The Southwell Litany and Modern Sensibilities

Recently in the performance of my morning office, I spent the week in the reading of the Southwell Litany, an Anglican prayer of immense size (four pages) which explored the fallibilities of the self.  It is a rigorous reading, one for its size, the other for its content.  In taking up this litany which I haven't read for several years, I was reawakened to the passing of time and the post-modern thinking that would find great displeasure in such introspection.  I find that in the quest of fulfillment, modern man is not open to self-criticism.  This lengthy prayer, drafted in a spirit of repentance in the early 1900's, seems so out of touch with the progressive spirit which seeks affirmation, not self-denial.

The introduction sets the theme of this critical introspection: 

• O Lord, open our minds to see ourselves as Thou seest us, or even as others see us and we see others, all from all unwillingness to know our infirmities.  Save us and help us, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.

The initial portion is the bulk of the litany, making up half of the litany itself.  I call this the "from portion," named for the first word of each bequest.  The first petition goes:

• From moral weakness of spirit, from timidity, from hesitation, from fear of men and dread of responsibility, strengthen is with courage to speak the truth in love and self-control; and alike from the weakness of hasty violence and the weakness of moral cowardice;  Save us and help us, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.

Other requests in this introspection:

• From the irresolution that carries no choice into act,
• From the sluggishness of indolence and the slackness of indifference,
• From dullness of conscience, from feeble sense of duty, from thoughtless disregard of consequences to others,
• From love of flattery, from over ready belief in praise, from dislike of criticism,
• From all love of display and sacrifice to popularity,
• From desire to have our own way in all things, from overweening love of our own ideas and blindness to the value of others,

This is followed by a smaller portion, which advances the times we live in, as such a moments of spiritual danger.  Thus I call this part the "In all times portion:"

• In all times to follow pleasure ...
• In all times of ignorance and perplexity as to what is right and best to do ...
• In times of doubts and questionings, when our belief is perplexed by new learning, new thought, when our faith is strained by creeds, by doctrines, by mysteries beyond our understanding ... alike from stubborn rejection of new insights and from hasty assurance that we are wiser than our fathers.

As the litany closes, there is a triad of prayers for true understanding of self:

• Give us knowledge of ourselves, our powers and weaknesses, our spirit, our sympathy, our imagination, our knowledge, our truth;  teach us by the standard of Thy Word, by the judgments of others, by examinations of ourselves; give us earnest desire to strengthen ourselves by study, by diligence, by prayer and meditation;  and from all fancies, delusions and prejudices of habit or temper or society:
• Give us true knowledge of our brethren on their differences from us and in their likenesses to us that we may deal with their real selves, measuring their feelings by our own but patiently considering their varied lives and thoughts and circumstances; and in all our relations to them, from false judgments of our own, from misplaced trust and distrust, from misplaced giving and refusing, from misplaced praise and rebuke:
• Chiefly, O Lord, we pray Thee, give us knowledge of Thee, to see Thee in all Thy works, always to feel Thy presence near, to hear and know Thy call; may Thy Spirit be our will, and in all shortcomings and infirmities may we have sure faith in Thee:

The litany closes with this final petition:

• Finally, O Lord, we humbly beseech Thee, blot out our past transgressions, heal the evils of our past negligences and ignorances, make us amend our past mistakes and misunderstandings; uplift our hearts to new love, new energy and devotion that we may be unburdened from the grief and shame of past faithlessness to go forth in Thy strength to persevere through success and failure, through good report and evil report, even to the end; and in all time of our tribulation, in all time of our prosperity: Save us and help us, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.

How would this litany travel in the ranks of the self-contented and narcissistic among us?  This seems to be the great divide of the human spirit in dealing with religious thought.  It is the grand abyss that ultimately separates one from all God-talk.  Yet, if all unbridled pride and pompousness could come under some degree of control, how would society be improved?

Introspection is not criminal behavior.  All efforts for self-doubt will not end in exercises in futility.  It may be the first step towards nobility to understand our limitations.

Christian "Para-Morality"

In the July 19th broadcast of Unbelievable?, the atheist spokesman, Rory Fenton remarked that as a "Catholic-atheist," he had grown up in the tradition, but rejected it in his perception that the moral code of the Church had not advanced itself beyond the mores that any secular man would embrace.  His lapse into atheism wasn't to live an exotic wild life of pleasure.  His demeanor was that of an extremely principled person.  Bravo for his ethos, but he remarks on an inaccuracy concerning the Christian faith.

Christianity doesn't promote a specific moral code, not even the Mosaic ordinance of the Old Testament.  Not that a Christian is not cognizant of the Ten Commandments.  They would cite each commandment, arguing only over the numeration of the specific commandment (e.g., the commandment against murder being the Sixth Commandment for my Reformed friends has always been the Fifth Commandment to Lutherans as I and Catholics as well).  They would agree on the importance of the Laws of Moses in daily affairs, but differentiate about the ultimate need of them in matters of salvation.

