In 1979, the book, The Changing of the Gods, Feminism
and the End of Traditional Religions, by Naomi Goldenberg was published.
I found what I read of this book more polemical than informative, but
its title made a statement, symbolizing a whole movement. A book I read
more fully, with an equally self-explanatory title, is When God Was
A Woman, by Merlin Stone, published in 1976. A lot of women and men
were turning to religions worshipping a goddess, as a way to turn the
mass consciousness to respect women and female wisdom which holds up values
of peace and cooperation and respect for the environment. Since the civil
rights movement, many other movements took shape as well, such as the
diversity/ multiculturalism and environmental movements.
As I have stated previously in this paper, I and many other Americans
have taken an interest in Native Americans, for their cultural environmental
principles and values. Concurrently in recent decades there has a movement
among Native Americans who had been assimilated somewhat as Americans,
to go back to their roots. Indigenous cultures cannot always be lumped
into one category, but they usually have patterns of respect for nature
that all cultures must have had before modernization, in order to survive.
Urban society today is more removed from nature and we are less aware
of how our actions affect how well nature is holding up. We need to figure
out how to take care of the natural world since it takes care of us. When
immigrant Americans who want to get back to nature seek out Native Americans,
the latter are not necessarily so welcoming. First their lands were stolen
and now the culture they have left is sought after as well. Some Native
Americans I have known have expressed that immigrant Americans should
find out about the indigenous cultures of their own ancestors, from wherever
they came from.
A review of the book by Marcus Bach, Strangers at the Door, which
I quoted in my final college mini-sermon, says, "It is a surprising fact
that in today’s society a "turned-off" generation is "turned-on" to religion.
These are not the same expressions that have traditionally been accepted
in the west but are rather new movements-east and west-that not only present
new beliefs but also threaten existent ones" (Bjaaland 1973).
The movement to follow eastern religions peaked in the late 1960s and
‘70s. When I was a child in the 1960’s, I thought that everyone went to
church on Sundays. I didn’t think it was an option not to go to church.
Nowadays people take the law more seriously that separates church and
state and feel freer to choose their own religion apart from their family
or to choose no religion at all. American churches, which for years were
gathering places for communities, are losing membership as population
increases. In my twenties, I stopped going to church for several years
to explore spiritualities that reflected my concerns for the environment,
women and indigenous values. After exploring creation spirituality, I
returned slowly to church with the idea that I had a right to engage in
spiritual beliefs from different sources and my Christian beliefs at the
same time. I could benefit from elements of Christianity that were nurturing
and look for ways to remain true to my own beliefs discovered from exploring
other movements. When I rejoined church, part of the initiation (in the
Lutheran Book of Worship) required of me was to "renounce all the
forces of evil, devil and all his empty promises", though the "devil"
(a "he" like God) is seldom actually talked about in Lutheran churches.
I also had to commit to peace and justice, which I had no confusion about.
One of my siblings joined the Bahai religion in the 1970s, a religion
born in the Middle East. In very recent years, a well known story is that
of John Walker Lindh from Marin County in California who joined the Muslims
and was arrested for fighting the U.S. in Afghanistan. This trend toward
choice of religion as well as for no religion at all, by those leaving
Christianity has become more prevalent than ever.
A recent article in a New York Journal, states that Mainline Churches
are reeling, especially in New York. It names five denominations: Methodist,
Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian and United Church of Christ. It says
that "membership in New York City and the surrounding suburbs has fallen
by 45 percent since the heyday of 1960, when the spiritual descendants
of Luther, Calvin and Wesley composed the white-bread religious mainstream….
By comparison, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York runs 414 parishes
for an estimated 2.5 million Catholics." There are "growing numbers of
evangelical and Pentecostal churches" and outsiders who have "no strong
religious affiliation." They are "the group most available to replenish
mainline churches," but "know virtually nothing about the difference between
a Lutheran and an Episcopalian or what a Methodist believes. In greater
New York, these churches are coping as best they can, in an area dominated
by the Catholic Church and Jewish community. These Protestant traditions
have strong pockets in the Midwest and the south which tend to lean toward
being conservative. However, in New York, they tend to have a rational,
liberal, "very New York" approach to worship, with a brave voice for social
justice and interreligious understanding, which is in now in peril, according
to this numbers count. The article goes on to speculate why and what can
be done about it. However, it is clear that some changes are happening,
not just in California (Stern 2003).
Author Dr. Harvey Cox has studied religious trends and wrote in 1977
about the trend in the 1960’s and ‘70’s for white middle class and young
people to join Eastern spiritual movements. More came from liberal Protestant
and reform Jewish backgrounds than the proportion of these groups to the
general population. Few came from strongly atheistic or unusually pious
homes (Cox 1977, 38).
Cox and some students did a study asking people why they chose Eastern
religions and found that they were looking for friendship, a way to experience
life directly and a personal encounter with God or simply "with life,
nature and other people." Some looked for authority and truth. Cox interpreted
that to result from "the dissolution of conventional moral codes; the
erosion of traditional authorities" and "over choice" (1977, 39). Some
saw Eastern spirituality as being more natural, having a kind of unspoiled
purity, as simple and fresh, less corrupt. Often they could say more clearly
why they left a western religion than why they joined an Eastern religion.
