In my quest to continue growing in awareness of how scientists view our world, I read various things that describe the world scientifically. If you are not in school or if you don’t read much, I fear that most of us still have a really old-fashioned way of looking at our world and understanding ourselves. I suspect this describes far too many people who go to churches in our land.
Recently, I read an interesting article in The Christian Century by Amy Plantinga Pauw. Pauw teaches at the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. Her article is entitled, “The Cosmic Church on Earth: A Wisdom Ecclesiology.” I like the title, although I am aware many folks would not be too sure what it means. In the first place her use of the word, wisdom, is a bit loaded, especially for people who don’t know the Christian Bible. Wisdom is the word in the classical biblical language which is the feminine aspect of God. In the New Testament wisdom is the female counterpart to the Word (Logos).
In John’s Gospel the Word was with God in the beginning at creation. Moreover, the Word was the creator. And then in the Fourth Gospel the Word became flesh and was named Jesus. If the Gospel writer had wanted to use feminine language, the Wisdom would become flesh. Indeed, theologians in the history of the Christian Church affirmed both Word and Wisdom were incarnate in Jesus. To claim that is to claim both Divine Reason (Word) and Wisdom were to be found in Jesus. This makes sense to me.
The other word Pauw uses in her title is ecclesiology. That is simply a fancy way of talking about the “church.” It is a Greek word which simply means the church is a gathering of people who were “called out.” An easy way to understand it is to imagine the church to be those called out of normal life in the world and to new life in the Spirit of God. The church certainly is to be understood as people, not a place.
What Pauw is seeking is a way of understanding the church as part of a much bigger, cosmic context. The first thing Pauw insists upon is how humans are very late-comers in cosmic history of 13.8 billion years. And the next thing to note is the fact that our planet earth will not last forever. As she says, “They dynamic, unfathomable universe of which we are a minute part will not last forever.” I like the way she comments on this. “The larger cosmic picture also reinforces how rare and ephemeral biological life is. Earthly communities of Christian faith exist as a blink of an eye in the cosmic history of the universe.”
She begins developing this idea in an attractive way. Pauw says, “Earthly life is cherished not because it is perfect but because it is a precious, time-bound gift.” I certainly know that earthly life is not perfect. My life is not perfect, nor the lives of those around me. I like how she describes human life as precious---a time-bound gift. Most of us know that we are time-bound. At least in the foreseeable future this means we are mortal---we will one day die. That makes life feel even more precious.
Pauw goes another step. She notes, “To be creaturely is to learn to love what is beyond our ability to possess and control.” I delight in how she links being a creature to learning how to love. It is as if she claims that to be a human being means to be a student learning to love. And the dearest things we love are not things we possess. People who love their cars probably are not using that love language in its most proper, deeper form. Most of us love other people the most. And we know we do not possess or control them. That would not be love; it might be manipulation!
And Pauw moves us along to consideration of the church, which is a gathering of people. She says, “For the earthly church, the only appropriate response to this radical contingency is creaturely awe and gratitude---and a commitment to the flourishing of our earthly home.” To talk about radical contingency means humans won’t last forever---at least, in this form. And neither will the church. But in faith we live in the Spirit---the Wisdom---of God. This is worthy of awe and gratitude.
Pauw says, “Our understandings of the church should be earthly, rooted in and attuned to the patterns and cycles, the vulnerabilities and resilience, of our planet.” This has a serious side. Pauw teaches that “a wisdom ecclesiology calls church to repent of its indifference to earthly suffering and oppression, its selfish plundering of the earth’s resources, its refusal to accept limits of its creatureliness.”
There is a line near the end of Pauw’s article that I find to be so true. She claims, “Eternal life for earth’s creatures is life in God.” I am confident this is true, but I don’t know how it will be true. What I am also confident and, I’m sure Pauw and many others would agree, is that eternal life does not presuppose that we look like and be just like we are. I am ok with that. My faith teaches me that faith is a way of life with God. In this world and this life, I am practicing that now. This is the function of the church right now. It is probably kindergarten, but that’s how we learn.
