Interview with Goodwin Prize Winner Chris Hazlaris
Chris Hazlaris (Yale Divinity School) has been awarded $500 for the essay, “Redeeming a Sinful Theology of Nature.” Learn more about the Goodwin Prize in Theological Writing here.
What inspired you to pursue an advanced degree in theology?
I have always been deeply passionate about religious studies, spurred on by my own Christian faith, and, in my undergrad at Fordham University, I discovered how particularly interested I was in spirituality as it related to culture. My second degree was in anthropology, and I was fascinated by the different ways the divine could be conceived and worshiped by humans across time and geography (I believe this to be what we Christians call God’s boundless “Grace!”). My interest in theological anthropology reached a high-point when I studied abroad with base ecclesial communities in El Salvador in 2015. From this point onward, whether I obtained a Ph.D. or sought ordination, I had determined that my path would be to try to offer folks alternative conceptions of God that I believed could prevent their own theological understandings from remaining confined “in a box.”
What do you hope to do with your degree?
I originally entered Yale Divinity School believing that I would either be ordained as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) or pursue a doctoral path in theological anthropology. However, my time in graduate school has convinced me that my vocation lies, at least for the time being, in neither of the two. I am incredibly passionate about the spiritual development of young people, particularly high school and college-aged youth, and accompanying them in their own religious journeys and questions, and it is in this area that I have become convinced that my present gifts can best meet the needs of the world today. I care so deeply about young people growing up with the knowledge that they were uniquely created and are uniquely loved amidst their imperfections (I have been active in youth ministry for over five years), and by continuing to gently walk with teens in their faith lives and to challenge them in their own preconceived notions of religion and Church, it is my hope to be a stepping stone to a more spiritually grounded and compassionate society. I am currently applying to jobs as a youth pastor and campus minister, and rather than seeing these occupations as rudimentary, am quite proud to be dedicating my time and energy to an age group that I think is always in desperate need of intentional pastoral care and guidance.
Where do you see connections between your personal faith, your intellectual work and the other aspects of your life?
Faith and my intellectual work cannot be separated for me. What I study and research I hope will have tangible effects on my ministry with young people in the near future. For instance, many of the papers I write explore worship and theology in unfamiliar non-Western cultural environments. I do this so that I may continue to better offer teenagers tangible examples of the ways in which God exceeds our human conceptions or norms, offers different individuals and groups different gifts and insights, and communicates divine love uniquely and intimately to all.
How would you summarize your paper for someone without a theological background?
It is my intuition that many Christians have internalized the story of Adam and Eve’s sin to mean that the whole world is fallen and corrupt. I argue that this is sorely mistaken. The world as created by God is full of beauty and goodness and often even the parts that look “messy” to us (“survival of the fittest,” biological death, chance occurrences, etc.) are actually, if seen holistically, a major source of abundant life and diversity in the universe. I use what is called a “process theology” model to explain how I think God permits all of Creation – not only humans – to operate with free will, with some divine guidance. As for “sin,” it should be re-defined as our conscious, human refusal of the highest life of love God wishes for us. (Though I do not have room to go into this in the essay, I believe refusing to deem the natural world as sinful is so important because doing so could have major implications for how we view and treat nature and our bodies.)
How might this award make a difference in your life?
I am incredibly grateful to have received a Goodwin award. It encourages me to continue to want to challenge the understandings of God that we take for granted in the hopes that such interrogations can make people more in-tune with what it means to be a creature under God. Specifically, I hope my work can help people, particularly young people, to see that inter-dependenceis not sin; having imperfections and needing to support one another is an immaculate way that God has sown us together (this is what I believe Church, the Body of Christ, means at its most basic level!) Sin is something quite different, an intentional willing to disobey God that must be recognized for what it is. If my paper has started to do this then I feel humbled and empowered to continue on this road.
How do you spend your time when you are not studying?
I am an avid soccer player and am the captain and coach of my graduate school’s soccer team. Additionally, I love music and always use free time to play cover songs on piano, write guitar music, and sing joyfully throughout my house! Sports and music are two of the most centering activities I have in this world, and I cherish them dearly.
LISTEN! Amy Julia Becker - White Picket Fences: Turning toward love in a world divided by Privilege
Listen to the audio here for Amy Julia Becker’s talk on her new book, White Picket Fences: Turning toward love in a world divided by privilege.
A Gentle Invitation into the Challenging Topic of Privilege
The notion that some might have it better than others, for no good reason, offends our sensibilities. Yet, until we talk about privilege, we’ll never fully understand it or find our way forward.
Amy Julia Becker welcomes us into her life, from the charm of her privileged southern childhood to her adult experience in the northeast, and the denials she has faced as the mother of a child with special needs. She shows how a life behind a white picket fence can restrict even as it protects, and how it can prevent us from loving our neighbors well.
White Picket Fences invites us to respond to privilege with generosity, humility, and hope. It opens us to questions we are afraid to ask, so that we can walk further from fear and closer to love, in all its fragile and mysterious possibilities.
Dr. John M. Perkins always inspires. CCDA 2018
Our Perkins Fellows and residents of the Perkins House, attended the Christian Community Development Association conference in Chicago, thanks to the generosity of the Forum of Theological Exploration (FTE) and Lilly Endowment.
Perkins House resident and Perkins Fellow Dominique DeBose reflects:
“The Perkins House went to the CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) conference in Chicago at the beginning of the month. I started the conference attending a session that talked about worship in a cultural context — worship as counter-cultural, as cross-cultural — led by Mark Charles. In this session, he spoke about the concept of time being a social and cultural construct and how those particular constructs within a society can affect and mostly restrict how we do worship and therefore put a time limit on how we allow the Holy Spirit to move. In reference to indigenous tribes, particularly the Maori of New Zealand, he gave his experience of how he witnessed their ceremonial dance, the haka, used in times of war, also used as an act of worship. And he noted, in the context of worship, but I also think it applies more generally that, “assimilation is not a Biblical value.” It is the role of the worship leaders to embrace the discomfort of diversity.
When understanding Christian community development, a major motif that I got from the conference was “comfortability,” or more accurately, not being comfortable. In keeping our eye on the end goal of reconciliation and creation of the beloved community, we, as Christians, are not called to comfortability and safety. Understanding this takes a different mindset. Pastah J said that “community development begins in the mind” and that with that miraculous change in mindset, “Christians have the [unique] ability to affirm the dignity in everyone.” We had the honor and opportunity to meet with John Perkins himself and other Perkins House members and Fellows from Calvin College. I remember Perkins saying that “we have lived for so long in a country based on race and class that we have lost our ability to affirm people’s dignity.”
