Searching for God # 84

 Throughout these pieces, the words “imagination” or “creative imagination” have been appearing as central to the search for God. The presence and prevalence of the word imagination comes out of a visceral, intuitive and experiential footing that the church has turned a blind eye to the theological/psychological/spiritual (dare I include political?) significance of the imagination, as perceived and conceived of as ‘subverter, critique, exposer and non-compliant with the ‘establishment’ both literally and metaphorically. Subsequently, I stumbled upon a kind of minor synchronicity, also coming from an intuitive, subjective, and ‘imaginative’ place: taken together that synchronicity embraces  the writing of James Hillman, William Blake, John Keats and Leo Tolstoy, Jay Alison in an obviously amateur, non-professional, non-academic, and non-born-again perspective. Transformative experiences are, undoubtedly the sine qua non of human existence. And, each ‘metanoia’ is considered or not, by each individual, as another episode in one’s faith and spiritual growth.

(Personal anecdote: I was certainly not aware, at sixteen, when I formally, publicly and somewhat brazenly characterized a homily as ‘”BS” because it unequivocally, and I might add self-righteously and hubristically, declared a list of those condemned to Hell including; Roman Catholics, wine-drinkers, movie-goers, dancers, make-up users, and Sunday meal-preparers that I was expressing more than critique of the church’s ‘establishment views as expressed by a Northern Irish protestant bigot. Today, I can acknowledge that there might have been some intuitive, naïve, and green-broke theological perspective that today I might consider “liberation.”)

Seeking truths behind public, conventional, politically correct (and I deemed repressed) small talk, official talk, homiletic deployments and the convergence of minimalist emotions especially and guarded opinions about the ‘state of affairs in the public arena’, lest ‘we,’ the church deter many of the donors from our doors and investment accounts, I kept pressing for others who might have felt, thought, imagined, or even intuited something analogous to my own perceptions. As another tepid step in that journey, I would like to borrow, honour and quote from the writing of Leonardo Boff, specifically from his ‘Jesus Christ Liberator’ published in 1986:

It may seem strange to speak of the creative imagination of Jesus. The church and theologians are not accustomed to express themselves in this manner. Nevertheless, we ought to say that, as the New Testament itself shows us, there are many ways of speaking about Jesus. Is it not possible that for us this category ‘imagination’ may not reveal the originality and mystery of Christ? Many understand little about the imagination and think that it is synonymous with dreams, a daydreamer’s flight from reality, a passing illusion. In truth, however, imagination signifies something much more profound. Imagination is a form of liberty. It is born in confrontation with reality and established order; it emerges from nonconformity in the face of completed and established situations; it is the capacity to see human beings as greater and richer than the cultural and concrete environment than surrounds them; it is having the courage to think and say something new and to take hitherto untreaded paths that are full of meaning for human beings. We can say that imagination, understood in this manner, was one of the fundamental qualities of Jesus. Perhaps in the whole of human history there has not been a single person who had a richer imagination than Jesus…..

He walks among forbidden people and accepts doubtful persons in his company, such as two or three guerillas (Simon, the Canannite, Judas Iscariot, Peter bar Jonah); he gives a complete turnabout to the social and religious framework, saying that the last shall be first (Mark 10:31), the humble shall be masters Matt. 5:5), and tax officials and prostitutes will find it easier to enter the kingdom of heaven than the pious scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 21:33). He does not discriminate against anyone, neither heretics nor schismatic Samaritans (Luke 10:29-37; Jon 4:4-42), nor people of ill repute like the prostitute (Luke 7:36-40), nor the marginalized (sick, leprous, and poor), nor the rich whose houses he frequents even while saying to them, ‘Alas for you who are rich: you have your consolation now’(Luke 6:24). Nor does he refuse the invitation of his indefatigable opposition, the Pharisees, though seven times he takes the liberty of saying to them: ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites and blind guides’ (Matt.23:13-39). (Boff, op. cit. pps. 91-92)

And then, Boff continues:

