LOVELY LADY DRESSED IN BLUE—A VISIT TO WALSINGHAM

Our Lady of Walsingham, Pray for us.

On a recent trip to England my wife and I visited Walsingham in the northeastern part of the county of Norfolk. It was a most impressive and uplifting place. Indeed, I will never forget the place, for it left a very powerful impression on me. It was a combination of the beautiful countryside, the quaintness, old-fashioned religiosity and piety of the place, and an intangible something-or-other within me crying, 'I believe; help my unbelief' (Mk 9:24)). For the most part, my wife and I walked around the village in noble silence, with the knowledge and in the awareness that we were walking on 'holy ground'. Words are so useless at the best of times, but especially when talking about matters spiritual.

In this post I discuss several different lines of symbolism concerning Our Lady, each of which is devoid of superstition. I claim no originality for the ideas discussed, all of which are firmly grounded in esoteric and metaphysical Christianity. Now, the word 'esoteric' is often misunderstood. When used in the present context it simply refers to the fact that sacred scripture, mythology, folk tales and similar writings and ideas generally have an 'inner' and deeper meaning: cf Gal 4:24 ('Now this is an allegory'); 1 Cor 3:6 ('we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God'). The early Christian theologian Origen wrote that every religion has a body, a soul and a spirit and that scripture can be interpreted in three different ways, the first according to the letter (‘the body’) of the scriptural text, the second according to the allegorical meaning of the text (‘the soul’), and the third according to the esoteric interpretation of the text (‘the spirit’). Of course, there are some texts that can, sensibly, only be interpreted literally. However, some ideas only make sense when interpreted allegorically or symbolically.

Now, Walsingham. In medieval times the village of Walsingham was one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the world and a rival to even Rome. That changed after the Reformation, but a revival during the 19th century put Walsingham back on the pilgrimage map and thousands now visit Walsingham each year, especially at Easter time.

While at Walsingham I got to thinking about ‘Our Lady of Walsingham’. The latter is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated by Roman Catholics and some Anglicans associated with certain alleged Marian apparitions to one Richeldis de Faverches, a pious English noblewoman who was Lady of the Manor of Walsingham, in Walsingham in 1061. Lady Richeldis is said to have been requested by Our Lady to build at Walsingham a replica of the house of the Holy Family in Nazareth in honour of the Annunciation and as a place of pilgrimage where people could come to honour the Virgin Mary. So, Richeldis had a building structure named ‘The Holy House’ built in Walsingham which later became a shrine and place of pilgrimage. Nearby, in Houghton Saint Giles, there is the Roman Catholic Basilica of Our Lady of Walsingham, also known as the Slipper Chapel or the Chapel of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The Orthodox Churches also have a presence at Walsingham.

The Bible tells us that Mary ‘magnifies the Lord’ (Lk 1: 46) and her spirit ‘rejoices in God [her] Saviour’ (Lk 1: 47). What are we to make of all that—especially those of us who have trouble with talk of the so-called supernatural and even God? Well, one thing I learned from my study of metaphysics is that the words ‘the Lord’ where used in scripture refer not so much to God per se but to our own understanding or concept of God which, for better or for worse, will have a great bearing on what happens to us and how we view it. Take, for example, the verse that says that ‘the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart’ (Ex 9:12). Now, God did not really harden Pharaoh’s heart. If you think that, you have a horrible concept of God. No, the truth is that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, by attaching his ‘I Am’, that is, his consciousness, to hard-heartedness, obstinacy and stubbornness.

So, let’s start with the word ‘God’ itself. Who or what is God? Some theological abstraction? Yes and no. For starters, the Bible tells us that God is love (1 Jn 4:8). Listen to these words: ‘Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love’ (1 Jn 4:7-8). The Bible also tells us that God is Spirit, that is, the very spirit of life (Jn 4:24).  Another way of understanding the spirit of life is as pure Being. All things come from the One Source of all Being. God is pure Be-ing—the self-existence and self-consciousness of life itself—and we have our be-ing-ness in God. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being' (Acts 17:28). 

