On Sacred Time and Sacred Space

The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In broad strokes, there are two types of Christians. When you ask a Christian what is the Church the responses will tend to lean towards the visible Church or the invisible Church, namely a visible institution ordained by Christ in which those who profess the name of Christ gather to worship him, while the invisible church is the body of believers. Both viewpoints are supported by Holy Scripture, which refers to the Body of Christ both in the sense of believers (I Cor 12. 12, 13, 27; Eph 4. 15, 16; Eph 5. 29, 30) and in the sense of Christ himself as the Church (St Jn 2. 19-22; Col 1. 18, 24).

So the reality is that both are correct in a sense, however there is a tendency, particularly among protestants, to dismiss or ignore the sense of the Church which they do not answer with. In the case of protestants, they often proclaim the invisible Church, at the expense of the visible Church. In the case of Catholic traditions, such as Anglicanism (at least among Anglicans who emphasize their catholicity and less so among some evangelical Anglicans), the reverse might be true, with the emphasis placed on the visible Church to the detriment of the invisible church. In these instances, groups that emphasize the invisible church do so because their concern is primarily with the personal relationship between God and mankind. Emphasis on the visible church is simply an unnecessary barrier between mankind and God. In the other case, the emphasis is on the institution created by Christ and the instruments of his grace left behind that bring us into that personal relationship with God and nourish us in his grace, namely the sacraments.

To concentrate on one of these viewpoints while dismissing the other is patently un-Biblical and creates an unhealthy perception of the Church, our relationship with God and shrouds the issue of sacred time and space. In a recent post on The Community, also shared by the Anglican Communion News Service, Fr. Kyle Norman expressed his concern that:

Our life with God has become so individualized in contemporary society that I wonder if we downplay the understanding that church is the house of God. Truth be told, when talking about sacred space, does ‘church’ even enter our minds?

In discussing the Christian concept of a Rule of Life, it was noted that some Christians tend to downplay the need to spend time in worship on Sunday, because they feel they can adequately bear witness to God’s glory in witnessing his creation, and in so doing worship him adequately.

This viewpoint stems, perhaps unknowingly for some, from the incarnational nature of Christianity. In Christianity, incarnation is a key theme: God breaking into the created order to give a glimpse of himself. Whether it be to give revelation, to Moses, Abraham or the other Patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament, to the revelations granted to the Apostles in the New Testament, even to the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures themselves, not to mention his ultimate incarnation in Jesus Christ. God continues today to break into the created order, and indeed we invite him to do so. Yet in a sense, all creation is incarnational. It is a manifestation of God’s glory and presence with us that he created the heavens and the earth. That is all true, yet does that make all of creation a sacred space?Is every stone of the earth, every pool of water and every bird in the sky consecrated to God’s glory?

Holy Scripture tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19. 1a) and St Paul similarly writes that God’s nature is written into the bones of creation (Rm 1. 20). This is not sacred space in the purest sense of the word. What it can be, however, is sacred time. Time in which we consecrate to God, to spend with him. To marvel at his glory, incarnated in the glory of his creation. The idea of sacred time complements the idea of sacred space, because it allows us to spend time with God, enjoy his presence and focus on the intimate and personal relationship he holds with each of us regardless of where we are physically present.

It could involve sitting in the midst of creation, or it could be ten minutes spent in prayer while taking the train to work in the morning. The key is the intention of devoting a particular time to God; to offer worship, prayer and most importantly our attention. Indeed, the invisible Church could be present in such an occasion if a group of believers gathers to share that sacred time together, but it misses something.

Similarly, many Christians designate particular rooms or sections of their house as areas for prayer, Scripture reading and so forth. In a sense they are creating sacred space by turning over an area of their home to God; it is a place in which they go to meet God in prayer and in his Word. Yet again, much like the example of sacred time alone, there is something that is missing.

