peregrinato

I have wandered...

2005-04-27T12:28:00.000-04:00

over to peregrinato.com ...

I will keep this site but will no longer be adding to it. I have migrated most of my postings and the majority of responses to the new site.

Please join me in my new home, which I hope will be fairly stable.

The New Website...

2005-04-24T13:48:00.000-04:00

Well, peregrinato.com is slowly shaping up. Aesthetics are almost there (unless I decide to do a late-night redesign), but I still have to migrate this blog over...

Habemus Papam: We Have a Pope

2005-04-20T00:31:00.000-04:00

Preface: I thought against writing this. Not because I didn’t feel called to speak on the issue, but because I have Church History readings to complete and I am very far behind. Who has time to blog? But as I thought about it further I realized that this is the perfect time to blog, that I have the chance to engage with history as it is being made, to reflect on what is happening. With that said, I’d like to offer an extended reflection on Ratzinger’s election to leadership of the Catholic Church.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Bishop of Surburbicarian Sees of Ostia and Velletri-Segni, and prior Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was named Pope by the College of Cardinals today. He has taken the name Benedict (XVI), and is the first German pontiff since the 11th century.

I was raised Catholic, so the issue has some personal relevance to me; I’ve long argued that there is a certain sociology and psychology to being raised Catholic that is hard to move away from. I’ve long ago left the Roman Catholic Church, but my spiritual roots lie in Catholicism. And as a seminarian, a budding religionist, the issue of the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church should have some professional interest to me as well. Beyond those areas of familiarity, though, I am not necessarily qualified to speak with authority on this issue; I only marginally followed Ratzinger’s career, and issues of Catholic ecclesiology or polity are beyond my scope.

To be sure, I am distressed that Ratzinger is the new pope; distressed, but hardly surprised. Pope John Paul II has been naming conservative cardinals for over two decades, and at the same time, dismissing and silencing theologians whose voices were too liberal or progressive for him. The college of cardinals is not a random sampling of theological persuasions, and the pool was skewed toward the right.

The man who has been chosen was not merely a conservative cardinal; John Paul II’s right-hand man (no need to use inclusive language here), the enforcer of Catholic orthodox doctrine. In fact, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)—the institutional descendent of the Inquisition—Ratzinger has officially weighed down heavily on the many issues of importance to me, to liberal Catholics, and to those Catholics who have personally suffered from repressive orthodoxy.

Take, for example, his view on Catholic voters:

A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate's permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.

(2004 memorandum to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, D.C.)

So much for freedom of conscience.

But before I can bemoan too loudly the new pope, let's look at the realities. There wasn’t going to be any other kind of pope.

Even the talk of the possibility of a pope from Central America or Africa wasn’t going to give us a theological progressive. Sure, we might've ended up with a non-European, and multi-culti Peregrinato rejoices in that prospect. But like I said: JPII has been “stacking the deck” with his conservative cardinals from early on; liberation theologians (those who identify the struggle of the poor against oppression as intrinsic to the Gospel) have been silenced, and the religious leaders--not just the Roman Catholic cardinals-- from the southern hemisphere are conservative across the board. The same is true with the Anglican communion.

And consider the following from the Christian Science Monitor:

"I thought it would be him," said Georges Barimousirwe, a Catholic seminarian visiting Rome from Congo. "He is very severe; we need a man who can put the church back into its place."

True, this is one quote, but I'm going to submit that it is representative of the theological ethos south of the equator. Philip Jenkins wrote about this global theological shift in "The Next Christianity":

In the global South (the areas that we often think of primarily as the Third World) huge and growing Christian populations — currently 480 million in Latin America, 360 million in Africa, and 313 million in Asia, compared with 260 million in North America — now make up what the Catholic scholar Walbert Buhlmann has called the Third Church, a form of Christianity as distinct as Protestantism or Orthodoxy, and one that is likely to become dominant in the faith. The revolution taking place in Africa, Asia, and Latin America is far more sweeping in its implications than any current shifts in North American religion, whether Catholic or Protestant. There is increasing tension between what one might call a liberal Northern Reformation and the surging Southern religious revolution... (The Atlantic vol 290, no. 3, Oct. 2002)

Were people really expecting anything different? A person of color is not necessarily a liberal. An African pope would quite possibly give us a different cultural perspective, but his theology would still have been theologically conservative, and doctrinally ultra-orthodox. (Let's remember that St Augustine of Hippo was, in fact, from North Africa, and this Carthaginian Bishop shaped Christian theology for centuries.)

And, also to the point: This is not a step backward. Ratzinger--pardon me, Benedict XVI--wil be following the footsteps of JPII. It is not like the Church has lost a pioneering crusader for theological reform, another John XXIII. It will be more of the same, a continuation of the old policy that has alienated Catholics, driven some from the Church, and driven many away from a life of faith entirely.

This is where the Church was heading. No one can be surprised.