I think that in understanding what it is to be a Christian, what makes it uncomfortable is the very same thing that makes it so radical and counter-cultural. How do we as Christians affirm peoples’ dignity? How do we create inclusive culture-affirming worship within the church? How do we enter and uplift a community without harming it with self-righteous white and westernized theologies? How are we able to live alongside those we claim to love and fight against their injustices?
The conference, for me, brought about these questions and more. It re-opened my eyes to what the daunting process of reconciliation looks like. In considering community development and reconciliation, I get pretty discouraged, I feel out of place, I feel uncomfortable. “How” do you it? I don’t know all the politics, theologies, and practicalities. It’s hard, and it’s uncomfortable, but it’s also as simple as affirming someone else’s dignity. But when I think of the why, it’s not that complicated; it’s simply spreading the love we have rooted from Christ to our neighbors.
But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
From Perkins House resident, Sarah Bland, UVa ‘20.
“For me, CCDA 2018 was a time of intense spiritual formation and discernment in a season of navigating relationships and vocational calling…with space for necessary and beautiful dialogues around myriad manifestations of God's roaring heart for justice in communities. We will continue to press into all of this as a house, recognizing that it's in the most uncomfortable places that we stand to grow the most.”
Learn more about the Perkins House at www.perkinshousecville.org and CCDA at www.ccda.org
November Prayers | "Prayers are tools...for being and becoming." Eugene Peterson
Greetings, friends.
Like many of you, the words and life of Eugene Peterson have helped expand my imagination of a life lived well through faith. Peterson, who died last month, taught us to 'live eucharist,' to embody in our fleshly, daily lives the love and artistry of Jesus. He wrote that "prayers are tools not for doing or getting but for being and becoming." And within those words is the call to indwell our prayers, to listen to the still voice of God. He had a habit of memorizing the psalms and poetry, to literally hold the words within his imagination.
How could our prayers transform us more into the likeness of the resurrected Christ? What habits might cultiviate a posture of listening and becoming, more than doing and getting?
Watch this short film with Eugene and Jan Peterson at their home in Montana.
GIVE THANKS WITH US FOR:
Our Capps Lecture with Jonathan Merritt.
A successful board retreat.
PLEASE PRAY WITH US FOR:
A dear friend whose father just committed suicide.
Jerry Capps, for physical healing and health.
Alison - for work on her dissertation.
Molly's dad as he struggles with a long term illness.
Our dear friend Ginny as she fights cancer.
Unspoken prayer requests
The Fragment's Place in Christian Ethics | An Interview with Goodwin Prize Winner Bryan Ellrod
The $1,000 prize has been awarded to Bryan Ellrod (Emory University) for the essay, “The New Romantics: Authority, Authorship, and the Fragment’s Place in Christian Ethics”.
What inspired you to pursue an advanced degree in theology?
I grew up in a home where some theological debate or another was the standard topic of dinner conversation. However gregarious, the Ellrod family has never had any talent for proper small talk. This upbringing inspired a deep love for theological questions. For better or worse, they provide the frame within which I approach the world and connect with other people. Pursuing an advanced degree in theology gave me the chance to be part of a community of inquiry where these questions are shared, reformulated, and refined.
What do you hope to do with your degree?
God willing, I hope to teach in a school of theology or undergraduate religion department. I was very lucky to attend both a college and a seminary that saw rigorous intellectual training as part and parcel to formation for life and ministry. I wouldn’t say that these settings gave me the answers to all my questions, but I was challenged to explore them more deeply and to ask new ones. I would love to be able to serve in such a capacity as to be able to help my own students in the same way. I am yet optimistic (naïve?) enough to believe that the sort of attention we cultivate in our studies and seminars also develops the caring and inquisitive attention we owe to our neighbors.
Where do you see connections between your personal faith, your intellectual work and the other aspects of your life?
I have always felt a little caught in the tension between Acts 1’s call to witness, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, Ecclesiastes 5’s admonition that it is God who is in heaven and we who walk upon the earth. We are tasked to bear witness, in word and deed, to a reality that eye has not seen and ear has not heard. I don’t think there’s anything particularly unique about being dumbfounded by this task. I’m just incredibly lucky. For now at least, I get to build my entire occupation around puzzling over the tension. It’s as if I am being paid to attend my own therapy. As I understand it, my intellectual work on transcendence and immanence or authorship and authority all springs from personal questions about what it means to be this particularly guy from central Florida being called to bear witness to divine love in this particular moment.
How would you summarize your paper for someone without a theological background?
How are we to bear witness to a God, who shapes our lives yet outstrips our understanding? How are we to communicate divine love in contingent acts and sentences? Our initial response might be to tell a story about this God, her creation, and the task she sets before it. But telling such a narrative requires a particular kind of narrator, one who is able to step above the helter-skelter of history and get a clearer picture. For those of us still living in the midst of history, achieving this vantage point is insurmountably difficult. We live in the middle of the story and not at its end. So, if we can’t get a clear picture, then we must learn to communicate based on the piece-meal glimpses we achieve in the midst of our day to day lives. Taking our contingency seriously means getting comfortable with fragments. That is, recognizing and being clear that our works are always incomplete. They are the echoes of a Word that has gone before them and the first whispers of its return.
How might this award make a difference in your life?
When I wrote my paper, I attempted to be playful in my use of genre; allowing the ideas in the paper to permeate the form. I love reading Søren Kierkegaard, I think he is a master in this respect. I’m a novice at best, but I take this award as encouragement to continue in the experiment. To my mind, taking divine revelation seriously should bear not only on the claims of, say, epistemology or ethics, but should also encourage us to question howwe ought to go about uttering and writing them in the contingent sentences of a particular historical moment. Homileticians have long been concerned with the theological significance of rhetorical and literary device, I take this award to be added confirmation that theological ethicists have good reason to be as well.
How do you spend your time when you are not studying?
When I am not studying, I am an amateur ice hockey player and zealous supporter of the Tampa Bay Lightning. I also play guitar and write music – not terribly good music. When we can get out of the city, my wife is teaching me to enjoy hiking and camping. When we cannot, we are teaching each other how to cook.
Any other comments?
I just want to thank Theological Horizons for the opportunity to play with some of these ideas! The essay was a pleasure to write, I didn’t really expect anything to come of it, so this has all been a lot of fun.
For more information on the Goodwin Prize, click here.
