What Does Pop Spirituality Offer?

I have a number of friends who are into "spirituality". Not any specific spirituality, mind you, but more of a generic spirituality. I would not necessarily call it "New Age" because some of them have beliefs that might be considered "New Age" while others that label might not fit so cleanly (if that concept even applies to New Age spirituality). So here I speak of the popular / generic spirituality of some of the folks I know. I wonder how much it's like the generic spirituality of anyone you know?

1. Pop spirituality makes no judgments: therefore it cannot distinguish real from imaginary, true from false, right from wrong.
2. Pop spirituality will never confront you with your shortcomings: therefore it can never make you grow out of them.
3. Pop spirituality will never teach hard truths: therefore it can never make you think to your utmost.
4. Pop spirituality will never tell you there is objective reality behinds its beliefs: therefore it can never offer certain comfort in times of trouble.
5. Pop spirituality will never tell you there is a right or wrong path: therefore it can never give you guidance.
6. Pop spirituality will never call you to repent: therefore it cannot work in you to create a clean heart.
7. Pop spirituality views spirituality as a private matter: therefore it rarely builds a community where a person belongs.
8. Feminist pop spirituality has no place for men: therefore it cannot help women where their lives involve men.
9. Pop spirituality has no place for marriage: therefore it cannot help with sustaining a life-long love.
10. Pop spirituality sees humanity as the highest authority: therefore it cannot inspire us to go beyond ourselves.

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That's other than the obvious: Jesus rose from the dead: therefore we have certainty that he speaks the truth about these things.

Proselyte Baptism and Infant Baptism in Classical Judaism

The Christian practice of baptism is a descendant of the previous Jewish practices of ritual washing. Classical Judaism established the practice of ritual washings for converts to the faith. The Talmud records an early conversation about this between the school of Shammai and the school of Hillel:

If a proselyte was converted on the eve of Passover, - Beth Shammai maintain: he performs tebillah [ritual washing] and eats his passover-offering in the evening; while Beth Hillel rule: one who separates himself from uncircumcision is like one who separated himself from a grave. (Pesachim 92a)

At the end of the passage above, the Soncino Talmud has a commentator's footnote on the purifications of one who separated himself from a grave (contact with death):

He must be be sprinkled with the water of purification on the third and seventh days after the circumcision; hence he is not yet fit in the evening. (editorial footnote to Pesachim 92a)

The first comment's inclusion in the Mishnah rather than the Gemara, along with its reference to the schools of Hillel and Shammai, suggests an early historical date for Jewish baptism of converts. The Christian practice is then the inheritor of the Jewish practice.

The Talmud also speaks of the Jewish practice of baptizing very young children, and special status is given to those who grew up in the faith, having been baptized at under 3 years of age. It stipulates

A minor proselyte is immersed by the direction of the court. (Kethuboth 11a)

The Talmud also here discusses opinions if the baptized child rejects conversion upon coming of age.
The general approach of Judaism regards conversion as a family affair, with the children being considered proselytes along with the parents and being baptized along with them. There are some differences to the Christian pedobaptist practice in that baptism was not the normal mode of entry to the covenant, but only the mode of entry for those not born into the covenant. Children born to parents who were already baptized were considered part of the covenant already.

On the matter of acting on behalf of children and securing their baptism, it was reasoned,

That it is an advantage to him and one may act for a person in his absence to his advantage? Surely we have learned this already: One may act for a person in his absence to his advantage, but one cannot act for a person in his absence to his disadvantage! (Kethuboth 11a)

In light of the pre-existing Jewish practice of infant baptism along with a proselyte household, the household baptisms recorded in the New Testament have a historical context by which they should be understood and interpreted. Household baptism, which included infant baptism, was an established practice and was continued in the New Testament. In light of the historical context of household baptism, infant baptism cannot justly be said to have no Scriptural warrant in the New Testament.

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I am deeply indebted to Uuras Saarnivaara's Scriptural Baptism, in which he begins to develop this argument without Talmud citations, but gives enough of the text of the quotes for me to chase them down in an on-line searchable Talmud.

Proclaiming Softly: Christian Reconciliation Carnival #8 is Up

Thank you to Proclaiming Softly for a great job of hosting Christian Reconciliation Carnival #8. Due to her networking and fellowship skills, we also have some new players this month. Stop by and give them a read.

Origen and the baptism of infants

In the recent debates over pedobaptism and credobaptism, Dr. Pursiful makes brief mention of Origen's comments on the subject. In the interest of broadening the discussion, I would like to cite Origen more fully:

The church has received from the apostles the tradition to give baptism even to infants. For those who were entrusted with the divine mysteries knew that all men have the natural pollution of sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit. No man is free from the defilement of sin, even if he is one day old. Since the inborn uncleanness is washed away through baptism, little children also come to be baptized. For unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (Origen, "Commentary on Romans," V. 9)

I have a question for credobaptists or for anyone who holds that pedobaptism is invalid: If the early church held infant baptism to be of apostolic origin, on what basis would you deny that it is of apostolic origin? And if it is of apostolic origin, is there any valid basis for a Christian to reject it? Here we may see different constructions of Sola Scriptura come into play. Lutherans hold to the primacy of Scriptures but are still informed by the witness of the early church, especially in cases where the early church explicitly cites the apostles' teachings not elsewhere written.