I feel obligated to end on something other than pure gloom. In doing some research, I learned that--according to one vegetarian website, at least--Ratzinger is quoted as saying:

That is a very serious question. At any rate, we can see that they are given into our care, that we cannot just do whatever we want with them. Animals, too, are God's creatures . . . Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.

What’s my point? That the Inquisitor-turned-Pope is really a good guy because he cares about the bunnies? That this makes up for his gays-are-evil stance? Not at all.

But it does help me to find something of virtue in him, something I can connect with and say that his theology is not absolutely bankrupt. Certainly, as the defender of orthodoxy, he has spoken vehemently against things of vital importance to me—gay rights, gay marriage, the ordination of women, and so on. Hell, he even opposed Turkey's joining the European Union. (No room for a Muslim country in Christian Europe.) But seeing this, I have to recognize and accept that his theology is complex and not one-sided, and as such is one of many faithful representations of the spectrum of Catholic theology. There's still some room for grace in there.

There's no telling what the future holds for the pontiff or the Church. I'm not a soothsayer, and I'm not a skilled enough interpreter of Catholicism to discern a trajectory out of what happens here. I can only hope and pray that Benedict XVI exercises wise pastoral leadership--for his sake, and for the sake of the many Catholics whose lives he will have an impact on.

For now, I can only look at this situation the way I look at any challenging situation in life: I expect the worse; but I also hope for the best. And reality will probably be somewhere in between.

Pax vobiscum.

Inquisitor named Pope

2005-04-19T12:51:00.000-04:00

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Cardinal Bishop of Surburbicarian Sees of Ostia and Velletri-Segni, and prior Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith*, was named Pope by the College of Cardinals today. He has taken the name Benedict.

For those hoping for progress and reform of the Roman Catholic Church: keep hoping:

He was also strictly traditional on issues of sexuality and the role of women in the church, which won him support among some Catholics but alienated others. Similar disagreement exists over the next pontiff's stances on issues such as birth control, stem cell research and the ordination of female priests. (CNN, 4/19/2005)

Unless he pulls a surprising John XXIII on the Church, don't expect much progress.

*It is worth mentioning that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was founded in 1542 and known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. (Yes, *that* Inquisition. It just changed names in 1908.) Oh well... at least he thought the Church should apologize for the execution of Giordano Bruno.

peregrinato's logo?

2005-04-18T00:30:00.000-04:00

Working on designs for www.peregrinato.com, specifically the logo/header.

I've liked the Aquiline typeface ever since I saw it. When I began playing with logos, there was something about the P on it that screamed to make it a chalice. Funny that--I accept the chalice as the denominational logo of the association, and I recognize it is a part of much UU visual proclamation and ritual (though not at my church); but I've never been very chalicocentric. (Yes, I'm making up words.) I'm certainly not opposed to it, don't get me wrong. But I saw the P in this font, thought "chalice" and went with it. Also, I'll add..the flame for me is more about Holy Wisdom, Sophia, and maybe I'm just in a pentecostal kinda mood.

Comments welcome.

Update: looks like this (or a subtle variation) will be what I'm using on peregrinato.com, with just the single "P" for a square avatar.

"Linguistic Profile"

2005-04-17T01:46:00.000-04:00

via Terrance

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% General American English

30% Yankee

20% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Unitarian Universalist Pneumatology

2005-04-16T20:02:00.000-04:00

Just musing here, and noting a direction for future reading and reflection.

In today's class (Foundations of Christian Spirituality) we discussed charistmatic and pentecostalist spirituality, and there were guest speakers in class, two African pentcostostalists. The liberal Christian in me balked at some of the assertions, but I was intruiged by a major premise: that the Christian believer is marked by a relationship with the Holy Spirit; that the Holy Spirit is neither "the Force", some impersonal abstrace energy, or some esoteric power of 2000 years ago, but is the living presence of God. To have this relationship, one would be on fire and empowered. And the worship that accompanied this proclamation was very charismatic: the Holy Spirit was invited into the room, healing was prayed for--it was dramatic, and emotional, and not the philosophical, emotionless-to-the-point-of-dour worship that would befit the descendents of the Puritans. (Look, I've been to larger gatherings, and sometimes there is life and energy, but sometime's its on the level of a Donny & Marie concert.) If you don't know what I'm talking about, perform a sociological experiment: go to a charismatic worship service, and for a short time turn off your theological filters. Just observe the emotional investment in the two types of worship. You'll understand the difference. Do we need to turn off our heart to engage our mind?

But that is a major digression.

The real point is that I began to think about UU pneumatology. Is there one? I might suggest that there isn't a clearly defined theology of the holy spirit, but the Holy Spirit might really be the only survivor of the Trinity in Unitarian theology. This is really a draft of an idea and not a full-fledged paper, but I can't quite get away from this thought. Are UUs really closet pneumatologists?

Many UUs do not resonate with God the Father. Some decry patriarchal language; for some, the image merely conjures the bearded old man ready to smite anyone who angers him. ("Don't eat from that tree!"). Even many theist UUs won't dwell on "God the Father" but will talk about the Creator, the Holy One, and might alternate between male/female language.

