes before the good of the ruled?” Chittister wrote.
The only forms of governing power that truly respect and embrace the ideals of the common good are democratic, constitutional republics, Chittister said. With time, even the nations that forged their foundations on the precepts of working toward the common good have lost their way.
“Instead of a common good, we seem more inclined to talk about the general good, as if we were willing to let some people right out of it,” Chittister wrote.
“No doubt about it: The universal and age-old notion of the common good is an endangered species in these days,” she wrote.
The idea that we live in a world demarcated by hard and fast boundaries of religion, culture, language, geography, no longer exists. Developments in technology and media have created a sieve-like world where cultures mix and blend, Chittister wrote. It is no more evident than in the United States, a country fragmented by its multicultural identity that is struggling to be united.
Enhanced means of communication and transportation have further connected the world, while simultaneously highlighting the disparities that exist.
“People in the barrios in the Philippines, in tents in Port-au-Prince, on dung heaps in India, straw huts in Africa, watch street corner television and see our eight-lane highways choked with cars and hear us worry about 5 percent drops in the stock markets when their infants die in their arms,” Chittister wrote.
Theoretically, increased globalization was to turn into increased economic equality and peace among the world’s populations. That has not been the case. We have seen the horrors of a divided, yet technologically connected world: first in World War II, with the Holocaust and the atomic bomb, then in Vietnam, in instances of genocide and ethnic cleansing throughout the world, and most recently on Sept. 11, when a small group murdered more than 3,000 people.
“In response to that murderous act, in the country from which they sprang or by which they were harbored, we killed at least four times as many of their innocent as they had managed to kill of ours,” Chittister wrote. “These are not simply changes on the social landscape, these are issues that change our very understanding of ourselves. They changed the shape of our lives, they challenge the fabric of our souls, they test the very possibility of a common good.”
Human beings exist in a world that is increasingly connected through technology and economy, but despite the connectivity, we have been unable to develop the one thing that could end the barbarism the connection engenders: a shared perception of the common good, Chittister wrote.
To begin the process of developing a shared understanding of the common good, Chittister wrote that people should turn to one of the most universally religious codes: the beatitudes preached by Jesus Christ at the Sermon on the Mount.
“Now we must find a way for equal but different people to live together, to live together on this globe, in a world more united but at the same time more disparate than ever before in human history,” Chittister wrote. “Consider just for a minute, before the political dimensions of this week begin, what we have come to know as the spiritual dimensions of happiness: the eight great beatitudes of life.”
The first beatitude is, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” That can be translated to mean that people should not live their lives perpetually seeking what they do not have. But in our time, in our country, the beatitude instructs us to work to understand what others need throughout the world and the excesses we have that we do not need.
“Surely our own common good must have something to do with seeing at the very least that our national goals do not make these other national situations worse,” she wrote.
“ ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ It is important that those living in the United States stop distancing themselves from those living lives in poverty,” Chittister wrote. “It consists of not allowing our own lives to deteriorate into a self-centered sickness of the soul, choked by national narcissism.”
“ ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the Earth.’ That beatitude calls on people across the world to be humble, to treat others of all different countries, religions cultures, geographic locations and economic means with respect and dignity,” Chittister wrote. “Mutual respect links people across borders, and is a security far beyond bombs.”
“ ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.’ When we use the sins of another to treat them as less than human, it turns our own errors into targets we wear for life,” Chittister wrote. The U.S. will see that the torture inflicted on foreign men who were collected in their homelands and held as prisoners will haunt the soul and identity of our country, she wrote.
“On what grounds will we castigate those who ply the same trade on American bodies to come? Is this our new common good?” Chittister wrote.
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.” Today, that beatitude requires that our citizens and politicians take ownership of the decisions they make and the laws they create. The beatitude calls on people to end prejudice to champion human rights for every single human being no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation or age, she wrote.
“Then the America that brought freedom and justice for all to a city near you, to a country far away will rise again. A new Eden, a city on a hill, a light for the people,” she wrote. “Until then, we must each of us refuse to let go of standards that require an equalization of black and white prison sentences, of rich and poor housing standards, of minority and white healthcare, of inner city and white educational systems.
“Blessed are the pure of heart, they shall see God.” Today, that beatitude requires that people maintain their ideals throughout their lives and everything they do and in the choices they make. The beatitude means prioritizing the people and humanity of this country and forsaking the wasteful arguments of ineffective partisanship, Chittister wrote.
“They are politicians who do not want to spend the patrimony of the United States on becoming the Sparta of the modern world, armed to the teeth, brutal in soul, deeply, deeply in need of art and music, philosophy and culture,” Chittister wrote.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God.” The beatitude calls on us to promote a culture that is not focused on the maintenance of power, but the spread of peace. We must oppose war and promote cooperation, she wrote.
The final beatitude is: “Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The beatitude tells us that we must defend justice and protect the humanity of the poor and the oppressed, no matter what we face in opposition.
