Author: Douglas Knight

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There can never be sufficient appeasement

How does this dual psychology – of victimhood, but also the desire for domination – come to infect so many young Muslims in Britain? In the late 1980s, the situation had changed radically. The change occurred because successive governments were unaware that the numerous mosques being established across the length and breadth of this country were being staffed, more and more, with clerics who belonged to various fundamentalist movements.

Finally, there are the grievances. Some of these are genuine enough, but the complaint often boils down to the position that it is always right to intervene where Muslims are victims (as in Bosnia or Kosovo), and always wrong when they may be the oppressors or terrorists (as with the Taliban or in Iraq), even when their victims are also mainly Muslims.

Given the world view that has given rise to such grievances, there can never be sufficient appeasement, and new demands will continue to be made. It is clear, therefore, that the multiculturalism beloved of our political and civic bureaucracies has not only failed to deliver peace, but is the partial cause of the present alienation of so many Muslim young people from the society in which they were born, where they have been educated and where they have lived most of their lives.

Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester Multiculturalism and young Muslims

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Bible and justice

Conference on Bible and Justice
29 May – 1 June, 2008

Stanley Hauerwas
Timothy Gorringe
John Rogerson

The 2008 Conference on Bible and Justice will bring together scholars from around the world to explore how the ancient texts of the Bible can play an active role in addressing twenty-first century social concerns. The purpose of the conference is to foster discussion about the relevance of the Bible to modern social issues, and promote bridges between the academic field of biblical studies and the various endeavours for a just world.

And cut out the many centuries of the Church’s experience on this subject, I suppose? Don’t we need the Church to open the bible up to us? Is biblical studies premised on denial of this?

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Another law

The Church — the communion of faith and love (as St. Ignatius of Antioch defined it: henosis agapis kai pisteos), the community of saints who are Christ’s own very “members” as his body and bride – is essential to our human being and life. We cannot be human beings – still less, Christians and saints – by ourselves. We need God and his wise and faithful servants. We need God’s commandments and living examples of their fulfillment. We need the Church’s scriptures, sacraments, services and saints. And we need one another. As Tertullian said centuries ago, “One Christian is no Christian.” And as the Russian proverb puts it, “The only thing that a person can do alone is perish.” Like it or not, we are “members of one another” in God. If we like it, it is life and paradise. If we reject it, it is death and hell.

If we have become convinced of anything at all as Orthodox Christians, we are convinced that human beings are not autonomous. The proclamation and defense of human autonomy is the most insidious lie of our day, especially here in North America, and in the Western and Westernized worlds generally. Humans beings are by nature heteronomous. Another law (heteros nomos) is always working in our minds and members.

This “other law” is either the law of God, the law of Christ, the law of the Holy Spirit, the law of liberty and life that can only be recognized, received and realized by holy humility, or it is the law of sin and death. (cf. Romans 7-8) When the law within us is God’s law, then we are who we really are, and we are sane and free. But when that law is the law of sin and death, then we are not ourselves, and we are insane, enslaved and sold to sin.

I am convinced that what C.S. Lewis foresaw has happened, and is still happening with ever more catastrophic consequences, in our Western and Westernized worlds. It happens that men and women who once were human are simply no longer so. They have become nothing but minds and matter, brains and bodies, computers and consumers, calculators and copulators, constructers and cloners who believe that they are free and powerful but who are in fact being destroyed by the very “Nature” that they wish to conquer as they are enslaved to an oligarchy of “Conditioners” who are themselves enslaved and destroyed by their insane strivings to define, design, manage and manipulate a world and a humanity bereft of the God who boundlessly loves them.

Father Thomas Hopko St Vladimir Seminary Commencement address

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How to write a Pastoral Letter

To the priests and deacons of the Diocese who share with fraternal compassion my concern for the poor;to the religious men and women, whose service to the poor has strengthened Christâ??s presence in Oklahoma for more than its hundred years; to the lay faithful who strive with unwavering dedication to live the Gospel that gives us life through faith in Godâ??s promise, hope in the gift of His Holy Spirit, and love for his people;and finally, with affection and esteem, to all men and women of good will who seek to do the good and follow Godâ??s will for them, to you.