Western civilization is shot…It is nothing but technology and power and
rationalization, corrupted to its core by power and money. It has no contact
with nature, feeling, spontaneity. What we need to do now is learn from
the Oriental peoples who have never been ruined by machines and science,
who have kept close to their ancestors’ simplicity. Western religion has
invalidated itself. Now only the East is possible (Ibid.).
Those interviewed were some of the most widely read and best educated
of the "East turners." Cox said their goals were not that different from
other Americans in modern society. Simultaneous to this, however, many
Easterners were turning towards Western science and technology, etc. The
"mysterious Orient" sought by Americans was a myth of purity and they
may have been turning back to an archaic way of life rather than to a
historical one. Cox felt this trend was a symptom of a malaise in our
society. He criticized this movement for adding to the religious consumerist
marketplace. An old-fashioned glutton eats too much food while this type
craves experience; not to have something but to try something. Cox wrote
that the "gods of the Orient mean one thing there, and something quite
different there." We will only know the real Orient when we let go of
the mythical one. We will only hear their message "when we are willing
to confront the inner dislocations in our own civilizations that caused
us to invent the myth of the East in the first place" (1977, 39-42).
My father gave me this article by Harvey Cox. He thought about such things
when he was a Lutheran hospital chaplain. He received special training
to be a chaplain, which included courses in psychology and his interests
and ability to consider other movements widened as a result from that
experience. I know he was trying to figure out how to deal with my sister
joining the Bahai faith and the trend in general of young people in the
1960’s and 1970’s to drift to other religions. Christian theologians who
don’t condemn other religions at least try to understand them.
Another article I came across by Harvey Cox was written in 1984 when
the loss of young people from conventional churches was even more obvious
and he looked to see what activity there actually was going on outside
mainline American churches. He wrote that today "we need a post-modern
theology in order to cope not with the decline of religion but with its
resurgence; not with the death of God but with the rebirth of gods; not
with spreading skepticism but with a new sense of the sacred; not with
private piety but with political faith…." Though written twenty years
ago about when I began my spiritual quest away from the conventional church,
the same trends continue. Cox wrote, "Whereas theology was once manufactured
at the center for distribution…the flow is now being reversed. It is the
periphery which is now impacting the center…. This capsizing movement
will require those theologians whose work is done at the center to learn
to ‘listen to the edges.’" Two concerns will then demand more attention:
the plurality of religions and the power of folk piety, or popular religion
(1984, 24).
Cox continues to say that renewal of Christianity is coming from places
where Christians are poor, including Latin America; places like Asia where
small minorities are surrounded by non-Christians; where there are political
despotisms; in American churches of poor blacks and whites; and from women
who agonize over what it means to be Christian and female in a church
that has perpetuated patriarchy for two millennia. He wrote that "a viable
postmodern theology will be created neither by those who have completely
withdrawn from the modern world nor by those who have affirmed it unconditionally,"
but from those who have lived within it but have never been fully part
of it. "What is needed is not some measured middle ground, but a theology
forged by those who have been both inspired and abused, both touched and
trampled on by the religion of the modern age" (1984, 25).
Latin Americans have emphasized an "antifetishistic theology of life"
as opposed to what they view as a culture of "lifeless commodities and
gray death." Asians talk about the cosmic Spirit of Christ in their Hindu
and Buddhist neighbors. "Blacks decry the lack of ‘soul’ in a blanched
world. Women speak frequently of the need to restore the human body with
all its senses fully alive to a Christianity that has become arid and
cerebral. Poor white church people do not theorize about it much," but
middle-class visitors always notice in lower-class Pentecostalism, "its
embodied energy, dancing and shouting and ecstatic utterances" (Ibid.).
Cox writes that the religious foundation for a new world civilization
does not have to be invented. It is already present; the mice are scampering
among the mammoths. Similarly, in the early Christian church, and in later
reforms, communities with a new vision met in clusters in peoples’ homes,
thriving in the "niches and interstices of an empire that was cracking
apart"(Ibid.).
A more recent newspaper article reports on Marin County in California
where a recent survey by a Jewish research organization found a far higher
percentage of people embracing alternative religions or none at all, than
the rest of the country. Marin is an affluent county directly north of
San Francisco, where spiritual movements were at their height in the 1960’s.
A phone survey of 604 people in 2000 found 27 percent were Protestant,
23 percent were "other," which was more than Jews or Catholics. "38 percent
attend religious worship regularly compared to 60 percent in a national
Gallup poll. 49 percent pray before meals, compared with 86 percent in
the rest of the nation. 57 percent believe in God, compared with 85 percent
in the whole U.S. Of those who listed "other," "26 percent practiced Buddhism
alone or in combination with some other belief, such as Celtic or New
Age spirituality. Hindus, Muslims, Taoists, Bahai’s, Rastafarians, adherents
of the Goddess religion, pagans, those who worship "love" and supporters
of the metaphysical make up the rest" (Fimrite 12/2/02, 15 & 17).
