Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

The Beats of the North Cascades by Ron Dart

A braid of circumstances ties the Beat Generation to the North Cascades. In the early 1950s, a weary America turned its attention to getting ahead after enduring the Depression and WWII---and in that era of the man in the gray flannel suit, a group of literary rebels hit the road and the trail. While the Lost Generation found its refuge and inspiration in Paris, the Beats found their safe harbour in the North Cascades as well as in San Francisco’s North Beach.                                                                   

   James Martin, North Cascades Crest: Notes and Images from America’s Alps (1999) p.58

    There is a historic tendency to date the origins of a deeper ecological awareness in North America to the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962. There is no doubt that Carson’s incisive missive woke many to troubling ecological issues, but there were sensitive canaries in the toxic mineshaft before Silent Spring left the publishing tarmac.

    On October 7, 1955, the poet Kenneth Rexroth orchestrated the most famous Beat Generation poetry reading in history, one that joined Columbia-educated, Greenwich Village Beat writers—Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac— with the ecologically minded “mountain Beats” of the West— Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder—at San Francisco’s Six Gallery. It was that night when Allen Ginsberg read his poem “Howl” for the first time in public. But for Kerouac, Whalen, and Snyder, a Western landscape far from that gallery touched their work deeply.

Thinking Tikkun Olam in Istanbul by Brian Zahnd

I’m sitting on a rooftop in Istanbul. I’m thinking. Thinking about the world. Thinking about Jesus. I’m thinking about Jesus as the savior of the world and the Jewish concept of tikkun olam (“to mend the world”).

The world is broken.
It needs mending.
Jesus is the answer.
Jesus is the savior.
Jesus is the savior of the world.

This is the confession of the gospel.
This is the witness of the apostles and prophets.
Consistently, repeatedly, scripturally, evangelistically, apostolically.
Jesus is the savior of the world!
Liberate it from cliché and dare to conceive it in a real and radical way.
Believe it in a fresh, invigorating, imaginative way.
Jesus
saves
the
world
!!!
This world! 
(And not some other.)

OK, but what shall we do with this apostolic faith in Jesus as the savior of the world?

Reversing the Reversal: Contemplation and Action - By Ron Dart

George Grant was drawn to Martin Heidegger for the simple reason that Heidegger was, probably, one of the most severe critics of the modern way of doing philosophy and the western understanding of mind and what it means to think.  Heidegger was convinced that western philosophy had lost its way, and rationalism led to a cul-de-sac that diverted the longing pilgrim from a deeper notion of being. Heidegger’s commitment to philosophy had a great deal to do with returning to the ancient way marks and a pointing of the way to wisdom and contemplation. Grant was convinced that the clearing that Heidegger was a guide towards offered more possibilities than the sterility of modern philosophy.

Grant was not only drawn to Heidegger’s commitment to contemplation and wisdom as an antidote and corrective to rationalism and a hyper activism, but Heidegger’s turn to the ancient Greeks was a turn that Grant also made, but did so with a difference. Grant agreed with Heidegger that much modern philosophy was lost in a dark wood with few paths out, but he differed with Heidegger on what wisdom and contemplation might mean on the journey.

Nihilism, Rapture and End Time Fallacies - Lazar Puhalo and David Goa

Nihilism, Rapture and End Time fantasies. from Orthodox Canada on Vimeo.

Archbishop Tutu - 'Be the Spark!' by Brad Jersak

    Last night I attended Be the Spark at the Tacoma Dome in Washington State. The event featured a series of breath-taking performances by a variety of inspiring young bands, choirs, dancers, and singers. It also featured two 'talks' -- okay, full-on, no-holds-barred, hope-filled, cage-rattling preaching of the highest calibre -- by two seasoned world-shakers: Craig Keilburger and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. They brought together a message of spirituality and justice that neither I, nor my son Justice (and our friend Werner), shall ever forget.  

    Tutu blew my mind in what will be a truly landmark memory for me, and for 15000 mostly young people sitting on the edges of our seats. Here are a few highlights from that experience that need to be told:

    I need to start with the Archbishop's message because it ties everything together. 

    He started with this idea: When God created the earth, he did it completely without our help. But from the very moment that men and women first arrived on the scene, God did something completely astounding. He chose never again to act in the world without a human partner. He waits and watches and asks for human partners through whom he will do marvellous things.

