What is theology? Is it an esoteric and unimportant branch of the Christian religion, more concerned with the negative destruction of heresy and the positive consideration of philosophical unknowables (how many angels can dance on the edge of a pin?), or is it (or should be) the essential ground upon which real and demanding Christian belief and practice should be founded? This article seeks to hope for a more central role for theology but one based on positive affirmations requiring positive action by all thinking Christians.
WHERE HAS ENLIGHTENED THEOLOGY GONE?
When
one considers the issue of Christian Theology a stifled yawn of irrelevance is one reaction. Another is the one
I received when I successfully negotiated the Selection Conference for training to the priesthood in England. I
had insisted that I wanted to study theology at University. 'Oh no' was the reaction. You will have more than
enough time for that at theological college and in your first parish, under guidance of course. I persevered,
however, and read Theology at Birmingham University in the 60s in a totally ecumenical and enquiring environment
with Professor Ninian Smart, a noted philosopher and believer in the validity of all religions, as my personal
tutor. These were the days of John Robinson's 'Honest to God' which spoke of the 'God within', of Alec Vidler's
'Soundings' with its concept of Jesus dying not to save the world but because of human inability to accept
Goodness, and of a refreshingly open attitude to Christian belief and practice.
Where has all this
enlightened enquiry gone I wonder? Today we are faced with a great dichotomy because of the very nature of
Christian theology. One faces a theology which is negative in concept (the creeds were largely a reaction
against heresy), tends to dwell on the philosophy of the unknowable and the future (concepts of the nature of
Jesus, heaven and hell), and ultimately bears no resemblance to the spiritually positive yet practical nature of
the ministry of Jesus. True, some attempt a reconciliation (as in Celtic or Creation Spirituality) and yet so
long as the negative impacts of the creeds form the basis of Christian theology little progress is likely.
DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE OF
THEOLOGY
So, what is Christian theology? The Concise Oxford
Dictionary defines it as 'the science of religion', and subdivides it into 'Natural' theology ('dealing with
knowledge of God as gained from his works by light of nature and reason'), 'Revealed' theology ('based on
revelation'), 'Dogmatic' theology ('dealing with authoritative teaching of the scriptures and the Church'),
'Speculative' theology ('giving scope to human speculation, not confined to revelation'), and 'Systematic'
theology ('methodical arrangement of the truths of religion in their natural connection').
What then
is its importance to the Christian Church? At present such theology is the portal or entry point (baptism)
through which all aspiring Christians must go if they wish to become members of the Christian Church. Christian
theology is enshrined in the creeds. Belief in the creeds is a necessary part of the service of Baptism. Indeed
affirmation of the creeds is included in every authorised service of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches.
Theology therefore, through the creeds, enjoys a commanding oversight of what it is, what one must believe, to
be or become a Christian.
CONTENTIOUS
CREEDS
Nevertheless these creeds include many contentious
statements. Jesus is the 'only
begotten Son of God'. He
was born 'of the Virgin Mary'. 'He descended into Hell'. 'He will come again to judge both the living and the
dead'. In a court of law such statements would probably be regarded as inadmissable evidence because they cannot
be substantiated. There are too many obvious imponderables contained within them. They were constructed at a
time when it was thought that the whole universe revolved around the earth with Jerusalem the centre because
that was where Jesus was crucified. They had no conception of modern astrophysics which indicates that planet
earth is probably not unique, is relatively young, and that there may well be other planets in the universe with
civilisations far older than exists on planet earth. Do they also have an 'only begotten son'? We simply do not
know the extent of God's interaction with 'his' the universe. Many theologians now agree that the 'Virgin'
element of Mary arose through a mistranslation of the Hebrew original of a prophecy in Isaiah (7:14) quoted in
Matthew 1:23, 'a young women who is pregnant will have a son etc'. The writers of the gospels wrote in Greek and
relied on the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible written some 500 years after Isaiah. An easy
mistake. In the 1990s the Doctrinal Commission of the Church of England recommended the abolition of the state
of Hell in favour of a state of nothingness where all would have a choice, heaven or nothingness. This did not
find favour with the General Synod and was quietly abandoned.