Women’s spirituality trends today include those calling themselves pagan
or Wiccan as well as the phenomenon of women infiltrating the ministerial
leadership of Christianity. I believe a parallel thing is happening for
Jews. I do know that girls as well as women now have Bat Mitzvah’s which
in the past was only for boys.
The East Bay Express of Berkeley California, featured an article,
Every Witch Way, Inside the East Bay’s Pagan Community in
1992. One reason given there for the popularity of Wicca today
is to counteract male dominance. An interviewee in the Express
stated, "The preeminence of the Goddess was always put in context of the
culture being male-dominated. A sense of balance between genders or energy
fields is central in traditional Wicca....Probably, most men are more
comfortable relating to a female...spiritual figure because it’s less
threatening at first. Men tend to have a better relationship with their
mothers than with their fathers (McFever 1992, 24).
A few years later, (2/13/96), the feature article in the Express, a Berkeley,
California weekly, was The Women of Holy Hill. It includes an interview
of Mary Ann Tolbert, a professor at the United Church of Christ seminary,
Pacific School of Religion (PSR) and states that though in the early 1960’s,
ten percent of students were female, today over half are. Though the article
states that many women in recent years opted out for a Wiccan or related
spirituality that favors women, those that followed the traditional paths
often find themselves "compromising in order to not lose the positions
they’ve worked so hard to gain. Dr. Lawrence, faculty at WISR has said
to me on occasion that women are being allowed into the ministry just
as churches are on the decline in the same way that African Americans
were allowed to be mayors just as cities started to decline. In spite
of her many struggles, Tolbert persists. She seems to follow a liberation
theology and states that Christianity is the impulse to be part of creating
the kingdom of God, a world where humans are treated with the dignity
inherent in their birth (Callaway 1996, 13).
The religious openness and tolerance for choice made it possible for
all this diversity. John Walker Lindh, who is serving time in federal
prison for his involvement with the Taliban, came from Marin. Mr. Tobin,
the president of the Jewish institute which conducted the study in Marin
described above said "the notion that exploring religious options and
having a variety of options leads somehow to someone becoming a traitor
and fighting against his country is a dangerous idea…. and is an "example
of the extreme fear of the unknown," having "nothing to do with the landscape
of religious tolerance in Marin." It sounds like people in Marin were
feeling the judgment of some of more conservative people from other parts
of the country after Lindh’s arrest. However, Tobin feels that Marin’s
diversity is probably reflective of the prevailing attitude throughout
the Bay Area and a reflection of a nationwide, though less pronounced,
trend rejecting organized religion which will likely affect the nation
as a whole in time. He suggested it is a call to religions to find other
ways to engage people (Fimrite 2002, 15, 17).
I heard the former Bishop of Sweden, Krister Stendahl, speak a year ago
at a conference on peace in the context of world religions at Gustavus
Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He said we need to cultivate
"holy envy" for other religions, rather than to take from them like cut
flowers. Many religions are open to converts from other faiths and cultures,
but some are less so. The ability to choose a religion is a new phenomenon
in the West, and not available in all cultures around the world. My father’s
perspective, as he considered the movement of youth towards other religions,
is that we need to get back to our own roots. This is what this paper
is about in a way, however, I feel that there may be roots deeper than
the religion I grew up with; roots in indigenous religion(s) that preceded
it. I do have two minds about the subject, though. The faith most of my
family has been a part of is the religion that took the place of an older
religion which may have incorporated values of the older religion and
my ancestors’ culture within it. It may be artificial to try to revive
something that my familial community has neither kept alive nor revived.
However, I agree with the seekers of Eastern and neopagan traditions that
want to be connected to the earth and find there wholeness. It is important
to know about our own family’s cultural history as much as possible, as
N.F.S. Grundtvig encouraged. Starting with knowing the positive aspects
of our own origins, we can and need to dialogue with other individuals
and cultures we come in contact with more and more in this technological
age, to develop the fabric of life, to which all beings belong.
Popular and Dialogic Education: A Way To Tie People
And Ideas Together
Besides spiritual trends, this paper is also about education for social
change. Creation Spirituality’s Via Transformativa addresses the importance
of working through social problems instead of wallowing in the left and
right extremes of the American political and social sphere. The fact,
though, that the religious right seems so united, might give us pause,
considering all the postmodern movements of the political left. I have
been told that in 1964, with the collapse of Barry Goldwater’s presidential
campaign, conservatives got together and really got organized.
Popular education, for all people, is best when it is grassroots and
experts don’t dictate to people what to believe, but where people learn
to talk with each other and people of all backgrounds to learn and grow
together. In order to even start this, however, there needs to be a positive
setting to motivate people. For instance, grades and deadlines can motivate
in a competitive way, on the other hand, they can be irrelevant where
real learning is concerned. By encouraging dialogue where all are considered
learners and teachers, popular education helps society move forward by
working through issues and problems.
Van Jones, founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in San Francisco
was interviewed in the Utne Reader and speaks to this topic. He
says that Progressives have historically done this kind of organizing
with planning and foresight, especially before the civil rights movement
in the ‘40s and ‘50s and he mentions the Highlander Center in Tennessee
which I refer to later in this paper and in my addendum on N.F.S. Grundtvig
and the folk schools (Razdan 3-4/2003, 60). He says that "that long-term
patience and strategic planning is no longer a feature or function of
progressive social change work." He says that from the early 1960s to
the late 1990s the "left went from a populist movement to an elite movement."
