Monday, February 18, 2008

The Listening Heart: Vocation

[Number four in a series]

A. J. Conyers, in The Listening Heart, explained the point of the book in this way:

"Why in this modern world have humane communities - communities that for brief moments in history rise above strife and in fact nourish the human spirit, enrich the mind, provide for the safety and education of the young - proven so hard to come by, so difficult to maintain, and known it seems only to our most nostalgic moments? Why have the 'wars and fightings' of this past century taken more lives, destroyed more communities, exiled more people, decimated more ethnic groups than ever before in any comparable time? Why have more people been killed by their own governments in this past century than in all other times together? How is it that this new century has gotten off to such an unpromising start? James had an answer that tapped into the root of human nature, and into the human lunacy: 'Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war'

This book might be considered a commentary on that one question and its answer, and on the hope which frames this question."
His answer is the decline of vocation, and the rise of "choice", since the dawn of modernity in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. This post examines the first of those.



Vocation
The familiar term "vocation", used in both religious and secular contexts, is rooted in the Latin vocatio, meaning "call" and is related to Latin-based words such as "voice" and "invoke." The Greek word is klesis and is found in our words "cleric" and "ecclesiastical". It is the root of the New Testament word for the Church, ekklesia, a point that is not etymologically significant except in that assemblies of all kinds were referred to with the same term. To say that the church consists of those "called out", however, is significant for more reasons than can be traced through linguistic usage: it was the reality to which the church had always attested.
Conyers points out that the idea of a divine call plays a central role in Judeo-Christian and non-Judaic contexts - and gives the communities and societies a distinctly non-modern character. I would broaden that: even the ideas of civil religion and nationalism are designed to give folks a sense of calling that is outside of, and higher, than themselves. Conyers doesn't disagree with this in the book, and implies agreement, but he just doesn't focus on it. This is the idea of a "higher power" encouraged in 12 step programs - even for folks that are not believers in God.

Conyers highlights a few points to make the distinction clear between the idea of vocation or calling, and the philosophical basis of modernity:


  1. "The idea of a call implies an agent outside of the one who is subject to the call."
    One does not simply "choose" a course of action, but one responds to a summons. A person might be "free" in either case; but in the case of one responding to vocation, the freedom is not an inner-directed impulse, but the use of the will to respond to an unforeseen and perhaps unknown reality. This summons is characteristic of various reports, in a great variety of communities, from the summons of Zarathustra (the Iranian Zoroaster), to the calling forth of Abraham and the divine election of Moses, to the call of Isaiah, the baptism of Jesus, the blinding of Paul, the spiritual apparitions of Joan of Arc, and the divine compulsions of Martin Luther. The character in each case is founded on the summons that is external to the one who is called.

  2. "The summons is often against the will of the one who is called into service."
    Muhammed first believed himself to be mad. Moses complained that the Israelites, to whom God sent him, had never listened to him and therefore neither would Pharaoh, "poor speaker that I am." Jeremiah, the Hebrew prophet, not only resisted the call, but continued to complain that God had overpowered him and placed him in an impossibly difficult circumstance, even protesting that God's call had made him "like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter." Jonah attempted to flee from the Lord to Tarshish, rather than going to Nineveh where he had been called. Jesus prayed to be delivered from his appointed calling.

  3. Third, the calling involves in almost every case hardships that must be overcome in order to answer the summons.
    Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Muhammed, Mani (the founder of Manichaeism), Socrates, Jesus, and Paul all found themselves under threat of death by their community. Zarathustra is sent into exile. Jesus' moment of public vocation is followed by temptation in the wilderness. Paul's vocation is accompanied by physical ailments, imprisonment, beatings, and exile.

