Sacred – affection – logic – God
It is Sunday morning. Since I am frequently a creature of habit – except when I am not – I have spent some hours communicating with friends via email and texts, working out at the gym, reading the newspaper, listening to the NPR program On Being and then reading the transcript of the interview by Krista Tippett with Nathan Schneider, reviewing some of the writings of Saint Anselm and giving some thought to my ongoing discovery of prejudices. First of all, you, the reader, might not, as I was not, be familiar with the author, philosopher, spiritual seeker and editor Nathan Schneider. In his own words:
“I’m Nathan Schneider, a writer and editor based in Brooklyn. I published a book each on God and the Occupy movement. Writing articles for a variety of publications, from Harpers, The Nation, and the Chronicle of Higher Education to The New Inquiry and The Catholic Worker keeps my notebooks filled. Editing the online religion magazine, Killing the Buddha, keeps me odd.”
[laughter]
“Waging Nonviolence, a publication I co-founded, keeps me up on struggles for justice around the world. And being a contributing editor at the Social Science Research Council’s online forum, The Immanent Frame, keeps me in touch with the Academy.”
MR. SCHNEIDER: I was born in 1984, and had the chance to experience a really rich slice of American religious diversity and pluralism in that upbringing. That was in Arlington, Virginia, inside the Beltway, in the midst of the political circus, but in a very rich home, with a Jewish father and a mother who’d grown up in the Protestant tradition. And both of them, together, were searchers. And I got to go along with that in the midst of my childhood. “ (Copied and pasted from the transcript of the On Being interview with Mr. Schneider.)
When Mr. Schneider was first introduced as being born in 1984 my first thought was that he is very young (even younger than my six-year-old adopted niece Sam or her 12-year-old brother Paul). Wow! Where did that come from? One of the strange facts about aging is that time is compressed. When I hear “1984” I hear yesterday. I have to consciously think, “Oh my God, that was 32 years ago.” It is ironic that on this day on which Christians are celebrating Easter (at least in this time and date zone) I am listening to a man who was about the same age as Jesus was when he died.
I am soon awed by the erudite use of the English language, the depth of spiritual insight and the wisdom of the questions which Mr. Schneider is exploring. I quickly know that this is a peer who is new to me – a peer who combines the youthful curiosity of my adopted six-year-old niece Sam and the maturity of the appreciation of the contradictions which are inherent in all of life.
On this Sunday morning I am again missing being part of a community of believers who are always questioning their beliefs. I know that there are groups such as the Unitarians Universalists which invite all who are needing to impose a particular framework on each other. Yet, I have not connected or allowed myself to connect emotionally with that community.
One of the statements by Mr. Schneider strikes a chord deep within me. He says:
“And the real power of a lot of these arguments of these so-called proofs, Anselm’s being a particularly vital one, is in the kind of relationship that they’re forging, the way in which they express God in and through an account of relationship between people. A lot of the philosophical language that Anselm uses I realized was also in a letter that he had written to a friend describing his admiration and affection for this friend. This language that is always presented in these textbooks as being a kind of yes-or-no, cut-and-dry logical statement was, for him, a statement of affection. It was still a statement of logic, but you can’t separate that logic from that affection.”
It has been a long time since I read the works of Saint Anselm of Canterbury exploring, among others, the question of the proof of the existence of God. I do not recall being cognizant of the relationship for Saint Anselm between affection and logic. Yet, of course, once I think about and remember Saint Anselm, this makes perfect sense.
I am also reminded of the love –hate relationship which I and many others have with the organization of the church. I know that what a Tlingit friend of mine said to me is true, “Out of the Christian church has come both the most passionate and committed leaders for social justice and the cruelest oppressors imaginable.” Anytime we humans are involved we will find these two powerful sides of our humanness impressed upon the activity or the structure.
