I came across this bit from a discussion of whether it was right for a conservative student group to ban a conservative porn star who wanted to participate:
Thereโs a scene in Mel Brooksโs 1970 movieย Theย Twelve Chairs, which is set in the Soviet Union in 1927, in which a Russian Orthodox priest played by Dom DeLuise expresses sympathy for communism in a fight with another character. His interlocutor asks him how he, as a priest, could be a Communist Party member since atheism is a requirement for membership. DeLuise shrugs and replies, โThe church must keep up with the times.โ
(One problem with trying to โkeep up with the timesโ is that, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times they are always changing. ย By the time one style of โcontemporaryโ music gets incorporated into a church service, it will have gone out of fashion. ย There is nothing that seems more outdated than yesterdayโs fashion, especially when older adults try to do it. ย This is why, when the church tries to be contemporary, it is generally a step or two behind and thus comes across as old-fashioned.)
So some Catholics pushed for a return to the old Tridentine Latin mass (named for the council that launched the counter-Reformation), with all of its genuflections, prostrations, incense, rituals, and symbolism, and Pope Benedict XVI gave them permission to do so. ย The return of the old mass, in parishes that chose to go that routeโat least for some servicesโdid attract die-hard traditionalists, including those who disapprove of Pope Francis, but it also attracted young people, who were captivated by how differentย it was from the pop culture they were used to and yearned to escape from. ย This kind of worship seemed to them to be mysterious, transcendent, and holy.
But now Pope Francis, who is interested in modernizing the church, has reversed his predecessorโs permission. ย In the name of church unity, he says, we need to go back to the vernacular, contemporized mass. ย We must keep up with the times even when the times want to go back to something better.
Lutheran that I am, I donโt mean to defend the mass, whether traditional or modern, which is shot through with theological errors. ย But we too have had our worship wars between those who want the traditional Lutheran liturgyโa form of the mass purged of its errors, but keeping the structure, the set-pieces, and the chantingโand those who want a more contemporary service, similar to those of evangelical megachurches. ย There are also those in between, who blend some contemporary elements and contemporary music into the liturgical structure. ย The debates were fierce a few decades ago, but my impression is that the worship wars among Lutherans have died down.
Our confessions actually allow for variations in โceremony.โ ย The main issue for Lutherans is doctrinal unity. ย And this is where the desire to โkeep up with the timesโ is most caustic to Christianity.
The notion that the church should keep up with the times is perhaps the best definition of liberal theology. ย The idea is that for the church to be relevant, it must change its teachings to accord with the beliefs of the day. ย Thus, liberal theology has championed at various times, the social gospel of 19th century progressivism, New Deal liberalism, Marxist liberation theology, and now post-Marxist critical race-sex-gender theory; also, enlightenment rationalism, romantic emotionalism, civil religion, existentialism, feminism, queer theory, etc., etc. ย Also psychology, the self-esteem movement, encounter groups, New Age, and becoming โwoke.โ ย Paradoxically, just about every secularist idea can be found in churches; that is, among liberal theologians and the mainline Protestantโand liberal Catholicโchurches they call home.
In fact, some liberal theologians have made a reality of what Mel Brooks intended as a joke, actually adopting what they call โChristian atheismโ!
So in what sense should Christians โkeep up with the timesโ? ย The Bible commends the men of the tribe of Issachar, โwho had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to doโ ( 1 Chronicles 12:32). ย I think that Christians should try to keep abreast of what is happeningโthe news, the new ideas, emerging worldviews, and contemporary issues. ย Not only because of their vocations of citizenship but because awareness of โthe timesโ can help them from being unduly influenced and can identify areas that call for a Christian response. ย Orthodox theologians should follow the new trends in their field, not to adopt them, necessarily, but to answer them. ย And โthe timesโ might also bring up trends, ideas, and technologies that Christians can put to good use.
How else might Christians keep up with the times without selling out to the times? ย Are there some lines that can be drawn between accommodations that are acceptable and those that arenโt?
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Photo: ย The Tridentine Latin Massย ย by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, available from http://fssp.org., Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons