We begin the week with more or Mount Shoop's take on the wounds of intellectualization in the church.
How do we drink in divine mystery? How do we make room for wonder? how can we stretch into affirming deeply embodied brushes with Divinity? The wound of intellectualization keeps us from feeling our way through many of the gifts of Christian life. This is not a superficial wound, but one that has deeply affected our approach to things. We can even mistake it for a virtue. One of the most treasured character traits of mainline Protestantism is intellectualism. Higher education is one of our greatest accomplishments and offerings to the larger society This examination of our unbalanced intellectualism is not a rejection of education. Our problem is not that we value the intellect; the problem is how this valuing has fed our our disembodied ethos. This commitment to education and learning becomes problematic when it is tangled up with a rejection of embodied ways of knowing, being, and feeling. This problem gets back to our denial and rejection of the body itself. Feeling is trivialized, cut off, mistrusted when intellect or even consciousness are privileged as the only reliable sources of knowledge. This trivialization of feeling has radically in-formed mainline Protestantism.
I wasn't sure how to comment on this. Then I remembered about a study I went to at a 'Church of God' congregation this past week. The Bishop was speaking on the story from Genesis in which Potiphar's wife repeatedly tries to seduce Joseph. Joseph is a slave in Potiphar's house and has become entrusted with much responsibility - and yet he is still a slave. When put under threat by the wife who really, really, wants Joseph, he says that no one in the house has the trust and power that he has. Joseph turns away from this woman. The Bishop focused on the fact that Joseph was a slave - and yet - no one had more power in that house than he - and with that came great responsibility. A slave - a slave - is the greatest. The Bishop used it to teach the men in the room about stepping up and giving no excuse and being trustworthy and always seeing themselves in such a light as this slave Joseph -no matter what the life situation at hand might be. What struck me was that he was speaking to a room full of African American men with a simple message about being blessed and with that - being of an upright, character in and through all situations. I think this is that wonderful cross of honoring intellect and yet taking hold of the value of an embodied experience. The story grew in power to me. Connection: This may be another sign of the importance of taking our knowledge and our intellect and making sure that it is always in conversation with the reality around us (both inward reality and that outside of us). The two sides of life need the other for us to see a bit more of God's Reign. When we are broken and in need of healing, O God, you tie us to life and expect that we will become filled with wisdom that bring our intellect in touch with our experience. You continue to make sure that your way is made incarnate in each of us that we may forever see your face among us. Amen. |
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