Irenaen Wisdom II

"It is better and more profitable that we should be uneducated and know little but draw near to the love of God, than that we should think ourselves deeply learned and experienced and so blaspheme against the Lord. That is why Paul proclaimed, 'Gnosis puffs up, but love builds up.'"

-St. Irenaeus of Lyons

The Quest Continues

And so a new semester begins. For those of you keeping score, this is the fourth and (prayerfully) final semester of this arduous process. At the end of this semester, I will have completed 10 classes, 30 credits (added to the 30 credits I transferred in from my master's) of painstaking, difficult work. It is open to much debate on whether this completion was successful or not, but as I am often reminded, simply the completion itself should be cause for celebration. So do I receive my degree at the end of this semester? you may ask. A fair question, but unfortunately quite wide of the mark - which is, they say, the original definition of hamartia, the Greek word for sin (shame on you). Actually, after I complete this semester of classes, I then will have four or five months to prepare for a series of exams (some call them boards because they are in fact quite boring), which I will sit for at the end of October. Assuming that I pass this rather significant hurdle, again a lofty assumption, I will then, for the first time, have garnered the right to be called a PhD candidate. Right now, apparently, I am nothing but a peon, the derivation of which should be quite self explanatory. And let me assure you friends, the pee, as it were, is most definitely poised to fall this semester!

I am taking three classes this semester. The first is a history/philosophy class on the mysterious 6th century figure Dionysius the Areopagite. He wrote a corpus of writings dealing with the naming of God, the hierarchies of heaven, and the mystical union of God. He gave himself the name of Dionysius, after St. Paul's convert from his sermon on the Acropolis in Athens in Acts 17. It is a thorough going pseudonym, some might say fraud, as he references several apostolic events in his works, including a remembrance that he had of the world going dark when Jesus was crucified. He even addressed one of his letters to the Apostle John on Patmos. The pseudonym is why the letters received such universal acceptance and authority as it was accepted as truth by virtually everyone until the middle 19th century when it, along with much of what we used to hold dear, came into question. Though we know these works were not written by the real Dionysius - he now goes by Pseudo-Dionysius - he still is quite an important figure in the history of Christianity for the influence of his writings. As he is thought to have melded quite successfully the traditions of Christianity and Neoplatonism, he is of interest both for Christians and philosophers. The class is, thus, team taught by Father Alexander Golitzin - the resident Orthodox monk - and Dr. John Jones, philosopher extraordinaire. Should be quite engaging.

My second class is a class on hermeneutics, which is, simply put, the study of how one reads the Scriptures. It is taught by Dr. D. Stephen Long, a Methodist who recently joined the staff of Marquette. As my readers know, I too am a Methodist and for the first year of my studies felt like a man without a home in some respects as there was no one of my tradition with whom I interacted on a regular basis. It is good to be in Dr. Longs presence, under his tutelage as the old saying goes, and for such an important topic.

And my third class is a history class on Late Medieval Augustinianism. That is, I gather, how the Medievals, from Lombard to Aquinas to the dawn of the Reformation, used and interpreted Augustine. The great Father and Doctor of the Church had such a corpus and made several shifts in his thinking throughout his career that the problem of an Augustinian consensus was pressing in the middle ages. In short, everyone claimed him as an authority but no one agreed on what he was saying. This became particularly acute in the Reformation as both the Reformers and the Catholics were claiming to be the rightful inheritors of Augustine. This class is taught by Dr. Marcus Wriedt, a German scholar who teaches at Marquette periodically. I have heard amazing things about him so the excitement to take him mitigates against the fear of the fact that our primary text book is only in Latin.

So there we have it - the finish line of the class portion of this process is in sight (though in reality it is probably not even the halfway point). Still it is something, and I am grateful to God that I have made it this far, only with His help. I pray that for all my learning I do not miss him. One of the quotes I have sitting on my desk is from the great medieval scholar Hugh of Saint Victor: "Knowledge that is stained by a shameless life is not worthy of praise, and for this reason the person who seeks after knowledge must be very much on his guard not to neglect discipline."

Such is the path that I am on. Thank you for those of you who have journeyed on it with me. Through your prayers I continue.

"Where Have You Gone, O Apostles' Creed?"

Paul Simon's classic line might not work lyrically in this instance, but the sentiment remains. There has been much about the United Methodist Church (as a whole) that has been disappointing to me lately, but I must say that I was still quite shocked yesterday morning when after handing out the Apostles' Creed to our senior high Sunday School class, all of them replied that they had never seen this. Now I know that this is not true because we say the Creed in our baptismal liturgy. However, I would not expect a high schooler to remember it had he or she only recited it a few times in their lives. Yet, I was shocked because these were all students who had been confirmed in the United Methodist Church. And I have to ask, if they are not teaching the Apostles' Creed, then what are they teaching?