Sacred time can coincide with sacred space. The most visible and public aspect of sacred space remains the Church itself, through its local parish buildings, where we gather to worship God through common liturgies. Church buildings are consecrated to God—indeed there are rites for that purpose in the Book of Common Prayer—and the times when the body gathers to worship God in community are similarly sacred times which occur in sacred places. As Fr Aidan Kavanaugh writes in On Liturgical Theology:

…the liturgy of the church is nothing other than that church’s faith in motion on certain definite and crucial levels. This faith surely has other modes and levels, but these are to be evaluated finally in terms of the church at worship before the living God, rather than vice versa. It cannot be forgotten that the church at worship is not only present to God; far more significantly, the living God is present to the church. This latter presence is not a theological theory; it is a real presence which is there to affect, grace, and change the world.

There is room in Christianity for both the visible and invisible church, and we should never focus on one to the detriment of the other. It is through this that the fullness of God’s presence may be felt; it is a place in which the visible and invisible churches coincide and are united in God’s presence. The body of all believers are united to Christ’s instituted church by the grace offered in the holy sacraments.

Ultimately our faith is about submission to God’s will, and in creating sacred time and sacred space, it is the way in which we confirm that submission to God by providing a place or time in which we turn away from other worldly concerns to experience God’s presence.

Wisdom of Saints: St Augustine of Hippo

Feast of Augustine, Doctor, Bishop of Hippo, Africa, 430

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Augustine, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 St Augustine of Hippo is in Western Christianity the foremost among the saints in terms of his impact on Christian doctrine and understanding. Many of his writings survive, and his impact on modern Christian theology cannot be overstated.

St Augustine was born in 354 in Numidia (modern day Algeria), then part of the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis. His mother Monica was a Christian, however his father was a pagan. His mother sought to raise him as a Christian, and he received a Christian education. At the time, Baptism was often delayed until later in life, so despite some possible successes in his instruction in the Christian faith he was not baptised at that time. At the age of sixteen, seeing his successes in school, St Augustine’s father was determined to send him to Carthage for study in a career in forensics, however before he could be sent, sufficient money was needed to cover the expense and so St Augustine stayed idle in his home town for that year. It was during that year that his heart fell away from Christianity and he turned to vice. He was eventually sent to Carthage, but only continued in his exploration of the pleasures offered by pagans in that larger city. Eventually he took a mistress who bore him a son at the age of eighteen.

St Augustine had a great love of philosophy and was a seeker of truth. He turned to different philosophies and religions in an effort to seek ultimate truth. He became a Manichaean, drawn to its allegorical symbolism and promise of truth, in contrast to what he considered the vulgar and low-level, perhaps even ridiculous at times, Christian Scriptures.

He was still a student in Carthage when he converted to Manichaeism, and devoted his considerable talents to the understanding and promotion of this new philosophy. He read all their writings and contributed his own thoughts. As his intellectual talents continued to develop, he turned his career paths, returned to his home town of Tagaste and taught grammar, then returned to Carthage to teach rhetoric.

It was during this time that he began to have doubts about Manichaeism, as its teachings had failed to bear the promised fruit of understanding he sought, and he began to hold intellectual objections to various elements of its doctrines. He had spent nearly a decade devoting himself to the sect before ultimately becoming disillusioned.

At the age of 28, St Augustine was determined to leave Africa and make his fortune in Rome. He travelled, under cover of night in an effort to leave his mother behind, as she sought to follow him to his distress. In Italy, he opened his own school, but after being defrauded of tuition fees was forced to seek a position at another school, and ended up teaching in Milan, where he first came to meet Milan’s bishop, St Ambrose. In 386, St Augustine converted to Christianity, chiefly for three reasons: St Ambrose’s ability to answer his questions and his growing admiration for the Milanese bishop, and more importantly, God had touched his heart drawing him back to Christ whom he had borne with him ever since his early Christian education. He was baptised Easter 387, and devoted himself thoroughly to applying his intelectual gifts to the understanding an explication of Christianity.

He returned to Africa shortly after his baptism and was ordained a priest in 391 and consecrated Bishop of Hippo in 396. He would spend the rest of his life devoted to the shepherding of his flock and writing. While many of his works have disappeared, to this day over 100 books, 200 letters and 500 homilies survive, and the breadth of his theological work remains strongly influential, particularly in the Western church.

His first published Christian work is his Confessions, which reads as an outpouring of autobiographical penitence for his life up until its publication. The restlessness that led him on his quest for truth and the answer he found, is described therein: “for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.” Even from his earliest works it was clear that St Augustine had a deep and well-articulated understanding to the relationship between God and mankind.

