Ellul-cidate
And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Acts 11:25-26 NASB
Christians – This confirms the beginning of the “church,” according to Christian history. Of course, there are a lot of issues with this version, not least of which is the fact that almost all of the initial teaching about the Messiah was in the synagogue among Jews. But let’s concentrate on a more profound issue. Let’s ask some questions about the role of the Church in the formation of Christian morality.
From time to time, it’s necessary to examine the work of great thinkers. The act challenges us to consider how much of our own thinking is the result of drift rather than conscious engagement with penetrating questions. Heschel is particularly adept at creating bow wave phrases that rock our serenely floating stupor. “It is not enough to have met a word in the dictionary and to have experienced unpleasant adventures with it in the study of grammar. A word has a soul, and we must learn how to attain insight into its life.”[1]
But Heschel is not the only great thinker on spiritual themes. Jacques Ellul is another, and he is particularly insightful when it comes to the formation of Christianity. So we must turn to these two citations, not simply because they are profound but also because they shock us with the truth. Here is Ellul’s comment on the development of Christian morality:
But what has been the result [of the subversion of the real message of Scripture by political, economic and cultural forces]? A Christianity that is itself a religion. The best, it might be said, the peak of religious history. . . . A religion marked by all the traits of religion: myths, legends, rites, holy things, beliefs, clergy, etc. A Christianity that has fashioned a morality – and what a morality! – the most severe, the most moralistic, the most debilitating, the one that most reduces adherents to infants and renders them irresponsible, or, if I were to be malicious, I should say the one that makes of them happy imbeciles, a morality that consists of chastity, absolute obedience (which in unheard-of fashions ends up as the supreme value of Christianity), sacrifice, etc. A Christianity that has become totally conservative in every domain – political, economic, social, etc. – which nothing can budge or change. Political power, that is good. Whatever challenges or criticizes, that is evil.[2]
He also notes the striking difference between the text and the theology derived from the text.
. . . once the transition was made from history to philosophy, all that they [theologians] said was completely correct and true. They expressed a profound and authentic faith marked by a concern for truth. Yet it was all completely falsified by the initial transition. This is why the deviations were stronger than the truth that they retained. Very soon they forgot the essential point, that God does not reveal by means of a philosophical system or moral code or metaphysical constructions. He enters human history and accompanies his people. The Hebrew Bible (even the wisdom books) is not a philosophical construction or a system of knowledge. It is a series of stories that are not myths intended to veil or unveil objective abstract truths. These stories are one history, the history of the people of God, the history of God’s agreements and disagreements with this people, the history of loyalty and disobedience. There is nothing else but history, temporal (not eternal) history, lay (not sacred) history, a history that tells us that God is with and for us, but that does not speak about God in himself, or provide any theory about God. Like all human history, the Bible is a book that is full of questions but never gives any answers.[3]
Ellul is recognized by the Christian world, specifically the evangelical world, as one of its foremost scholars. Do you find that amazing? In these few words, he performs a lobotomy on Christian ethics and Systematics. But does his surgery really matter to most believers? The “Church” continues, cauterized, in its crusade for its own agenda of power and prestige. Yeshua is left behind while the offspring of the Holy Roman Empire recruits the world. And Heschel and Ellul remain tomes on someone’s bookshelf.
Topical Index: Abraham Heschel, Jacques Ellul, morality, systematic theology, Church, Acts 11:25-26
[1] Abraham Heschel, Man’s Quest for God, p. 78.
[2] Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity, p. 17.
[3] Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity, pp. 23-24.
This TW perfectly encapsulates why I left the RCC some years ago to begin my quest for truth. I thought of Protestant churches rightly or wrongly as offspring of what I was leaving. I didn’t want to cast off old clothes for clean but recycled trade-ins. I wanted a total reboot. Eventually I found what I was looking for in many places. Still do, and hardly a week goes by without some new insight from someone somewhere and the most rewarding one is usually right here every day one way or the other. I will have to check out Ellul now. Thanks Skip.
“the real message of Scripture.” Now that is a subject worthy of some real evidence. However, since (Greek) philosophy has enabled us to astutely evaluate the validity of each of Ellule’s propositions, we are at last prevented from doing so because the system itself is corrupt. Does this not make Ellule’s propositions themselves of some higher moral echelon of truth? His conclusions sound more like propaganda than a well reasoned argument.
Biblical history does not speak about God in himself? Not sure what Bible he’s reading.
Perhaps you need to read more of Ellul before you decide he is corrupted by Greek philosophy. I suggest starting with the book I cited.
I meant to say that he implies Greek philosophy itself, by which anyone who might attempt to evaluate his work, is corrupt. I was attempting to imply [obviously not very well] that there wasn’t any evidence presented to prove his point. Bare assertions prove very little for Greek thinkers.
Perhaps what he’s referring to is that God demonstrates Himself in relation to His people. Theological renderings of God as all knowing, ever present, etc. don’t seem to be the “concern” of what scripture relays to the reader. Though in some cases it may be discerned, it’s never in and of itself the main point.
