The Living Light
Fall 2001
Volume 38-Number 1
SPECIAL FEATURE -- Ministering to Body and Soul Together
Editor's Forward
Many Catecheses
By Berard L. Marthaler
It has been more than twenty years since Howard Gardner began popularizing his theory of "multiple intelligences," based on his understanding that there is not just one form of cognition that governs all manner of human thinking. When Gardner published Frames of Mind in 1983, he directed attention to the ways people learn and to the strategies that parents and educators use in teaching.
Experienced educators who claim not to find much new in Gardner's research find that it confirms their insights and approaches. Few appreciate that Gardner and his colleagues have given them a framework that helps systematize, refine, and more clearly focus strategies and measure outcomes using different gauges.
Similarly, many religious educators and catechists (not to mention parents) find that Gardner's theory validates their experience. It helps them explain why a youngster takes an interest in some things but not in others, or why a high school student shines in one area and is lackluster in another. Gardner's framework also helps explain the design and strategies in contemporary textbook series. At the risk of oversimplification, Gardner's "seven ways of knowing" can be summarized as follows:
Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence focuses on reading and writing. In simplest form it relies on the development of language skills. At advanced levels it involves abstract reasoning, conceptual organization, and symbolic thinking.
Logical/Mathematical Intelligence involves the ability to recognize patterns and work with abstract numbers and geometric shapes. Often associated with "scientific thinking," it discerns relationships between seemingly separate pieces of information.
Visual/Spatial Intelligence in simplest form highlights the sense of sight; but in advanced forms, cultivated by painters, sculptors, architects, and interior designers, it entails the ability to visualize objects from different perspectives and angles.
Body/Kinesthetic Intelligence is associated with "learning by doing." The body knows skills acquired only through action—riding a bike, typing, parking a car, shooting a basketball. It is the form of intelligence prized by professional dancers and athletes, as well as pianists and surgeons.
Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence in simplest form highlights sound sensitivity. More cultivated forms recognize the subtleties in rhythmic patterns and tones and are used by musicians to express themselves and by the media to create moods and influence behavior.
Interpersonal Intelligence begins with the ability to enter another's persona and to see reality from that point of view. It builds on an intuitive grasp of the temperament, feelings, and intentions that drive individuals and groups and is a form of intelligence highly developed in therapists, counselors, politicians, and charismatic leaders.
Intrapersonal Intelligence relates to self-knowledge and awareness of one's own thought processes, emotional responses, and spiritual consciousness. It builds on an ability to step back from the immediate surroundings and situate oneself in a larger order. It is the intelligence of philosophers, psychiatrists, and saints.
The traditional approach to catechizing was built on verbal/linguistic intelligence—question and answer, storytelling, memorization. This approach encouraged the rational methods associated with logical/mathematical intelligence.
Gardner's research raises a question: Is the verbal/linguistic approach suitable for everyone? Is there a better way to catechize individuals, children and adults, whose strengths are sensory—that is, visual/ aural rather than verbal/logical? How does catechesis address those who learn by doing? Shouldn't catechesis be concerned with inner dispositions and the intangibles that fall under the heading of "spirituality"? Isn't it the catechists' responsibility to develop the skills associated with interpersonal intelligence?
The articles in this issue illustrate how catechesis can (and does) recognize various forms of intelligence. Catherine Dooley focuses on storytelling, an example of the verbal/linguistic, and ends by extolling the value of ritual as an example of learning by doing. The lead article, Lucien Richard's introduction to Christian anthropology, shows how catechesis must address all forms of intelligence if it is to cultivate growth in faith and knowledge, service and spirituality. Julie Collins urges us to teach celibacy in light of its value for the mind and body. In short, catechesis must minister to body and spirit together.
The Body Knows
The body, belonging to a sacred world, is a means of communication and exchange with other persons, including the Divine.
By Lucien Richard
What is it possible for us to see? What is it right for us to love? What is it necessary for us to do? These questions confront men and women of every generation. While different answers have been given, religious traditions have emphasized that the goal of human existence is to see God, to love God, and to be transformed by God. That is also the goal of Christian life. What is specific to Christianity, though, is the claim that the seeing, loving, and transformation takes place in Jesus of Nazareth, the Word become flesh.
"What was from the beginning, / what we have heard, / what we have seen with our eyes, / what we looked upon / and touched with our hands / concerns the Word of life . . . what we have seen and heard / we proclaim now to you" (1 Jn 1:1, 3). For Christianity the "divine milieu" is an embodied and incarnated milieu; there can be no escape from the body. The Son came when the Word became flesh and the presence of God was located in the world through a body. This belief that the Word became flesh is fundamental to Christianity; that is, without the Incarnation, there can be no Christianity. Christianity is rooted in history, time, body, matter, and society. In Christianity there can be no rejection of matter, of body. Spirituality, salvation, discipleship cannot take place in a privileged, dehistoricized, immaterial context. There can be no separation of flesh and spirit, of the material and the spiritual worlds. The notion that the body is of less importance than the spirit is contrary to incarnational faith. The Incarnation is a governing principle of God's relationship with the world and the world's with God. An emphasis on Incarnation, which our religious education certainly has, implies that body is the prerequisite foundation for all intellectual and spiritual processes.
In its pastoral constitution
Gaudium et spes (
The Church in the Modern World, 1965), the Second Vatican Council provides the first systematic anthropology given by a council. Its vision of humanness is christological: to be human is to be human just as Christ is human. Only by discovering Christ and being conformed to his humanity can men and women realize their dignity as "images of God." According to the Council, we are meant to live in this world; we cannot eliminate the historical and bodily dimensions of being. Humanity is at its core social, historical, and cultural. To proclaim the Christian faith fully, religious education needs to take embodiment seriously.
The Body According to St. Paul
Historically, Christianity has been a battleground for the war of spirit against body. Any account of human body and spirit in the Christian tradition has this as its backdrop. This controversy has characterized Christianity in spite of its incarnational faith and its doctrine of the resurrection of the body. The Apostles' Creed ends with the simple declaration of the resurrection of the body and life without end.
In light of incarnational faith and belief in bodily resurrection, whence comes the ambiguity about body and spirit? Much has to do with the transition from Paul's interpretation of his Jewish tradition into early Christian faith. In Hebrew thought there is an absence of any antagonism in human nature between soul and body, spirit and matter. Hebrew thought spares us the soul-body dualism and its corresponding array of problems. The degree to which Paul's anthropology is interwoven into his theology can be illustrated by two most important terms: "body" and "flesh." The word "body," "soma," extends across the whole of Paul's theology as a leitmotif. According to James D. G. Dunn, soma represents for Paul the body of sin and death (Rom 6:6, 7:24). Yet it also refers to Christ's body (Col 1:22, 2:11) and to the resurrected body (1 Cor 15:44), as well as to the sacramental bread (1 Cor 10:16-17) and the Church as the body of Christ, a symbol we continue to employ. For Paul, "body" means the whole person: one does not
have a body, but rather one
is a body. For Paul,
soma is the person's
embodiment.
