JoBloggs (h/t Faith and Theology) has been reading some unpublished letters of the early Methodists and quotes a very moving piece to Charles Wesley from his wife, informing him of the death of their child
It’s a deeply moving letter. And I am struck that at the most intimate level of this eighteenth-century woman’s grief over her dead son, theological debates mattered. So much English history is written as though theology had meaning only for the elites, while ‘popular’ religion was a matter of superstition and learned ritual. The letters I’m reading suggest that quite complicated theological debates were a matter of genuine and practical concern for the working classes. Where theology dealt with life and death (including who would be saved and how) people took notice.
I’m sure Jo is right: previous generations of Christians were (I think) much better informed about theology than we are today. But then, as Neil Postman has demonstrated
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Kim 01.25.06 at 11:24 pm
Thanks for the (late) Neil Postman reference, Richard. As a matter of fact, after our conversations down at the Chaplaincy today, I scurried home and went straight to Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. It is still a relevant read after twenty-five years, with its thesis arrestingly stated in the forward, where, comparing the chilling visions of Orwell and Huxley, Postman observes that they “did not prophesy the same thing”:
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture . . . In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”
And from his chapter on religion and TV “Shuffle Off to Bethlehem”, Postman speaks of what Bonhoeffer would call the “cheap grace” of the boob tube’s “trivial” gospel - “filled with good cheer”, “celebrat[ing] affluence”, serving up a God who “is a vague and subordinate character” to the evanagelist himself, mentioning Billy Graham, Billy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, and Eugene’s beloved Robert Schuller. And he concludes “that the danger is not that religion has become the content of television shows but that television shows may become the content of religion”: “If I am not mistaken, the word for this is blasphemy.”
I take this prophecy to have been fulfilled.
Richard 01.26.06 at 12:55 am
Fulfilled in spades, I’d say.
Eugene McKinnon 01.26.06 at 5:24 pm
Nice one Kim my ole pal Robert Schuller.
But seriously we need to wean ourselves off to entertainment and contend with more serious issues. I keep my entertainment down to a few shows.
You are right Kim, I don’t like how God has been turned into a “subordinate character.” I am also seeing a new heresy arising in my evangelical community. A dangerous overemphasis on piety coupled with dualistic legalism due to Bible passages taken out of context, “You do for me and I will do for you.” (This is all stemming from my congregation).
Whatever happened to that hot Sovereign God. Now we have two extremes, either a cruel legalistic deity or an ignorant Deistic Demiurge?
Television shows have become the content of religion. Modern churches appear like Oprah (Ironically her name means one who turns away) sets and sermons are Dr. Philesque.
Woe! Woe! Woe!
Eugene
P.S. I am okay friends I just struggle as a theologue in a liberal institution with an evangelical church background. However I love it!
EMcK
dh 01.26.06 at 5:38 pm
Maybe you should change to a less liberal institution. I agree with the problem of the extremes but it appears the poblem is we go against hat the bible says. that isn’t legalism but if he bible say to do something or not do something then it makes sense to be obedient as a part of serving God.
Kim 01.26.06 at 7:01 pm
“a hot Sovereign God” - I like it Eugene!
And you’re right about the two false deities - I’d refer to them as the tribal deity of some forms of conservative evangelicalism (who becomes a nationalistic deity among the US Religious Right), and the flat-tyre deity of theological liberalism. A plague on both their houses!
And swimming against the stream - it’s hard work, but the water is lovely. Continue to enjoy it!
dh 01.26.06 at 8:26 pm
I don’t feel Evangelicalism is promoting deities or false deities or whatever you are talking about. Also, it isn’t nationalism that is a deity. I have never placed God over country not does any other Evangelical for that matter. To me a deity is saying something is equal or above God. Evangelicals don’t do this and for that I take issue with Kim.
Joanna 01.26.06 at 9:40 pm
Thanks for this thoughtful discussion of my post, Richard. The thing that strikes me about the letters and journals of eighteenth-century English people is that questions about suffering and death were never far away. And it was almost impossible to discuss suffering and death without discussing theology. As many people have pointed out, we in the modern West live in a society that is in denial about both suffering and death. When they are discussed in public, theology immediately enters the public sphere. This was obvious in Australia when the Boxing Day tsunami struck - suddenly every newspaper columnist was a theologian!
Richard 01.26.06 at 11:23 pm
dh said >> “I have never placed God over country not does any other Evangelical for that matter.”
Is that really what you meant, dh?
Joanna - thanks for dropping by. Of course you’re right about the communal denial of suffering and death. The tsunami produced the same outpouring of theology here as it evidently did in Australia.
Kim 01.27.06 at 2:00 am
Yes, Joanna and Richard, and usually insufferably lousy theology (i.e. theodicies) - not least from theologians!
But ironic, isn’t it, that in what John Paul II called our “culture of death” it is is in bad taste to speak seriously about it.
Eugene McKinnon 01.27.06 at 2:49 am
Kim,
I got the idea for the “hot” Sovereign God from Kosuke Koyama’s Water Buffalo Theology (a great read from my Asian theology class, I loved it). Koyama dialogued with Buddhist monks about their concept of nirvana in which the candidate or arhat becomes cool to the world. In Christianity God is hot because he wants to get involved in the Creation.
Dh, being at a liberal seminary is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I have learned to not see my faith as black and white and to find theology as ‘faith seeking understanding’ instead of fideism (complete and ignorant faith). Eventually I would like to study at a conservative seminary like Westminster Theological Seminary, but I have learned sooo much and I have learned that my evangelical roots are also flawed.
I agree that we need to address the theology of death that Mr and Mrs Wesley discussed. I feel that so few ministers and congregations are ready to care for those who lost loved ones because we have not equipped ourselves to understand death and the theology around it. I hope to learn more about this when and if I get into a Clinical Pastoral Education Programme at a Toronto hospital.
I have been cringing at funerals lately because there is no acknowledgement that the person has really died and is really dead. There is like some Gnostic ectoplasm lingering over the place.
Anyhew I have a paper to write.
Eugene
Kim 01.27.06 at 7:42 am
Eugene,
Waterbuffalo Theology - golly, it’s been a long time since I looked at that one! Thanks.
And thanks for your testimony about your theological education. It deserves to be more widely hard.
And funerals - the denial and dishonesty that surrounds so many of them. Funerals are one of the greatest challenges to any minister with pastoral and theological integrity. It sounds to me like you’ll be fine.
All the best,
Kim
Eugene McKinnon 01.27.06 at 2:19 pm
Kim,
Thanks for your encouragement.
God bless,
Eugene
dh 01.27.06 at 2:24 pm
My Faith is not ignorant. I strongly take issue with that. Do I fully understand every aspect? no but we sure can get an idea from God’s word what it is and it takes the Holy spirit not our own Spirit for proper discernment.
Richard - Thanks for the correction. I did meant I and the Evangelicals as a whole have never placed country over God.