In his works, St Augustine also published a number of propositions that he would later revise and reject in subsequent works. It was a sign of his humility that upon reflection and further study he was more than willing to admit to theological errors and repudiate the positions he had previously advocated.

In his multi-volume work Christian Doctrine, St Augustine can be seen laying some of the foundational theology for St Bernard of Clairvaux’s famous On Loving God. In it he discusses at length the need of man to love God and neighbour. St Augustine goes on to  write on the Order of Love stating:

No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God’s sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake.  And if God is to be loved more than any man, each man ought to love God more than himself.  Likewise we ought to love another man better than our own body, because all things are to be loved in reference to God, and another man can have fellowship with us in the enjoyment of God, whereas our body cannot; for the body only lives through the soul, and it is by the soul that we enjoy God.

St Augustine was a strong advocate of Biblical literacy and after noting the Canon of Scripture, he calls on Christians to familiarize themselves with Scripture. This position would become less popular over time to the point where it became a major issue during the Reformation to once again allow Bibles to be published in vernacular such that those who were literate could read, and even those who were illiterate could at least understand when it was read to them. Interestingly, he advocates for the familiarity or memorization of Scripture for several reasons, including the fact that once someone is familiar with Scripture, they themselves can use the technique of employing clear passages to interpret more obscure passages, a common exegetical technique used by the Church Fathers in St Augustine’s day. In his own words:

For among the things that are plainly laid down in Scripture are to be found all matters that concern faith and the manner of life,—to wit, hope and love, of which I have spoken in the previous book.  After this, when we have made ourselves to a certain extent familiar with the language of Scripture, we may proceed to open up and investigate the obscure passages, and in doing so draw examples from the plainer expressions to throw light upon the more obscure, and use the evidence of passages about which there is no doubt to remove all hesitation in regard to the doubtful passages.

St Augustine’s clear articulation as God as love and Christ as our hope throughout Christian Doctrine, makes it an extremely influential theological work, and throughout Western Christianity, Augustinian theology continues to inform the works of countless Christians. For millions of Christians, St Augustine’s words succinctly characterize their continued faith: “To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romance — to seek Him the greatest of all adventures, to find Him the greatest human achievement.”

On Endurance

The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

For the Feast of St Bernard of Clairvaux this past Thursday, one of the assigned daily readings in the lectionary was from St Paul’s letter to the Romans, Chapter 5. It is a well-known passage where St Paul tells us:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rm 5. 1-5)

Suffering, whether for our faith like the martyrs of the Church or simply in our daily lives, is a part of the human experience. As Christ was incarnate into the world by God, suffering was brought forth by man through sin. The question of why God allows suffering is one that has been one that generates countless theological tomes, debates, arguments and is intractably linked to deep felt pain and hurts, which many Christians often seek to blame on God.

From Anglican scholars like Bishop NT Wright to Pope St John Paul II, Christ is at the centre of a theology of suffering. As NT Wright notes, Christ’s suffering on the cross subverts expectations of the Jews (in terms of the Messiah coming to instantly liberate Israel from its oppressors) just as we today would want God to act instantly to remedy humanity’s suffering (whether it be illness, hatred, natural disaster, religious persecution, etc). This was the central aspect of God’s salvation history for humanity. The long-term narrative by which God returns humanity to himself.

In his apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris, Pope St John Paul II goes further suggesting that the human experience of suffering is modelled in Christ’s suffering, and like Wright he notes that Christ’s life shows that our expectations and demands on God show a lack of complete understanding and knowledge of God, preventing us from ever having a more complete understanding of suffering than what we see in Christ’s life.

St Paul’s instructions can be seen in the Pope’s letter when he highlights the transformative nature of suffering. St John Paul II suggests in his letter that, “in suffering there is concealed
a particular power that draws a person interiorly close to Christ, a special grace.” To those who have endured, as St Paul says, they are transformed in character and brought to new hope in God.

It is this transformation that similarly highlights the reality of the link between a theology of suffering and a theology of healing. The theology of healing is linked strongly with soteriology, the theology of salvation. Salvation is, as NT Wright noted, the way in which God returns humanity to himself, the way in which the barrier of sin is eliminated. But if suffering relates to sin, then the elimination of suffering through healing is also strongly tied to salvation, and again to Christ.

