The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.
DOGMA
I am indebted to the writer and sculptor Edward Robinson for pointing out to me that the word "dogmatic" as used today means, ironically, to have abandoned the original spirit of dogma. In the early church, he says, dogma simply meant acceptance, or consensus, what people could agree on. The Greek root from which "dogma" comes means "what seems good, fitting, becoming." Thus, the word "beauty" might be a more fitting synonym for dogma than what has become it synonym in contemporary English: "doctrine," or a teaching... Friends...sometime ask how it is that I ca live with dogma. It's not that difficult. I tell them, because dogma is not dogmatism, which in the words of Gregory Wolfe, results when "theological systems...become calcified and unreal." ... If I do get caught up in fretting over one of the mysteries of the faith that is expressed as a dogma, it's usually a sign that something else is wrong, something I need to sit with for a while and pray over so that I can see the problem clearly.
It is not bad to have some things within our faith life that are "what seems good, fitting, becoming." It is much like having a foundation - a place to stand...from which we can enter the many "take off" points within our lives and contemplate the fullness of our lives. Norris spends several pages writing about the "assumption of Mary into heaven." As a Presbyterian she did not find such dogma from the Roman Catholic church very important. Then again as she heard people speak of it, she noted that in this obscure teaching, she said it "reminds us not to despise this world, even ordinary human flesh, because God has called it good, and found it worthy of heaven. It is a story about potentialities, specifically the human potential for goodness and even holiness, that we so carelessly and consistently obscure." Her recovery of this "religious" word is another example of how important it can be for our "living" faith to not simply throw away words that have somehow become uncomfortable for us.
Connection: What is for you "beautiful" about a piece of the Christian faith? Maybe it is something you have know for a long time. But, also, what have you been able to see in something old that has brought new life within your life and vision? New meanings for old ideas enter our lives each day.
Lord God, you bring into our lives many gifts. Before we seek out that which is considered new, grant us the wisdom to take a second look at the many gifts you have handed down to our ancestors and now offer to us today. Give us minds to search for that which is the true beauty of the faith. Amen
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