  4. Fourth, from the point of view of answering to the summons, the greatest danger appears not in this kind of resistance, but in the possibility of being diverted or distracted from the goal.
    The whole of Joshua's reiteration of the covenant with Israel, after they had settled the land of Canaan, was devoted to the threat and the consequences of being distracted from their promise to "serve the Lord" and to the warning against being tempted by other gods. In all of the Deuteronomic history of Israel . . . the chief standard by which the nations of Israel and Judah and their kings are judged is their faithfulness to God, measured by their resistance to distraction by the religions of their neighbors. And the last petition in Jesus' model prayer, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;' is an invocation against this distraction.
It is this sense of calling that William Wilberforce experienced. It is this sense of calling and vocation that modern historical critics of the Bible - at least the ones that are most anti-supernatural - must look beyond in finding "rational", "reasonable", and "historical" reasons for the actions of the Apostles and the writers of scripture. Certainly, inspiration and calling must have some source other than God reaching into His creation and calling people to His Will.

It is the need - in order to build the Body of Christ and His Church - to overcome folks "thinking for themselves" and "taking guidance from no one" that causes churches both theologically liberal and conservative to call their members to focus on their communities and to view that community, at least, as something which calls, from above and outside, them to vocation for the Body.

In modern society as well, it is only when people are drawn outside themselves to a greater call or vocation that true community can be built - otherwise we have the "competition of desires" that is the source of the violence and greed of modern life. President Kennedy called us to "Ask not . . ." It is Barack Obama, and not Hillary Clinton - and Mike Huckabee and not John McCain - that give us the attractive image of folks who are "called" to a mission. We are attracted to them because they seem to give true reverence to something outside of, and greater than, themselves.

That is the "schizophrenia" of Western life. We deeply, innately, almost desperately, seek real community and real relationship; and yet . . . Conyers :

I was struck with how far we had lost sight of the sentiment embedded in "vocation" when I ran across the title of a mid-twentieth century book that was given as "How to Choose Your Vocation"! Precisely the point of vocatio is that you don't choose. And this is precisely why and how the idea jars against conventional modern sentiment, the sentiment that since the Enlightenment has succeeded in making a primary virtue of self-determination. "What is Enlightenment?" asked Immanuel Kant. It is the capacity "to use one's intelligence without being guided by another." "Have courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment". Thus stand side by side, in unmistakable opposition, two ideas of the way one lives in the world. One is that of attentive listening to the guidance of another, whether of a wise guide, or tradition, or of God. The other is the notion of the self-determined "free" man, who without listening to another, becomes the master of his own soul.
It is that notion of "choice" that I will look at next.

Read more!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Christian Carnival CCXI (211)

The Valentine to God Edition

In preparing a "structure" for this Carnival I was tried to avoid 1 Corinthians 13 - (not that it isn't great); and I decided not to focus on John's (and Christ's) call for Christians to show that they are Christ's followers because of our love for one another.

I settled on the kinds of love we show, and receive, as Christians -- thinking it might make a good way to divide Carnival entries:

First, some housekeeping at the Carnival: We need some new hosts. We occasionally get to the point where the same 5 or so blogs rotate the Carnival. This really isn't good, and hosting the Carnival - while it can be some work - is a good ministry opportunity within the Body of Christ. Go here to jump in - the water is awesome.

The Love of God for Us
"For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:16-19, NET)
  • Jennifer in OR presents "Grapes of Abundance: 13 Thoughts" posted at Diary of 1.


  • e-Mom presents "Theology: Differences Between West & East" posted at C h r y s a l i s.


  • Pat & James Taylor presents "Immersion in the Spirit" posted at On the Wings of the Wind.


  • Sue presents "What are you giving up for Lent?" posted at Abstractions.


  • Wickle presents “One of Those Humbling Things" posted at A True Believer's Blog.


  • Amanda presents “Lent: Goodbye TV" posted at Imago Dei.



  • Our Love of God
    "Now one of the experts in the law came and heard them debating. When he saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’" (Mark 12:28-30, NET)
  • William Meisheid presents "Lent 2008: Day 2: Death, Purpose & Why Should I?" posted at Beyond The Rim....


  • FMF presents "The Bible and Money All Around the Web" posted at Free Money Finance.


  • Jamie McIntosh presents "Go Organic for Lent" posted at Suite101: Organic Gardens blog.


