The Text and Context of the Conversation
Any conversation about the nature of the ekklesia, the Gospel, and leadership and authority is rooted in a particular text. By text I mean, as Walter Brueggemann, that "reality is scripted .. rooted in and authorized by a text."22 A particular text may be obvious and recognized, or invisible. It is "an account of reality that a community comes to trust and to take for granted as a "given" that is beyond reexamination."23 This is commonly referred to as a "worldview."
The dominant scripting of reality in our culture is rooted in the Enlightenment. This scripting exercises a powerful hegemony. As Karl Marx realized, "the ideas of the dominant class become the dominant ideas." 24
The Enlightenment text instructs us about knowledge (epistemology), and being (ontology) and these paradigms in turn impact our thinking about formation (discipleship) and learning (education). Alan Roxburgh writes,
"Modernity required leaders shaped by management and organizational skills. But the leadership skills of management are neither morally nor ethically neutral. They are rooted in presuppositions about how the world is constructed and about human control of that world." 25
For the most part (notable exceptions in the monastic movement and Radical Reformers), these ideas have gone unchallenged in the history of Christendom. As Einstein remarked, "the kind of thinking that will solve the world's problems will be of a different order than the kind that created those problems in the first place."
I take the context of Christendom to be determined by a practical gnosticism, or dualism, rooted in Greek ideas and passed on to us through the Reformers and the Enlightenment. Challenging these fundamental assumptions reframes the nature of the discussion. We need to step out of the box of Christendom.26 Reggie McNeal comments,
"We have a church in North America that is more secular than the culture. Just when the church adopted a business model, the culture went looking for God. Just when the church embraced strategic planning (linear and Newtonian), the universe shifted to preparedness (loopy and quantum). Just when the church began building recreation centers, the culture began a search for sacred space. Church people still think that secularism holds sway and that people outside the church have trouble connecting to God. The problem is that when people come to church, expecting to find God, they often encounter a religious club holding a meeting where God is conspicuously absent. It may feel like a self-help seminar or even a political rally. But if pre-Christians came expecting to find God -- sorry! They may experience more spiritual energy at a U2 concert or listening to a Creed CD." 27
Perhaps, by the grace of God, as we escape the hegemony of the Enlightenment, we may rediscover an appreciation for mystery. This renewed humility would go a long way in helping us connect with the emerging culture.
Go to Issue #4: The Community of God
Notes
22 Brueggemann, Walter. 1997. Cadences of Home. Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press. p.26.
23 Ibid. p.26
24 McLellan, David. 1971. The Thought of Karl Marx: An Introduction. London: McMillan and Co. pp.41-51.
25 See Alan Roxburgh's discussion of leadership in chapter 7 of Missional Church, p.194 ff. Assuming the primacy of reason, the Enlightenment legitimated an educated leadership and university studies. As a positive science, religious knowledge is overseen by a professional clergy. Roxburgh rehearses the evolution of leadership paradigms.
26 I will use "Christendom" to represent the ideological mainstream of thought as systematized and institutionalized in our culture, as opposed to Christianity, which I take to be the movement that Jesus initiated. Christendom has been the dominant religious force in the world for 1700 years. Under Constantine Christianity moved from a subversive, marginalized and persecuted movement to "a religious institution with its attendant structures, priesthood and sacraments." For more on this see Murray, Stuart. 2004. Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World. London: Authentic Media or Guder, Ed. Missional Church. pp.190-195.
27 McNeal, Reggie. 2003. The Present Future. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. p. 59