Christ, Eternal Life, and Merit

This post continues a conversation with Jeff the Roman Catholic over at Cross-Reference, who has done an exemplary job keeping the conversation peaceful.

By this stage of the conversation on Christ, faith, works, and merit, we have established a few points on which we agree, and it is probably simplest if I begin reviewing Jeff's post with an eye to the things on which we already agree:

• We agree that, in having Christ, we ourselves have changed.
• We agree that if there is no visible sign of change, there is cause to question whether we do in fact have Christ.
• We agree that followers of Christ will grow in our desire to become worthy of Christ.

For all these agreements, the disagreements are still substantial. For convenience' sake I am splitting them under two major headings here: fulfilling the requirements of the law, and merits v. rewards.

Fulfilling the requirements of the law

Of course, we are sinners, so we must repent and ask forgiveness often. -- Japhy

This is what I mean when I say we do not fulfill the requirements of the law. Anyone reading along -- or with any background in the argument -- already knows that Roman Catholics and Lutherans disagree on whether we Christians fulfill the requirements of the law. Jeff did me a kindness by stating the Roman Catholic position in his own words lest anyone suspect me of misrepresenting it.

And as for "the divine law", it is qualified by "according to the state of this life", meaning, as I show below, the avoidance of those behaviors which disqualify one from inheriting the kingdom of heaven. {And hoping I've picked out the pertinent parts below ... WF} Clearly none of us hopes to go the grave as an adulterer or a thief. The commandments of God are not burdensome: the yoke of Jesus is easy and his burden is light (cf. 1 John 5:3; Matt 11:30). ... Why all this concern with being made worthy? Because there's a whole laundry list of people who won't inherit the kingdom of heaven (idolaters, thieves, fornicators, etc.). Such behavior is not found in a life worthy of God.

There is a disconnect between what Jesus and his disciple John are saying on the one hand (see passages cited) and the idea of fulfilling the requirements of the Law by avoiding a certain laundry list of behaviors on the other. Just as a case in point, notice that the laundry list stops short of mentioning hatred and strife, which appear on some of Paul's list of "such as these shall not inherit", etc. If Rome had taken up Christ's and John's and Paul's and James' teachings on love fulfilling the requirements of the Law and covering a multitude of sins, Rome's position would be on much more solid ground. But the "avoid deadly sins" approach -- hey, am I clear, I'm not defending deadly sins here -- but that approach of simply avoiding certain major sins really cuts short the requirements of the law.

In equating "avoiding deadly sins" with "fulfilling the requirements of the Law," all the most difficult requirements are set aside, all mentions of love of God and neighbor are removed, all mentions of sins of omission are removed. "The requirements of the Law" are then reduced to a rather short laundry list of egregious sins that even conscientious atheists might hope to avoid. It is on these grounds that Lutherans on this matter consider Roman Catholics to be "antinomians" -- those who set aside the Law or are lax with the requirements of the Law. We see a move like this as using the Law to justify ourselves, even though we know that nobody is justified by the Law, but rather through the Law we become conscious of sin and are condemned. In order for the Law to have its proper force against sin and sinners, it must be allowed to do the job of condemning us to death so that our old natures may be condemned and die, with ourselves being crucified with Christ and raised to new life. In this way Lutherans see the Roman Catholic avoidance of being condemned by the Law as badly missing one of the main points of the Law: to anchor that condemnation by which we die to our old selves. Japhy, I don't know where you stand on this next part, but just speaking from experience of conversations with Roman Catholics, as a group you all are awfully skittish about acknowledging that the Law condemns us and we deserve to die; while acknowledging the idea in principle, in practice you all can hardly leave the topic quickly enough. (You share that tendency with a number of other Christian groups.) Allowing the law to condemn our sinful natures to death is a necessary part of true repentance. It is as much a mistake to gloss over that condemnation too lightly as it is to dwell on it too obsessively. The Law has a good and useful place not only in upholding the good as the Noble Fellow's Aspirations, but also in condemning the negative as a scouring pad for our hearts. And I think it is precisely the need to see yourselves as meriting eternal life that leads to that kind of self-justifying move where the law is shortlisted to something loveless and without reference to God, something that even your standard issue bitter despairing atheist can manage. ("You say you love your brother ... Who doesn't do that?") Remember the prayers of the publican and the sinner? The one who went home justified before God is the one who knows the Law condemns him and who pleads for mercy, not the one who imagines that the law justifies him, even though he credits God that he is such a good fellow and thanks God for how many merits he has. Of the two, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner" is the better prayer. And as one modern theologian has commented, if the fellow who said "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner" is the one who went home justified, then why do we want to send the sinner back the next week with the other fellow's speech in his pocket about what a good boy he has been? Again, I'm not defending sin, but I am defending an honesty about the fact that we are all sinners, that the right grounds for justification is not shortlisting the law until we can self-justify using the law, but that the right grounds for justification is acknowledging that we are sinners and trusting God's mercy.

