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Among other things, my summer school teaching schedule came out next week. I am going to teach a The490 seminar on "The Theology of Henri de Lubac" -- an interesting foray for me. I have to order my books. At this point, I am planning to begin with the secondary source on him by Balthasar, and then read three works: The Drama of Atheistic Humanism; The Mystery of the Supernatural; and Catholicism. After those, I believe we will read Milbank's new book. Any comments about such a program would be helpful. Among other things, it is to start work on a project on Vatican II and the Wesleyan.

Tonight, however, while trying to come back to life, I scanned over George Weigel's 1994 First Things interview with George Lindbeck (http://www.eppc.org/programs/catholicstudies/publications/pubID.200,programID.16/pub_detail.asp). It is an amazing interview. In it Lindbeck shows his watching of Cardinal Ratzinger's, now Benedict XVI's, interpretation of Vatican II. But what caught my eye tonight was a brief statement about Balthasar and ressourcement, the Christian return to the sources. Here is what Prof. Lindbeck said:

"Ressourcement, it seems, leads to the margins-or to martyrdom. The miracle of the Council is that the conjunction of forces was such that an authentic return to the sources could, for a moment, capture the center."

What is interesting is how this runs so true today still. Ressourcement, the return to the sources of the faith in the Scriptures and the Fathers to hear them as formative for the church, still struggles to find a place amidst a politicization of the church by forces of the left and right. An "identity politics" reigns, a concern not unrelated to form a niche within the market to expand the church's influence in the society through contact and relevance.

Yet God still surprises. A few weeks ago a member of my congregation talked to me about the congregation of his parents -- and Episcopalian Church in Oceanside (a wealthy coastal town close to Camp Pendleton in Southern California). Because of the American Episcopal's Church entering into schism with the Anglican Communion worldwide, their particular congregation submitted to a bishop in Bolivia. How wonderful! Here is a North American congregation willingly submitting its governance and finances to a bishop in South America! The church thus represents an inversion of the typical economic flow of extraction of wealth from the southern hemisphere for the benefit of the north.

It just reminds me again that we will not build God's kingdom through our works, even in returning to the sources. We only receive the kingdom as a gift that God gives us, if we will have eyes to see and ears to hear. Perhaps we can only see this from the center of the faith, a center in Jesus Christ, that often looks like the margins when seen through the eyes of the world.

Posted by johnwright at 8:55 PM | Comments (3)

This week has been another grueling week. We are filling two positions in the School of Theology at PLNU and the intellectual and relational work has been incredibly intense in interviewing candidates and mulling things over as a department. Last night we didn't get out of meetings until after 6:00 pm -- and when academics go that late on Friday night, you know that people are working hard!

So I haven't had time nor energy to blog. I still hope to get caught up. But Pastor Kathy, my wife, typed some wonderful things out this week that I'd like to share with you. Enjoy what she has learned this week. Names have been changed to protect the "guilty"!

Things I've Learned This Week ~

1) It's still harder to be the person being "left" than to be the one leaving. Brian Becker has filled many roles without asking for recognition....and we will miss him more than we know. And we can look forward to witnessing God's work through him from afar as he moves to Congo.

2) That one of our friends who lives without permanent shelter has a terrible cough and I really hope he sleeps inside the shelter tonight and tomorrow night.

3) That our friends on the street teach us many things that we can't learn elsewhere. That the story of being given a lottery ticket to put in the offering plate will forever bring me pain now along with a smile as I remember and mourn the loss of Crazy Mike. And that I need to pause more and reflect upon the things he showed me....along with what I've been taught by our other friends.

4) That people come and go so quickly......and our opportunities with them are relatively short......and each moment counts. That Jesus also had limited time with each person we read about.....and he handled each with wisdom and care.

5) That I still miss Eddie Spaghetti (a homeless friend who was in a wheelchair with no legs who was run over by a truck in the street while begging) and I am thankful for the lessons about drugs and their severe consequences which he taught my children one day when they came to help me work at the church ~ back in our homeschooling days. I'm certain he was part of the reason they committed to never tamper with those evils.

6) That we have another new life coming ~ Sarah (Bol's wife) is with child. That although she is overwhelmed and even saddened, this child is a gift from God.....and has a purpose for being. I hope to surround her, with the help of others, and be a true friend and sister in Christ more closely these days.

7) That amongst our congregation we stumble upon persons who are profound gifts to us ~ that they can say the most understanding and supportive things, at just the right time....and I'm certain that this is also a gift from God.

8) That "Betty" and "Ben" are really growing as a couple and that I am excited to see the depth of their bond and also the deepening of their commitment to this congregation because of their commitment to God.

9) That "Harry" and "Betsy" are also a really neat couple, who love to laugh, and to serve....and are really going to be strong supporters of the music ministry as we go through transitions.

10) That "Jeremy" has a new job and that he won't have to miss Sundays for work anymore! (after this Sunday).