In Paul the concept of "body" is not controversial—but that of "flesh," "
sarx," is. Flesh has a negative dimension, as seen in its usage in Romans 7-8: "For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, awakened by the law, worked in our members to bear fruit for death" (Rom 7:5). So there exists an antithesis to "spirit": "For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God" (Rom 8:7). While there is redemption for the body, flesh is to be destroyed. The climax of salvation occurs when creation finally leaves behind the flesh with all its inherent weaknesses.
I Am My Body
The embodied self, the personal self, is characterized by interiority and exteriority. Personal selves are not just bodies; in Christianity personal selves have a soul. The soul is the deepest center of the personal self, the source of consciousness, of interiority. As Aristotle and Aquinas affirmed, the soul is the form of the body. The soul is the reason why the self is incomplete; it is the source of the self's possibilities, of the moral "ought," of the importance of mores, of the orientation to the future. Yet the soul is embodied and so is rooted in materiality. Because the soul is incarnated in flesh, the body is a vehicle of the soul's presence to the world.
The body is
body only in its participation in the conscious self.
My body is
mine through its mysterious reference to me, to the conscious self with which it has fused. So my body is not a mere instrument. I am my body; I do not similarly have a body. I do not "have" my body in the same way that I have a car. There is a certain non-identity, a certain distance, between me and my body. Yet the body is the mysterious reality that attaches me to things in reality; it secures my being-in-the-world; it involves me in the world. Through the body, the self is incarnated; all of its relations are transcarnate. The body is the mediator between the self and the other.
It is through words that humanity creates its own environment: the cultural world. There is an intrinsic connection between language and culture; that is, there is no culture without language. While the body knows with a certain immediacy, it establishes a realm of knowing that is culturally dependent. Because of its verbal and bodily dimensions, cultures have powerful influence on thought and action.
The Body and Sacramentality
The claim that the "Word became flesh" introduced in the Jewish faith a change in the very structure of belief and in the nature of the religious imagination. Christ is the human face of God. Such a claim by necessity must determine important elements of a religious tradition, such as liturgy, prayer, spirituality, and salvation. The importance of the body in Christianity is evident in its sacramental life.
Sacramental truth is not an unlocated, eternal truth. It calls us to be our "body selves." The sacraments are the same mode of meaning as our bodies are. The Holy Eucharist is sacrament of the body, offering participants the fullest body-means a Christian can know. The Eucharist is a total way of being in the world, for it consecrates the bodily, linguistic, and communal dimensions of human's being, out of which his or her experience of the world is made possible. In the sense in which men and women must be body-words wherever they are, eucharistic significance is never absent from their lives.
The sacramental life is essentially connected to human embodiment. So is the prayer life. The body is where prayer takes place, for that is where the experience of the transcendent begins—that is, where the "feeling" for the divine begins. Religious feelings are elements of religious experience that are spontaneous responses to religious reality. These feelings are the arousal of our being—our intelligent and bodily, spiritual and material, selves—in what is a direct relationship with God. "Religious feeling is constitutive of every truly personal religious experience because without it religious responses are reduced to words, gestures, attitudes borrowed from others and repeated without personal involvement" (Davis, 25).
Salvation of the Body, Not From It
Salvation is not simply an affair of the soul: God's grace, because it is received in an embodied spirit, must also be bodily. Grace must make a difference in the materiality of the world.
The same bodiliness that demands that salvation take place in this world is also why salvation has another dimension. It is because of our bodiliness that death enters the world and relativizes all attempts at creating any utopia. Yet what has been saved in this world will not be destroyed in the "new world" in which death no longer rules. That which is relativized also must be radicalized: the transformation of this world.
Hospitality
Because the body locates us in the world, we belong to the world and can never be mere spectators of it. We are constantly organizing a spatial and temporal structure that by necessity extends to other people and other things. Because we are bodies, we are always related to other people and are always saying something to them. We make one kind of world, versus another, when we welcome the other or flee the other. The body gives location, place, concreteness to personal presence. The body is the reason that having a home, being at home, is an essential element of personal existence. The body needs to belong somewhere to be protected. In fact the body is our first home; we are or are not at home with our bodies. Home is a safe place, a settled and habitable existence.
Since home is such a powerful reality, homelessness is always traumatic, and hospitality always necessary. Hospitality is built into the reality of home. The Christian vision as expressed in the Kingdom of God demands the emergence of a new community, a new place. The book of Ephesians urges the early Christians to the creation of a space where strangers and aliens are no longer: "So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone" (Eph 2:19-21).
In contemporary sociology and anthropology the human body has been given a central place. Just as it is true that everything symbolizes the body, so is it equally true that the body symbolizes everything else. This is evident in the Christian vision. Christian faith and religious education need to take the body seriously. The embodiment of God in Jesus Christ is decisive for Christianity: anthropology is theology.
Lucien Richard, OMI,
is a professor of theology and a fellow of the university professors at Boston University. His many publications include Christ: The Self-Emptying of God
(Paulist Press, 1997) and his most recent book, Living the Hospitality of God
(Paulist Press, 2000).
Give Imagination a Chance!
Storytelling is not about people and events of long ago, but rather is a way of exciting the imagination and disclosing the realm of the possible.
By Catherine Dooley
In the class I taught on the foundations of religious education, the undergraduate students were required to conduct two classroom-teaching observations in elementary or secondary schools. Two young women were assigned to look in on a pair of first-grade religion classes. The curriculum content, which was the overview of the Mass, was the same in both first-grade classes. Both teachers talked about the overall pattern of the liturgy and the responses that the assembly makes within the Mass. One teacher explained that "Amen" means "so be it" or "we agree" with what is happening, and went on to the next response. The other teacher asked the children to think about how people react when something wonderful or special happens to them. The children gave a number of ideas. One little boy spontaneously jumped up, screwed up his face, stamped his foot, raised both arms in the air, and with all the energy he could muster shouted, "Yes!" The teacher then explained that rejoicing is what the assembly is doing when it says "Amen!" She asked the class if they remembered the great prayer that began with "Lift up your heart! We have lifted them up to the Lord!" She explained briefly that during the prayer, we give thanks for all of creation, for all that God has done for us and continues to do for us. She asked them to think of people, events, and beautiful aspects of creation for which they would like to give thanks. She explained that we call upon the Holy Spirit to bless the bread and wine. The priest says the words of Jesus at the farewell supper and through the power of the Holy Spirit the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus. The children were asked to tell the story of the farewell supper. Then the teacher reminded the children that at the end of the prayer, the priest holds up the blessed bread and the wine and says a beautiful prayer of praise to which we say, "Yes! Yes, we believe that God loves us with an everlasting love. Yes, we believe that Jesus died, rose from the dead and will come again. Yes, we believe that Christ is present in the eucharistic bread and wine. Yes, we believe that we offer these gifts with Jesus to the Father so that we might be filled with Holy Spirit and become one body, one spirit in Christ." The teacher went on to emphasize how important it is to say "Yes" vigorously and with all one's heart. The two university students attended the school Mass at the end of the morning and sat with the first graders. When the presider began the eucharistic prayer, many of the children looked back at the teacher as if to say, "We know!" One little boy even winked at her. At the end of the prayer most of the children from the second class said "Amen" in loud clear voices and with very pleased expressions on their faces. One little girl even raised her arms in the air and to herself said, "Yes!"