Trent (Session VI, Chapter XI) said: "no one should use that rash statement [...] that the observance of the commandments of God is impossible for one that is justified".

I think you already answered this in the way I would when you said

Of course, we are sinners, so we must repent and ask forgiveness often. -- Japhy

If it is true that we are sinners so we must repent and ask forgiveness often, then "the observance of the commandments of God" either has to be shortlisted to the point where other groups suspect you all of antinomianism, or it has proved impossible in practice for everyone who finds themselves at confession with something to confess. Again, our major complaints against Roman Catholicism on this point are first the mishandling of the law and second the self-justification of rerouting the road to God's approval so that it does not depend on mercy.

Merits v. Rewards
There is a kind Roman Catholic fellow that Japhy linked in regards to the conversation on merits v. rewards, posting Do we merit eternal life through our good works? Being Roman Catholic, he naturally defends the position that we do merit eternal life through our good works, and considers this not to be anti-grace on the grounds of infused grace. If any of my readers should stop by to visit Vivator, please honor his brotherly attitude. Vivator unfortunately provides a perfect example of what I've referred to as "Bible verse playoff theology" -- where he collects a set of verses that he believes support his position that eternal life is merited by good works, and then uses those passages to "defeat" a verse that he believes opposes his position. As I've posted here before, that approach generally shows that the position held is not built based on all passages of Scripture, but comes from outside and uses Scripture primarily to find support for an opinion already held. Bible verse playoff theology serves to remove part of Scripture from the playing field and is only necessary when a position is not fully Scriptural.

Vivator does not seem aware that his two dueling sets of Scriptures are discussing two separate topics: rewards on the one hand and worthiness or merit on the other. Vivator's general argument is that because God rewards us for such goodness as we have shown, therefore we were worthy of the reward and merited the reward. That actually does not follow. Before in conversations with Japhy I had mentioned the parable of the workers in the vineyard, where the precise point of the parable is that the reward we receive from God's hand far exceeds what we have merited: the reward graciously surpasses that which we are worthy of receiving and is beyond what we have earned. There is no need to play off these Scripture passages against each other or to abrogate the force of part of God's word; both sets of Scriptures stand at full force. And this is precisely where Roman Catholics and Protestants disagree on faith and works: whether the reward God gives is something we have actually merited, something of which we are actually worthy, or whether the reward is beyond our merits and worthiness to receive it and is in fact in every way a gift rather than a thing deserved. When a Roman Catholic reads Jesus' teaching about the sheep and the goats, I have often heard the argument from there go along these lines: "Works matter, God rewards us, we merited it with God's help." When a Protestant reads the sheep and the goats, our view takes account of the disproportion between the acts we have done and the reward received, and is more like this: "Christ would grant eternal life for a work of kindness so small as visiting the sick. What a gracious Judge!"

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Let me know if you're interested in a play-by-play response to some of the passages you quoted. I wanted to stick with the overall arch of the argument, and most of your quotes were on the desirability of worthiness in a series of different contexts, against which I have no objection.

The Road to Tamaulipas

When I was eighteen, my friend Pam's church went on a mission trip to Mexico, to Cd. Mante in the state of Tamaulipas which borders Texas (where I live) to the south. She knew that I was Christian and we were taking an advanced Spanish class together, so she invited me to come along as a translator. I was to help teach Vacation Bible School while some of the others helped with construction and repair projects at the church.

I had been to Mexico before, but only as a tourist. My parents had made an effort that we only saw certain parts of Mexico DF and then one of the pyramids. My trip to the poor side of Tamaulipas was an eye-opener. It was my first time seeing cardboard boxes in a field used as places to sleep, my first time seeing a crippled person without any medical care whatsoever, my first time to realize that poverty in the U.S. and third-world poverty are on entirely different scales.

It was also the first time I'd seen open disobedience to the law in a church ministry: the group was taking donations of clothing into Mexico and also donations of cloth for the ladies there to make into clothing, things which the Mexican government forbids to take into the country. The church leaders had timed their border crossing to coincide with the changing of the guard to try to minimize scrutiny. I had not known any of this in advance. I could see both sides of the argument and was just glad it wasn't my job to make a decision one way or the other. (I have since become glad for ministries such as Paper Houses which work within the existing Mexican laws to provide clothing purchased in Mexico. With any luck, someone will have mentioned this possibility to that church by now.)

