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VOW
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Horizons Magazine Review
The main theme of the May/June 2004, Presbyterian Women's magazine, Horizons, is "Cherishing the Gift of Creativity." There are several articles on how to allow God's Spirit to work through you in creative ways. "Unlocking Our Creativity," by Jan L. Richardson and "God Has Opened My Ears: Spirituality and Writing, " by Diane Karay Tripp, are two articles whose authors' main focus is on the various methods of doing and being creative within a spiritual context. Richardson uses the spiritual women writers of the medieval world to provide instruction, and Tripp uses two contemporary books as guides, Anne Lamott's, Bird by Bird. Some Instructions on Writing and Life, and The Artists Way. A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, by Julia Cameron. A third article and a troubling one is, "A Closer Walk With God, " by Amy Starr Redwine, which has more to do with spirituality as technique rather than creativity. It is about the use of labyrinths as a place to encounter God, and it also explains how this particular sacred space is a useful symbol for all religions. Another article, "The Art of Translation: How we came by the English Bible," by Old Testament Professor, Patricia K. Tull, is really a short history of the canonization and translation of the Bible. It is very well done and very interesting. There are several smaller pieces but perhaps the most troubling article is the bible study resource, "Breaking the Back of Words," by Clarice J. Martin. I will look at each of these in turn. Because my family is thick with artists and writers, I paid particular attention to the articles on the creativity of the artist and writer by Richardson and Tripp. I enjoyed the articles and laughed when Tripp began her article: I sit before a typewriter that holds the proverbial blank sheet of paper. Twenty minutes pass. Another hour goes by without a word. As I wait, I leave my desk to eat carrots, drink water and gaze at flowers outside. This is writing. (23)The sidebars on these articles offer many recommended books on spirituality and creativity. Likewise, I read all kinds of books about writing; Annie Dillard's The Writing Life is a good book, and two children's books, so simple, are, A Writer, by M. B. Goffstein and Frederick by Leo Lionni. But, I am careful of any author's belief system or philosophy. All good gifts come from God, including the books written by creative writers. Anne Lamott is a wonderful writer but she doesn't always hold a biblical view. So I read her books, enjoy them, but toss away what isn't worthy of her faith. Also the women spiritual writers of medieval times, such as Julian of Norwich and Hildegard of Bingen, are excellent Christian writers and helpful reading for Christians living in this postmodern age. These women were great gifts given by God to the Medieval Church. But some contemporary authors, such as Matthew Fox, and some radical feminist, have misrepresented them, seeing them as radical agents of progress and women who stood against a patriarchal system. A better view of Hildegard is Andrew Weeks' who writes of her visions, "The world she sees is symbolic. It does not appear before her like a Paradise or hell to be entered into or fled from, but in order to instruct and teach." Hildegard's teaching and writing as well as preaching was against the heresy of the Cathars, a religious movement somewhat like the gnostics, the intellectualism of Abelard and the "weakness and infidelity of the tempus muliebre, the "womanish age."1 Likewise as creative creatures, God insists that our creativity, which is to be centered in our love of him, spring from both our emotions and our mind. We are to love him not only with our heart but also with our mind. (Deute 6:4-5) Not only his presence, our experience of him, but also his revelation of who he is, in the biblical text is to be part of our encounter with Him. The Christian writer must not lay open her creativity and vulnerability before any god but before the Trinitarian God and before his word. The article and title, "A Closer Walk with God," is a ruse, but a telling one. This is about close encounters with any god even a god within. Redwine, quoting the words of Dennis Kenny, "director of pastoral care and co-director of the Institute for Health and Healing at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco," writes, "The genius of the labyrinth is, it's a symbol that can be used by a variety of people, all of whom can feel comfortable with it regardless of their religious affiliations (40). Most of the first part of the article examines Kenny's assessment and story of the labyrinth at the medical center. Dennis Kenny's views about who God is are hardly in line with orthodox Christianity. He writes in his book Promise of the Soul. Identifying and Healing Your Spiritual Agreements, "God is the Creative Force that resides at the core of who we each are." He adds to this, "When I am mindful of the mysterious unity of life and the generous energy of the Creative Force, I am in touch with what many people call God."2 The institute that he is the head of combines alternative therapies with traditional medicine. Redwine mentions guided imagery and massage therapy, but Hatha Yoga and other new age and eastern religious practices should be added. The next part of Redwine's article, mentions Lauren Artress, the canon
