Churches must remember context or else risk irrelevancy

Bill,
I have followed your blog for quite a while and always find your analysis insightful and pastoral. As a Catholic deaco0n and pastoral theologian I totally agree with your stress on context and relevancy. This is something our hierarchy has lost sight of. There has been a move from pastoral leadership to rules and conformity. Thank you.

DOGMATIZING THE 1850'S?

The Church must always be aware of its "context" so that its "content" is not distorted. The wisdom is to know the difference between form and substance. For example let us take the volatile subject of liturgy. It is very important that the how of liturgy reflect the cultural realities in which the liturgy is celebrated but it is equally important for the liturgy to be celebrated because of the why. There is a tendency in the Western obsession with trends and brands to be above all other considerations "relevant" and the counter-reaction to such marketing of the holy is to become idolatrous in attention to and the use of a uniformed ancient ritual.
The Church must always be, if it it true to the Gospel, and the institution of the Church does not have a very consistent record on that one, a sign of contradiction whilst remaining open to the Winds of the Holy Spirit. She must be folly to the relativists and heresy to the literalists!

Thank you SO MUCH, Bill. Wonderful article and process you described. I am not being at all sarcastic, though I admit to some irony here, when I say, "What a novel idea - getting to know the people you are trying to serve," and then add a question: Do you suppose there is any way we could get our Catholic bishops to try to do the same thing?"

Back in the 60's the Roman bishops of the world, assembled at Vatican II, pondered a similar document originally entitled Schema 13, and ultimately published as "Gaudium et Spes," the church in the modern world.

Subsequently the pendulum of ecclesiastical politics began to swing the other way. Now, nearly half a century later, we are again dealing with the Tridentine Mass, papal infallibility run amok, clerical pedophilia covered up, all the stuff that "used to was" tumbling out of the closet.

When creeping irrelevance becomes the fate of a church, can nonexistence be far behind?

Irrelevant to whom? The secular hedonistic elites? The NY Times editorial board? Catholicism is more relevant now than ever before. One does not need to be popular or "in the majority" in order to be "relevant".

Sounds like your congregation is doing a conscientious job.

Now for the Catholic Church and its understanding of the contemporary context, the problem is not bringing it up to date from 1950 but rather from the 1500s and before. In fact, I'd guess that if the Catholic Church were to do an exercise as your congregation did, it would pick as the context target date some time before the Enlightenment.

As I see it, the Roman Catholic Church as an institution is obviously irrelevant to most people's lives whether catholic or not. My elderly mother keeps reminding me that she and all of her friends pay no attention to what the pope and bishops say. I am no longer a catholic because I don't think that the church's dogma is true. That is very different than irrelevance. To me the catholic church doesn't represent the truth.

With all due respect to Mr.Tammeus,I found his article confusing and frankly,incoherent.In other words Mr.Tammeus,what are you talking about?The Gospel,properly preached,presented,and/or lived out,has its own inherent power to transform and remake lives;it doesn't need to be"tweaked and parsed",if you will,to accomodate the culture at large.The only thing that changes inre humanity is architecture and technology;men(and women)are still liars,adulterers,murderers,thieves,idolaters,etc.,etc.,etc.,...The great Apostle Paul told his young protege Timothy in 2nd Timothy 4:2"Preach the Word!".Paul himself literally lived and died for the Gospel of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in a way that is utterly foreign to our safe,comfortable worldview,but I myself see nothing in our culture that suggest some kind of sea change is necessary in regard that preaching.Frankly,in my estimation we are far too"theologically correct";multitudes are headed for a Christless eternity while we dither over irrelevancies and various"isms".As to that,Mr.Lyons,the issue is not whether our various"isms"have any relevancy,but whether the life-transforming,sin-destroying,joy to be had in embracing the Risen Christ is being watered down into irrelevancy by our actions.One struggles to explain what relevancy can be extracted from an institution embroiled in ongoing child abuse scandals,cover-ups,priest-shuffling,criminal obstruction of justice in regards this heinous abuse,and all the ridiculous"pomp and circumstance"attendant upon the selection of your newest cardinals,some of whom as bishops were complicit in these cover-ups!!So no,Mr.Lyons,to any honest observer"Catholicism"as an institution has little relevancy,but your"laity"so-called,well...that's another story alltogether.Stay tuned!!!