Without a theology of suffering, therefore, we cannot have a full theology of healing; nor can our theology of salvation be fully realized. The two are linked in St Paul’s words, suffering leads to hope in God, the assurance of his love. In the lectionary, the lesson from Romans is tied to a reading from St John’s gospel:

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (St Jn 15. 9-11)

The link here is drawn again to the Father’s love, and joy. A theology of healing is ultimately countered to a theology of suffering in that it is God’s love that heals all suffering. Throughout the Bible, suffering is described as groaning. In captivity and oppression, God’s people groaned in their sufferings. God heard them. How much more does God groan for us to return to him? The ultimate expression of his love given. His son, made man, suffered with us, bore our sins and opened in his obedient sacrifice the love of God to be experienced by all.

There are profound theological points to be made from this initial reading. Long debates on the nature of God, creation and so much more. Yet what comfort is all of this objective analysis to someone in the midst of suffering? The wife whose husband is diagnosed with cancer. The father whose sun is severely injured in a motor vehicle collision.

It all comes back to Christ. Whatever the reasons why suffering is permitted to continue in this world, Christ shared in them. Christ suffered as all humans suffer, and for those living today suffered more physical pain and torment than most will likely see. He was obedient unto death so that he could become the Divine Physician. The healer who reconciles us all to God.

In our suffering we are called to turn to Christ; to seek God’s support and strength to endure. It is important to stress that in this endurance, it will not always mean an immediate end to suffering. In the case of illness, for instance, it does not mean divine healing. Christ is the Divine Physician not because his hands brought miraculous healing, but because it is through him that our souls are healed and we are restored to God. The strength to endure suffering, is what we pray for, and not simply an end to the suffering itself.

Through our endurance, through our prayers, we come to know God better, improving in us our character, the goodness and reflection of God seen in all humans who are made in his image.

Through that character we gain hope. Not hope in its modern sense of wishful thinking for something, but rather a wholehearted assurance and expectation of what is to come. If character is St Paul’s description of how we come to know God better and thus to be better qualified to act in a more God-like way, the hope we gain is the assurance of his love borne of the knowledge of him.

Even knowing this, in the midst of suffering it may not be enough. Our desire would be for God to immediately end that suffering. Sometimes we may even feel that because God did not prevent such suffering, his will is that it occurs to us. Why, God? What did I do to deserve this? Sometimes, it wont be enough. God’s perfection is beyond human understanding, and sometimes that means we cannot comprehend what is happening in our lives and why God has not intervened. Why God intercedes in certain cases for miraculous healing on an individual level, while genocides and the mass loss of life through natural disasters are allowed to occur. Even simply why God might intercede in one case and yet not another for two individuals afflicted with the same disease.

There is no real word of comfort, no simple and comforting explanation. These are questions that will only be answered through endurance, but what comfort there is can be known through the assurance that endurance leads to joy. God has promised, “I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow,” (Jer 31. 13b). This promise originally made to God’s people in captivity reminds us that through endurance of suffering, our tears will ultimately be turned to joy when, at the very least, we come into the fullness of God’s plan for reunion with us.

On Tomatoes

The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

O GOD, who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The process for planting a tomato is much like how the seed of our faith is planted and grows. The seed must be planted in good soil, then it must receive light from the sun and be nourished by water and nutrients of the soil. For the Christian, it is through the waters of Holy Baptism that our soil is made good for the planting of the seed of faith, and through the body and blood of Christ received in the Holy Eucharist that we are nourished. Do this and your tomato plant will grow, just as the Christian’s faith will grow. But there comes a point with a tomato plant where you will want to stake it, that is to say plant a large wooden stake in the ground which will be attached to the plant to provide support in order for it to bear the best fruit. So to in our Christian journey, if we want to bear the best fruit, such a support can be useful.