A great number of UUs certainly do not resonate with the Son. Some will accept the prophetic teachings of Jesus, and some will actively embrace them. (The well-worn, "religion of Jesus, not about him" comes to mind here.) Some will toss the entire person out because of wounding by institutional Christianity. Many will come to their own unique theology of who the figure of Jesus is. There is a constant re-evaluation of the figure of Jesus for religious liberals. (And we're still talking about Jesus here, not even the Logos.)

What about the Holy Spirit? UUs don't really talk much about the Holy Spirit, but Spirit-language is often the safest theological language to use:

Spirit of life, come unto me. Sing in my heart
all the stirrings of compassion. Blow in the
wind, rise in the sea; move in the hand, giving
life the shape of justice. Roots hold me close; wings set me
free. Spirit of life, come unto me, come unto me.
(Spirit of Life, hymn 123 in Singing the Living Tradition)

Is there such a thing as a UU pneumatology? There isn't much literature on it that I'm aware of. There is the following from Kate Erslev's UU Identity (2003), a small group ministry resource for young adults:

UU Pneumatology: Going Outside to Feel the Wind and the Sun
For UU’s, we might describe “spirit” as the immediate presence of the Spirit of Life that is in each of us and in all things. The 19th century Unitarians spoke of God as ever- present. Emerson described the “over-soul” as a sense of God as all permeating as opposed to a sovereign king, punishing father, white, abled and old. Our pneumatology is described in the first source as “That which is directly experienced, transcendent, mysterious and wonderful, in all of us.” Do we cheat our pneumatology if we are afraid to use the word “God?”

James Luther Adams has also written somewhat of pneumatology and the Age of the Spirit for religious liberals.

We should recall the elements of the conception of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. The word pneuma denotes the rushing wind of God, manifest at Pentecost, which in immediacy gathers the ecstatic band of believers into the unity of the eschatological community of the Spirit.... As a winnowing wind, the Spirit sets aside traditional and legal authority in favor of the pneumatic authority of the apostles, prophets, and teachers. (Adams, 1991. An Examined Faith. Boston: Beacon, p. 340).

The Spirit was a key motif of the Radical Reformers, Adams continues, who

cherished the free winds of the Spirit and the inward koinonia pneumatos. All of these things are implicit in the experience of "the inner light" and in the great value placed upon voluntary individual decision.; and they provided the soil from which the associational...type of church evolved, a church that is a voluntary assocation based on personal decision... (p. 342)

Adams sees the "Age of the Spirit" as one of the first moments of liberal Christianity, with its concept of the autonomy of believers and the individual experience of the divine.

What does that leave us then? Is there a UU pnemuatology? Is it an untapped resource, or is it a vestigial theological organ? (Or am I just wrong on all accounts?) At the moment I'm inclined to wonder whether Unitarian Universalism has an implicit crypto-pneumatology that serves to unite those who consider themselves theists. (Also, what would happen to this rational faith if it tapped into some of the devotional fire of the charismatics?)

This needs some thought. I'll come back to this next year when I'm studying systematic theology...

CLARIFICATION: I have been to some emotional and spirit-filled UU worship, so I'm not trying to speak about all UU worship. I'm just talking trends and comparing norms (which are sometimes statistical fictions), and there is a real, vital energy to charismatic worship.

A sad day.

2005-04-15T22:06:00.000-04:00

From Katherine, via Scott/Boy in the Bands.

"Howard Clinebell, Jr. died this morning in Santa Barbara, CA. As we all remember, Howard was a beloved Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Counseling at CST for nearly 40 years. His life, teaching, ministry and writings have been widely read and appreciated around the globe. His Basic Types of Pastoral Care and Counseling is the most widely sold book in the field of PC & C and his Care and Counseling of the Alcoholic (based on his dissertation at Union Theological Seminary) broke new ground in the early 1960’s. Most of all, we have lost a good friend. Howard, may you rest in peace, dear friend." (William Clements, professor of pastoral counseling at Claremont School of Theology)

Sad news for the pastoral counseling community. Although Clinebell has not authored much new of late--that I'm aware of--his legacy is tremendous. He (along with Bill Clements) are among the reasons Claremont School of Theology have such a first-rate reputation for pastoral counseling. It is a school I visited last year, and I gave serious thought about transferring there. But this is about him, not me.

Rest in peace, and thank you for your contributions to the work of the Church and the community of faith.

...to the Big Time...

2005-04-12T18:35:00.000-04:00

Well, he did it again.

Terrance just had to get his blog mentioned again over at CNN. I guess the first time wasn't enough...

But seriously, good job!

I don't expect CNN will ever be reading my blog, since the path to ministry in Unitarian Universalism isn't exactly a hot topic in the US, nor are pictures of my dog, or reviews of books on prayer and spirituality. Ah well.

Peregrinato Dot Com

2005-04-11T20:56:00.000-04:00

Well, I now own www.peregrinato.com. I am puzzling over what to do with it. Current thoughts are to move my blog over to its own site and move from blog*spot's software to wordpress, which is what the Joneses are using for their blogs. Blog*spot is very good for free blogging; but I'm starting to hit its limits in terms of what I can do with it.