The right put much more into building up their mass-media capabilities,
grassroots organizations and ability to mobilize people while the progressives
put most of their efforts into litigation, lobbying efforts, fragmented
paper-membership check-gathering organizations and less into bottom-up
mass organization building. "While the religious right has had a great
deal of success, progressives have failed to invest in a religious left.
The best strategy for failure is to decide that our relationship to major
institutions—of faith, of the government and business—is going to be total
opposition…to all of them." He feels that the left should rethink its
strategies and not just do radical tactics like protest, but also more
mainstream tactics like running people for office and taking responsibility
for job creation in communities. The left needs not just protest but have
a plan for leadership and governance. Instead of just criticizing, it
needs to do problem solving and try to make things work, to inspire with
positive feeling and not just wallow in resentment at how things are going
(3-4/2003, 60-61).
Another article in this Utne Reader says that many leftists find it very
important to have the correct analysis, but this skill alone will not
lead others along. There need to be relationship skills and people need
to feel they are being treated with respect. Andre Carothers, who trains
activists, quotes Gandhi, that "you need to be the change you want to
see in the world." It is important not to just be right but to connect
with people and accomplish something. "People don’t get moved through
being persuaded. People get moved through being aligned" (3-4/2003, 65-66).
The senior editor of Utne magazine, Jon Spayde, writes that he was changed
after 9/11 and wanted to seek truth not out of smug self-righteousness
but expressed a desire to connect with others from a level of common concern
and caring. I want people who differ from me to accept that my left-of-center
convictions are real and heartfelt and based on an honest reading of reality,
not the products of left-wing brainwashing in my college years, nor part
of a plot to ruin the American family and the American economy. But I
have no right to ask for this courtesy if I am not willing to accept that
others’ free-market faith, opposition to abortion, and emphatic support
of the American Military are equally honest and conscious, and not a media-induced
trance.
He writes that true debate has degenerated today into pointless and endless
back-and-forth assertions of unshakeable faith with surreal inflation
of everyone’s rhetoric. He recommends using the word connection
just as Republicans say United we stand. Typical left strategy
fosters divisiveness that has accomplished many goals but it also
leads to distrust and resentment Connection insists on remaining
in communication without sacrificing principle; it’s an opening of the
heart with respect for other people. (3-4/2003, 57-60)
In this next section I focus on relating Lutheranism to Creation Spirituality.
Within that discussion, I talk about a Lutheran educator who was also
a theologian, N.F.S. Grundtvig, who started the folk schools idea which
became a popular education movement in Denmark and beyond. In my addendum
there is a copy of an essay I wrote about his legacy and how folk schools
are a nonviolent way to create social change, which was published in the
book, Community and the World. My goal is to dialogue, first with myself,
and then with others, about how Lutheranism relates to creation spirituality.
The purpose of this is to address the many issues I have written about
so far in this paper, including the drifting of religious tradition amidst
new ideas and how this relates to real live families and communities who
make up a populace that makes the world what it is, for better and worse.
My interviews at the end of the paper will include people who are not
Lutheran and will reflect the issues of western postmodern society where
people change their religions at will, surrounding any discussion of Lutheranism
and Creation Spirituality.
Lutheranism and Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox published other books during 1996 when he published Confessions,
described above and there have been more since. One I recently acquired
is Natural Grace, coauthored with Scientist Rupert Sheldrake. In
it they make connections between nature and spirituality. Matthew Fox
writes that he might as well say Original Grace as Original
Blessing (Natural Grace, Fox 1996, 54). I’m not sure that he
defines grace exactly as Lutheran theologians would, but this could be
one starting place for the dialogue between Creation Spirituality and
Lutheranism.
Though I have had few dialogues with Lutherans about creation spirituality,
from the ones I have had, I realize that Lutherans have their own takes
on it, depending on who you talk to. Lutherans are like other people in
that some follow the traditional ceremonies while others have left and
follow "postmodern" movements, from neopagan to indigenous spiritual practices
to the Unitarian church. Others may follow a middle ground and maintain
some connection to church while following popular movements at the same
time.
I am not an ordained theologian so have a lay perspective for connecting
Creation Spirituality to Lutheranism. Those with a theological degree
are likely to have a broader and more extensive background of study, though
I feel I know a certain amount, having grown up in the church as a "PK"
(preacher’s kid), because of my religion major in college and because
I worked for a church for a year and a half. Having grown up in the church,
left for awhile and rejoined, I feel I have a certain independence of
thought and perspective
Worship itself by any tradition can be a positive force. "Pagan" and
indigenous religious in general tend to worship outdoors which is probably
the best way to cultivate an awareness of our oneness with all creation.
In worship experiences with neopagans and Native Americans I have felt
a wonderful, deep and spiritual connection to and celebration of the earth.