So, if you think that God is a giant man 'up there' or 'out there', some supra-personal Being with a face, body, arms and legs and genitalia, you are horribly mistaken. In short, God is love, life, truth and power—and the very ground of our being. The English metaphysician and judge Thomas Troward referred to God as undifferentiated Consciousness—that is, the formeless awareness that creates by Itself and becomes that which It images Itself to be. I like that. That makes sense to me. If quantum mechanics has shown us anything—and it has shown us plenty—it has shown that consciousness or mind is fundamental, eternal and all-creative.

If God is love and life then Jesus is God in a form that we can understand. That's more than enough for me. He is Way-Shower, indeed the way to an abundant life (Cf Jn 10:10). Jesus is the embodiment of love and life. Is Jesus God’s ‘only-begotten son’ (cf Jn 3:16)? In a special sense, yes, but listen my friends. We are all begotten of the Only One. There is Only One – that is, the omnipresence and omnipotence of life itself – and everyone and everything is the only-begotten son, that is, the offspring of life itself. The spirit of life is forever taking shape and form as you and me and all other living things. 

Do you think that the Incarnation happened just once, some 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, when Jesus was born? Think again. The Incarnation is forever happening! Yes, the spirit of life is forever being incarnated into new and fresh manifestations of life. The Roman Catholic archbishop Fulton J Sheen would often make that point in his sermons and writings. Some say that God spoke His final word in Jesus but the truth is that God, the spirit of life, is forever speaking. And God speaks just one word—his son—and God is forever begetting the son. God begot you and me and all other forms of life. Yes, we are all divine, being sons and daughters of the Most High. Even Jesus himself affirmed, ‘Is it not written in your law, “I said, You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High’’’ (Jn 10:34; cf Ps 82:6). So, despite what others may have told you over the years, the ‘only-begotten son’ is every son and daughter begotten of the One Father-Mother God. The son is your real self, the person that in truth you are.

Now, in Christian metaphysics the phrase  ‘only-begotten son’ refers to something else as well, namely, a saving idea, thought or desire in our mind or consciousness, the latter being the ‘father’, metaphysically speaking. Here is a simple illustration of this truth. Let us say that you are ill. In your mind (the ‘father’) you have a desire for health (the desire being your ‘son’). The realization of your desire is your saviour. So, we have mind (the Father), idea, thought or desire (the Son), and expression (the Holy Spirit). A metaphysical Trinity, analogously.

And what of Mary, the mother of Jesus? Is she a real presence in the world today? Well, as I see it, she is truly present in a special sense, namely, as the embodiment of something else that is very real indeed. You see, Mary signifies the ‘virgin soul’, the soul – that is, the mindset (both consciousness and personality) – that is in love with God and that has come to an awareness of things higher than the material. This mindset puts spiritual values and principles (eg the importance of love and family, courage and self-surrender) first and is completely concentrated and focused on those things. With the virgin soul there is a total orientation of thought, affection and will towards love and truth combined with humility, a lack of guile and a radical detachment from all earthly, material things. The virgin state of mind, signified by Mary, is capable of conceiving and producing countless conceptions of itself in the forms of thoughts and desires ('sons').

‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us’ (Mt 1:23). The virgin birth occurs by perception. In other words, we are changed, not so much by what we do, but by our willingness to be changed, our willingness to surrender, give up, and let go. This requires a real change in consciousness. In order to grow spiritually, we must be prepared to give up everything in our lives that holds us back and keeps us in bondage to our lower selves. Our lower selves are also known as false selves, being all those ‘I’s’ and ‘me’s’ -- our likes, dislikes, views and opinions – that we wrongly take to be the real person each one of us is. Just as the Virgin Mary said, ‘Let it be to me according to your word’ (Lk 1: 38), so we must open ourselves to the possibility of growth—and to the action of a power-not-oneself. So, let us magnify the presence of the spirit of life (consciousness) in us, for in so doing we will find the solution to all our problems.