DIFFERENT
APPROACHES TO THE CREEDS
Where does that leave us? Study the
modern approach to Christian Theology, for example. and one finds one of 3 basic approaches. In the realms of
universities one sees a quasi honest approach in which Jesus is reduced to the role of a wandering Jewish
prophet who could not cope with the might of Rome and suffered death as a consequence. Questions of a Virgin
Birth in Bethlehem are stripped bare as is the concept of Jesus as 'The Jewish Messiah'. Honest history,
doubtful theology. Or one looks at the growing influence of fundamentalism in the expression of Christianity
which accepts, verbatim, the whole realm of the creeds and influence of Church history, often with expressions
of Creationism - that every word in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles is the true and inspired word of God. Poor
history, even worse theology. The final road is 'the attempt at restatement' syndrome. If only one can redefine
the creeds and accepted theology of Jesus as defined by the Church in modern ecological ways, combining
Christianity with more New Age elements (a kind of pantheistic synthesis), then we will touch and heal the
hearts of humanity. Emotional vandalism?
The problem with all these approaches is twofold. First they
do not conform with scientific examination of the data. Humanity was born with a great intellectual capacity as
well as emotions and spirituality. Yet Christian theology is now such an inbred study of the life and times of
Jesus that it bears little relationship to the reality of such modern investigation. It relies purely on
Christian historical data, the investigation of research into modern archaeological findings, and an examination
of the books which have come to light as a result of finding the Dead Sea Scrolls and other manuscripts
originating in Egypt (the Nag Hammadhi Library). It takes no account of the study of astrophysics, quantum
theory, chaos theory, or the new consciousness studies which are now gaining ground in our universities. The
influence of these elements will be the examined in a further thought for the month. As a 'taster' it now seems
clear that Abraham, for example, was a classic schitzophrenic in his willingness to sacrifice Isaac. Equally
Moses, in his production of the 10 commandments, was the last of a breed of thinkers who relied on the right
hemisphere of his brain to produce spiritual declamations at a time when humanity was evolving down the more
logical and time orientated left hemisphere which drove right hemisphere manifestations of God into the remote
and uncontrolled environments of the mountains, and burning bushes!
THEIR
RELEVANCE TO HUMANITY: THE CREED OF JESUS, ONE SOLELY OF LOVE
Yet it
is not the purpose of this article to persue this thread of argument. I am more concerned with the second
problem posed by the creeds. It is simply that they are irrelevant to human existence. They are contentious,
divisory and unsubstantiated. I am quite happy to accept that they were the best that could be achieved by a
fourth century consciousness, one built on limited understanding of the universe and on the need to produce a
definition of Christianity which could logically be applied to the Roman Empire of that time. This, above all,
required compliance to authority, the division of the sacred from the secular and the need to unite with some
moral glue the Roman Empire which stretched from Hadrian's wall in England to the North African countries. In
this it was outstandingly successful but at what price? It is known that 100,000s people died because they were
unable to accept the price of conformity.
Ult
imately
the foundation question for all would-be Christians is what is the core of that religion, what is it important
to do based upon a positive theology? What separates out Christians from non-Christians or believers in other
religions? For the answer we must turn to Jesus and his ministry. For him it was a simple issue, practical and
capable of being understood and followed by all humanity. Yet it was equally a complex and open-ended solution
to the problem of human existence. In this he was truly evolutionary in his thinking. His summary of the Laws of
Moses goes behind these laws by trying to establish a mindset where laws become irrelevant. He summarised the
whole of the Hebrew Bible in 'Love God, and love your fellow human being as you do yourself'. Try it. I find it
exceedingly difficult! It involves active engagement and effort rather than passive acceptance. Yet if one were
to accomplish even part of this then the need for laws would disintegrate. It is a demand for personal action,
for involvement in the spiritual dimension of eternity and the physical reality of communal human existence. It
is one which often involves a personal change of attitude and lifestyle. Moreover it is an attitude which finds
resonances in the core practices of all the world's great religions.
