Hermeneutic of Suspicion

St. Augustine once said of the church "She's a whore, but She's my Mother".  By this he meant (I think) that the church is an imperfect place, prone to hurt us and others. But even at her worst, the Church is God's plan for the redemption of all humankind.  In a recent article in Neue Magazine, Chuck DeGroat, a professor in the Wilberforce Fellowship elaborates further on this theme... 

"Luther gave us confidence to protest.  Now, of  course, the Reformation was a whole lot bigger than Luther, but his symbolic moment inspired what philosophers, in more recent times, have called a hermeneutic of suspicion.  What was previously an attitude that said "its the Church, it can't be wrong" has become an attitude that says "it's the Church, and it always has an agenda."  Luther's victory was tempered by the reality that the way the Church was once perceived - as infallible and Unquestionable - would never be the same...  

Somehow, however, we've decided all of this invalidates institutional church or membership.  The answer, we suppose, is in a house church, or lay-led leadership or in back row, passive participation.  Form this vantage point, we can drink a little spiritual juice without having to buy the whole bottle.  This works for a while, because we're ticked off, and feel empowered in our skeptical rebellion.  But then another part of us whispers with an annoyingly truthful voice: [quoting from St. Augustine] She's a whole, but She's your Mother.  She's hurt you, but you can't live in your anger forever.

Maturity is about moving into the mess of relationships and trusting all that crazy Bible talk about the importance of the Body of Christ for our own sakes and for the sake of the world.

And with that, we move up a few rows, risking engagement once more, all the while knowing it's very possible we'll be hurt all over again."     

Comments

[Doradueck.wordpress.com]

Good stuff! I didn't realize you were blogging...

[Sarahbeth Wesley]

Thanks for posting this article, Brad! Here is the article in our digital issue: http://bit.ly/cdAjAy