The equivalent of a tomato plant’s support stake for the Christian is a Rule of Life. CS Lewis describes a Rule of Life as, “intentional pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness.” The use of a Rule became popularized by St Benedict of Nursia and Benedictine Monasticism, and the practice continues throughout Western Christianity. Christian author Ken Shigematsu more recently wrote on the adoption of a Rule of Life using the image of a trellis, similar to the concept of the tomtato stake, but which provides not simply support but also guidance as the Christian seeks to develop a Rule which addresses all the different facets of life which affect us. The Book of Common Prayer itself exhorts all Christians to adopt a rule, saying, “Every Christian man or woman should from time to time frame for himself a RULE OF LIFE in accordance with the precepts of the Gospel and the faith and order of the Church.” (555)

The Book of Common Prayer goes on to provide a framework for the development of a Rule of Life which covers the basic areas in which each Christian needs support: the attendance at publish worship, the practice of private prayer, Bible reading and self-discipline, living by the example of Christ in every day life, witness of the faith, personal service to Church and community and offering money according to your means for the support of the Church at home and overseas. These categories are at times broad, but provide a great foundation for the formation of a Rule which ensures a rhythm of worship and support in living a Christian life and developing one’s faith.

The first exhortation reads, “the regularity of his attendance at public worship and esepcially at the holy Communion.” This first Rule is for some a rather obvious non-issue, while for others it can be a necessary reminder. There are generally three types of Christians. The first are those for whom attending a Sunday service is optional at best and really quite unnecessary. They have been baptised and confirmed, and there is really little left to do but live their lives as best they know how. The second group are those for whom it is viewed as a good thing to do, but for whom many excuses arise. Some common excuses might be experiencing God’s glory in his creation, or visiting with neighbours because surely it is evangelism to do so, or perhaps the need to spend time with family. Others might place their preference on reading Christian books or listening to Christian music because it is more to their liking than the homilies of their local rector or the music sung on a Sunday morning. There are finally those who view it as essential, particularly in order to be nourished by receiving Holy Communion. The Psalms similarly remind us (Ps 22, 107, 122) that communal worship in God’s house is important. The teaching we receive is similarly structured differently—due to the lectionary—than were we to pick and choose our own readings. It is all an element of turning ourselves over to God as we profess in our baptismal vows.

The second exhortation reads, “the practice of private prayer, Bible reading and self-discipline.” Throughout Scripture, many references are made to when we ought to pray. In public, in private, in sorrow, in gladness, in all circumstances. When we gather together in worship, we pray, but it is essential to, in our Rule, that we incorporate some manner of regular prayer, and in varied forms. This ought not to be simply prayers of thanksgiving and supplications, but might include forms of prayer like the daily examen, lectio divina, or even praying the Daily Offices. The Daily Offices go well with the next matter, that of frequent Scripture reading. This could range from using a daily or weekly Bible-reading schedule to reading the lectionary offerings from the Offices. Reading God’s word is always edifying and helps truly helps to solidify the metaphor of a Rule of Life as a support for our faith. Finally, self-discipline largely refers to the need to understand the sins we commonly fall into and taking steps to help ourselves avoid it. It might involve regular prayer for strength to avoid that particular sin, or, for example, if someone suffers from intemperance related to alcohol, part of their Rule might be to avoid going to bars where they might be tempted to drink.

The third exhortation is, “bringing the teaching and example of Christ into his everyday life.” This exhortation reinforces the importance of the previous points, namely that before a Christian may live what Nicky Gumbel calls the Jesus Lifestyle, they must know what it is, through attending worship where the weekly readings are explained in the homily and where the hymnody edifies us on Christ, and further in our own reading of Holy Scripture. Christianity is not an academic exercise, however, it is something we are each called to live out and in considering this exhortation, we consider how best in our individual circumstances we can do that.

The fourth exhortation is, “the boldness of his spoken witness to his faith in Christ.” At a time when Christians in the West are confronted with new martyrs and confessors throughout the Middle East and Africa who are suffering persecution and death for the sake of their faith and the name of Christ, it is difficult perhaps to feel bold in witnessing our own faith, yet it remains a reminder never to be ashamed of our faith. The old axiom that politics and religion are not suitable for the dinner table is sometimes used by Christians to shy away from admitting their faith as if it is something to be ashamed of, and sometimes a little boldness is needed. Nicky Gumbel, in the Alpha series, gives a great talk on how and why we tell others [of our faith], in which he discusses the need to understand both our audience and context, but that there is never any occasion in which it is wrong to profess faith in the name of Christ.