I'll be sure to let my two readers know what I'm doing. Whatever it is, it won't happen immediately. I have a semester to finish and sleep to catch up on.

Update: Ugh. Blogger/blog*spot does not have an export function. So once I move over to WordPress, I have to start from fresh and/or manually move each posting over. Sheesh. Hopefully I can Google something more efficient.

Avast Ye Padme Hum!

2005-04-11T17:14:00.000-04:00

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: The Cutlass of Enlightened Compassion. (Get yours.) If ye see the Buddha on the road, kill him, ye saffron-robed scallywags!

According to the schismatic First Reformed Unitarian Jihad, however, my Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Shining Fist of Compassionate Humanitarianism. (What's yours?)

If you have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about--and I'll bet you don't--please read Philocrites, "We Are Unitarian Jihad."

Read any good books lately?

2005-04-08T12:54:00.000-04:00

In a moment of bibliofrenzy, I took the MFC Reading list and turned it into a "So you'd like to..." Guide at Amazon.com.

The MFC Reading List is part and parcel of the process of becoming a minister credentialed by the Unitarian Universalist Association. In addition to the graduate theological degree, the internship, Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), &c., candidates for ministry have to complete a reading list relevent to Unitarian Universalism and liberal religion.

I've taken the MFC List and converted it into a Guide at Amazon so that other seminarians can add books to their wish lists, etc. I did it to make things easier for everyone, so it is my hope that this will actually come to some use. I realize that by patronizing Amazon.com I'm not supporting the UUA bookstore, but given the benefits of such Guides, personal Wish Lists, etc., using Amazon really seemed to be the smarter thing to do. (To be honest, I tend to prefer Overstock.com, but that's another matter entirely.)

The genesis of this project began with me turning the MFC list into a Wish List on my Amazon.com account (last night), and then realizing that my fellow UU seminarians at Wesley could benefit from it (this morning). At this point I've now realized that it could actually serve a broad community, thus my presentation to the public.

With that said, feel free to visit my Amazon.com guide, So You'd Like to... Become a Unitarian Universalist minister.

Requiescat in Pace

2005-04-04T15:39:00.000-04:00

Karol Wojtyla, known more commonly as Pope John Paul II, religious leader of the Roman Catholic church, died Saturday, 2 April 2005.

For now, I'm reading blogs and observing what's being said in the "blogosphere" regarding the man's death. It is clearly bringing up very strong reactions. See, for example, the discussion taking place over at the Republic of T (under the provocative title of Alien) or over at the Socinian.

I'll have to chew on this for a while, post a few responses to other people, and provide something a little more systematic and detailed here.

For now, I will simply refer readers (both of you) to what seems to be a promising article at The Economist, and close by echoing the words of the Rev. William Sinkford, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations:

Our hearts go out to faithful Catholics everywhere as they mourn the loss of their beloved spiritual leader. We honor the example that John Paul II set in our religiously pluralistic global community by reaching out to other faiths in a spirit of peace and reconciliation. In our still violent world, John Paul never failed to witness on behalf of the innocent victims of conflict and war. His deep compassion will serve as a lasting legacy and tribute. (Sinkford, 2005)

Peace.

To Be A Book

2005-03-31T11:17:00.000-05:00

Book meme, continued. Begun with Terrance and now moved on to others, including

Apparently there's some confusion about what it means, in the book meme, to "be a book" in Fahrenheit 451. Okay, caveat: I never read it (eek), but I know the story.

In short: in the future, books are considered intellectually dangerous objects and are destroyed. But an underground of book people exists; each person's task is to memorize a particular work, from beginning to end--to preserve it and then pass it on to the next generation, and thus to preserve these verboten items until they are valued again, and not permanently lost. It is assumed that literature reflects the truths of living, and by becoming these books, your life and outlook on life are changed and made more thoughtful.

That's it, in summary.

A Bookish Meme

2005-03-29T23:34:00.000-05:00

I've been given a challenge by Terrance. I normally don't do memes. I don't know why. But it doesn't matter. This one, I'll do.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?

Wow. Well, I'll choose something significant, but less well known: The Way of a Pilgrim -- a classic of Eastern Christian spirituality from the 19th century. I was first introduced to it by a piece of fiction (Franny & Zooey, by JD Salinger), and I read it as an undergraduate. Sadly, I've never read it again, but this is the book I choose as the book I would be and preserve.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Yes, many, including comic book characters. But that was a long time ago, and we won't speak of such times.

The last book you bought is...?

The Norton Critical Edition of Julian of Norwich's Showings--in Middle English (from the Paris manuscript), with critical essays and contextual pieces. For my master's paper.

The last book you read is...?

I'll qualify this. Cover to cover, no skimming? Conversation as Ministry (Douglas Purnell), for a course in Fall 2004 on "Spirituality of Pastoral Care and Counseling." I've covered many books, either not cover-to-cover, or via skimming, since then.