We hear a lot today about how little children know about their faith and about their inability to articulate basic doctrines. Here's a question: Is it that children are not being taught, or is it the way that children are being taught? In this article I reflect on the formative power of imagination in the catechectical process. The article came out of our class experience with younger children, but the use of the imagination is also essential in the catechesis of youth and adults.
Imagination is triggered by a word or phrase, music or sound, a taste or smell, a picture or place. Imagining also discloses a realm that does not yet exist but is possible. We have all had the experience of how a certain word or phrase, picture, odor, sound, taste, or place can bring an image to mind. In remembering this image, we often see it in a new way and get an insight into the person or event that we did not have before. The capacity to form images does not exhaust the awesome capability of the imagination. Imagination also allows us to see the possibilities. We think about a decision that we need to make. Our imagination allows us to try on different sets of outcomes for fit. Imagination allows us to put ourselves in another's place or situation. In other words, we participate in what we imagine. Imagination is intentional, related to memory, and is a means of making meaning. Imagination is always informed by memory because memory provides the continuity with the past or is the referent point that allows us to make connections that lead to meaning. Lastly, imagination enables us to change and be transformed.
If this idea of imagination seems out of place with regard to liturgy or catechesis, we need only to return to Jesus, the master teacher. The parables are word-events because they effect something: they aim at bringing about a transformation of the hearer. The word-event has three essential elements: surprise, insight, and decision. In their progression, parables illustrate the qualities of imagination. In the parables and through images and stories, Jesus tells us about that world which is already and not yet. Jesus says "the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field . . ." (Mt 13:44). In Matthew 13:14 is a moment of amazement or surprise: the worker finds a treasure. Invasions and revolts often prompted the wealthy to bury their valuables in fields. If the rich were killed, the treasures stayed hidden until someone like this lucky man came upon them. Overwhelmed with joy, this laborer realizes the value of the treasure and begins to see all sorts of possibilities for himself and his family. What to do? To buy the field and claim the treasure would mean selling everything he had to buy one field. It would mean putting his entire existence on the line. Moreover, the audience listening to the parable knows that the original owner might sue for part of the treasure. The laborer decides to take a risk and knows that this is a total commitment, a complete change of his life. He has imagined all the possibilities and determined an action. The treasure is worth any price. All of the parables in their progression from surprise to insight and decision illustrate the qualities of imagination that include but go beyond the formation of images. The listener is challenged to go through the same process that leads to transformation.
Think of the stories that are our first contact with religion: "And a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. . . ." "And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to be enrolled with Mary his betrothed who was with child. . . ." "She gave birth to her first born son . . . she wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger. . . ." "Early in the morning, the first day of the week. . . ." "And Jesus took bread and blessed it. . . ." Greeley asserts that religion begins in the imagination and in the narratives—yet it does not remain there. As we grow older, we learn what these stories mean. Bethlehem and the manger become the Incarnation; the empty tomb becomes the resurrection; the final supper becomes the Eucharist. All of these stories grow into rational explanations and doctrinal formulations that converge to contribute to a Catholic belief system that can be articulated and that shape our identity as Catholic Christians. But the stories that capture the imagination are first.
A powerful story sets up a problem or dramatic tension. Conflicts are concerned with losing and finding, absence and presence, sin and grace, courage and fear. The characters and the events incorporate these abstract conflicts. In Luke 19:1-10, Zacchaeus, a rich man, has cheated and dishonored his own people in order to become wealthy. In this passage, the two main characters are Jesus and Zacchaeus. Stories are about relationships and how people interact with one another, so how does Zacchaeus feel when Jesus stops under the tree and tells him to come down? How do the people in the crowd react, and why? What happens to Zacchaeus when Jesus says that he will have supper at his house? What makes him want to change his life? For many years the family of Zacchaeus has both benefited and been shamed by Zacchaeus. How is his family affected when Jesus says, "Today salvation has come to this household?" The Gospel tells us that Zacchaeus wanted to find out what kind of a man Jesus was. What does he discover?
Storytelling, then, involves a beginning that sets up a conflict and an ending that resolves it in order to make stories affectively engaging. In every story we need to attend to the metaphors or images that are used. In other words, what ties together the beginning and end? In the beginning of the Zacchaeus story, the prophet is called "Jesus." At the end of the story, he is called "Lord" and "Son of Man." "What is significant about the change in name? Why does Jesus specify that he will have a meal at Zacchaeus's house? Why a meal, in other words? Only after those we teach have entered into the story imaginatively, using their own memories and experience, can we begin to draw out the implications. Children need to know the story well in order to be able to grow into it. It is not enough to tell the story; we need to reflect upon the meaning in a way that speaks to the imagination so that children eventually will be able to articulate and explain the convictions to both themselves and others.
Children need to be initiated early into ecclesial life. Participation in the liturgy has great importance in this process because it is the foundation for future reflection and comprehension. In general, the Mass is currently taught in a linear fashion: the introductory rites, Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Eucharist, and concluding rites. If we were to begin with rites themselves, we might instead focus on the procession at the entrance rite, the Gospel procession (if there is one), the presentation of the gifts, the communion procession, and the procession at the end of Mass. The next ritual action is the sign of the cross the assembly makes at the beginning of the liturgy and then at the Gospel, followed by the sign that the priest makes over the bread and wine in the eucharistic prayer and over the people at the conclusion of the liturgy. In other words, instead of teaching "the parts" of the Mass one by one, we might instead consider an action and trace it throughout the liturgy to show the unity of the ritual—that is, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist are so closely connected that they form but one single act of worship. Our ritual actions are repeated over and over in the sacramental celebrations. We repeat the same ritual actions again and again; the context will determine the meaning. For example, in baptism, confirmation, orders, and the sacrament of the sick, there is an anointing with oil. Yet each anointing has a special significance. Exploring the ritual actions provides a meaningful context for doctrinal understandings.
