Now, some Protestant traditions, usually evangelical free church congregational ones, have what is flippantly known as 'Once Saved, Always Saved.' It's a fusion of Calvinist and Arminian theology. Unlike Calvinism, my free will ultimately decides if I accept Christ or not. No irresistible grace there. But unlike Arminianism, where I can thus lose my salvation, it is preserved instead, just as Calvinism teaches. No matter what I do. Once I freely sign on the dotted line, it's off to heaven I go. Not that I should do bad, or not do good. It just doesn't matter. I can rape, pillage and murder and it's off to heaven. Something both traditional Arminianism and Calvinism would reject, BTW.
When I see the modern Church's emphasis on Human Dignity full stop, especially within the context of the post-war Me Generation mentality, it seems like a materialist version of that; a sort of 'Once Dignity, Always Dignity.' It matters not what I do. My dignity (read: salvation if it was from a religious angle) is first and foremost what matters and it's mine, all mine, no matter what, and nothing can possibly be true if it challenges that fact. I can rape, pillage and murder, and it's still all about my dignity here in the world. It seems like Once Saved, Always Saved, but for a secularized, post-Christian era.
And yes, I know that we do have a dignity born of the fact that we are created in God's image and likeness. But historically, God's unending love, forbearance and endless blessings was not a blank check. Which was always the problem with Once Saved, Always Saved. I'm not so sure it's less of a problem when we secularize it and make it all about me and my dignity in the here and now. Especially if we still believe in eternal consequences for our various life choices. After all, what does it gain me to maintain my dignity and lose my soul? It would seem scant comfort in such an afterlife to say 'At least I have my dignity.' Assuming we still believe in such things.
I have also noticed this human dignity thing at the heart of most modern church teaching. I have to say that I reject it. The idea that the Imago Dei provides a permanent, inalienable, infinite dignity is simply false, and furthermore it is not what the church taught in previous centuries; i.e., it is a novelty. The correct Christian teaching is that the Image is damaged by sin, and can only be restored through incorporation into Christ, who is the perfect image of the Father. --- G. Poulin
ReplyDeleteTo be brutally honest, I can't recall it being put that way since we entered the Church. A couple priests we've had came close, but general shied from stating it in the manner you did. Not that you're wrong. And that's the point. There's nothing wrong with saying our dignity derives from God and therefore is important. But as I see it, the Church has made it the message the World has been dying to hear. That nothing I do matters but I remain the important thing in the room.
DeleteI recently read Nabeel's book, "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus" and my favorite bit right at the end...
Delete“Why, God?” At that moment, the most agonizing moment of my life, something happened that was beyond my theology and imagination. As if God picked up a megaphone and spoke through my conscience, I heard these words resonate through my very being: “Because this is not about you.”
All people do have dignity, but the Church also needs to be saying that message too.
Yes, absolutely. I don't want anyone to think I'm not affirming the dignity that comes from our creation by God, any more than I would deny God's gift of salvation or the promise that any created thing can never separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. I merely point out that OsAs was an abuse of that for willing ears in an affluent age. Likewise, this whole suggestion that everything stops flat the minute it suggests my personal dignity isn't the most important thing in the room is a similar abuse. One no doubt eagerly embraced in our secular, Me Generation age.
DeleteMore and more, I am seeing a convergence between what the World says and what the Church says. Not a good look. Is it really the task of the Church to defend human dignity, promote human flourishing, and make the world a better place? I think not. Its task is to make disciples and teach them the ways of Christ. They used to call this "the Great Commission". --- G. Poulin
ReplyDeleteI actually thought of that when we were musing on the Great Commission. We wondered exactly what is the pressing need to go and make disciples if nothing about not being one seems to be a deal breaker.
Delete(Tom New Poster)
ReplyDeleteAquinas used to say that truth was like a great gemstone, but our eyes could see only one set of its facets at any one time. Think of focussing simultaneously on the two natures of Christ. We have to rotate the gem, so to speak, to take everything in.
The past two centuries have seen the terrible debasement of the human person into nothing more than somebody else's instrument: the state, the Party, the corporation, the race, etc. Even those who say "You belong to God" sometimes mean only "You belong to God as we understand him, whether you agree or not, and if you don't prepare to be beheaded". The Church's insistence on human dignity should mean that persons cannot be mere instruments. Even God (as Christians understand Him) insists on free acceptance through our intellect and will, and what God will not force, no human agency can force if it offends the dignity He gave us.
Now we need to rotate the gem, however. Our dignity is given for a reason and we are accountable to whether we respect it or not, whether we use our intellects and wills for the purposes God gave them. There is freedom, but our choices have consequences, for one thing we can freely choose is eternity in Hell. THAT side of the gem of Truth (what a WANDERER columnist used to call "The Other Side of Christ") needs its own encyclical yesterday.
As a friend of mine put it, human dignity may be real but it's certainly overrated. Especially in today's church. --- G. Poulin
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