Calvin Synod Herald, 2017 (118. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2017-01-01 / 1-2. szám

6

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

Christian Identity and Changing Society

Phyllis Tickle makes the observation that massive transitions in the church happen about every 500 years.1 Her opinion is rooted in the fact that such transition is happening right now. I need to confess that I never read her book (though, I heard and read about it quite a few times), but my own thought deeply resonates with her notion. 1 believe, that such major changes are prompted because the church called to serve humanity (that is the “host society” within which the church physically exists), and this “host society” goes through major challenges time to time. In such changing situations, the church must find new ways to help, by finding new means of communicating the gospel. From this approach, the “double crisis”2 of the church is really a kind of “reactionary crisis.” It means that this is not a deliberately planed action on our side (we have no control above this), but something on which the church goes through with the whole of society. This is not something that we do, but something that happens to us. It does not mean that we are supposed to be passive. On the contrary, this is time for different kinds of engagements. We actually called for such suffering, and we need to participate in it actively. Our present “crisis” must reorient us to realize that we have resources to do this in a Christian way. For example, to realize that we follow a (still) suffering Master. I truly believe, that the current situation could be extremely beneficial for the church. Another important point to make here is that the society itself might not always realize its own struggle as suffering or crisis. In this article, first, I would like to reflect on a time of struggle of church and society which happened sixteen hundred years ago, Then I want to reflect on our present struggle with the help of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s late theology.

There is no doubt that Augustine of Hippo lived and worked in an era of great changes.3 He was bom in the Graco-Roman world, but he is the first Medieval thinker. He lived through the siege of Hippo by the Vandals. But his whole life as a Christian leader was dominated by other kind of conflicts: ecclesiastical queries. Two major ones were against the Donatists and against the followers of Pelagius. There are, of course, many works about the issues in these debates. From a theological point of view, those issues are still with us. However, in the time of Augustine, they were not mainly theological questions, but questions about the identity, and the future course, of the whole Christian church.

When Augustine was elected as a bishop, he became a leader of a minority group. Catholicism was greatly outnumbered by the Donatist church in North Africa, and being in continuous decline. Thus, it was a “first task in hand” for Augustine to strengthen his community. One mark of Augustine’s greatness was that he rejected the Donatist

view, mainly not on theological bases, but because he realized that the Donatist church is an isolated church with no real future. His main argument against them was that they represent a kind of elitism, which was separating them from the whole of society. The Donatist bishops saw their churches as the Ark of Noah, which preserves its identity by not being compromised with the “impure” world.4 In this respect, Augustine, had a very similar view about Pelagius. It was clear to him that by expressing the view that since perfection is possible it is obligatory, Pelagius wanted every Christian to become a monk. Pelagius practically commanded a retreat from the world into the safe isolation of the convent.

Augustine saw a higher call for the church than the simple task of keeping the “holy Law” of God. He believed in a church which was called, not to be perfect on earth, but moving toward perfection, while still being very much involved with the society. His two bywords in this issue were: “humility” and “integrity” (vs. “elitism” and “separation” of the Donatists and Pelagianism). Augustine saw a two-layered church, which contains many intractable people invited together around a devoted “core,” with strong religious affiliations (calling) and a very active devotional life. He imagined a dynamic, strong church, which can endure to be imperfect.

Augustine’s typology of the “two cites” (i.e., Jerusalem and Babylon) is well-known. He used the biblical stories about the Jews living captive in Babylon as the symbols of the “captivity” of Christians in this world. Those Jews were obedient, peaceful servants of the state. God told them to work and pray for the city.5 But they were distinct from other people because of the strong yearning for something better; that is, their true city, Jerusalem. Augustine located the City of God (the true Jerusalem) in the future. He believed that, by yearning and loving this future city, Christians can be energized to live a humble life in integrity. He saw the whole human race as growing toward this City of God. He urged his fellow believers to invite everyone into this community of yearning. He fashioned the idea of peregrinus (resident alien, or exile) as a powerful depiction of Christian identity.6 A peregrinus cannot be absorbed by the host society because s/he feels homesick, sighing for release. S/He is a kind uprooted, a passing stranger, while also capable of rejoicing with her/his neighbors in the good things God created for enjoyment.

On the other hand, we need to be careful not see Augustine as one who advocated for an uncompromised relationship with the host society, or with the secular government. Augustine, especially toward the end of his life, more and more saw the church’s alliance with the Roman Empire as practical necessity, not as an aim. Ha saw it as a source of “greater danger and temptation.” He saw