Living truth of Christ, or false
certitudes of human dogmas?
A visitor, the Rev. Robert Rogers, comments on the extreme reactions
to Dirk Ficca's talk at last
summer's Peacemaking Conference, and decries the demands for
"false certitude." We are, he says, in danger of replacing
the living truth of Christ with a sinful attempt to claim possession
of all the answers.
[2-26-01]
After hearing so much of the criticism, paranoia and
arrogance that has come in reaction to Dirk Ficca's presentation, I
decided that it was time for me to read the
full text. After reading the text this evening, my immediate
reaction was that of admiration of the courage Ficca displayed by openly
asking the question we all are confronted with day after day after day
in our diverse and pluralistic world. As Einstein said, "since the
coming of the nuclear era, everything has changed except our way of
thinking." (And this only increases the chance of our
annihilation.)
I would like to build upon that statement and say that
since the earth-shaking horror of the Holocaust, everything has changed
except for our Christian theology -- especially our Christology! The
Constantinian theology of glory and triumphalism is rooted deeper in our
"Christian" faith and "Christian" institutions than
most want to admit. The strong public reaction and some individual
church's cries of heresy to Ficca's lecture shows how much more deeply
we Presbyterians are infected by the sinful arrogance found in our
sinful attempts to control the Absolute!
The reactions so cruelly made in the form of
accusation and threat show us a theology shaped not so much by
scripture, but formed and influenced by Chalcedonian dogma. Jesus Christ
is present even when the "correct formula" or
"creed" or "name" is not expressed. The sovereignty
of Christ is not dependent upon our correct or incorrect expressions of
faith. It is not necessary for Christians to elevate Christ -- God alone
does that and does it in surprising and mysterious ways. Why can't we
allow Jesus to be who he is instead of feebly attempting to imprison him
in our Christologies? As Douglas
John Hall points out in his systematic theology: "the
particularity of Jesus is a false scandal when it is divorced from his
actual person and is reduced to dogma."
Frankly, I am frightened by the climate that we find
in the Presbyterian Church these days. We seem to be bordering on
"witch trials" -- as evidenced by these reactions to someone
who was only thinking theologically and doing that contextually. Mr.
Ficca has every right to express his struggle. Good for him for refusing
to be the victim of some false certitude that only temporarily eases our
basic anxiety. My worst fear these past six or seven years has been the
growing number of "sex police" that have been deputized, and
who carry through on that by "running home and telling their
mommy" what a neighboring congregation or pastor said or did
regarding homosexuality and the church. And now we find others have also
been deputized as "thought police," who feel the purity and
holiness of the church depends upon them.
Truth is a living thing -- or should I say Person
-- and that Person cannot be spoken of permanently in words and thoughts
that never change. It is a sheer mystery that God even allows us to
speak of God in our finite speech. So it is a sad day of delusion,
idolatry and blasphemy when we start to believe that our God-talk is
itself true ... completely true! Again, as Hall reminds us: before our
creeds and dogmas about Jesus came to be -- there was Jesus!! The gospel
of the cross insists that we quit standing on the theology of glory that
claims to have all the correct answers -- that is just our sinful
attempt to silence doubt and suppress anxiety and escape our
creaturehood. It shows that we are caught in the grips of the Tower of
Babel archetype where the finite attempts to control, define and even
play at being the Infinite. The theology of the cross insists that we
allow the questions to be asked because the asking of the questions is
ultimately more important to our wholeness because when the answers are
not quickly found, we come face to face with "the Answerer."
(Hall)
I thought we Presbyterians were more intellectually
honest with the realities of this world and our faith to have to resort
to a narrowness and one-sidedness typical of the neurotic. But then, I
guess we are very neurotic -- and paranoid as well!!!
Robert J. Rogers
clergy member of Donegal Presbytery
NOTE: Emphases have been added by the WebWeaver.
