Christ Wisdom: Spiritual Practice in the Beatitudes & the Lord’s Prayer. 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 an interpretation goes, about 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 is 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: an 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 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 Lords’s Prayer will be set before us to ponder and live.
Ron Dart
Comments