Well…again…you’ve read my mail…and my mind! Yesterday I posted on a thread on FB that I was unfettering myself from the chains of Christianity … that I will not walk in the slave chains one more day. Now … how that works out .. I don’t know … but the religiousity of what we have is just not an option for me any longer. The universe is too big…God is too big….and I refuse to be placed in this box any longer.
So well said Pam! Me too!
If memory is what our identity is made out of, then history (collective memory) is the true basis for collective identity (spiritually speaking). We could stop and reflect that if we did not have the Bible, we would have no basis for even knowing who we are – as the people of God, anyway. The people who do not have the Bible limp along on their tribal memories (if they are so lucky), but I think none of the other histories of the world come even close to giving to people a sense of who they are as HUMANS.
“God does not reveal by means of a philosophical system or moral code or metaphysical constructions. He enters human history and accompanies his people.” Apparently, an identity of ourselves as human without sharing a historical experience with our Creator is incomplete. A fully human person is apparently only human because of a shared history with the divine. However, we are twined with heaven not only in identity (history) but also in life, for life can only be found in a symbiotic relationship with that Creator that defies all attempts to capture, define, or regulate it. Life will always be one step ahead of the rule makers.
We are not human because we conform to an ideal form of morality (law) because that law describes what a human IS, not what they SHOULD be. Life is unique; life can never be punched out of a cookie cutter code because life is a symbiotic relationship with its Giver. Each and every one of us becomes more and more unique at the same rate that we become more and more connected (loving) with all the rest of creation. Love as expressed in me will always look different than love expressed in you. No rule can express what love SHOULD BE; it can only describe what it is not, and what it already has been or is being.
I think laws and moral codes are merely attempts to describe (formalize) what materializes out of that mysterious relationship (life) – that dance – that all the created experience with the Creator. Rules (as expressed in ideal forms), which Skip has been pointing out lately, will always be one step BEHIND reality. Life, which exists in that reality, will forever be expressing more and more unique ways that those rules can describe.
I know I am going out on a limb here, but I have become suspicious that, for example, the rule of gravity (ideal form) may not what creation is actually (functionally) adhering to. I think gravity could merely be describing what creation is DOING already. We who are stuck in the death of the flesh are one step behind reality. From our perspective, the rules APPEAR to be ‘making’ creation function, but that cannot be true, because the Bible assures us that its CREATOR is upholding the deal, not the rules. There is a difference!
I have decided that I am called to be a rule illuminator; not a rule follower. By the time the rules have been codified, they are a part of the past that can never be changed. If I find myself breaking one of those great Rules, I can be sure that I have stepped out of life again, and back into the death that is that past. History should follow me: I should not follow it, because reality does not circle a drain; reality is going somewhere. Life “in Christ” is how I keep up. And “against such there is no law”. Halleluah!
P.S. I am in no way attacking the “foundation of God’s throne”, which is His Law. I am just saying that we can mistake it FOR that throne (which is the power of God, of course). The Law has no power of its own. The Law is more of a description of His power (which is love, of course). Law cannot cause (power) life any more than it can make (power) us obedient. Law (form of godliness) is just a road map: love (function – power – of godliness) is the road.
and Amen!!
Laurita, the “LAW” has always been a guide, as to how to function in a community of those that G-d created with each other. Love in Hebrew is a verb…..not a concept.
I do like the I know I am going out on a limb here, but I have become suspicious that, for example, the rule of gravity (ideal form) may not what creation is actually (functionally) adhering to. I think gravity could merely be describing what creation is DOING already. We who are stuck in the death of the flesh are one step behind reality. From our perspective, the rules APPEAR to be ‘making’ creation function, but that cannot be true, because the Bible assures us that its CREATOR is upholding the deal, not the rules. There is a difference! It has been said that if G-d stopped thinking about His creation for just a split second His creation would cease.
I DO SO love your post! Blessing Sister!
Amen!
Laurita, I so appreciate the depth of your words ans insight.
It’s impossible to leave Yeshua behind.
Sure, the Roman Empire had their fish to fry, but they weren’t from
the bulging overflowing net on the right side of the boat!
No, Yeshua is right where He always is! He sits besides the Father —
but WHERE they reside is the mind-bending truth.
“Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will
love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Jn 14:23
For those of us who love and obey Yeshua and the Father, they’re as close
as close gets.
Wow Skip! Just-Wow 🙂
I do not miss the christian religion I stepped out of a while back. Wherever I am now, I experience more peace. Of course, the real struggle of the journey persists. Dumping so much of the christian baggage was a watershed event in my life. Shalom.
Echo chamber
Operates like a cult. Have to act a certain way. Say certain things. Must believe what you have been taught…every lie in particular. I say ‘in particular’ because they are basic beliefs, like the foundation. The Trinity. Disagree with this and you would be considered a non-believer or worse! Or mention that HaSatan is an angel, not in Genesis. Or what ‘Guardian Angel’ is all about. Then there is Christmas to discuss. Kosher rules. The Sabbath. My, oh, my how brainwashing works.