Vulnerability & Community in the Whirlwinds | Reflections by Zach Balcomb '19
Recently, I find myself using the word whirlwind a lot... And by a lot I mean probably too much. I use it to describe the feeling of being a fourth year at UVa (i.e., a person with little time remaining in a place they’ve come to know and love) but also the feeling of trying to hang plants in my room. Obviously, these scenarios do not share the same emotional gravity, but I think my liberal usage of the term is significant to the state of my heart over the past few months.
In stressful moments, even those of an undeniably fleeting or trivial nature, anxiety has quietly crept in and occupied empty spaces in my heart. On the one hand, it’s easy to attribute this anxiety to the harsh reality that looms over all of us fourth years who have yet to figure out the next step. On the other hand, I would say that under the surface of the things that worry me, such as an unforeseeable post-grad life, anxiety arises from a sinful tendency that is often overlooked: resistance to vulnerability. It is from this resistance which anxiety has found a foothold in my life and “whirlwind” has become my new buzzword.
At the Horizons Fellows Retreat a few weeks ago, however, I experienced the beginning of a reset—I was reminded of my capacity and desire for spiritual vulnerability with others. I found joy in being in a transparent community, and I learned that when honesty has a place at the table in religious spaces, those spaces become more Holy. During the retreat, held at a Christian retreat center called Corhaven Farm, Fellows broke bread and laughed together. We snuggled up in blankets and sipped freshly-steeped tea. We pet docile, little donkeys and big, amiable cows (many of us, like me, admired them from afar). And finally, with crackling firewood and the sweet smell of s’mores as our backdrop, we took turns sharing our stories.
Our stories did not have to conform to a specific length or format, which I found so freeing. Growing up, I thought my story had to mirror what I had come to know as the archetype for a Christian testimony: a rip-roaring turn of events eclipsed by the earth shattering aha moment where “everything clicked.” Instead, I heard beautifully honest impressions on life and how people have come into relationship with their Creator over time. I heard people share things they have never before shared for fear of being judged or written off. More importantly, I saw people respond to these stories with kindness and an openness to learn.
In between storytelling, Fellows got to hear from Rev. Bill Haley, who taught us that we are to “cultivate relationship with the One who calls, so that when we are called we can respond efficiently.” We discussed the meaning of vocation, or more appropriately vocations, uncovering how they may not manifest in a paid position after graduation, but rather in how we bring God’s presence to the world. We listened and learned about the history behind the land upon which Corhaven is situated, which happens to include a cemetery where at least 25 black people who died as enslaved laborers now rest. As we explored the cemetery, which is now a memorial honoring the brothers and sisters who lay there, we grieved and prayed for an end to the 375-year reign of racial oppression in our country that still exists today.
In each of the aforementioned experiences, I felt our little cohort of Fellows displayed a level of transparency and celebration of difference that I have never before witnessed in a Christian circle. As interactions and conversations unfolded in this way, I felt spaces in my heart—once paralyzed with anxious energy—begin to breathe again.
IT'S YOUR CALL: A Gospel-Centered Life Design Workshop in Atlanta | Nov. 18
ATLANTA FRIENDS in your 20s and 30s!
JOIN US in an exploration of your life purpose---and discover a call that is both knowable and nameable.
God created you with one-of-a-kind potential and placed you on earth for a specific purpose. So how do you discover your purpose?
Begin the journey with us (no matter where you are) as we consider the idea that DISCIPLESHIP = GENERAL CALLING + SPECIFIC CALLING. A process called Gospel-Centered Life Design explores all the sides of this equation.
Gospel-Centered Life design yields radical clarity on your unique Life Calling, while also equipping you to live into it. A three hour workshop with friends is just a start...but we know it'll be terrific!
Kelly Kannwischer, CEO of Life Younique, will lead us through a discussion and share some helpful, practical tools as we take our first steps into Gospel-centered Life Design.
FAQs
How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email Charlotte Marie Sturtz at charlottemarie.sturtz@gmail.com
Do I have to bring my printed ticket to the event?
No! We're asking you to register so we know you're committed to coming. This event is limited to 18 people and is free of charge.
Can I bring a friend or a spouse?
Yes! We'd love that; just have them register. This workshop is crafted for women and men in their 20s and 30s..but it'll be flexible. .
What if I need childcare?
Let us know! We'll see what we can do.
On Faith and Physics – The Amused Ponderings of One with Much to Learn | Horizons Fellow, Victoria Lu '19
As a student of chemical engineering and music, I have been afforded the opportunity to think deeply about several very different fields. I become increasingly convinced that the further one travels into the depths of any given field, the more one will find God. There are some fields that seem to lead us intuitively to theology - religious studies, philosophy, even biology. However, my conjecture is that all fields lead to theology if explored deeply enough. As a case example, I will briefly consider the intersection of theology and theoretical physics.
As humans, we are three-(spatial)-dimensional beings. (We exist in three dimensions of space and one dimension of time.) Imagine a higher spatial dimension - the fourth dimension. As three-dimensional beings, we do not have the capacity to understand such higher dimensions. We can, however, visualize the fourth dimension with an analogy. Imagine a two-dimensional being in a two-dimensional world. Such a being can only see and understand what passes through its own plane of existence. As three-dimensional beings, we can interface with this two-dimensional world; we can pass through it and be seen by the two-dimensional being, or we can exist on an entirely separate plane in the third dimension such that the two-dimensional being has no concrete evidence that we exist. As we pass through the two-dimensional world, the two-dimensional being understands only a fragment of who and what we are. If I pass my arm through the two-dimensional world, the two-dimensional being sees the cross-section of my arm as a circle. As I move my arm through the world from wrist to shoulder, the two-dimensional being sees a circle that starts small (my wrist) and grows larger (my upper arm). What I know to be a cone-like cylinder (a single entity) the two-dimensional being perceives as a circle of changing diameter. In the same way, if I place three of my fingers in the flat world, the two-dimensional being perceives three separate circles. However, as a higher dimensional being, I know that my three fingers are really part of one and the same entity - my hand. Could God exist in higher dimensional space? Possibly. Perhaps the Trinity is like my fingers in two-dimensional space. We perceive the Trinity as three distinct persons all simultaneously the divine God, a mystery we will perhaps never understand. Just as a two-dimensional being could never begin to understand the third dimension, perhaps higher dimensional space theory helps to explain how we will never understand the fullness of God.
In quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that one can never simultaneously know both the position and momentum of a particle. The more one knows about the position of the particle, the less one knows about its velocity and vice versa. In the same way, we cannot possibly know God fully. Perhaps God is unquantifiable due to his infinite nature; or perhaps he is unquantifiable because we can never simultaneously know all aspects of him; our knowledge of God is limited by his very nature in the same way our knowledge of a particle is limited by the quantum mechanical nature of such a particle.
The wavefunction collapse phenomenon is most easily illustrated with the famous Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment. Imagine you have a cat in a box. You cannot see into the box. Inside the box is some radioactive substance that has exactly a 50/50 probability of decaying after one hour. If the radioactive substance decays, it sets off a device which will release poison into the chamber, killing the cat. If the radioactive substance does not decay, no such device is set off and the cat remains alive. The thought experiment states that after one hour, the wavefunction representing this system contains both the living cat and the dead cat until the direct observation of the status of the cat determines its state as either dead or alive. In other words, the cat is both dead and alive simultaneously (and the radioactive material exists in both a decayed and non-decayed state simultaneously) until we observe its status. This act of observation which determines the state of the particle is known as wavefunction collapse. While God himself is incomprehensible due to the vastness of his nature, the world he created was given into our keeping. When he told Adam to name the animals, he was giving us dominion over creation (not so we could abuse it, but so we could care for it). The act of our observation determines the state of matter. This demonstrates how God created the world to respond to us, even if we do not recognize it. He created the world forus, evidenced by the very nature of matter and observation.
This brief exploration of the intersection of theoretical physics and theology demonstrates two things. The first is that the enigma of God is the grand mystery of the universe that we can never hope to understand fully. The second is that, while we cannot understand the mystery of God, we can understand fragments of who he is and who he created us to be. This example was limited in scope to a miniscule sample of the topics which could be discussed at the intersection of theology and theoretical physics. However, as I consider sound, beauty, music, mechanics, chemistry, philosophy, economics, and mathematics, I cannot help but be led to their theological underpinnings. (Certainly, there are an infinite number of fields aside from those listed in which one might be led to theology; I just do not happen to have explored them.) Conjecture: all fields converge on one thing. That one thing is Truth.
Victoria Lu is a ‘18-’19 Horizons Fellow. Learn more about this program here.
Forgiveness as a Virtue | An Interview with Goodwin Prize Winner Joseph McCrave
Awards for the Goodwin Prize are given to graduate students whose essays demonstrate creative theological thinking, excellence in scholarship, faithful witness to the Christian tradition, and engagement with the community of faith.
The $2,500 prize was awarded to Joseph McCrave (Boston College) for the essay, "Forgiveness as a Virtue for Transitional Justice Contexts: Towards a Constructive Account." McCrave’s faculty advisor receives an award of $500.
What inspired you to pursue an advanced degree in theology?
I originally entered into theology reluctantly -- it was a mandatory counterpart to philosophy in my undergraduate program. During these studies, however, I came to understand the intellectual heritage of the Christian tradition to be rich and complex; sometimes troubling yet also more sophisticated than I had previously imagined. Having experienced this look "inwards" at Christian theology, I wanted to pursue graduate study to look "outwards," at the relationship of theology to life, with two broad questions in mind. Firstly, what insights does theology present for the practical attempt to live a good life? Secondly, what is the relation of these specifically theological insights to other ways of looking at the world which are found in pluralistic societies? I.e., how should I live and who cares what I think about that? My Ph.D. program at Boston College, then, is in theological ethics, specializing in political ethics.
What do you hope to do with your degree?
I hope to be able to teach, write and continue to live with these questions.
Where do you see connections between your personal faith, your intellectual work and the other aspects of your life?
As an "ethicist" I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about "the virtues." Of course, the trouble with this is that sooner or later you have to try to embody them! Fortunately, I have had wonderful teachers who have shown me that doing so is compatible with academic life.
Inspiring moments of faith can certainly drive me to live better and think better about how to live better. More often, I find myself readjusting and reshaping my understanding of faith as I'm challenged by encounters with new theological (and other) ideas and voices.
How would you summarize your paper for someone without a theological background?
In the generation since the landmark projects of "political reconciliation" of the 1990s, such as South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, "forgiveness" has exploded as a research topic across the humanities and social sciences. The practical and social impact of forgiveness is now undoubted even as its promises and pitfalls continue to be debated. In order to understand forgiveness more clearly, both advocates and skeptics have focused on the act of forgiveness and how it may or may not work at the political level. A relatively neglected mode of analysis -- but one latent in some strands of the Christian tradition -- is to understand forgiveness first as a personal quality or virtue, which leads to action. In the paper, I suggest that in order to have a better understanding of what we do when we forgive (even in political contexts) we should first think about who we are when we forgive. What kind of people do we want to be when it comes to responding to wrongdoing? I draw on the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas and his understanding of mercy to suggest that forgiveness -- being forgiving -- is a virtue. Possessing this virtue does not mean forgiving everything all the time but rather forgiving "well", e.g.: at the right time; in the right situations; and for good reasons. Furthermore, it is a virtue but it is not the only virtue. It is interwoven with others such as justice, prudence and self-care. All of this does not answer the hard questions about forgiveness and when it is right but it re-frames the question in what I see as a helpful way.
How might this award make a difference in your life?
On an existential level I am grateful for this recognition and it inspires me to keep working.
On a practical financial level, my laptop is quickly dying/journeying towards laptop heaven, even as I write this, so I'm very much looking forward to updating it! Thank you.
How do you spend your time when you are not studying?
When graduate study is not all-consuming, my interests include playing football (soccer) and watching movies. When graduate study is all-consuming, I sneak in time to listen to podcasts about soccer and movies.
Any other comments?
I would like to thank the people most directly responsible for helping me to produce the paper. These are my teachers at Boston College, in particular professors Stephen J. Pope, Lisa Sowle Cahill and James F. Keenan. Their courses and personal feedback provided the formative influences for the content. I'd also like to thank Katia, my wife, for her constant support amidst her own demanding life as a Ph.D. student, especially for putting up with the many late nights spent writing papers such as this one over recent years.
October Prayers | Sabbath rest.
Greetings, friends.
Usually about now in the semester, we start to feel it in our bones. The acknowledgement that we can't keep this pace up, that something's gotta give. And yet, the answer to our sustenance has been there all along, but 'you would have none of it' as the Lord says in Isaiah.