According to one great line of symbolism, Mary signifies our subjective self, that is, our subconscious mind. According to another, Mary signifies the great Deep, that is, the great Sea or the waters of space over the surface of which the Holy Spirit brooded and upon which It acted. Our Lady Mary is the Star of the Sea which is why she is almost always depicted in robes of the blue of the sea and the sky. The name Mary in Latin is, of course, Maria. The word maria is the plural of mare, the sea. More directly in origin, the word Mary is derived from the Hebrew mar, 'bitter', or 'the sea'. Water is a common symbol of the soul. There is a metaphorical bitterness in the soul being imprisoned in matter when its destiny lies elsewhere (as does our own), but the soul (the 'higher self') can escape from the bondage of flesh and limitation and give birth to a more exalted existence. Make of that what you will. Suffice to say there are a number of ideas here including the idea of the seas of virgin matter from which the universe was created and the idea of the birth of the Christ Child. Actually, these lines of symbolism are quite interconnected. The womb of the Virgin Mary, in which the as yet unborn Christ Child grows, and the waters of the deep (the sea of virgin matter) at the dawn of creation over the face of which the spirit of God moved are symbolically one and the same. On another level, Mary represents the feminine aspect of the Godhead, something Protestants tend to overlook to their detriment. On yet another level, Mary signifies the Spirit of Wisdom: ‘She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honour’ (Prov 3:15-16).

The Roman Catholic Church and certain other branches of Christianity teach the perpetual virginity and immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. I am unable to affirm either of these dogmas in a literal sense, but allegorically they reinforce the notion of Mary as a symbol of the ‘virgin soul’. The first dogma – Mary's perpetual virginity – speaks of a lifelong commitment to, and communion with, God and as such symbolises our ongoing commitment to the spiritual life. The second dogma – Mary's immaculate conception – attests to the sacredness of human life as well as purity and innocence. Mary is immaculately conceived from her mother Anne because all life proceeds from one source, which is pure Spirit. Hence, all birth is immaculate for that reason. Mary is often spoken of as the Mother of all, the Virgin Immaculate, crowned with stars and clothed with the sun, for she signifies, among other things, that all manifestations of life proceed from and out of the ether of space. We start as virgin or immaculate matter, so to speak. According to this line of symbolism Mary represents the immaculate, unblemished presence of life (God) in us—indeed, our very I Am-ness. When we awaken to the truth of our be-ing-ness, our I Am-ness, the Christ Child is born in us. 

And what of the dogma of the Assumption? The Assumption of Mary into heaven, according to the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and parts of Anglicanism, refers to the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven at the end of her earthly life. Once again, I cannot affirm the truth of that proposition in a literal sense. Indeed, I have a real problem with the whole idea of there being higher planes of consciousness and angelic hierarchies with Mary being the 'Queen of the Angels', but I am able to accept the idea of a completely purified personality symbolicially 'rising' in its nobility and beauty. 

However, I generally interpret the idea of the Assumption as follows. The Bible says: ‘Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it’ (Ecc 12:7). We come from God, we belong to God, and ultimately we shall return to God. Life is indestructible. There is only life and there is no place where life is not. We are life. Life is energy. Life is expression. Life is in all, through all and around all. It cannot cease because it is ceaselessness itself. Yes, we will change form and ultimately vanish from view but we cannot cease to be. We never cease to be—not for a moment. We cannot be separated from life. We cannot be less than life. And life cannot other than be.

Here is a truth—perhaps the most important truth of all. The One—that is, the One Source of all Being—becomes the many so that the many may know themselves to be one. There will be a universal restitution or restoration of all things and people—that is, all things and people will eventually be restored to their source and original essence. This is referred to in the Bible, in Acts 3:21, as the ‘restitution of all things’ or the ‘restoration of all’ (apokatastasis panton). In Greek astronomical and philosophical literature apokatastasis refers to the actual re-establishment of the order of the universe. By what means? Another Big Bang or a series of Big Bangs? At some point, an ever-expanding universe will come to an end—unless there be another Big Bang to keep things in motion.

I will finish with the following poem-prayer by Mary Dixon Thayer (1889-1989) which has always been a favourite of mine. Fulton Sheen loved it as well and popularised it on his TV show and in his talks. The poem is very sentimental but I love it all the same:

To Our Lady

Lovely Lady dressed in blue—

Teach me how to pray!

God was just your little boy,

Tell me what to say!

Did you lift Him up, sometimes,

Gently on your knee?

Did you sing to Him the way

Mother does to me?