What is needed, however, is a chance for children (and adults) to reflect on what they have celebrated. How does each ritual action relate to their daily experience? What are the biblical and ecclesial foundations? What does the action ask of us as individuals and as a community? Most of all, we prepare children for that full, active, conscious participation that enables them to stand, raise their arms, and say, "Yes! Give imagination a chance!"
Catherine Dooley, OP,
was the recipient of the NCCL 2001 Catechetical Award. Sr. Dooley is an associate professor in the Department of Religion and Religious Education at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Teaching Chastity: Mission Impossible?
Sexuality is not just about hormones and romance. It touches on all of what it means to be human. It links hearts with bodies.
By Julie A. Collins
I vividly remember a rather unusual late-night chat in the spring of 1970 with my college roommate: we were counting the number of virgins still left on our freshmen hall. We managed to fill ten fingers with our calculations. In 2001 I doubt we could count as many; today the slogan of many college students has become "been there, done that, bought the t-shirt." I do not offer this anecdote to be flippant but rather to illustrate what statistics tell us: in the past twenty years sexual morality has changed dramatically. This moral shift presents more than a sociological phenomenon for those of us on the frontlines of religious formation. The teacher or chaplain brave enough to invite a discussion of human sexuality can feel overwhelmed, enveloped in a whirlwind of "feel-good" relativism. Even sensible and caring young people have been known to stare blankly during such a discussion. They cannot be blamed. They simply reflect the moral world created by their elders—a world inhabited by MTV,
Cosmopolitan magazine, and the TV show
Temptation Island.
Contemporary culture has made sexual morality a challenge for all committed Christians, whatever their generation. A decision to remain chaste is seen too frequently as madness or, at the very least, repression. On one level, this attitude is comical. In the developed world, self-denial is promoted in many areas—diet, exercise, career advancement—but in our sexual relationships we are simply urged to be "safe," as though sexual intimacy were like riding a motorcycle. "Enjoy, but be sure to wear a helmet." We can face the fact that we may spend our whole lives consuming restricted amounts of ice cream because we see the outcome—a healthier body—as being worth a lifelong discipline. But our culture seems to have lost any sense that when we say "no" to our sexual urges, we are saying "yes" to something far richer.
Over time, these conversations can lead to confidences about the sexual behavior that is part of this romantic relationship; however, here one is on tricky ground because the parishioner or student has allowed himself or herself to be quite vulnerable. Obviously, if the person is involved in any morally questionable behavior, a swift indication of judgment or disgust on the part of the pastoral minister will bring the conversation to an abrupt end. I've found though that if I keep inviting the person to consider the
quality of his or her loving—the love that he or she is receiving and that he or she is offering—there is often an opening in which I can raise the issue of sexual morality while still allowing the student or directee to feel supported.
Therefore, in a classroom setting, it is often productive to begin the conversation by uncovering popular culture's tendency to deny the comprehensive nature of human sexuality and its insistence that hearts can
easily be separated from bodies. Even sixteen-year-olds can see this if you ask them what standard of sexual ethics is promoted in the movies they watch. According to Hollywood, when is sex even "wrong"? Initially, they may tell you "never," but with some exploration of recent films, they may uncover Hollywood's view of sexuality: (1) a genital relationship is "right" as long as there are two "consenting adults," and no violence, alcohol, or coercion is involved; and (2) one
can choose—sexual intercourse can be about love or it can simply be recreation, no strings attached.
The minimal moral expectation of popular culture as regards genital intimacy is consent. Popular sexual morality at its
most refined will advise us that we need to be clear with the people that we sleep with about just what we are offering them. Are we offering them committed love or are we just offering a little fun?
At this point, I often ask my students to consider what they believe:
Can love and sex be separated? Can sex be just a game where the only moral issue is consent? ("You want to play tennis, I want to play tennis. I'll meet you at the court at 1:00 p.m. and we'll play tennis.") Even if they decide that the human heart can be separated from the groin, I ask them to decide whether they want their sexual behavior to revolve around recreation or around love: "What choice will make you happier?"
If some of the students choose love as the foundation for their sexual choices, a catechist or pastoral minister is not yet out of the woods. Remember the classic teenage battle cry: "It's okay to sleep with someone if you
really love him or her." Of course, this conversation occurs after they have
already been reminded of what Scripture and the entire Judeo-Christian tradition have to say about sexual morality. You can respond to these questions by engaging the class on both the nature of love
and sex as the
language of love. Here, at least intellectually, a commitment to chastity can begin to make sense. At this stage I often introduce teens or a retreatant to a sort of spectrum of touch:
Chastity can begin to make sense, then, if we understand erotic touch as a language. And, as with any language, sex can be used to reveal the truth or to tell lies. So I urge my students, "Be careful. Don't tell lies with your body. Make sure that what you offer with your body you are capable of delivering with your heart and with your life."
When the infatuation fades and Prince or Princess Charming is deposed, inexperienced lovers can become disillusioned and appalled that they were so "clueless." The self-reproach becomes truly crushing when the couple has had sex: "I gave myself to this person and now it is over. I am a fool, and love is an illusion." Without intervention, what now opens up is the wide path to promiscuity. The young person believes either that love is a joke and therefore chastity makes no sense, or that love has escaped him or her this time but
will be found. Either way, whether from bitterness or desperation, the merry-go-round of sexual partners now begins—and with it, the deadening of heart and soul that confuses men and women still further.
The point of knowing one's personal patterns of desolation is that, with practice and prayer, one can develop a "flashing light" that will begin to blink in one's consciousness as one treads this less than healthy path. An acronym from the literature of twelve-step programs captures this wisdom well: HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired). The message here is obvious: if one is desolate—if one is out of sorts, hungry, angry, lonely, or tired—one is apt to make poor decisions and fall prey to one's compulsions. So stop and attend to what you
really need. And very especially, pray to regain your interior composure.
This wisdom is invaluable when working with young people because they often think that sexual morality springs from a sort of "stiff upper lip" or will power. This approach to changing one's sexual habits can spell disaster, especially if recreational sex has been a regular part of the weekend scene. For some teens, casual sex has been fun, pleasurable, and an ego boost. To make different moral choices, they need much more than cold showers.
There is, alas, no laminate available to any of us that allows us to wrap our emotions, values, or spiritual well-being in unpenetrable plastic, thus preserving them from stain or tarnish—but to teens attempting to revere their own bodies and the bodies of others, "knowing oneself" can be a great asset. Encourage them to
acknowledge their attitudes toward the young men and women with whom they study and play. HALT, too, can be helpful wisdom to aid them in recognizing when they are in a bad space, knowing when they need rest or food or a listening ear. Encourage them to use St. Ignatius's advice: "When in consolation [i.e., while you are in good space], consider what situations make it more likely for you to use or be used sexually. Does it happen when you are drinking? Does it happen when you are feeling ugly, unlovable, or socially uncertain? What other choices can you imagine yourself making? What do you
really need when you are choosing casual sex as your anodyne? Ask God to give you the courage to make those choices instead. And remember, we must remind teens and ourselves that the exuberant God who created our sexuality wants it to be a source of joy."