The fifth exhortation is, “his personal service to the Church and the community.” This ties in quite strongly with bringing the teaching of Christ to your everyday life. Christ came to serve and we are to do likewise. Service in the Church itself is particularly important however, as a vibrant community life in a local parish is a critical aspect of building up the Body of the Church, and deepening the relationships between brothers and sisters in Christ in that community. It takes many volunteer hours to allow a Church community to function well, and for a larger parish with a programme focus, there are many ways in which committing to a particular form of service can be of benefit to both the Church and the community, particularly when involved in forms of ministry that occur in the community rather than internally in the parish.

Finally, the last exhortation reads, “the offering of money according to his means for the support of the work of the Church at home and overseas.” The final point relates to our financial responsibilities, both to support our local Church and priest, which St Paul speaks to (I Cor 9. 7-14). The emphasis here is on identifying our individual capacities and preparing a Rule that responds to that.

The idea behind a Rule of Life is that it is to be a support and guide, to nurture our faith in certain ways to help it to bear good fruit. It is not meant to be a burdensome yoke. It should begin small and simply. A Rule might begin simply by attending one church service every Sunday barring illness or emergency. It might grow, as our faith does, to incorporate more and more Rules. As a tomato plant bears good fruit when properly supported, so will our faith.

On Patristic Interpretation

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity

LET thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the Fathers of the Church is their grounding of the fundamental tools of Christian exegesis. Exegesis comes from Greek and means to draw out the meaning of a passage, therefore the means by which the deeper meanings of a particular passage are explained.

In ancient times, the interpretation of Scripture was heavily influenced by the philosophy of the day, which saw the literal or historical sense of a passage as the lowest possible sense of meaning. There was a two-fold reason behind this. First, physical things (and thus literal descriptions of history) were viewed as being far more base or corrupt than spiritual things. The second and related reason for this was the Greek influence. Greek mythology is replete with stories that even the Greeks found somewhat embarrassing. They had developed extremely sophisticated philosophies and overall learning, yet had these narratives of gods acting capriciously, ridiculously and governed by base passions.

In order to explain that, the Greeks interpreted their mythology to explain a deeper spiritual meaning through analogy. This practice was used and expanded upon by the Fathers, who sought to discern the deeper meanings of scripture. For example, in his homilies on Genesis, St John Chrysostom explains the story of Noah’s drunkenness from Gen 9. 18-26 by pointing out that while the moral sense was not to shame our fellow Christians for their sins and faults, but rather to privately exhort them to repent and return to righteousness, in the way that Shem and Japheth cloaked Noah without looking at him, in contrast with Ham.

Over time, there came to be an understanding that every passage had at least three or four possible levels of interpretation. The literal interpretation described the historical sense of the passage and the events it was depicting. The allegorical sense gave the deeper spiritual meaning, that informed us of the nature of God. The Tropological or moral sense described the way in which the passage provides us with instruction on how we, as Christians, are to live our lives. Finally, the Anagogical sense speaks in particular to what our life in the Kingdom of Heaven will look like when we are reunited with Christ. Ss. John Cassian, Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory the Great were all Fathers who supported this four-fold interpretation.

To discover these different levels of meanings, the Fathers employed a number of different exegetical techniques. There are no uniformly accepted names for different techniques and different Fathers and Biblical scholars have called the same techniques by different names or used the same word to refer to different techniques. The terms used here may therefore not always line up with the way they are used by other authors.

There were a number of general techniques used that could be applied to most any level of Scripture. These techniques might be used to better understand the literal meaning, the allegorical interpretation, the moral interpretation or anagogical interpretation, and sometimes more than one sense of scripture might be discussed using the same exegetical technique.

The technique of redaction criticism was used to explore the context in which a passage occurs, be it the historical context in which the passage was written or the literary context in which the passage appears within a particular chapter or verse. Analysis of the skopos of a passage was used by many of the fathers in their exegetical homilies. Skopos is Greek for the goal or aim, and the analysis could either be widely or narrowly drawn, focused on the goal of a passage within a verse or chapter, or the skopos of the entire book might be examined to provide that context for the particular passage being examined. These forms of contextual interpretation were among the most widely used and important for setting the tone of interpretation whether it be the literal and historical meaning of the passage or the moral or spiritual sense.

