Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Dostoyevsky's 'House of the Dead' - A Prison Chaplain's Response by Henk Smidstra

Dostoyevsky’s book, House of the Dead, is based on the authors’ personal experience with the Russian justice system over one hundred and fifty years ago in Siberia.  Dostoyevsky had been arrested in 1849 and at first been sentenced to death for being involved the non-revolutionary Petrashevsky circle which read some Hegel and perhaps dared to critique the Imperialist policies of Tsar Nicholas I. After a terrifying mock execution, Dostoyevsky was sentenced to 6 years of hard labour, later reduced to 4, in Siberia. The prison camp was a hell hole, a tomb for health, time, and life; a place of of brutality, inhumanity, death, tears and paradoxically, of humanity and caring. He reflects near the end of his sentence, of the passing of the tedious arduous days “…as the dripping of water from the roof after rain, and”… burying each day with satisfaction that it was over and gone” (pp. 339, 340).   With his perceptive professional eye, his existential philosophical-religious social perspective, and his writer’s ability to express his observations, the author captures the specifics of many enduring moments especially of the micro-dynamics of prison life. The reader becomes witness to life in the prison camp as well as the author’s inner struggles to make some sense of all the senselessness. Incredibly he survives with his faith renewed, a personal resurrection from the dead, from the house of the dead.  During all those deadening days what had got him through was his hope for resurrection, for renewal, for a new life (p.339). His release and resurrection is described when having said his goodbyes, his fetter are removed by the blacksmith: “The fetters fell to the ground. I picked them up. I wanted to hold them in my hand, to have a last look at them. Already I could hardly believe they had ever been on my legs at all. ‘Well God go with you!’ said the convicts in voices that were curt, gruff, but somehow also pleased.’ Yes God go with you! Freedom, a new life, resurrection from the dead…What a glorious moment!” (p.356-357).

Christ or antichrist? by Kevin Miller

Back in January 2011 when I first embarked on Hellbound?, I had no idea how deeply political the idea of hell could be. For me, the film was more of a personal journey, my attempt to grapple with a concept that had both repelled and fascinated me throughout my journey as a Christian. As I’ve recounted dozens of times during interviews and Q&A sessions, it wasn’t until I witnessed the reaction to Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins, that I realized how heated this discussion could get.

The publication of Love Wins-–or, more accurately, the trailer that preceded the book’s publication–truly was a watershed moment. Although people like Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt and other members of the emergent crowd had been raising similar questions for years, somehow Bell hit the zeitgeist just right, causing an explosion of controversy. At the time, two voices struck me as particularly prescient about the implications of this debate. The first was Jimmy Spencer, Jr., who said (in a writing style reminiscent of Bell’s own),

You’re witnessing something big right now. You’re witnessing a new split in Protestant Evangelicalism.

We have all felt tremors of this thing coming for a couple years now…

Rob Bell’s book will play a huge part in triggering this split.

This is not just about theology. It’s about control of the story of Jesus.

It’s about the entire framing of God and The Gospel.

It may not be nailing 95 theses on a door…

But it could mark a major shift in how Evangelical Christianity represents itself from this point forward.

The other voice was Kevin DeYoung, who said Love Wins represented such a wholesale departure from historic Christianity that he didn’t even known where to begin his critique. 

To view the rest of this article, CLICK HERE.

Hellbound? is available on DVD and VOD starting May 28, 2013. Pre-order your copy here.

Windbag Speeches: The Cruelty of Talking Too Much - Brian Zahnd

Windbag Speeches: The Cruelty of Talking Too Much 
by Brian Zahnd

The only detailed story of the satan in the Old Testament is found in the tragedy of Job. In the first two chapters the satan accuses Job before God and trouble shortly ensues. In three thunderclaps of horror Job loses his wealth, his health, and his children.

After the first two chapters in the Book of Job the satan disappears from the narrative. Or does it? What actually happens is the satan is channeled through Job’s three annoyingly religious friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar initially come to comfort Job, but end up tormenting Job’s already shattered soul. I think the three amigos intended well, but in their obsession to explain they became satanic agents of accusation and cruelty.

Basically, Larry, Moe, and Curly had a “Proverbial Theology.” One of the dominant themes of the Book of Proverbs is that if you fear God and live righteously good things will happen. And this is true. We all know it’s true. To fear God and live righteously leads to a blessed and happy life. It’s true. Except when it isn’t.

The Crafty Serpent and the Wise Serpent - John Donne Sermon CXXVIII

Sermon CXXVIII

An anniversary sermon, preached at St. Dunstan's, Genesis iii. 24

SERMON CXXVIII.

AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON, PREACHED AT ST. DUNSTAN'S, UPON THE COMMEMORATION OF A PARISHIONER, A BENEFACTOR TO THAT PARISH.

Genesis iii. 24. 
And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. 

This is God's malediction upon the serpent in paradise, there in the region, in the storehouse of all plenty, he must starve; this is the serpent's perpetual fast, his everlasting Lent, (Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.) There is a generation derived from this serpent, progenies viperarum, a generation of vipers, that will needs in a great, and unnecessary measure, keep this serpent's Lent, and bind themselves to perform his fast; for, the Carthusian will eat no flesh, (and yet, I never saw better bodied men, men of better habitudes and constitution, howsoever they recompense their abstinence from flesh) and the Fueillans will eat neither flesh nor fish, but roots, and salads, (and yet amongst them, amongst men so enfeebled by roots, was bred up that man, who had both malicious courage, and bodily strength, to kill the last king, who was killed amongst them*) they will be above others in their fasts, fish, and roots will they eat, all the days of their life, but their Master will be above them in his fast, (Dust must he eat all the days of his life.)

Human Rights and Religious Faith - Rowan Williams

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is unquestionably a landmark in the history of moral consciousness, one of the factors that has consistently given hope and purpose to political life throughout the globe since it first saw the light of day in 1948.

It has offered a global benchmark for identifying injustices to those who have never been able to make their voices heard. And, for all the challenges which we shall come back to in a moment, it has been an energising force in the witness of more than one community of faith in their struggle against arbitrary oppression and for protection of the vulnerable.

Yet the language of human rights has - surprisingly - become more rather than less problematic in recent years. The "human rights record" of certain states is - very understandably -deployed as a factor in calculating political and economic strategies of engagement; but this has its impact on any idea that the language of human rights is, so to speak, "power neutral."

For some, it can reinforce the notion that this language is an ideological tool for one culture to use against another. We have heard over a good many years arguments about the "inappropriateness" of human rights language in a context, say, of mass economic privation, where it is claimed that a focus on individual rights is a luxury, at least during the period when economic injustices are being rectified.

Erasmus: Peace Theologian and Humanist Par Excellence - Ron Dart

Erasmus: Sacred Rites and Rituals - Ron Dart

Erasmus and Church Unity - Ron Dart

Thinking Outside the Box about Retribution -- Henk Smidstra

We are probably all familiar with the phrase, “thinking outside the box.” As the phrase suggests, to solve a problem we must get outside the box, our frame of thought, and its inherent assumptions and rules in order to analyse and solve problems within the box. It’s not as easy as it sounds, since what is reality for us is that which is within the box. Thinking outside of what is considered normal and acceptable is often considered fantasy or unrealistic. Dr. Elizabeth M. (Liz) Elliot (2011) has noted that in our searching for an alternative paradigm regarding justice, we must get out of the box of retributive thinking. She writes, “Because we are inclined to consider punishment within a paradigm that is punishment based, reconsidering the notion of punishment itself seems ludicrous. Abandoning punishment in this context amounts to doing nothing in response to wrongdoing” (p. 27). This implicit deeply rooted logic in the mind of individuals and society is at the heart of the persistence of retributive justice practices. A paradigm shift is necessary; only by getting outside the box of mythical habitual, logic, will we be able to see that not punishing is not equal to doing nothing (Elliot 2011, p.27). She notes further that adherence to the belief that punishment is necessary for justice to be done is the biggest challenge in making a change in thinking from retributive justice to restorative justice (p.297).

To read the rest of this article: Download the PDF HERE 

Layering the Rich Man and Lazarus - by Brad Jersak

Throughout the ‘hell debates’ of recent years, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) has repeatedly begged our attention, especially in Q&A times following the documentary, Hellbound? The dialogue has urged me towards a sharper focus on the layered functions of the parable than I offered in my contemplative read in Her Gates Will Never Be Shut.[1] Herein, I will introduce an outline that I hope invites fuller treatment.

False functions

First, we ought to dismiss the false functions of the parable as assigned by traditional (but sloppy) literalism. Readers often imagine that Jesus’ intent is to describe the nature of divine judgment and the state of the damned—or ‘hell’ (lit. hades), defined as an inescapable place of fiery judgment. The symbolic nature of parables is frequently negated and the passage treated as a revelation of the afterlife.

Briefly, interpreting the story of Dives (Lat. ‘rich man’ in the Vulgate) and Lazarus as descriptive of ‘hell’ ignores the difference between hades and paradise vis-à-vis heaven and hell, both biblically and theologically, even by literalist standards. The text says the rich man is in hades, borrowed from Greek language and mythology to correspond with the Hebrew Sheol—the place of the dead or the grave prior to the final Day of Judgment. This is confirmed by the rich man’s desire to send a warning to his brothers before it is too late. Thus, whatever the rich man is suffering, it is a precursor to the Day of the Lord and distinct from the infernalist’s typical everlasting ‘lake of fire.’