Julie A. Collins
provides spiritual direction to teens and adults and teaches religious studies at Georgetown Preparatory School in Bethesda, Md.
"When Did You Visit Me in Prison?"
Detention ministry, a necessary activity of the new millennium, presents us with an occasion for evangelization and catechesis.
By Gerard P. Weber
As the waitress placed our coffee, pancakes, and eggs before us, Gonzalo DeVivero, lay chaplain in a large Los Angeles jail, blurted, "We have spawned a monster! Yesterday at one service nine men signed up for our program, Finding the Way in Jail. I am already talking to twenty others, and I have just completed the course with the first twenty who joined. I can't find any more time!"
Nine more requests does not seem like an overwhelming number considering that there are about 1,600 men in the facility. However, that number does result in the need for help when one realizes that the chaplain is responsible for conducting at least ten services each week as well as talking with men who have other problems or requests. I asked DeVivero what he intended to do about the situation. He said he would have to find more people to volunteer as detention ministers.
Even though the intent of detention ministry is the same in all facilities, there are differences in what can be done and in how it is carried out in different jails and in prisons. Jails are county facilities and have a transient population: people in jails are taken to court, released after serving a sentence of less than a year, or sent to a prison or to another facility. Even those who are serving their time in the jail may be switched to another facility at any time. It is difficult to know from one day to the next whether one will see the same man or woman there a second time. Prisons, in contrast, are long-term facilities run by either the state or federal goverment. Their populations are more stable. One volunteer says that the people in jail live in a state of expectation. They are anxious about what will happen to them when they go to court. Even if they have been sentenced, they are anticipating their release in a few weeks or months and are concerned about what will happen to them when they get out. On the other hand, people in prison are more settled. They know when they might be released and usually where they will spend their time.
The Purpose of Detention Ministry
Sr. Suzanne Jabro, CSJ, who directs detention ministry for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, summed the purpose of detention ministry by recounting an incident that occurred when she first visited inmates in a state prison. She asked them, "What can we do for you?" They said, "Everything! Anything! We have nothing! Just sit with us for an hour." She realized that their hunger and poverty were just as real as those of a homeless person dying on the streets of Calcutta. They feel as though no one cares. Someone has to visit with them.
She went on to say that she sees detention ministry as the missionary activity of the new millennium. At any one time in the United States two million people are incarcerated behind bars, and a million and a half children have one or both parents locked up. This is a problem not only for the United States but for the entire world. She quoted a recent magazine article that said the task of the Church in this millennium is not to get people to come to church, but to get the people who are in the Church to go out to those on the margin of society. It is there that transformation is waiting—not only for those on the margin but also for those going out to them. We have to let God transform us through the brokenhearted and others truly in need. We are called to do what Jesus did—to put people in our boat and bring them to the other shore. It is only in this way that all of us are saved. The surprising twist to this work is that people who undertake it think they are coming to do good work. What they do not realize is that when they enter a jail or prison they are going to meet Christ there. Christ is waiting for them. He will act with them and will change them. Detention ministry is a ministry of reconciliation, of presence, of hope. It is a ministry that helps the incarcerated find meaning and purpose in their lives and so find themselves and God. It is a ministry that walks with these people after they leave the jail or prison in order to help them re-enter the community. She emphasized that the spirituality of detention ministers is basically that of being human, giving witness to the living face of God as they walk with the imprisoned during a difficult time in their lives. By their mere presence, detention ministers are a voice for the poor, a sign of compassion, and a living witness to the unconditional love of God. Sr. Jabro went on to say that no one can really understand the need for and the rewards of prison ministry until he or she goes inside the walls and actively visits with those imprisoned there.
After Detention—What?
Detention ministry should not be limited by the walls of a jail or a prison. People who are released, especially after a term of some years, need help in finding work and a place to live. They need someone who will help them rebuild their lives on the outside. Those who reach out to the million and a half children who have one or more parents in prison, to the victims of crime, and to the families of those convicted of crimes are engaged in prison ministry. These unseen victims of crime are not behind bars, but neither are they free. They can be imprisoned by shame, worry, and guilt just as surely as if they were in a penitentiary. They need someone to share their hurt, anger, and shame, and to offer them hope that life can change. They need help in acquiring a spirit of reconciliation. They, too, need the presence of someone who understands and cares. Finally, people in detention ministry are a sign to the entire community of a spirit of reconciliation, a spirit that puts aside vengeance and revenge.
Identifying the needs for more resources for detention ministry is relatively easy. The institutional and psychological road blocks faced by people working in this ministry are not difficult to describe. The encouraging news is that more and more dioceses are beginning to see the work being done for people convicted of crimes and for their victims as a definite ministry, one deserving of the kind of recognition, support, and services given to other ministries. Another hopeful sign is the appearance of programs that help establish rapport between the inmates and the volunteers. The Kyros program, a Jesuit retreat program used with teens and young adults that has been so successful in high schools, is being tried with youths in detention. The Violent Offenders Program and other forms of contemplative prayer are catching on in facilities throughout the nation. In addition, in 2000 the U.S. Catholic bishops published the statement
Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice, which urges more rehabilitation and justice for the incarcerated, as well as the recognition of the dignity of both the victim and offender. St. Anthony Messenger Press has further indicated a willingness to publish helpful materials even though they may not become bestsellers. Perhaps the greatest need for detention ministry does not lie with people in jail or their victims. It may well lie with the people in the pews who need to question their views on the purpose of punishment by incarceration. Is it vindictive or restorative, and what can individuals do to visit the Lord when he is in prison?
Gerard P. Weber,
a priest who formerly ministered with the Archdiocese of Chicago, now resides in Encino, Calif. His credits include serving as general editor of the Benzinger Religious Education Series and as president of the ACTA Foundation. In retirement, among other activities, he is engaged in detention ministry.
To request a copy of the prison ministry materials mentioned in this article, please contact Gonzalo DeVivero, Catholic Chaplain, North Facility, Pitches Detention Center, 29320 The Old Road, Saugus, CA 91350. A donation for postage and printing would be appreciated.
Bridging the Generational Divide
Church structures that invite and welcome young adults are a necessary means of evangelization.
By John C. Cusick
The world that our Church currently encounters in the United States includes a demographic hungry for the Lord but absent from our pews: young adults. Many books and articles have been written about young adult ministry, yet little is being done to change catechists' mindsets and visions, or our Church. As I will argue below, the entire life cycle has shifted, but church structures have not responded to this shift. We need to examine church structures and make the necessary changes to attract the young adults who are so hungry for the Lord.