at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Marge McCarthy, who Redwine highlights
in this part, attended a labyrinth retreat given by Lauren Artress. Because
of the retreat, McCarthy, a school psychologist, is helping with the construction
of labyrinths at Santa Fe, New Mexico's schools. Lauren Artress is one
of the leading figures in the recent growing interest in labyrinths. Very
few of those promoting the labyrinths, including Artress, tie them to devotion
to Jesus Christ or discovered this tool in a Christian setting. In Artress's
book, Walking a Sacred Path. Rediscovering Labyrinth as a Spiritual
Tool, she writes that she first encountered the labyrinth at a "Mystery
School seminar with Dr. Jean Houston," whom she had earlier studied with.3
Houston was well known in the eighties as one of the stars of the New Age
and Human Potential Movement. Artress, using religious thought born out
of occultic and eastern religion, pushes for the god within and the feminine
side of God. She understands that walking the labyrinth is a means for
rebirthing a new kind of spiritual humanity and unfolding god within. She
writes:
When we see the whole from this perspective [the feminine principle] we experience God-in-process. We understand that we are part of the divine order. The revelation of the Divine is unfolding through us-not simply as truth from on high, but in physical form, in conjunction with all forms of life. Seeing and creating from this whole perspective is the foundation of the new paradigm that we must embrace to survive in the twenty-first century. ... The labyrinth can make that easier for most of us if we surrender to the experience: allowing, not forcing, receiving not shaping, accepting notFor Christians, walking closer to God means being in a close relationship with Jesus Christ. Redwine, on the other hand, is offering a tool to be used by all comers no matter what they believe, and she has said nothing about Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Some writers offer husks that will choke the hungry, others offer food that when eaten will cause the soul to remain famished and in anguish for eternity. As a creative person a Christian writer must remember spirituality is a neutral term it can be filled with evil as well as good. Those who worshiped the gods and goddesses of Canaan were spiritual and their spirituality was wickedness. In "Breaking the Back of Words," Martin equates the stories of scripture with all other stories and traditions. She believes the purpose of all stories and traditions, including those in the Bible, is to "define identity and potential," and "structure and transform human behavior." Because of this criteria the texts she chooses fail her test. Martin looks at the texts and writes "Recovering women's history from Luke 8:1-3, Acts 1:12-14 and 1 Corinthians 15:3-83 requires that we `break the back of words' by recognizing that these biblical narratives focus on the male followers of Jesus." Martin first examines the roles of the women who followed Jesus and provided for him out of their own money. She complains that Luke in his use of the Greek word, "diakonein translated here as `provided for'-serves to down play the women's role." Further she states, "Luke confirms women as participants in the early Christian communities, yet minimizes their voices and contribution in comparison to male believers (33)." However, Richard Bauckham points out that while some scholars offer the same complaint as Martin, there is a different way of understanding the term, diakonein. First of all he writes that, "neither for women nor for men do these words always refer to the menial tasks of serving meals, but nor do they ever lose the connotation of the kind of service women and slaves performed."5 Yet, as Bauckham points out with the scripture text of Luke 22:25-27, "and in his parabolic action of washing the disciples feet (John 13:1-20), Jesus made the demeaning service of women and slaves to their social superiors characteristic and therefore also emblematic of the role of leaders in a new kind of social group he was fashioning among his followers."6 For those interested Bauckham goes on to equate Joanna, one of the women who provided for Jesus, with the Junia of Romans 16:7 who was an apostle, that is, a messenger of the church. Martin states that in Acts 1:12-14, Luke has marginalized and subordinated the women because of the women he only names Mary while he names all the other male disciples. The text tells of Jesus' disciples gathered waiting for Pentecost. Here Calvin is helpful. He points out that the disciples, just a few weeks before, had deserted Jesus and fearing for their lives. Their positions as intimate disciples of Jesus