What are you currently reading?

I'm in school. There are books on my nightstand that I pretend I am reading. Really, though, school reading fairly occupies my time. With that said...

For Contemplative Drawing:

Betty Edwards, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Matthew Fox, Original Blessing
Stephen Nachmanovitch, Free Play

For Church in History II:

Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: Reformation to the Present Day
about to begin: Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited; and Charles Sheldon, In His Steps

For Foundations of Christian Spirituality:

Simon Chan, Spiritual Theology: A Systematic Study of the Christian Life
Margaret Guenther, The Practice of Prayer
Jim Goll, Wasted on Jesus
The Upper Room Dictionary of Christian Spiritual Formation

For my master's paper:

Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love (a.ka., Showings)

For guilty pleasure:

short stories from Robert E. Howard's Nameless Cults. REH was the pulp-era creator of Conan the Cimmerian, a.k.a Conan the Barbarian, and was actually a fine writer in his own right. This volume collects his Lovecraft-inspired works. There is actually some crossover between the writings of Howard and Lovecraft, and you could properly count Conan in the Cthulhu mythos.

Five books you would take to a deserted island

Not as easy as I thought. Yes, my original list was 7+ books, but here we have the winners:

The Bible, with Apocrypha (specifically, the Oxford NRSV Study Bible)--as a source of spirituality, literature, myth, poetry, I am hard pressed to find anything that competes with this. (Technically, it is many, many books, but I will sidestep that technicality.) A study Bible of the type with historical critical notes and maps, not just multihued sidebars about how to love Jee-zus.
The Lord of the Rings--technically, a novel, not a trilogy. I've read it over a dozen times. It can stand a few dozen more readings, I believe.
The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson--to feed another aspect of my spirituality and my intellect, and because I'd probably never have any other occasion to read this collection.
The Mahabharata--I thought long and hard over this one; an Indian (South Asian) epic that dwarfs the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is the story which the Bhagavad Gita occurs in the midst of. The version I'm choosing is an older translation, because it is the only complete English translation. Of course, it is, in this translation, 4 volumes (2000 pages total), so I'm not sure whether that would count as four books. If I had to choose a single volume edition, then I'd go for Krishna Dharma translation (1000 pages). And If I weren't really on a desert island and just wanted to read (or rather, reread) a nice abridgement of the story, I'd read the Narayan edition (under 200 pages).
Spiritual Classics: Selected Readings --edited by Richard Foster, this is my iffy-selection. I wanted something that encompassed the breadth of Christianity, and wasn't too slanted toward a certain tradition. Of course there is a slant in this, and Richard Foster is not my favorite author. But I respect his spirituality and what he is trying to accomplish, and I believe that in this volume, the other voices he is bringing to the forefront (e.g.,Augustine, Thomas Merton, Fredrick Buechner, Evelyn Underhill, Martin Luther King, Jr., Hildegard of Bingen, John Milton, etc.) will add a panoply of voices beyond and above his own.

Who are you going to pass this baton to (three persons)? And why?

I have to choose three people who will actually do this? I follow a number of blogs, but I don't actually know that many bloggers. With that said:

Biquet--housemate, friend, and my Mirror Mirror universe duplicate. He is the post-Enlightnment version of me. (I retain just enough myth to stay on the cusp of the Enlightenment.) He would doubtless have some fascinating items. (I enjoy his blog, he just needs to blog more. I know, who am I to talk?)
Peacebang--I know she reads, and she reads a tremendous amount. She has a lovely library and a magnificent mind.
Boy in the Bands--Even though he won't do this, cuz it isn't quite his style. But that's his choice; I still choose to nominate him!

With that, these meme concludeth!

O Day of Light & Gladness!

2005-03-27T20:51:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter--Christ is Risen!

Although my Christology is unclear (to me, at least--and this is a subject for other posts), I can find no other words to express for this day. Clearly, I have a high enough Christology that Easter has a meaning beyond just Spring and flowers.

The details of my Easter:

Service: Universalist National Memorial Church; Mary Katherine Morn, preaching
Coffee hour: friends and fellow seminarians
Dinner: family--small, quiet gathering, not a big shindig, and just right.
Music: My Mother's Hymnbook, Johnny Cash.

Easter blessings on any who find these words!

Easter blessings and peace on any who find these words!
Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour;
Radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered death! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever! Alleluia!

(from Celtic Worship Through the Year: Easter Anthem)

Doctor Litterarum

2005-03-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

If wishes were fishes, beggars would cast nets. And this is the doctorate I'd be most likely to get: the D.Litt (doctor litterarum, or Doctor of Letters). An informal web search of the D.Litt. in academia seems to indicate that the D.Litt could be any number of things:

an honorary degree only
an advanced degree open only to those who already have a PhD
an advanced degree at institutions outside the US, which (along with the D.Sci.) might comport to the PhD but not carry the same weight
an interdisciplinary program at Drew University, in Madison, NJ.

