Bishop Stephen Neill first published “The Christian Society” in 1952. The thirteen chapters outline the story of the church from Jesus and His society through the nearly two thousand years of its life. He concludes with this seven fold description of what the Church is –
First, and always, the church is the Eucharistic fellowship. In the central act of Christian faith, the interaction of time and eternity is always present. Christians are already citizens of eternity, and therefore cannot be other than pilgrims in time.
Secondly, the Christian fellowship is one in which no member should be in need or want, should never be lonely or friendless or in despair, since Christians are called to have all things in common; and, though the rules and methods of this Christian communion are flexible, the obligation is absolute and unchanging.
Thirdly, the Christian fellowship is that in which any stranger should feel him/her-self immediately welcome and at home. Suspicion, contempt and hostility should be excluded by the Christian law of love.
Fourthly, the Christian fellowship should be clear-sighted in the detection and uncovering of evils existent in the society immediately around it, tireless in protest against injustice, active in the relief of suffering.
Fifthly, the Christian society must make it clear that its ultimate loyalty is always and only to Christ and to His word. If it accepts for a time association with the state or any other human association, it must be prepared at any moment to withdraw from that association, if its spiritual liberty and its power to bear witness are in danger of being infringed.
Sixthly, each Christian group must be conscious of its fellowship in Christ with all other Christian groups throughout the world, even though circumstances should make impossible any expression of that fellowship other than the fellowship of prayer.
Seventhly, each Christian group must be constantly aware that the church is set for the redemption of the whole world, and that the purpose of God in Christ cannot be fulfilled, until the Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached to all nations for a witness to them.
We may quibble about this description but it is worth placing them like a mirror for us to consider our Anglican Communion and our local expression of that communion.
Stephen Charles Neill (1900–1984) was a Anglican missionary, bishop, and scholar from Scotland. He was educated and later worked in Trinity College, Cambridge University. He moved to India where he became a bishop.
I had the privilege of meeting him in Sabah in 1970.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
On the Emmaus Road
Emmaus … On the Emmaus Road.
The notion of journey is popular among Christians and many others in our society. This is a reflection on what this means for Christians especially in the use of the Emmaus story as a (The!) significant justification for such thinking.
What seems often forgotten in Christian discussion is that in the Emmaus story there is the initial great disappointment that expectations had been misplaced in Jesus and then there is an explanation which provides a clear and definite starting point for a Christian Journey. Both in words and in act Jesus is revealed as the True Messiah of Israel and Risen Lord of All. For an authentic Emmaus journey there is a very clear starting point which can be described as a (THE ) door opening. .. A new direction is pointed out ……. AND powerfully an assurance there is a Guide who walks with us. For in the Ascension Jesus the Lord is seated at the Right hand of the Creator-Covenant keeping God. Jesus is there alive as the true New Adam, as the New Israel, as our true High Priest interceding for us.
It is with this New Testament formulation of the story that we ought to understand The Faith ‘once delivered to the Saints’.
Both in this story of Jesus meeting the husband and wife on the Emmaus road and in the proclamations of the Gospel in the Acts of the Apostles reference is made to ‘from Moses and the prophets …. The listeners were informed of the way in which Jesus was / is the fulfillment of these promises and expectations of that story – The Story of the Creator and Covenant Making God. While the connections of this starting point of the Gospel are rarely given today it is vital for Christians to grasp this story and work out their faith from there.
It was the telling of the story from Abraham through Moses, then the Prophets and the way that Jesus and the events of his life fulfilled that story that lead this couple to realise their expectations about Jesus had not been misplaced, and consequently to be filled with great excitement causing them to retrace their steps ( sometimes vital for any journey ) to share with the other disciples of Jesus.
While each of us has a personal journey to make it is important, no vital, to see that this Emmaus Journey is fundamentally an incorporating journey. We have become members of the New Humanity … To be bound together in Christ, .. members of the New Covenant … the New Creation … NOW.
Note Paul's reference to the Lord's Supper. "In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." ! Corinthians 11: 23 - 26.
The Letter to the Hebrews has been vital in providing that framework of this Jewish Story. Mind you Paul’s Letter to the Romans also does this but is too often seen through the lens of the Doctrines of Justification and Righteousness – yes, they are there in great detail but Paul is concerned to frame those and other ‘doctrines’ within the full Jewish Story from the Old Testament to the Gospels.
I trust the label JOURNEYS WELL TROD is the correct label for this story.
The notion of journey is popular among Christians and many others in our society. This is a reflection on what this means for Christians especially in the use of the Emmaus story as a (The!) significant justification for such thinking.
