This is not an academic treatise, rather it is a pulling together of my theological opinions developed over a few years. A law degree and a diploma in theology instilled in me the need to understand the difference between fact and opinion as well as a penchant for critical evaluation of theories and evidence. I am deeply suspicious and cynical concerning the motives and activities of politicians, economists, sociologists, philosophers, church leaders, theologians, judges and journalists.
Should you be seeking a learned theological exposition I advise you to clear off pronto. You won't find it here. What you will find are my personal thoughts on social justice leavened by the ideas of others: so as not to bore you rigid.
It strikes me that in seeking to understand theological concepts, indeed any political, economic, social or legal ideas, we must escape from a silo mentality, or consideration of concepts in a subject-matter vacuum. We have to understand the interaction of concepts from a broad range of disciplines. Above all we need to study the reality of the consequences of the application of concepts. We must flee the halls of academia into the outside world.
Be on the lookout for gatekeepers, sentries, sentinels and guardians of the 'truth'. Treat them with caution, do not succumb to their blandishments or threats. Be wary of opinion formers on social media. It is your opinion that matters, not theirs.
At the outset, cards on the table. I ascribe to postmodernism having considered the writings of Jacques Derrida and Don Cupitt amongst others. Their ideas provided the spark leading me to review my understanding of the bible and thence my process of deconstruction. The following quotations are ones with which I concur:
'The Christian story does not drop from heaven fully written. It grew and developed over a period of forty-two to seventy years. This is not what most Christians have been taught to think, but it is factual. Christianity has always been an evolving story. It was never, even in the New Testament, a finished story.'
JOHN SHELBY SPONG
'I let go of the notion that the Bible is a divine product. I learned that it is a human cultural product, the product of two ancient communities, biblical Israel and early Christianity. As such, it contained their understandings and affirmations, statements not coming directly or somewhat directly from God.....I realised that whatever "divine revelation" and the "inspiration of the Bible" meant (if they meant anything), they did not mean that the Bible was a divine product with divine authority.'
MARCUS J BORG
'Properly understood the Bible is a potential ally to the progressive Christian passion for transformation of ourselves and the world. It is our great heritage. Along with Jesus, to whom it is subordinate, it is our greatest treasure.'
MARCUS J BORG
'My point is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are not smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.'
JOHN DOMINIC CROSSAN
'The Bible is based upon the construct of theism and anthropomorphism as its primary literary vehicle for expressing the reality of "God." Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.
The ultimate authority of one's life is not the Bible. The highest truth is not confined between the covers of a book. It is not something written by men and frozen in time. It is not from a source outside oneself. One's ultimate authority is the voice of truth within one's own innermost being.'
JIM PALMER
'The danger that a mythology understood too literally, and as taught by the Church, will suddenly be repudiated lock, stock and barrel is today greater than ever. Is it not time that the Christian mythology, instead of being wiped out, was understood symbolically?'
CARL JUNG
Do you believe in God? It is impossible to prove the existence of God, whether of the theist, pantheist or panentheist varieties. It is all conjecture. For me, God is the trigger, the ultimate norm, the spark that set in train the process to form the universe, but I have no idea what the trigger is, or was. I have found the writings of John D Caputo helpful in forming my opinions. I recommend his book What to believe?
It follows from the last paragraph that there is no point in praying to God in the hope or expectation of receiving a response. Prayer has value in setting out an agenda of what we would like to happen and convince us of the need for us to act to bring the change prayed for about, insofar as it is within our power or capability so to do. Soren Kierkegaard puts it well:
'The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.'
Having demolished, sorry, deconstructed my belief system now is the time to move on to reconstruction. I find compelling the teaching attributed to Jesus in the bible. It doesn't matter if Jesus was a real person, or a symbol, or a metaphor, or a myth. What counts is the message, a message of love. Throughout the Old and New Testaments there is a strand affirming the requirement for love, for justice for individuals, for societal change to improve the lives of the poor, the marginalised and the excluded. The message of Jesus is not a book of rules: it is a set of principles applicable to all cultures, all societies, at all times. It is profound. It is a call to action. Similar calls to action are to be found in the tenets of other faiths and those of no faith persuasion.