The Generation Gap has Arrived
Children of the '60s always said, "Don't trust anyone over thirty." That generation is itself now well over thirty. The "generation gap" is no longer barroom talk but rather is now the reality of the situation. The generation gap being experienced today is dividing our Church. Published statistics announce a frightening scenario. The Elks, Moose, Lions, and Shriners are all on the endangered list. The same can be assumed for the Knights of Columbus and the Daughters of America. These wonderful fraternal societies that do amazing amounts of good have few younger members. They will die. It is only a matter of time.
Things are different today than they were thirty years ago because the very backbone of these groups used to be the young people. It was the young marrieds that drove these groups. The CFM (Christian Family Movement) was founded by people in their early thirties. Today, the lead couple of CFM is retired and has been married for more than thirty years. The Church specifically advocates, however, young marriage. Where and how are we doing this?
Social structures of the Church are struggling because they no longer have this youthful backbone. Not long ago, a fellow priest of Chicago went to a meeting of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a group that has done such incredible work for the poor, for those down on their luck, for families struggling to stay together. Four senior citizens were the only ones who showed up. Yet young adults do hunger for volunteerism and for opportunities to help the poor. Our systems are somehow no longer welcoming—they no longer address the hunger for the Lord felt by young adults.
Shrinking Generations
"Young adults" refers to people, married or single, in their twenties and thirties. Defining an exact age span is impossible and is probably a waste of time. What the Church must now recognize is that a generation can represent an age span as short as eight years. Things happen much more quickly now then they did in the past. Life experiences are enormously different from generation to generation.
Some polls claim that people still affiliate with the Catholic Church at the same rate as thirty years ago. In my experience, however, we are thinner in number and older in composite. We still lack
practicing Catholics. The definition of this term has even shifted, now applied to those attending Mass two or three times a month, whereas it was defined as those attending weekly years ago. That represents a 25 to 50 percent drop in attendance. If your income shifted that percentage you would stand up straight. The population of our churches has changed by that amount, but we are "business as usual."
The good news of this poll is that young adults are still checking the "Roman Catholic" box. We have a simple task, then. We need to move people from the "affiliated" category to the "practicing" category. We must change our understanding of evangelization. Our top priority should not be to convert the fallen away or
disenfranchised Catholics. Young adults have not been disenfranchised by the Church—rather, they have never been enfranchised
enough. Young adults are waiting to be invited and to be fed. Let us be honest. Young adults are more present than we think, but less present than we want. They are still getting married in the Church, having their children baptized, and burying their family in the Church. But they are missing on Sundays more than ever. We need to invite them.
Mobility vs. Stability
This generation moves a considerable amount. They go away to college. Their jobs force them to move two or three times. Many of them moved often as children, as their parents were transferred or divorced. The parish no longer defines their social system. They know the diversity of the Church and need to be able to "plug in" for a few years or even a few months without guilt or shame. The Church needs to celebrate everyone who attends on Sunday and not ask where they were the week before.
A friend left a very active parish in Chicago when she relocated to southern Wisconsin. She called me asking how she could get the young adults as involved there as they were at Old St. Patrick's in Chicago. She felt the void of their non-participation. She was looking for young adults to lector, to minister the Eucharist, and to sing. So I asked her to analyze the system of the parish. She described a schedule in which the same person proclaimed the Scriptures eight weeks in a row—so interested people had to commit to eight consecutive Sundays. The mobility of young adults does not allow them to fit into this type of system. When my friend approached the pastor, however, he was careful not to upset the coordinator, a wonderful woman who had been organizing lectors and eucharistic ministers for nearly two decades. He figured the existing coordinator would probably give that job up in a few years, and then changes could be implemented. Think of all the young adults who were unable to plug into this church in the meantime.
Begin with Life and not Theology
- Do liturgy well. First, if we must do one thing well and only one thing—even if this means that we need to drop everything that the parish does, including religious education—put all the money and energy into Sunday liturgy. Make it the most powerful hour of the week. It is a moment of catechizing, of evangelization, of spiritual formation. It is a moment of community. It is Corpus Christi. Young adults tell me they are looking for three things on Sunday: preaching, hospitality, and music that is singable and enjoyable. Why is the Christian evangelical movement flourishing? They inspire. Evangelical ministers speak to the heart of their congregation and make people feel welcome by embodying these needs. We must do the same.
- Let compassion arise before legalism. We should not reject the Church's legal system, but compassion must precede the law. When a young couple calls or approaches the priest and announces their desire to be wed in the Church, our first response should not be a set of questions: "Are you both Catholic? Are you registered here? Have either of you been married before?" Our first response must instead be one of joy: "Congratulations! That is wonderful that you have found each other and want to profess that love in the eyes of the Church." Catholicism should be defined by the compassion it demonstrates rather than the law that governs it. That is the message of Jesus in the New Testament.
- Baptism is much more important than registration. The Catholic system can seem lacking to those who move every few years. The above situations of young couples expressing their desires to be married in the Church can be told here. I know young adults who have struggled to find a church that would marry them because they were not registered at any one church. The primary concern of our pastors is often registration. No one asks if the couple is in love. But one is a member of the Church through baptism, not registration.
- We must learn to celebrate the moment of return of young adults. We cannot ask where they have been; rather, like the father of the prodigal son, we must rejoice in their return. I submit that there are five moments of return, in which life is cracked open and one sees who one really is. The first moment is marriage: the couple's desire to be married is a moment of pre-evangelization; our first response must be about love. The second moment is the baptism of children, an important moment for parents, regardless of their sincerity at the time of marriage in the Church. These are their children. Look at a parent holding a child. They see immortality, hope, and the glory of the future. They cannot be denied this experience simply because they are not pounding down the church door on Sundays. The third moment is death. I was twenty-five when my father died, and I remember holding him and uttering, quietly to myself but directed to him, "Dad, I will never talk to you again." For the first time in my life, "never" meant never. Never is not the end. Resurrection faith tells us so. The Church provides us with rites and rituals that allow us to understand "never." This is an opportunity for young adults to see all the Church has to offer. Sickness is the fourth moment. When he is scared to death of Mom's breast cancer, when she is scared to death of Dad's heart condition, or when they are scared to death that they might have AIDS, a community is needed. The Church can be—should be—the community to which people turn. Finally, life decisions are the fifth moment that requires guidance: "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?" That is vision. That is vocation. That is where dialogue is needed. The Church has amazing resources for such a dialogue. Let us make those resources available.
- Presume little—explain a lot. Take nothing for granted. Explain everything. At a baptism I explain water, oil, light, and white garments. I explain why we ask for the name as if it were new, when in fact this has been the baby's name for weeks. This generation is heavily into symbolism. Look at all the pierced body parts. Look at all the tattoos. Look at music videos. This generation knows symbols and grew up reading symbols. Catholicism is steeped in symbols. They need to be explained and opened up. Give a church tour. Explain what all the statues, lights, windows, and altars mean. Give the young adults the knowledge and power they want. Before explaining doctrine, explain the symbols.
