Avdat

What is Jesusolatry?

I'm reading Paul Tillich's Systematic Theology for a directed study. One interesting detail: Tillich maintains that Jesus is the final revelation of God (final as opposed to last in sequential time) because in his continual self-sacrifice of himself, culminating in the cross, he makes himself transparent to the Ground of Being (God). Jesus doesn't put himself or any aspect of himself forward to be idolatrously worshiped. Twice Tillich refers to that saying of Jesus in John 12: He who believes in me believes not in me (but in him who sent me). Because Jesus is a clear pane of glass through which we look at God, we need not, concludes Tillich, make a fetish out of any aspect of the historical life of Jesus. No "Jesusolatry."

Here Tillich sounds more like a 4th century theologian than a 20th century theologian. Augustine would warn his readers not to cling too tightly to Jesus' human nature but to ascend higher, to his divine nature. And one of the strange things about Athanasius' Orations Against the Arians is how, in divvying up the scriptural texts and words that pertain to the Son's human nature and those which pertain to the Son's divine nature, the man from Galilee seems to get lost in the shuffle.

Strange to me because the quest for the historical Jesus that Albert Schweitzer uncorked a century ago continues full speed ahead. You could make the argument that the quest in all its phases has been a more enduring intellectual movement than the usual suspects in modern Christianity.

So it strikes me that Tillich was swimming against a pretty strong tide when he wrote this. And I'm thinking that maybe he should have gone with the stream on this one. It seems like the danger of Tillich's Christology is to make Jesus a cipher into which we pour all our projections of whatever God we want to get in touch with out there.

My professor made a related point. Don't you have to look at Jesus in order to look through him? If he makes himself transparent to the Ground of Being, don't you have to look at how he does that before you see through him to the God who sent him?

Does anyone who's read Tillich before know what he means by Jesusolatry? Who's he have in mind when he faults a too literalistic identification with a detail of the gospels or the life and times of Jesus?

Some literalisms are bad, like the Westboro Baptist Church freak show that's coming to town this week. But some are good, aren't they? Like Francis of Assisi and his full body hug of Matthew 10: 9-10. And then there's Origen, so speculative in his exegesis, so literalistic in his sexual ethics. 

Where would we Christians be without all the crazy aunts and uncles in the attic?

Just like that

Shorter Times-Dispatch editorial: "Can you think of the scariest brown-skinned dictator out there? Barack Obama is just like that!"

This editorial is wrong in so many different ways, and not just because they, you know, go there in this one--playing footsie with the race-baitin', Gadsden flag-wavin', socialist hatin' nutters that are calling the shots on the Right these days.

Increasing the pool of insured Americans is actually a way to restrain health care inflation because many of the currently uninsured are young and relatively healthy. In fact, you need to require them to purchase coverage in order to end the odious practice of denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Legislation that only does the latter would create a perverse incentive to put off buying insurance until after you've been diagnosed with cancer/run over by a car/suffered a heart attack. And that really would drive up premiums, because the pool of insured persons would be disproportionately sick and old.

Besides, who's afraid of federal authority to regulate health insurance rates? We already have Insurance Commissioners who, get this, approve or deny insurance rate increases. We already have utility commissions who, get this, approve or deny gas and electricity rate increases. And the last time I looked around, it didn't seem as though I was living in a Banana Republic or an African Thugocracy. 

Look, I'm all in favor of socialized medicine. The VA is socialized medicine and it works well. Medicare is socialized medicine, and it works well.

That ain't what this reform effort is; it is a modest effort to make our existing system of private insurance and health care providers more equitable and efficient. It's pretty much the health care reform that Republican Governor Mitt Romney enacted in Massachusetts, and new GOP Senator Scott Brown supported when he was a Bay State state legislator.

But to hear the Times-Dispatch tell it, if Congress passes a bill that contains health care inflation, expands coverage and makes insurance companies act like human beings then, just like that, we'll be serfs to some pimped out, narcissistic President-for-life. 

In case you missed church this morning

This is the sermon that the very hospitable people of Clarksville Presbyterian Church heard me preach today. They have a lovely stained glass window of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and some blessed person is out there waiting to be called by them!

To Lent or not to Lent

Jim West has composed some anti-Lent screeds that sound like they've been preserved in amber since 1525 and contain all the snark of the contemporary blogosphere. Quite a rhetorical feat.

A question about Lent is really a question about how Christians sanctify time. A big difference between early Christians and pagans (both Romans and barbarians) was how each marked time. Pagans believed that time was cyclical, and religion's task was to appease the gods in order to make the endless cycle of death and rebirth run as smooth as possible. But Christians believed that time was linear. History is hurtling toward an End, a final judgment, and the judge has already appeared in history.

As pagans converted, the pagan way of reckoning time got Christianized. The liturgical year repeated itself in cyclical fashion, but the holidays within it commemorated the once-and-for-all events of Jesus's life, death and resurrection that were driving history toward its conclusion.

One way to think about the Reformers' abolition of the liturgical year (including Lent) is to say that they were completing the Christianization of Europe by adopting a completely linear liturgy. Think Puritan worship in particular: no recurring liturgical seasons (not even Christmas!) and preaching straight through books of the Bible.

A longish contextual theology, or what I learn about God by waiting on the Jerry Springer crowd

Last Friday night I sold $500 worth of food and took home $80-some in tips. Not bad after tipping out the bar, the hostess and the busser. The next night I sold twice as much food but netted only $10 more in tips. Why? you ask.