It is this fourth option that interests me the most, since I am by nature interdisciplinary. I've been such since my undergraduate days; I recall a professor spitting out the word "interdisciplinary" like it was a bad thing, when discussing my academic plans. My seminary degree has taken on an interdisciplinary character. And I know that any advanced degree studies--which I'm fairly confident I will one day pursue--will likewise have to have some interdisciplinary aspect to it. (For that matter, it would be nice to have some practical bent to it, and if you're in the business of pastoral counseling, spiritual formation, and education, that leaves you open to many, many possibilities.)

I like the Drew program. Let me offer some highlights:

The Drew arts and letters degrees are two of the most innovative of the few graduate programs in the greater New York area devoted to the study of liberal arts. The D.Litt. is the only doctoral-level degree program in the area. These degrees are graduate programs of interdisciplinary studies that explore the foundation and development of Western civilization in relationship to contemporary society....

The D. Litt. degree program flows naturally from the Caspersen School's successful M. Litt. program, first established in 1971. This graduate program of interdisciplinary studies, unique to Drew, explores the foundations and development of civilization in relation to contemporary societies. Although unfamiliar to most Americans, in Great Britain and the British Commonwealth, the Doctor of Letters is a degree with a long and respected history. Traditionally, it is awarded to students as an interdisciplinary degree in the humanities....

Students are required to concentrate in one of the seven series (Foundations of Civilization; The Modern Era; Contemporary Studies; Art and Music; Philosophy, Science and Technology, Studies in Spirituality, and Writing) offered in the Arts and Letters curriculum. (No doubt, I'd focus on the Studies in Spirituality series.)...
The D.Litt. dissertation, which includes an oral defense, is judged as a constructive and well-ordered contribution to human thought and relations. Candidates are expected to evidence creativity and disciplined study in their work. The doctoral thesis should evolve from the student's course work in the program. The dissertation is considered the normal method of satisfying this requirement and is approximately 150-200 pages in length.

If you're really interested, there's a brief description or a detailed description.

So what's the problem?

D.Litt. degree recipients complete a rigorous, interdisciplinary course of study that many find makes them excellent candidates for teaching. However, students whose sole goal is to teach full-time at the college or university level should be aware that full-time teaching at this level usually requires a Ph.D. in a specific discipline.

And there we have it. Credentials, again. This is the sort of program that would probably be most conducive to my intellectual interests and desires, but it is basically the wrong set of letters if I wanted to teach full-time at the university or seminary level. Higher education is quite mercenary nowadays; learning is not really elevated or valued, when it comes right down to it. Investment has to have reward. The reward of higher education is professional advancement. Feh.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure what I want to do. But I want openness and flexibility. I have a collection of masters degrees that make me well-suited for a variety of career --and more importantly for me, vocational--possibilities, including theological librarianship, spiritual direction, and pastoral counseling. A D. Litt would greatly enhance these possibilities, but if I wanted my work to take me to full-time faculty status somewhere, it might serve a hindrance. In that case, a PhD in Pastoral Counseling or Spirituality might be better suited for me.

But admit it, the D.Litt sounds fun. It is the sort of learning process and environment that excites me. Too often, I think, the US higher educational system beats the desire to learn out and replaces it with the need to conform to the academic machine, to become another cog.

Of course, I'm not well known for having entirely practical or pragmatic degrees, so what difference should this make?

Shouldn't knowledge be the reward of learning? Shouldn't the love of learning come first?

Movin' on Up...

2005-03-26T11:48:00.000-05:00

A good friend of mine who I cannot justfiably call a "fellow blogger" --because his blogging is prodigious, and my marginal level of activity is nowhere in that league-- has been mentioned on CNN. Or at least, his blog's commentary on the Schiavo case has been mentioned on CNN.

I highly recommend his blog, Republic of T. It is linked in the sidebar, and you can explore it for yourself, or you can go directly to the CNN piece (and his own commentary on it).

Something to remember.

2005-03-23T01:27:00.000-05:00

I had to remind myself of something today.

I am in seminary for many reasons. I am there for training in professional ministry -- that is, for credentialling and for ministerial formation.

But for every late night that I've kept, for every hour I've lost to school, for every paper that has frustrated me and exam that has annoyed me and student that has exasperated me...

I love what I am doing. I am in a program where I can engage in dialogue on matters of faith with similar seekers, where I can read and digest and discuss the Biblical writers (or some of them), like the Prophets, the author(s) of the Psalms, John the Evangelist, even some Paul; classic writers like Augustine of Hippo, Benedict of Nursia, and Julian of Norwich; as well as some contemporary writers like Walter Brueggemann and Jim Wallis.

One day I presume I'll lay claim to Unitarian or Universalist writers, but I can say for now that I'm intruiged by James Luther Adams, George de Benneville, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the fire hasn't struck yet.

It is in seminary that I can study sociology, and history, and literature, and art, and pastoral theology, and spirituality, and try to weave it all together into the tapestry we call Christianity--frayed in places, scorched in others, and in some places stunningly beautiful.