I send my greetings and bless you in the name of the Lord.

By the grace of God and the favor of the Apostolic See, I am the Catholic Bishop of Tulsa.

As a bishop, I speak with the voice of one who has been consecrated to proclaim the truth of the Gospel here in Eastern Oklahoma, and I do so with the authority and in the name of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

I do not deem it necessary to enter into a detailing of all that this entails, but I do wish to make it clear that I am writing this pastoral letter in the exercise of my pastoral mission for you, the People of God who have been confided to my care, for you are that community which I must teach, sanctify and govern with the authority and responsibility that I exercise in communion with the whole college of Bishops and under the guidance of His Holiness, Benedict XVI, Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the Universal Church.

Of the office I have received to preach and to teach, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council gathered from every country, nation, people and revealing in their unity Godâ??s plan to restore to us the unity we lost through the sin of Adam, wrote:

Among the principal duties of bishops, the preaching of the gospel occupies an eminent place. For bishops are preachers of the faith who lead new disciples to Christ. They are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people committed to them the faith they must believe and put into practice. By the light of the Holy Spirit they make that faith clear, bringing forth from the treasury of revelation new things and old (cf. Mt. 13:52) making faith bear fruit and vigilantly warding off any errors which threaten their flock. (cf. 2 Tim. 4:1-4) (Lumen Gentium, §25)

Thus it is, I wish to make known that when I preach the truth of the Gospel – independent of whether or not what I say corresponds with the laws of men and of civil societies – my words are guarded by that same Spirit Who anointed the Lord Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth and filled Him with the power to â??preach good news to the poor â?¦ to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord.â?? (Luke 4:18-19)

Consecrated a bishop in service to the Lord Jesus Christ, I am as well a disciple and missionary of His Gospel. Hence my governance of our community of faith is always in service to Christâ??s Kingdom, that it might be constantly built up and strengthened here in Oklahoma.

Of my responsibility to exercise prudent governance as the Bishop of Tulsa, the Fathers of the Council wrote:

Bishops govern the particular churches entrusted to them as the vicars and ambassadors of Christ. This they do by their counsel, exhortations and example, as indeed, by their authority and sacred power. This power they use only for the
edification of their flock in truth and holinessâ?¦ This power, which they personally exercise in Christâ??s name, is proper, ordinary and immediate â?¦ (Lumen Gentium, §27)

In this way, I wish to make it clear that I do not speak as an elected official, whose service to the public proceeds from the will of those who elected him or her to office. Nor do I speak as a civil servant, appointed to the task and accountable to those by whom he or she has been appointed. Rather, I speak as the Catholic Bishop of this Diocese and I speak with the authority of Jesus Christ, Who in His life here on earth always showed his predilection for the poor and the oppressed.

Encouraged, then, by the certainty that you will listen to me as you would listen to Christ Himself (Luke 10:16), I want to express myself in this letter with the wisdom and the prudence of a man of God, called by the Lord â??to serve and not be servedâ?? (Mark 10:45) and â??to give his life for his sheepâ?? (cf. John 10:15) and I want to present to you who love the Lord, the certainty that in the suffering faces of the poor, we see the suffering face of Christ.

The Suffering Face of Christ

This idea is not my own, nor is it new. The conviction that Christ is present in the poor and reveals in their suffering His wondrous
Passion can be traced in an unbroken line of charity from the Apostles down to our own day, and to my brother bishops who met last May with Pope Benedict XVI at the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil to reflect upon the various ways in which the Church must respond to this revelation.

In this letter, I wish to make my own the statements they expressed concerning the fundamental stance which the Church must take in the world, a stance of hope in Christâ??s victory over sin and death. This hope which we have in Christ expresses itself in solidarity with the poor and as advocacy for those who suffer injustice.

