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Really, really enjoying Diana Butler Bass's book "A People's HIstory of Christianity."

Have a look at TWOTP films with Diana Butler Bass. This one pairs nicely with the quote below.

The story of Christianity most familiar to us is the "Big-C" version; Christ, Constantine, Christendom, Calvin and Christian America, which, she adds, is a militant Christianity.

"...it is a theological disposition that interprets Christianity as an us-against-them morality tale of a suffering church that is vindicated by God through its global victory over other worldviews, religions, or political systems."

This version of Christianity produces a sort of spiritual amnesia. There is so much more to the story of Christianity that isn't part of the "Big-C" version. The title of her book is a reference to "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. By "a people's history" he meant a history which intentionally followed lesser known figures, smaller untold stories that needed telling. Bass adopts this same trajectory, telling a "people's history" of Christianity, lesser know stories (at least lesser known to those most familiar with "Big-C" Christianity) that need telling in an attempt to cure spiritual amnesia.

Here's a good quote within a quote:

"...the desert fathers and mothers believed that prayer was a disposition of wholeness, so that 'prayer and our life must be all of a piece.' They approached prayer, as early church scholar Roberta Bondi notes, as a practical twofold process: first, of 'thinking and reflecting,' or 'pondering' what it means to love others; and second, as the "development and practice of loving ways of being."

For a big chunk of my life I felt a combination of guilt and shame at not being very good at sitting-in-a-quiet-place-eyes-closed-praying. Had I known about the desert fathers and mothers, I might have realized the pondering that comes so naturally to me was indeed one half of the twofold process of praying. Like most artists, I think the pondering part comes naturally. Developing and practicing loving ways of being, now that might not come quite as naturally, but at least I have a hope of working towards it when I don't write myself off as a daydreaming ne'er-do-well.

 

Posted via email from The Broken Wing