- Experience-based preaching and prayer is so needed. I often joke that one proof that there is a God is that week after week people return to Mass after what we have put them through. Not only should our preaching reflect the experiences of the congregation but the prayers of the faithful need to reflect the experiences of the week. The text used for the formation of the prayers of the faithful should be the newspaper, not a liturgical book. We come to Mass to find where faith intersects life and to pray about it. We must not ignore the world in our prayers. We need to open up the poverty, war, and injustice of our cities, nation, and world to faith in Jesus Christ.
- Let go of Vatican II as an ultimate reference point. For young adults, we might as well be citing Trent when we speak of the Second Vatican Council. They have no experience of it. That is no longer the reference point for what we do. Our basic texts are the Bible and the tradition. Those of us who love Vatican II have not succeeded in passing it on to the next generation. We kept it as our own, and now its texts are not relevant to the lives of young adults. Young adults have not appropriated Vatican II's significance, though its significance is an aspect of the ordinary teaching of the Church. Those in church leadership are the same as they were ten or twenty years ago. Let your children into leadership roles. They have the same faith others did years ago.
- Use Jesus' method of organizing. Jesus did not hang a list on a palm tree asking those who want to be apostles to sign up. He said, "Come follow me." When, in the gospel of Luke, Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue and handed the scroll back to the attendant, Luke's next line is "And all eyes were upon him." What Jesus said next was not, "Now that I have your attention, there will be a meeting in the basement of the synagogue Tuesday night at 8:00 discussing discipleship. Bring a friend." The Jesus method of organizing people works: direct personal invitation. This is how we bring people in. If you send out letters for a program, follow up with a personal phone call.
Needs of the Church
We need missionary zeal. The theological fights need to end. I want to be able to connect with people in the Lord. Our problem is that the Church has become the "same-old, same-old" doing the "same-old, same-old" year after year. When is Lent? What did we do last year? This "same-old, same-old" is being done by priests, RCIA teams, liturgical teams, and other laity.
We have to be mission-driven, not member-driven. What is the mission of the parish? More people work than raise kids, but the Church continues to define its mission by the raising of children. I am involved in a parish whose mission is instead directed toward the workplace. We do outreach for the poor after work, and the young adults flock. They are hungry and want to participate.
We need a Catholic revival. We need to find the fire in the belly. We do not need a program or lecture series. Preaching Christ is what lights this fire. The Kingdom of God is what we live and witness—not theological concepts. Finally, we need to write to young adults, not about them. This generation must be reached soon or we will never be done fighting to "plug them into" the Church. Young adults are not the enemy. They may not have the years and experience we do. They may not have the stability we do. But they are our people. Look them in the eye. You will know they are hungry for the Lord and yearn for shalom.
John C. Cusick
is a priest of the archdiocese of Chicago, where he coordinates the outreach program for young adults. Fr. Cusick participated in the bishops' committee that wrote Sons and Daughters of the Light,
the document on ministry with and to young adults. He and Catherine Dooley are currently working on a book with Orbis Press entitled The Basic Guide to Young Adult Ministry.
This essay is based on an Isaac Hecker Lecture he gave at St. Paul's College, Washington, D.C.
ARTICLE
Faith Under Pressure: Sacramental Catechesis and the Experience of the Christian Community
A biblically inspired notion of sacramentality, rooted in the life of the community, supports and fosters an adult Church.
By Bert Roebben and Erlinde De Lange
Catechists, and all who are engaged in sacramental catechesis, today face a serious dilemma: the difficult task of helping students and catechumens to grow in faith at a time when society is less certain of the importance of faith in our lives. In the current climate, the sacraments—which have always played a central role in catechesis—can no longer provide the only means of motivating the community to learn about the fundamental questions of the Catholic faith. Rather, sacraments must be recognized as the final stage in a process of enlightenment that has emerged from the confrontation between the biblical narrative and our own personal "narrative." This essay offers five propositions toward an updated sacramental catechesis. The propositions are designed to help the catechized to explore the limits and possibilities of the Church while responding to today's tension between religious homelessness and the narrative of the Christian tradition, particularly its sacramental richness.
Proposition 1: Meaningful sacramentality presupposes a correlation between faith and life.
The call for a community connectedness in which believers experience, designate, and celebrate an encounter between faith and life raises an important question: What living and learning contexts are ideal for fostering such connectedness? Until forty years ago, the piety introduced by Christian culture into everyday life was unquestioned—and unquestionable—but that is not true anymore. Faith is no longer a matter of fact in our present age; it is, rather, a source of tension. Young people now are more inclined to wonder what believers are all about. What is the "bottom line" when it comes to faith? This crisis has been referred to as a "crisis of tradition": in the mediation of the faith from one generation to the next (the process of
tradere, Latin for "handing on"), faith loses its plausibility—it is no longer recognizable in the eyes of the coming generation.
1
Certainly, the tension brought about by this questioning of faith can be salutary in the context of a modern Christianity. Authenticity stands at the top of the agenda of today's society. As a consequence, curiosity is on the increase: the person who comes into contact with a convincing narrative that has the capacity to infuse his or her existence with new life will inevitably take steps to learn more and to further immerse himself or herself in the narrative.
Proposition 2: Present-day society is challenged to understand and develop the correlation between faith and life.
God places his transcendence in the hands of persons who in the process of telling their life stories inscribe themselves in the "tradition" of such stories. This concept of Incarnation, which is part of the essence of Christianity (according to Jn 1:14: "And the Word became flesh / and made his dwelling [literally, pitched his tent] among us, / and we saw his glory"), is given unique radiance today, an age when becoming a person of faith requires an explicit and personal choice.
Far from defending partial interests, churches should stand up for the spiritual well-being of all people in our world. Deeds of charity, mercy, and solidarity should be their trademark. They should function as spaces in which the broken pieces of human hope and favor are rejoined in lived and shared moments of reflection and celebration. Monolithic answers with their "take it or leave it" character are not appropriate or effective today. People seek someone who can provide meaning and thereby teach them how to reconstruct the broken shards of their lives in meaningful ways and to restore perspective.
Proposition 3: Biblical catechesis strives to provide a response to this challenge to find a correlation between faith and life.
The key question now confronts us: What is the best way to express the Christian tradition, if it is to bind up and heal people better than before? If the crisis of tradition is to become a salutary and educational opportunity, we aver, the Bible and its correct use must play an important role in this healing process. The point of departure must be the world—the cultures and experiences of the given time periods—in which the Bible is located. While many contemporary men and women clearly find it difficult to make direct comparisons between their own lives and the biblical narrative, the world of experience that lies at the foundation of this narrative remains accessible. Associations and similarities between our own experiences and those of the Bible are necessary if we are to understand the significance of biblical texts. By its very nature, therefore, biblical catechetics must be dialogical. Discussing the Bible without bringing it into contact with the contexts of those participating in the discussion is in fact profoundly unbiblical. Indeed, the Bible teaches that God is ultimately to be found in the history of humans.