Did you hold His hand at night?

Did you ever try

Telling stories of the world?

O! And did He cry?

Do you really think He cares

If I tell Him things—

Little things that happen? And

Do the Angels' wings

Make a noise? And can He hear

Me if I speak low?

Does He understand me now?

Tell me—for you know.

Lovely Lady dressed in blue—

Teach me how to pray!

God was just your little boy,

And you know the way.

Note. The photos in this post were taken by the author. The poem ‘To Our Lady’ is included in Mary Dixon Thayer's The Child on His Knees (New York: Macmillan, 1926). All rights reserved.

SAINT CHRISTOPHER, PRAY FOR US!

Yes, please do so.

This post is about a certain Bible story as well as a legend about a guy named Christopher. The Bible story and the legend have much in common. Both of them constitute an enlightened spiritual vision as well as a radical ‘call to arms,’ so to speak---a powerful call to arms for social and economic justice, a call to end oppression, discrimination, bigotry, injustice, inequality, poverty, homelessness, statelessness, starvation, sickness, and suffering of all other kinds. 

I love both the Bible story and the legend. Perhaps both are legends. It does not matter. The ‘message’ is eternal, and ever-so-relevant to today’s world.

 

In the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel we read that the personality, essence, and ‘spirit’ of the Divine as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ can be experienced even today as a living presence, for it is said that Jesus comes to us, and visits us, in our homes and in our communities. Most of all, he comes to us in the lives of those who are in great need, those who are marginalized, those whom society tends to reject and ignore.

If I have a theology at all it is very much a 'theology of man,' and it goes something like this.  The Bible says that all are made in the image and likeness of the Divine. Therefore, invoking the language of Christianity, everyone we meet, everyone we serve, is in the image of Jesus. Roman Catholics understand this so much better than Protestants. Yes, the ‘Anonymous Christ,’ as it is known, comes to us in so many ways and, again invoking a Christian metaphor, we fail to recognize that the incarnation of the Christ was not a one-off event but continues all the time, both in us and in other people. Now, we read in Matthew 25:34-40:

 

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Jesus’ followers were originally known as ‘people of the way.’ Jesus, in his vision of the Anonymous Christ, offers all of us, irrespective of whether or not we are Christians, both a vision and a challenge. The call to follow is not a call to worship Jesus. Heaven forbid! No, Jesus never sought nor wanted that. No, the ‘Way of Jesus’ is a call to follow Jesus’ path, to live as he lived, and to serve others as he did. 

Now, here's something very important. The Way of Jesus, which is simply the way of love (for love is the nature and character of the 'Anonymous God' that has many, many names but really has no name as such at all), can be found in all religions and even outside of religion as well. You see, morality and ethics, as well as love, do not depend upon Christianity or upon any religion at all for that matter. Let’s get that perfectly clear once and for all. Okay? Ignore all those who would tell you something altogether different. They believe that they or their ‘god’ has a monopoly on the truth. Rubbish!

Here from Catholic Christianity is a story---actually, a legend---that I like very much. It concerns Saint Christopher (literally, ‘Christ-bearer’) [pictured], the so-called patron saint of travelers, and also especially revered by mariners and ferrymen. As a rather long aside (please forgive me) I remember when I was a young university student back in the early 1970s. I bought and brought home a Saint Christopher medal. I was not then a Catholic, my parents and I all being Protestants. They were much, more nominal in their faith than I was. I have always been incurably interested in religion, even when I have been opposed to it. My parents weren't for the most part, but they were quite anti-Catholic. It was a generational and sectarian phenomenon, and it was quite common. I am glad that sort of silly nonsense has now largely gone. Anyway, I would later convert to Catholicism---after the death of both my parents---when my life was in a horrible mess. My poor parents would have died much earlier than they did----they died far too young in any event---had I converted to the Catholic faith while they were still alive. Anyway, I brought home this rather cheap and nasty Saint Christopher medal, and my mother said to me, ‘What do you have that silly thing for? He is no longer a saint.’ 