Since the 1990s I have engaged in the pursuit of social justice, as a councillor, as a member of a churches' social responsibility group and been active in the voluntary sector, driven by the desire to follow the teaching ascribed to Jesus and also the concept of liberation theology with particular reference to Leonardo Boff, Gustavo Gutierrez and Jurgen Moltmann.
A quotation from Gutierrez:
'The poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go out and build a different social order.'
This I read as a call for positive action. Compare and contrast with this statement by James H Cone:
'Liberation theology is not a the theology of revolution, but a theology of the cross that call for ongoing resistance against all forms of oppression'
My opinion is that liberation theology embraces both resisting oppression and demanding systemic change.
The basis of Moltmann's theology was his conviction that theology must always be related to concrete human situations and that the teaching of Jesus about the Kingdom of God requires of his followers commitment to the overthrowing of everything in the social order that is contrary to its demands. No ivory tower, armchair theology. Moltmann was active in the field, participating in demonstrations. The task of the theologian he stated is not to promote the ideal of a distant utopia, rather to get on with seeking to effect change, to tackle current issues, an argument similar to one made by Karl Popper.
My theological 'position' therefore is to follow Jesus: for individuals to be assisted at point of need, and to campaign for social justice, for systemic social change. From a faith perspective I have deconstructed everything else.
I concur with the concepts set out in the following quotations.
His teachings and behaviour reflect an alternative social vision. Jesus was not not talking about how to be good and how to behave within the framework of a domination system. He was a critic of the domination system itself.
MARCUS BORG
Christian theology needs to speak of social revolution, not reform; of liberation, not development; of socialism, not modernising the prevailing system.
GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ
Jesus called people to follow him in a way of living. He does not require his followers to accept a catalogue of religious beliefs or adopt a set of spiritual practices. Rather, he offered them a new way to live their daily lives. As a result, the earliest members of the Jesus movement were known as followers of the way.
KURT STRUCKMEYER
God is calling the Church to something new, but we hold things back when we do things according to tradition as opposed to partnering with God in the new way.
DOUG ADDISON
The Church is not memories; we are not just looking in a rear-view mirror. The Church is moving forward and needs new perspectives.
OSCAR ROMEO
Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty, truth and compassion against injustice and tyranny and greed.
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Always be sure that you struggle with Christian weapons. Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter. As you press on for justice, be sure you move with justice and discipline, using only the weapon of love.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JNR
What is needed is a realisation that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JNR
The Kingdom of God is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven.
WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH
Your 'yes' to God requires your 'no' to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER
We cannot profess our solidarity with those who are oppressed when we are unwilling to confront the oppressor.
HENRI NOUWEN
How can we be the church of Jesus unless we reflect the ministry of Jesus? Is the church a radical incarnation of the ministry of Jesus or a private social club?
YVETTE FLUNDER
The prophetic tasks of the Church are to tell the truth in a society that lives an illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair.
WALTER BRUEGGEMANN
I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.
POPE FRANCIS
We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it.
DOROTHY DAY
If we try and have a Christianity without social justice, we cut out the beautiful beating heart of Jesus and we are left with only a lifeless corpse of religion to drag around.
JOHN PAVOLITZ
The measure of a society in found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.
JIMMY CARTER
Any talk about God that fails to make God's liberation of the oppressed as its starting point is not Christian.
JAMES CONE
When the Church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises.
OSCAR ROMEO
The rich and powerful should act with justice towards the poor, not oppress them. Faith calls us to lift the down-trodden, not to follow those who crush them.
POPE LEO X1V
The eternal destiny of human beings will be measured by how much or how little solidarity we have displayed with the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, and the oppressed. In the end we will be judged in terms of love.
LEONARDO BOFF
and finally....
Any religion that professes to be about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JNR
Well, dear reader, thank you for your patience and perseverance. The fight for social justice continues..........
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