11) That the staff at our Health Promotion Center are trying to find new ways to connect with our congregations ~ and I am profoundly grateful for that.

12) That I have learned how to use a website that has worship music (with chords and lyrics) to many songs we use - and the ability to have translations of them provided in French AND Spanish! The bulletin for this Sunday has been an enormous task -- ...and that I love and anticipate the opportunity to worship together as a multicongregation ~ and truly just want to do my best for Him by providing these little bits of paper, that are inclusive, and draw us all together, and make it possible to worship Him.

And...one more....that "potluck" really means just that to some of our sister/brother congregations. We Anglos are a curious culture that only brings pretty decorative dishes ~ and call them potluck.....
In some other cultures, they take the words seriously and bring big pots of food!

So, I'm in a reflective mood and had so many things to share, that this seemed to be the way to communicate.....particularly that I am thankful to be a part of a team in these experiences and to know that we are not alone. Thank you to each of you for your encouragements and your faithfulness, for not letting fatigue and illness stop you ~ but that I sense your longing to return when those things slow or stop you for a time.....we have much to share, and to do together for Him......and we never know how much time we get to share with each of His children......but we are blessed.

May His love and strength continue to fill each of us,
Kathy

Posted by johnwright at 7:12 PM | Comments (1)

The past few weeks have been very intense. I've missed blogging, especially continuing my commentary on Benedict XVI. Every extra moment I have put into a paper that I finally gave today at a conference at PLNU.

I'm going to post the conclusion to the paper here. It might not make much sense without the argument and analysis in its midst. It constitutes a rethinking of the supposedly "Protestant" notion of vocation -- a concept that really now finds its origins in Nietzsche's will-to-power via Max Weber. In contrast, I offer an analysis of vocation from 1 Peter, "To this you have been called": non-retaliation based upon the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Thanks for your patience during my cyber-absense!

Silencing Foolish Men: Christian Vocation Today

The concept of vocation, as all concepts, presents itself to us already embedded within a particular socio-historical tradition. Different concepts of vocation, like the concepts of justice and practical rationality, “confront us as closely related aspects of some larger, more or less well-articulated, overall view of human life and of its place in nature. Such overall views, insofar as they make claims upon our rational allegiance, give expression to traditions of rational enquiry which are at one and the same time traditions embodied in particular types of social relationship” (p. 389, Whose Justice?). By examining the politics of vocation in Max Weber and 1 Peter, I have attempted to articulate, more or less well, inherent differences behind the overall view of human life that each text presents. At the very least, I have tried to show the incommensurability between the Weberian vocation and that given in 1 Peter. One cannot translate easily from one conception of vocation to the other without shifting politics, economics, anthropology, sociology, even ontologies.

If this is so, this seems to present a problem for most Christian reflection on vocation today. Most Christian reflection on vocation occurs firmly within Weberian presuppositions. Mark Schwen recently writes, “To describe fully this inner sense of calling for the Christian would require an entire book; nevertheless, one more word should perhaps be added now. We might say that a human being is called at the moment when desire and duty become one, when the source of the deepest longing is at the same time something to which one is obedent’ (“Teaching as profession and vocation,” Theology Today, 2002 59:3). The inner and the outer, vocation and profession, the charismatic individual leading the way to value the objective world, all fall within Weberian categories God becomes the onto-theo-logic that holds the inner and the outer together. Vocation takes place within the competitive marketplace of secular das Fuherern and Christians need to step up and provide their own version of aristocratic liberal formation or be left behind to meaningless jobs of no public significance. Such an argument has already lost the battle to secularity before it has even begun.

One cannot separate Weber’s concept of vocation from the subjectivist modifications of Neo-Kantian thought in terms that Nietzsche would appreciate. To conceive of vocation for Christians with Weberian presuppositions is to naturalize Weber’s understanding of politics as violence. In terms of 1 Peter, it is to understand vocation as defined by the nations, and thus, to reject the particular vocation that God has given the messianic Israel called the text calls Christians.

We must separate the Christian concept of vocation from a concept of an individual’s professionalism, and return it to a concept of confession, willingness to be reviled for the name of Christ. “To this you were called.” To substitute any other notion for vocation other than one that is based on the life, teachings, death, resurrections of Jesus is to shift the politics of vocation away from the holy people that God the Father sent the Son to draw together by the Holy Spirit. It is to deny the distinct mission that God has given the people of God to live as a messianic Israel amidst the nations for the sake of the nations. It is to subject ourselves to the judgment that will “begin with the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17). It is to confess that violence is more primordial than peace, and that God ultimately brings forth God’s will by violence rather than love.