The great  difficulty encountered by Jesus in his disputes with theologians and masters of his time consisted precisely in this: We cannot resolve the question concerning what God wants form us by merely having recourse to the Scriptures. We must consult the signs of the times and the unforeseen in a situation (cf. Luke 12:54-57) This is a clear appeal to spontaneity, liberty, and the use of our creative imagination. Obedience is a question of having our eyes open to the situation; it consists of deciding for and risking ourselves in the adventure of responding to God who speaks here and now. The Sermon on the Mount, which is not a law, is addressed to everyone, inviting us to have extremely clear consciences and an unlimited capacity for understanding people, sympathizing with them, being tuned into them, and loving them with all their limitations and realizations.(Ibid, pps. 92-93)

Under a heading, Was Jesus a Liberal? Boff answers in this manner:

He was a ‘liberal’ because in the name of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit he interpreted and appraised Moses, the Scriptures, and dogmatics from the point of view of love, and thereby allowed devout people to remain human and even reasonable…..There is a sin that is radically mortal: the sin against the humanitarian spirit. According to the parable concerning anonymous Christians in Matt, 25:31-46 the eternal judge will not ask people about the canons of dogma, nor whether they made any explicit reference to the mystery of Christ while they lived. He will ask if we have done anything to help those in need. Here all is decided. “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help? He will answer them: ‘I tell you solemnly, insofar as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me’ (Matt.25-44-45). The sacrament of brotherhood is absolutely necessary for salvation…Imagination postulates creativity, spontaneity, and liberty. It is precisely this that Christ demands when he proposes an ideal like the Sermon on the Mount. Here one can no longer speak of laws, but of love that surpasses all laws. (Boff, Ibid, 94-95)

We hear pronouncements out of Washington that the MAGA cult is determined to ‘bring about the kingdom of God on earth’ presumably, from their perspective, during the reign of their fascist king, Donald Trump. It is not only ironic and tragic that the very people they are ‘cleansing’ through arrest, incarceration, and deprivation of human rights are the very people for whom Christ’s message is intended to love and to help. The perspective here is that the precise abusive deployment of power currently at the core of the American governmental administration’s purpose and definition, in a completely, blatantly and unapologetic manner, with immunity and impunity, is targeting the very persons whose needs, concerns and aspirations lie at the heart of the injunctions of the Sermon on the Mount, whether from Boff’s or Tolstoy’s written perspective.

The time has come, in solidarity with various Christian clerics, Bishops and prophets, to put our bodies on the line in opposition, not merely of voices crying the frozen wilderness, nor in the heated confines of the nation’s courts, nor in the pages and screens of the national and local and regional media, but in the asphalt jungles of city streets, the tree-lined malls of city beautification projects, in the bars and pubs, the cafeterias and dining halls, and in the classrooms, the lecture halls, and the sanctuaries of cathedrals, synagogues, mosques and mission churches. This fight ‘to non-violently confront evil with force’ goes far beyond the political language and perspective of so many articulate essayists, television hosts, podcast hosts, editorialists and even scholars whose life-long research has focused on tyranny, tyrants, fascism and the purpose and goals of all things imitating the Third Reich.

The contest also exceeds the limits of what is currently a favourite benchmark in geopolitical circles, ‘an existential threat’….applicable to Ukraine, to Gaza and the Palestinians, and perhaps to places like Sudan, and the Central African Republic of Congo. It also exceeds the ‘existential threat’ of global warming and climate change, and the need to protect and preserve the bounties of the environment that make existence possible.

Boff’s faith supplemented by his imagination in service of his faith extends the potential deployment and recognition of its need and spirit far beyond those who declare themselves, Christian. In a subsection entitled, ‘The Presence of Christ in Anonymous Christians,’ Boff writes:

The resurrected Jesus is present and active in a special way in those who in the vast ambit of history and life carry forward his cause. This is independent of their ideological colorings or adhesion to some religion or Christian belief. Wherever people seek the good, justice, humanitarian love, solidarity, communion, and understanding between people, wherever they dedicate themselves to overcoming their own egoism, making this world more human and fraternal, and opening themselves to the normative Transcendent for their lives, there we can say, with all certainty, that the resurrected one is present because the cause for which he lived, suffered, was tried, and executed is being carried forward. (Boff, ibid, p. 219)

We need to shed the trappings, the vestments of ideology, identity, geography, ethnicity, religion (as defined by sect or denomination) and political affiliation in an aspirational movement in order to ‘confront, non-violently, evil with force’ following in the lens and spirit of Tolstoy, Boff, Gandhi, Mandela, King and many others in a historic and transparent movement in solidarity.