Now, that was not the case then, and it is not the case now. Christopher has not been ‘de-sainted,’ if there be such a thing which I don't think there is. True, the Church has from time to time said that some previously canonized saints, found later to be of dubious historicity, are not actually saints, but that is as far as it goes. In the case of Saint Christopher, it is simply the case that in 1969 Pope Paul VI made some changes to the General Roman Calendar for the Catholic Church. Saint Christopher’s feast day was removed from the calendar on the ground that his feast was ‘not part of the ancient Roman tradition.’ There was no elaboration on that point, but the words have been taken to mean that although Saint Christopher is generally regarded as having been martyred for the faith in Syria in 308 CE, the evidence comes more from popular tradition than from the writings of early Church historians.

So, contrary to widespread misconception, Saint Christopher’s sainthood status was not altered. His feast day (traditionally July 25, except in Greece where it was celebrated on March 9), is now left to particular church calendars. In other words, Saint Christopher can still be venerated through inclusion in local calendars, such as those used in a particular diocese or country or by a group of religious. But, as usual, I digress. Saint Christopher had cult-like status in many countries, most notably in Italy, and also among Italian-Americans in countries such as the United States of America and even Australia (where I live). The dear saint is still quite 'visible' and sought after, despite his official status having been somewhat downgraded, so to speak, by the Vatican some 45 years ago.

There are several legends associated with Saint Christopher. This is one of them, and I love it. Saint Christopher, who is said to have been a very big, strong and tall man, met a hermit who instructed him in the Christian faith. Christopher asked the hermit how he could serve Jesus. The hermit first suggested fasting and prayer, but Christopher said he was unable to perform that service. The hermit then suggested that because of his size and strength Christopher could serve and please Jesus by assisting people to cross a dangerous river, where they were perishing in the attempt. That’s what Christopher decided upon.

Now, after Christopher had performed this service for some time, a little child asked him to take him across the river. As Christopher forded the river crossing, the river became swollen, and the child seemed as heavy as lead, indeed steadily increased in weight , so much so that Christopher could scarcely carry him and found himself in great difficulty. Yes, Christopher found his tiny burden so heavy that it was almost impossible to bear. When Christopher finally reached the other side, he said to the child: ‘You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were.’ The child (the ‘holy babe’) replied, ‘You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work.’ According to the legend, the child then vanished, but it is said that as a reward for his service Christopher's staff was miraculously transformed into a living tree, and Christopher himself became the patron saint of travellers.

I so much love this story. It is, you see, a re-telling of the ‘Anonymous Christ’ story from the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. We are following Jesus---carrying or bearing him, so to speak---when we serve and bear the burdens of our fellow human beings, especially those who are marginalized and in greatest need. They are the ones the ‘big end of town’ ignores. They are the ones that conservative, uncompassionate governments ignore. Yet, they are the very ones Jesus devoted his short life and public ministry to helping. Funny, that.

There is another version of the legendary story to the effect that the child/holy babe is said to have replied to Christopher that he (the holy babe, but indirectly and consequentially Christopher as well) carried the world's sins upon his shoulders. However, I prefer the firstmentioned version for a number of reasons. It is not necessary for present purposes to set out those reasons, but they pertain to the whole idea of the doctrine of the Atonement and certain difficulties that I have with at least some of the popular ‘theories’ of that doctrine as expounded by many evangelical, so-called ‘Bible-believing’ Christians. I have written about the matter elsewhere.

Although I am pretty much an apostate (but still quite emotionally attached) Catholic these days I still occasionally wear a Saint Christopher medal, and I have several of them in my various boxes of cufflinks, tie clips, badges, lapel pins, so-called 'holy medals,' and other miscellaneous objects. Now, I do not see the Christopher medal as some sort of ‘good luck charm’ as do some, dare I say it (I will, and must), superstitious Catholics---not that all Catholics are superstitious, but there is a great tendency there for that to occur in Catholicism. I do not believe in so-called good luck. We make, for better or worse, our own luck by the thoughts we think, the decisions we make, and the conduct in which we engage. No, I love the abovementioned legendary story of Saint Christopher because it reminds me of how I must act toward others who are vulnerable, marginalized, rejected, and otherwise in great need.