DEATH, BIRTH and MEDIEVALISM IN CONTEXT
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If we can understand the origin and nature of the cultural throes bedeviling us, we are better enabled to deal with them. We are heir to the imperial ideology/ theology of male patriarchal origin based on fixation in the Garden of Eden mythology of male dominion over Earth and Woman.

Medievalism evolved out of the merged politics of Roman Imperialism and the cult of Patriarchal Dominion. The Christian experience was conformed to fit the ideologies of fixation and dominion. In the course of the Middle Ages, Medievalism hatched and grew full-fledged.

MEDIEVALISM is the evolved product of Worldview and Cult fixed in the dogma of STATICISM (male hierarchicalism linked directly to God), CENTRISM (Earth-centered universe and Male Centrism), and SEXISM (woman created from and for male companionship); background to the “Wars of Religion”.

Meantime, Enlightenment, science and reason challenge cultic fideism and the misconstrued presumptions of the Garden of Eden Myth. Second Enlightenment continues the challenge to fixity in religious misdirection. The Councils of Trent and the First Vatican anathematized Enlightenment and evolution science (Modernity). The Second Vatican Council opened theology to truths of science, Enlightenment and evolution. The new insights of evolution science, cosmological acentrism, and male-female equivalency are correctives of staticism, centrism and sexism.

The angst and violence globally spread are about the death throes of Medievalism and the birth pains of Liberation Theology and cultural reconciliation. E-Communication is the birth-death nurse presiding over the cultural/ religious procedures in process. It’s time we all get on the right side of history and recovery.
www.secondenlightenment.org, www.evolution101.org, www.WordUnlimited.com

The Catholic Church is active in over 200 countries on earth - most of whom have either recently or currently persecute the Church as an institution and/or individual believers. So please explain to me what "relevancy" means with respect to "the Church"? If you mean "people I know in the US and other Western EU countries find Catholicism in particular and Christianity in general to be "irrelevant to our desires, dreams, and lifestyles.." then, I'll grant you, yes, for those people, it is irrelevant.

But as a global Church, how can anyone seriously argue (not assert, argue) that Catholicism is "irrelevant"? If it were, the governments wouldn't so vociferously persecute it! If Catholicism were irrelevant, the New York Times and Hollywood wouldn't invest so much energy in denouncing, attacking, sneering and challenging it. No one cares about the Amish. No Hollywood villain is featured as an Episcopalian. No Lady Gaga gag is made to insult the sensibilities of the Buddhists.

If a religion is irrelevant one doesn't care enough about it to attack it or attempt to refute its self-understanding or its authorities, dogmas, rites, or traditions.

So as Daishin above concludes.... Catholicism is deemed WRONG by the post-Christian West, not "irrelevant". But when the secular or anti-Catholic word must resport to violence or sponteneous combustion rather than philosophy or theological persuasion ("shut up", they explain) it's not obvious to me that Catholicism is "obviously" wrong. Hard, difficult, counter-cultural, weird...sure. But "wrong"? To claim "it's wrong" you need a standard against which to judge, a standard of right thought and right action that is everywhere and always valid (as the Church is everywhere and has endured lo these past 20 centuries). I'd love to see some anti-Catholic attempt to marshal the "proofs" adequate to seriously and intellectually challenge Catholicism.

Instead we get "no one (who's popular) likes you, so there!"

Daishin, do you have phenomenological proof for the existence of the Karmic 'interconnectiveness' you claim exists at the basis of reality? Or is it just "your opinion" which you are foisting on Western, American, African and other Asians who disagree with you?

