Transcending the tribe of America

There is a good article in the latest Books and Culture, “The Gospel According to America,” by David Dark, whose book of the same name recently came out. The article explores how biblical imagery and nation-state rhetoric are dangerously intertwined in the US. In light of our Americanization of Jesus, Dark asks, “if Jesus himself followed Jeremiah's call for Jewish diaspora to seek the welfare (the shalom) of his culture (Jer. 29:7), what might it mean to stand within his movement (once termed "the Way") as a citizen of the land called America in these very odd times?” Seems to fit well with my NT Wright homework…

Dark calls for a prophetic faith that, as he says, “tests the spirits:”

Whenever the Jewish Christian tradition begins to take root in any meaningful way, interpenetrating the imagination of a people who often speak their country's name as if they were praying to it, the psychological power of patriotism is lessened or at least checked by an ancient wisdom reminding us that a nation might gain a strong economy, everyday low prices, and all the homeland security in the world and still forfeit its soul.

…the American mind is often already so immersed in the language of biblical imagery that distinguishing between the sayings of Benjamin Franklin and the wisdom of the book of Proverbs is sometimes a difficult task. Similarly, we are often prone to confuse Christianity with our sense of patriotism and forget that the two are not synonymous. To carefully examine our language and hold it up to careful scrutiny—with a determined awareness of our own tendency to confuse matters—is neither an unpatriotic act nor an intellectualization of what ought to be straightforward and simple.

He also calls for humility and “demystification:”

We have to be at least occasionally receptive to the notion that we ourselves might sometimes be the prospering wicked of whom the Hebrew prophets speak. If we're not, we only appropriate biblical phrases (usually taken out of context) to somehow christen our already made-up minds and surround ourselves (and our listeners) with a biblical-sounding aura.

…a culture that allows itself to be demystified by the prophetic witness of the Jewish Christian tradition will learn to doubt its own euphoria; be haunted by the Old Testament imagery of arrogant, oppressive nations at whom the Lord in heaven laughs; and note that humans whipped into a frenzy of what they take to be righteous indignation (whether by waves of nationalism, party politics, or talk radio) often have an unfortunate habit of crucifying people.

More quotes I liked:

When Americans refer to the gospel, they might be speaking of the idea that, if you believe a certain list of true propositions, you'll go to heaven when you die. Or they might be suggesting that if you accept Jesus as your "personal savior," you'll find it easier to overcome addiction, guilt won't be the problem that it used to be, and you'll now be the bearer of a secret password ("Jesus") that will keep you out of Hell. From the Left Behind point of view, the good news of the gospel can mean that when you give intellectual assent to the claim that Jesus is God, you become one of the people who'll disappear before the trouble starts.

And Dark points out that not one of these American interpretations of the gospel would have made sense to those who heard Jesus’ words when he spoke them.

Comments

[jvpastor]

Hauerwas, "Performing the Faith"

"In an essay entitled "The Constantinian Sources of Western Social Ethics," John Howard Yoder makes the striking observation that after the Constantinian shift the meaning of the word "Christian" changes. Prior to Constantine it took exceptional conviction to be Christian. After Constantine it took exceptional courage to not be counted as a Christian. This development, according to Yoder, called forth a new doctrinal development, "namely the doctrine of the invisibility of the church." Before Constantine, one knew as a fact of everyday experience that there was a church, but one had to have faith that God was governing history. After Constantine, people assumed as a fact God was governing history through the emperor, but one had to take it on faith that within the nominally Christian mass there was community of true believers. No longer could being a Christian be identified with church membership since many "Christians" in the church clearly had not chosen to follow Christ. Now to be a Christian is transmuted to "inwardness."

I'm sure this is not what is happening in America????

Bonhoeffer as filtered through Hauerwas is pushing for a visible church to stand out against this "transmuted" inwardness. Or, as Dark is highlighting this "transmuted" americaness.

[jvpastor]

I hope it was obvious that I thought America was in peril, and that I was being sarcastic with my question:)

[jvpastor]

More Hauerwas on the Church in America

"In his Ethics Bonhoeffer starkly states (and he clearly has in mind the French Revolution) that “the demand for absolute liberty brings men to the depths of slavery.” In his response to Paton, he observes that the Anglo-Saxon word that names the struggle against omnipotence of the state is freedom and the demand for freedom is expressed in the language of “rights and liberties.” But “freedom is a too negative word to be used in a situation where all order has been destroyed. And liberties are not enough when men seek first of all for some minimum security. These words remind us much of the liberalism which because of its failures is itself largely responsible for the development of State absolutism.”

Bonhoeffer takes up this history again in his Ethics suggesting that these developments cannot help but lead to godlessness and the subsequent deification of man, which is the proclamation of nihilism. This godlessness is seldom identified by hostility to the church, but rather this “hopeless godlessness” too often comes in Christian clothing. Such “godlessness” he finds particularly present in the American church, which begins by seeking to faithfully build the world with Christian principles and ends with the total capitulation of the church to the world. Such societies and the churches have no confidence in truth with the result that the place of truth is usurped by sophistic propaganda."

[Bruce]

good read, and in the spirit... my favorite quote.

"The defining ethic of Jesus' movement (his gospel) was at least as difficult for his generation to accept as it is for ours: "Love your enemy"; "Bless those who curse you"; "Do good to those who hate you." The scandalous ineffectiveness of such commands, given the climate of fear and hatred, would have been met with the same hostility they're met with today. He might have been told that evildoers won't respond well to such sensitivity. And doubtless, many would have suggested that Jesus was failing to live up to what was required of any decent, upstanding member of his tribe. They might have called him a self-hating Jew. But more than anything in the way of yet another nationalist movement, he was inaugurating a new understanding of effectiveness, a truly revolutionary revolution, a new definition of the good, a tribe to end all tribes, a new way to be human. And as news of his resurrection would attest, his way was the way everlasting, the path that would endure."