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Paradox in the Gospel?
‘Paradox, said a friend, sounds like a tablet you take for a headache’. Another friend said that thinking abut paradox was enough to give you a headache! A simple survey with 50 people, involving lay young people and an Anglican Archbishop, concluded that Christians frequently see paradox in life, and especially theology and the church, but do not find it helpful when engaged in evangelism. Why is this? Is it a case of Paradox Lost? The Christian Gospel is full of paradox. The Christian life is full of paradox. Life itself is full of paradox. So why do we shy away from using the word ‘paradox’ in our preaching? Paradox might sound complicated, but I want to argue that it could be one of those keys we need to find, if we are to help today’s spiritual seekers enter through the front door, and stem the flow of Christians leaving out of the back. This last point is picked up by Alan Jamieson in his two studies on Church Leavers . People leave the church for all kinds of reasons, and one is that they cannot cope with the difficulties faced in life and theology, especially if they first embraced a simple understanding of the Christian faith. The Gospel is often presented like the children’s chorus (to the theme tune of Match of the Day): ‘If you know Jesus you’ll be happy, as happy as can be’. Though appealing and easy to understand in the first instance, it is a false expectation which is neither biblical nor helpful when trying to face the complexities and experience of the Christian faith in everyday life later on. A simple definition of paradox is ‘tension between opposites’. This is not only something we experience in everyday life, but, difficult though it is for some Christians to accept, is also intrinsic to the Gospel. Jesus was born of a Virgin Mother, and is both God and Man. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Shepherd and the Lamb, the Victor and the Victim, the Servant King. Rather than being a threat to our faith, ‘paradox’ should be embraced as an exciting theology which not only helps us cope with complexity, but helps us work with the things we cannot understand. The principle of paradox needs to be embraced in all kinds of ways. Call if ‘contradiction’, ‘creative tension’ or ‘co-existant polarities’ if you wish, but the principle is the same. Opposite truths co-exist at the same time, sometimes they can and should be reconciled in synthesis, but sometimes they exist without need for reconciliation, making a greater truth. It can be understood by all ages, including children who may confidently sing ‘ever old and ever new’ in ‘One More Step’. Paradox is not just for adults. Creative tension should not be ignored by evangelists, but embraced by them. Indeed, in the Grove booklet, ‘Paradox in the Gospel?’ I have tried to show that paradox can be a key to unlocking the door of faith in Christ for spiritual seekers today. The complexities of life should not be a challenge to the sharing of the good news of Jesus Christ, but rather an opportunity to engage with it. Using material from Dom Cyprian Smith on the teaching of Meister Eckhart, I try to show that concepts like Divine Knowledge, and the Adventure of Faith, can help seekers explore faith and doubt, success and failure, hope and certainty, in an appealing, relevant and engaging way. Paradox Regained? Can all of us engaged in evangelism find a confidence in the Gospel which embraces paradox? In ‘Bucket of Surprises’ we find the following rare example of how paradox can be used to make the Gospel appealing, relevant and engaging: “A true believer is Strong enough to be weak Successful enough to fail Wise enough to say ‘I don’t know’ Serious enough to laugh Rich enough to be poor Right enough to say ‘I am wrong’ Mature enough to be childlike Planned enough to be spontaneous Controlled enough to be flexible Free enough to endure captivity Knowledgeable enough to ask questions Loving enough to be angry Great enough to be anonymous Responsible enough to play Assured enough to be rejected Stable enough to cry One group of rural Anglican parishes found that their new study groups ‘undoubtedly exceeded our dreams and prayers’ when they took the theme ‘Balancing Life’s contradictions – Living with Paradox’ as the theme for introducing discussion. Adapting the themes for Bible study from Paradoxes for Living , and anglicising this American book, the people of these churches clearly found that paradox connected with their spiritual journey. ‘To be strong we have to become weak’; ‘to save our lives we have to lose them’; ‘pain is the pathway to joy’, ‘to know God we have to know ourselves’, are all biblical themes all too often ignored by the church. So, let’s think again. Start where people are, engage with the full Gospel narrative and see Paradox Regained. It may be the key we have been looking for. Captain Jim Currin, Church Army Executive Secretary, GfE A Churchless Faith: Alan Jamieson SPCK 2002 and Church Leavers SPCK 2006 Paradox in the Gospel? Grove Books Ev 74, 2006. Bucket of Surprises: J John and Mark Stibbe. Monarch 2002 p138 Paradoxes for Living. N Graham Standish: John Knox Press 2000 Catholic Priest as New Evangeliser In the summer of 2004 I took part in a seminar in Milan on the Parish Cell system, a way of dividing the parish into small groups which focus on