Anglicanism is trendy. Canterbury is in almost every young adult group’s title. I’m not sure if it’s a recent trend, or one that has existed for some time and that I just haven’t noticed, but I see quite a few people coming from other denominations into the Episcopal church. At General Theological Seminary, a good 60 percent of the incoming class is new to Anglicanism (straw poll). Some of this has to do with the social, political, and theological issues that our Church is purportedly more open to facing. Some of this has to do with other traditions simply pushing them out. Some come because of the aesthetic appeal to what John Henry Hobart in the early 19th century referred to as our “religious affections” and which he used as one of his major claims against the predominant evangelical majority.
I wonder though if there is another reason, or perhaps if this reason is partially infused with some of the above. It’s the idea of Christ, plus . . .
The liturgy that shapes us into . . .
The calendar year redeems time and brings us . . .
The daily office reminds us and patterns . . .
The communal nature of worship that de-emphasises the individual and . . .
The regular emphasis on the sacraments that . . .
The history and tradition that keeps us in contact with . . .
The monastic resources that allows us to . . .
Christ’s disciples wrestled with being the first, the ones to sit at his right and left side. Not too long afterwards, the patristics began to wrestle with the notion of the perfect life. The competing opinions of those dedicated to the active or contemplative lives roused rancorous debate, and varied depending on the tradition to which you belonged--both had bibilical basis for their opinions, while some, notably Augustine, argued that the perfect life required both types. The major point was individuals asking the question, "what more do I have to do?" "How do I make myself even more perfect?!"
There has been for some time (if not always) tiers of Christianity--the lay and the professional. As much of Protestantism and a changing attitude towards religion has eroded the monastic tradition, this tiered notion has predominantly shifted towards notions of piety and worship. Sunday, or whichever day this takes place on, begins to matter more than notions of active or contemplative, and we can measure piety for the depths of the perfect life. No liturgy? Not very deep--beginner Christians or fundamentalists. Simple music? Not very deep--provincial and lacking. Ornate liturgy? Deeper, and rich with tradition. Beautiful and majestic music? Very sophisticated and imbued with meaning.
Full artistic liturgy, proper catholicity of clergy, regular dialogue with monastic tradition and historical resources to develop and shape individuals? Very deep, very sensual, very moving, compelling us to be drawn us into dialogue with Christ.
Plato believed everything needed an ultimate. Everything needed ends. The actions that we perform always exist for the sake of the final product. This affected the early notions of the perfect life, since what we do is resulting in a final product. All of our actions and all of our contemplations, leads to us becoming a refined product of our process. Since one never becomes perfect, this is a constant process. Grace, and redemption were important, but assumed. More important in practice were notions of becoming and growing into this. It is the methodology for becoming a top-tier Christian.
I wonder if this is what we continue on with today? Notions of tiered Christianity. Notions of entering the perfect life by any other means that repentance, prayer, humility, the Eucharist, and lifting ourselves to heaven for heavenly things? I wonder if we’ve added layers of complexity to determine how this is measured? The more historical, the more liturgical, the more monastic, the more catholic, the more educated, the more ordained, the more Canterbury-ish this process is, the closer it appeals to the perfect life.
I wonder if it really is much simpler than this, and this is our own developed systems, deceptive philosophies and human traditions, out of our own need to compete or feel holier. Have we weighed down the gospel and our ecclesiology--a city on a hill whose main priority is the reconciliation of all people to one another and to God in Christ Jesus our Lord--out of our need for "more" tangibles that we can master . . . Christ is great, but we desire Christ, plus . . .
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