Another of the types of analysis that was applied at multiple levels was a literary analysis. Diction would be examined. Grammar, the use of hyperbole or metaphors would be reviewed. Rhetoric and other elements of style would be used to explore an allegorical interpretation or reinforce the understanding of the context for the literal meaning. Similar to this was the technique of akoloutheia which explored the sequence of arguments in a passage, along with the structure of those arguments, to uncover its meaning.

Another technique used was to use more clearly understandable passages to interpret more obscure or dense passages. Dependent upon the idea that the Holy Scriptures are an inspired, unified and consistent whole, this technique would be used to show how passages can and must be interpreted in the context of all of Scripture together. Similar to this technique was the use of word association in which the Father would look for the use of a particular word in other parts of Scripture and build a link between the passages. In this sense, the Father is not doing a word study where the use of a word is explored in multiple contexts, but rather the specific word is used to build a linked meaning between the two passages in which it is used.

As mentioned, the use of allegory (allegoria) was one of the most popular forms of Scriptural exegesis because it provided a deeper and spiritual meaning. The problem with allegory, however, is that there was no need to justify or link the allegorical interpretation with the original passage. This left allegory wide open to eisegesis, the process of reading in an interpretation to a passage which was not intended. Origen was a champion of this method, and as he would become the head of the School of Alexandria, it would become associated with the allegorical method. In contrast to this, the School of Antioch would promote the use of theoria, a method of allegorical interpretation in which the allegory was more closely linked to the literal meaning of the passage being interpreted.

A number of different subsets of allegorical interpretation existed, that provided for allegorical interpretations hinging on particular points. A prominent form of this was typology (typos) which  would create an analogy showing how a particular Old Testament person or event had prefigured Christ in some way. In number symbolism, numbers mentioned in the Bible are used to provide a mystical or allegorical meaning. Similarly, the Fathers might use philogoy or the etymology of a word as the starting point and basis for an allegorical interpretation of a passage. This was especially used for the names of people and places, perhaps most notably in Origen’s analysis of the place names in the Book of Numbers.

An example of this can be found in St John Chrysostom’s homilies on Genesis 22. In the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac, Chrysostom explores the history behind what actually happened, and then to provide one level of spiritual interpretation he uses typology, describing how in this passage Abraham is a type of God the Father, while his only son Isaac is a type, prefiguring, Christ. Abraham is willing to sacrifice his only son, and Isaac realises that he is to be sacrificed, and goes willingly.

These types of interpretive techniques helped to open the Scriptures to people around the world, as well as forming the basis of continued exegetical interpretation to this day.

On the Fathers

The Ninth Sunday after Trinity

GRANT to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Last week discussed the Saints. Among the Saints are a particular group of Christians known as the Fathers of the Church. Father has many uses among Christianity. Most prominently, Christ identified God as the father. In Holy Scripture, however, it was also associated with teachers. St Paul says of himself, “though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel,” (I Cor 4. 15).

There are other examples in Holy Scripture of the use of the term father, including a seemingly contradictory message often cited by those who oppose the title of Father for priests, St Matthew 23. 9, where Christ says, “call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.” Given that from the earliest periods of Christianity, the term father remained associated with teachers, the question becomes what did Christ mean there? It does not seem his intention was to have Christians cease from referring to their biological fathers as father, but rather Christ made the statement in the context of chastising the hypocritical Pharisees of his day who afforded themselves grandiose titles. This contrasts with St Paul’s writings where he identifies his authority. He became a Father and teacher through Christ’s gospel. He is not claiming authority, but was given it by God.

The question of authority is essential in understanding the role of Church Fathers. Throughout the early years of Christianity, many challenges to doctrine arose. The Canon of Scripture had not yet been fixed. While the books of what would become the Old Testament were generally understood and fixed because they were simply the Jewish Scriptures, the books of what would become the New Testament were not fully set. Each book was prepared separately and there was not yet a collection of all of the books bound together. Different books which do not form a part of the canon were promoted. Some of these books were entirely orthodox in their Christianity, while others were not. In some cases, challenges to doctrine came even during the apostolic age and were later recorded in the Scriptures when the books of the Bible were actually writen. The Judaisers are an example of this. While accepting, or seeming to accept, some of the truths of Christian teaching, they sought to maintain adherence to the Jewish Law in contradiction of core principles of Christian teaching that Christ had fulfilled the Law and brought freedom from the Law.

