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81 - Theological Table-Talk |
Theological Table-Talk
By Hugh T. Kerr
WHAT'S AN INSTITUTION FOR?
In the current issue of Reflection (January, 1968), a consistently articulate journal published by the Yale Divinity School, there is a provocative article by Henry B. Clark on "Tradition, Impotence and the Seminary." The "typical" graduate of a theological seminary, says Mr. Clark (who attended Union and Yale and is now teaching at Duke), "has been taught to believe that words and concepts are all-important, and to feel most comfortable with words and concepts." The church-in-the-world, with which he has to deal after graduation, is for the most part a conservative institution resistive to radical reformation.
If such a graduate seeks to reform the institutional structures of church and community, he will be frustrated not only by resistance but by his own lack of skill and experience in dealing with complicated, technological, social structures. The easy, and all too common alternative for him is to retreat with his church into a verbal, conceptual mystique.
In the meantime, however, "the established order of church and society," says Mr. Clark, can only be described as rotten to the core. Future historians will look back upon our times with the kind of disgust which we now feel with regard to slavery and human sacrifice. Not to be aware of this, either conceptionally or ethically, is one fast way to becoming "an intellectual and a moral Uncle Tom."
Ideas and concepts, thinkers and scholars, are needed as much today as ever, but perhaps not so many are needed as seminaries seem to imagine. (Church and society need very few scholars "writing articles, quarreling and quibbling about the subtleties of articles others have written about the books of a hundred years ago, based on books of five hundred years ago, which are based on scrolls and stones of even greater antiquity.") What both church and society
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do need are "cadres of responsible and intelligent revolutionaries, not custodians of the status quo."
This latter slogan is a commonplace these days on seminary campuses; it is, indeed, a current "idea" or "concept" which everyone talks about. It is not as yet very common in church or congregation circles, and this is surely one reason so many theological students are deeply disturbed about vocational commitment. The passion for radical social (including ecclesial institutional) change is not usually associated with current conceptions of what "church" means. Why not?
Some months ago at the International Philosophy Year forum at Brockport College, New York, Harold Taylor, former President of Sarah Lawrence College, defined the contemporary university as "an institution for the development of social and cultural change." That probably upset the philosophers and educators who listened to him! As it would upset most congregations, if someone dared to define the church as "an institution for the development of social and cultural change." It would also be upsetting for some members of the faculties of most theological schools if a seminary were defined as "an institution for the development of social and cultural change." Is that so?
PROFESSIONAL INTEGRITY
Much of the recent criticism against the church-as-institution and the minister-as-functionary has had the effect of downgrading the ministry-as-profession. If we have been rightly taught all these years by biblical and doctrinal mentors that the church is not an institution (but a fellowship of people) and that the minister is not a professional (but a servant of God for the people), then anyone who happens to be in either church or ministry must feel guilty unless he is constantly battering away at the structures within which he operates. A few find this exhilarating; many find it exhausting; still others can't take it and get out.
But just suppose we assume the necessary institutional character of the church and the necessary professional character of the ministry with all their attendant liabilities and weaknesses. Just suppose a dedicated, serious, realistic, prophetic, pastor commits himself to the development and renewal of the church-as-institution and to
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the integrity of the ministry-as-profession. Suppose we were to write his biography with some such title as: A Sense of Where You Are? (This is of course already copyrighted; it is the title of John McPhee's account of Bill Bradley, all-American college basketball player, Rhodes Scholar, and newcomer to the professional New York "Knicks.") Here are some didactic, moralistic hints for anyone who plans to write about professional integrity.
First, "know thyself"-as Socrates admonished long ago. Today this advice takes on special urgency when the subjective, internalizing of faith, doctrine, and ethics seems to many, especially of the younger generation, more important than objective verification. Vocational commitment implies rigorous and ruthless self-scrutiny. The theological student today (and this is probably also true of many ministers in churches) questions himself and his role. Although this can be disastrous if it reduces theology to therapy, there are also positive, constructive aspects of this increased self-awareness. To know one's self for what one really is (and not for what one thinks he ought to be or what he thinks others think he ought to be), this can go a meaningful step toward the understanding of professional integrity.
There are other corollaries that can be spelled out if anyone is interested. For example, not only "know thyself," but "be yourself" (not someone else); "be your best self" (maximize!); perhaps finally just "be" (a real person), and that brings us back to being a parson.