I have, however, come to find some enjoyment in going back to church,
though I don’t go as often as during the first part of my life, to experience
an old tradition and familiar associations with something I felt very
much a part of at one time. My sense of belonging includes feeling a connection
to my family members who have been active in that church, living and dead,
and I am aware that the Lutheran church formed many of my values.
When I was younger I thought the Lutheran church needed reforming. Since
I’ve been away, many reforms have been made, such as in new hymnals with
more contemporary language. Not all churches follow these changes, however,
which may have affected the dropping off of more youthful membership.
I am able to appreciate the older people who attend at one church I go
to, but I also appreciate the freshness of another, more progressive,
younger Lutheran church. While writing an article for a newsletter (Jackson)
on the struggles of homosexuals to express their sexual preferences, I
came to realize that I do not take readings from the Bible literally,
but symbolically.
Though I have explored some of the neopagan and feminist spirituality
and indigenous spirituality, I have some concern for how this legacy of
Lutheranism will continue into the 21st century with what appears to me
to be an exodus away of the younger generations. So far, I mostly feel
like I’m on my own journey in this direction, but I am concerned about
others, old and young. I don’t know if I’m ready to go as far as to proselytize
Lutheranism, but I would like to talk to Lutherans about what they think
about creation spirituality and other postmodern spiritual movements and
plan to do that in this paper in the section following this. Creation
Spirituality is a refreshing perspective but most people don’t know about
it. In order to bend some ears, I have started by reconnecting to Lutheranism.
In the process I am identifying core values of the Lutheran view of Christianity
which are valuable to me and other Lutherans. I want to relate Creation
Spirituality to Lutheranism as a way of bridging some of the generational
and other gaps in our families and communities. From harmonious communities,
I believe, we can build a harmonious world.
Catholics, Lutherans, Protestants and More….
Though exiled from the Catholic church, Matthew Fox brought a rich challenge
to that institution. Lutherans and other Protestants are part of a movement
which broke off from the Catholic church centuries ago. They still share
much with the Catholic church but are like siblings and have things they
share together as well. A lot of symbolism and ritual was done away with
by Protestants. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was reduced as a central figure
for reverence. The main differences may be on slants in theology and there
will always be subtle cultural, geographical and historical variations.
To relate Creation Spirituality to Lutheranism, we need to be aware of
the different groups and how they work alike or differently. Thus I will
interweave some themes from Protestants as well as other closely related
religious groups. Judaism is closely related, though this is seldom acknowledged
as such by Christians. More respect should be given to this religion out
of which Christianity sprang. Creation Spirituality relates to most religions
by putting a spotlight on the created universe and life here on earth.
What is Lutheranism?
Lutheranism is a denomination of Christianity named after Martin Luther
who lived from the 15th to the 16th century. It was started by his followers,
as Luther would not have called himself a Lutheran. He didn’t intend to
breakoff from the Catholic Church, but developed understandings forged
in struggle to understand Scripture which led to a breakoff from the medieval
church. As a result, Lutheran priests could marry and did not sell indulgences
to assuage people’s guilt for sins. The Catholic church stopped selling
indulgences in time as well.
Where I was raised in northern Illinois, the main tenet of Lutheranism
that was drummed in to me was that our sins have been forgiven by the
grace of God. Luther believed that after we experience God’s grace, "good
works" will spring forth. "Good works do not make a good man, but a good
man does good works" (Dillenger 1961, 69). Luther makes the case that
a person could appear to do good works outwardly, but in fact could be
deceiving people and leading them astray. It is important to look beyond
works, laws and doctrines about works. We are saved by God’s mercy and
grace when we believe. It is nothing we can earn, but is based on spiritual
faith. Good works are not to be rejected, of course (1961, 71-72). They
are done from a spiritual motivation, not for outward reward. Other Protestant
groups such as Calvinists, which developed later, came to put more emphasis
on good works as a sign of salvation. Luther’s emphasis on being saved
by grace, which is naturally followed by good works is the reverse of
that.
On Christian freedom, Luther advised a middle course when it came to
obeying human laws and ceremonies, following the Apostle Paul’s advise
to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s (1961, 387). He said that at times
it is important to break tradition when amongst those for whom tradition
is more important than one’s relationship to God. At other times it may
be important to go along with rules, in order to not offend but to find
acceptance to share one’s faith with these same people. With those who
would break the laws, at times it was important to follow the laws, to
teach those who would break them how to live civilly with others. At other
times it might be necessary to break laws, if they cause harm to those
who are weak. Luther compares ceremonies to models and plans for builders
and architects. When the building is done, the plans are thrown away and
forgotten; they are not the permanent structure (1961, 82-84). It seems
that when to take a middle course depended on the seriousness of the situation.
Martin Luther felt his differences with the Catholic Church were serious
enough to counter by expressing his views which really rocked the boat
and started the whole church reformation.
Luther probably wouldn’t have been successful by himself in starting
the Reformation, but may have been more like a match starting a dry brush
fire. The times were ripe for change. Luther had been affected by these
times and in turn affected others. Christian humanism paralleled secular
humanism by emphasizing source material of the Bible while the secular
realm emphasized the classic culture of Greece and Rome. By getting back
to interpreting theological issues based on the Bible rather than on obedience
to the Pope’s proclamations and Catholic traditions, Luther and others
like him felt they needed to get Christianity back on track. Other trends
of the times were an increase in nationalism and peoples’ sense of ethnicity.