Proposition 4: A biblically inspired sacramentality presupposes an adult Church.
In the first three propositions, we appeal for a biblically inspired sacramentality that has the capacity to create a space in which we can encounter the divine in a recognizable manner while simultaneously transcending this space. The person who wants to encounter God must personally engage in the dialogical process of appropriating tradition. In other words, each person of faith must make his or her own unique and indispensable contribution to the growth process of faith, a process that is subject, moreover, to moments of acceleration and delay, and even to moments of standstill. The Church constitutes the space within which this process of growth is made available. It forms a place of encounter, in which people who share the same aspirations can continue to motivate one another. It is not the Church's role, therefore, to choose faith
for people, but rather, its role to stimulate them to recover their own narrative and to attain clarity in their own unique journey of faith.
Our appeal ultimately culminates in the option for an adult Church. Faith is a matter for adults. While this was taken for granted in the early Church, modern-day men and women have been raised in an obdurate tradition in which sacramental catechesis focused primarily on children. Such a reduction suggested that faith was a matter for children and that it was important to ensure that children received "everything" (i.e., the sacraments). Whether this process offered an advantage to children and adults alike was rarely a question of significance. Given this distorted situation, a serious effort must be made today to refocus on adult catechesis to see this as an important need.
Proposition 5: Rituals and sacraments are always rooted in the life of a community and exist only by grace of that community context.
How one associates personal experience with the narratives of the Christian tradition depends on individual personality. Contemporary society has become profoundly a-religious, depriving believers of a faith context that was once taken for granted. We must bear this in mind if we are to avoid entertaining unrealistic expectations. In the past, individual personality structure was not considered as important since it tended to be absorbed by the powerful process of socialization that was characteristic of a more or less universally Christianized milieu. In recent years, however, the emphasis has shifted to the freely chosen life options of the individual, an emphasis in which the particular nature and unique narrative of the person play a much more significant role. Where once the profession of atheism required a strong personality, now the faith option demands a similar capacity to swim against the tide.
This essay calls as well for ecclesial modesty—neither the Church nor sacramental catechesis can exist in its own right. Both refer to something other, something more fundamental and more inclusive: the event of human encounter with the divine. A renewed focus on adult catechesis can make a genuine difference with respect to the future of the Church. In the long run, this focus has the potential to offer a new and vigorous foundation for faith communities whose vitality finds its roots in the loving dedication of the living God.
Dr. Bert Roebben
is an associate professor of practical theology/religious education at the K. U. Brabant in Tilburg (Holland).
Erlinde De Lange
is a staff member of the Catechetical Centre of the Diocese of Vlaams-Brabant and Mechelen (Belgium).
This article is based on a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education in Atlanta, Ga., November 3-5, 2000.
REVIEW ESSAY
Christianity in Jewish Terms: Re-envisioning Our Self-Understanding
To advance dialogue, Jewish scholars take a fresh look at Christian doctrine and practice. One scholar argues that the Church must continue to present itself as a messianic community rooted in Judaism.
By John T. Pawlikowski
In September 2000, a group of nearly two hundred Jewish scholars and rabbis from the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies (ICJS), a non-profit organization that works to disarm religious hatred and establish models of interfaith understanding, published a statement on Christians and Christianity entitled
Dabru Emet (Hebrew for "to speak the truth") (Baltimore, Md.: ICJS). Developed over several years, this statement is an attempt by Jewish scholars to respond to the recent positive understandings of Jews and Judaism that have surfaced within Christian churches during the last four decades. Though it bears the stamp of a group of individual scholars and rabbis, not that of any specific Jewish organization, the statement's signers include leading organizational representatives in the Jewish community, the vast majority of whom are from North America, though several European and Israeli Jewish leaders are also included.
Dabru Emet has not been received without controversy within the Jewish scholarly community. Some have objected to the statement's assertion that "Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon." Others feel its approach to Jewish religious claims to the land of Israel might give sustenance to right-wing politicians in Israel. From a strictly theological perspective, the statement has generated discussion about whether Jews can profit theologically and spiritually from a study of Christianity, and whether Jews and Christians in fact "worship the same God" and "seek authority from the same book," as
Dabru Emet claims. Some Jewish scholars, in response to these assertions, argue that Jews have nothing to gain from a theological encounter with Christianity and maintain that the Hebrew scriptures and the Old Testament are in fact not the same book. They also question whether it is truly legitimate to maintain, as
Dabru Emet does, that Christians and Jews worship the same God.
The heart of the book consists of essays on key theological themes ranging from the Holocaust, God, Scripture, the Commandments, Israel, worship, suffering, embodiment, redemption, sin and repentance, and images of God. All but the Holocaust section offer two Jewish perspectives (sometimes quite different) and a Catholic response. All are necessarily brief. Though they vary in quality, all sections have the capacity to stimulate significant discussion—the basic purpose of the book. Neither the statement nor the book are meant to be exhaustive in their treatment of particular issues. Rather, the authors wish to provide sufficient background so that others might become involved in the ongoing conversation. The book and statement ultimately must be judged by this criterion—whether this goal is met. Viewed through this lens, the project has a good chance of success.
My favorite section has the somewhat misleading title of "Embodiment." Its real focus is on the doctrine of the Incarnation. Elliott Wolfson and Randi Rashkover present stimulating Jewish responses to this central Christian doctrine that has generally been regarded as quite foreign to Jewish thought and hence a non-starter as a dialogue issue. Wolfson disagrees, arguing there is much in the Jewish tradition on the embodiment of God that makes possible an in-depth conversation between Christians and Jews on the Incarnation. Susan Ross introduces a feminist perspective on the issue of Incarnation. Here we are clearly beginning to witness a turn towards a genuine theological agenda from the Jewish side of the dialogue, something that many Christian leaders have called for over the years.
Despite its understandable limitations, this volume lays a solid foundation for the next phase of the Christian-Jewish encounter. This emerging phase will not totally abandon the social agenda, but it will increasingly recognize the need to anchor the social agenda in a deeply theological and spiritual foundation. Social solidarity needs to be grounded in religious solidarity if it's to survive the challenge of postmodernity. This is the new realization coming from the Jewish side, which
Christianity in Jewish Terms clearly brings forth. While it requires some background in Jewish and Christian thought, this book can serve as a usual framework for programs of study involving Jews or Christians, as well as joint seminars. Overall it represents a genuine breakthrough from the Jewish side. The Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies deserves great praise for its support of the project that parented it.
John T. Pawlikowski, OSM,
is a professor of ethics and the co-director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Ill.