Page 2569 – Christianity Today (2024)

My own views would have been terribly out of step in the church's earliest centuries.

I've been working on a cover story for Christianity Today on the spirituality of travel. In any investigation into what the church has historically taught about travel, there's one subject that absolutely unavoidable—something that's pretty disturbing to a committed Protestant like me.

Relics.

Most of my queasiness, I think, is purely theological. I'm pretty much with Calvin in his critique that

the first abuse, and, as it were, beginning of the evil, was, that when Christ ought to have been sought in his Word, sacraments, and spiritual influences, the world, after its wont, clung to his garments, vests, and swaddling clothes; and thus overlooking the principal matter, followed only its accessory. … It is of no use to discuss the point whether it is right or wrong to have relics merely to keep them as precious objects without worshiping them, because experience proves that this is never the case.

But part of me, honestly, is also simply put off by the notion of getting close to dead body parts. I'm a queasy man by nature.

So it came as a bit of a surprise to me when I read a church father's defense of relics that acknowledged that dead bodies are indeed repulsive. Interestingly, he found this as evidence of why relics were so holy. Everyone is turned off by dead bodies, he said. But every year we have these huge celebrations of the martyr, with his remains on display, and no one is the slightest bit disturbed. Something holy must be going on, he concluded.

I wasn't sold, but I did enjoy a bit of my reporting rabbit trail trying to understand why the early church was so nearly unanimous in their support for the cult of relics.

Christians were by no means the first people to honor the bones of their fallen. The Old Testament tells of Moses taking the bones of Joseph out of Egypt. (Hebrews 11 places Joseph's directive on this point among the great faith acts of history.) 2 Kings tells of an unnamed dead man hastily thrown into the grave of the prophet Elisha who immediately "revived and stood on his feet" upon touching the holy bones.

And in the early church, the martyrs were at the top of the holiness list. Revelation, after all, told that those "beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God ? will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years."

Writing around A.D. 200, Tertullian famously claimed "the blood of the martyrs is seed [for the church]." Whether he meant it as metaphor or not, the literal blood of the martyrs was precious, with Christians sometimes mopping up martyrs' blood with their own clothes. After Polycarp was killed in A.D. 156, his church circulated a letter about his martyrdom:

We afterwards took up his bones which are more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold, and laid them in a suitable place; where the Lord will permit us to gather ourselves together, as we are able, in gladness and joy, and to celebrate the birth-day of his martyrdom for the commemoration of those that have already fought in the contest, and for the training and preparation of those that shall do so hereafter.

Such devotion to martyrs and their remains had some critics early on. A priest named Vigilantius, for example, considered such activities to be more pagan than Christian. In response, Jerome insisted that Christians were not worshiping the martyrs any more than the sun, moon, or angels. "We pay honor to the martyr's relics only so that we may venerate him whose martyrs they are; we pay honor to the servants only so that the servants' honor may glorify their Lord." (The fact that we don't even have Vigilantius's own argument and have to read it through Jerome's refutation gives an indication of how thoroughly pro-relic the church was.)

Augustine put it a different way:

The bodies of the dead are not ? to be despised and left unburied; least of all the bodies of the righteous and faithful, which have been used by the Holy Spirit as his organs and instruments for all good works. For if the dress of a father, or his ring, or anything he wore, is precious to his children, in proportion to the love they bore him, with how much more reason ought we to care for the bodies of those we love, which they wore far more closely and intimately than any clothing?

If the bishops like Jerome and Augustine had to defend the veneration of relics to those who said it looked like paganism, they also had to defend it from believers who acted like pagans during the annual martyr celebrations. Sermons from the era are replete with criticisms of drunkenness and prostitution at the celebrations, along with gluttony, nudity, dancing, bawdy songs, commercial activity, and bedlam so great that it prevented any preaching.

And the preaching to such crowds during such celebration mattered. One bishop, Basil of Caesarea, spoke of how important the festivals were to protecting his flock from heresies.

Maybe those fights over heresies were one thing that made relics so important. The early church had spent so much time fighting Gnostics who denied the importance (or the goodness) of the physical world. They fought against those who denied the reality of Christ's humanity. And they fought for the belief in the resurrection of the dead and the communion of saints. It makes sense, I suppose, that the physical remains of martyrs would be important in this context. Matter really mattered.

