Today being the last Sunday in Epiphanytide, we hear once again the story of Jesus' Transfiguration (Mark 9: 2-9). The Transfiguration has traditionally gotten more emphasis in the Eastern church, but below is a good quote from the Venerable Bede (672-735), the most prominent English theologian and historian of his day. It comes from Homilies on the Gospels, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: New Testament II, Mark, eds Thomas C Oden and Christopher A Hall, Downer's Grove, IVP, 1998. A hat-tip to today's Episcopal Cafe.

If anyone asks what the Lord's garments, which became white as snow, represent typologically, we can properly understand them as pointing to the church of his saints, [who]...at the time of the resurrection will be purified from every blemish of iniquity and at the same time from all the darkness of mortality. Concerning the Lord's garments the evangelist Mark remarks that "they becomes as bright as snow, such as no bleacher on earth can make them white." It is evident to everyone that there is no one who can live on earth without corruption and sorrow. So it is evident to all that are wise, although heretics deny it, that there is no one who can live on earth without being touched by some sin. But what a cleansing agent (that is, a teacher of souls or some extraordinary purifier of his body) cannot do on earth, that the Lord will do in heaven. He will purify the church, which is his clothing, "from all defilement of flesh and spirit", renewing [her] besides with eternal blessedness and light of flesh and spirit.

As a somewhat belated recognition of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday, I offer an excerpt from Rescuing Darwin, a monograph by Nick Spencer and Denis Alexander published by
Theos, the British "public theology think tank". The essay documents how the historical Darwin--whose own worldview "evolved" from William Paley-style natural theology to deism to agnosticism--was nonetheless respectful of people holding more traditional religious views; many of these folks had no difficulty accepting his theory of natural selection. This contradicts today's highly polarized situation, in which Darwin has been intellectually fetishized--in wildly different ways, of course--by creationists, intelligent design buffs, and doctrinaire atheists of the Richard Dawkins variety (he's the one to the right of Darwin). The complete monograph is available here, as a PDF file. A hat-tip to Thinking Anglicans for turning me on to it.

The Reception of Evolution in North America

Considering the present American antipathy to the theory, it is ironic that evolution was popularized in North America largely by Christian academics. Foremost among these was Asa Gray, Professor of Natural History at Harvard and a committed Christian. He was Darwin's long-term correspondent and confidante who helped organize the publication of The Origin in America and who had debated the question of evolution and design with Darwin over many years.

Other Christian thinkers were equally supportive. James McCosh was president of the College of New Jersey (later to become Princeton University). Firmly rooted in the Calvinist tradition, McCosh held strongly to the concept of natural selection, but equally strongly to the belief that "the natural origin of species is not inconsistent with intelligent design in nature or with the existence of a personal Creator of the world".

George Wright was a theologian and geologist, whose books on glacial geology were for years the standard texts on the subject. He was not only a vigorous proponent of Darwin, but but believed ..."that Darwin's work actually allies itself with the Reformed faith in discouraging romantic, sentimental, and optimistic interpretations of nature"...

James Dana was professor of Natural History at Yale and editor of The American Journal of Science. He was another American geologist of orthodox Christian conviction who accepted Darwinian evolution...As he commented, "it is not atheism to believe in a development theory, if it be admitted at the same time that Nature exists by the will and continued act of God".

Through the work of eminent scientists such as Gray, McCosh, Wright,...and Dana--scientists who were also serious and committed Christians--Darwinian evolution spread rapidly within US academia and beyond. Indeed, it spread so rapidly that, according to the American historian George Marsden, "with the exception of Harvard's Louis Agassiz, virtually every American Protestant zoologist and botanist accepted some form of evolution by the early 1870's". In the words of the British historian James Moore, ..."with few exceptions the leading Christian thinkers in Great Britain and America came to terms quite readily with Darwinism and evolution".

John Chryssavgis, whose first-rate book on the Desert Fathers and Mothers is the subject of an earlier post on this site, has some insights on the relationship between ascesis (a systematic set of spiritual practices) and theosis (the process of gradually achieving union with God). They are found in "The Spiritual Way", a chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology, eds Mary B Cunningham and Elizabeth Theokritoff, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp 160-162.

The ascetic way, then, is a way of authentic liberation and communion. For the ascetic is the person who is free, uncontrolled by attitudes that abuse the world; uncompelled by ways that use the world; characterised by self-control, by self-restraint, and by the ability to say 'no' or 'enough'. Indeed, asceticism aims at refinement, not detachement or destruction. Its goal is moderation, not repression. Its content is positive, not negative: it looks to service, not selfishness; to reconciliation, not renunciation or escape: 'Without asceticism, none of us is authentically human' [Kallistos Ware].