What seems often forgotten in Christian discussion is that in the Emmaus story there is the initial great disappointment that expectations had been misplaced in Jesus and then there is an explanation which provides a clear and definite starting point for a Christian Journey. Both in words and in act Jesus is revealed as the True Messiah of Israel and Risen Lord of All. For an authentic Emmaus journey there is a very clear starting point which can be described as a (THE ) door opening. .. A new direction is pointed out ……. AND powerfully an assurance there is a Guide who walks with us. For in the Ascension Jesus the Lord is seated at the Right hand of the Creator-Covenant keeping God. Jesus is there alive as the true New Adam, as the New Israel, as our true High Priest interceding for us.
It is with this New Testament formulation of the story that we ought to understand The Faith ‘once delivered to the Saints’.
Both in this story of Jesus meeting the husband and wife on the Emmaus road and in the proclamations of the Gospel in the Acts of the Apostles reference is made to ‘from Moses and the prophets …. The listeners were informed of the way in which Jesus was / is the fulfillment of these promises and expectations of that story – The Story of the Creator and Covenant Making God. While the connections of this starting point of the Gospel are rarely given today it is vital for Christians to grasp this story and work out their faith from there.
It was the telling of the story from Abraham through Moses, then the Prophets and the way that Jesus and the events of his life fulfilled that story that lead this couple to realise their expectations about Jesus had not been misplaced, and consequently to be filled with great excitement causing them to retrace their steps ( sometimes vital for any journey ) to share with the other disciples of Jesus.
While each of us has a personal journey to make it is important, no vital, to see that this Emmaus Journey is fundamentally an incorporating journey. We have become members of the New Humanity … To be bound together in Christ, .. members of the New Covenant … the New Creation … NOW.
Note Paul's reference to the Lord's Supper. "In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." ! Corinthians 11: 23 - 26.
The Letter to the Hebrews has been vital in providing that framework of this Jewish Story. Mind you Paul’s Letter to the Romans also does this but is too often seen through the lens of the Doctrines of Justification and Righteousness – yes, they are there in great detail but Paul is concerned to frame those and other ‘doctrines’ within the full Jewish Story from the Old Testament to the Gospels.
I trust the label JOURNEYS WELL TROD is the correct label for this story.
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Belief Enriches Art - The Guardian 27 August 2010
Belief enriches art
We need to get beyond the cultural cringe of modern Christianity to understand great art
• Maggi Dawn guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 August 2010 11.44 BST
The question: What is the point of Christian arts?
I'm inclined to think that dividing works of art up into sacred and secular is a somewhat arbitrary exercise. Of course we commonly use a kind of shorthand to describe work that deals with certain subject matter as "religious art". But beyond that, what might make a work "religious" exactly?
If it depended upon the artist being devout, a great deal of religious art would no longer qualify, while many secular scenes would – Caravaggio's paintings of biblical scenes, for instance, would be out, while Van Gogh's Starry Night would be in. But the meaning of a work is in any case as much dependent upon the interpretative frame given to it by the listener, the reader or the viewer. A work might be "sacred" simply because it is being viewed through the eyes of faith.
I'm not sure, then, that it's a simple matter to say what makes a work religious, but what I am sure of is that ignoring the religious content in works of art does diminish their sense. That's not to say you have to buy into the belief system, but without a working knowledge of Christianity, much of the art, music and literature in this corner of the world remains a closed book to the viewer.
Early last year in a Guardian interview Andrew Motion, then poet laureate, lamented the increasing level of biblical illiteracy he found among his students. Reading literature, he said, "…requires you to know things about the Fall, who some of the people in the Bible are, ideas of sinfulness and virtue. It's also essential for Tennyson, Browning and Arnold, and needs to be there in the background of the modernist period." He called for teaching of the Bible to be included in general education, not for religious reasons, but because "…it's an essential piece of cultural luggage."
I couldn't agree more. Without knowing Genesis you miss many of the undercurrents to Chaucer, Milton and Dante, say nothing of modern writers like Steinbeck and T S Eliot; and without the gospels a good slice of Shakespeare is torn from its roots. "Measure for measure" makes us think of Shakespeare; his audience would have thought of Jesus.
Last year I went to two large exhibitions of Van Gogh's paintings, each of which included several of Van Gogh's paintings of "the Sower" – a subject he returned to a number of times. The galleries had provided many good notes, showing the influence of other painters he had followed, how he had developed the theme over time, and how his use of colour changed between the paintings. Yet nowhere was there any comment on the fact that, as can be seen from Van Gogh's letters, an important inspiration was the parable of the sower, which he spent much time contemplating, and regarded as a metaphor for his own work.