In his 1999 book, The Way of the Lord, Tom (N.T.) Wright talks about his own

slowly turning away from various forms of dualism, to which evangelicalism is particularly prone, and towards a recognition of the sacramental quality of God's whole created world. … With the incarnation itself being the obvious and supreme example, and the gospel sacraments of baptism and eucharist not far behind, one can learn to discpver the presence of God not only in the world, as though by a forutnate accident, but through the world: particularly through those things that speak of Jesus himself, as baptism and the eucharist so clearly do, and as the lives of holy men and women have done.

This leads Wright to talk about relics. The cult of relics, he says "can be explained, though not (to my mind) fully justified, in terms of the grace of God at work in the actual physical life of a person. Even after their death (so the argument runs) their body can be regarded as a place where special grace and the presence of God were truly made known."

I'm not convinced, especially since my own interest in the "sacramental quality of God's whole created world" has led me to see the presence of God breaking through suddenly in unexpected places more often than in one predictable location indefinitely. But this week, at least, I'm aware that my views would have been terribly out of fashion during the church's earliest centuries. And even though I think I'm right, it still makes me uncomfortable. More uncomfortable than being next to a dead body, I suppose.

Image: Incorrupt body of St. Vincent de Paul, Paris, France. Photo by Derek89 via Wikimedia Commons. Used by permission.

Stan Guthrie discusses Gary Haugen’s expansive mission vision with John Blok of Moody Radio’s Prime Time Florida.

Exactly one month before Christmas, a riot broke out at “the real-life Santa’s workshop.” That’s what people call the Chinese city of Dongguan, because of the number of toys manufactured there. The violence erupted at the Kai Da toy factory.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the company had announced layoffs, and a group of workers and managers were negotiating termination pay. The police had been called in to keep calm outside, but instead began beating some workers with sticks. When the workers inside saw this, they rushed outside and joined other workers. They surrounded the police and began smashing police cars. They then began smashing company doors, windows, and computers.

At the time, the global economic downturn was hitting hardest in places like Dongguan, where factories were used to churning out toys, shoes, and clothing to satisfy the demand of American consumers. When demand plunged, companies began laying off workers. And workers, naturally, were not pleased.

Workers struck back because they felt they had no control over a situation they felt was unfair. On top of that, they live in an authoritarian state, where public protest is forbidden. The minute they march or raise picket signs, the police crack down.

It shouldn’t surprise us that there is also a lot of anger in America’s workplaces right now. But this is not something new — it’s only accentuated by our current financial fears.

In one recent workplace survey, U.S. workers were asked what made them angry:

• Some were regularly told to do things they felt were wrong or incorrect.
• Some felt the company continuously changed expectations.
• Some were upset because other employees doing the same job made more money.
• Some were promised a raise, promotion, or important project, and it did not happen.
• Computer systems were slow and inefficient.

An undercurrent of anger pulses through many workplaces because employees have little or no say in matters that affect their work or morale. Not that they want a say in all decisions, but most employees want to be heard, do not want to cut ethical corners, do want promises kept, and want tools that help them do the job they are supposed to do. When simple expectations such as these fail to materialize, and when they sense there is nothing they can do about that, they get frustrated. They often feel helpless. And yet a great deal is at stake. They may believe that if they don’t fall in line with what corporate wants, their livelihood will be threatened.

This frustration extends to the national economy. Two significant reasons the American economy collapsed in fall 2008 were the greed and bungling of financial experts on Wall Street.

In a column in The New York Times last month, Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt put it this way:

… our entire 21st-century banking sector, managed as it is by graduates of the nation’s top business schools, supported by highly trained financial engineers, and monitored around the clock by thousands of allegedly bright financial analysts, immolated itself with highly toxic assets, purchased with borrowed money, and in the process infected the entire world economy.

Frankly, I’m surprised we didn’t see riots in America like we saw in China. Nearly everyone in America is suffering because of the greed and bungling of others. It makes you want to scream in anger or cry in frustration or strike back in revenge. Anything but submit to the incompetence, poor judgment, and/or dishonesty of employers, financial experts, and government officials.

