Building Up the Ancient Ruins - A Response to the Present Crisis

"They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations." (Isaiah 61:4)

What are Anglicans to do in light of the recent Episcopal Convention and the looming schism within the Anglican Communion? There are many responses, ranging from ignoring the problem, to seeking a constructive resolution, to choosing up sides, to the idea of a covenant for the Anglican Communion. I, for one, am in favor of a covenant. It needs to be rigorous, including such things as the Articles of Religion, statements on proper biblical interpretation, and a clear orthodox statement on sexuality. Doubtless the revisionists will attempt to weaken the covenant, making it possible for heresy and immorality to corrupt, not only the American Church, but the whole of the Anglican Communion. For that reason the covenant must be clear and comprehensive, returning to the Anglican Formularies.

A covenant is a step in the right direction, but it could simply paper over a problem whose roots lie deep in history. We can begin to address the present crisis by asking where it came from in the first place. It is the result of generations of decisions, both great and small, made by innumerable individuals. Each generation made decisions which were passed on to subsequent generations who received them, ratified them, and augmented them with further decisions which drove the Church further and further from the gospel of Jesus Christ. At times, individuals and groups came to the fore in terms of influence, but in the end, all church members contributed, and still contribute, to the present crisis. For that reason, simply ratifying a covenant, even a rigorous orthodox one, is not enough. Nor will getting an orthodox bishop be enough to solve the problem. We live in a culture where heresy and immorality sprout daily from the soil of our individual lives and corporate faith. We are the problem, not just the revisionists. We are also part of the solution, every one of us, redeemed in Jesus Christ as attested in Scripture. Before indicating what we can do, let me first describe aspects of our spiritual inheritance.

What are some of the characteristics of our present spiritual devastation? Once that question is addressed, we will be in a stronger position to reform the Church. Let me list some of the things that went wrong. First, the Church, especially the seminaries, clergy, and bishops, uncritically adopted the historical/critical method as it gathered force in the early 19th century. This method has some helpful aspects, but generations of seminary students graduated without ever realizing how the Creeds should direct biblical interpretation, nor were they sufficiently aware of the theological presuppositions that govern the differing approaches to biblical exegesis. As a result, they were little prepared for heretical interpretations of Scripture, and in fact, promoted such interpretations. Further, beginning in the 19th century in response to the rise of science and the Enlightenment, a new theological synthesis emerged. This liberal theological synthesis was a heresy, but it was not adequately addressed by the Church. Instead, it subverted a significant portion of the leadership as well as laity. Beginning in about the sixth century, the Church began to relegate healing and power over evil spirits to the margin of its common life. This was partially recaptured by the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, beginning at the start of the 20th century, but never became normative or expected in the mainline churches as it was in the church of the first few centuries. As a result, it was assumed that certain of our behaviors are determined by something other than the grace of God, whether it be our hereditary, our upbringing, or our culture. At the time of the Reformation, a number of churches lost an understanding of the great Catholic tradition of confession before a priest together with healing and deliverance. As a result, many Christians, including Christian leaders, do not have confessors, nor are they responsible to anyone for their spiritual life. They have secret sins which make them vulnerable to attack from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Nor are many Christians aware of the great spiritual tradition, the dark nights of the soul, and how God leads and reforms the soul over time. Spiritual immaturity or apathy is the result. Beginning in the 17th century, with the breakdown of Christendom, the rise of Science, the Enlightenment, and the formation of an emergent capitalism, the notion arose that faith was a private matter with little relevance for the world of finance and government. As a result, the Christian traditions of a just government and a fair wage went into eclipse. Daily life, the life of market place and politics, became saturated with pagan ideas that undermine a vital Christian life, together with lopsided attempts at reform from both the Christian right and left. The nineteenth century challenges of Darwin, Marx, and Freud, were not sufficiently addressed by a reappraisal of orthodoxy and the Genesis creation accounts, by an widespread attempt to bring faith to bear on appalling economic conditions (conditions which sill exist in many parts of the world), and a failure to develop and implement a biblical anthropology for the healing of the soul. Beginning in the 16th century the monastic orders were either destroyed or entered into decline, so that daily life, public and private, does not have before us the example of Christ in the lives of those who take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Instead, the headlong pursuit of money, sex, and power dominate our cultural landscape. Millions are swept away.

These are a few of the things that have happened over the centuries. All of us have received this inheritance and reinforced its continuance. All of us have contributed to the present crisis of Anglicanism. In order to address the crisis, we need to daily seek God in worship, prayer, and study. We need to work on the issues enumerated above and find those who can help us along the way. If we do not do this, we will sink back once again into apostasy. We need courage because overcoming the devastations of many generations means living differently from what we were taught as children. It means doing things we have never done before, addressing issues we have never addressed before. Hopefully, the summary in the previous paragraph makes it clear that we cannot live as we have always lived, even with orthodox bishops at the helm. Overcoming the past is a lifelong effort, requiring the gifts, talents, and finances of all of us. We may not be involved in the high level efforts by bishops and theologians to address the present crisis, but all our decisions, both great and small, have a bearing on its resolution. We have a choice: we can either build up the ancient ruins for new life in our time, or we can remain a slave to the legacy of the past, the devastations of many generations.

The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.
July, 2006.