One aspect of the Transforming Theology project is to have people like myself read some books and then review them. The question to myself is how do I write this review. To be honest I don't want to do an English 101 book review style or some rigorous academic inspection complete with rebuttals, references, supportive evidence and/or contradictory thoughts and philosophy. Somehow I didn't think I'd get people piling all over themselves to read that sort of thing. So I thought I'd write a little about what I read and the thoughts that were stirred up as a result.
(I'm going to have to amend my style - the following turned out to be a bit long!)
Review of Reclaiming the Church by John Cobb, Jr
The ten second review of the book is that it is good and thought provoking (short enough for you). Cobb basically states that churches are becoming irrelevant and that those within the Church either are ignoring the problem; want to restore the Church to its previous state of purity and relevance; or want to transform the church into something new and more interactive with today's culture. The book is Cobb's way of exploring these issues and offering some hope.
Let me move on from the 10 second review, and I'll get into a few more details and thoughts from the book. I don't think I need to get into everything that Cobb has to say, but I would like to key in on a few points that Cobb does write about.
1. We've Stopped Thinking
Cobb recognizes that people within the Church have stopped thinking - that THEOLOGY has moved from the Church to the University. About the time of World War II and until now, theology has been removed from practical living. In fact it has gotten to the point that Cobb believes that about the only thing people think about during times of Bible study is their own personal issues. There simply isn't enough "normal people" trying to think through the
implications of the reality of God and how that reality might impact their day to day lives, the lives of their communities, and the big picture of the human existence.
A bit harsh, but probably not that far from the truth. I hate to say it, but we (we being regular church attenders) really don't like to wrestle with the difficult stuff do we? Of course there is always that one guy who always brings up the hard questions, but he also usually dresses a little weird and doesn't have the greatest social skills so we don't take him too seriously.
Cobb also points out that part of the problem with the lack of theology within the Church is a result of the specialization in expertise that has occurred in our Western culture that came out of the Enlightenment. We have splintered everything into narrow fields of expertise, to the point where you can hear someone say that they have a PhD in Advanced Protein Synthesis of Ancient East Norwegian Canine Fleas. Its gotten to the point that you can't really have an opinion on something unless you know absolutely everything there is to know about one thing that no one else on the planet has ever heard of. And this is what has happened to theology. Cobb states that pastors and lay people don't see themselves as theologians - rather believes theology has been professionalized. This is because "proper theology" needed to pass the "test" - rigorous
academic inspection - history, intellectual inspection, congruence, etc. Surely it couldn't be possible for someone to have a useful relevant thought unless they had studied the topic in a dark hole for at least 8 years.
In his book Cobb states that because of the long silence on theological thought within the Church, there is a legitimate fear that when all these theological questions are raised - we will find that people have moved in so many different directions that its all "chaos" or conflicting ideas, diversity and confusion.
Which leads me to the next point....
2. Division not Unity
Cobb actually has a lot to say on unity and division; and a lack of passion within churches. I won't go into all the details here but I wanted to key on something that is a bit of a pet peeve of mine and something that Cobb goes into. There is so much division between Christians all over the world and for the most part its not about the deity of Christ or the goodness of God, but rather its about how fast or slow the music should be in a church; whether it is OK to be divorced or not; can we allow active homosexual couples in our churches; will Christ come back before or after the Tribulation; or other similar issues. Some of these things are important and some or not; but the key is that none of them are more important that what we all share - a belief and love of Christ.
Why do we have to focus on the minor issues that are different, or on the best way to run a church service? Why do we even go as far as to fight and war over differences in interpreting the Bible when Christ taught us to love and accept others?
It seems to me that if we could focus on Christ instead of the details that we (and by we, this time I mean all Christians all over the world) could work together and put into practice a phrase that Christ stated, "by your love for one another they will know you".
"It is without strong, shared Christian convictions among their members, churches decline. That is what is happening now." Cobb stated the previous in his book and it struck me as true. Moving past the differences and focusing on the shared convictions the Church could really come together. However, those strong, shared convictions are only going to come about when we have the Theology that allows people to get behind the idea. To be passionate about being Christians!
3. Lukewarmness
"Unless the Christian faith can provide the basis for assimilating the truth of the new challenges of the twentieth century into a whole that is communicable to many, and unless Christians can point convincingly to what this new vision requires, old line Protestantism will relapse more and more into lukewarmness - and death."
Quite a bold statement by Cobb, but I don't think its too far off. I think the world tolerates us Christians as that is the nature of our Western culture - to accept; but I don't think they see the teaching of the Church as relevant. By relevant, I don't mean they have to agree with us; I just think they need to believe that what we say actually relates to the world they live in. Unfortunately, at the moment, most do not see such things in our teachings. And I believe this is a part of our lukewarmness. When everyone around a Christian is smiling and nodding their heads in a very condescending way its hard to keep up the passion. No one likes being treated like a senile old relative that is tolerated because that is the polite thing to do. And that is what we have become to our Western culture - the senile old relative.
