IN LAST WEEK’S POST, I SUGGESTED CHRISTIANITY IS TRANSFORMING, now, and moving onto an inclusive and enchanted path of justice and deep, experiential knowing. Although I mentioned a few “old and forgotten” practices that are becoming “new” again (like meditation and contemplation), I soon realized I didn’t say much of anything about the theology of the Transformation.
What currents of thought, what changes in values, are giving shape to a transformed Christian Weltanschauung (way of seeing and being in the world)? Here’s a rundown of what I see as a few of the more significant ones:
UNIVERSALISM. In place of Christianity’s institutional preference for parochial exclusivism, the Transformed view sees Christianity as one of many valuable spiritual traditions, each with its own perspective on the Truth, and each following its own paths to spiritual realization. Ecumenical dialogues between Christian sects are becoming interfaith dialogues among the world’s religious traditions. Christ is seen now to be a cosmic figure who manifests in various forms at various times for various people throughout the world.
The metaphor presenting God as the Father or King ruling his creation from a celestial court that is accessible only through one privileged tradition, a view that is an exclusivist and patriarchal monotheism, is giving way to an inclusive and universalist panentheism, a term that literally means, “God in everything.” The “in” here is important, because it says we’re beginning to recognize the immanence of God, to experience God abiding in all of creation — the domain of God within and among us (Lk 17:21) — as a more “accurate” and meaningful understanding of reality than the traditional belief that God is transcendent and thus separated from our “fallen” and alienated world.
CREATION IS GOOD. If all of creation, then, is the incarnation of God, creation must be blessed rather than cursed. St. Augustine’s doctrine of “original sin” must have missed the mark, but Matthew Fox’s vision of “original blessing” may have hit the bullseye. If so, any understanding of human dominion over creation that justifies ruthless exploitation and environmental destruction cannot be a proper understanding of stewardship. Remember, in Genesis 1, God repeatedly declares creation to be good, and finally very good.
More than simply good, the Transformed view sees creation evolving, transforming, growing and developing on a path that brings all of it toward a final fulfilling return to God. The creation is the divine Alpha; the return is the divine Omega (see Rev. 1:8, 22:13). Accordingly, the Greek term metanoia, found so centrally in the Gospels, can’t really mean “repent” (of one’s evil deeds), and hamartia can’t really mean “sin” (as one’s evil deeds). Instead, metanoia should be understood, correctly, to mean transforming one’s mind (meta = beyond, noia = mind); and hamartia to mean missing the mark or heading off in the wrong direction. Transformation, thus, leads us toward becoming fully human or whole, which now means united with God who dwells within each of us and all of creation.
RESTORATIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE. Because Transformed Christians see all creation as the blessed embodiment of God, it makes no sense to pursue justice through violence, retribution and punishment. This is the myth of redemptive violence that has guided and continues to mislead every domination system in human history. Actually, to call this a myth does a disservice to the term. We should, instead, call it the delusion of redemptive violence. Violence doesn’t redeem anything. Justice, therefore, should aim at restoring marginalized people, and fractured communities, and creation itself to their original state of blessing and goodness. The Transformed view sees nonviolent resistance to domination, open fellowship, inclusive love, faithful trust, and enduring hope among the means to this end.
These three attitudinal changes in views and values — from exclusivism to universalism, from original sin to original blessing, from redemptive violence to restorative justice — may be the main theological currents guiding the Transformation now underway in Christianity. Hopefully this time, calls to “repent” are pointing us, like arrows, straight and proper toward our true mark: fully human, at one with God.
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