Schism October 8, 2008
Posted by accidental bloggist in Uncategorized.trackback
in the sixteenth century, a quiet, studious monk by the name of Martin Luther rocked the foundations of Christendom. In pointing out the futility of buying indulgences for the remission of sins (and the greed behind selling them), he forever changed the way Christians looked upon their relationship with God and Church.
It was the end of the world as we knew it.
Erasmus, the apologist for the other side, did not so much overcome Luther’s arguments - rather, he pointed out the effect that such conclusions would have upon the body of the faithful. if salvation is a matter of justification by faith alone, then no one need “do” anything. as in “go to church” at all. and if no one needs go, then no one needs tithe. get it?
Mother Church was a little more blunt. shut the hell up Martin or the royal We will kill you. Do not ask Us to put your Faith to the Test. Yet, there he stood because he could do no other.
Rome went nuts. First, they tried to censure the renegade. It didn’t work. Much to their horror, his teachings gained ground. Quick! Counter-Reformation! Adapt or Die! we hate them, they hate us, we’re right, they’re wrong. war, revolution, pestilence, plague, pox, and posturing. Gee whiz, it’s like every day was an election year.
centuries of bitter rivalry later… lo and behold, both Catholic and Protestant Churches survive. One did not replace the other. it turns out not to be so much a matter of “either/or” as “different strokes.” apparently there are enough people in the world (over a billion Catholics and some 71 million Lutherans alone) to support both.
Computers and the internet appeared in the late 20th century. tentative at first – saying “uhmm, I think there’s a better way to handle card catalogs…” Then came Google for looking things up, Apple for making things fancy, and Amazon for selling things cheap and delivering them right to your door. Schism! then everything must be going digital!! Library meltdown!!!! The demise of our print collection is at hand - so we will be justified by electronics alone. Bring out your dead! We’ll throw those unbelievers on a pyre of their burning, useless contagion of books. It’s Us against Them. And oh boy is it ever going to get really really toasty for Them!
Luther’s arguments were taken to their logical conclusion by Calvin – if it’s “faith” alone, then actions intended to impress or appease God, are useless “works” - THAT sure blew open a can of Worms. can’t I pray for my children like Augustine’s mother, or is that just wasted breath? How about works of charity for the least of my brothers and sisters in the name of “you did it for Me?”
not according to Calvin. Heaven is not a work-release program. you’re saved or you’re not. there’s nothing you can do. How does that sit with a rational human being? More to the point, how does it feel? Because logically, there is no way around it.
Erasmus hinted at the obvious difficulty that such a premise presents to a priest – or to any person of faith. Ora et Labora. Luther spluttered a bit in his later writings, but ultimately he had no compromise that could embrace human participation in personal salvation. Prayer, worship, acts of charity, confession of sins, penance, the virtue of simple kindness in the name of Jesus - all are works. Taking Luther’s cue, Calvin embraced a more honest, but brutally fatalistic doctrine of total depravity. so there’s no point in any of it really…. even living it out is sort of a waste of God’s time.
eeeeeuuuwwww. Calvin’s was a stark and cold interpretation that still leaves too bitter a taste in the mouths of many believers (including me, along with the grape juice in those little cups they use instead of a good shot of red Merlot). obviously Mater Church didn’t die. it turned out that there are many mansions after all.
yes, in some ways it’s the end of the library world as we know it. we can’t just close our eyes and build towers of paper to block out the piercing electronic light. but we don’t have to offer a requiem for print as a constant dirge either. in fact, Erasmus might point out how ultimately nihilistic it is for a Librarian to do so.
Many (if not most) of my fellow students bemoan the fact that everything is going digital and how much they hate that because they love books and going to the library. but, since it’s the logical end to this…. these statements usually end with a little sniffle or sigh of resignation. O Ye of little faith! If you think you have come to bury a dying institution, then please walk away so the rest of us can tidy up the place before people get here. Go get an IT degree. And stop beating your breast with that book, rending the paper journals, and scourging yourselves with the bookmarks!
After all, where is the dignity in that?
One of the reasons we are dealing with the explosion of digital issues now instead of 1,000 to 1,700 years ago is that Christians perpetrated the worst act of arson in destroying the Library at Alexandria. Regardless of the theoretical thought and justification that goes into religious dogma and practice down through the ages, I often wonder if Jesus would be proud of Christianity as it has been practiced.
Few Christian writers advance the proposition however that Jesus might have been able to clarify a lot of issues had He written in some other medium besides the sand. I often wonder why He didn’t.
There are those who will tell you that it might as well all be written in sand. All of history is filtered through the eyes of its chroniclers. What exists is no more substantial than what has been lost to time and acts of brutality.
Like Sokrates, Jesus left it up to his followers to write it down and figure it out. Neither is the author of their stories. Unlike Sokrates, Jesus never laughed. And Sokrates never cried. at least not according to what we have been told.
I think Jesus would be as forgiving of us as he was of Peter after his denial. What we do out of love for Jesus triumphs over our imperfect understanding of whatever it was He wrote in the sand.
A preist that I remember gave his last homily about the 5 most important words in the Gospel. Frail and bald, dying of cancer, he summed it up by counting on his 5 fingers “you did it for Me.” I never forgot that. Recieving Communion from his hand that day was a very great honor.
Perhaps we “practice” religion because we are not yet perfect…