Chapter 3 – New Creeds; Chapter 4 – The Great Work
1. Tom Harpur has an axe to grind…in fact, several of them. Connecting the dots of his diatribe isn’t easy. For example, his initial discussion of “Core Christianity” and “Perennial Philosophy” were briefly mentioned, but never fully explained or integrated into his bump-and-run style of discourse.
The Christian Church, he claims, is in a world of hurt and the forecast ahead is one of gloom and doom. While he correctly directs us toward the kingdom of God being present everywhere, I become quite nervous of his assertion of “the divinity of humanity, the ‘godness’ of every human being who has ever lived…the divinity of every one of us.” How is this any different from today’s New Age definition of spirituality and its highly individualized motives and agenda?
2. Moving on to the Creeds, Harpur characterizes the Church’s current efforts to face our challenges as “feeble.” He castigates Liberals for having nothing worthwhile to proclaim, while criticizing Fundamentalists for checking their brains at the door and clinging to outdated traditions and interpretations. (We love you, too, Tom!)
On page 61, Harpur goes off the deep end by denouncing the comprehensibility and relevance of our Creeds! But wait, it gets better…and I quote, “Most are in a zombie-like state of consciousness anyway and just let the whole liturgy roll completely over their heads, unexamined and unexplained.” He then states that we’ll either wake out of our trance or drop out due to health or old age. Offended yet? I sure am! So, what should we Lutheran zombies do to ward off this vicious condition? Are our Creeds really the problem here? Again, how is the re-writing of the Creeds any different than the New Age agenda of fleeting personal accommodation? What are the real problems we face?
3. Thomas Berry offers a refreshing contrast with our previous author. While listing several examples of “The Great Work” throughout history, Berry notes that our agenda now “is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner.” He then asserts that we have moved from natural selection to cultural selection as the “decisive force in determining the future of the biosystems of Earth.”
How did we get into this mess? He blames it on “an attitude that is shared by all four of the fundamental establishments that control the human realm: governments, corporations, universities, and religions – the political, economic, intellectual, and religious establishments. All four are committed consciously or unconsciously to a radical discontinuity between the human and the nonhuman.” Take a few minutes to explore this premise. How do you see each of these as participants in this shift of balance?
4. From there, Berry zeroes in on the solution: “that every being has rights to be recognized and revered.” This is solid biblical stewardship, folks. But alas, like Berry notes, “Throughout the 20th century the situation has worsened decade by decade with relentless commitment to making profit by ruining the planet for the uncertain benefit of the human…so that a few establishments now control vast regions of the earth.” Our Great Work, and that of our children, will be to change this course of devastation.
Where do we see this tragedy being played out in our country?
Where do we see this being played out around the world?
Where do we go from here?
What are you doing, or would you consider doing, to further participate in this Great Work?
How do we approach and address this as the Church?
No comments:
Post a Comment