Recently I was having lunch with an Anglican priest of a local parish with whom I’m developing a good friendship. Over an excellent brick oven pizza he mentioned a Latin phrase that captured a central element of spiritual formation we had been discussing (It was this that spurred my earlier post about Latin phrases). I’m sure this phrase is not new to many of our readers, but it was new to me.

Lex Orandi, Lext Credendi” which translated literally means “the law of prayer, the law of belief”. Loosely rendered it means “as we worship, so we live“. It is a common expression in several Christian traditions to signify the importance of worship for the shaping of identity. Anglicans particularly see the Book of Common Prayer as a form or order or discipline that through its structures shape Christian identity over time when accompanied with the compliant heart.

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Over at RBL is the longest and probably the most critical review I’ve even written.  It is Charles Freeman, A New History of Early Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009). Freeman is a general historian and not a church historian and he makes a few interesting points. Otherwise he piggy backs some of the same mantras and says some peculiar things like his explanation of the origin of the resurrection.

I’m not one to use Latin phrases. For one I don’t know Latin. Now I’m not proud of this. As a quasi-academic in the Christian tradition, I wish I knew Latin. Alas, we only live one life and mine does not include Latin.

If your young and academically interested, Latin is a good language to pick up along the way if you have the time and inclination.

Continuing down this rabbit trail (this post was not suppose to be about Latin, but on “Lex Orandi, Lex Credndi”  -  see my next tomorrow), I want to tell you about the one and only time I met with Martin Hengel. I was studying for a semester in Tuebingen Germany in the winter term of 2003-04. Hengel tracked me down through the Faculty and invited me to visit him for tea at his home. Think of how you would feel if you got a call that said “Prof Martin Hengel would like to meet you”! Yea pretty crazy.

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Eran Frankel has launched an interesting video blog about Jerusalem. Over the course of various video posts, Eran takes viewers on a tour of the modern city pointing out important religious sites. The first several posts are about the Via Dolorosa. The content is a bit of a mixed bag, but if you’ve never been to Jerusalem you will enjoy seeing the churches that commemorate key events in the final week of Jesus’ life.

Check out the first installment.

Shaye J.D. Cohen in his book From the Maccabees to the Mishnah locates early Christianity firmly within the world of Jewish sectarianism. However, he does not think it remained so beyond the first century.

Cohen defines a sect this way:

A sect is a small, organized group that separates itself from the larger religious body and asserts that it alone embodies the ideals of the larger group because it alone understands God’s will . . . In the final analysis, what makes a sect a sect is its separation and exclusivity. Guilds, clubs, synagogues, and schools resemble sects in that they are small voluntary associations, but as long as they neither separate themselves from the community nor claim exclusive possession of truth, they are not sects . . . Whether as a cause or an effect of its alienation, a sect rejects or, at least, harshly criticizes the institutions and practices venerated by the rest of the society. In ancient Judaism, the targets of sectarian polemics were primarily three: law, temple, and scripture (120, 122, 123).

Cohen notes the following about the movement known from the New Testament. (1) It is a small organized group that has separated itself from a larger religious body; (2) It presents itself as the only true expression of Judaism – faith in Jesus was “the new norm for Judaism”; (3) It expresses itself in polemics against the central institutions of society due to its sectarian alienation; and (4) It performs distinctive rituals, practices and interpretations of Jewish observances. Of the final point, Cohen says “These distinctive and peculiar practices, more than the distinctive and peculiar theology on which the practices were based, made Christianity a sect or, at least, a separate group within Jewish society” (161).

Then Cohen states,

Early Christianity ceased to be a Jewish sect when it ceased to observe Jewish practices. It abolished circumcision and became a religious movement overwhelmingly gentile in composition and character. This process was accompanied by the elevation of Jesus to a position far higher and more significant than that occupied by any intermediary figure in Judaism . . . Christians believed that Jesus, born of a mortal mother, had become the Logos incarnate; no Jewish group is known to have advocated such a theology. Its practices no longer those of Jews, its theology no longer those of Jews, the Christianity of the early second century CE was no longer a Jewish phenomenon but a separate religion (161, emphasis added).

What’s wrong with Cohen’s assessment of the development of Christianity from sect to religion? [Read more...]

Yesterday, January 25th, the Church celebrated Paul’s conversion. I find Paul to be such a compelling person. While Paul has been an intellectual preoccupation for 15 years, he also inspires me. His life compels me to be “all in” on what God has called me to do.

This past year while sitting in the theater in Miletus with seventeen North Park students we reflected on Paul’s statement to the Ephesian elders recorded in Acts 20:24.

I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Sitting in the tunnel underneath that ancient theater, perhaps not far from where Paul met with the Ephesian elders, we thought about a life lived all in for God’s mission. We thought about the simplicity of knowing what God wants you to do and doing it holding nothing back. How little of this kind of drive and passion and courage and single-mindedness do I see either in myself or in the eyes of the emerging adults with which I live and minister.

I pray that God fills me with an intensity of calling for which I live all in. I pray that God raises up young adults who have a clear sense of vocation and the courage to be all in in its pursuit. I pray that God uses me to bring clarity and inspire courage on the part of emerging adults to pursue God’s vision.

The Church’s Prayer for the Conversion of St. Paul
O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, I pray, that I, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show myself thankful to you by following his holy teaching and his example; through Jesus Messiah my Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in unity of the Holy Spirit, on God, now and for ever. Amen.

I’m searching for a family devotional for Lent and Easter that I can do with my young family. Does anyone have a suggestion of devotional material that has worked well for you?

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Messiah and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.