Mr. Schneider talks of the morphing of the Operation Wall Street movement into the Operation Sandy movement. I did not realize the extent to which the very same persons who were part of the seemingly fizzled out Occupy Wall Street revolution partnered with the organizational church to collect, organize and distribute supplies to those who life had been so affected by Hurricane Sandy.
The church with which these revolutionaries partnered was the same organization which has been reinventing itself since its inception. Mr. Schneider reminds us:
“That’s a really — I think an important connection to draw. The monastic movement formed, in Christianity, at least, right about the moment when Christianity became the religion of empire. It formed in response to the institutionalization of the faith, of this recognition that there has to be something else. There’s another part here that we’re missing when we’re just doing the institution. Institutions will always fail us. And the institution, they felt, was failing them. And I think that’s something that every generation has to confront in new ways.”
We know that the etiology of the word church is “community.” Yet, it is this lack of a sense of community which had led to so many people today finding it difficult to align themselves with a particular religious institution. As both Mr. Schneider and Mrs. Tippett point out it is the “N-O-N-E-S (those marking none for church or religious affiliation) who are using the internet to connect as a community. Mr. Schneider acknowledges and discusses concerns about the corporate ownership of the internet which for some limited access and, yet, we are finding ways to connect.
On this Easter Sunday morning I am reminded of the statement attributed to Jesus, “When two or three are gathered in my name (in love) there shall I be also.” (Matthew 18:20). Mr. Schneider suggests that as soon as people gather together it is a sacred gathering. While many of us may not find in the current structure of the Catholic Church the rituals and traditions which nurture and embrace us in the same way that they do Mr. Schneider, there is no denying that it is this longing for community which is the primary attraction of the internet for the radical terrorists, the right-wing individuals determined to limit the rights of GLBT people, women, and many others, and those like Nathan Schneider who are determined to show that non-violence is still a powerful option – that a community based on love and not hate is possible.
There is no denying all of these seemingly disparate groups of people are looking for community and a sense of purpose. The challenge is to non-violently, lovingly acknowledge that common goal and find a way to nurture that goal together through love and not hate.
Written March 27, 2016
It is Sunday morning. Since I am frequently a creature of habit – except when I am not – I have spent some hours communicating with friends via email and texts, working out at the gym, reading the newspaper, listening to the NPR program On Being and then reading the transcript of the interview by Krista Tippett with Nathan Schneider, reviewing some of the writings of Saint Anselm and giving some thought to my ongoing discovery of prejudices. First of all, you, the reader, might not, as I was not, be familiar with the author, philosopher, spiritual seeker and editor Nathan Schneider. In his own words:
“I’m Nathan Schneider, a writer and editor based in Brooklyn. I published a book each on God and the Occupy movement. Writing articles for a variety of publications, from Harpers, The Nation, and the Chronicle of Higher Education to The New Inquiry and The Catholic Worker keeps my notebooks filled. Editing the online religion magazine, Killing the Buddha, keeps me odd.”
[laughter]
“Waging Nonviolence, a publication I co-founded, keeps me up on struggles for justice around the world. And being a contributing editor at the Social Science Research Council’s online forum, The Immanent Frame, keeps me in touch with the Academy.”
MR. SCHNEIDER: I was born in 1984, and had the chance to experience a really rich slice of American religious diversity and pluralism in that upbringing. That was in Arlington, Virginia, inside the Beltway, in the midst of the political circus, but in a very rich home, with a Jewish father and a mother who’d grown up in the Protestant tradition. And both of them, together, were searchers. And I got to go along with that in the midst of my childhood. “ (Copied and pasted from the transcript of the On Being interview with Mr. Schneider.)
When Mr. Schneider was first introduced as being born in 1984 my first thought was that he is very young (even younger than my six-year-old adopted niece Sam or her 12-year-old brother Paul). Wow! Where did that come from? One of the strange facts about aging is that time is compressed. When I hear “1984” I hear yesterday. I have to consciously think, “Oh my God, that was 32 years ago.” It is ironic that on this day on which Christians are celebrating Easter (at least in this time and date zone) I am listening to a man who was about the same age as Jesus was when he died.
