Monthly Archives: May 2009

Unchristians

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Occasionally things come in my inbox (email or the old way) that boggle the mind. An email message was forwarded to me a few days ago that invited me to lunch next week at a local hangout. The email came from an organization that purports to bring churches, “ministries,” and individuals together to network in Greenville. I suppose that’s a worthy effort. They weren’t just promising a lunch (not free, by the way) and conversation, however. There’s going to be a program. The email cited the statistic that 87% of Upstate South Carolina is “unchurched.”

In order to help ministers, churches, and ministries understand this phenomenon, this organization has brought together a panel of three “Unchristians” to explain why the church is failing. Isn’t that a little like the Cattlemen’s Association inviting vegetarians to explain why they won’t buy steak?

Julian

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In the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Julian of Norwich has become one of the most popular and influential spiritual writers of the Christian tradition. That in itself is remarkable, because there is very little evidence of her popularity in her own day or even in the following centuries. Her writings were never widely distributed and exist in only one or two manuscripts.

What has made her popular is the depth and power of her theological and spiritual vision. Her use of maternal imagery with reference to God and to Jesus Christ, the phrases “all shall be well” and perhaps especially that remarkable statement of God’s love with which she concludes her Showings:

“And from the time that it was revealed, I desired many times to know in what was our Lord’s meaning. And fifteen years after and more, I was answered in spiritual understanding, and it was said: What, do you wish to know your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For love.”

All of that endears her to contemporary liberal Christians and New-Agers. What many of these people often overlook is how firmly rooted Julian’s thought and experience are in the Christian tradition. The sacraments are important to her, but even more problematic in the twenty-first century is her vivid, devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ. She describes images of Christ’s suffering and death that might offend modern sensibilities. But her understanding of Christ’s love is shaped by her experience of that love in his suffering and death on the cross.


Monica and Julian

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In the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church, we commemorate two remarkable women this week. On Monday, St. Monica, the mother of Augustine of Hippo. On Friday, May 8, Julian of Norwich. I will post on Julian later, but tonight, a word about Monica. Scholars suspect that she was of North African ethnicity, perhaps Berber, because of her name. She married a Roman citizen Patricius, and among their children was the greatest theologian in the history of Western Christianity. In his Confessions, Augustine says a great deal about his mother. She was a Christian and devoted to the piety of North Africa. A remarkable woman, she clearly did everything in her power, both to promote her son, and to try to make him a Christian. Their relationship was difficult at times–he reports that when he left Carthage, he did so secretly to avoid a dramatic scene. After his conversion, the dialogues he wrote based on the time he spent in Cassiacum, depict her as full of wisdom and insight. One of the most deeply moving passages in Confessions is his accound of their last conversation. A version of it is available here.

This passage is interesting because it may be the only time in all of Augustine’s voluminous writings where he seems to describe mystical experience. That aside, it is the only example I know in the history of Christianity where an author describes a mystical experience shared by two people.