Of course we here in the Christian academy in the United States don’t have the skills even to begin to conceive what the retrieval of a concept of vocation anchored in God’s call to non-violence in Christ would entail. We have profited far too much from the modernist subjectivization of vocation. We have not yet truly learned to suffer. Yet I am confident that God has provided those to teach us about Christian vocation, if we would like to listen. God could teach us in the bodies of the saints and martyrs, those who left the prestige of the nations for the glory of Christ. My guess is that we might even discover what genuine Christian vocation is today from those who confess Christ as the poor, the day laborers, abused women, agricultural workers, the fast food workers, those working for below subsistence wages in non-Western countries for the benefit of Western consumers and stock holders, who manage each day to arise in an unjust world, but live without retaliating because of their faith in Christ. We might find Christian vocation in places such as the bodies of mothers, those who, because of loyalty to Christ, learn to guide children into the faith in love rather than in coercive violence.

To live in solidarity with these believers would force us to conceive of the Christian academy in an entirely different way than our current understanding, for our formation and the formation of our students. We are much more comfortable living in solidarity with those who operate the ruling apparatus of the late capitalist world or with the protesting activists who would like to take the political apparatus over in the name of a governmental redistribution of goods. Only as we radically rethink our lives in terms other than those given to us from within the political norms of the nations can we retrieve a Christian notion of vocation. It seems worthy of the task.

Posted by johnwright at 5:04 PM | Comments (1)

The days have been very full. I feel bad for not getting to more commentaries on Benedict, and I have only a few minutes before going to a departmental meeting to outline tonight's Bible Study. Hopefully tonight I'll complete a draft of my paper for Saturday. I have deeply enjoyed it, but had to focus to get it done.

Today's passage is Peter's response to Cornelius. It is interesting how Cornelius' response shapes Peter's interpretation of his vision. In a real sense, the vision does not reach its fullness of meaning until Peter's declaration here.

Vv. 34-35: Who does God accept, according to Peter? Before answering, however, you might want to ask how vv. 34-35 relates to 36-41.

Vv. 36-41: Peter here repeats the story of Jesus. What does people highlight about Jesus? What is the significance of his being "Lord of all"? How does Jesus' message relate to Cornelius? Given Peter's story, what does Jesus' crucifixion tell Cornelius about Jesus? What does the God's resurrection tell Cornelius about Jesus? What is the significance that Peter tells this version of the story of Jesus in light of Cornelius' concerns?

vv. 42-43: What is the final role for Jesus? (Now you might be able to answer the first part in vv. 34-35!). Why would one receive remission of sins in his name for belief (ie., loyalty to his name)? What is it to fear God and work righteousness?

Why does Peter draw this connection to working righteousness and believing in Jesus? What significance does that have for us? What happens if one forgets Jesus and tries to work righteousness? What happens when one forgets to work righteousness and tried to believe in Jesus?

Enjoy the evening!

Posted by johnwright at 3:04 PM | Comments (0)

As we re-group in our Bible Studies, it might be good to spend a little time sharing how God has pulled you into a bible study as part of the congregation in Mid-City. It is not separate from the story of Peter and Cornelius. When the study is done, you might see how these stories compare with the real, embodied presence and incorporation of Cornelius through Peter and his delegation.

V. 24: If you notice, the meeting is not merely between Cornelius and Peter, but between Cornelius' "posse" and Peter's "posse" (if that's spelled wrong, please enjoy a good laugh at my expense). Two delegations of two different persons meet. The setting is the setting of high level negotiations.

V. 25: Following the good description of Cornelius in relationship to the Jews and the God of the Jews, the narrator reveals Cornelius' Roman/Greek character in this verse. Look back in the passage and discuss why Cornelius might interpret his experience in this fashion to make him worship Peter. What does this say about his devotion, his allegiance or faith? How does Cornelius conceive of God (or the gods)?

V. 26: Notice Peter's action, before he speaks. If you'd like, you could even act this out and see the social implications of the action. Peter brings Cornelius level with him -- quite literally. The text literally has Peter say, "I myself am a human." Why would he say this? How is he beginning to teach Cornelius? What sort of risk is involved in Peter saying this? If you notice, this takes place in the entry way, not in front of Cornelius' group.

Vv. 27-29: Compare Peter's statement with his vision earlier in the chapter. When does the significance of the vision really become clear to Peter? What does Cornelius allow Peter to see about humans? Who has changed more so far, Peter or Cornelius? Whose conversion story is this? Why? Does Peter know yet why he is there? What is God doing to Peter? What must Peter exercise in relationship to God here by his very presence with Cornelius?

Vv. 30-33: Compare Cornelius' account of his dream with its record in vv. 3-6. Does he know precisely Peter is there? Has he learned anything more in Peter's presence so far about the vision or why Peter is there? What has he learned about God? What does Cornelius want?

Seen from this perspective, the first conversion seems to be Peter's here. Why would Peter's conversion be a pre-requisite to Cornelius'? What does that tell us about the task of evangelization? What does this require from us?

Have a wonderful evening!

Posted by johnwright at 8:50 AM | Comments (0)