My shock continued as they showed no interest in its history, its origin, its purpose, or anything else that a mildly educated Christian might express. Rather, they said that they saw no way that it could relate to them and the struggles of their everyday lives. This is a sad situation and a judgment - not necessarily on the kids themselves - but the education to which they have been exposed.

So in the next few weeks of our Sunday School class, Julie and I will be teaching on the Apostles' Creed. Each session will focus on one of the articles. (For example, next week's study will focus on "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.") For each class, we will examine where the doctrine was found in Scripture, what dangers are present were one not to believe the article (the traditional name for this is heresy), and finally, how this belief does indeed (or can indeed) affect their everyday lives. We will be using as a guide the wonderful book by Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters. If you've never read it and are looking for some excellent reading material that will be both educational and edifying to your spiritual experience, I highly recommend it.

We need prayers for this project as we are fighting an uphill battle against disinterest and apathy. We will update on this blog as the course progress.

Top Ten First Lines of Theological Works

Even a cursory reader of this blog will have been able to seize upon two separate loves of mine, namely, theology and literature. Of the second I have elsewhere written of my particular fancy of a well crafted first line of a story. Therefore, I thought it might be appropriate and interesting - if to no one but myself - to offer for you, in my humble opinion, the ten greatest first lines (or in some cases several) of works of theology. As always, if anyone is still out there, please feel free to critique, criticize, or offer a few of your own.

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10. "Sometime between 1960 and 1980, an old, inadequately conceived world ended, and a fresh, new world began. We do not mean to be overly dramatic. Although there are many who have not yet heard the news, it is nevertheless true: A tired old world has ended, an exciting new one is waiting recognition." -Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens (I had to get some Wesleyans in here, since Wesley's own openings are usually rather bland.)

9. "It's teaching about Jesus Christ lies at the heart of every Christian theology." -Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus-God and Man (Those Germans, as we shall see, know how to write a first line!)

8. "Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,' says the Lord. These are Christ's own words by which he exhorts us to imitate his life and his ways, if we truly desire to be enlightened and free of all blindness of heart. Let it then be our main concern to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ." -Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

7. "Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace." -Dietrich Boenhoffer, The Cost of Discipleship

6. "The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well." -Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Vatican II (I would be remiss to not have at least one conciliar document in this list.)

5. "The only possible excuse for this book is that it is an answer to a challenge." -G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

4. "Dogmatics is a theological discipline. But theology is a function of the church." -Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (With this one sentence, Barth ushered in a new way of doing theology, one which retrieved its home, not as the academy, but as the Church.)

3. "So faith procures this for us, as the elders, the disciples of the apostles have handed down to us: firstly, it exhorts us to remember that we have received baptism for the remission of sins, in the name of God the Father, and in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was incarnate, and died, and was raised, and in the Holy Spirit of God." -Irenaeus, On the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching (Of course, the Fathers could not conceive of theology done outside of an ecclesial context, as this fine quotation shows. Plus, would one of my lists be complete without Uncle Irenaeus?)

2. "Beauty is the word that shall be our first." -Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord, A Theological Aesthetics vol. 1 (I cheated on this one as von Balthasar, like any good German theologian, explains his first word with three hearty paragraphs)

1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." -John the Theologian

And who is my neighbor?

"And, again, who does not see that no exception is made of any one as a person to whom the offices of mercy may be denied when our Lord extends the rule even to our enemies? 'Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you.'"

-Augustine, de Doctrina Christiana

How easy this is to forget in times of war. How quick we are to define the other as enemy when we first define ourselves, not as followers of Christ, but as Americans.

Authorial Intent?

A crucial quote from that great Armenian C.S. Lewis that is, I think, helpful in many ongoing hermeneutical debates in the theological world today.

"An author doesn't necessarily understand the meaning of his own story better than anyone else." -C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

Along similar lines is a quote by one of my favorite writers of fiction from his best work:

"A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would not have written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations." -Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

Of course the Old Testament writers are the prime examples of these truths. I think that it would be safe to say that none of them had Jesus Christ in mind when they were writing their words of truth. Yet, as the Apostles and the Fathers and the Medieval exegetes and countless saints throughout the life of the Church realize, the Old Testament is about Christ. It does not matter that the original author may not have intended his work to speak of Christ, it does. Or to argue like the greatest of medieval exegetes Aquinas, the literal meaning of Scripture is indeed what the author intended. But the author was God.

If only modern biblical scholars would awaken to this point.

An Old Look at a New Beginning

My apologies to all three of my readers for this extended holiday I have been on. What can I say? Things get in the way - like Christmas travels, football playoffs, the first season of LOST on DVD. What the heck is that island? No spoilers please. So as I relish the last few days of my vacation before the monster strikes again, I thought I'd provide for your reading enjoyment an old piece I wrote for the Iowa State Daily on New Beginnings. A bit cheesy I admit but appropriate for the start of 2008. You can read it here.