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An Intriguing Conference

I can imagine some folks will be put off by this title of this inspirational piece.  Some may be cynical about any conference being intriguing, much less interesting or meaningful.  If you are a professional, more than likely you have been to a conference.  Sometimes they are even required.  They might have to do with compliance, continuing education or a variety of reasons.  I have been to my fair share of conferences.  I am a member of two or three professional organizations, all of which have annual conferences.  I must admit, I don’t always find them uplifting.

One of the reasons for holding a conference is to bring people together who are interested in a topic---sometimes a broad topic.  I know my physician daughter is required to do regular continuing education experiences.  As a family medicine doc, she obviously wants to choose something that will help her in her practice.  She does not need to go to a bunch of sessions on surgery.  If she is with someone who needs surgery, my daughter simply refers that person.

I am not one who generally gets excited about conferences.  But I just saw a reference to a conference that I actually would volunteer to attend.  I was not looking for conferences to attend, but I saw an announcement informing me that “Vatican conference convenes experts to study early Christian history.”  I am not sure I qualify as an expert, but I do have a Ph.D. in early Christian history.  I read further into the article by Junno Arocho Esteves.  The first thing that piqued my interest was the note that the conference “will gather both Christian and non-Christian historians and experts to delve deep into the history of the church in the first centuries of Christianity.”  I applaud the Vatican wanting even non-Christian experts.  

That tells me the Vatican is not really worried about what might be discovered and discussed.  Of course, I don’t expect there are a bunch of new documents that will be brought forth.  Basically, we have all the documents we will ever have.  But there are new findings---from archaeology and other arenas.  Of course, there are new ways to read and interpret old evidence as we learn more about human nature.  I am sure younger experts think about texts and issues in ways that are different than I do.  They bring different mindsets, different cultures, etc. to the interpretive task.  

And certainly, to have non-Catholics and non-Christians ensures that not all interpretations are through the Catholic perspective---as broad as that can be.  The convener of the conference, Norbertine priest and scholar, Bernard Ardura, said he was told by Pope Francis “to work with scholars from all scientific backgrounds, from the most varied cultural sensibilities and from the most diverse historiographical methods.”

Conference convener Ardura added, the Pope wants the scholars “to work together in the search for the truth, taking into account only their scientific expertise…”  Again, I applaud that because the Pope is not programming how the conference needs to be focused and how it needs to turn out.  There seems to be some risk to this---if the Pope were only interested in preserving the status quo.  But he apparently wants to get at the truth.  There are many other Christian traditions that should take note and perhaps be as open and courageous.  

Again, I would emphasize I do not think radical new teachings will emerge from this conference.  It is not as if this early biblical and historical material have never been mined for their teachings and truth.  But it is also worth noting the Pope is willing to expose the foundational time of Christian formation to a fresh look by experts.  But I don’t expect radical new things to be exposed.

Rather what I might guess will happen will be more nuanced.  For example, we know that women did have leadership roles in the church from the very beginning.  Biblical texts attest to this.  But were they ordained?  This gets to the ornery question of the origins of ordination and whether women were even considered.  Clearly, at present time, the Roman Catholic Church says no.  But I could imagine this conference adds perspective and pressure for the Church to re-think this stance.  

There are two obvious areas for scholars to engage in discussion: thought and practice.  To focus on thought is really to consider early church teachings and trace how that teaching leads to particular doctrines.  And of course, that introduces other side-issues, like authority, power and so forth.  This is where the non-Catholics and non-Christians might offer significant insights.  The other area is a focus on church practice.  Ordination of women is one such issue.  Other practices are things like sacraments, ecumenical and interfaith issues and so forth.  It is easy to see how this current Pope is operating very much in the spirit of Vatican II, which engaged issues like these back in the 50s and early 60s of last century.  

I am willing to see calling this conference to be an expression of the Spirit and to appreciate Pope Francis for trying to sense and obey the leadings of the Spirit.  That is always a bit risky---at least to status quo.  But is that not what Jesus was really up to?  In fact, it could be argued that theologically God choose a significant risk to become human and work for salvation among us.  Let’s follow the conference and see where it goes.  

I find that intriguing and inspiring.





https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/vatican-conference-convenes-experts-study-early-christian-history


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