Moreover, aspects of the story make a crass literalism awkward: how does the rich man communicate with Abraham across the chasm? Does everyone there have a direct line to the patriarch? Does someone being incinerated in a furnace care about thirst? Are these literal flames? And since hades precedes the resurrection of the body, do we have literal tongues with which to feel thirst? Is this also the literal Abraham? Do the millions in his care take turns snuggling with him? Or is his bosom big enough to contain us all at once? How big he must be! And so on into implausibility.

Taking the parable seriously means we mustn’t take it so literally. Rather than text-mining for the architecture of the underworld, we ought to be digging for the intended message of Jesus. He is using the afterlife to illuminate some truth about this life. If we read carefully, we begin to see hints of the rich strata of meaning that beckon us deeper beneath the surface. I will propose three such layers here.

To read the rest of the article, click here

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[1] Brad Jersak, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell and the New Jerusalem (Wipf & Stock, 2009), Excursus 1: The Rich Man and Lazarus.

The Onion: a Parable - Brian Zahnd

THE ONION

“Once upon a time there was a woman, and she was wicked as wicked could be, and she died. And not one good deed was left behind her. The devils took her and threw her into the lake of fire. And her guardian angel stood thinking: what good deed of hers can I remember to tell God? Then he remembered and said to God: once she pulled up an onion and gave it to a beggar woman. And God answered: take now that same onion, hold it out to her in the lake, let her take hold of it and pull, and if you pull her out of the lake, she can go to paradise. The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her: here, woman, he said, take hold of it and I’ll pull. And he began pulling carefully, and had almost pulled her all of the way out, when other sinners in the lake saw her being pulled out and all began holding on to her so as to be pulled out with her. But the woman was wicked as wicked could be, and she began to kick them with her feet: ‘It’s me who’s getting pulled out, not you; it’s my onion, not yours.’ No sooner did she say it than the onion broke. And the woman fell back into the lake and is burning there to this day. And the angel wept and went away.”

(From The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Let’s think about this onion in Dostoevsky’s parable.

Erasmus and the Fathers - Ron Dart

This is Water (abridged speech) - David Foster Wallace

For the full text of the speech: http://www.businessinsider.com/david-foster-wallace-graduation-speech-2013-5

Belong (Antidote for Gnosticism) - Brian Zahnd

Belong
(Antidote for Gnosticism)

Let Christ inform all of life
Don’t be a religious cliché
Be a real human being
Belong to the human race
Belong to the woods
Belong to the city
Go for long walks
Learn to appreciate art
Take up the violin
Cultivate culinary skills
Read War and Peace
Laugh more than you do
Weep now and then
Listen to live jazz
Pray
Eat a peach
Do something ridiculous
Go dancing
Stop judging
Start loving
Plant a garden
Climb a mountain
Memorize a long poem
Learn some astronomy
Become a bee-keeper
Go back to college
Take up a new hobby
Make some new friends
Read the Bible
In a new translation
Get rid of bumper stickers
Learn a foreign language
Watch a foreign film
Change your mind
Drink only good coffee
Trust the sommelier
Talk to your neighbor
Not about religion
Go to church
Go to the circus
Don’t confuse them
Be human
Belong

BZ

 

Review of Brad Jersak's 'Her Gates Will Never Be Shut' - by Paul Rivas

      I recently finished reading Brad Jersak’s Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem. it was a much more satisfying read than Bell's Love Wins which left me saying, “But what about this verse and what about that verse?”

     Jersak does a good job of looking at the verses that seem to mean there is an everlasting fiery place of torment for sinners. I especially liked the exposition of the verses the title of his book is taken from. 

     He also did a great job of keeping Jesus at the center of salvation and not slipping into "all paths lead to God". 

     I also find seeing how different cultures and traditions interpret scriptures. It's like looking at one of those optical illusion pictures and suddenly seeing the other image. 

     Along the same lines it is interesting to hear the verses given in context of the way the people of the day would have understood them because there was already an established connotation to the word or phrase. It points out how unconsciously we can override the meaning because of our own cultural suppositions. 

     I also liked that he presented many ideas of what hell could be. For me it makes God more complete -- less like a two dimension character from a novel. 

     There are a LOT of footnotes. I like footnotes, but not everybody does. 

     The largest take away for me is having my eyes reopened to the fact that the way I have been taught to interpret a verse is not the only or even the most Godly way.

Paul Rivas

http://www.runningforh2o.blogspot.ca/

For Robin Perry's review, see also http://evangelicaluniversalist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=822