Richard Whitely Rest in Peace

you appalled with us with your knatty atire,
and with your awful puns we did tire,
but over a cup of afternoon tea,
we got lost in your school boy glee
and now your gone, the world seems just a little drier.

Atonement

Following on from thinking about sin, I have just finished reading the book du jour, Alan Mann's Atonement in a Sinless Society. And this is sure to pure more fuel on the conservative evangelical fire.

Mann's basic thesis is that contemporary postmodern, post industrialized society has lost touch with the concept of sin. This has created a major methodological problem - how do we communicate the gospel if our audience do not connect with a message of guilt forgiven? Mann answers this by first diagnosing the postmodern condition as being essentially about shame. Shame over the dissonance between the real and ideal self. This causes 'ontological incoherence'. He then goes onto reconfigure atonement theory in terms of narrative - Jesus, the 'ontologically coherent' one, provides a narrative which reaches deep into the postmodern condition by entering into shame and so 'absorbing relational dysfunction' and providing a counter narrative in which people can reimagine their own stories. Practically this theology is worked out around the eucharist table.

Whilst it is easy to get drawn into Mann's winsome presentation (although i don't need to here the phrases 'storied self', ontologically incoherence for a while), there seem to be some pretty major deficiencies in his arguement. Firstly, having presented the postmodern era, in terms of the collaspe of metanarrative and a pick and mix approach to truth, he then goes onto characterise the postmodern as shamed because of the disjunction between the ideal and real. This to me seems to be incoherent (which for Mann seems to be the cardinal sin). The point is that postmodernity doesn't inculcate an ideal self. Society has become so diverse and fragmented, that one person's shame is another's glory. One group's credo is another's anathema. It seems to me that Mann has hit on a genuine insight undoutedly affecting a growing number of contemporary people, but, as theologians just as much a scientists, are wont to do, has tried to feed five thousand with a few loaves and a few fish.

We must remember that sin is at heart not to be explained in terms of sociology, economics, pyschology - however helpful they may be - but ultimately in terms of a relationship with god. Sin is a theological problem and ultimately is only understood and experienced in relationship to god. This is the where the scandal of sin hits for a conteporary audience which has excluded god to the margins of personal morals or seen him off completely.

So only as we talk about salvation can we talk about sin. We must not feel compelled to preach the gospel of sin before we can get onto the good stuff. No - the gospel illuminates the extent of sin and only in this context makes any sense.

Sin

What is sin? The nature of sin is attracting a lot of attention at the moment as atonement theology is reconfigured. Our starting point in trying to answer this must be the Biblical picture, without this we are cast adrift on the open ocean of contemporary culture where prevailing winds and tidal drifts determine our course and destination.

So we turn the sin. There seem to be two braod schools of thought. First, sin is primarily about acts which are condemned by the law. The significance of sin ends here, on this view. The other view, whilst not discounting the transgression of the law, focuses on the effects of sin - that it causes a break our relationship with the God. Relational or juridical.

THe first picture we find in the creation narratives is that sin lurks at the door and its desire is for you. When? When you have not done well. Interestingly, this talk of sin does not occur with Adam and Eve's ejection from the garden but with Cain and Abel. The surprising fact is that the Lord is still walking amongst humans, amongst the creation.

The consequences of Adam and Eve taking the fruit results in their exclusion from the garden. This has traditionally been seen as sin. But is it? What is actually lost through being expelled from the garden? It isn't knowledge, communication or communion with God (see Noah and Enoch 'walking' with God). The garden narrative ends with an angel guarding the tree of life. Humans are excluded from intimacy of life with God, not by God's doing but by the consequences of their actions - that their eyes were open. Innocence is lost and man indeed becomes like god and something of the original purity and intimacy of relationship is lost. Not obliterated at that moment but the dam had been breached and humanity is open to the power of sin and its desire for us.

More sin later...

Last Breath

Everything is scratched and dented.
Some scour deep and ugly
But others dance like figure skaters round and round,
Until all you see is iced pattern beauty.

But for others, the surface is broken
Cracked, cruelly
And there’s nothing but prickly slicing shards
Never to be handled

But we see you Lord Jesus Christ
Far outside every city,
And your face is marked and your feet are limp
And your lungs are full

Full of the world’s air.
Please fill our smoggy skies with your last breath.