"May They One as We Are One"
Jesus
Christian theology, at its deepest and best, is
contemplative theology. Contemplative theology threads together, in an
intricate and subtle way, life in Christ, life in the church and life in the
world. Unity and integration are held high.
Just as Jesus Christ is one with the Father, and the Father,
Son and Spirit are One (one substance, three persons), so those in Christ are
meant to embody and live forth the full life of God. This is the ideal and
goal. Therefore, Christian spirituality, if it is true to its inner nature and
high calling, is meant to ponder the meaning of our Oneness in God, in the
Church and grapple with what this means, as agents of justice and peace, in the
World.
There is quite a trendy interest in the emerging church
these days. Such an interest is a reflection and embodiment of the fragmentary
nature of our postmodern ethos. There is no doubt that a hunger and thirst for
a deeper and more meaningful spirituality must be welcomed and supported in our
turbulent time. It is one thing to laud a desire, hunger and longing for
something good, true and beautiful. It is quite another thing to question the
path taken to such a goal and the understanding of the goal.
The intention of those committed to the emerging church and
a postmodern form of spirituality is, at best, to renew the church. This is a
noble sentiment and should be welcomed. The actions taken and means used,
though, by such a tribe yet further splinters the church. It is in this sense
that the emerging church clan merely perpetuates the divisive nature of
protestant denominationalism.
Postmodern congregationalism tends to be grounded and rooted
in a real sense of liberal individualism and liberty. Such underlying
principles tend to predefine notions of experience in God, church and the
world. This means, in translation, that much of Christian postmodern spirituality
tends to be quite anarchist in an understanding of both church and questions of
justice and peace.
Christian postmodern spirituality tends to elevate, high as
the holy Eucharist, individual groups or congregations in opposition to the
formal life of the historic church. This
anarchist view of the church runs in the opposite direction of Christ’s high
priestly prayer that we are meant to be One as Father, Son and Spirit are One.
Christians who tend to dip their buckets in the water of
postmodern spirituality and the emerging church tribe, often, when they come to
realize the faith journey has much to do with justice and peacemaking, shy away
from formal party politics. Again, anarchism, protest and advocacy politics
wins the day. There is this predictable tendency in the postmodern approach to
spirituality, church and politics. It is important that the intention of the
emerging church types should be lauded. It’s more a question of actions and
means taken.
I have done a variety of independent studies with students
over the years. I often work with students that have had (and continue to have)
a commitment to the revival, renewal and reform of the church. Such students
often hold high, and rightly so, the role of the Bible and openness to the Holy
Spirit. Needless to say, I’m with them, in principle, on such commitments. But,
if the teaching and life in Christ are about nothing else, they are about our
unity in Christ. And, if the Holy Spirit is One with Christ and the Father,
then real openness means to be drawn into such a unity. How then is it possible
to be true to the Bible and open to the Spirit (which are about unity), yet, in
deed and action, fragment and perpetuate schism and create disunity? Or,
equally problematic, ignore the call to justice and peace?
Christian postmodern spirituality, rather than being radical
and part of a revolution, is merely a reflection and faint echo of tendencies
of our larger culture to fragment and
dwell in multiple solitudes. Until the emerging church clan sees the problems
of their paradigm and model, they will do more to weaken the life of the church
than bind it together and heal her from such divisions.
We live in a time when each and all tend to do what is right
in their own eyes, hence fragmentation is the order of the day. Historic
Christian spirituality is about our spiritual, formal and material unity in
Christ and a passion for justice and peace. The postmodern and anarchist
approach has serious faults and failings when it comes to an understanding of
religious experience, church and the world when set beside the noble vision of
the Classic Christian Tradition. In short, there needs to be more than good
intentions. If the language of Christian spirituality is not solidly rooted in
the essence of the Bible and the Great Tradition, much can and will go amiss
and askew. This is the problem and dilemma of the postmodern paradigm.