|
|
|
|
|
|
March 27, 2008 The Center for Theology at Lenoir-Rhyne College regularly convenes colloquia on “first Thursdays” during the academic year to discuss issues of faith and life, theology and ethics. I am writing to invite you to the April Colloquium, set for 4:00 p.m., April 3, 2008, in the Bears’ Lair of the student center. The subject matter for discussion on Thursday the 3rd is a sermon by Dr. N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham (England), preached last Sunday, March 23, 2008, as the Easter address. Dr. Wright is a New Testament (academic) scholar of international reputation and acclaim. The Bishop writes: “Ever since (ancient times) people have tried to squash the Easter message into conventional boxes that it just won’t fit. There was a classic example in the Times on Good Friday …. In a first leader entitled ‘Universal Truths’, the writer suggested that the Easter message is one that everyone can sign up to. ‘Good Friday,’ it says, ‘commemorates sacrifice, the giving of oneself as a martyr for the love of others, so Easter is the achievement of victory through suffering.’ ‘These,’ the writer goes on, ‘are universal spiritual truths. And the more interaction acquaints those of different faiths with the beliefs of others, the clearer is the common acceptance of these truths.’ So, in conclusion, ‘The Easter message draws the devout together’ (presumably the devout of all religions). ‘From suffering, goodness can triumph. Death is not final.’ And then, a grand and woefully misleading last sentence: ‘That is what all faiths in Britain can proclaim and where they can come together this weekend.’” The Bishop continues: “But you don’t achieve anything by downgrading the unique message of Easter. Just as I would expect to take my shoes off if I went into a mosque, so any sensible Muslim would expect, in a church on Easter Day, that we wouldn’t be talking about the generalized half-truth that ‘out of suffering goodness can triumph’ – even that takes some believing when you look around the world today – or that ‘death is not the end’. They would rightly expect us to be talking about something unique that happened as a one-off, something that happened to the previously dead body of Jesus, something because of which Christianity cannot be contained in the vague religiosity of late-modern Britain, any more than Mary or Peter or John could grasp the truth by saying that someone had taken away the body. Easter is what it is because, together with Jesus’ crucifixion, it is the central event of world history, the moment towards which everything was rushing and from which everything emerges new.” This paper should provoke spirited discussion. Invite your friends who are curious about—and willing to engage—this theological question. See you in the Bears’ Lair, on Thursday the 3rd, at 4:00 p.m. Sincerely, J. Larry Yoder Director, Center for Theology |