Five members of the Greater Richmond Area Christian Educators (GRACE) peer learning group took a field trip to The Center for Church Understanding of Islam and a local mosque, The Islamic Center of Virginia in November of 2006. The event was put together by GRACE member, Marty Canaday, Minister of Christian Formation at the Derbyshire Baptist Church (Richmond, VA) as a small group learning experience to facilitate greater understanding of Islam and dialogue between Christian and Muslim leaders. Dr. Charles Beckett, Director of The Center for Church Understanding led the GRACE group in an orientation to Islam through a tour of the Center and arranged a tour and dialogue with the administrative director of a local mosque. After the tour the group met over lunch for discussion with Dr. Beckett. They shared impressions and pondered questions about their experience.

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Theocracies are not new, of course. They spring up all throughout history (and literature), sometimes as a result of a group that sees itself as a “remnant” and splits off from a larger religious culture, and sometimes they come about as a result of a reactive or pro-active stance against the wider “secular city.” In a world that many describe as “post Christendom” a Christian “city of God” seems newsworthy:

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In a previous post (“Communion Rant”) we talked about the penchant of certain preachers for “explaining” communion. Some argue that it is necessary because, they reason, some people in the congregation, and especially visitors and the recently unchurched, do not understand the meaning of the ritual.

Here are two pieces that help address our penchant for cognitive “understanding” and how it is related to matters of faith, and the counterintuitive ways in which faith is acquired and needs to be inculcated.

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An Update on Christian/Muslim Relations: Hope & Concern

Below is an interesting article that I just pulled from a Catholic online news service. John Allen is a freelance journalist that lives in Rome and reports for CNN and U.S. Catholic publications. He was CNN’s lead expert during the papal funeral and elections. His article below updates some concerns for Christians in Gaza, but provides hope for a growing movement within Islam that might counter-balance the madness. (Allen’s online weekly articles are posted free on ncrcafe.org, so I was not as concerned about possible copyright trespass by providing it here. If his writing is of interest to you, support his efforts by visiting the site directly. He just published a “tell-all” book about Opus Dei, the controversial Catholic group that is featured in the book DaVinci Code.)

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“Divan” (2003, 77 minutes) is a nice addition to your list of “systems movies.” The documentary tells the story of Pearl Gluck, a “slipped” daughter of Hassidic parents.

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I had an interesting conversation around the dinner table with some seminary professors recently. The on-going topic of assessment related to “ministerial formation” came up, as it often does. Given that this is now an ATS (Association of Theological Schools) component of assessment in the accrediting process it becomes, like every assessment criteria, a point of institutional anxiety. I was struck again at the lack of clarity about what formation is, and about the relationship between formation and context, on the part of theological educators.

That should come as no surprise given that most theological faculty are trained as scholars in a particular discipline and field of knowledge. Most become members of professional “guilds” whose focus becomes (1) the profession (teaching in theological schools) and (2) the advancement of the discipline. Rarely will they study other disciplines or delve into content that is not focused on their discipline–including, congregations, education, or faith formation.

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Here’s a quote from some current reading….

“What isn’t said,” seems to me the most significant measure of a certain kind of pseudo-Christianity, of the sort that uses Christian words for this-worldly life, that preaches, for example, about “transformation” and “the presence of God amond us” and “the empowering spirit” and the like without ever mentioning sin, judgement, redemption, and the Cross that transforms us. People who use such words are rarely overtly heretical, but they do not say what a Christian says. (Which is part of the appeal).

This seems to me obvious, but it is a point I’ve had great trouble getting into the heads of conservative Christians I’ve talked to, even those, like pastors and academics, who ought to have some skill in discerning the real from the fake. An astonishing number evaluate a sermon or book solely on the basis of what is said, so the strongest judgement they will make of counterfeit Christianity is “It’s weak” or “It’s thin” or “I would have said . . . ” or “I wish he had said . . . “

They wouldn’t call a sugar pill prescribed by a doctor for someone suffering from cancer “weak,” not say without anger, “I wish he had given him real medicine.” They demand reality in medicine, though apprently not in religion.
—David Mills, quoted in Touchstone March 2007, p. 6.

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You know, Baptists just don�t have to worry about any of this, but it may be fun to give a quiz in a pastoral leadership class on clergy liturgical vestments. I always enjoyed visiting Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) and watch the student aspiring clergy ordering their vestments along with their graduation regalia. They LOVE this stuff!

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O.k., I thought this was pretty funny. Why I am not emergent.

Despite the playful poke in the eye attitude, I still am not much impressed by any of the “new movements” on the cafeteria of the current American religious landscape. Hype? Style? Adolescent? All of the above? When I compare the thinking and writing of more orthodox saints of the faith (past and present, but more and more, those of the past), the voices of the current movements sound hollow, shrill, and whinney. At a certain point, faith requires intellectual and spiritual gravitas if it is to be relevant and transformative. Running barefoot in the fields of the Lord can feel liberating, and thumbing one’s nose at the perceived hubris of Tradition makes for satisfying adolescent rebellion, but at the end of the day it is the obedient embrace to the spirit and mind of Christ that matters, not how “cool” you look.