Pivoting away from whether Anglicans can share communion together, a very interesting article here re the Archbishop of Birmingham (UK), Bernard Longley reflecting out loud on the radical possibility of Anglicans being able to eat the crumbs from under Rome's table.
He confirms my suspicion that Roman theology is open to change so long as an archivist can find a document from the past which points in the direction of change!
At the heart of communion is atonement theology. Someone I have yet to read on atonement is Rene Girard. But Bishop Kelvin Wright of Dunedin has been reading Girard. His review here is a quick entry into the deep world of Girardian theology.
Finally, I note some progress towards refining proposals for women bishops in the Church of England as it heads to its next session of General Synod. I think these are the money paragraphs within documentation which is rather long for a process which keeps telling the reader that simplicity is the aim! The paragraphs are from here which I got to from here which I got to from here. I think these paragraphs look ahead to the period after legislation re women bishops has been past, hence the 'Now that' language in para 11:
"11. Now that the Church of England has admitted women to the episcopate there should
within each diocese be at least one serving bishop, whether the diocesan or a suffragan,
who ordains women to the priesthood. This has a bearing on the considerations that the
Crown Nominations Commission and diocesan bishops will need to take into account
when considering diocesan and suffragan appointments.
12. In addition, dioceses are entitled to express a view, in the statement of needs prepared
during a vacancy in see, as to whether the diocesan bishop should be someone who will
or will not ordain women. In dioceses where the diocesan bishop does not ordain women
he should ensure that a bishop who is fully committed to the ordained ministry of women
is given a role across the whole diocese for providing support for female clergy and their
ministry."
The thought strikes me that we might in ACANZP need some similar legislation or legislative guidance re bishops and the ordaining of persons in same sex partnerships in the future. One piece of wisdom in the C of E proposals is the recognition that ordination in Anglican view sits within a larger theology of episcopacy in Anglican, Roman, and Eastern Orthodox view, and thus it is perfectly reasonable for Anglicans to hold a similar conservatism re ordination-and-women as do our siblings across the world stage. Ditto, I suggest, re same sex partnerships ...
Ah yes; the Left Bank once more! The savant who claims his own insight is the one to unmask what was hitherto hidden - no; suppressed - from all those who have been before, whose suppression is based on a lie and a form of violence against the Truth that This One is now unveiling before our eyes - if only we’d stop following the crowd like a mob of lemmings, all copying those horrid religious leaders whose words are but whited sepulchres ... icons to that Primordial Murder.
ReplyDeleteI cld continue - but it’s plain exhausting! Of course, it’s also fascinating when that Archetypal Sacrifice, of the Lamb slain Before the Foundation of the World, to which all forms of sacrifice look intentionally or unwittingly, and which quite simply exhausts the need for surplus victims, leaving only the True Eucharistic Mimesis for us to share—it’s fascinating when some delightful Left Bank thinker mixes both erudition and silliness to spin yet more myths about This Lamb.
I think perforce I’ll stick with “Jesus loves me this I know/ For the Bible tells me so.” Either on the lips of a Sunday School kid, or a Karl Barth in America matters not one wit - one jot, or tittle. Phew; I’m really done for now ... Please don’t exhume me ... I’ll just lie here awaiting the real Apocalypse!
So Wright is Wrong?
ReplyDelete"The process of mimetic escalation leading to victimisation Girard identifies with Satan, who does not possess Being, but is sort of a hyper projection - a parasite, he says, living on human consciousness."
ReplyDeleteWhew, what a relief. I've written this all out to hand to the kids when they come trick & treating on Thursday night. (I will mark this holy day by listening to Bach's Reformationstag Cantata.)
Why didn't Girard go the whole hog and apply the unprovable 'religion is projection' meme to God? Because Feuerbach did this 170 years ago and it's vieux chapeau?
Because Freud already did a better job nearly a century ago with 'Moses and Monotheism'?
Well, that's the lovely thing about mythography - you can say what you like and nobody can ever disprove you (except those who actually know a thing or two about mythology).
Come back, Azazel, it was all a mistake!
Martin Eleutherios
'So Wright is Wrong?'
ReplyDeletePlus important de se demander: est-ce que René est rené?
Martin de Tours
I'd better ask Nicodemus, Martin!
ReplyDeleteOne great thing about Fourth Gospel scholarship nowadays is that we've given up on those wonderfully imaginative Redeemer Myths as matrix for the Prologue; so there is hope!
Perhaps you'd like to hand this link out to the kids' parents/parental minders/substitutes, Martin:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/10/the-smoke-of-satan-returns