Stories of the Kingdom

I have spent many years wondering whether I'm truly (note this word!) an heretic in terms of the tradition I grew up in, and maybe I am. Or not. It all depends whether the line-drawers draw their lines, and there is much disagreement about this throughout Christendom, and always has been.

I regularly spectate at Facebook debates about the venality of The Church (the term is undefined), or what Jesus really meant, or what his silence on any given issue means, his divinity or otherwise, one's own divinity (which seems much easier for many liberal commentators to accept than Jesus'), or what the 'true' position on an issue is. Of course, they aren't really debates; more like campaigns and sloganeering. 

I am starting to feel a kind of detachment from the need to spend so much time airing questions and answers which can only ever be partial, and which are sustained much more by the need of the debaters to be right than to continue the search for truth.

I read recently that were in mediaeval times some consonant voices among the Christian, Muslim and Jewish schools of theology to the effect that theology is only really poetry, after all, and the mistake comes surely and certainly in the tendency to harden it into categories rather than to enjoy it like a sweet-smelling flower or a glorious sunrise. What if theology is simply story, poem, song? Not true or false, just more beautiful or less beautiful.

As a writer I am fascinated by the power of words, metaphors and story. Story-telling seems to be a non-negotiable human inheritance, one of the aspects of being human as distinct from our primate cousins, who, as far as we know, don't tell stories. At least, not ones that we understand. Personal development, even just growing up and maturing into individuality is in some ways a process of telling new stories about ourselves, better stories, more supportive and positive stories than the ones we find ourselves living in at any particular time.

Maybe what we need is simply better stories. Let's not even tie ourselves in a knot about what theology is or is not. Somewhere a theologian will disagree with any definition. Stories that expand, put heart and head together, stories that breathe life into situations, stories that face us with our own mortality and help us to be more compassionate rather than less. Stories of the kingdom.

On being an heretic

Now that many of my views on formal Western theological positions can only be described as heretical, I made a quick survey of Christian heresy to see what kind of company I am now keeping.  The results were completely comforting, even encouraging. While I don't consider myself the intellectual equal of any of those I'm about to mention, it's nice to know that, in some very important areas, they agree with me.  All the examples below were either anathematized, repudiated or excommunicated, some to be later re-admitted and even re-excommunicated, all against the background of early church power struggles and politics. In fact, the whole of early church history must have been a much more vigorous and vital place to do one's thinking. A bit like the Anglican church of late, perhaps.

Origen, one of the greatest of the early church fathers by almost every standard of reckoning, had his views on the actual status of Christ anathematized after his death.  Eusebius, another great luminary, held decidedly unorthodox views that subordinated Jesus to a lesser position in the godhead. For this he was excommunicated. Clement of Alexandria quoted widely from non-canonical gospels, so must be regarded as suspect. And other rebels, such as Arius and Pelagius, were not only excommunicated, but gave their names to their own particular heresies.  And the daddy of them all, St. Augustine, toyed with the idea of re-incarnation as a perfectly logical conclusion deduced from the eternal nature of the soul.

So I'm glad to associate with great men who have got it wrong before me.  Long may the great tradition of getting it wrong continue. In fact, the ones who got it right don't seem to get much of a mention. After all, to live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. Right?