Nuremberg Trial Prosecutor weighs in on OBL

Ben Ferencz website: http://www.benferencz.org/

Ben Ferencz Interview: http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=1921021571

Benjamin Ferencz is a 92-year-old U.S. citizen and American combat soldier during World War II. He served as prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, where he tried many Nazi war criminals. The above link directs readers to a controversial 13-minute interview on CBC Radio Canada on Bin Laden's death, the Nuremberg principles, and the role of America. An excerpt from the interview:

Q: What should we have learned from Nuremberg that we still haven't learned"?  His answer:

A: I'm afraid most of the lessons of Nuremberg have passed, unfortunately.  The world has accepted them, but the U.S. seems reluctant to do so.  The principal lesson we learned from Nuremberg is that a war of aggression -- that means, a war in violation of international law, in violation of the UN charter, and not in self-defense -- is the supreme international crime, because all the other crimes happen in war.  And every leader who is responsible for planning and perpetrating that crime should be held to account in a court of law, and the law applies equally to everyone.

 These lessons were hailed throughout the world -- I hailed them, I was involved in them -- and it saddens me to no end when Americans are asked:  why don't you support the Nuremberg principles on aggression?  And the response is:  Nuremberg?  That was then, this is now.  Forget it.

 

Op Ed Piece by Wayne Northey: Brain Disturbances, Mirror Neurons, Osama and Obama

Brain Disturbances, Mirror Neurons, Osama and Obama

“A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another.”

In a “paper [presenting] a conceptual framework that integrates findings from recent studies of the neurobiological effects of childhood abuse and exposure to domestic violence on brain structure and function … with epidemiologic data from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.”, it was found that “The likelihood of disturbances in any given function or behavior such as … aggression would have a cumulative or “dose-response” relationship to the number of ACEs, theoretically paralleling the total exposure of the developing central nervous system to the activated stress response during childhood (http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/2009/6/anda_abuse.pdf).”

President Barack Obama on 60 Minutes recently spoke representatively of the American central nervous system in its yet one more act of extra-judicial aggression: “As nervous as I was about this entire process, the one factor I didn’t lose sleep over was the potential of taking Bin Laden out. Justice was done. And I think that anyone who would query that the perpetrator of mass murder on American soil didn’t deserve what he received needs to have their head examined.”

Indeed.  And why David Livingston Smith calls humans “the most dangerous animal” (http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/10/why-war-most-dangerous-animal-by-david.php) in our "mirror neuron" imitations of violence from time immemorial – in need of much more head (and heart!) examination!

 

Who you callin' a Universalist? by Brad Jersak

Recently, a friend in ministry said to me, “Someone I know said he heard a rumor that you’re a Universalist. I don’t like gossip, so I thought I’d get it from the horse’s mouth. Are you a Universalist?” I so appreciated his heart to put the brakes on gossip or what the Bible calls, ‘Bearing false witness.’

No, I am not a Universalist. While there are some very inspiring and godly Christian universalists who I think need to be heard, the term is often just used pejoratively as a convenient and dismissive label. I know I'm not a universalist because I asked a real Universalist (Gary Amirault). Those who read Her Gates will Never be Shut or have seen Hellbound? ought to know that too. Or at least they will once we can rise above mudslinging and heresy-hunting to clarify the major Evangelical positions concerning hell, hope and divine judgment.

For the record, the only aspects of eschatology I hold as dogma were those laid out by the Nicene Creed. Namely, that "Jesus shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom shall have no end" and "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come." This is what the Church required us to affirm (and ALL it required us to affirm) as Christian dogma. After that, the rest, such as the nature of Christ's coming, judgment or afterlife, is up for discussion and open to hope.  

In that discussion, I am currently most inclined to an Orthodox/Catholic position expressed by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (he calls it 'Hopeful Inclusivism') and RC theologian Hans Urs Von Baltasar (in his book, 'Dare We Hope?). You can see more details here, but basically, in that view, we don't presume that all are saved or that any are lost. Ware and Baltasar believe that all will pass through the fire of God's love and in the end, hope and pray that God's mercy will get the final word. Note the key words: possibility, judgment, hope, pray. The hope is not a wishful thinking but an earnest prayer and a confidence in Christ, the blessed redeemer and merciful judge. In other words, I believe God's Word gives us reason to be hopeful in the inclusivity of Christ's saving work, and that the love of God, the power of the Cross and the work of the Holy Spirit obligate us to this hope. But that's me. And many of the ancient Christian Fathers and Orthodox theologians. But what about you? 