It is to Christâ??s Suffering Face, seen in the faces of Oklahomaâ??s immigrant population, that I would draw the gaze of all those who – in whatever manner – find themselves responsible for the passing, the enforcement, or in support of Oklahomaâ??s House Bill 1804.
The basic intention of this law is to deny those who have entered our country illegally the right to work in Oklahoma and the right to find shelter for their families in our communities. Thus they are forced to flee our state. I believe that the right to earn oneâ??s living and the right to shelter oneâ??s family securely are basic human rights, the fundamental building blocks of a just society, and to deny these rights is immoral and unjust. I also believe that since the intention of HB 1804 is immoral, when it is implemented, the effects will be an intolerable increase in the suffering endured by the families of illegal immigrants, plus the spiritual suffering of those who must enforce it.

Bishop Slattery of Tulsa Pastoral Letter

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Self-giving

It was in this classical tradition of the Early Church that Karl Barth took his position early in his theological career. His road into it was through his struggle, begun in his Swiss parish, over the nature and content of divine Revelation, as he sought to expound the Scriptures and proclaim the Word of God. He soon realised that his own struggle was very much like that of both the Nicene Fathers and the Reformers, over the identity and primacy of God’s Revelation in Jesus Christ. In the fourth century the question at issue was the supreme truth of the Deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit, for if they were divided in being and act from God the Father, the Gospel would be empty of any divine content, and there would be no substance to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

In the sixteenth century the very same issue arose in another form over the doctrine of Grace, for if the gift of God were not identical with the Giver, then there could be no real Self-giving of God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit, and the Word of the Gospel would be empty of any divine reality. Here too the doctrine of the Trinity was at stake, and with it the very foundation of Christian theology. Thus Karl Barth found himself compelled to contend once again for the truth of the Nicene Creed that the incarnate Son is of one and the same being as God the Father and that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and the Giver of life. This was the essential import of the homoousion which gave dogmatic expression to the indivisible oneness in being and agency between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and thus to the fact that precisely by believing in divine Revelation the Church believes in God himself. As Barth liked to express it: ‘God reveals himself as Lord’, ‘God is the content of his Revelation.’

Thomas Forsyth Torrance ‘Karl Barth and the Latin Heresy’ Scottish Journal of Theology 39 (1986)

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The victory of reason over unreason is a goal of the Christian life

As far as the two great themes of â??reasonâ?? and â??freedomâ?? are concerned, here we can only touch upon the issues connected with them. Yes indeed, reason is God’s great gift to man, and the victory of reason over unreason is also a goal of the Christian life. But when does reason truly triumph? When it is detached from God? When it has become blind to God? Is the reason behind action and capacity for action the whole of reason? If progress, in order to be progress, needs moral growth on the part of humanity, then the reason behind action and capacity for action is likewise urgently in need of integration through reason’s openness to the saving forces of faith, to the differentiation between good and evil. Only thus does reason become truly human. It becomes human only if it is capable of directing the will along the right path, and it is capable of this only if it looks beyond itself. Otherwise, man’s situation, in view of the imbalance between his material capacity and the lack of judgement in his heart, becomes a threat for him and for creation. Thus where freedom is concerned, we must remember that human freedom always requires a convergence of various freedoms. Yet this convergence cannot succeed unless it is determined by a common intrinsic criterion of measurement, which is the foundation and goal of our freedom. Let us put it very simply: man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope. Given the developments of the modern age, the quotation from Saint Paul with which I began (Eph 2:12) proves to be thoroughly realistic and plainly true. There is no doubt, therefore, that a â??Kingdom of Godâ?? accomplished without Godâ??a kingdom therefore of man aloneâ??inevitably ends up as the â??perverse endâ?? of all things as described by Kant: we have seen it, and we see it over and over again. Yet neither is there any doubt that God truly enters into human affairs only when, rather than being present merely in our thinking, he himself comes towards us and speaks to us. Reason therefore needs faith if it is to be completely itself: reason and faith need one another in order to fulfil their true nature and their mission.

