Century marks

Christian Century, July 26, 2003

HONESTY ABOUT HONEST TO GOD: Forty years ago Bishop John A. T. Robinson made waves on both shores of the Atlantic with a little book called Honest to God. There was not much new in the book, which dished out regurgitated servings of Bultmann's demythologization program, Bonhoeffer's assumptions about modern man-come-of-age and Tillichian notions about God as the Ground of All Being. But those who were tired of old orthodoxies were drawn to Robinson's invitation to openly explore faith without the trappings of tradition. Some assumed that if the Christian faith could be delivered from its arcane and outdated myths and language, it would be made clear and acceptable to reasonable modern folk. But now, after a 40-year period in which the churches of the United Kingdom and Europe have suffered serious decline, Johnston McKay says: "What we had insufficiently understood is that to clarify Christian faith in the way we thought it could be clarified is to a considerable degree to Falsify it. We had not realized that religion is not about things that are natural, clear, simple and unambiguous" (Expository Times, July).

SKIP YOUR OWN CHURCH: Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen has declared July 11-18 "Different Religions Week" in his state, encouraging Tennesseeans to attend a religious service of a faith different from their own in the hope of attaining greater understanding of and tolerance for other faiths. The idea was put forth by Nathan Black, a student at Rice University. Black, who grew up in a liberal Congregationalist church, admitted having sentiments of intolerance toward conservative Catholics until he started dating a Catholic woman who took him to mass. Now, he says, he still has his disagreements with Catholics but he's moved from "ignorant to informed opposition," and he better understands what attracts others to Catholicism (Christian Science Monitor, July 7).

KNOWLEDGE ON FIRE: Book burning isn't a 20th-century invention. It extends back at least to the burning--several times--of the famous libraries of ancient Alexandria. More recently, in 1992 the Serbs intentionally bombed the Bosnian National and University Library, which went up in smoke while Sarajevans desperately tried to rescue the books from the inferno. As Heinrich Heine warned, "Where one burns books, one in the end burns men." Another kind of book burning took place during the siege of Sarajevo. One couple started burning their own library after they ran out of firewood. First they burned their old textbooks that they hadn't read in 30 years. Then they burned duplicates. Eventually they raced tough choices: Will it be Dostoevsky or Proust today? Still, they saved some of their collection, for, as the man said, "Sometimes ... you look at the books and just choose to go hungry" (American Scholar, Summer).

THE VARIETIES OF DEATH: The diseases people fear the most are not necessarily the ones that they will die from. Women 25 and over, for instance, fear breast cancer most, but they are much more likely to die from heart disease. The leading causes of death vary by age: accidents are the leading cause of death for children, youth and young adults; for those from 15 to 24, accidents, homicide and suicide are the top three causes of death. For middle-aged people cancer is the leading cause; and for those 75 and up it is heart disease (Discover, July).

CALL WAITING: Cell phones have repeatedly rung in worship services at the Northridge Presbyterian Church in Dallas, and signs in the narthex and notices in the bulletins encouraging people to turn off their phones before entering the sanctuary have not worked. So one Sunday before worship began Pastor Quillin asked the congregation if anyone heard a cell phone going off. Of course, everyone dove for theirs to see if it was ringing. Then Quillin picked up his own cell phone and carried on an imaginary conversation with God, eventually telling God that he had some people waiting on him and he'd have to call back. The people got the point. But Quillin expects the problem to resurface.

SHIFTING SUPPLICATIONS: Social scientist Rodney Stark, in a study of religious practice and belief in 34 nations, discovered that the more the Chinese pray, the more they tolerate immorality. He hypothesizes that the usual form of prayer in China entails requesting favors from small deities and shifting appeals from one deity to another, depending on the results. This kind of prayer, Stark argues, is self-centered and self-serving and does not cultivate a social conscience (Chronicle of Higher Education, June 6, in an article adapted from Stark's recently released book, For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery, published by Princeton University Press).

AT NEW AGE STORES--AND ELSEWHERE: The recent eighth annual International New Age Trade Show in Denver featured 320 exhibitors, about 40 of them book publishers, plus vendors of videos, music, gifts, aromatherapy items, jewelry, apparel, and health, wellness and personal-care products. The exact number of New Age specialty stores in the country is hard to estimate, but one figure puts it at roughly 5,000. However, many of the products they sell have gone mainstream in recent years, so they, like Christian bookstores, face competition from other retail outlets (PW Religion Bookline, July 8).