I'm just going to publish the prayer she offered, and put forward this question: if I'd told you that I went to a church service at a random church this weekend, the kind of place with 'folk guitar' church music and lots of talk about social justice, would you have caught that this wasn't the prayer offered there?
"Grant, O divine spirit, thy protection. And in protection, strength. And in strength, understanding. And in understanding, knowledge."And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice. And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it. And in the love of it, the love of all existences. And in the love of all existences, the love of divine spirit and all goodness.
Probably a church service would have said "O holy spirit" rather than "O divine spirit," but either could serve as a translation of Spiritus Sancti. They don't mention Jesus by name, but frankly a lot of churches don't invoke him by name all that often either.
The alignment between "existence" and "goodness" is strictly orthodox. Indeed, it's the opening of the Summa Theologiae. Questions 2, 4, 5, and 6 from the ST's first part are on this very subject. The relationship of justice to this divine goodness comes much later -- it starts at question 57 in the second part of the ST -- but her formulation is not out of order.
I wonder if such invocations end up appealing to the right place, as one might address a letter to "Santa Claus" or "St. Nick" and expect it to be delivered to the judge's desk in Miracle on 34th Street? Or does precision in the address matter, such that a wrong digit in the zip code would keep your letter from being seen? How good is the divine post office?
6 comments:
I'd guess it depends on whether they actively don't want to say "holy spirit", or don't know the original.
Emeth, the Calormene who meets Aslan at the end of The Last Battle, learned that he’d been serving Aslan his entire life, despite calling him Tash.
I wouldn't object to the prayer particularly, it's the sliding definitions of things that New-Agers (there is no one anywhere on the planet who is in any real sense a Druid) that burns my toast. Her phrasing is pretending that we are talking about very similar things, because "Oh you closed-minded Christians, you have to fuss about small things. It's all the same, really. You just can't see it."
Yet people say what they mean eventually, and they don't mean anything compatible with Christianity at all. To follow Larry's example. "Tash is Aslan. Aslan is Tash."
Emeth, BTW is Hebrew for "truth." Very appropriate.
God is merciful and might well hear this prayer. It's that sneaky Gabriel the Druid's got to be worried about. One look at the return address and he's all "Nope, not today Brigid" *toss*.
At least, when you say "divine post office," that's what I imagine.
As I recall, Emeth is the only Calormene whom Aslan accepts, so it's not that Aslan is Tash, but that God has promised that seekers will find, whether they have access to the Church or not.
I absolutely agree with you, Tom. I think that was Lewis’s point. I’m not very familiar with Christian Inclusivism. I also wonder to which god the Druid was praying.
Hey, Larry. Yeah, the question of what happens to people who have no real opportunity to become Christians is interesting. I'm not familiar with the term "Christian Inclusivism," but here are my thoughts, in brief.
The simplest answer I've heard that allows for some outside the Church to be saved is that God judges them by their own conscience. In Romans Paul tells us the law is written on the human heart, so we all have some access to it and can choose to heed it or not.
Another way to think of it is that humans have a felt need for God, and those who sincerely pursue that need will find Him and can build a relationship with Him.
The key point is that somehow they are saved through Christ even though they don't know His name. If we think that 'seek and ye shall find, knock and the door will be opened' applies to everyone, the idea is that these people do seek the divine and Jesus opens the door; somehow, a relationship is established.
It is important that this is not saying that all religions lead to God or they are all the same. They aren't. Each religion is quite particular, and they contradict each other. The Muslim concept of God is contradictory to the Christian concept of God. Buddhism doesn't have a God. Christianity is the only way to salvation.
However, it recognizes that some people cannot hear about Christ, or what they hear is wrong and they reject that wrongness, and yet God still loves them and wants them to be saved. If they search for God and try to have a relationship with Him, God will respond.
I personally think it must be much harder outside the Church. The sacraments, regular worship and prayer, community with other Christians, materials to explain the faith, etc., each make it easier to build that relationship with Jesus, and it's hard to imagine doing it without all of that. But I look to the Good Thief who was crucified with Christ and saved in those last hours of his life as an example.
Of course, there are plenty of Christians who disagree with all of the above. You'll have to take that up with them.
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