Jul 18
Three on Theology #4
in Theology
  1. On Death

    In a strange way, it is easy to become complacent about death. As we grow older, we usually come to accept the fact that we have a limited span of life. Yes, we certainly hope that the time allotted us is not short. We hope for a good long life–and that usually seems a realistic and positive expectation. Thus, the horizon of what to hope for, of what is “natural” has been set by death, such that a life of 80 good years comes to seem like beating the odds death has to offer. The death that still startles with its cruelty, the death that we don’t acceptis the death that comes prematurely, the death that comes before the “natural” end of life is reached. That strikes us a tragedy. Yet all death is obscene. All death is tragedy. There is nothing “natural” about it. And when we are not lulling ourselves into a false sense that 3 score and 10 years is normal, 4 score years excellent, we know it. Here’s something Peter Leithart says which chisels away at a “he or she had a good life” acceptance of death.

    Death is an enemy of life in the obvious sense that it brings an individual’s life to an end. But it’s an enemy of life in a broader sense to.

    Death interrupts life, everyone’s life, life in the broadest sense. Death turns festivity to mourning. Death prevents us from bringing our projects to an end, an end that gives our projects their meaning.

    If a close friend or spouse dies, suddenly the world is emptied of one of the few persons - perhaps the only one - who knew you. You have to continue life not only alone but unknown. Death disrupts our sense of integrity and coherence.

    Death is also the death of the living.

    The Christian believes that death will be swallowed up in victory–in Christ’s resurrection it already has been swallowed. But while we, with creation, wait for the full consummation of redemption from death, death should remain terrible. We have a hope greater than death. The greatness of that hope stands out because of the wretchedness of death.

  2. Is the purpose of the Church to change the world?

    Not exactly, writes Father Stephen. Such an idea can involve a false understanding of real change (substituting the idea of progress for real change). Further, it can involve the church in a false standard of success. Read the whole thing, but here are some quotes:

    But we cannot measure the Church and its life by its effect on the Kingdoms of this world. Sometimes we seem to have a great effect, sometimes we get martyred. In all times we are subject to the mercy of Christ and the workings of His salvation within the life of the world.

    Love of others, as commanded by Christ, would bid us do many things on behalf of others. But the nature of our actions has to finally be judged simply by the measure of goodness. Utilitarianism (”the greatest good for the greatest number”) has been a great temptation for Christians in the modern world. In its name, much evil can be justified. On the other hand, doing something good simply because it is good frees us from the delusions of moral calculus. . . .
    In this life we have no measure of success. Faithfulness to Christ, perservance in the faith - these are perhaps the only things that approach such a measure - but only God can judge the truth of these. Judgment is in His hands. There will come a day when everything will be revealed. On that Day, the world will have changed, and no one can delay or hasten its advent.

  3. Analogy of Being vs. Analogy of Faith

    Bill Cork of Oak Leaves has a post on the Analogy of Being, identifying it, with Barth, as a (the?) major chasm between Protestantism and Catholicism.

    What’s this about? Essentially, the analogy of being is about human ability to reason or see its way to God through what is (creation), since what is shares similarity of being with God. In Protestantism, generally this possibility is denied, all knowledge of God coming by descent, through revelation–the analogy of faith. I’ll borrow a quote Cork gives from the New Catholic encyclopedia:

    Catholic and Protestant theologians generally agree that the very possibility of any knowledge of God, both natural and revealed, rests on analogy: in the natural knowledge it is man who takes some concepts from nature and applies them to God; whereas in the supernatural knowledge it is God Himself who chooses some of the concepts used by man in order to tell him something about Himself. The first kind of analogy is called analogia entis, the second, analogia fidei. According to the Catholic doctrine on the relationship between grace and nature, there is no conflict, but harmony, between the two analogies: grace does not destroy analogy, but, by raising it into analogy of faith, fulfills it. On the contrary, according to the Protestant doctrine on the relationships between nature and grace, there can be no harmony between the two analogies but only conflict: analogy of being cannot be redeemed and therefore it cannot be raised into analogy of faith.

2 Responses to “Three on Theology #4”
 

On Death: My experience with older people is that length of life has no bearing on how “accepting” of death they are. Instead it is only proportional to *suffering* that an individual finds death acceptable. Since older people often have an increase in suffering as their bodies wear out and their loved ones die, they are more likely than younger people to have prepared themselves for death.
I meet weekly with a 90+ year old non-Christian women that has relatively little suffering. She thinks frequently that death will come soon, but she can’t find any acceptance of it. I wish so much for her that she had the resources of faith and a relationship with God to draw upon.
However, perhaps you were referring to one’s becoming accepting of the limited lifespan of *other* people. Therefore we tell ourselves that this person’s death is OK because they lived a good long life and another person’s is tragic because they were never able to fulfill their potential. In that case, I think it is just another one of our coping mechanisms. (The person is “asleep”, is no longer suffering, is in a better place, lived a good long life, etc. - some of which may well be true). In any case, even after this post, I’ll probably still try them out on myself when the need comes.

BradH wrote on July 18th, 2007 at 3:29 pm

 

Thanks, Brad.

I see that I should have been more careful in expressing what I was trying to get at.

I think I was trying to preserve the theological significance of death in the face of what we have come to think of as a normal human life span, a concept which can help gloss over the fact that death at any age is one of the ultimate signs that something is very wrong with the world.

In that sense, we all may “accept” the notion of a limited life span even if we are not reconciled to it and may be very afraid of it (a different sense of “accept”–you are right to say that we all struggle to be reconciled to death or accept it in this sense). If we think in terms of a “normal” human lifespan, death is what sets the horizon of expectation; death then is what dictates what is normal. If we view death as abnormal at any age, we are preserving more of the horribleness of death.

I would not wish to strip anyone of legitimate comforts to be had in the face of death. It does indeed seem better that someone makes it to 80 after a “good” life than to die young. But all of that does still pale in comparison to the fact of death itself, whether for old and young. And that’s where solider comforts are ultimately needed.

Paradoxically, for the Christian, the most triumphant comfort for death comes through death (even as we are afraid). Death, where is your sting? Through death I am ushered past all death to where there will be no tears or death, to fully join Christ in his victory over death.

I would hope your friend comes to see that through Christ death itself becomes the moment of complete victory over death, Christ’ death thus disarming death at our death.

dwright wrote on July 18th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

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