When we got to Cd. Mante, we saw the church building and met the people of the church. The church building had no electricity and no air conditioning. In summer in that part of Mexico, it does get hot; fortunately we were all from southern Texas and didn't have any trouble with the heat. Most of the people had no cars; they walked for miles to get to the church services. Some of them walked for an hour or more to be able to attend. Even in their poverty they kept their homes well, sweeping their dirt floors with straw brooms and making what beauty they could. The people were hospitable, kind and generous. They take hospitality and generosity far more seriously than we do, maybe because there's so much more need for it. They were strikingly gracious and polite. The culture was very alive. One of the fellows at the church, untrained but still more than capable with his guitar, had written some Christian songs and had learned many others. I still remember a couple of them (some of them were quite good), and sometimes I still sing them to myself. For someone who went there to help, I sure came home having eaten a slice of humble pie, knowing I had far more to learn from these people than I had to teach them.

I'm not quite sure what was more of a culture shock to me: the fact that we were visiting a non-tourist area of Mexico, or the fact that the people I came with were Baptists. To be sure, living in southern Texas many of my friends were Baptists, but they had their church and I had mine. My experience inside the Baptist church was eye-opening, both the Sunday worship on the north side of the border on the way home and the daily worship in the church in Cd. Mante. The choirs were large and loud. The preachers were often laity. One of the lay-preachers, probably barely twenty years old, had a message that I remember to this day: that when people mock and ridicule us for our faith, it is in exactly those times that they are aware we have something different, something that they need, that those are exactly our best opportunities to witness to the kind of difference Christ makes in our lives. There was less Bible-reading than I was used to, but the Bible-reading was directly from Bibles rather than from excerpts printed on paper. And I had never before seen -- excepting televangelists -- a church meeting where attendees were called to make a decision to accept Jesus into their hearts. For those interested, I did see two decisions for Christ announced that week. One was a kind-hearted and honest woman named Perla; I'm fairly sure she had been a Christian before the week started but her earnestness demanded of her that she rededicate her life. The other -- I would have put money on it that he was mocking them, though he did seem to be the only mocker in the crowd. The prayers were not in the litany style that I was used to, but were more freeform. The preaching was heavily heart-based, as opposed to the head-based fare I had come to expect from my then-current pastor, a retired seminary professor. It was actually the first time I had heard the "walking on water" text preached as "Peter getting out of the boat" rather than as "fixing your eyes on Jesus." The songs were different too. It was the first time I had ever sung "King of Kings and Lord of Lords," except it was "Rey de Reyes y Señor de Señores". My friend Pam and I did it as a round as a going away offering, singing it through first in Spanish then in English.

Most harrowing part of the trip: riding in an oversized van down winding, poorly maintained roads with hairpin turns along sheer dropoffs at the edges of steep hills, and every place you would dearly love to see a guardrail, instead you see a row of white crosses at the edge of the road to commemorate the people who hadn't successfully made that particular turn. Glad I wasn't driving.

Most scenic part of the trip: the sugarcane fields. Not only is cane a beautiful crop, but as an added bonus it brought back fond memories of sugarcane samples I'd had as a kid.

Most memorable part of the trip: The people. Honestly, part of my heart stayed in Mexico with all the people I met. With Miguel and his guitar, Nora and her generosity, Adiel who was willing to travel anywhere for any length of time with no spare food or clothes or money but only his Bible, Perla and her sweet earnestness, little Marisol and dozens of others whose names have since been lost to memory.

I can't say that this was some event which changed the course of my life, but it did make a few things more plain to me. The old saying "there's more than one way to do things" became less of a cliché and more of a living reality to me as I spent some time worshiping alongside Baptists. The lines dividing Christians seemed to me an unfortunate thing. And in light of the needs facing the people in Mexico, it seemed like an obstacle to Christians getting our work done.

"Proclaiming Softly" blog will host Reconciliation Carnival #8

Updated
Proclaiming Softly will be hosting the September Christian Reconciliation Carnival, and will be accepting posts through September 9. The Carnival is expected up on the 15th. The topic of the month:

How have you experienced Christian worship and practice in another culture or country or denomination that expanded your view of God, worship, or how to live the Christian life? This might include how encountering a different practice led you to a new/different interpretation of some Bible verses. Did you see your own traditional ways with new eyes? Have you heard some Bible passages with new ears? Have you actually changed the way you live or work?

Mail here to submit posts on the topic of the month or anything related to Christian Reconciliation.

The September edition of the Christian Reconciliation Carnival will be hosted at Proclaiming Softly. Stay tuned here (and here) for the topic announcement within the next day or two, and look for a carnival around mid-September. And a huge Thank You to P.S. for hosting.