In other words, I had to remember what a blessing seminary is for me. I suspect (well, I know) that even after I finish my degree, after a host of requirements and obligations are met--I'll be back in class again. And probably still loving it.

peregrinato

2005-03-22T16:15:00.000-05:00

A mild retooling. I'm not sure.

Blogs are interesting beasts. I'm not sure why I am going through this, given the 2-3 readers I have; I can just as easily email them. Who knows, perhaps one day I will pick up more readers and they'll want to wander backwards and see where I've come from.

Anyway...The Aerie is out. Peregrinato is in. (For now.) The name Looking Eagle still has meaning for me, but for the purposes of this blog, and my musings, reflections, and wanderings, I've chosen the name peregrinato (Latin for "pilgrimage"). Life is a pilgrimage, a journey; we are not put here to stay, and we are moving toward something. For some, this is a meaningless cliche. For me, it is the truth.

The Aerie had too many connotations of "I'm looking down and observing you all." I think that may have originally been somewhat intentional (I've been calling my home page "The Aerie" for years), but as I (try to) mature, I am looking for something that seems a little less presumptuous or condescending.

We'll see where this goes. Perhaps another false start. Perhaps not. Sometimes I'm okay with things taking their own sweet time.

Ready for Retirement

2005-02-07T15:08:00.000-05:00

I realized something the other day, as I was rearranging and shelving some books at home.

I had just bought another book in the Chaosium press library of Lovecraft-inspired or -related fiction. I have a few books in this series. I have a few related books. I have the collected works of HP Lovecraft. I have a few of the Robert E. Howard pulp collections.

(This is backstory, not realization. I did not have to realize what books I have, or what my down-time reading interests are.)

I had bought another book with the full knowledge that I will likely not read it within the next ten years. But I wanted to have it. Just like those many other pulp books that I have, bought, collected, or desired. I will likely not read these books for many years. I don't have enough "down-time" to really begin a pulp reading project, it seems--I have too much to read for school or even work, that "downtime" just means a time to read something i've follen behind on or don't have an immediate deadline on, but is still professionally or academically relevent.) So I may not read these books for years to come.

If ever.

Yet i keep collecting them.

The question is: why?

Why purchase and organize a corpus of literature that I may never have time to read? Why do I have these possessions that I do not need and cannot really justify?

Perhaps the Buddhists will have some lesson about detachment. Maybe the Quakers will scold me for not living a simple life.

Its probably a simple answer. Lovecraft and the pulps were what i read in my childhood. Sure, I read Tolkien--and continue to re-read him. But I read HPL and ERB voraciously.

These books must be reminders for me, of a simpler time in my life, when imagination was not constrained by fact, that exploration with the mind didn't require the justification of higher education and critical thinking, and adventure was grand and simple. (Okay, yes, I'm also sophisticated enough to realize that many pulp authors were products of their time, and were likely racist and sexist, as well as more than a little bit closeted.)

Its almost like....the pulps that I read before I went to school and entered the work force will be what I read when I have left school and the work force. I'm preparing myself a way to revisit my childhood, and maybe even unlock a little bit of the imagination and creative thinking that the modern world has hammered into a very tight, solid box, and which is aching to be released.

Until then, I'll continue to buy, organize, and manage my pulp lit--adventure, dark horror, and "science" fiction--and anticipate a day when i might be able to begin reading them and rediscover wonder.

More on the Methodists

2004-12-03T15:25:00.000-05:00

I keep thinking about Elizabeth Stroud's trial in the Methodist Church. There are so many issues involved.

On the one hand, I believe I have to accept, and even respect the right of the United Methodist Church to act according to its Book of Discipline on matters pertaining to homosexuality. I don't think that the polity (or the theology behind it) of denominations and congregations should all be vetted according to my individual beliefs.

On the other hand--this is fundamentally wrong. I'm not going to argue what the Bible does or doesn't say about homosexuality; this has been done by many people before, and individuals rarely, I believe, move from one camp to another. There are those who would examine what the Bible has to say about sexuality (or anything) in light of what were the perceived norms of the communities that produced the scriptures, and there are those who would believe that the Bible speaks absolute truths in everything it states. I am clearly not in the latter camp.

I really feel for the Methodists though. I know of a number of gay Methodist seminarians whose future in the professional ministry are impacted by this and are forced to remain professionally closeted. Those that have the courage to speak out, ultimately, face exile. Elizabeth Stroud preached, in her "coming out" sermon:

I have come to a place where my discipleship, my walk with Christ, requires telling the whole truth, and paying whatever price truthfulness requires. (via bethstroud.info)

And now she has had to pay the price. We could speak, pragmatically, that the congregation says she will remain employed, or that a handful of more liberal Christian denominations would jump at ordaining her, but that's not the point.

She's a lifelong Methodist; the church, she states, is her family. What has happened is not as simple as rejection from a professional association; it is rejection by her family. Sure, she could be ordained elsewhere and serve other churches elsewhere. Sure, she can still work at her church but no longer in a sacramental post. The message here from the United Methodist Church is, quite simply, "you're not good enough for us. We don't want your kind."