And yet submitting to injustice and incompetence seems to be the way of the gospel much of the time. Not always, because there are clear instances when righteous anger can and must be practiced. But often we’re called to do the very thing we find hardest to do.

If I were Jesus — and the world can be thankful I am not — I can hardly imagine the rage I would have felt at Golgotha. I get ticked off when I’m overcharged by a handyman or my dog fails to listen to my command to sit. Jesus’ trial and crucifixion was a perfect storm of injustice, incompetence, and cowardice. If anyone at any time had the right to righteous anger, this was the one and this was the time. I don’t know which is the greater miracle: the Resurrection, or Jesus’ steadfast refusal to order an angelic army to destroy his unjust accusers and corrupt executioners.

This is not a call for passivity. Everyone from unjust employers to incompetent government officials needs to be held accountable for their bungling. Speaking up in the face of incompetence can and should be done directly and with conviction.

But there is an unhealthy anger churning within a lot of us right now. It may be grounded in righteous anger — for there is a lot of blame to share in this sad economy — but it is not leading to anything righteous. Instead, it’s an acid eating away at the soul, a quiet rage that is morphing for some into depression and for others into the sweet promise of addiction — to food, to p*rn, to alcohol.

Like most Americans, I’ve taken a few serious financial hits in the last few months. As a supervisor, I’ve had to participate in some hits on others. I’m hardly suggesting that I’m on the other side of anger, living in perfect submission and peace to the providence of God. I look to Jesus in Golgotha and honestly wonder how he could just take it. Take it and say nothing about the incompetence. Take it and do nothing about the raw injustice. Just let it go. That’s the big miracle to me. Some days, resurrection from the dead seems like child’s play compared to that.

But months into the recession, I find myself weary from bitterness. It’s like I’m on a wilderness trek carrying a heavy backpack; at the end of another long day, I look inside for something to feed my exhausted soul, and I find that I’ve been lugging around chunks of broken concrete.

So I keep praying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” hoping against hope that a new miracle will take place — that someday soon I’ll mean it.

Mark Galli is senior managing editor of Christianity Today. This column is cross-posted on his blog,where he interacts with readers.

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Previous SoulWork columns are available on our site.

Compassionart

Creating Freedom from Poverty(EMI CMG)

Featuring 19 top Christian artists, this ambitious project includes 14 original songs about justice and mercy for the least of these. The well-executed tunes vary from contemplative to rousing—”Fill My Cup” is the best track—but the lyrics are sometimes clichéd. All artists—including Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin, Michael W. Smith, and Matt Redman—and publishers are donating 100 percent of proceeds to ministries benefiting the world’s downtrodden. Learn more at CompassionArt.tv. —Mark Moring

Downhere

Ending is Beginning(Centricity)

Downhere’s fourth album features an appealing interplay between vocalists Marc Martel and Jason Germain, but their fresh songwriting sets this band apart. “All at War” smartly addresses wrestling with sin à la Romans 7: “I’m learning to stand the more I fall down / It’s the law of inversion, and it’s all turned around / And I’m staggered by the clash inside my soul / So purposed for good, but inclined for evil.” Downhere has hit its stride. —Russ Breimeier

Jason Gray

Acoustic Storytime(Centricity)

Minnesota folkie Jason Gray, whose storytelling skills are as sharp as his songwriting, knows how to work an audience with his tunes and the spoken word. Especially strong songs include “Blessed Be,” a take on the Beatitudes, and “The Cut,” about how God uses—and even allows—our wounds as part of the refining process. Gray’s clever writing and humor are on full display on this fine live album. —Mark Moring

Ben Shive

The Ill-Tempered Klavier(Independent)

Shive has played keyboard for the likes of Steven Curtis Chapman and Chris Tomlin, but on his solo debut, his talents as a vocalist, arranger, and songwriter also stand out. With shades of Ben Folds, Ed Harcourt, and Brian Wilson, he blends cabaret and alternative with pop melody and bittersweet lyrics. This album is exquisite, theatrical, pensive, penetrating, cathartic—and one of 2008’s finest. —Andy Argyrakis

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

For more music coverage, visit ChristianMusicToday.com. Christianity Today also has other reviews on music, movies, books, and other media.