After the Apostolic Age, new heresies and challenges crept up. Gnosticism, Marcionism, Arianism and others plagued the early church as much, if not more, than the physical persecution which was occasionally brought about by the Romans. In the mid-2nd century. Marcion of Sinope taught that the Hebrew Scriptures were to be rejected, as he could not reconcile Christ’s teachings on the Kingdom of Heaven and God the Father with the depictions of God in the Jewish Scriptures. His views on Christ himself were also heretical in that he did not view Christ as both fully god and fully man. His teachings were denounced by the Church Father Tertullian. In the same way, in the late 3rd and early 4th century, the bishop Arius proclaimed the inferiority of the Son to the Father, sparking a great controversy within the Christian world. Many different prominent Christians wrote against his views. St Athanasius the Great, St John Chrysostom, St Augustine of Hippo, St Ambrose of Milan; all writing in the 4th and 5th centuries against Arianism and its heresy.

These great saints and teachers did not claim the title Church Father for themselves, but rather the Fathers of the Church we later so-named because their combined teachings formed, and today still form, the foundation of Christian understanding and interpretation of the faith.

Much like how St Paul often uses his epistles to address particular controversies that had arisen in the churches he was writing to, the Fathers would write letters to colleagues or other churches, as many of the Fathers served as bishops. As bishops, one of their primary duties was teaching through Sunday preaching, and many of their writings, rather than being purely theological treatises or even letters, are recordings of homilies they delivered. These homilies may expound on the Scriptures, address issues of the day and explain what our Christian response ought to be. In many ways, the writings of these homilies are no different than the transcripts of homilies you can today find online from current weekly homilies.

The real difference stems from the fact that the Fathers were pioneers. Often the first to reveal particular understandings of Scripture, or make the connection between various Christian doctrines and their practical applications to the daily lives of their congregations. In essence, they went from nothing to forming the theological framework and basis by which we continue today to understand the orthodox interpretation and application of Holy Scripture and Christian doctrine.

When orthodox Christians wanted to understand some matter of Christian theology, they would turn to the writings of the Fathers. When a Christian theologian expounded some new interpretation of Christianity, it would be tested against the writings of the Fathers to determine whether or not it was acceptable.

While many of the Fathers were quite prominent during their day, particularly St John Chrysostom in the East and St Ambrose of Milan in the West, they were not viewed as Fathers in their own day. Just as their canonization as saints took place after their deaths, their status as Fathers of the Church was similarly solidified later. Just as Saints are not sinless in their lives, though the Fathers are viewed as extremely learned, wise and discerning theologians, they do not always agree. Tertullian and Origen are viewed as Church Fathers, but neither were canonized due to certain heresies they promoted. Despite that, Origen in particular was extremely influential and widely read due to the number of books he published in his day. St Augustine of Hippo changed his own views several times over the course of his life, later writing certain treaties to explain where his views had changed from earlier works and why.

In Anglicanism, the Fathers play a traditionally important role in the understanding of theology. In as much as the English Reformation sought to remove superstitious medieval additions to the faith, the Fathers were the standard of authority by which the Reformation sought to return to a traditional and orthodox understanding of Christianity. They provided a standard by which the faith could be measured during that turbulent time, as they do today.

When Anglicans do theology, we test against Scripture, reason embodied in the writings of the Fathers, and tradition, embodied in the Anglican formularies. If you want to test a theological statement, you first test it against Scripture and see if it contradicts the plain meaning of Scripture. Then, you test it against human reason embodied in the writings of the Fathers. Then you test it against the injunctions of the 39 Articles and Book of Common Prayer.

The Fathers were not infallible, nor were they apostolically inspired as the writers of the Bible were, but they certainly were inspired by God in their writings. Their thoughts and understanding continue to prove and inspiration to theologians today, and make their writing an invaluable tool and resource for all Christians.