You know, there is a wonderful Christian group known as the Christophers. Their motto is, 'It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.' That's so true. Perhaps this verse from the Bible best sets out the 'message' of the story of Saint Christopher: 'Bear one another's burdens and so you will fulfill the Law of Christ' (Gal 6:2). And what is the 'Law of Christ'? It is the law or principle---and power---of love in action. No matter what your religion, and even if you have none, the practice of love is the all-important thing.

‘Saint Christopher, pray for us!’ Yes, that we may willingly and lovingly bear, carry and relieve the burdens of others. That is all that matters.

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ENACTMENT THEOLOGY

Saint Christopher medal

dating from the 1930s

ENACTMENT THEOLOGY

Enactment theology is one form of radical theology (also known as “Death of God theology”) which asserts that the traditional western idea of God is no longer tenable. If that God exists at all, it is in personal relationships with and between individuals.

Enactment theology is associated with the Catholic theologian Richard Grigg [pictured below left, Professor of Religious Studies at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut.

God does not have a separate existence from us, but emerges, is enacted, and is called into being in our ceremonies and in our relationships with other people.

The God that emerges is a transpersonal, relational God. There is a corporate quality to this God, but it is also the God of the “still, small voice”.

The God of enactment theology is a limited God. It is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. It is not the cosmic CEO of traditional theism but nor is it the God of deism. This God is not some suprapersonal being who chooses our fate. It is not a person at all. It is, however, a God that can be relied upon to provide strength to human beings in times of trouble and pain, in moments of sorrow and despair. It is a source of power into which we may tap when our resources are thin and unreliable, when pain and confusion threaten to overwhelm us.

This God emerges in our coming together as human beings, in what may be described as a symbiotic relationship in which something powerful arises that is more than the sum of its parts. This God does not act in persona. It is we who act in persona of God. Nevertheless, the God of enactment theology is still very much a “God with us”. It is immanent in the fullest sense of the word. However, there is a deep, meaningful sense in which the God of enactment theology is also transcendent, for all of the qualities that we ordinarily associate with God – qualities such as goodness, love, and strength – can be seen to be derived from a power other than our selves, that power being the power of being itself, for God is a relation that is enacted by human beings in conjunction with nature and the power of being in which we, as persons, are grounded and have our very existence. In this God, as Saint Paul teaches, we live, and move, and have our being.

Whilst the God of enactment theology is not a person in the ordinary sense of the word, the god that is enacted in our lives and in our relationships with others emerges as the supreme, but not anthropomorphically conceived, person, for, as Boston University’s Borden Parker Bowne, the founder of what is known as American (or Boston) Personalism, pointed out, personality, in one form or another, appears to be the characteristic category of reality. According to enactment theology, the qualities and nature of this God depend upon the nature and quality of our relationships and interrelationships, which become a sort of sacred matrix. The God which is enacted among us is as large and powerful as the range and scope of our relationships. It is limited only by the dimensions of the largest sense of self we can imagine and sustain and the widest web of relationships we can envision.

Thus, God is a relationship which we humans choose to enact, and in so doing we are both creatures of this relationship as well as its very creators. Richard Grigg has written, “To enact the divine is to actualize the self’s creative powers at the same times as the self is formed by something else.”

Enactment theology has close parallels in several other schools of theology, including predicate theology, process theology (especially in modern Jewish theological writings and ideas about God), and incarnational theology. 

I will say a few words about incarnational theology first. When we think of this system of theology we think of the Anglican bishop and theologian Charles Gore. In Sydney, Australia, where I live, we had a wonderful exponent of incarnational theology in Fr John Hope, the longtime and often controversial rector of the Anglo-Catholic church Christ Church St Laurence [pictured right, and below]---a church with which I have had a very pleasant association over the years as parishioner and otherwise. The essence of incarnational theology is this: God so identified Himself with his creatures that he become one of them in the person of Jesus Christ. That has enormous social and other implications for how human beings treat other human beings. 

We often (at least more so in past years) find linkages between incarnational theology and such other movements as the Social Gospel and Christian Socialism.

Now, the fact that God chose---yes, chose---to be born as a human being (cf "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us") means that all people---regardless of their religion, caste, class, skin colour, ethnicity, or whatever---are of infinite value. That means we must treat all other human beings with the dignity and respect they deserve, and that means, among other things, that we must do all that we can to eradicate poverty, illness, financial inequality and hardship, and so on. 