  • Chuck Jines presents "The Power of God" posted at Thoughts on God.


  • Rusty Pritchard presents "Environmentalism and fear" posted at CounterCulture.


  • Shaun Connell presents "The Philosophy of Rational Happiness" posted at Reason and Capitalism.



  • Our Love of Jesus
    (the Word made Flesh)
    “If you love me, you will obey my commandments." (John 14:15, NET)

    "The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”" (John 14:21, NET)

    "If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love." (John 15:10, NET)
  • Ariah Fine presents "Open Letter to Anyone Returning from a Missions Trip" posted at Trying to Follow.


  • Weekend Fisher presents the "Internal evidence and the authorship of the Gospel of John" posted at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength.


  • Chasing the Wind presents "Life Without Limbs" posted at Chasing the Wind.


  • Richard H. Anderson presents "Rewriting Moses" posted at dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos Theophilos.


  • John presents "A Matter of Perspective" posted at Light Along the Journey.


  • Tom Gilson presents "The Not-So-Secret" posted at Thinking Christian.


  • Henry Neufeld presents "Not Through the Law: Romans 4:13" posted at Participatory Bible Study Blog.


  • Rey presents "Being a Student" based on John 8 posted at The Bible Archive.


  • * * * * *

    "The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”" (Mark 12:31, NET)
    "Love of neighbor" divides into specific and general revelations:

    Our Love of our Spouse
    [I think we primarily have a "husband problem" . . . ]
    "Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is great – but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." (Ephesians 5:25-33, NET)
  • Jeremy Pierce presents "Commanded Sexual Delight" posted at Parableman.



  • Our Love of our Brethren
    "“I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another.”" (John 13:34-35, NET)

    "For this is the gospel message that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another . . . We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his fellow Christian is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. But whoever has the world’s possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person? . . . Now this is his commandment: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment." (1 John 3:11-23, NET)
  • Diane R presents "Are Lack of Social Skills in Churches Sinking Outreach?" posted at Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet.


  • Drew Tatusko presents "The Spectacle of Evangelicalism: Exclusivity and Sectarian Inversion" posted at Notes From Off-Center.


  • Shaun Connell presents "Organized Religion" posted at Rational Christianity.


  • ChrisB presents "Politics, Religion, and Brotherly Love" posted at Homeward Bound.


  • Annette presents "Love each other" posted at Fish and Cans.


  • Dana presents "A vision for the church" posted at Principled Discovery.



  • Our Love of our Children and Parents
    [. . . and a "father problem".]
    "“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:37, NET)

    "honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.”" (Matthew 19:19, NET)

    "Fathers [or "parents"], do not provoke your children, so they will not become disheartened." (Colossians 3:21, NET)
  • Dana presents "The measure of a Christian education" posted at Principled Discovery on the question of how Christian parents should educate their children


  • Laura Beutler presents "Perfect Bodies" posted at Children & Chocolate and Other Paths to God.



  • Our Love of all People
    (even our Enemies)
    "“But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your possessions back from the person who takes them away. Treat others in the same way that you would want them to treat you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, so that they may be repaid in full. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people." (Luke 6:27-35, NET)
  • Doug presents "Can we persuade each other with logic alone?" posted at Bounded Irrationality.


  • Ron Thomson presents "Britney Spears and her mental health problems" posted at TheCrossCounts.com.


  • John Hobbins presents "Where does the commandment to love one’s enemies come from?" posted at Ancient Hebrew Poetry.


  • Heir to Life sends us "The Man in the Smoke Screen" from the Spirited Ink Blog.


  • Leslie Carbone presents "On his Birthday, Some Words of Encouragement from Ronald Reagan" posted at Leslie Carbone.


  • Rodney Olsen presents "Extraordinary Forgiveness" posted at RodneyOlsen.net.



  • Aw heck, how can I leave this out:
    "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit. Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways. For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13, NET)
    All bible quotes are from: Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press.

    Read more!