Christianity (and Judaeism before it) grew up and within a Greco-Roman-Persian world that did have similar or analogous concepts of "karma" understood as FATE or destiny and a circular concept of history. So we've "been there, done that" already. We're not ignorant OF such a system of belief, we're different precisely because we believe in THEOPHANY - which is not myth but historical event of divine origin.

You claim "God or gods" are not needed to explain the cosmos. We say both God and spirits exist because our rational minds have experienced phenomena that prove their existence. In other words, we know God and spirits exist.... and our religion also teaches us that they exist.

You on the other hand have a philosophy that claims Karma exists, that perhaps deduces it. But it's a closed system. Ours is an open system thanks not to our innate intelligence but thanks to God's theophany and mercy.

Asians would have been Jews had your ancestors received the same theophany made to Abraham. Perhaps the Spirit did appear to all the nations but only Abraham passed the test. We'll never know. But the point is.... our theology is not anti-rational but supra-rational.

And last time I checked, the secular, hedonistic western and eastern governments and political ideologies are doing much more in the way of FORCINGa their views and beliefs on Catholics than we have ever done to them. We propose and work through democratic means to advance our beliefs. The secular hedonists IMPOSE their beliefs and values via the state on us.

He whose world-view and political regime requires massive state subsidy, constant ideological propaganda via the means of communication, and constant judicial and legal sanction in order to endure is not in the same position as Catholics who have largely endured since the 1700s' without such props.

And yet our faith is still alive despite all the disadvantages (or perhaps, because it's right and thus doesn't need such advantages!)

The Vatican should take a lesson from Bill Tammeus and reduce the size of the initial in its name to lower case. He truly represents the world-wide possibilities of spreading the message of Jesus. I'm sure that even his Presbyterian Church could do with more input from its lay members and some broadening or relaxing of what might be considered official positions in dogma, ritual, and other church practice, but a good start in eliminating the clericalism that has haunted the Vatican Church for far too many centuries, in spite of councils and reformations, would be the elimination of the monarchical autocracy of the papacy and its curia cabinet. The Vatican Church is truly suffering from the same dysfunctions that have been recently demonstrated to plague too many aspects of the U.S. economy, those aspects that are "Too Big To Fail." Power mongering in such gargantuan size guarantees failure. We cannot blame that on the Holy Spirit.

Daishin...all persecution comes down physically. This is why it's not enough to "live and let live". To sin against political correctness is to demand physical punishment - at least that's how it happens.

So yes, you look forward to open, bloody persecution of Catholics for the crime of believing differently than you do.

And while calling for retribution on behalf of billions of people, you are unconcerned about the physical retribution which will affect 1.1 billion Catholics world wide - most of whom already are under official government persecution of one type or another.

Catholicism however has always believed that suffering is our lot and an imitation of Our Lord means that we will inevitably suffer a similar fate to His - official government persecution including martyrdom, not a gospel of worldly success or conquest.

Indeed most of our nations were converted by unarmed missionaries, not warriors. Korea isn't Catholic because of guns - neither do Catholics exist in Vietnam or China, Congo or Cuba because of official Catholic "power". In all those lands Catholics are hated minorities with nothing to offer except the Gospel which you reject. And yet they are growing in numbers and influence while their ideological enemies collapse.

In the USA and Europe it's not wishy washy go-along with the flow Catholics who are thriving but the 'traditional' minded ones - despite or perhaps because no government or social elite support. A bloody persecution of us here in the US will diminish the USA but only briefly interrupt the growth of the Church. Heresy and schism have always been far more effective than outright persecution to gut our numbers. But when heresy and schism fail or look to be failing....the powers that be cook up black legends and then open the flood gates of bloodshed. It never works. One would be tempted to call that "karma" if it wasn't simple human dynamics.

Bill Tammeus puts capital meaning in all things catholic, small "c", and genuine!