As God's love is directed to every human being without exception and without distinction, we must do everything possible to re-enact---there's that word again---God's love in our own lives. That's one of the reasons why I love the Christian devotion known as the Angelus. It reminds me of the Lord's Incarnation, and that reminds me of my own obligations toward other human beings (cf "That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ").

You see, the incarnation is not something that happened just once, two thousand years ago. No, the incarnation is happening all the time. Jesus is born and to be found in the down-and-out, the stranger, and the man, woman or child in lack and limitation. You should now see that incarnational theology and enactment theology are inextricably interrelated. One final point on the subject of incarnational theology. In recent years even some non-liturgical Christians (eg Baptists) have started to move away from a “theology of the elements,” as respects the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (their generally preferred expression for the Holy Eucharist/Holy Communion/the Mass), toward what has been called a “theology of enactment” emphasizing the incarnation of Christ within the ecclesial body or church (the so-called “priesthood of all believers”).

I will now say a few words about predicate thology and process theology. 

Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan [pictured below right], the founder of the Jewish movement known as Reconstructionism, pointed out that God had no meaning apart from humanity. He wrote, "Godhood can have no meaning for us apart from human ideals of truth, goodness, and beauty,  interwoven in a pattern of holiness."

Rabbi Kaplan, as well as another prominent Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman, the author of Peace of Mind (1946), spoke in terms of God, not as a person, but as “the Power”, “the Process”, and the very life of Nature:

God is the Process by which the universe produces persons, and persons are the process by which God is manifest in the individual.

God is the Oneness … the sameness … the unity of all that is … the uniformity of all that moves … the rhythm of all things … the mystery of life … the creative flame … God is in the face by which we overcome the fear of loneliness, of helplessness, of failure and of death … God is in the love which creates, protects, forgives.

In a similar vein, Rabbi Liebman wrote:

I believe that God is the Power for salvation revealing Himself in nature and in human nature, in networks of relationships, in countless situations and fields of operation where evil is vanquished and goodness triumphs. God is in the pain of growth, in the seed of sorrow, in the lure of thought, and in all the laws of fulfillment which bind men and stars together.

Writing from a kabbalistic point of view, Rabbi David A Cooper [pictured opposite] like many other “modern” religious leaders and teachers, has challenged contemporary views as to the nature of God. In his bestselling book God is a Verb (1997) Rabbi Cooper writes:

What is God?  In a way, there is no God. Our perception of God usually leads to a misunderstanding that seriously undermines our spiritual development.

God is not what we think It is. God is not a thing, a being, a noun.  It does not exist, as existence is defined, for It takes up no space and is not bound by time.  Jewish mystics often refer to It as Ein Sof, which means Endlessness.

Ein Sof means “without end” and refers to the Infinite God which is said to be involved in a constant process of self-creation. All forms of Judaism - and, in particular, the teachings of Kabbalah - stress that God, in any event, is essentially unknowable.

Cooper goes on to say:

The closest thing we can come to thinking about God is as a process rather than a being.  We can think of it as “be-ing,” as verb rather than noun.  Perhaps we would understand this concept better if we renamed God.  We might call It God-ing, a process, rather than God, which suggests a noun.

One of predicate theology’s modern exponents is Rabbi Harold S Kushner [pictured below], author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People (1981) and many other celebrated books.

Rabbi Kushner who has written:

“Predicate theology” means that when we find statements about God that say, for example, “God is love, God is truth, God is the friend of the poor,” we are to concentrate on the predicate rather than on the subject. Those are not statements about God; they are statements about love, truth and befriending the poor, telling us that those are divine activities, moments in which God is present.…. They are not things that God does; they are things that we do, and when we do them, God is present in our lives.

In a similar vein Erich Fromm, one of the most respected humanists and social philosophers of the twentieth century, saw God as standing for “the highest value, the most desirable good”, a “symbol of man’s own powers which he tries to realize in his life”, the “image of man’s higher self, a symbol of what man potentially is or ought to become”.  In other words, God is an image, an idea, a symbol of what human beings can ultimately become. I like that.




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