evangelisation. I went to learn how this system works, but I found much more: a parish which really does make evangelisation the focus of every aspect of its life. We often talk about evangelisation. Offices have been set up, clergy talk about it as the goal of all our activity, but little has really changed. That’s why the parish in Milan was so impressive: every group, from the scouts to the flower arrangers, every activity from first communion preparation to the social club, was rethinking itself in the light of Pope John Paul’s call to a “new evangelisation.” At the heart of the Pope’s message is a new urgency. Our cultural situation has changed, there has been a forgetting of Christianity, an inability even to approach the gospel, let alone embrace it. “God is missing but not missed…Unbelief has become an inherited confusion, a distance from roots, an unaggressive puzzlement about religious practices and their language. …. This is no longer de Lubac’s ‘drama of atheistic humanism’ but rather an undramatic limbo of non-belonging.” (Michael Paul Gallagher, SJ). Such a situation calls Christians to return to their roots, to the simple trust and boundless hope of the early Church. “We must rekindle in ourselves the impetus of the beginnings and allow ourselves to be filled with the ardour of the apostolic preaching which followed Pentecost.” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 40). Local people in every diocese and parish should be on fire with a desire to explore new ways of reaching out, sowing seeds of the Gospel all around them. Some will fall by the wayside, but some will germinate, as in the parable of the Sower. In all this, the laity are central. “This passion will not fail to stir in the Church a new sense of mission, which cannot be left to a group of ‘specialists’ but must involve the responsibility of all the members of the People of God…. A new apostolic outreach…, lived as the everyday commitment of Christian communities and groups.” (Novo Millennio Ineunte 40). The priest clearly has a key role in helping the laity to do this. In priestly life today we often have a sense of being pulled apart by many different demands: the tyranny of the urgent, in which everything is a priority, so nothing is. Focussing on evangelisation can help overcome this problem: “What identifies our priestly service, gives a profound unity to the thousand and one tasks which claim our attention day be day and throughout our lives…, is this aim, ever present in all our action: to proclaim the Gospel of God.” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 68) In fact there is an “absolute necessity that the ‘new evangelization’ have priests as its initial new evangelizers’.” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 2). Among the many things this requires of the priest, I would like to single out one: that he is gripped by a vision which he is able to share with others and turn into reality. There will always be many phone calls, e-mails and people knocking on our doors: the sick, the parents and catechists of children, the needy, etc. We can keep ourselves busy for the rest of his life with these demands. But when will the unevangelised knock on our door? When will the spiritually starved millions send us an e-mail or phone us? Unless we have vision and planning, we will never truly evangelise: it will be just a fancy way of dressing up what we have always been doing. Now that declining vocations have forced on us a need to imagine doing things differently, we have a golden opportunity to make plans centred on evangelisation. The primary evangelising role of the priest, once he has become an evangeliser himself, is to foster in the laity the “new ardour” Pope John Paul calls for. This means teaching about the new evangelisation, but also addressing the issues which dampen ardour: lack of clarity about Church teaching, confusion about evangelisation in a multi-faith society, and just the feeling that “Catholics don’t do this”. It was partly to help priests in this that the bishops set up CASE – the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation. We can offer resources on methods and good practice in evangelisation, and personal advice to those who want to know what they could be doing. But above all, priests themselves need to be part of a community which is attempting to live the gospel and draw others to it. The parish is too big for this: we need smaller groups to belong to. It is no accident that the new ecclesial movements, with their strong community life, have been at the forefront of the new evangelisation, much as monasteries produced the great evangelisers of medieval Europe. We need to bring into our own priestly lives the elements of support and challenge without which we will find evangelisation too daunting a task. Mgr Keith Barltrop Director of Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation
Insights from the Decade of Evangelism GfE was very much involved int he Decade of Evangelism, which was first launched by the Pope and Anglican Archbishops. After much discussion at the end of the Decade, GfE did a Review of the lessons learnt about the general practice of evangelism. Offered now as 20 Insights, available as a pdf download, they are principles about evangelism which GfE would wish to encourage all churches to follow.
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