Benedict XVI Spe Salvi (23)

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Benedict's reforms held up by English bishops

Damian Thompson believes English Catholic bishops are resisting Benedict’s recent measure to allow the mass to be celebrated in Latin here in England. Here he is on ‘the shabby attempts by various English bishops to block the Pope’s liturgical reforms‘

He urges us to complain about the English bishops’ ‘disastrous attempts to block the reform‘

You do not have to be a fan of the Tridentine liturgy in order to make a protest. What is at issue here is obedience to the Pope – and truthfulness.

Benedict XVI’s apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum gives parishes the right to choose the ancient liturgy, now known as the Extraordinary Form (EF). Yet English bishops, including the Archbishop of Westminster and the Bishop of Leeds, are behaving as if power to grant permission for the EF is still in their hands.

Their unhelpful attitude (to put it mildly) is sowing confusion among the faithful and causing great distress. Moreover, there are reports that the English bishops have consulted their own canon lawyer to see how they can get round the Pope’s ruling. That’s disgraceful.

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Advent

The Coming Spiritual Tsunami
Three Advent Lectures by The Bishop of London at St Stephen Walbrook

On Dover Beach
Tuesday 4 December at 1pm

The Hurricane Gathers Strength
Tuesday 11 December at 1pm

In Swept House
Tuesday 18 December at 1pm

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Three on the public square

Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life exists to promote a better understanding of the role of religion in public life and to facilitate dialogue between religious groups of any faith and among such groups and public institutions

Its board is small but distinguished

* The Rt. Rev. Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester
* Professor Oliver O’Donovan, Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology, Edinburgh
* Canon Dr. Vinay K. Samuel, Director Emeritus and Senior Teaching Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies

But there is no sign of any events in the UK, sadly.

OCRPL is related to Get Religion ‘The press just doesn’t get religion’

Also trying to educate the media is the brand new Lapido Media: Religious Literacy in Public Affairs

The second Theos Forum Faith in our Media: The Church and the news agenda with the Rt Rev’d Dr Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, takes place on Tuesday 4th December at St Bride’s, Fleet St, EC4

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Christian doctrine

Teaching Christian doctrine can start from a number of places. Indeed, it must start from several places and then show the relationships between them. It can start from:

(1) the evangelical narrative – the bible
(2) the set of doctrines developed from that narrative
(3) the history of the development of doctrine
(4) the worship of the Church – what Christians say and sing in Church
(5) what Christians do – Christian ethics, ecclesiology, mission and pastoral concerns

Christian doctrine must take each of these as its own proper starting place and responsibility. It cannot simply take one as its sole proper field. Christian doctrine must link these together. It must show how all these are necessary, and how each refers to all the others. It starts by listing them and then showing their unity and their purpose. This involves translating religious concepts into commonplace non-religious language.

In preaching we give a narrative of Jesus Christ. After preaching we submit ourselves to criticism. Our colleagues must check that we are not leaving out any part of the gospel. Creeds and doctrines are propositional summaries of the many individual accounts of the gospel we give. Christian doctrines represent a check list against which to check the adequacy of our narrative accounts. Each individual doctrine must be related to all other doctrines. We have to check out narrative accounts against these check-lists to make sure we have been telling truly the whole story of Jesus, not some over-simplification that will eventually turn into a falsification of it. Christian doctrine course requires both narrative accounts and straight statements – propositions – of doctrine, and links back and forth between the two. It also requires open discussion to test the adequacy of our narrative and propositions.

Inasmuch as doctrine limits itself to (2) the set of doctrines and (3) the history of its development, it falsifies its own proper object – which is what has occurred for many generations, with the results we see. As long as these different starting points are taught as different modules, this state of affairs and resulting Christian crisis of confidence will continue.