Some of our Fellows were discussing the book The Justice Calling recently and remarked how unusual it is to begin a book about the urgent work of justice, only to be told to remember the Sabbath, to rest. "Can waiting itself be an act?" ask the authors Bethany Hanke Hoang and Kristen Deede Johnson? The Sabbath command is a radical de-centering act into which we're invited. How might our times of prayer be different if our souls and bodies were more rested? Will you join us in incorporating Sabbath rest more into your life this month?
Read one Fellow's reflection on rest here and my review of The Justice Calling here.
-Christy
GIVE THANKS WITH US FOR:
A deeply rich fall retreat at Corhaven for our 12 Horizons Fellows.
Greetings, friends.
Usually about now in the semester, we start to feel it in our bones. The acknowledgement that we can't keep this pace up, that something's gotta give. And yet, the answer to our sustenance has been there all along, but 'you would have none of it' as the Lord says in Isaiah.
Some of our Fellows were discussing the book The Justice Calling recently and remarked how unusual it is to begin a book about the urgent work of justice, only to be told to remember the Sabbath, to rest. "Can waiting itself be an act?" ask the authors Bethany Hanke Hoang and Kristen Deede Johnson? The Sabbath command is a radical de-centering act into which we're invited. How might our times of prayer be different if our souls and bodies were more rested? Will you join us in incorporating Sabbath rest more into your life this month?
Read one Fellow's reflection on rest here and my review of The Justice Calling here.
GIVE THANKS WITH US FOR:
A deeply rich fall retreat at Corhaven for our 12 Horizons Fellows.
PLEASE PRAY WITH US FOR:
Jerry Capps, for physical healing and health.
For a friend's children and family relations.
For a friend struggling with a broken relationship.
Alison - for work on her dissertation.
Molly's dad as he struggles with a long term illness.
Our dear friend Ginny as she fights cancer.
Unspoken prayer requests
PLEASE PRAY FOR THEOLOGICAL HORIZONS:
Our upcoming Capps Lecture with Jonathan Merritt.
Our upcoming board meeting.
Christy and Karen as they travel to Indianapolis for the annual CMTEV grantees gathering.
For deepening relationships between the Perkins Fellows and their community partners.
PLEASE PRAY WITH US FOR:
Our friend and mentor, Eric, as he faces charges for protesting alt-right leaderJason Kessler on Grounds.
Jerry Capps, for physical healing and health.
For a friend's children and family relations.
For a friend struggling with a broken relationship.
Alison - for work on her dissertation.
Molly's dad as he struggles with a long term illness.
Our dear friend Ginny as she fights cancer.
Unspoken prayer requests
The Call to Rest | Reflection by Perkins Fellow Michelle Abban '20
Rest? How and why do we Sabbath? All of us Perkins Fellows recently gathered to read and discuss the Introduction and first two chapters of The Justice Calling. In a book about justice, I was expecting a hard-hitting manual on building and creating programs, on saving the world. The beginning chapters of the book instead mostly spoke of maintaining the Sabbath. You can imagine my surprise: how are we are supposed to be fighting for justice? First, we rest; God commands us to rest.
As we sat in a circle taking a break from our usual week routine to simply sit and share, we focused on needing to rest in the Lord for all the things still up in the air. I honesty thought the Sabbath was meant for a different era, that it was not possible or even necessary in this day. How in our modern view of go, go, go can we intentionally take time to rest, to fully obey the Sabbath? Shouldn’t we do something more productive with our time? These were the questions that filled my mind because they are how we fill our culture. As Perkins Fellows, we are trying to use our gifts, to share the love of God across borders. We are trying to understand what God’s plan is for us. How can God’s plan include daily and weekly rest?
For me, resting is hard. I want to do any and everything, to fill my schedule to the brim, to look at my calendar and say my life is full because my schedule is full. But, then it hits: the tiredness, the hopelessness and disappointment in my own failure when I realize that I cannot do it all alone. I cannot succeed in anything without God, anything. The accomplishments that I hold dearly do not mean anything if I do not know the source who gave them. I had never seen my lack of taking a Sabbath as failing to trust God and what He can do.
As I take on the rest of this semester, my community partnership with Abundant Life through the Perkins Fellowship, I need to lean on God’s strength and not my own. He brings forth completion to the fullest. Justice, community and true reconciliation of any sort does not come from me or any of us but from our Father who calls us to rest in him.
“Failure to rest reveals that we are relying on our own work and reflects a lack of trust in God’s provision and grace” (51) The Justice Calling
Announcing the 2018 Goodwin Writing Prize Winners!
Announcing the 2018 Richard & Louise Goodwin Prizes for Excellence in Theological Writing
The board of directors of Theological Horizons is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Goodwin Prizes. Awards are given to graduate students whose essays demonstrate creative theological thinking, excellence in scholarship, faithful witness to the Christian tradition, and engagement with the community of faith.
The $2,500 prize has been awarded to Joseph McCrave (Boston College) for the essay, "Forgiveness as a Virtue for Transitional Justice Contexts: Towards a Constructive Account." McCrave’s faculty advisor receives an award of $500.
The $1,000 prize has been awarded to Bryan Ellrod (Emory University) for the essay, “The New Romantics: Authority, Authorship, and the Fragment’s Place in Christian Ethics”.
Chris Hazlaris (Yale Divinity School) has been awarded $500 for the essay, “Redeeming a Sinful Theology of Nature.”
An Honorable Mention of $200 goes to Matthew Wiley (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) for the essay, “Sacramental Theology in a Secular Age: Charles Taylor and the Evangelical Church.”
We are deeply encouraged to see young scholars of such promise and commitment and we offer our warm congratulations to all who participated in this year’s competition.
A note about the process: All submissions were cleared of identifying author information and evaluated by three independent judges.
September Prayers - The call to lament
The beginning of the year for us always falls at the end of August. There is so much freshness and excitment. It's easy to gloss over the real wounds and pain we carry, individually and collectively, as we eagerly march forward with new backpacks and sharpened pencils.
And so, during our Perkins Fellows Plunge this past week, we began with lamenting the pain of August 11/12 and our ongoing divisions. We watched a powerful documentary about our city and then we stood together and recited a Liturgy for those who weep without knowing why.
And finally, we went out to visit with the courageous non-profits around Charlottesville that work daily to bridge the divisions between black and white, richer and poorer, between those with access to fresh food and those without, between those with citizenship and those without, and between God and each person.
Please join us in lamenting...and moving forward with renewed focus and hope.
GIVE THANKS WITH US FOR:
Over 100 students came to our Wahoo Welcome Lunch!
Our 10 Perkins Fellows (6 new!) and their 7 community partners.
Back to school mercies.