Mavis Staples is one of the most iconic figures in contemporary music. As a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the lead vocalist for the phenomenally successful gospel/soul group the Staple Singers, a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and one of the principal voices of the civil rights movement, she has every right to sit back and rest on her considerable achievements. The fact that at 69 Staples can put out an album as luminously soulful and powerful as Live: Hope at the Hideout (Anti) is not merely impressive; it's almost miraculous.

The album captures Staples in a live setting before a small but appreciative audience. She alternates between old spirituals ("Eyes on the Prize," "Wade in the Water," "This Little Light of Mine") and songs closely associated with the civil rights era ("Freedom Highway," "Down in Mississippi," "We Shall Not Be Moved").

But she obliterates the sacred/secular dichotomy with every note, imbuing the classic spirituals with a fervor that suggests that freedom in Christ is an ongoing, pitched battle where souls are held in the balance, and that hard-won civil rights are the logical outcome of a Savior dying for Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, and yes, black and white. These are all gospel songs for Mavis, and the wonder is that she elevates them to levels that transcend politics and race and transforms them into something universal.

The old voice is a little frayed around the edges. During her encore, she relies on the audience to carry "I'll Take You There," and it's clear that she has run out of gas. But in the hour it takes to get there, she unleashes a powerhouse of soul—exhorting, shouting, preaching, and steamrolling through some of the greatest songs in the gospel canon.

It is no accident that the album was released on Election Day in the U.S. I don't know if Barack Obama will be able to sustain the people's hope, but I have no doubts about Mavis Staples.

Andy Whitman, senior contributing editor for Paste magazine.

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Live: Hope at the Hideout is available at Amazon.com and other retailers.

For more music coverage, visit ChristianMusicToday.com. Christianity Today also has other reviews on music, movies, books, and other media.

Nadya Suleman, the mother who gave birth to octuplets in California, continues to make headlines about her sex life, public aid, possible home foreclosure, and death threats.

Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life and AUL Action, is scheduled to appear on CNN’s Larry King Live tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern to discuss the Octo-Mom case. AUL describes itself as the oldest pro-life organization in the country.

On Yoest’s website this morning, this is how the show was promoted:

She will be doing another debate on the welfare mom with 14 children.

There is no husband.

There is no one to take care of the children.

Except the taxpayer.

Yoest also appeared on Mike Huckabee’s Huckabee cable show on FOX this past Saturday and Sunday. In the YouTube clip below, she says the case raises issues about reproductive technology regulation.

What is your caption for this cartoon by Jonny Hawkins?

Winning entries will be published in the Spring 2009 edition of Leadership. Please include your name, your church’s name, city, and state.

More images from the Spike Jonze adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are are popping up online. The much-delayed movie is currently slated for an October 16, 2009 release. It’s always a bit nerve-racking to see a beloved book turned into a movie, but these pictures are making my heart race, in the good way.

“Focusing on the struggles of people who find themselves suddenly unemployed or even homeless, it reflects in dramatic and cinematic terms on the possibilities of personal and communal rebirth in the aftermath of economic collapse.”

An image promoting a reading of the script includes this quote from a Bruce Springsteen song: “I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light, searching for the ghost of Tom Joad.”

CT Movies critic Frederica Mathewes-Green recently interviewed Buzz McLaughlin, co-founder of Either/Or Films, which was named for a book by Soren Kierkegaard. The company’s mission statement says they exist “for the purpose of developing and creating films of beauty and artistic excellence that provoke the public to engage with the providential mystery of grace.”

ReligionLink, which helps to keep journalists aware of stories with spiritual angles, writes:

“The 81st annual Academy Awards ceremony is this Sunday, and as always there are plenty of religious issues to provide a substantive backdrop to the red-carpet glam.

“Films have long grappled with questions of ultimate meaning, and this year’s crop is no exception. Whether it’s the more overtly religious Doubt, based on John Patrick Shanley’s Broadway production, or the “life is beautiful” fantasy, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, there’s a lot of potential here for out-of-the-box stories. Frost/Nixon explores moral ambiguity, and The Wrestler is a redemption tale both for the main character and for its real-life actor, Mickey Rourke.”

CT Movies plans to blog away on Oscar night, so please come join the party!