Unfortunately, however, centuries of misunderstanding and abuse have tainted the concept of asceticism, identifying it either with individualism and escapism or else with idealism and angelism. Both tendencies verge on the point of dis-incarnation, promulgating enmity towards the world. Yet, at least in its more authentic expression, asceticism is a way of intimacy and tenderness, a way of integrating body, soul and society. In this respect, asceticism is essentially a social discipline. Moreover, it is never practised in a way that would insult the Creator. It is no wonder, therefore, that even after years of harsh and frugal living, the early desert Fathers and Mothers would emerge in their relationships as charming and compassionate, accessible and tranquil...

In the final analysis, the aim of asceticism is to regain a sense of wonder, to be filled with a sense of goodness and of God-liness. It is to see all things in God and God in all things. And it is precisely here that ascesis encounters theosis. for the most divine experience is to discover the wonder of God in the beauty of the world and to discern the limitless nature of grace in the limitations of the human body and the natural creation. There are those among us who may well be converted 'suddenly with a light flashing from heaven'(Acts 9:3) or be 'caught up to the third heaven'(2 Cor 12:2). Yet such ecstasy is experienced by very few--'scarcely one among ten thousand...indeed, scarcely one in every generation', according to Abba Isaac the Syrian. It is no wonder, then, that the desert Fathers encourage their disciples to restrain someone rising to spiritual heights: 'The old men used to say: "If you see someone climbing toward heaven by his own will, grab his foot and pull him down; for this will be for his own good"'. The ascetic literature clearly demonstrates a preference for the more lowly experience of those who have known their passions and recognized their failures. John Climacus refers to them as 'blessed': 'I saw...and was amazed; and I consider those fallen mourners more blessed than those who have not fallen and are not mourning". While the end of ascesis may be the vision of God or theosis, the way of ascesis is none other than the daily life of self-knowledge or integrity, carved out of the ordinary experience of everyday life perceived in the extraordinary light of the eternal kingdom. It is the gradual--and, as a result of our resistance, painful--process of learning to be who you areand do what you do with all the intensity of life and love. 'An old man was asked: "What is it necessary to do to be saved?" He was making rope; and without looking up from the work, he replied: "You are looking at it"'. In this way, the ascetic way defines in a uniquely tangible and concrete manner the theological doctrines concerning the original creation of the world, the divine Incarnation of the Word, and the age to come that we expect.

Here's a brief followup of sorts to last week's post dealing with salvation and universalism. Today's Los Angeles Times has an article dealing with a recent survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. A sample of about 1400 people was asked a slate of questions on whether more than one religion can lead to salvation and what one must do to earn eternal life. The respondants were split among white evangelicals, white mainline Christians, black Protestants, and white Catholics. 65% of the whole sample agreed with the statement "Many religions can lead to eternal life". Asked whether actions or beliefs were more determinative of who gets saved, 11% of evangelicals opted for actions, while a solid 64% went for right beliefs. The respective figures for white mainliners were 33/25; Catholics somewhat surpisingly came out at 47/13. So much for all those catechism lessons. Oddly enough, those holding to universalism (the belief that everyone without exception will be saved) ranged from 1% of evangelicals to a whopping 3% of mainliners and Catholics, a figure so small as to be possibly statistically insignificant.

One of my cyber-companions is Canon Bryan Owen of St Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral in Jackson, Mississippi. In a recent post on his blog Creedal Christian Bryan addresses the issue of universalism, the notion that God will save absolutely everybody with little if any regard to how they live during their time on earth. A corollary to this is that hell does not exist, or if it does it does not last forever.

Despite the Episcopal Church's reputation--well-deserved, to a large extent--as a haven for spiritually and intellectually vacuous liberals who would uncritically accept universalism as an article of faith, Bryan shows that the current Book of Common Prayer actually contains numerous references to hell and the extreme desirability of being saved therefrom. Check out the post with a BCP close at hand, if you dare.

This got me interested in seeing what other Christian traditions say about universalism. The short answer is that I cannot find any major Christian church affirming this as a dogma--but please correct me if you know otherwise. The idea was first postulated by Origen in the third century but he was condemned by a church council held a couple of centuries later during the reign of Justinian. Of course, a good number of individual Christians have adhered to universalism as a personal belief or at least have flirted with the notion.

A thornier problem is whether non-Christians--even very upright non-Christians--can be saved under any circumstances. We all know what many of our born-again brothers and sisters say about this issue. What about Roman Catholics and the Orthodox?

Roman Catholic teaching has actually shifted over the centuries. For most of its history, the motto "outside the Church there is no salvation", with "Church" understood to refer only to the Church of Rome, was a fair assessment of official RC teaching. A typical expression comes from Pope Eugene IV in a bull issued in 1441: "...Those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life..."

Things changed rather drastically with Vatican II. A comment on the conciliar document Lumen Gentium says: "...The Church now solemnly acknowledges that the Holy Ghost is truly active in the churches and communities separated from itself...The non-Christian may not be blamed for his ignorance of Christ and his church; salvation is open to him also, if he seeks God sincerely and if he follows the commands of his conscience for through this means the Holy Ghost acts upon all men; this divine action is not confined within the limited boundaries of the visible Church." (Click here for more information on Roman Catholic teaching on this matter).