Summer rhythms and gatherings with friends and family.
New Guys' Discipleship Group
The aim of this group is to illuminate the Gospel and to examine Jesus’ life as a way to reveal righteousness (right relationships) that leads to abundant life. After laying a foundation, each week we will study Jesus in relationship to a person or (group), principality, or power, and consider how his “way” can inform our own life. This group will primarily use supporting material from The Bible Project.
All guys welcome!
Day/time is TBD but it will be a weekday morning at Bodo's before classes.
For more information, contact: Garrett Trent
Garrett Trent is a UVa grad, a former campus minister with UVa Greek InterVarsity, and he's worked for the last 4 years with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. He also directs The Perkins House, an interracial, intentional community for undergraduate students in partnership with All Souls church and Theological Horizons.
Welcome Beth Wright, new Manager of Ministry Operations!
We are so thrilled to welcome Beth Wright, our new Manager of Ministry Operations!
Here's a little more about Beth:
1) Tell us a little about your story. How did you end up in Charlottesville? Where else have you lived and worked?
My husband and I both grew up in rural communities and had always considered moving back to a small town at some point. Having spent most of our adult lives in the Washington, DC area, however, we had become accustomed to many of the amenities that urban living provides. When our nest started emptying, we began to explore other locations that might be a good combination of urban and rural living. Ultimately we decided that Charlottesville would be a great home base for us and our two sons, who are in graduate school.
2) What drew you to work with Theological Horizons? What are you excited about?
Actually, I had not heard of Theological Horizons even though I was working down the street from the Bonhoeffer House until one of my friends mentioned that there was an opening for a Manager of Ministry Operations. Once I started researching TH, I immediately was drawn to its mission and after meeting with Christy, Karen, and board member Anthony, I got very excited at the prospect of working here and sensed that this might be a perfect fit for me. I truly feel that I can make a positive impact here with my professional skills and personality - and enjoy the process!
3) What else are you up to these days?
Golf! We just started golf lessons, and I have to be honest, so far I’m finding it a bit frustrating…yet somewhat addictive! I’m also preparing for a mission trip to Haiti with my church and trying to learn Creole - or at least a few phrases. Generally, I spend a lot of my free time traveling, reading, hiking and watching every BBC murder mystery I can!
4) A lot of our work is wrestling with big questions about faith and what it means to be human with students and the community. What's a big question you wonder about?
A close friend of mine was recently diagnosed with a terminal illness so I am again wrestling with the old, familiar question of "why do bad things happen to good people?” I have about decided that the big questions never really get answered completely - at least to my satisfaction - but it’s important to keep pondering and praying. We really do see through a glass dimly and I struggle to be comfortable with having questions with my level of understanding feeling limited.
Thanks, Beth! Feel free to welcome her or reach out with any questions - beth@theologicalhorizons.org
Community & The Haven | Reflections by Perkins Fellow Abby Deatherage
On a pre-hurricane rain-soaked morning, I volunteered at the Haven, Charlottesville’s day-shelter for homeless and low-income men and women. I almost didn’t go–I was nervous for my first time working the Welcome Desk, a job that requires memory of where things are, which I’m bad at even on a good day, and general knowledge of how the systems of the Haven work, which I’m still grasping. To add to this general fear, I was sick, coming down with what everyone else has had in this pre-fall season. And it was only my second time volunteering, which meant I wasn’t a regular presence, and might not be missed. But if I didn’t go, I wouldn’t be back for at least another week, and I’m trying my very best to be consistent. So, freezing cold and soaking wet, I went in for a 2 hour shift.
I coughed my way through; I asked questions and found razors and shaving cream and towels and washcloths; I dialed phone numbers and handed out laundry detergent. I don’t think I actually did anything correctly, or even helpfully. But what surprised me was the easy environment in which I existed. I expected to feel shamed for not knowing things; after all, I’m the volunteer, right? The guests knew exactly where things would be; they teased me kindly about my lack of knowledge. I developed a cough a few minutes in, and they asked how I was and told me to make sure I stayed dry.
Here’s the thing: I am just dipping my toes into these waters which so many have swum before me, speaking about concepts and truths I’m learning that so many can articulate with much more clarity. So many go before me for whom this is not a 2 hour per week commitment, but rather years of work, a vocation, a life’s work, or even a reality. What I’m doing here isn’t offering answers or new discoveries; rather, I’m processing the reality I’m learning, showing you my own journey of baby steps.
So, what surprised me? This: in all honesty, I don’t think anything I actually did felt like volunteering, or even like helping. Requests for different items or phone use were minimal; everyone knows the systems in place, and seems to respect them well. In reality, most of my time was spent listening, meeting, talking to people.
I am a newcomer to this community, and each person who passes the welcome desk notices. They stop, they introduce themselves: staff, volunteers, guests. They ask me my name, if I go to UVa, what I study, what I like to do. And they share their stories, too. It’s a precious thing, community, and I’m amazed at how easily they extend their hands and open their arms to me, a nobody, a student who’s only there two hours a week and will graduate within eight months. But they do, and I am so grateful. I don’t know what more I will learn, what else the year has in store with me, but I’m beginning with what everything must grow out of: community.
*This reflection was kindly re-posted from Abby's wonderful blog. To learn more about the Perkins Fellows program that Abby is a part of, click here.
Politics & Faith: Reflections from an AEI Conference | Julia Scoper '17
I have always shied away from politics, especially Conservative Evangelical Christian politics because I immediately would think of yelling, pointing fingers, religious agendas, and disregard for others. Therefore, politics have always intimidated me because of the intense views I heard and read on the news, whether an extreme liberal or extreme conservative, they both end in hateful bickering on the screen or paper. Fortunately, after the mere welcome address at American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) summit in DC on “Values and Capitalism,” these misconceptions of Conservative Evangelicals were slowly broken down for me.
During the first panel, “Religious Freedom and Human Flourishing: Current Challenges and Prospects,” the concept of religious freedom was explained as the limitation of the power of the state- not allowing the government to tell citizens how to live morally. Religious freedom was a concept I definitely did not understand before this conference. One of the panelists, Russell Moore, emphasized how this religious freedom extends to all religions, not just Christianity. This means allowing mosques or any other types of temples to be built wherever, whenever. It was beyond refreshing to hear this when in the past all I have heard is extremist Christians complaining and rebuking anything that’s not a church soaked in holy oil.