To build a common good we must follow those principles and demonstrate the path that leads to the common good with our own humanity, our own lives. If we do not fashion a common good in this day in age, if we do not lead by example, a common good will never be created, Chittister wrote.
“You and I, we are responsible for bringing it, the only question is: Will we do our part of that process, or not?” Chittister wrote. “Listen carefully this week, and ask yourselves what kind of common good you are hearing. And then, dear, dear friends, for all our sakes, choose well. So that we all may be truly, fully, eternally happy, forever — a shining light, a city on a hill, a beacon of justice, truly a New Jerusalem, to whom all nations flock for light and hope and happiness.”
Jack Spong has been a great friend to Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Newmarket and over the years he has graced us with his presence three times. You can read what he has to say about Holy Cross here and here. Below you will find video recordings of Jack’s lectures at the Chautauqua Institute this past June. As always Jack is in great form and each lecture is well worth watching. If you are short on time, watch the last in the series and it will leave you wanting more.
The Judeo-Christian Faith Story: How Much is History
The Prophets: Not Predictors of the Future but Change Agents
In his newly published bestseller “Evolutionaries” Carter Phipps defines evolution as an idea that transcends biology. Evolution says Phipps, “is better thought as a broad set of principles and patterns that generate novelty, change, and development over time.” He defines “Evolutionaries” as generalists willing to engage in cross-disciplinary thinking who have or are developing the ability to contemplate the vast timescales of our evolutionary history as they embody a new spirit of optimism.
Phipps cautions against leaning into Neo-Darwinism with its focus upon competition and the principle of the survival of the fittest as the driving forces behind evolution. Instead, Phipps points to current biologists whose theories of symbiogenesis have shifted the scientific and cultural conversations about evolution from a focus on competition to a new appreciation of cooperation. “The spoils of evolution go not to the fastest or the smartest but to those who can find the best relationship between creative individuality and cooperative sociality.”
For those of us whose understanding of evolution is limited to our hastily studied and quickly forgotten high school biology classes, the word co-operation may not spring to mind when we think of evolution. Indeed, when thinking about our cultural evolution we all too often look to our violent past and point to the survival of the fittest to determine the ways and means by which humanity has evolved over time. But if as biologists insist, co-operation and the ability to form relationships are determinative factors in the evolution of species, we would do well not only to re-examine our history but also look toward the future with an eye toward improving our abilities to co-operate and form relationships, so as to help determine what we might become.
Phipps explains that, “Evolution happens at the edges. Evolution happens on the borders, the boundaries, the in-between zones. This is true whether we are talking about nature or culture. It as the case in ancient glucose gradients that helped spur the creation of eukaryotic cells, as well as in the primordial mud between land and sea where scientists suggest that life first emerged.”
Inspired by Matthew Fox’s “Creation Spirituality” I have come to believe that religious institutions must work to enable their adherents to take seriously our call to be co-creators in the ongoing process of creation. Evolutionary thinkers like Phipps encourage me to wonder what role the church may or may not play in humanity’s need to foster co-operation and the ability to form relationships so that we might evolve into all that we are created to be???
Below is an interview that sheds more light on Carter Phipps’ evolutionary thinking. Enjoy!
Evolutionary is a term given to thinkers who see evolution as much more than simply a theory that pertains to the biological development of life on this planet. Evolutionaries are generalists who are willing to piece together information from all disciplines in order to explain the cosmos. So, says Carter Phipps in his new bestseller, “Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science’s Greatest Idea”. In which he defines evolutionaries as: “deep time explorers of a universe of infinite becoming.” In a world where scientists, philosophers, and theologians are borrowing from one another’s insights in order to explore the secrets of existence, evolutionary theory is being applied to more than just biology.
Inspired by Matthew Fox’s “Original Blessing”, I have long since given up on the medieval doctrine of original sin and moved beyond the atonement theologies that rely on our need to be saved by a “Father God”. Like many progressive Christians, rather than describing the human condition as sinful or broken, I understand humanity to be incomplete and still evolving. We did not fall from grace in some mythical garden. Humanity, like all of the cosmos continues to evolve. The idea of evolution has all sorts of implications not only for how we see ourselves as human beings, here and know. As we continue to evolve, the determination of who or what humanity becomes requires that we take seriously our role as co-creators not with some grand-puppetier-god-in-the-sky. But as co-creators with a God who is in all and through all.
The emerging conversation between scientists, theologians, and philosophers makes the question “Do you believe in the bible or do you believe in evolution?” obsolete. The conversations between disciplines are giving birth to a new spirituality. Evolutionary Christianity is emerging. Evolutionary thinkers are developing new theologies that take seriously God’s presence in all things through Christ.
After having spent a week, exploring the work of Teilhard de Chardin; an evolutionary thinker who was decades ahead of his time, I am eagerly devouring my copy of Phipps new book (just released June 12 and it has already it has reached #14 on Amazon). I will say more in future posts. In the meantime, for an overview of what it means to be an evolutionary, take a look at the video below which features Carter Phipps speaking at MIT this past May.
pastordawn 