Van Gogh's work is evidence of the fact that good art goes beyond merely illustrating or re-telling an old story; it creates a dialogue with its sources, taking an old established idea and giving it a new twist. I recently studied various poems, paintings and sculptures of the annunciation, a story originally told in Luke's gospel. Many medieval depictions of the annunciation show Mary's meek submission to the will of God, but more recent works subtly shift her role so that she is seen as a woman empowered to choose her own destiny. Both Noel Rowe's Magnificat and Edwin Muir's Annunciation suggest that God doesn't hold (or hold on to) all the cards but takes the highly risky and self-effacing strategy of placing the destiny of the world into the hands of an unknown peasant girl. This is the glory of art – to overturn the well-worn tracks of unchallenged ideas and make us see the world through new eyes.
There is a "cultural cringe" about Christianity at present; in a post-Christian age many people want to distance themselves from a religion they no longer wish to be associated with. The place of religion in public life needs to continue to be negotiated, but it would be a mistake, in my view, to let such discussion extend to cutting ourselves adrift from layer upon layer of understanding of our cultural heritage.
We need to get beyond the cultural cringe of modern Christianity to understand great art
• Maggi Dawn guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 August 2010 11.44 BST
The question: What is the point of Christian arts?
I'm inclined to think that dividing works of art up into sacred and secular is a somewhat arbitrary exercise. Of course we commonly use a kind of shorthand to describe work that deals with certain subject matter as "religious art". But beyond that, what might make a work "religious" exactly?
If it depended upon the artist being devout, a great deal of religious art would no longer qualify, while many secular scenes would – Caravaggio's paintings of biblical scenes, for instance, would be out, while Van Gogh's Starry Night would be in. But the meaning of a work is in any case as much dependent upon the interpretative frame given to it by the listener, the reader or the viewer. A work might be "sacred" simply because it is being viewed through the eyes of faith.
I'm not sure, then, that it's a simple matter to say what makes a work religious, but what I am sure of is that ignoring the religious content in works of art does diminish their sense. That's not to say you have to buy into the belief system, but without a working knowledge of Christianity, much of the art, music and literature in this corner of the world remains a closed book to the viewer.
Early last year in a Guardian interview Andrew Motion, then poet laureate, lamented the increasing level of biblical illiteracy he found among his students. Reading literature, he said, "…requires you to know things about the Fall, who some of the people in the Bible are, ideas of sinfulness and virtue. It's also essential for Tennyson, Browning and Arnold, and needs to be there in the background of the modernist period." He called for teaching of the Bible to be included in general education, not for religious reasons, but because "…it's an essential piece of cultural luggage."
I couldn't agree more. Without knowing Genesis you miss many of the undercurrents to Chaucer, Milton and Dante, say nothing of modern writers like Steinbeck and T S Eliot; and without the gospels a good slice of Shakespeare is torn from its roots. "Measure for measure" makes us think of Shakespeare; his audience would have thought of Jesus.
Last year I went to two large exhibitions of Van Gogh's paintings, each of which included several of Van Gogh's paintings of "the Sower" – a subject he returned to a number of times. The galleries had provided many good notes, showing the influence of other painters he had followed, how he had developed the theme over time, and how his use of colour changed between the paintings. Yet nowhere was there any comment on the fact that, as can be seen from Van Gogh's letters, an important inspiration was the parable of the sower, which he spent much time contemplating, and regarded as a metaphor for his own work.
Van Gogh's work is evidence of the fact that good art goes beyond merely illustrating or re-telling an old story; it creates a dialogue with its sources, taking an old established idea and giving it a new twist. I recently studied various poems, paintings and sculptures of the annunciation, a story originally told in Luke's gospel. Many medieval depictions of the annunciation show Mary's meek submission to the will of God, but more recent works subtly shift her role so that she is seen as a woman empowered to choose her own destiny. Both Noel Rowe's Magnificat and Edwin Muir's Annunciation suggest that God doesn't hold (or hold on to) all the cards but takes the highly risky and self-effacing strategy of placing the destiny of the world into the hands of an unknown peasant girl. This is the glory of art – to overturn the well-worn tracks of unchallenged ideas and make us see the world through new eyes.
There is a "cultural cringe" about Christianity at present; in a post-Christian age many people want to distance themselves from a religion they no longer wish to be associated with. The place of religion in public life needs to continue to be negotiated, but it would be a mistake, in my view, to let such discussion extend to cutting ourselves adrift from layer upon layer of understanding of our cultural heritage.
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