Christianity in politics seemed to put down people and coerce faith into being. Instead, advocating for religious freedom for all is not some sort of manipulative strategy for Christians, but it’s something that Christians should truly believe. It’s not about advocating our own privilege. Third panelist, Stephanie Summers put it best, stating, “Let’s not kill each other over the will of God... You can’t advocate religious freedom and evangelize while you’re also driving your neighbors out of town.”
During lunch, Samuel Rodriguez, the president and CEO of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, spoke about, “Righteousness and Justice: In Pursuit of the Lamb’s Agenda.” He vibrantly preached about how we are not promoting a Christian nation, but a nation of free religion. I found myself furiously writing down every word of his one line zingers that soared straight to the heart. Some of my favorites were, “It’s not about the donkey or elephant agenda, it’s about the Lamb’s,” “Evangelical does not mean angry white male,” “Justice flows from the high to lift up the low,” and “Today’s complacency is tomorrow’s captivity.” He challenged us not to be afraid of politics or speaking the truth of the Bible.
My perceptions of Evangelical Conservative Christians in the political arena completely transformed. Instead of anger and self-righteousness, the panelists spoke of equality, peace, redemption, and above all else, the love of Jesus Christ. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Perhaps our job as Christians is to sift through this world of extremes and find the common ground among people while also finding our personal rock foundation in Jesus Christ. There need to be more deep and personal relationships among all different parties and beliefs if politicians want to get anywhere positive. I left this summit at AEI, refreshed, encouraged, and inspired by these influential Christians who have let Jesus lead the way in their lives and workspaces. I pray now that I can let Jesus reveal to me the broken places within my own heart and within my community and nation, and let Him sharpen my gifts and bring me to these places of need... even if that does mean Capitol Hill.
Reflections on John M. Perkins' Visit to UVa | Cameron Strange, '16
John Perkins’s legendary reputation precedes him in such a way that I was afraid at the thought of potentially meeting him; this fear of meeting him only further solidified when I heard him speak at the Common Grounds dinner and then the Capps lecture. I contemplated the ramifications of being face to face with John, and I figured my fear wasn’t so much a fear of there being something to lose as it was a fear of there being something all too great to gain. I feared that, if I introduced myself to him and shook his hand, he might impart some sort of prophetic call over my life that I would not be ready for – I feared that God would use him to speak to me words from God Himself.
Shortly after I became aware of these fears, I realized how silly it is to place any man on a pedestal such as this, to the extent that simply meeting him would be a fearful encounter. Moreover, I think John himself, if he had known there were people like me who think in ways like this about him, would do his best to dismantle the pedestal and deflect all exaltation to God. Even still, while I acknowledge that putting John on a pedestal was absurd, perhaps my fear in meeting John was not founded solely on pure absurdity – perhaps, it was partly founded on an underlying sense of respect for what he preaches. For, I must say, he preaches words that carry an air of optimism– optimism to a great extent but also to an appropriate extent, considering he uses the Gospel as the basis for what he preaches.
The vision that John implores us to move towards is lofty in nature, yet it entails a God-given purpose that is so worth living for. The Gospel deserves nothing less than visions for a future world that are seemingly impossible to achieve yet so awe-inspiring and captivating that we can’t help but be sucked into its mission for seeking God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Oddly enough, I think that John did speak to me words from God himself. But, with no disrespect to him, I realize that the message underlying these words weren’t necessarily anything I hadn’t heard before, nor were these words only meant for me. John merely re-cast the vision of the Gospel in the specific context of our present day struggles on the journey towards racial reconciliation.
His message was a refreshing reminder of the Gospel’s purposes which God has called us ALL to pursue in His strength and by His grace. I felt John inspiring me to become implicated in the world’s brokenness and our every-day struggle for reconciliation, to take responsibility (as he would say) for the world that God has given us to care for. Part of the good news, however, is that while I am personally convicted by this call to take responsibility for a world that I am often apathetic towards, I am also entangled with my brothers and sisters in Christ, such that I don’t have to “take responsibility” alone. Meanwhile, we also have a sovereign God working on reconciliation’s behalf with us, such that we mere humans do not have to “take responsibility” in vain and for a hopeless cause.
Even having said all of this, I would still probably be somewhat afraid to meet Dr. Perkins (perhaps for fear of inadvertently saying or doing something that disrespected him). But if I did have the guts to say one thing to him in person, I think I would tell him, “Thanks for the reminder – I hope to pass it on to those of my friends who unfortunately couldn’t be here to hear it.”
Start Small: Seven Spiritual Practices for Your Next 24 Hours
A talk given by Executive Director, Karen Wright Marsh.
Click below to hear it for yourself!
MORNING PRAYER “For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened & oppressed with besetting concerns for the day’s work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All darkness & distraction of the dreams of the night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ & His wakening word. All unrest, all impurity, all care & anxiety flee before Him. Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction & empty talk be silenced & let the first thought & the first word belong to Him to whom our whole life belongs.”
-–Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) [ commonprayer.net ]
SCRIPTURE AS YOU GO [ pray-as-you-go.org ] Pray-as-you-go online & as a free app brings together music, a passage of scripture & a few questions for personal reflection. There’s a new 10-13 minute prayer session every day. From the British Jesuits. Listen on the Metro, in your car or while you brush your teeth!
[ www.sacredspace.ie ] Sacred Space online @ as a free app helps you to pray anywhere & anytime with the help of a daily scripture & thoughtful on-screen guidance.
ASK AND LISTEN Wherever you are today, look for opportunities to ask questions that invite authentic, open response. See if you can ask three Real Questions in the next 24 hours. And then truly listen.
“To listen is very hard. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.” --Henri Nouwen (1932-1996)
“Preach the Gospel all the time, and if necessary, use words.” –Francis of Assisi (attributed)
STATIO: FOCUSED PRAYER Statio is a brief, focused prayer. It can take only a few seconds out of your 24 hours! Pause & focus between tasks / encounters / activities / emails.
Commit to God the thing you’ve just completed.
Lift up the next thing before you begin.
Statio is “the practice of stopping one thing before we begin another”---the time between times. The practice of statio is meant to make us conscious of what we’re about to do and make us present to the God who is present to us. Statio is the desire to do consciously what I might otherwise do mechanically. Statio is the virtue of presence....We have learned well in our time to go through life nonstop. Now it is time to learn to collect ourselves from time to time so that God can touch us in the most hectic of moments. Statio is the monastic practice that sets out to get our attention before life goes by in one great blur and God becomes an idea out there somewhere rather than an ever present reality here.” ---Joan Chittister (1936- )
WALK AND THINK "Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. If one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.” ---Søren Kierkegaard (1830-1855)
Leave your iPhone behind & walk outside, aware of God’s presence all around you.
