Horizons
One of the gifts of the Episcopal Church is that we do not require
conformity in all things theological and moral. On the contrary, we
recognize the value of active, honest disagreement. We believe that we
grow spiritually through freedom of thought and lively exchange.
Our openness to reflection and critical thinking invites some outside
our denomination and some within it to charge that we stand for nothing.
This is either a misunderstanding or a blatant slur.
Here is one way to think about how we strive to live harmoniously amid sometimes very serious disagreements.
Truth, we believe, emerges from faithful, honest, patient, respectful
intellectual wrestling. Disagreements arise from the differing
perspectives of a community of people with finite minds.
To borrow an image from
Hans Georg Gadamer,
we inhabit different horizons. In honest dialogue and debate, we strive
to fuse our separate horizons into a broader horizon. That broader
horizon incorporates these differing perspectives while also correcting
their limitations and distortions.
The genius of how we do theology is the humility of the claims we make.
We are hesitant to make very many theological doctrines into dogmas.
People throw the word dogma around fairly carelessly, and in most cases
that’s fine. But in this context, we will be best served by precision.
A dogma is a theological doctrine on which the Church—the whole Church
gathered in Council—has spoken authoritatively. A dogma is a theological
matter that has been settled once and for all. Depending on how
catholic you are, such councils have only occurred five or seven times
in our history.
The Episcopal Church recognizes the two dogmas articulated by these
Councils: the Trinity and the nature of Christ as fully human and fully
divine.
This is not to say that we have found the final and only way to
articulate the nature of God as three in one. Neither do we claim to
have found the one simple formula that will best convey to generations
to come what it means for Jesus to have been divine and also human in
every respect. However, we are committed to speaking these enduring
truths in every successive era.
Many other doctrines and teachings are important. We from time to time
will disagree passionately about non-dogmatic doctrines and teachings.
However, those who disagree with us are neither heretics nor apostates
nor blasphemers. They are sisters and brothers in Christ.
Let me say an additional word about how we believe these two essential
doctrines. We pray them together. The Nicene Creed and the Apostles’
Creed are not confessional statements that we sign in order to gain
membership in the community. They are articulations of the faith handed
down to us by the community and proclaimed in the context of the
community's worship.
This is crucial. We pray what we believe, but that does not mean that we
first formulate a clear statement of belief and then recite it when we
gather to worship. On the contrary, we pray these ancient words to be
stretched by them.
People have often asked me why we pray those same prayers in The Book of
Common Prayer over and over. Those prayers are the gift to us of the
wisdom of our community. They offer us depths of insight into and
intimacy with the Holy God that we are stumbling and scooching toward.
As we say those prayers over and over with our lips, our hearts, souls,
and minds grow into what those words say.
So it is with our Creeds. Praying them over and over in community we
come to inhabit them. The Creeds are not a litmus test by which we
decide who is in and who is out. They are, instead, the community’s
articulation of the mystery who holds us together as that mystery’s very
own.
We can live in harmony amid our differences precisely because we are held together by a common, deeper mystery.