The middle class was challenging the feudal system. Small towns became
urban centers and "there was a new feeling of independence from the feudal
lords." Dissatisfied peasants were ready to revolt and did so at times.
"The travels of Columbus and Magellan, the new ideas of Copernicus, and
above all the spread of information through the printing press exposed
new horizons of knowledge." (1961, xi-xii) The expansion of use of the
printing press to print his writings as well as the Bible in people’s
native tongues parallels the influence of the computer, the internet and
email today in its effectiveness in sharing ideas widely and quickly.
Thus Lutherans emphasize the Bible as a superior source but they also
have been part of an ecumenical movement which shares statements of faith,
which include Apostles Creed and the Ten Commandments. Luther’s small
catechism included the latter plus the sacraments of baptism and communion
plus his morning and evening prayers. This is what young teenagers have
traditionally been expected to learn to become an adult member of the
church and to take communion. Lutherans organize themselves into geographical
groups called synods. Earlier in my lifetime these synods were characterized
more by immigrant cultural background but since most of those have now
merged into the ELCA, which I think of as a mainstream movement with more
liberal than conservative values. The Missouri Synod is one of the few
more conservative German holdouts that didn’t join the largest body of
Lutherans.
Matthew Fox on Protestantism and Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox wrote a critique of Protestantism in relation to Creation
Spirituality in an essay in Creation Magazine, a publication sponsored
by Friends of Creation Spirituality. He wrote that the "Great Scandal
of Protestantism" is that they are "out of touch with 33 percent of what
inspired Martin Luther’s prophetic criticism of the Western church," or
the mystical tradition. He said that "as a body, mainline Protestantism
has repressed the mystical" and to the same extent, the fire, passion,
eros and power of the Spirit. As a result, "Preachers of fire and brimstone,"
fundamentalists, are walking away with the "hearts and truncated minds
of Western religion." There is "no longer a fire in the belly of Protestant
religion" and mystics are not understood. "When mystics are forgotten,
so too is creativity" (Fox 7-8/1985, p.6).
Martin Luther was influenced by the Theologica Germanica, a fourteenth-century
spiritual work "straight out of the Rhineland mystics," Eckhart, Hildegard
and Mechtild. The author was anonymous which is understandable since after
Eckhart was condemned, a holistic mysticism was suspect. Fox writes that
Luther thought that John Tauler, a Dominican who studied with Meister
Eckhart, was the author. "As Lutheran scholar Bengt Hoffman points out,
it was from Tauler that Luther learned realized eschatology. He ‘had convinced
Luther that eternal life begins on this earth and that eternal life should
not be connected with reward.’ What is at issue in terms of reward and
earning of heaven is Eckhart’s theology of ‘living without a why’" (7-8/85,
7). Fox continues to say that if Catholics had been studying Eckhart in
the past 300 years, the wars between Protestants and Catholics over works
and justification would have been eliminated. "Eckhart wrote, ‘all works
are surely dead if anything from the outside compels you to work.’"
Fox goes on to say that in addition to "confessing that one-third of
the influence on his theology and decision-making was that of the Rhineland
mystics," in his Small Catechism, he includes the three articles
of Christian faith, "1) Creation, 2) Redemption, 3) Sanctification". Fox
writes that 99 percent of Western Christianity since Luther has leaped
over the first issue, Creation. "Anthropocentrism reigns in Protestant
and Catholic circles alike (Ibid.)."
Fox says that he had noticed a movement in seminaries to develop the
Western spiritual tradition. He calls this a right-brain awakening, which
many of fearful of. He proposes a four-point plan to recover a healthy
spirituality for "protesting Christianity."
1) Return to Sources: Fox suggests that Protestants study the
works of the Rhineland mystics, including Julian of Norwich, Meister Eckhart,
Dante, Aquinas, Francis, Mechtild, Hildegard of Bingen…. the Middle Ages
do not belong to the Roman Catholic Church!" There were many protestors
during this time. Luther’s friend and colleague, a preacher at Nuremberg,
Adreas Osiander, called Hildegard of Bingen the "first Protestant" (Fox
9/10-1985, 8).
2) Cease confusing human words with the Word of God: Protestant’s
greatest strength, preaching, is also a weakness. Ever since the printing
press, they have over-identified the "Word of God" with the "words of
the preacher or words of the Holy Bible." When we reduce God and Creation
to humanity’s words, we are anthropocentric. He suggests that Protestant
theologians repeat the sentence from Meister Eckhart, "Every creature
is a word of God and a book about God." Creation started at least nineteen
billion years before human words. Wisdom and God existed before any words
were spoken. Proverbs 8 says that the Lord created Wisdom at the "beginning
of his work, the first of his acts of old, before the beginning of the
earth." Wisdom was at God’s side, a "master workman…daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always" (Proverbs 8, vv. 22-23, 30-31) (9/10-1985,
8-9).
Fox quotes Carl Jung who wrote that there is a danger when we replace
the whole of reality with words.