In his book Cobb does a good job of looking at some of the issues of lukewarmness from periods of the past.
An important issue in dealing with how the church should change (see below on Renew and Transform) is that we need to have clear Theological conclusions. It is important to listen to each other and from time to time agree to disagree, but we should not just compromise. "Compromise alienates those who have strong convictions on both sides and carries the churches still deeper into lukewarmness"
4. Renew or Transform
According to Cobb there are 2 basic ways of dealing with this lukewarmness/decline of the Church. We can either renew or transform. (There is also the stick your head in the sand and pretend there isn't a problem, but neither Cobb nor I find that option particularly helpful.)
The Renew train of thought is to attempt to revert back to a style/way of living/time/purity of the Church in the past. The idea here is that the Church's purity has been eroded and that we need to return to the past when we had things right. The evidence that we had things right was seen in the impact on society, people's lives, and the world in general. Those within the Renew thought believe that we must hold firmly to what has worked in the past, although allowing for growth in understanding.
The Transform train of thought is that we need to to learn from the past, adapt to the present, and to Christianize the present environment. The idea here is that just as Christ transformed the Church from the Old Testament version to the New Testament version so also should we transform the Church as we learn more about the world that God created and about God Himself. The evidence that we need to transform is seen in the example set by Christ as well as in the Reformation.
I tend to agree with Cobb when he stated that it is neither Reform or Transform, but a combination of both. Although both he and I tend to lean heavily in the direction of transformation.
An example of transformation and renewal working together was the Reformation with Luther and Calvin. Renewal in that it went back to Biblical standards and tried to remove the influences of the world, transformed because it resulted in a Church that was significantly different from any that had existed before.
Cobb does a good job of pointing out how the 2 differing options of what need to change in the church can and should work together. He points out the good in both and not just the extremes often used by one side to argue against the other.
"Advocates of renewal sometimes polemicize against transformation, and advocates of transformation often find only a small place for renewal. Nevertheless, in a broad historical perspective it seems that both have roles to play in the life of the church. When the problem is that the distinctive biblical themes are clouded by the dominance of cultural patterns, renewal is needed. Transformation is needed when our historic teaching limits us to the themes dominant in our own tradition, preventing us form hearing the voices of those who have suffered, because of our historic teaching, and when this limitation blocks our appropriation of liberating and enlarging insights from other sources. Our historical consciousness should prevent us from supposing that we can make normative judgements applicable to all places and all times."
Cobb argues there can be neither renewal or transformation without widespread theological reflection. Transformation requires more theological thought because it requires more thought to gain from our culture then disconnecting from it.
The focus of transformation is on reaching out to those alienated from the church; and this is something that resonates with me. Much of what the Church has said in done in the past has hurt and pushed people away. We need to acknowledge the damage done and move towards healing. Always doing what we have always done, is not going to cut it.
The other thing that Cobb points out that I like about Transformation is that it allows us to learn from our environment, we may not accept everything, but we do learn.
Cobb points out that Christianity was a transformation of Judaism. He goes on to say that our transformation should be a return to the future orientation found throughout the Bible that focuses on what will be, not what was. The Hebrew history reflects the changing nature of their faith as they grew and learned and adapted to things they experienced in other cultures.
One point that is often brought up against Transformation is that history ended with Christ. Cobb argues against this by stating if this is the case then it means that God does not have any transforming power. I think this belief of history beginning and ending in Christ is one that is pervasive throughout the Church and requires more theological thought and argument then presented by Cobb. We need more theological thought on this issue to help some people overcome their fears of what Transformation means.
Whenever new ideas and thoughts are introduced into the Church, people are afraid they might be being led astray by "false prophets". Before we argue what aspects of the church need to be transformed and what needs to be renewed, we need to have a theological argument as to why it is OK to transform what was previously believed to be true.
5. 5 Issues
Cobb goes into a lot of detail on five dominate issues that he believes are coming to an end: Eurocentric living(Western way of life); Nationalism (given way to Economism); rationalism - specifically the Enlightenment; sexual repression (long associated with Christianity); and patriarchy (changing as a result of Feminism).
Personally, keying in on these five issues seems to limit the changes we are seeing and misses out on a few issues that I believe are important for the Church: Victimization (everyone is a victim and therefore not responsible for the way their current predicament; and furthermore someone else should take care of their problems - this applies to personal issues, business, family, and just about every area of life); Comfort (the huge desire to not be inconvenienced and how that shapes our lives); and Informatization (the rapid dissemination of ideas, thoughts, and information that impacts our culture and leads to rapid changes).
Nonetheless, Cobb's five dominant issues do represent a significant part of the changes we are experiencing.
The collapse of the Eurocentric way of thinking is a byproduct of Globalization and Informatization. We simply our seeing the world and ourselves through different sets of eyes and are really beginning to appreciate the insights that these different vantages give us. This of course applies to the Theology as well - we are looking at the text of the Bible and the stories within it in a whole new light. At times this new way of looking at things calls into question our previous understanding.
I believe this is great. The more we examine what we believe the more solid our beliefs become as we hold on to the true and let go of the false.
