New Reformation of the Churches

In 1999, John Shelby Spong called for a New Reformation of the churches and now, half a decade later, Don Cupitt rekindles the debate in anticipation of the Spring 2004 meeting of the Weststar Institute, where the future role of the Church will be discussed. Don Cupitt drafts proposals for liberal reform. Both reformations are printed here to encourage debate before that meeting. The magazine will print a selection of responses, which should be sent to the Letter’s Editor (preferably not more than 300 words).

John Shelby Spong: A Call For A New Reformation

Between the two poles of mindless fundamentalism and empty secularism are still found the mainline churches of Christendom, both Catholic and Protestant. But they are declining numerically, seem lost theologically, are concerned more about unity than truth, and are wondering why boredom is what people experience inside church walls. The renewal of Christianity will not come from fundamentalism, secularism or the irrelevant mainline tradition. If there is nothing more than this on the horizon then I see no future for the enterprise we call the Christian faith.

My sense is that history has come to a point where only one thing will save this venerable faith tradition at this critical time in Christian history, and that is a new Reformation far more radical than Christianity has ever before known and that this Reformation must deal with the very substance of that faith. This Reformation will recognize that the pre-modern concepts in which Christianity has traditionally been carried will never again speak to the post-modern world we now inhabit. This Reformation will be about the very life and death of Christianity. Because it goes to the heart of how Christianity is to be understood, it will dwarf in intensity the Reformation of the 16th century. It will not be concerned about authority, ecclesiastical polity, valid ordinations and valid sacraments. It will be rather a Reformation that will examine the very nature of the Christian faith itself. It will ask whether or not this ancient religious system can be refocused and re-articulated so as to continue living in this increasingly non-religious world.

Martin Luther ignited the Reformation of the 16th century by nailing to the door of the church in Wittenberg in 1517 the 95 Theses that he wished to debate. I post my theses on the Internet and have sent copies with invitations to debate them to the recognized Christian leaders of the world. My theses are far smaller in number than were those of Martin Luther, but they are far more threatening theologically. The issues to which I now call the Christians of the world to debate are these:

1. Theism, as a way of defining God, is dead. So most theological God-talk is today meaningless. A new way to speak of God must be found.
2. Since God can no longer be conceived in theistic terms, it becomes nonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity. So the Christology of the ages is bankrupt.
3. The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin is pre- Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense.
4. The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ's divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.
5. The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.
6. The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.
7. Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.
8. The story of the Ascension assumed a three-tiered universe and is therefore not capable of being translated into the concepts of a post-Copernican space age.
9. There is no external, objective, revealed standard writ in scripture or on tablets of stone that will govern our ethical behavior for all time.
10. Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way.
11. The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behaviour control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behaviour.
12. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.

These theses are drawn from the book Why Christianity Must Change or Die by John S. Spong and were reprinted on http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/jsspong/reform.html

John Spong is an Anglican Bishop, formerly bishop of Newark but now active touring and lecturing in retirement.

Don Cupitt: Redefining the Church’s Role

At the beginning of the twentieth century most Christians took a very optimistic view of their faith and its prospects. They more or less equated the spread of Christianity with the advance of civilisation. But by the end of the century most traditional religion, over much of the world, looked more like an ancient curse that keeps whole peoples locked into poverty, backwardness and intercommunal hostility. The intellectual and moral standing of religion has declined disastrously, and religion now rarely inspires any major artistic achievement.

In reaction against liberalism, modernity and the decline of religion, neo-conservative extremist movements have arisen, notably amongst Jews, Christians, Muslims and Hindus. Some of these movements turn the faith into a fiercely militant 'ethnonationalist' ideology; others are aggressively traditionalist and introverted, making extreme claims to exclusive truth and divine authority in their attempt to recover a purified religious ‘identity’. These movements have become in each tradition 'the tail that wags the dog’; they always claim the high ground, and they always act to prevent real religious reform and renewal. Unless their stranglehold is ended, they will ensure the destruction of the old 'world faiths' within a very few generations.

For the sake of the future of religion, I urge religious bodies, religious leaders and people of good will everywhere to give religion a chance to renew itself by urgently:

1. Overcoming traditionalism by undertaking a thorough critical examination of all the written traditions and doctrines of religion, and both disseminating and acting upon its results. Within Christianity the scholarly side of this project has made some progress, but the Churches have not acted upon the results.
2. Raising intellectual standards, especially by abolishing the requirement to subscribe to creeds and doctrinal formularies, and teaching people that the only religious convictions that are of any value to them are the convictions that they themselves have formulated, and have tested both in debate with others and in their own lives.
3. Forgetting the old cosmology. Everywhere religious worship, ritual and art reek of the old sacred, pre-scientific world-view. It must be abolished, and people's thinking must be purged of it, if they are ever to create a living faith for themselves, for today.
4. Renewing the religious imagination. For several centuries religion everywhere has clung to old, decaying symbols and has often been intellectually and morally repressive. There has been a fear of freedom, and very often a demand for censorship. But for there to be religious renewal, we need to take the risk of encouraging new experiments in religious thinking and living.
5. Letting identities go. As every large nation has become highly multi-ethnic, so religious people are becoming more multi-faith in outlook. We should be willing to repudiate and break with the neo-conservative attempt to get back to a purified, supposedly original, religious identity. There is no value any more in exclusive brand-loyalty in religion.

Don Cupitt is a Life Fellow and former Dean of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. As well as being an Anglican priest and a former lecturer, Don Cupitt is also a widely published writer and a broadcaster and is also active touring and lecturing in retirement.