3) Resist the imperialism of left-brainitis by recovering eros, play
art as meditation and silence: Fox criticizes liberal Protestantism
of being too rational and the Fundamentalists of being too sentimental.
He refers to Carl Jung who talks about "chronic iconoclasm", resulting
in an "alarming poverty of symbols." Fox says that by returning to the
basics, like clay, paint, dance and massage, we enliven imagination and
allow mystery to flow. One student of his had a dream where she had a
huge brain and the right side was a dried up prune. Fox writes that art
as meditation can moisten a shriveled up brain. A healthy Via Negativa
is letting go of human wordiness and allowing silence, without and within,
which, as the poet Rilke wrote, "touches the roots of speech" (Ibid.).
4) Recover the Via Positiva: Fox feels that too much "moroseness
and ethical righteousness" hands over the best and most critical prophets
of the West. This "moral sadness and depression resembles the guilt-ridden
sermons of fundamentalists. What’s missing is Via Positiva: joy, delight,
wonder at being alive and the cosmic unfolding of divine revelation in
the ongoing creation.
He quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer as writing from his prison cell shortly
before being executed, "I wonder whether it is possible…to regain
the idea of the Church as providing an understanding of the area of freedom
(art, education, friendship, play)...? I really think that it is so and
it would mean that we should recover a link with the Middle Ages. Who
is there, for instance, in our times, who can devote himself with an easy
mind to music, friendship, games or happiness?" (Ibid.)
Using Matthew Fox’ outline in Original Blessing of the four paths,
I offer below some connections and thoughts of how Lutheranism relates
to these themes. The only way Lutherans and other Protestants will take
a longer look at Matthew Fox’s creative analysis of Christianity and spirituality
in general is to make it their own. After that I hope to have some discussions
with Lutherans, past Lutherans and perhaps some Protestants who aren’t
Lutheran, about what they think about Creation Spirituality, Lutheranism
and their own spiritual paths today. I find myself talking to Protestants
as well as Lutherans about this topic so expect to include some of them
in my discussions. For some reason, I haven’t talked about this with Catholics
much. One thought is that the Catholic church is so large, it is in a
way, in a world of its own and doesn’t know why Lutherans would need to
take their own study of Creation Spirituality. I know that when I attended
ICCS which was an institute at a Catholic college, I felt that Catholic
culture was assumed, so this work is to complete the study of Creation
Spirituality for me, or perhaps it will be a new beginning. This is not
meant to be the definitive work on this subject, but perhaps a beginning
exploration.
The Influence of the Theologica Germanica on
Martin Luther’s Spiritual Beliefs
Martin Luther wrote that, next to the Bible and Saint Augustine, no book
other than the Theologica Germanica had interested him as much
in his learning path to understand his religious faith (Hoffman 1980,
54). The anonymous author was once a German knight and a priest and warden
from Frankfurt. He belonged to the Teutonic Order, which, after the crusades,
was remolded into a domestic community of service and evangelism with
a dual responsibility "to care for the sick and to do battle against false
belief" (1980, 2). Luther and others have suspected that John Tauler,
who was influenced by Meister Eckhart, may have been the author, but at
any rate, many believe that Tauler was an influence on the author (1980,
44). The brief introduction to the book states that God spoke it through
a "friend of his" (1980, 8).
The Theologica Germanica was written at a time when there was
a struggle between the Pope and worldly authorities, all fertile ground
leading to the Reformation which Luther heralded. It was close to the
teachings of the Friends of God, groups for renewal of spiritual and moral
life in the 14th and 15th century" (1980, xvi). However, this group preferred
to be unobtrusive, not because they were all against the established church,
but because they spoke about an "inner way that seemed to threaten the
positivistic ceremonialism of the church" (1980, 8). The brief introduction
to the book states that God spoke it through a "friend of his" so there
was probably some kind of association.
John Tauler was a Dominican monk and priest who preached the gospel along
the Rhine in the 1300’s. He was a father confessor for many of The Friends
of God (1980, 10) and another medieval mystic that Martin Luther looked
up to (1980, 9). Meister Eckhart who lived from 1260 to 1329, was a major
mentor of Tauler’s. There are issues of legitimacy by the church and society
amongst these men. Eckhart was condemned posthumously by a papal decree
in 1329 (1980, 1). The commentators in my copy of the Theologica Germanica
place it among "mystical" literature. A Western and Protestant popular
theological view has seen mysticism as a heretical "flight from existence"
(Hoffman 1980, 14). This is not to be lumped in that category, as I have
mentioned earlier; "it is rather a guide to true rest in God for the sake
of true moral responsibility in the affairs of men" (1980, xvi).
A parallel group at that time was the Brothers and Sisters of the Free
Spirit who the Friends of God may have been associated with by others,
but who followed a different path that saw no relationship between life
in God and ethical responsibility and who faded out after the Reformation
1980, 23-24).
The Friends of God taught renunciation of self, the ongoing revelation
of God through the work of the Holy Spirit in man, and the ultimate union
between God and man. They rejected religion based on fear or promise of
reward. They were decidedly opposed to the libertinisic, antinomian, and
antichurch ideas of The Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit. Theologica
Germanica was in large part written to counteract the influence of
the so-called Free Spirits (1980, 7).
