wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Theologian tells Covenant Network that spirituality is

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #9007 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05595
Nov. 4, 2005

Spirituality is communal, theologian says

Personal piety isn't sufficient as response 
to God's grace, Pauw tells Covenant Network

by Jerry L. Van Marter

MEMPHIS, TN - Genuine spiritual practices are not primarily exercises in
personal piety, but rather communal responses to God, doctrinal theologian
Amy Pauw told the Covenant Network of Presbyterians during its opening
plenary session on Wednesday.

	Covenant Network, which advocates the inclusion of gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered Presbyterians in the full life of the church,
including its ordained ministry, is holding its annual conference at Idlewild
Presbyterian Church here through Saturday. The conference theme is "Disciples
in Community."

	"Because spiritual practices are rooted in communities, they
ineluctably involve issues of tradition, culture and power," said Pauw, a
professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and therefore are
by nature "messy and ambiguous."

	Seen in this light, spiritual practices are wholly dependent on God's
grace, Pauw told her audience of about 500 people from 35 states. "Spiritual
practices are grace-filled, because they are places in our ambiguous lives
where God meets us, where the most important thing we can do is show up, open
to God's work in our in our hearts and our communities."

	Pauw implied that these grace-filled practices don't characterize
current communal behavior in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). "We can put
away our badges of victimhood and progressive farsightedness and acknowledge
that all of us still see through a mirror darkly," she said. "Graceful
practices resist the temptations of strident dismissiveness, or smug
intolerance. Graceful practices leave room for generosity, even in
disappointment and defeat.

	"To practice our faith gracefully, we do not plow down those who
stand in our way. We give an honest account of our gospel convictions and
practices, and stand behind them; but we do this, as I Peter 3:16 counsels,
with gentleness and reverence."

	"The spiritual practices I have in mind," she continued, "are
hospitality, forgiveness, reading scripture, giving and receiving, shaping
communities, prayer, discernment and healing." She said these all go
together, and "are not items on an ala carte menu," but collectively form "a
coherent way of life in the world that God made and loves."

	Spiritual practices as responses to God and as gateways to God must
be kept in balance, she said. "We trust that in our modest attempts to
practice our faith, the Spirit is present, so spiritual practices are a
response to God, arising out of our deepest Christian convictions."

	They are also gateways to God that deepen and sometimes challenge
Christian beliefs, she said. "There are some things you can only know by
doing. While it may seem logical to achieve clarity about our convictions
first, and then to shape our spiritual practices accordingly, that is not the
way it actually works in the life of faith. We are always figuring out what
we believe in the midst of practicing our faith."

	Regarding hospitality, for instance, "We may find that we acquire a
deeper knowledge of God's hospitality to all of creation only when we make
some fumbling attempts to practice hospitality ourselves."

	Pauw said it is possible to "make inflated claims for communal
Christian practices as a 'failsafe' means of forming Christian virtues and
character."

	Christian history is full of examples of "good practices done for bad
reasons, once-vibrant practices becoming confused and sinful, and communal
practices becoming so strong that they...degenerate into an unreflective
'But-we've-always-done-it-this-way' mentality," she said. "Sometimes
Christian practices can become so corrupted that the life and health of the
church is imperiled." 

	In a pointed analogy to the current plight of the PC(USA), Pauw
talked at length about John Calvin's concern that 16th century ordination
practices had become corrupted over the issue of clergy celibacy. "There was
no law requiring celibacy in the early church," she said, "but an absurd
admiration for it became so strong that marriage was condemned as shameful
for bishops."

	Calvin wasn't arguing that celibacy was bad, she said, but that it
had become an idol Christian leaders used to "proclaim their own
righteousness and tyrannize others."

	Pauw said the problem for contemporary Christians is not "absurd
admiration" for celibacy.

	"If there is anything that is 'honored extravagantly' in our church
context, it is heterosexual marriage," she said, citing research showing that
Protestant churches now see the married man or woman as the ideal pastoral
candidate.

	Pauw, a mother of three who has been married for 23 years, said she's
a "great supporter" of heterosexual marriage, "but just as Calvin worried
about celibacy, I worry that the honoring of heterosexual marriage, while a
good in itself, can become an idol, a law which Christians use to justify
themselves, to proclaim their own righteousness."

	In fact, she said, the church has learned many times over that
neither celibacy nor heterosexual marriage "is a guarantee of sexual and
emotional health and personal holiness."

	Just as Calvin was certain "that many who are otherwise suited for
the ministry cannot usefully do without marriage," Pauw said, "many who are
suited for the ministry can usefully do without heterosexual marriage -
including those who are single, divorced, or in exclusive, covenanted
same-sex relationships."

	Because the battle over the PC(USA)'s ordination standards so often
comes down to questions of Biblical authority and interpretation, Pauw said,
one of the most important communal spiritual practices for Presbyterians is
studying scripture together, a practice strongly recommended in the report of
the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church.

	"When those who disagree at least agree to stay in the same room,
studying the same scripture," she said, "then the way is open for a deeper
and more honest wrestling with God's word."

	Pauw pointed out that the church has changed its positions on such
matters as the earth as the center of the universe, anti-Pope statements in
the confessions, slavery and divorce. 

	"On these and many other subjects, Christians in different times and
places have changed their minds on what 'the Biblical view' is," she said.
"This change of mind is usually brought about through the web of spiritual
practices, rather than feats of exegetical brilliance."

	Affirming another recommendation of the task force recommendation,
Pauw urged the church to stay together. 

	"How easy - and how alienating - it is, to compare those who disagree
with us to the Pharisees, to 'the circumcision party,' to those who are
tone-deaf to the new thing God is doing," she said. "When we are surrounded
only by our like-minded friends, it is tempting to read the Bible in
graceless ways, ways that reinforce rather than challenge our comfortable
perceptions of ourselves and others."

	The only foundation for holy living, she concluded, is Jesus Christ:
"To cast everything else behind us and embrace the cross and death of Christ
with both hands."

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