The purpose of this article is to define simply the most common positions concerning divine judgment and to help readers ponder where they might lean on this continuum. Among Christians who call themselves ‘Evangelical,’ I am aware of seven theories. All of them claim some biblical basis. They are, briefly:

So you say you want a prophet? by Brian Zahnd

Posted: 06 May 2011 11:39 AM PDT

So you say you want a prophet? Because you want to know the truth that lies beyond the official script. You want to see beyond the matrix. Good for you! But keep in mind what prophets are. Prophets are seers. They see what we do not. They’ve seen behind the curtain. They’re not fooled by smooth words or slight of hand. The prophet is vital because the prophet can help us recover our imagination. We had an imagination once, as children (children who could enter the kingdom of God); but we grew up and that imagination got conscripted by the so-called “real world.” Yes, we need the help of the prophet to recover our imagination. But remember, the prophet is ever and always controversial. The prophet doesn’t salute the status quo, the prophet offers his withering critique. The prophet dares to speak of other alternatives—alternatives that some will find threatening. The powers-that-be are wary of the prophets and their poetic imaginations…as well they should be. But you still want to find the prophet, don’t you? You want to see beyond the veil, don’t you? You want to hear something other than the “approved statement,” don’t you? That’s what I thought. So ladies and gentlemen, I give you Wendell Berry—the farmer-prophet from Kentucky. (Amos was a farmer-prophet too, wasn’t he?) But keep in mind prophets are not safe. Prophets aren’t ear-ticklers, they’re butt-kickers! So if you can handle a dose of prophetic truth, well, here goes…

Despite its protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly the religion of the state and the economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has, by a kind of ignorance, been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for the most part, stood silently by, while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flag and chanted the slogans of empire. It has assumed with the economists that “economic forces” automatically work for good, and has assumed with the industrialists and militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that “progress” is good, that it is good to be modern and up with the times. It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and defaults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation. For, in these days, Caesar is no longer a mere destroyer of armies, cities, and nations. He is a contradictor of the fundamental miracle of life. A part of the normal practice of his power is his willingness to destroy the world. He prays, he says, and churches everywhere compliantly pray with him. But he is praying to a God whose works he is prepared at any moment to destroy. What could be more wicked than that, or more mad?

(This is from Wendell Berry’s sermon Christianity and the Survival of Creation.)

BZ

 

The Year Begins with War -- Wendell Berry

From A Timbered Choir, 1991:1 (p. 125-6).

The year begins with war.
Our bombs fall day and night,
Hour after hour, by death
Abroad appeasing wrath,
Folly, and greed at home.
Upon our giddy tower
We’d oversway the world.
Our hate comes down to kill
Those whom we do not see,
For we have given up
Our sight to those in power
And to machines, and now
Are blind to all the world.
This is a nation where
No lovely thing can last.
We trample, gouge, and blast;
The people leave the land;
The land flows to the sea.
Fine men and women die,
The fine old houses fall,
The fine old trees come down:
Highway and shopping mall
Still guarantee the right
And liberty to be
A peaceful murderer,
A murderous worshipper,
A slender glutton, or
A healthy whore. Forgiving
No enemy, forgiven
By none, we live the death
Of liberty become
What we have feared to be.

-Wendell Berry, 1991

Divine Justice: American Idol, Cesar Millan and the Death of Osama Bin Laden -- by Brad Jersak

Jesus says, "I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me." (John 14:30-31).

Yesterday morning I was thinking about our image of God as a Judge and what a judge actually does. It all depends on the setting. I thought about the American Idol judges. They are so kind this year, so encouraging. It is never their heart to disqualify... in fact they can't, only the crowds do that. Those judges endeavour to draw out the best in the artists and even their critiques are only a call to become and to succeed at who they truly are. I wonder: What if Jesus is even a better judge than Steven Tyler and Jaylo? I know they have set the bar very, very high as exemplary judges, but when I think of the 'Judgment Seat of Christ,' is it possible that Jesus might even be better than Steven Tyler? More gracious, more compassionate, more redemptive than Jennifer Lopez? Is Jesus up for such an immense challenge?

Last night, I watched the show again (during NHL playoff intermissions). I quote Steve Tyler's comment to one contestant: 'There's nothing to judge. You're just beautiful.'

Hans Boersma's 'Heavenly Participation' -- Review by Ron Dart

Hans Boersma, Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry, Eerdman’s Publishing 2011.

Hans Boersma has done it again. Heavenly Participation is, in many ways, a compact, succinct and incisive synthesis of Boersma’s earlier books, Violence, Hospitality and Cross and Nouvelle Theologie and Sacramental Ontology. This third book continues the probes into the riches of the Patristic Tradition, and what such an unearthing can mean for a critique of modernity and postmodernity.