    Sunday, February 10, 2008

    Bible in a Year:
    Week of February 10th

    Many people have simply never read the Bible from cover to cover; and yet many people have many opinions about what is there. The first time I read it through the actual scope and flow of the Word became apparent - the underlying plan and it's unfolding.

    The idea is that over the years this resource can grow as folks add their own comments, links to commentaries and other tools, etc in the comments to this index.

    1. Do you have a viewpoint on a particular piece of scripture? Go to that place and leave a comment.

    2. Heard or read a great sermon on a section of scripture? Link the audio file or text in the comments.

    3. The possibilities are many.

    2/10: Leviticus 21:1-23:25; D: Sirach 14

    2/11: Leviticus 23:26-25:55; D: Sirach 14

    2/12: Leviticus 26:1-27:34; D: Sirach 14

    2/13: Numbers 1:1-2:34; D: Sirach 15

    2/14: Numbers 3:1-4:33; D: Sirach 15

    2/15: Numbers 4:34-6:27; D: Sirach 16

    2/16: Numbers 7:1-89; D: Sirach 16


    Things to look for each day:
    1. Lessons to be learned
    2. Examples to be followed
    3. Promises to be enjoyed
    4. Jesus to be revealed
    A good journaling question: How will I be different today because of what I have just read?

    Next Week: Week of August 21st
    Index to whole series

    Read more!

    Monday, February 04, 2008

    The Listening Heart: "The Era of Bloodshed"

    [Number three in a series]

    I have been intending to more extensively about The Listening Heart: Vocation And the Crisis of Modern Culture by A.J. Conyers; and have been waiting for a "handle" on how to approach the topics in the book - that handle never came (or maybe I have too many). I did do two posts on slavery - "The Bible and Slavery" and "Christianity and Slavery" - based on the book intending to segway into the books position on slavery and modernity:

    In a stunning insight, Conyers shows that the quintessential institution of modernity is slavery, for the slave is the ultimate autonomous individual. Stripped of every human tie, he belongs to no community but to a stranger. It is no accident, then, that the rise of modern slavery coincided with the Enlightenment itself.
    Actually, not so much the Enlightenment but a little earlier in the Renaissance - however that doesn't actually damage his main point either about slavery, or overall.

    What is that overall point? As this blurb from the publisher says:
    A culture built upon the ideology of individual choice will be a culture of alienation, loneliness, and violence . . . Conyers shows that Western culture was once informed by a sense of vocation, that men understood life as a response to a call from outside and above themselves. Beginning in the sixteenth century, however, the sense of vocation began to fade, to be replaced by the modern celebration of the unfettered human will. In such a society, Conyers argues, where relations among men are based on force, true community is impossible.
    . . .
    This wide-ranging study, refreshingly free of sentimentality, makes the barbarism and unparalleled violence of the twentieth century explicable. For a society that casts off the burden of vocation abandons that which makes it human.
    Pastor Dan at Street Prophets stated at one point that theologically conservative Christians were pre-modern. There is some accuracy to that statement, but it is a bit off. Conyers isn't so much pre-modern as he is a believer that modernity, or at least a major premise of it, has failed and failed violently. Actually, I would say he is contending for the pre-modern understanding of vocation as the something that needs to be recovered in a post-modern age. [BTW: I did not say he was a post-modernist.] . His question, now that the critique of modernity is clear and the post-modern agenda is before us, is
    "Shall we heal a broken society through love, or through power?"
    His indictment of modernity is scathing on many levels (too many to even sort out and list here) but he centers in on one main indictment, and one main question, to focus the book on:

    "Why in this modern world have humane communities - communities that for brief moments in history rise above strife and in fact nourish the human spirit, enrich the mind, provide for the safety and education of the young - proven so hard to come by, so difficult to maintain, and known it seems only to our most nostalgic moments? Why have the 'wars and fightings' of this past century taken more lives, destroyed more communities, exiled more people, decimated more ethnic groups than ever before in any comparable time? Why have more people been killed by their own governments in this past century than in all other times together? How is it that this new century has gotten off to such an unpromising start? James had an answer that tapped into the root of human nature, and into the human lunacy: 'Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war'

    This book might be considered a commentary on that one question and its answer, and on the hope which frames this question."