That’s how we become wise. And how we become part of a wisdom ecclesiology---wisdom church.
Recently, I read an interesting article in The Christian Century by Amy Plantinga Pauw. Pauw teaches at the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. Her article is entitled, “The Cosmic Church on Earth: A Wisdom Ecclesiology.” I like the title, although I am aware many folks would not be too sure what it means. In the first place her use of the word, wisdom, is a bit loaded, especially for people who don’t know the Christian Bible. Wisdom is the word in the classical biblical language which is the feminine aspect of God. In the New Testament wisdom is the female counterpart to the Word (Logos).
In John’s Gospel the Word was with God in the beginning at creation. Moreover, the Word was the creator. And then in the Fourth Gospel the Word became flesh and was named Jesus. If the Gospel writer had wanted to use feminine language, the Wisdom would become flesh. Indeed, theologians in the history of the Christian Church affirmed both Word and Wisdom were incarnate in Jesus. To claim that is to claim both Divine Reason (Word) and Wisdom were to be found in Jesus. This makes sense to me.
The other word Pauw uses in her title is ecclesiology. That is simply a fancy way of talking about the “church.” It is a Greek word which simply means the church is a gathering of people who were “called out.” An easy way to understand it is to imagine the church to be those called out of normal life in the world and to new life in the Spirit of God. The church certainly is to be understood as people, not a place.
What Pauw is seeking is a way of understanding the church as part of a much bigger, cosmic context. The first thing Pauw insists upon is how humans are very late-comers in cosmic history of 13.8 billion years. And the next thing to note is the fact that our planet earth will not last forever. As she says, “They dynamic, unfathomable universe of which we are a minute part will not last forever.” I like the way she comments on this. “The larger cosmic picture also reinforces how rare and ephemeral biological life is. Earthly communities of Christian faith exist as a blink of an eye in the cosmic history of the universe.”
She begins developing this idea in an attractive way. Pauw says, “Earthly life is cherished not because it is perfect but because it is a precious, time-bound gift.” I certainly know that earthly life is not perfect. My life is not perfect, nor the lives of those around me. I like how she describes human life as precious---a time-bound gift. Most of us know that we are time-bound. At least in the foreseeable future this means we are mortal---we will one day die. That makes life feel even more precious.
Pauw goes another step. She notes, “To be creaturely is to learn to love what is beyond our ability to possess and control.” I delight in how she links being a creature to learning how to love. It is as if she claims that to be a human being means to be a student learning to love. And the dearest things we love are not things we possess. People who love their cars probably are not using that love language in its most proper, deeper form. Most of us love other people the most. And we know we do not possess or control them. That would not be love; it might be manipulation!
And Pauw moves us along to consideration of the church, which is a gathering of people. She says, “For the earthly church, the only appropriate response to this radical contingency is creaturely awe and gratitude---and a commitment to the flourishing of our earthly home.” To talk about radical contingency means humans won’t last forever---at least, in this form. And neither will the church. But in faith we live in the Spirit---the Wisdom---of God. This is worthy of awe and gratitude.
Pauw says, “Our understandings of the church should be earthly, rooted in and attuned to the patterns and cycles, the vulnerabilities and resilience, of our planet.” This has a serious side. Pauw teaches that “a wisdom ecclesiology calls church to repent of its indifference to earthly suffering and oppression, its selfish plundering of the earth’s resources, its refusal to accept limits of its creatureliness.”
There is a line near the end of Pauw’s article that I find to be so true. She claims, “Eternal life for earth’s creatures is life in God.” I am confident this is true, but I don’t know how it will be true. What I am also confident and, I’m sure Pauw and many others would agree, is that eternal life does not presuppose that we look like and be just like we are. I am ok with that. My faith teaches me that faith is a way of life with God. In this world and this life, I am practicing that now. This is the function of the church right now. It is probably kindergarten, but that’s how we learn.
That’s how we become wise. And how we become part of a wisdom ecclesiology---wisdom church.
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