The Theologica Germanica is part of a larger pious and spiritual
tradition that sprang up in spite of institutionalized religion. The established
hierarchy felt uneasy by such groups which had lay as well as clergy leadership,
such as the Beguines, some of whom would have also belonged to the "Friends"
movement and who also were connected to Meister Eckhart, as described
earlier. The Theologica Germanica, and indirectly, the Friends,
were an object of Catholic disapproval. "The pope banned the work officially
in 1612" (1980, 13).
The commentators on the Theologica Germanica distinguish
between its philosophy along with Tauler and Luther compared to the thought
of Eckhart. The subtleties of philosophical terminology would take further
study to completely understand, and both talk in so many words about letting
go enough to unite with the greatness of God and being changed by that
in our outward life. It seems to me that they feel Eckhart emphasized
more of immersion in nature as a way of being close to God. "The birth
of God in the ground of the soul is thus less of a continuum from nature
to spirit in Tauler than in Eckhart. Tauler speaks in more dualistic terms
about the great distance between man and God and man’s nothingness and
sinfulness before god. For Tauler, the cross and Resurrection are at the
center. Eckhart’s emphasis is on the Incarnation. Tauler speaks in a more
pastoral and church-oriented language (1980, 19-20).
Christian Bunsen, who caused the Theologica Germanica to be translated
and printed in England, wrote that this popular catechism:
was the first protest of the Germanic mind against the Judaism and formalism
of the Byzantine and medieval churches, the hollowness to which scholasticism
had led, and the rottenness of society which a pompous hierarchy strove
in vain to conceal, but had not the power nor the will to correct. Eckhart
and Tauler, his pupil, brought religion home from fruitless speculation,
and reasonings upon imaginary or impossible suppositions, to man’s own
heart and to the understanding of the common people.
A contemporary wrote:
"its noble views of righteousness and of sin…will be of little use to
those who are Christians in order to come to eternal bliss in an afterlife.
It is for those who desire ‘to be freed…while they live on earth" (1980,
32-33).
Unfortunately, all of Judaism is scapegoated in the above reference and
lumped together with the political structures that had control over Christians
of the Renaissance. Martin Luther did not help that situation in that
he wrote negative commentary toward Judaism which I refer to later in
the section, Via Negativa of Lutheranism.
I have not read and studied the Theologica Germanica all the way
through and find it hard to read. I have read through much of the lengthy
introduction, however, and the editor, Bengt Hoffman, describes several
main points of the book.
The first theme he describes is Recognize the Good Earth.
The emphasis on spiritual enlightenment for life goes along with creation
spirituality themes:
Theologica Germanica brings a positive message about the earth
and incarnated existence. Its dualism is a dualism between self-will and
God’s will, not between nature and spirit. God’s living presence here
on earth is more important to the Frankfurter than the idea that God’s
spirit stands over against the material world. …We have a great many ‘signs
of God and Eternity’ here among us and they provide ‘directions and paths
to God and Eternity.’ Everything in creation ‘is a welcome to you and
permitted, as long as it does not take place for your own gain or in accordance
with your own will but flows out of and is in accordance with my [God’s]
will" (1980, 34-35).
The second theme Hoffman describes is Ethics of the Changed Soul,
leading to humility because of the knowledge that the living God is present
in our lives, which then leads us to a God-guided morality. It is not
just a matter of gaining knowledge about the difference between virtue
and wickedness, but loving virtue because of the experience of God’s love:
a new frame of mind. This leads to the third theme, the Ethics of
the Second Mile, which lay little emphasis on the "for you" of
salvation but more the Christ "in you," the "vicarious nature of Christ’s
suffering" and "Christian responsibility-taking."
Another point in the Germanica is The Place of Rule in the
Moral Life. It stresses that laws are essential, especially for
those who don’t know better. But the "illumined ones" know that moral
deeds alone do not make one good. Only surrendering to God does. One should
not do good deeds in expectation of a reward. God loves deeds that "grow
out of the teachings and instructions of the true Light and the true Love….
Deeds done from within that "deep rest in God ‘please Him greatly.’"
The final theme Hoffman explains is to Carry and Be Carried: The
Secret of Ethical Responsibility. This means that we will not
be able to carry burdens unless we ask to be carried. "It is not easy
for a proud man to accept such a close relationship between the moral
life and life in God." When our problems become unbearable, we finally
come to realize that "the moral challenge of faith involves much more
than rational decision making. It involves help from a present, invisible
Lord." This is a lot like the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) instruction, to
recognize that there is a higher power we can lean on. AA’s Serenity Prayer
instructs us to realize what we can and can’t change and to have the wisdom
to know the difference.
The heart of a divinized person has love for all in spite of realistic
experience. Martin Luther apparently once said that he never really hated
anyone from the depth of his heart. When asked what he would do if the
world was going to end soon, Luther’s answer was that he would plant an
apple tree. Hoffman says that this sort of holy defiance pervades the
Theologica Germanica and inspired Martin Luther (1980, 35-41).