{"id":490,"date":"2017-04-22T04:24:06","date_gmt":"2017-04-22T04:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/?p=490"},"modified":"2017-04-22T04:24:06","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T04:24:06","slug":"after-easter-after-anselm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/?p=490","title":{"rendered":"AFTER EASTER … AFTER ANSELM …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Because Easter fell rather late this year, the commemoration of the theologian Anselm of Canterbury<\/a> on April 21st<\/sup> falls within the first week of Easter.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because these events are so close this year \u2026 Maybe it\u2019s because I spent Lent reading Walter Wangerin Jr.\u2019s The Book of Sorrows<\/em><\/a> \u2026 Maybe it\u2019s because of yet another Easter with more people in church than on a typical Sunday \u2026 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 However, it seems to me that, since we have so many people present on Easter Sunday \u2013 the day to tell the Church\u2019s best story in the most beautiful ways we can find \u2013 and yet those people do not return the following week or any other weeks (aside from maybe Mother\u2019s Day or Christmas Eve), maybe we\u2019re telling it wrong \u2026 and Anselm may be a part of it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Anselm was Bishop of Canterbury in the first century of the second millennium, dying on this date in 1109.\u00a0 He is most remembered even to this day for his theological writings.\u00a0 Philosophy students may still read his proofs for the existence of God.\u00a0 Theology students still read his explanation of what is called the Satisfaction Theory of Atonement.\u00a0 For the average American Christian, this is likely the most familiar theory of atonement (how human beings are made right with God through the death and resurrection of Christ).\u00a0 The briefest popular summary of this theory might be \u201cHe [meaning Jesus<\/em>] paid a debt he did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a rather concise statement of Anselm\u2019s Cur Deus Homo<\/em> (or Why the God-Man<\/em>)<\/a>.\u00a0 Anselm\u2019s argument works within the feudal system of his time.\u00a0 The local lord was sovereign and the serfs were beholden to and completely dependent upon their lord. (If you weren\u2019t the former, you were unquestionably the latter.)\u00a0 In a similar way to that of serfs toward their lord, people owe God the Creator every thought of their minds, every work of their body, and every inclination of their hearts.\u00a0 Failure to do this incurs a debt to God.\u00a0 And since people owe God everything they have to begin with, they have nothing extra with which they might make up such a debt.\u00a0 As a human being, Jesus also owed all to God as any other human being does \u2026 and because he lived perfectly, he did not incur any debts of his own.\u00a0 Furthermore, through his generosity and divine right (being also fully God as well as fully human), he extends this perfection as payment of debts to Christians.<\/p>\n

Within the feudal context of Anselm\u2019s time, this makes a great deal of sense.\u00a0 But when it becomes unmoored from its context, this theory can become distorted and even damaging.\u00a0 The closest we in America have ever experienced to the feudal system of medieval Europe was the plantation system in the time of slavery.\u00a0 Do we really want to use that as the basis for an example of how things should work?<\/p>\n

Detached from the context in which it arose, Anselm\u2019s theory has been distorted to the point of perversion.\u00a0 Much has been made of the blood of Jesus being shed to wash away sins \u2026 of God\u2019s wrath at human sinfulness being poured out on the innocent Jesus on the cross \u2026 as if the only thing God can do with anger is vent on someone.\u00a0 Feminist theologians aren\u2019t the only one making the point that this comes across as divine child abuse.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, the Christian faith has never settled on a single theory of atonement.\u00a0 There have been several prominent ones in the history of theology, each with some valid points.\u00a0 But none has ever been hailed as the definitive statement.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>Even in Anselm\u2019s own era, there were critics of his theory.\u00a0 Most notable among them was Peter Abelard who asked, if the problem were one of justice \u2013 that a debt owed must be paid, then how is the greatest injustice the world has known \u2013 the execution of a truly innocent man as a criminal \u2013 a just solution?<\/p>\n

Abelard\u2019s own theory was based on love \u2026 that Christ\u2019s death and resurrection was an act of great (and even divine) love intended to motivate Christians to be more loving.\u00a0 Of course, this also begs the question: Then why aren\u2019t we more loving?\u00a0 Why are we so often unloving and judgmental?<\/p>\n

Abelard may not have had the definitive answer either.\u00a0 But we need a better explanation than the current formula of Anselm run amok.\u00a0 Any explanation of what Jesus Christ accomplished in his death and resurrection that even hints at divine child abuse is simply not going to work in our modern context \u2013 nor should it.\u00a0 Although this isn\u2019t exactly what Anselm was describing in his theory, it is how the theory has devolved in our modern context.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Easter is the big day in the Church.\u00a0 Yeah, a lot of people think it\u2019s Christmas.\u00a0 But as John Irving wrote in A Prayer for Owen Meany<\/em>: Anyone can be sentimental about the Nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas.\u00a0 But Easter is the main event; if you don\u2019t believe in the resurrection, you\u2019re not a believer.\u201d\u00a0 Easter is the main event \u2013 and people do turn out for it.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s possible they show up for the trappings and the pageantry \u2026 the pastels and the hats, the flowers and the joy, the egg hunts and kids in cute clothes.\u00a0 It\u2019s entirely possible these elements are the draw.\u00a0 But for whatever reason, people are in the pews and it is the congregation\u2019s biggest chance to really tell the biggest and the best of all stories.\u00a0 Is that what we\u2019re really doing?\u00a0 And if we are, just what story are we telling?<\/p>\n

