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Thread ID: 17897 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-04-21
2005-04-21 22:56 | User Profile
CHURCH IN A "CRISIS OF IDENTITY" (Lackner)--Atlas This topic emerged from the original Scharf posting and my reply to it. Christian Lackner (Austria) added the following comments:
With great interest I read your contribution regarding the new pope on the list. I very much agree with most of it but have a slightly different view on the meaning of electing a conservative Ratzinger (who by far is not a fundamentalist, as you correctly mentioned).
John Paul has more or less ruined the church, he desecrated the holiness of the church by using the media so intensively. It is now profane and fighting against its decrease in significance. The figures also show a decrease of attractiveness in more developed areas whereas in South America and Africa this is still seen as a progress. If there is one advantage of the media, it lies in the violation of secrets and it makes processes open for interpretation and reveals emotional reasons for what is happening, if interpreted right. Ratzinger therefore, so it seems to me, is a symbol of the fear to loose identity, a fear of splitting and at the same time he could accelerate the crash (upheaval) of the church.
The only logic that seems to speak internationally the most, is the economy - at the same time not being aware of its destructiveness (due to progress, "the fear of success").
To this, I offer a somewhat longish reply.
I happen to largely agree with your assessments, except for the ideas of John Paul "ruining" the church. I understand what you mean (I think) about his using the media to profane things but I see this as part of his brilliance in stepping into the new age where media controls thought.
"Rat", I think, may begin a profound shift from what everyone knew him to be (he's done so already yesterday -- Wednesday -- and has embraced dialogue with all the other religions, assured a US cardinal that bishops' power to chastise wayward priests (read this to mean child abusers) will be maintained and seems to be playing a most humble role. He could preside over the collapse of the Church, as you indicated, but he could also reduce it to a more devout base and build from there again. He certainly represents an identity crisis for the church.
Lackner then added: "By "ruining" the church I mean its desecration through the media (god is invisible and only as such he can be believed in)."
There's certainly great meaning to your idea that the "invisibility" of God has been a most sacred mystery and may be one of the religion's great attractions. Mystery is a powerful archaic memory of the "magic" of Daddy and Mommy -- the original gods in our infant memories. Yet, that John Paul took advantage of the role of the media in informing the hearts and minds of the people to launch a highly personalized journey of faith throughout his pontificate and his suffering at the end ought not be construed as underminng the "magic" and the "mystery". Indeed, I'd suggest that he offered himself as illustration of God's presence in our daily lives and we got to witness this rather remarkable man's journey of faith.
None of this is to say that John Paul's absoluteness in maintaining the traditionalist ways of the Church and use of Ratzinger as his "enforcer" of faith was the best choice for the Church in the face of the modern age. Gays, women and those suffering from or getting AIDS would attest to these shortcomings in his policies. Yet, John Paul also had a special appeal to the young and emotionally wrapped them into the faith by his embrace of them -- would that he had done so to all the others in need or deserving better treatment from a patriarchally-based religion.
Thus, "Rat" inherits this 24+ years of traditionalist policies and must find his own way to express his innermost beliefs now as the leader of what you correctly indicate is a Church in the midst of a deep identity crisis. This is probably the main reason for the cardinals' choice of "Rat" -- a known quantity in a time of crisis. Yet, as I originally suggested, he may surprise us all by steering a different course.
Now, this difference may be the identity the Church needs to have or find right now --- how to be almost all things to a wide diversity of followers. You're correct in noting the absolute shrinkage of followers in Europe and elsewhere in the more advanced regions of the world.while there's huge growth in those less-advanced regions.
In the more advanced regions, the attractiveness of emotionality and deepened trance state response has accelerated a burgeoning shift to "born-again", fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity. There, amidst trance-deepening use of emotions, handclapping, music and song, followers are deeply induced and feel themselves "renewed". This is a global "Great Awakening" (such as has been seen three times before in US history). It is the trance that allows the rewarding of people's needs for an emotional reconnection to the "great parents". It is the trance that amplifies the hypnotic group's willingness to bring emotions to the forefront and wallow in their belief that they are touching God, bathing in his "light" and doing his purpose.
This has constructed a more mindless group absolutely convinced of the rightness of what they're doing, of what their leaders tell them to do and of the coming end of the world. This is a death wish for their personal Armageddon and "Rapture" so that they can join with God forever.
In the less-advanced regions, the "higher" revelation of Christianity is certainly as you indicate -- a popular stepping upward to a meta-vista of the divine. Yet, in all of these regions, there have been some of the most fascinating shifts in faith -- "liberation theology" in S. America during the 80s (then spreading globally), "social progressives" in Europe in the 80s and 90s as well as linkages between ancient deities and Christian as Africa and S. America reached into the indigenous peoples (just as it had done during the early Christian period). In this sense, the less-advanced regions were injecting their own emotionality and simplified understanding of what the Christian message meant to them. Their variations have actually been a return to the message of Jesus and the "joy" of being Christian -- now isn't that an ironic counter-balance to the emotional attraction of the competing fundamentalists and evangelicals?
Lackner and I have left this topic at this point and await further comments from the Lists. J ATLAS