Christianity is compelled by the single commandment of Christ, to love one another (as impossible a moral code to preserve).  Thus Christianity is not about commitment to established codes, but motivation to properly apply the divine will.  It deals with matters of conscience, and requests thoughtful introspection to all applications.  Moses is indispensable, only the ultimate consequences of failure is dispensed (the faith in Christ, thus there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus).

This is what is maddening to those outside the faith, who deem this faith worthy of criticism.  In white vs. black assessments (this wrong, that right), we may fail to present a system of consistency.  Take, for example, war.  One Christian may be the perfect pacifist.  Another may recognize the matter of defense of self of defense of the weak and defenseless.  One may seek contribution to the war effort as a medic, a soldier, or an anti-war activist.  All impelled by Christ's command to love.  All making a conscientious choice in the matter and at peace with their view of war (irony intentional).    This makes any perception of a truly Christian ethos difficult.  Snickers of presumed hypocrisy are invoked, all due to a failure to understand Christ's Gospel message.

Christ did not descend to offer us new inscribed slabs of stone.  He rose up on a cross to foil the results of Moses' Ten, the guilt and consciousness of sin, its just retribution for failed morals (a truly universal moral status), and to promote a faith-life in which morals no longer are compulsory but a pleasant response of gratitude for something as simple and simply impossible as forgiveness.

And that removes that subtle cause of morality, retribution for failure to abide by the subtle codes that align us all.  Modern morality fails to understand it, or have it at all.

Wit vs. Wisdom

In the recent Unbelievable? podcast, two gentlemen (theist/atheist format) debated the legitimacy of the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" argument.  It was agreed that such a concept raised the issues about the theme of "intelligent design," but in itself was no better than a "conversation starter."  It was further agreed that the range of acceptable behavior concerning dealing with offensive parodies needed definition.  Such an attack against some Muslim paradigm would have led to aggressive responses.  Aggressive responses are inconvenient replies, but often they are responses to aggressive attacks.  The value of the FSM remains as conceptualizing theist creative/origins as buffoonery, but lacking this FSM only belabors the fact that atheistic approaches to the origins issues lacks that initial spark.  Beginnings > how?  From which core materials > origins from where?

Grahame Veale (the theist) needed only to remark that the FSM consisted of components that were material, and thus did not constitute creative force.  Pasta has limitations.  Thus the objection to the multitudes of theistic originators (the atheistic argument) is advanced through the elimination of one obvious phony towards the elimination of all other ineligible possibilities.  Theists quickly eliminate pantheist and panentheist possibilities.  Thus most of that roadwork has been accomplished.

In sum, we have often confused the element of wit as the sum and substance of wisdom.  The atheist does often spout clever lines.  Critical examination allows wit to be scrutinized to see if it remains wit or witlessness.  The FSM fails this test of wit.  It in world of that which ought to be carbohydrates, wither the proteins?  This last statement is theistic wit.  Atheistic examination of theism argues the present world as a botched work, hence not divine in origin.  However, the botched element arises in consequence of human actions not following divine predilections.  The un-botching is best expressed in Christianity, where God delivers the world from the sad state of affairs.

Modern Activism and the "Sisyphus Effect"

To all intents and purposes, one would suppose the life of Rev. Jesse Jackson to be an abject failure.  He continues to speak, to march, to aggressively advance the cause of "rights" in this nation.  There has been no stop in him.

But advances have been made.  The life of the 50's African-American is stark contrast to the life of the millennial African-American.  The good reverend has achieved much, accomplished much welcome change.  How could this man be an abject failure?  Only in that he continues to speak, march and advocate as if nothing had been accomplished.

And this is the heart of what I term the Sisyphus Effect.  In Greek mythology, Sisyphus challenged the gods in the Titan Wars and was punished by eternally hauling a huge boulder up an incline only to have the rock tumble back, forcing the fallen hero to redouble his efforts to put the stone into place, and action reenacted to infinity.  Activists do make bold stands, agitate for their causes, and succeed, only to hanker for more causes, more redress to inequities.  All hoping that the popular view of their work will continue to be deemed "heroic."

And this is the flaw of activism.  An eternal state of unrest is a form of social agony that we wished relief not continuation.  Progress is not always to be forward.  History allows for regression as a term for such relief.  Lyndon B. Johnson gave way to Reagan via Nixon and Carter.  Then a reflux to Obama via two Bushes and one Clinton.  The boulder will roll back.  To believe that Rev. Jackson merely perpetuates the political tone of crisis to maintain his political clout and prestige is erroneous.  Liberty means vigilance, and with two causes in the political millrace, such vigilance can become strained.  Celebrate the advances.  Acknowledge that times of reversal will occur and should be welcome. 

But the greatest ideal is that Sisyphus could break from his labors, if but for the moment.