Why Pray?

March 23, 2011 By Tony Jones

The question, “Why do we pray?” is one that has vexed me theologically and philosophically for some time. Here’s why:

1) Prayer is not to change us.

I say this because it’s clearly not a biblical motivation for prayer. Prayer is not therapeutic. If it were, there would be no need for God, and we might as well be Buddhist.

I know a lot people talk like this about prayer. They say that prayer is to “align our spirits with God,” and phrases like that. But they’re wrong, at least biblically speaking.

2) Prayer is not to change God.

This is trickier to defend because this seems to be the biblical justification of the practice of prayer. Jesus’ univocal teaching on prayer seems to be that we should knock until the doors is opened, ask until we receive, and seek until we find. He compares praying to a man who keeps bugging his neighbor for bread until he finally gets a loaf.

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When Communion Is Political (Hint: It's Always Political)

October 6, 2010 By Tony Jones

Up here in the barren northland, there’s been a dust-up in the ongoing struggle of the church in America to accept GLBT persons. This time it’s the Catholic church, the St. Paul & Minneapolis Archdiocese of which recently mailed tens of thousands of copies of a DVD opposing gay marriage to its communicants. Of course, the DVD is timed to arrive as we approach mid-term elections. From where I sit, social issues are playing a negligible role in these elections. I don’t even hear Crazy Michelle Bachmann talking about them.

But that’s what the Catholic church wants its people talking about and voting on. Oh, would that they sent out a DVD about developing a just economy or about extricating ourselves from foreign wars. But, no, their primary interest this fall is making sure that GLBT persons are not afforded the right to marry.

In an odd radio interview, the local archbishop, John Nienstadt, claimed that he had no idea who gave the money for the production and distribution of the DVDs nor did he know how much the campaign cost. That denial very much strained the bounds of believability for me.

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Almost Christian: Generative Faith

July 27, 2010 By Tony Jones

I’m blogging through Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book, a theological follow up to Christian Smith’s Soul Searching. I hope you’ll join me. Find all the posts here.

In chapter four, Kenda turns explicitly theological, arguing that “Catechesis shapes missional imaginations, which help us recognize God’s activity in Jesus Christ and in us, as Christ calls us to participate in his redemptive work in the world.” She writes that the gospel in ineluctably missional, and that teens who are formed by a gospel imagination should also be missional. This happens by,

Claiming a Creed: Teens need not only to have a general, warm feeling about Jesus, but must be able to articulate what, exactly, is special and unique about Jesus.
Belonging to a Community: Teens need the “connectedness” that is fostered exclusively in “authoritative communities.”
Pursuing a Purpose: Teens need to live in a “morally significant universe” in which their good decisions have good consequences and their bad decisions have bad consequences.
Harboring Hope: Teens are pulled out of moralistic, therapeutic deism by hope (that God controls the future), which provides “highly devoted teenagers with a resource for getting through the present.”

Kenda goes on to explicate that “highly devoted teenagers” live out their faith and show that outwardly. She then points to the results of the Exemplary Youth Ministry Study at Luther Seminary for a list of attributes that can be found in these highly devoted teens.

For me, I come back to the question I asked earlier: Is it even developmentally possible for adolescents to articulate a creed, commit to an authoritative community, pursue a purpose, and harbor hope? My gut and experience tell me that they can do 3 and 4, but most probably cannot pull off 1 and 2.

What do you think?

Why I'm Staying Put

May 12, 2010 By Tony Jones

I’ve known a lot of people who’ve belonged to “intentional communities,” known in its most intense form as New Monasticism. And I know very few who’ve stuck with that way of life. One of them is Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and he’s recently released a book about staying put, The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture. Jonathan lives at the Rutba House in Durham, North Carolina.

My own experience of living in an intentional community is basically limited to the three years I spent at the Bresee House in Pasadena, California while a student at Fuller Theological Seminary. Therein, five single guys lived and shared food, but we didn’t go so far as to share finances or make any other more intense vows to one another, as do many monastic communities.

But Jonathan’s book is not a call to the monastic life — it’s a call for people to stay put, which, as the subtitle states, runs against the mobility of our contemporary culture. Scot, interestingly, has stayed put in the same house for 23 years, yet declined to endorse the book since, “I can’t say I’m committed to stability in the way this book advocates.”

Well, I can.

I currently live two blocks from the house in which I was reared, and, other than educational stints in Hanover, New Hampshire, Pasadena, California, and Princeton, New Jersey, I have lived my entire life within five miles of that house. On the block on which I currently live — and on which I plan to spend the remainder of my days — three families live in the same house in which one of the adults grew up. The women living next door and behind me are not among them, but they were in the same class in Edina High School. That’s some serious stability.

I consider it a virtue that I have sunk down roots where I was planted, in Edina, Minnesota. But it’s surprising how much grief I get about that. People joke with me about being afraid to move away. And the fact that I’ve chosen to stay put not in the rough inner-city (like Jonathan), but in a nice suburb, only serves to increase the ridicule sent my way.

Honestly, have you ever heard someone make fun of a person for moving? I haven’t. But I can tell you that if you live two blocks from your parents, you’ll have people poke fun at you on a regular basis.

Why have I stayed put? There are several reasons:

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