were in question. Luke names all of them to let the reader know they have all returned to their positions again. He writes, "Therefore that we may know that by the will of the Lord they were gathered together again restored to their former position, Luke records all their names."7 This is meant to show the Lord's compassion, calling and forgiveness. On the other hand the women had not deserted, their story is a different story, but they all belong to and are loved by Jesus. Finally, Martin looks at 1 Corinthians 15:3-83, Paul's account of the witnesses at the resurrection. Paul, in this text, does not mention the women who first go to the tomb and see the resurrected Lord. While Martin poses three reasons people have suggested as an explanation for Paul's lack of female witnesses, she chooses none and yet goes on to accept that in other texts Paul does view women as leaders. But still, she is attempting to break the back of the words of scripture rather than grappling with the text. She does not attempt to understand what God wants to say to the believer with the text. Larry J. Kreitzer explains that while the resurrection is a historical event Paul in this text is not trying to work out a historical scenario of events but rather has first cited a received tradition about the resurrection and then lists witnesses who saw Jesus after the resurrection8. The list of witnesses begins, "and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve." Paul goes on adding others including some that are not known from the gospels. This is not a historical sequence, Paul is simply making a beginning of explaining to the Corinthian Church that there is a physical resurrection, a hope the church is to look toward, which has meaning for their Christian lifestyle. This was a church influenced by "the Hellenistic body/soul or material/immaterial dualism which disdained the physical world for the `higher' knowledge and wisdom of spiritual existence."9 The church was infected with a kind of incipient gnosticism and was arrogant enough to reject Paul's ministry. So as S. J. Hafemann states: Throughout 1 Corinthians Paul strives to make it clear that although the kingdom of God has already dawned, as evidenced by the resurrection power of Christ and the pouring out of the Spirit in the lives of the Corinthians (cf. 1 Cor 4:20), it is nevertheless not yet here in all of its fullness, a "proviso" seen clearly in Paul's own suffering and the qualitatively different nature of the future bodily resurrection and the end of the age. At the same time, Paul must also make it clear to the Corinthians that although the kingdom of God is not yet present in all its fullness, one's ethical life as a follower of Christ is still to be controlled by the dawning reality of the age to come in which the power of the Spirit enables one to keep God's commandments (cf. 1 Cor 5:7-8; 6:1-6; 7:2931; 10:11; etc.). 10Martin's attempt to search for women's history in the biblical text by breaking the words fails to uncover the rich and meaningful revelation that God is giving to his church including both men and women. Not every text needs to name the women, nor the men. That is not the reason for the text. God through Paul was calling to the Corinthian Christians to come away from the worldly wisdom that involved a denial of the goodness of God's earthly gifts even to the point of denying the resurrection of the dead. The Christians of that distant past and the Christians of today our called away from any form of arrogance birthed through the use of gnostic like teachings and methods. As creative sinners we are called to live only through Jesus Christ, our crucified and resurrected Lord. ___ 1. Andrew Weeks, German Mysticism. From Hildegard of Bingen to Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Literary and Intellectual History. Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions, David Appelbaum, editor, (New York: State University of New York Press 1991) 46-7. 2. Dennis Kenny, Promise of the Soul. Identifying and Healing Your Spiritual
Agreements, (John Wiley & Sons, 2002), 28.
3. Lauren Artress, Walking A Sacred Path. Rediscovering the Labyrinth
as a Spiritual Tool, paperback edition, (New York: Riverhead Books 1996)
2.
5. Richard Bauckham, Gospel Women. Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans 2002) 164. 6. Ibid. 164-5. 7. John Calvin, The Acts of the Apostles 1-13, Calvin's Commentaries, John W. Fraser & W.J.G. McDonald, translators, David W. Torrance & Thomas F. Torrance, editors, reprint (Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans 1977) 37. 8. Larry J. Kreitzer, "Resurrection," Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, Gerald f. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, Daniel G. Reid, editors, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press 1993), 806. 9. Scott J. Hafemann, "Letters to the Corinthians," Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, Daniel G. Reid, editors, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press 1993), 174. 10. Ibid. 178.
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