An Orthodox view is presented by Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev in his article "Eschatology", which appears in the highly recommended The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology (2008, p 113):

Regarding those who are outside the Church, St Paul writes that they will be judged in accordance with the law of conscience written in their hearts (Rom 2:14-15). Virtuous pagans, says Chrysostom, are astonishing because 'they had no need of the law but fulfilled everything contained in it, having inscribed in their minds not the letter, but deeds.' And he draws a radical conclusion: 'If a pagan fulfills the law, nothing else will be necessary for his salvation.' When acts committed during one's life are evaluated, moral criteria will be applied to all people without exception, the only difference being that Jews will be judged according to the Law of Moses, Christians by the gospel, and pagans according to the law of conscience written in their hearts.

My commitment to Christian spirituality of a traditional cast does not preclude forays into other traditions, especially those within the Abrahamic family. The Jewish scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) combined academic rigor with a deep grounding in Kabbalah and Hasidism. A native of Warsaw, he attended an Orthodox yeshiva (religious school) and received Orthodox rabbinical ordination. He then studied at the University of Berlin and the Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums where he received both a doctorate and a Liberal (= Reform) ordination. He escaped the Holocaust (many of his relatives did not) and ended up at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Besides writing a number of books, he was active in civil rights and Jewish-Christian dialogue. He met with Thomas Merton several times.

Man's Quest for God contains a number of insights into prayer that are worth mulling over. I am grateful to Michael K Marsh, a priest of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, whose blog Interrupting the Silence has a recent post citing several quotes that I reproduce below. I've also included the site in my own blogroll.

Of all the things we do, prayer is the least expedient, the least worldly, the least practical. This is why prayer is an act of self-purification. This is why prayer is an ontological necessity.

To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live.

In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender.

Prayer is no panacea, no substitute for action. It is, rather, like a beam thrown from a flashlight before us into the darkness. It is in this light that we who grope, stumble, and climb, discover where we stand, what surrounds us, and what course we should choose. Prayer makes visible the right and reveals what is hampering and false...Sometimes prayer is more than a light before us; it is a light within us.

To avoid prayer constantly is to force a gap between man and God which can widen into an abyss.

The purpose of prayer is not the same as the purpose of speech. The purpose of speech is to inform; the purpose of prayer is to partake.

The privilege of praying is man's greatest distinction.

To live without prayer is to live without God, to live without a soul.

He who has never prayed is not fully human.

The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.

Isaac of Nineveh (or Isaac of Syria) was a 7th-century monk, a native of Qatar on the Persian Gulf. He belonged to the Nestorian church (they actually call themselves the Church of the East or the Assyrian Church of the East). His writings in Syriac--translated into Greek and other languages--became very popular outside the Nestorian world and he is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church, even though the Nestorians rejected the council of Chalcedon.

The notion that "God is love" underpins all of Isaac's theology and leads to some strongly-worded insights into the generosity of God's concern for all--and I do mean all--of creation. This is brought out in a lecture (http://en.hilarion.orthodoxia.org/6_19) by Russian Orthodox bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, parts of which (containing quotes of Isaac) are reproduced below:

Divine love was the main reason for the creation of the universe and is the main driving force behind the whole of creation. In the creation of the world divine love revealed itself in all its fullness. "...Let us consider, then, how rich in its wealth is the ocean of His creative act, and how many created things belong to God, and how in His compassion He carries everything, acting providentially as He guides creation, and how with a love that cannot be measured He arrived at the establishment of the world and the beginning of creation; and how compassionate God is, and how patient, and how He loves creation, and how He carries it gently, enduring its importunity, the various sins and wickednesses, the terrible blasphemies of demons and evil men."

Divine love is a continuing realization of the creative potential of God, an endless revelation of the Divinity in His creative act. Divine love lies at the foundation of the universe. It governs the world, and it will lead the world to that glorious outcome when the latter will be entirely "consumed" by the Godhead. "What profundity of richness, what mind and exalted wisdom is God's!...In love did He bring the world into existence, in love is He going to bring it to that wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of Him who has performed all these things; in love will the whole course of the governance of creation be finally comprised."

"What is purity, briefly? It is a heart full of compassion for the whole of created nature...And what is a compassionate heart? He tells us: It is a heart that burns for all creation, for the birds, for the beasts, for the devils, for every creature. When he thinks about them, when he looks at them, his eyes fill with tears. So strong, so violent is his compassion...that his heart breaks when he sees the pain and suffering of the humblest creatures. That is why he prays with tears every moment...for all the enemies of truth and for all who cause harm, that they may be protected and forgiven. He prays even for serpents in the boundless compassion that wells up in his heart after God's likeness."