Do we tell the devolved American version of Anselm\u2019s satisfaction theory?\u00a0 If not (and there are plenty of reasons not to!), then what do we tell?\u00a0 Do we try to keep it as benign and inoffensive as possible so as not to upset anyone there, especially the visitors or occasional attenders?\u00a0 Just what does resurrection mean for the crucified Jesus \u2013 and for us who profess to be followers of this crucified and risen Jesus today?<\/p>\n

Like I said earlier, I spent Lent reading The Book of Sorrows<\/em> by Walter Wangerin, Jr.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sequel to his best-selling and National Book Award Winning beast fable The Book of the Dun Cow<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 However, as the title might suggest, the sequel is more difficult to read than the original.\u00a0 The second book is more painful and sad; it\u2019s darker in tone and more disturbing.\u00a0 But perhaps for that very reason, it is also more profound.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>Both books are beast fables.\u00a0 Like those of Aesop or Chaucer (in some of his Canterbury Tales<\/em><\/a>), they are morality tales \u2026 what is right and good? \u2026 what is wrong and evil?\u00a0 \u2026 how does one know? \u2026 how is one to choose? \u2026 what ought we do?\u00a0 These aren\u2019t really parables and certainly not allegories.\u00a0 But the fantastical setting makes it possible to look at our world and its ways from a different angle, thus seeing things we might have missed before.<\/p>\n

Although the evil Wyrm was defeated in his bid for freedom and contained once again at the close of the first book, the second book opens with Wyrm attempting a new strategy to defeat the animals who are his Keepers so he can run loose throughout the cosmos.\u00a0 Rather than a direct attack as before, he tries something more subtle.\u00a0 By allowing himself to be killed, he decays into a myriad of tiny worms.\u00a0 Eventually Wyrm succeeds in luring Chauntecleer, the rooster who leads the community of Keepers, to his rotting corpse.\u00a0 Chauntecleer is content to remain in the depths and eventually die beside the bones of the beloved companion who defeated Wyrm at the conclusion of the first book.\u00a0 However, Chauntecleer is moved to leave this abyss by the antics of one of his most loyal followers, a Weasel.\u00a0 As Chauntecleer pursues the Weasel, he lashes the Stag he is riding with a spur, sending the Stag into a frenzy \u2026 and in his frenzy, the Stag tramples an animal mother and one of her babies.<\/p>\n

Thus Chauntecleer returns to his community, infected with the little worms who persuade him to refuse the love of his friends and even his wife, persuading him that their words are false \u2026 that the only truth in life is that all who are cut then cut back \u2013 at least as much, if not more.\u00a0 The tragedies and broken relationships escalate, until finally the bereaved animal father comes to Chauntecleer.\u00a0 The Rooster expects this other ,whom he wronged so horrifically, to strike back at him and even attacks this poor father in order to provoke the counter attack.<\/p>\n

But none comes.\u00a0 Instead, the sorrowful father absorbs the Rooster\u2019s blows.\u00a0 Rather than striking back, he acknowledges the ways he failed his family.\u00a0 He tells Chauntecleer that he forgives him and offers a message from the Dun Cow (identified in the first book as a messenger from God to help and comfort the animal Keepers).\u00a0 The message is one of love, of understanding, and forgiveness.\u00a0 In the face of such unbreakable love, Chauntecleer is finally freed from the influence of the remnants of Wyrm and does what he must to root out the evil from himself, purging it from the community.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Perhaps this points toward the real truth of what the crucifixion and resurrection mean.\u00a0 Love is stronger than hate and anger.\u00a0 God does not require the anger to be vented in order to let it go; God can simply let go of the anger.\u00a0 God can \u2013 and does \u2013 choose love and rejects anger (understandable and justifiable though such anger might be).\u00a0 There is no requirement that a debt be paid or wrongs be righted or anger be assuaged somehow.\u00a0 God simply chooses love in the face of hate, chooses life in the face of death because God can.<\/p>\n

Back in seminary, in the second semester of systematic theology, in which we focused on Jesus Christ and the second article of the creed, we often pondered the question \u201cWhat got Jesus killed?\u201d\u00a0 There are actually a number of answers, but one of the most provocative is because that\u2019s what sin does \u2013 it kills things.\u00a0 Perhaps literally in some ways, perhaps more figuratively in many others, those acts we might regard as sin, as missing the actual intention, as being not quite what we wanted to do or be in a situation, as falling short of what we (or others) expected us to be and to do \u2026 these kinds of things do real damage to others, to relationships, to ourselves.\u00a0 That\u2019s what sin does; it kills things.\u00a0 And since Jesus came into the world to deal with the problem of sin, then, sooner or later, sin would kill Jesus.<\/p>\n

Of course, where there is some form of killing or damage, there is some form of death (even if not in the most concrete, literal, actual sense).\u00a0 The resurrection then is the negation of death. \u00a0Death is undone.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>God\u2019s decree is that life shall be the final word, not death.\u00a0 Forgiveness is the choice not to repay in kind the wrong done, to allow the possibility of restored relationship.\u00a0 Anger isn\u2019t undone through venting; anger is undone by love.<\/p>\n

This is good news \u2013 that life can be different, that we can be different \u2026 that death need not have the final word because God has the final word and that final word is life.\u00a0 By offering love instead of hate or anger, by undoing death itself, Jesus shows a different way of life \u2026 and calls any who will to follow and do likewise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because Easter fell rather late this year, the commemoration of the theologian Anselm of Canterbury on April 21st falls within the first week of Easter.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because these events are so close this year \u2026 Maybe it\u2019s because I spent Lent reading Walter Wangerin Jr.\u2019s The Book of Sorrows …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-life","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/maybegoosefeathers.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}