Again, I go back to "open hearts, open doors, open minds." There is a profound disconnect between this slogan and what the Church has done. And sadly, it isn't the first, nor will it be the last. As a Christian I can point the finger of blame at my Church and say

look at what you have done to this world

A beloved community or a club of bigots? How often is the Church striving for the former but realizing the latter?

My thoughts and prayers are directed toward Beth Stroud and other LGBT within the United Methodist Church, the Christian Church, and the world, who have tried to live the life that God has given them and are punished for it.

Closed Hearts, Closed Minds, Closed Doors

2004-12-03T11:23:00.000-05:00

Just what am I missing here?

What part of the United Methodist Church's "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" campaign doesn't exactly jive with its decision to defrock a lesbian pastor?

In a way, I live in a bubble. I live in an urban enclave, attend a liberal Christian church, study at a (mostly) progressive seminary, and am surrounded by people for whom Christian behavior is based on love and compassion, not following a moral/legal code based upon specific sociocultural (read: ancient Hebrew and Greco-Roman) understandings of human nature and biology. "Homosexuality" just isn't an issue for us.

Then I look around at what other self-identified Christians do -- obsessively focus on other people's sexuality (I think that qualifies as voyeurism), ignore the poor, bomb other nations, and all I can say is, What happened to Jesus? Where is Christ in this?

Then I remember: I'm in a blue state. Today, a very, very blue state.

Me me me

2004-10-17T14:20:00.000-04:00

I realize this is hardly worthy of serious reflection. But recent pics of me at work.

I can't say much for the quality of the pics--but they were only taken with a PDA camera.

Frustration Theology

2004-10-14T13:45:00.000-04:00

...also known as, a word or two on the nature of ministerial formation--and what is wrong with it.

Let's take two seminarians--we'll call them Jack and Jill. Jack wants to be a parish minister and work in a congregational setting. Jill wants to be a chaplain and work in a hospice setting. For now, their denominations don't matter. They're both in the Master of Divinity program, which is roughly a 90-credit hour/three year fulltime program.

Jack, as a future pastor, will do his fieldwork in a church setting. He might, depending on his denomination or local district, do one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), which comes out to a 12-week unpaid full-time program. (Unpaid, but not free--he has to pay for it.) He'll ultimately be ordained and upheld as a leader of the Church.

Jill, as a future chaplain, will do her fieldwork hopefully in an agency setting, but may end up in a church setting. She'll have to do one unit CPE--but then will have to do another year full-time CPE, for which she'll receive a meagre stipend and three more CPE units. She may or may not be ordained, and it won't be on the same standard as Jack, because she'll be a "community minister" (not always an ordained position) or a "deacon" (which is promoted as apart from, not below, a priest--but politically still a lesser beast.)

So what this means is--those who work in community settings will need additional training. The basic ministerial degree won't work for them. They could get a theological degree that doesn't emphasize homiletics, church administration, etc., and lets them focus on pastoral care and counseling (or related tasks)--but it won't be "the M.Div." And they won't get the same status, recognition, or credentials as their congregational peers.

Just how fair is that?

(Just as a note, the M.Div program puts out people who are already overburdened and often in enormous amounts of debt into positions of incredible stress and low pay.)

And most denominations just can't quite figure out what to do with community ministers. Some have very positive talk of "uplifting" community ministers--such as the Unitarian Universalist Association--but it then forces them into the same training required of parish ministers, which won't necessarily let them do what they need to do. If you eschew the MDiv for training that is more relevant to your community ministry, you probably aren't "ordainable" because you don't have the M.Div. This, in my opinion, is simply bogus.

Many ministry positions will hire someone with a graduate theological degree (e.g., the Master of Theological Studies, MTS, which in some schools is a 60 hour degree), provided they have sufficient units of CPE. Even if they have the right training and skills, however, they may be afforded less respect than is given to the "The Revs" who have M.Divs.

When it comes right down to it, I can have a Master's in Counseling and a MTS, be called to a form of vocation that takes me outside the church walls but is no less ministerial, and I will most likely not be ordainable by mainline denominations because of degree credentials.

Perhaps I'm just stressed. Perhaps I'm simply feeling the pains of vocational discernment. Or maybe I'm right in my assessment that the current state of ministerial formation is pedagogically weak, if not bankrupt, and is too often a one-size-fits-all degree (in theory) for what is not a one-size-fits-all path. I am in a status of possibly having to do more work, but being afforded less respect (which is not a matter of ego as much as hire-ability!) as other people with the magic letters "M D I V".

Its amazing how the process can beat the spirit out of anyone with a calling. Surviving this process doesn't mean you're more called than other people, or more suited to do the work--it means you are more adept at navigating institutions. (And this is clearly my dilemma, as I ponder transferring from a MDiv to an MTS.)

I thought this was about spiritual gifts. There's a good reason some groups (namely, the Quakers) look askance at the perils of over professionalization of ministry.