Review by Ron Dart.
Christopher Page. Toronto: Path Books, 2004. 134 p. ISBN 1-55126-420-X
There is, and has been, a growing interest in the Wisdom
Traditions from most of the major and minor religions for the last few decades.
Wisdom Traditions (like their contemplative counterparts and companions) are
often compared and contrasted with Confessional and Creedal Traditions. Wisdom
Traditions are seen as probing the inner and divine depths and seeking meaningful
transformation while Confessional and Creedal Traditions are about intellectual
assent to propositions within a particular faith heritage. Wisdom Traditions
are often, so such a interpretation goes, about the a deeper unity between
religious traditions (at an esoteric level), whereas Creedal Traditions are
more about differences and divisiveness. The former tends to be idealized while
the latter is demoted and subordinated to the exoteric level.
Many in the West have turned to Eastern Wisdom Traditions
for the simple fact that they seem to think there is no Wisdom Tradition in the
West. Christ Wisdom: Spiritual Practice
in the Beatitudes & the Lord’s Prayer, by Christopher Page (an Anglican
priest from St. Philip’s parish in Victoria) offers a firm and questioning No
to those who think they must turn to the Orient for illumination, insight and
wisdom.
Christ Wisdom is
divided into two sections: The Beatitudes and The Lord’s Prayer. In each
section, Page walks the reader the extra mile to highlight how the Beatitudes
and Lord’s Prayer are about an inner journey of transformation. In short, Jesus
did not come to teach and preach about the need to assent to creeds and
confessions. He came to call forth from one and all a way to live a deeper,
more transformative and enlightened life.
Page highlights, in thoughtful detail, how both the
Beatitudes and Lord’s Prayer, when read and internalized in a certain way, are
about a wisdom way of knowing and being. Page does this in three ways: exegesis
of the text, the use of a narrative approach to make the text more alive, and
questions at the end of each chapter that nudge the reader to ponder the
meaning of the text for their journey.
It is always a good when the Bible can be read and
interpreted in such a way that speaks to each and all on their journey for
depth, meaning and wisdom. Page has done a fine job, in Christ Wisdom, in pointing the way to a reading of the Beatitudes
and Lord’s Prayer that illuminates their perennial relevance. If Christ was a
bearer of wisdom, then we would expect his life and teaching to reflect and
embody such a way. Page clearly articulates that Christ was a teacher of
wisdom, and how both the Beatitudes and Lord’s Prayer point to high vistas worthy to be pondered.
The strength of Christ
Wisdom is the way it walks the curious reader deeper into the landscape of
the inner life, and by taking such journey, a new and fuller life can and will
be lived. The problem of Christ Wisdom, and it is a serious and
substantive problem, is two-fold.
First, Page does not face the demanding fact that both the
Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer are as much about the inner journey as they
are about the outer journey. When Jesus talks about hungering and thirsting for
justice, or about being peacemakers in the Beatitudes, he is dealing with the
outer journey and hard political, economic and social issues. Jesus concludes
the Beatitudes by suggesting that those who have truly internalize and live
forth such an integrated vision will be treated as the Jewish prophets. The
Jewish prophets (oral, major and minor) were profoundly political. They dealt
with nations and empires, justice and injustice, war and peace, poverty and
wealth. Page tends to ignore this aspect of the Beatitudes in Christ Wisdom. In short, Page’s single
vision exegetical turn and read of the Beatitudes distorts the broader, more
organic and integrated perspective of the Beatitudes. The same can be found in
Page’s interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer. The fact that Christ twice, in the
Lord’s Prayer, referred to the Kingdom, and the Kingdom of God is as much about
the inner and outer life is, sadly so, missed by Page. Gratefully so, the
Beatitudes and Lord’s Prayer have much more to them than Page’s one dimensional
read of them,
Second, there is no doubt that Christians do need to turn to
both the Bible and The Great Tradition for the contemplative and wisdom way.
But, the question becomes, in a world of competing contemplative and wisdom
traditions this: whose wisdom tradition should we heed and hear and why? And,
more to the point, was Jesus only a wisdom rabbi? I raise this question for the
simple reason that Page tends to be much indebted to The Contemplative Society
in Victoria, Cynthia Bourgeault and her approach to both wisdom and contemplative
ways. There are many wisdom and contemplative traditions within both the West
and the East, and, at the deepest and most significant levels, they are not
saying the same thing about the end destination of human transformation and the
means of such a transformation. Christ cannot be set side by side with other
wisdom teachers. This is a trendy position to take within the liberal clan, but
there is much more to the Christian wisdom and contemplative way than the cause
de jour of the liberal tribe. There is good, better and best on the wisdom
path, and in Christ the deepest and best is embodied. Page does need to ponder
this much more. How, in short, is Christ Wisdom different from the wisdom way
of other traditions? This is the bigger question.
In sum, Christ Wisdom
is good as a starter and primer, but it falters and fails in 2 areas: first.
There is more to the Beatitudes and Lord’s Prayer than merely a thoughtful
journey to the inner life. Christ Wisdom
borders on a Gnostic read of the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer for the
simple reason the outer journey into justice, peacemaking and being prophetic
in a political, social and economic sense is mostly ignored. Second, there is
no doubt that Christ was a great teacher of wisdom, but he was much more. Christ Wisdom, therefore, is somewhat
simplistic and reductionistic in two ways. Christ tends to be reduced to a
teacher of wisdom, and as a wisdom teacher he appears, from Page’s read and
exegesis of him, to be more concerned about the inner and spiritual life than
the outer and political life.
Perhaps, in the future, Christ Wisdom will meet and
greet Christ Justice, and the spiritual practice of the Beatitudes and Lord’s
Prayer might greet and meet the political practice of the Beatitudes and Lord’s
Prayer. When this is done, a more faithful read of the Beatitudes and Lord’s
Prayer will be set before us to ponder and live.