THE ARTIST'S SELF-IMAGE
A sense of professional integrity inevitably implies pride of craftsmanship. Whatever the work at hand, the process of doing it-from inception through the steps of manufacture to the ultimate product-is as important for the true professional as the object itself. In the realm of art, laymen have always been mystified by this process, since the artist apparently creates something out of (almost) nothing, and this is akin to divinity. Artists themselves are notoriously reticent about describing their subjective moods or detailing the methods by which they bring their work into being. A recent fascinating glimpse into the artist's image of himself as artist
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also tells us something about the integrity of all professional commitment, including the ministry.
Virginia Wylie Egbert, a researcher associated with the world-famous "Index of Christian Art" at Princeton University, has compiled a folio volume of prints and reproductions, with brief textual commentary, under the title: The Mediaeval Artist at Work (Princeton University Press, 1967, 94 pp., $7.50). Noting that "little is known" about the actual creative craftsmanship of the vast production of medieval art, the author has gathered together a representative collection of prints which shows the artist at work.
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As might be expected, the medieval manuals on art are overlaid with pious phrases, describing the artist's sense of religious purpose. Often the resulting works were attributed to miraculous vision or assistance from Saints or the Virgin Mary. But the representations of artists at work are more matter of fact, even "secular"-as we would use the term today. An example of this earthy, unsentimental artistry is reproduced in these pages. The commentary reads:
An intimate glimpse of the illuminator Hildebert appears in a twelfth century drawing introduced irrelevantly into the text of Augustine's De Civitate Dei. The artist is shown raising a sponge to throw at a mouse which has already knocked a roast chicken from the table and is nibbling the remains of the lunch. Hildebert's annoyance is expressed in the words on the open book beside him which in the modern vernacular may be translated, "Damn you, wretched mouse, exasperating me so often!" An apprentice, Everwin, apparently oblivious of the interruption, continues practising his painting of a rinceau.
The phasing out of the "Thomistic synthesis" since Vatican Council II may make much medieval theology obsolete beyond recovery for our day (cf. Leslie Dewart's The Future of Belief). But this wonderfully perceptive book not only recreates the past, it intimates that the Middle Ages-through the eyes of its artists-is very human indeed.
TO PRAY IS TO PLAY
Her picture, her name, her art are now so well known that it would be impertinent to introduce Sister Mary Corita of the Fine Arts Department of Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles. Certainly the most remarkable thing about this -remarkable person is just that she is. An articulate Catholic sister! Immaculate Heart! A play-pray book!
The book, if indeed it is a book, can be ordered (and it should be) by noting the following conventional data: Footnotes and Headlines: A Play-Pray Book, by Sister Corita, with a foreword by Daniel Berrigan; co-published by Herder and Herder (232 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10016) and the United Church Press (1505 Race Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19102), 1967, 58 pp., $6.00.
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The "reading" of the book is a psychedelic experience. It takes you up, up, and away. It will bust your mind. And it will make you laugh a little, cry a little.
Printed on large pages with big, bold, multi-colored words, letters, slogans, ads, as well as verbal fragments not easily identifiable, the
in a way all the words we need are in the ads
they can be endlessly re-sorted and reassembled
it is a huge game a way of confronting mystery
unless you're so poor you think you need all the things
they say you need and take them on a single meaning level
a way of seeing
the medium becomes the message as mcluhan says
all the words for all the views of all the common experiences are there
pain words joy need and help wordsand some of the phrases are already quite good as they are
come alive get with the action
book celebrates the joy of earthly perception and the wonder of sacred and secular collages. "Throw away the rules," advises Daniel Berrigan, and enjoy "the beautiful unpredictable fall of the letters like manna."
We are reproducing in the section a sample page from the book (it happens to combine a verbal pattern from one page with the text from another, but the combination illustrates the method). In
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her own stylistic way, the following two additional excerpts give a clue to the underlying theology:
art is the work of a person
a human being
who is free to take into himself what he sees outside
and from his free center
put his human stamp on it
the artist is the sign to the whole world
that reality
or the world
is shaped by man
and not the other way aroundto create is to relate
we trust in the artist in everybody
to make his own connections
his own juxtapositionsit seems that perhaps there is nothing unholy
nothing unrelated
and that as we fit things together
synthesize rather than analyzewe might be coming closer to god's view
from which all must somehow fit together
We are being told that verbal assertions are no longer capable of communicating truth, that modern advertising is a put-on, that traditional symbols of faith are irrelevant. Maybe so. But read Sister Corita and reflect. How about these, taken from current ads and slogans: "See the man who can save you the most"-"7up"--"non-stop jets everyday"-"wonderbread"-"we want everyone to fly"-(and a highway marker) "Pleasant Unity Keep Right."