It was the eve of Valentine's Day, which brought out what my co-worker calls "upgraders." People who usually don't mind eating a greasy pork sandwich out of a dirty ash tray decided to take that special someone whose name is tattooed on their neck to our casual dining establishment.

It was off the chain. The Jerry Springer Show could have held a casting call in there. People showed up drunk, and we seated them. I approached one table and all five of them started yelling what they wanted all at once, like a bunch of little kids whose Ritalin had worn off. I had to become a preschool teacher just to take their order. "OK, let's take turns, starting with you, Ma'am. What would you like to drink?" I said sweetly while thinking, How do these people function in society?

I knew my tip was doomed when I presented the check. The two couples got into an argument over who was going to pay for the kid sitting in between them. After they settled up, one guy stuffed a couple of dollars into my palm and said, "Sorry I can't give you any more, but I didn't know the bill was gonna be so high."

Well yes, three sangrias, a martini, a Long Island, two mudslides a hurricane and a margarita do add up. Thanks for chugging my tip! After my tip-out to the bar, I'm pretty sure I lost money on you. But you do get points for honesty.

Junk science coming to a courthouse near you

Our swell new attorney general wants the EPA to reconsider its December judgment that global warming is a threat. Our swell new governor lauds our swell new attorney general for saving jobs from the scourge of environmental regulation.

While he's at it, why doesn't the AG challenge the Surgeon General's finding that smoking is hazardous to your health? That would be a far greater boon to Virginia's economy, and no less scientifically sound.

Maybe the AG is working hand in glove with the agriculture department to transition Virginia farmers from raising tobacco to oranges.

In his E-newsletter our swell AG quipped that from his home in Fairfax he could look out over "30+ inches of global snowing." Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Yes, and that one guy who smoked his whole life and didn't get cancer proves smoking is safe.

Aren't there enough criminals out there to occupy the AG's time? If he wanted to promote crackpot theories in court he should have stayed in private practice.

Our awful infrastructure

Brookland Parkway in Richmond Virginia is a lovely tree-lined boulevard watched over by one and two-story brick homes of early postwar vintage. In the summer willow oaks shade the homes from the searing sun and  crape myrtles blooming red, violet and white relieve eyes tired by the oppressive heat and humidity.

These days Brookland Parkway is more pockmarked than a teenager with the worst case of acne. As you can tell from the pictures, the potholes are large enough for school-age children to hide in. Cars, SUVs and trucks throw chunks of asphalt onto the median as heavy as a chunky toddler.

I've become something of a pothole aficionado these past few weeks. When a car or SUV fails to avoid these honkers outside our home, we hear a booming sound not unlike a big wave breaking on a jetty. But when a truck hits these potholes, the metal frame shudders. It sounds like the tailgate has fallen flat onto the road. Our potholes are our urban symphony's percussion section, tympani and cymbals rolled up into one.

You can blame it on the weather, but these potholes have been filled in a slapdash manner at least twice in the short year we've lived here. Brookland Parkway is no different than Interstate 64 which, as I wrote some time ago, looks like Iraqi insurgents have had their way with it.

"Why are our roads so bad?" I asked my civil engineer brother-in-law this morning, in town for a conference. "Lack of funding," he replied, and I believe him. North Carolina's climate is not appreciably harsher than Virginia's but the roads are a lot smoother. North Carolina's gas tax is also 31 centers per gallon, compared to Virginia's 19 cents.

The new Republican governor wants to build toll roads on I-85 and 95 at the North Carolina state line to raise money for highways. The Richmond Times-Dispatch calls this progressive thinking. I'd call getting non-Virginians to pay for the upkeep of Virginia roads clever, but not necessarily progressive. Are Virginians too good to maintain their own roads? I've heard it said that North Carolina is a vale of humility between two mountains of conceit, and I'm starting to believe it.

I'm not opposed to a toll road, but why not just raise the gas tax? You could raise more money sooner. You could phase in a 10 cent per gallon increase over a year, and nobody would notice because of the variability in gas prices.

"Because we can't raise taxes in a recession," they say. Well, why not raise some extra revenue and put people to work filling potholes? Don't they understand that a sound infrastructure is a cornerstone of any economic development policy?

The public will spend money on potholes, either filling them with their taxes, or by buying new tires prematurely and on costly and unnecessary re-alignment work. I vote for the former.

What is Niebuhrian realism?

A. Just as Niebuhr himself wasn't so naive as to believe that we could build the kingdom of God on earth, Niebuhrian realists aren't naive enough to think that terrorists can be negotiated with, co-opted or appeased. They are murderers and religious fanatics, and they have to be killed.

B. Just as Niebuhr himself wasn't so naive as to believe that we could build the kingdom of God on earth, Niebuhrian realists aren't naive enough to think that we can rid the world of evildoers, or remake the world in our image. The best we can do is work for a relatively secure world while maintaining an healthy skepticism about our own means and motivations.

C. If Niebuhr hadn't been a tenured professor at Union Seminary, he'd have been that guy at the end of the bar debunking anything and everything. Niebuhrian Realism is not a coherent public theology; it's stained glass cynicism; thus the answer is Both A and B. Because cynics are cynical about everything.

Vote early and vote often!