Page 15 - Presbyterian Connection, Spring 2020

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SPRING 2020
A Review of Metamorphosis: Preaching after Christendom
The transforming view empow- ers the church communities and preachers to be “free to love and serve others”(53). Now is the time for them to preach the Gospel as the ushers of God’s new realities, as they are liberated from the myth of success, constantly instilled by consumeristic society. Contrary to the controlled uniformity that Chris- tendom generally prefers, with their liberated theological and homiletical imaginations, preachers are encour- aged to “create or construct” their preaching daringly from “a diverse range of traditions and bring dispa- rate elements”(87). “The overarch- ing story of God’s life in Trinity” is profoundly contextual (50). In the final chapter of the book, Travis presents four sermon examples in order to help the readers to under- stand what preaching after Chris- tendom can be like. Those who read Metamorphosis with care will see that this insightful book leads us to see the trouble that God’s church is in, through the eyes of the highly challenging but astonishingly boun- tiful grace.
whether you should accept sexual and gender minorities, but they pass over the history. Those who want to exclude sexual and gender minorities often say there is a wonderful and beautiful history of Christian purity where these kinds of activities are excluded—but that’s simply not true. I actually became very depressed researching this, because as a com- mitted Christian, I could not conceive of how people who claimed to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ could be a part of such horrible behaviour: child abuse, hanging of young boys, drowning teenagers in barrels, public burnings, and more. So it was en- tirely disheartening, as a Christian, to read all of this history, and then to hear Christians today say, “It’s be- cause we love people that we do this kind of thing.”
Find the rest of this interview online at knox.utoronto.ca/misguidedlove.
By the Rev. Dr. Joon Ki Kim,
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Westville, N.S.
Metamorphosis: Preaching after Christendom
Written by the Rev. Dr. Sarah Travis Cascade Books, 2019
“You see the trouble we are in” (Ne- hemiah 2:17). This is what Nehemi- ah said to Jewish officials in Jerusa- lem when the wall of Jerusalem was destroyed, and its gates had been burned. In order to build what has been broken, we need to see hon- estly and thoroughly its plight, even though it is painful.
Through her book Metamorpho- sis: Preaching after Christendom, the Rev. Dr. Sarah Travis helps Christians and fellow preachers to see clearly the troubles that church-
By Stephanie Hanna, Knox College Communications
Misguided Love: Christians and the Rupture of LGBTQI2+ People Written by the Rev.
Dr. Charles Fensham
Harvard Book Store, 2019
The Rev. Dr. Charles Fensham has been Professor of Systematic The- ology at Knox College since 2002. He is interested in the study of the church (ecclesiology) and its inter- section with mission studies and ecology, with a focus on public mis- siology. The following is an interview regarding his book, Misguided Love: Christians and the Rupture of LGBT- QI2+ People.
Note: At Dr. Fensham’s request, we use the descriptive phrase “sexual
es in the Nor th American context have faced, as it is the most fun- damental step that we need to take in order to rebuild it. As a prophetic scholar, she indicates that it was a serious misstep for the church to become a religious form of enor- mously power ful establishment through Rome’s officialization of the religion in the 4th century. Tragically, “the church of Christendom mim- icked the Roman Empire” (34) when it revealed its voracious desire for a greater power and sense of superi- ority, and normalized its privileges in the name of divine authority. The cost of becoming the establishment was to yield the responsibility of the church to unmask and challenge the unjust status quo with the spirit of the Gospel (34–35, etc.). Travis explains that in Western societies, Christianity gradually took the form
of cultural establishment (29), that “played a significant role at all lev- els of society” (41). The church’s social privileges were still regarded as normative even if its benefits and pride had begun to diminish.
In this sense, Travis is far from defining the nature of the trouble that the church has encountered in terms of the loss of many regular at- tendees or high-steepled gorgeous buildings. Significantly, she urges us to understand that the real crisis of the church had already taken place when the church appeared to be un- doubtedly strong, influential, stable and even permanent. The church was abysmally poor and miser- able, when it was richer than even the emperors and kings. For this reason, she insists that “the church should willingly par ticipate in its own demise and disestablishment
as a powerful entity” (58). It may sound radical, but we can hear her deafeningly persuasive voice advo- cating for the truth throughout Met- amorphosis. Only by going through the disruptive change of perception and locating themselves voluntar- ily at the margins of the society are preachers ready to discover God’s good news in uncertainty, vulnera- bility, suffering and even death (66).
Connection
BOOKS REVIEWS
PRESBYTERIAN
15
Misguided Love: Christians and the Rupture of LGBTQI2+ People
and gender minorities” rather than the acronym LGBTQI2+, as it is more inclusive and less cumbersome.
Why do church and society need this book?
When I started this research project about five years ago, it was because I was very deeply concerned about the way sexual and gender minor- ity people are experiencing harm in Christian communities. The book is my attempt to figure out the puzzle of how a faith that professes love can take a path that harms others. And so I explore the history—the his- tory of Christianity, and the rise of violence against sexual and gender minorities—and consider a Christian response.
My hope is that this book will be a resource. My book invites readers who are Christian to consider the dimensions of harm in this conver- sation in the church. I am not naïve; I know that those who disagree will still likely find reason not to agree with the content. But for people who struggle with their own sexual or gender status, I hope it will be helpful to know the history, and see that it is not biblical or Christian.
I also hope that it will be a resource for those who want to make a case in favour of inclusion, to say, “Here’s
the history, do you know this? Do you know where the myth of Sodom comes from? Do you know that the word homosexual doesn’t appear in the Hebrew or Christian scriptures, despite our modern translations?” And so on. The book explores ethics, the social and psychological origins of hatred against sexual and gender minorities (including what shapes our biases), and the Bible. It’s peer reviewed, shared widely for input and critique, and historically researched, and so people can trust what’s there.
There is no Christian scriptural basis for causing harm to our neigh- bours—inside or outside Christian communities. Christian teaching that doesn’t affirm the humanity and the wholeness of sexual and gender mi- nority people does harm. This isn’t simply a theological debate with dif-
ferent perspectives, or something about which we can graciously disagree. This is a matter of causing material harm—to the point of death. We need to find a way to repent. We need a new path of ethical discern- ment in relation to sexual and gender minorities.
What different perspective do you offer?
One of my reviewers wrote that there is no other book like this on the mar- ket, even though there’s a lot of writ- ing and theology on this topic. The point is not so much that the infor- mation I use is new, but what’s dif- ferent is the way I try to employ this information theologically. I include significant historical data, and I re- flect theologically on that.
Most arguments centre around
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