I am soon awed by the erudite use of the English language, the depth of spiritual insight and the wisdom of the questions which Mr. Schneider is exploring. I quickly know that this is a peer who is new to me – a peer who combines the youthful curiosity of my adopted six-year-old niece Sam and the maturity of the appreciation of the contradictions which are inherent in all of life.
On this Sunday morning I am again missing being part of a community of believers who are always questioning their beliefs. I know that there are groups such as the Unitarians Universalists which invite all who are needing to impose a particular framework on each other. Yet, I have not connected or allowed myself to connect emotionally with that community.
One of the statements by Mr. Schneider strikes a chord deep within me. He says:
“And the real power of a lot of these arguments of these so-called proofs, Anselm’s being a particularly vital one, is in the kind of relationship that they’re forging, the way in which they express God in and through an account of relationship between people. A lot of the philosophical language that Anselm uses I realized was also in a letter that he had written to a friend describing his admiration and affection for this friend. This language that is always presented in these textbooks as being a kind of yes-or-no, cut-and-dry logical statement was, for him, a statement of affection. It was still a statement of logic, but you can’t separate that logic from that affection.”
It has been a long time since I read the works of Saint Anselm of Canterbury exploring, among others, the question of the proof of the existence of God. I do not recall being cognizant of the relationship for Saint Anselm between affection and logic. Yet, of course, once I think about and remember Saint Anselm, this makes perfect sense.
I am also reminded of the love –hate relationship which I and many others have with the organization of the church. I know that what a Tlingit friend of mine said to me is true, “Out of the Christian church has come both the most passionate and committed leaders for social justice and the cruelest oppressors imaginable.” Anytime we humans are involved we will find these two powerful sides of our humanness impressed upon the activity or the structure.
Mr. Schneider talks of the morphing of the Operation Wall Street movement into the Operation Sandy movement. I did not realize the extent to which the very same persons who were part of the seemingly fizzled out Occupy Wall Street revolution partnered with the organizational church to collect, organize and distribute supplies to those who life had been so affected by Hurricane Sandy.
The church with which these revolutionaries partnered was the same organization which has been reinventing itself since its inception. Mr. Schneider reminds us:
“That’s a really — I think an important connection to draw. The monastic movement formed, in Christianity, at least, right about the moment when Christianity became the religion of empire. It formed in response to the institutionalization of the faith, of this recognition that there has to be something else. There’s another part here that we’re missing when we’re just doing the institution. Institutions will always fail us. And the institution, they felt, was failing them. And I think that’s something that every generation has to confront in new ways.”
We know that the etiology of the word church is “community.” Yet, it is this lack of a sense of community which had led to so many people today finding it difficult to align themselves with a particular religious institution. As both Mr. Schneider and Mrs. Tippett point out it is the “N-O-N-E-S (those marking none for church or religious affiliation) who are using the internet to connect as a community. Mr. Schneider acknowledges and discusses concerns about the corporate ownership of the internet which for some limited access and, yet, we are finding ways to connect.
On this Easter Sunday morning I am reminded of the statement attributed to Jesus, “When two or three are gathered in my name (in love) there shall I be also.” (Matthew 18:20). Mr. Schneider suggests that as soon as people gather together it is a sacred gathering. While many of us may not find in the current structure of the Catholic Church the rituals and traditions which nurture and embrace us in the same way that they do Mr. Schneider, there is no denying that it is this longing for community which is the primary attraction of the internet for the radical terrorists, the right-wing individuals determined to limit the rights of GLBT people, women, and many others, and those like Nathan Schneider who are determined to show that non-violence is still a powerful option – that a community based on love and not hate is possible.
There is no denying all of these seemingly disparate groups of people are looking for community and a sense of purpose. The challenge is to non-violently, lovingly acknowledge that common goal and find a way to nurture that goal together through love and not hate.
Written March 27, 2016
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