THE
NEED FOR POSITIVE, PRACTICAL AFFIRMATIONS RATHER THAN NEGATIVE CREDAL CONFORMITY
That, for me, is what it is to be a Christian, to 'Love God, and love your fellow human being as you do
yourself'. And yet it finds no mention in the required affirmations for entry into Christianity. True, all
Christians are exhorted to exercise the principle of Love but there are no charges of heresy for non-compliance,
nor is one thrown out of Christianity for not doing so. Yet deny such philosophical concepts as the Virgin Birth
or a physical resurrection of Jesus and there are calls for excommunication. Go against the commandment of Jesus
to love your neighbour but never mind. You can always confess such hate next Sunday and all will be forgiven by
the absolution of the priest. Even if you do not confess but continue to hate your neighbour there are no
sanctions. Moreover, belief in the creeds, these fundamental doctrines of Christianity, require no changes in
lifestyle or thought patterns. That was not the view of Jesus.
Is it not time to abandon the creeds
in favour of more positive affirmations, time to subjugate such expressions of fourth century politics in favour
of more positive spiritual demands. The creeds have served Christianity well for over 1600 years, but not any
longer. They now cause serious and uneccessary dispute both within and outside the Church. Which, for example,
is the One Holy Apostolic Church? Meanwhile the exclusive claim that only Jesus is the Saviour of the World
flies in the face of the deep spirituality of other religions.
Requirements of theological belief
based on unsubstantiated philosophical concepts of religion will always breed division and dissent. Requirements
of theological belief based on 'Love God and your fellow human being' will breed inclusive striving and
cohesion, an open-ended and evolving system in which all religions can take their place for the holistic benefit
of all humanity.
What Christianity needs now is what Jesus offered - practical solutions to human
failings. Humanity, as evidenced by bookshops, are seeking solutions elsewhere to problems of stress, innate
spirituality and a lifestyle damaged by modern materialism. As well as in more practical religions such as
Buddhism they find it 'New Age' techniques (though many are older than Christianity) - such as astrology, bio
feedback, crystals, ESP, Feng Sui, the Occult, Past Lives Therapy, Tarot, Tai Chi, Witchcraft, Zen, as well as
in the considerable number of self help books. Look also on the Internet at the myriad of self-help solutions on
meditation, life healing and how to evolve as a human being in a negative, complex and stressful world. This is
where humanity is at, trying to seek its own solutions because of the failure of Christianity to provide
practical solutions in the here and now.
Such humanity needs both release and guidance. We need as
much a theology of Love, of Consciousness, of Healing, of Re-education, of Meditation, of Social cohesion, and
of Science, as we do power houses where these concepts can be explored and developed. Christianity is well
placed to accomplish this and priests should have the power to enrich the lives of people, not so much by
requiring their assent to outmoded concepts but by empowering them, by freeing them as Jesus did from their self
induced problems. Even teaching the correct techniques of meditation and prayer would be a start, which could be
followed by an examination of some of the so-called New Age techniques. The British Medical Association, for
example, have agreed to the use of 'Spiritual Healing' in hospitals and other medical establishments as an aid
to the recovery process. The Church seems inordinately slow in developing this technique, which, after all, was
the one used by Jesus.
The true study of God can best be achieved through the study of the totality
of 'his' creation. In this, Science is as much a revelation from God as any theological treatise. Equally, the
true study of God should be based on a positive nature of enquiry, principally through meditation (to realise
what Jesus meant by the first commandment (to love God), and then through the practice of 'professional'
aesthetics, to respond to that initial creative urge which brought the whole of this wonderful universe into
existence. By 'professional' I mean the practice of artistic endeavour with discipline and hard work which
raises us and our perceptions onto a higher plane of existence.