Of all the five issues I think the one that is having the greatest impact is the end of Nationalism and the rise of Economism. It is becoming less and less important which country you are from; and more and more important your earning potential and the company you work for.
Cobb wrote this book in 1997 and could not have seen the rapid expansion of wealth between 1997 and 2007, followed by the huge economic collapse that we are now experiencing. However his thoughts reflect the reality that money now plays and how finances bridge borders. Cobb states the end of Nationalism has resulted in less international conflict. However, he did not see that the rise of Economism has resulted in a rise in conflicts as people with aligned financial interests fight over dwindling resources.
One issue that Cobb does not touch on is the factor that social-economic factors play in people's acceptance of religion. For people whose futures do not look good, when the prospect that a person's children will be worse off then their parents, then these people turn to religion in greater numbers. This is a huge factor in the growth of the Muslim faith. People look for hope and the religion down the street - be that a mosque, a temple, or a church - offers it. I think we need to realize that it is hope that people are looking for and when people have a hope in financial growth they are a lot less inclined to turn to a hope offered by religion. This reality impacts the rich, the poor, and the emerging. A factor that needs to be incorporated in any moves the Church is going to make in the future - be that renew, transform, or a combination of both.
The end of rationalism and the growth of the post-modern thought process has been well documented and Cobb continues to build on this. Unfortunately I believe the Church has been slow to embrace this change and most Christians are still taught in the Rationalism mode of thought on how to think about their faith and share it with others.
Sexual repression! Now there are two words that are sure to stir up interest, embarrassment, and debate. Cobb touches on this topic a little but tends to move over it quickly. However he does point out that sex is a huge factor in our culture and the Church needs to embrace all the implications and react from a truly well thought out Theology - not just in the same way as the last Century.
Patriarchy and feminism. I have to admit that I am lacking on exposure to feminist thoughts and writings. In general I support the basic foundations of feminism, but I found it hard to relate to the prominence that Cobb has given it in his book. Perhaps this is a result of my own ignorance and so I won't criticise too much. I will say that I appreciate the gender equality that feminism brings to understanding God and I think this can only help the Church as we move forward.
6. Looking to the Future
Cobb states that we need to find a message that will evoke a commitment to Christ but that also repsonds to the questions posed by Science and History, address' the damage done in the past by the teachings of the church (both to those in and outside the Church).
Cobb states that one issue that mighbe be a great starting point is the saving of the environment. Its something that tends to be a unifying issue for people within the church and outside (of course the biggest obstacle is the financial costs and this obstacle occurs within and outside the church as well). I think it is an excellent issue to begin with. If we can establish an area of unity then we can use that as a basis to move into other areas of mutual concern - justice, participation, peace, and spiritual realities.
Within the church Cobb sees the most serious weakness is that we share no clear idea of "salvation". Cobb proposes an inclusive salvation - "the salvation of the world" - incorporating forgiveness, healing, environment, lonliness, etc. Cobb believes this would allows the Church to work with the world and with other religions. In working towards this salvation of the world just because someone does some good, but is not Christian should not be of concern for us - we are working towards the goal of salvation of the world and all who work towards that goal can be appreciated.
This above issue would probably be the most controversial aspect of Cobb's book. He stops short of saying that all religions lead to God and salvation, but his inclusive language will scare many within mainstream Christianity away.
He does make some interesting points, but if he really wants to get the Church to unite behind this and have this issue of salvation be a central rallying point then he needs to argue it more successfully. I did like his statement: "That God has worked and is working among people outside the chuch as well as among those within it should be no surprise to a reader fo the Bible." It something that is obvious once you read the statement, but probably not something that many Christians would have thought beforehand.
7. Conclusion and Questions
Well to make a long blog a little longer I wanted to give my 10 second conclusion and then leave with a few important theological questions that Cobb's book raised but did not answer to my satisfaction.
Cobb's book is well thought out and provides a great starting point for a lot of discussions. The Church does need to change and it will probably be a combination of both renewal and transformation that leads to a new kind of Church that did not exist before. This I believe is Cobb's most important contribution - the effort to bring the two together and then to look towards the future; based on a call to really begin to think Theologically that would make a united change in the Church possible.
I would love to see the Environment as the issue that unites Christians and non-Christians and serves as the beginning of having the Church, Theology, and Christians being relevant to those outside the Church doors.
A few questions that Cobb has raised that need more thought:
1. Is there a history apart from Christ that can teach us more then what Christ taught us?
2. How can changing what we have believed in the past be seen as a movement towards truth and not being led astray by false prophets? (I see this as a huge fear that prevents many from accepting the ideas of the emerging chruch - the tranforming train of thought mentioned by Cobb)
3. Acknowledging the role that hope plays in people turning to Christ, why would people who have a hope for the future and the future of their children outside of religion be interested in exploring spiritual issues? (Why change what appears not to need changing)
4. Relevant theological thoughts on all matters sexual?
5. Does the Bible really teach an "inclusive salvation"? (this is the issue that would prove the most decisive)
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