EXAMEN | REVIEW Check in with God at the end of your day. The Daily Examen is a prayerful reflection on the events of the day. It helps you review & remember God’s presence and then discern his direction for you. See God’s hand in your whole experience. [ ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen ] Apps, too!
The 5 Step Examen Prayer: 1. Become aware of God’s presence. 2. Review the day with gratitude. 3. Pay attention to your emotions. 4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it. 5. Look toward tomorrow.
SLEEP = TRUST How blessed a thing it is, then, that we are not expected to retain the conscious control of our lives by night as well as by day, but that we are allowed to lay the reins in God's hands, entrusting ourselves to His care when we are least able to care for our-selves. But we must really entrust ourselves. Sleep comes best to those who most put their trust in God. That is what the Psalmist means by saying 'He giveth his beloved sleep'...There is no better soporific than a trustful heart, no surer way of having a good night's rest than to commend ourselves to God's keeping, in believing prayer, before we go to sleep....If a mind unrelaxed from care, its best cure is to cast all our cares upon the Keeper of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleeps....
“During the day we are so anxious to keep the reins of our destiny so entirely in our own hands that God has to wait until we are asleep in order to do for us and in us those things which we cannot do for ourselves ....All experience goes to show that the quality of our night's rest depends in large measure on the frame of mind in which we go to bed and compose ourselves to sleep. I shall conclude by saying this—and it is something of which I have continually to keep reminding myself: Every one who calls himself a Christian should go to sleep thinking about the love of God as it has visited us in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” –John Baillie (1886-1960)
The Oxymoron of Proximate Justice - Christen Borgman Yates
Reposted from Cardus.ca online journal.
Oxymorons always unsettle me. They compel me to mull them over in my mind, again and again, attempting to unpack layers juxtaposing two contradictory terms.
Proximate justice is an uncomfortable oxymoron at first. Isn't justice, by its very nature, meant to be full and absolute, right or wrong? Doesn't the integrity of the term demand our full commitment, our faith in the possibility of real justice?
I had the opportunity to hear Jim Wallis speak once at a luncheon in Boston. He was on his book tour for The Great Awakening. One thing I appreciate about Wallis is that he is extremely consistent and persistent. He's talked about wedding personal faith with social justice now for over thirty years. And so when he says there is a revival of justice happening across the country, I'm inclined to take the man at his word. According to Wallis, revivals of justice occur when "Billy Graham meets Martin Luther King," and toward this end, Wallis has inspired folks to join grassroots movements that push political structures from below while praying for open doors from above.
As I considered proximate justice during the lunch though, I wondered whether it would be a compelling selling-point for signing people on to a movement. Movements have an all-or-nothing feel to them, and it's likely the burden our abolitionist, social gospel, or civil rights predecessors felt at times: that they were the ones who had to bring the Kingdom of God here, and now.
Wallis's conclusion with "prayer as key" made me think that he and Garber might still have a point of connection. We do need an understanding of proximate justice to keep us from utter despair and cynicism, especially when the daily grind of working to bring about the kingdom wears us out. At the same time, we could use it as a corrective from taking ourselves or our cause too seriously.
In Political Holiness: A Spirituality of Liberation, Pedro Casaldaliga and Jose Maria Vigil warn us of the idol of justice. They write:
Social justice (however important it may be, and it is) can also be an idol, and we have to purify ourselves from it in order to declare clearly that God alone suffices, and in this way give justice too the fullness of its meaning.
Perhaps proximate justice is ultimately an acknowledgement of humility and faith: faith that this work of bringing about the Kingdom is not entirely on our shoulders after all, that there is a rhythm of work, and then rest, signaled by prayer, contemplation, and weekly Sabbaths.
To be sure, we don't strive for proximate justice. Who wants to strive for an incomplete or imperfect kingdom? By its very definition, shalom means all things as they should be, in right relationship. But we do need an understanding of proximate justice to help us wait until then, even as we strive daily toward shalom in all corners of creation.
My students engaged in community development work, know all too well these dual tendencies: toward the idolatry of our justice work or the cynicism that paralyzes. Studying the complexities of injustice, travelling to the developing world to visit people, learning about the production of goods, and returning here for urban engagement, Christian students are especially exposed to the "bad news," to glaring examples of injustice. They are also mindful of the ways we play a part in all this, like no other generation before us. They are simultaneously driven to right an injustice (fair trade coffee only on campus now!) and stalled by the fear that nothing will ever change. This then is the predicament: Why do anything if it will be tainted by some injustice—if the landfill will increase, if CO2 will be emitted, if a child will be subject to sweatshop labor or sexual trafficking, HIV/AIDS?
We can't work to see these issues approximately solved. We want justice in that child's life completely, not approximately. What motivation based on compromise would sign us up for a justice revival or even compel us to go to work day in and day out? But, as Garber suggests, that mindset is not sustainable, and can be sinful when we shoulder it alone. We must remember that we will not see complete justice this side of heaven. We strive to climb to the mountain summit, not just below it; but we rest often because without resting, there's no way we could keep going. It's just too hard.
Our students start their year reading a selection of Paul Marshall's book, Heaven is Not My Home, because it provides an important foundation for our work in the community that encourages us away from the tendencies toward idolatry and despair. He writes:
Our works, here and now, are not all transitory. The good that we have done will not simply disappear and be forgotten. This world is not a passing and futile phase; it will be taken up in God's new world. Our good buildings, our great inventions, our acts of healing, our best writings, our creative art, our finest clothes, our greatest treasures will not simply pass away. If they represent the greatest works of God's image-bearers, they will adorn the world to come.
Our works for justice, the God-honouring parts, are not all in vain and will not all disappear. This is truly good and life-giving news, news we must remind ourselves of day in and day out within our various vocations.
Recently, one of our students came to the realization of the injustice within the urban public schools where she served. She couldn't believe that art and music had been cut from many of the younger grades. Her middle-class upbringing had been richly blessed by the arts and fostered in her a love for the theatre. Her strongest desire was to change the system right away! But, understanding more the complexities that go into these injustices, she knew change wouldn't happen quickly. With her desire for systemic change still in mind, she set about establishing a theatre program within one of our community partners to teach theatre to young girls. Knowing that so many thousands of children in Lynn could benefit from arts-enrichment like this, she's making peace with her corner of creation: the essential work of teaching drama to thirteen girls.
She's making peace with proximate justice.