    His critique of the modern quest for power and wealth is unambiguous. One of his indictments is "the army of 'homeless' in the cities and along the highways in a land of unimagined wealth". However, he believes we are a nation of homeless people split off from the concepts of family, community, and over-riding principle in order to make us fair game in the "rivalry of competitive desires" which is modern Western culture.

    One of the interesting things about Conyers' premise is that it is not going to make political conservatives very happy (see above) nor is it going to make political liberals/"progressives" very happy either:
    Sooner or later violence overtakes a society that functions chiefly on the basis of the rivalry of competitive desires, on the basis of choice, or on the basis of "freedom" defined as the unhindered will. Modern secular society is the longest experiment in history attempting to elevate "choice" or this kind of freedom to the level of a basic social principle. It should not be surprising, though I think to many the awareness of this has not surfaced, that modern life is also the most violent period in the history of mankind.
    He takes the critique straight to the core of Enlightenment philosophy upon which modern Western culture is founded - and the bloody ground from which many political liberals will make their stand.

    Conyers briefly examines three theories on "the sources of violent behavior on a wide scale in society":
    • "First, Hannah Arendt suggested that where power, in the sense of effective action within a community is missing, violence takes its place. Moreover, once the institutions of government have outgrown the individual and the neighborhood, so that the very scale of governance no longer permits effective action for most people, then those people are more likely to take to the streets and address their grievances in destructive ways.


    • Second, Rene Girard claims that violence gives focus and directs our competing desires in such a way that community is strengthened by a mutual turning against a scapegoat or an enemy. Thus the collective shape of society, its very possibility for community, feeds off a fundamental injustice and attachments to common hatreds. Moreover, in Girard's view, modern society, long tutored by the Christian gospel in the awareness of injustice and the innocence of its victims, finds itself in a crisis of contradiction precisely over the issue of violence and peace.


    • Third, Eric Voegelin taught that once society becomes closed to those experiences by which it is shaped, namely its reach for transcendent meaning, and the human quest focuses instead on worldly goods, the competing demands are satisfied by nothing short of bloodshed and revolution
    All three of these views overlap at a critical point: human beings naturally reach for meaningful action, and not finding it, resort to irrational and destructive action. All of these theories begin, as we can easily see, with what James has called "the passions . . . at war in your members." All of these theories, I believe, are important for understanding the kinds of conditions that give rise to violence and the uses to which violence is traditionally given over."
    However, as Conyers states, The Listening Heart heads in a different direction . . .

    Next: Vocation

    Read more!

    Sunday, February 03, 2008

    Bible in a Year:
    Week of February 3rd

    Many people have simply never read the Bible from cover to cover; and yet many people have many opinions about what is there. The first time I read it through the actual scope and flow of the Word became apparent - the underlying plan and it's unfolding.

    The idea is that over the years this resource can grow as folks add their own comments, links to commentaries and other tools, etc in the comments to this index.

    1. Do you have a viewpoint on a particular piece of scripture? Go to that place and leave a comment.
    2. Heard or read a great sermon on a section of scripture? Link the audio file or text in the comments.
    3. The possibilities are many.

    2/3: Exodus 40:34-Leviticus 5:13; D: Sirach 12

    2/4: Leviticus 5:14-7:38; D: Sirach 12

    2/5: Leviticus 8:1-10:20; D: Sirach 13

    2/6: Leviticus 11:1-13:46; D: Sirach 13

    2/7: Leviticus 13:47-14:57; D: Sirach 13

    2/8: Leviticus 15:1-17:16; D: Sirach 13

    2/9: Leviticus 18:1-20:27; D: Sirach 14

    Things to look for each day:

    1. Lessons to be learned
    2. Examples to be followed
    3. Promises to be enjoyed
    4. Jesus to be revealed
    A good journaling question: How will I be different today because of what I have just read?

    Next Week: Week of August 21st
    Index to whole series

    Read more!