Читать книгу Living on the Border of the Holy - L. William Countryman - Страница 8

By “priest” I mean any person who lives in the dangerous, exhilarating, life-giving borderlands of human existence, where the everyday experience of life opens up to reveal glimpses of the HOLY—and not only lives there but comes to the aid of others who are living there. The HOLY that the priest encounters in the borderlands is none other than TRUTH, the TRUTH that underlies, permeates, upholds (and judges) us and our everyday world. It is remote and transcendent, and yet also as close and intimate as our own breath. The border where we encounter the HOLY is not just at the edge of our existence but, even more truly, at its center. There all of us must find ourselves sooner or later, and when we do we want a priest to engage us in a mutual ministry of support and encouragement, of interpretation and understanding. Without such priestly ministry, we are in danger of finding ourselves bewildered and cast adrift.

This priesthood belongs to all humanity. That is how we have been fashioned. In living it out, however, we find that we learn our priesthood and practice it in terms of a particular cultural and religious heritage. Priesthood is common to us all, yet it is lived out in myriad ways. Much of the guidance we get for our priesthood comes from religion, for humanity creates religion in an effort to hold onto some of what we have glimpsed in the borderlands with the HOLY. With religion we can construct a language of words and signs that will enable us to communicate these glimpses. Accordingly, to speak and think clearly about priesthood, we need to be constantly aware of how it is anchored in common human experience and also of how it is shaped in specific religious traditions. I write with particular reference to the Christian churches of the Western world. Many questions and problems about ministry have troubled churches in the latter part of the twentieth century. I hope to show how two distinct but related priesthoods coexist in the life of the church—the fundamental human priesthood and its sacramental counterpart, the priesthood of religion. When we understand their relationship, perhaps we can find a way through some of our present uncertainties and perplexities.

Priesthood (or “ministry,” if you find that term more familiar and comfortable)^* stands in the midst of a complex constellation of ideas, hopes, tensions, beliefs, and norms among Christians today. The ministry of the laity is often contrasted with the ministry of the ordained. The ordained are under a certain suspicion of misconduct. The whole purpose of ordination in a world that has become more democratic may not be obvious. Churches often have trouble defining exactly what they see as the responsibilities of the ordained. Lay people are equally uncertain about their own role. In addition, many churches are embroiled in prolonged struggles over whom to ordain, while church authorities and seminary faculties engage in ongoing debates about how to prepare them for their work.

I wish to call both those who are ordained and those who are not to a new appreciation of the fundamental priesthood they share with one another, with Christ, and indeed with all humanity. Only a return to the priestly character of all human existence can ground a renewal of our common priesthood. I wish also to propose a more thoroughly sacramental understanding of the priesthood of the ordained, which will root their work and identity in the fundamental priesthood of the whole people instead of in opposition to them. The ordained exist only in and for the priesthood of all; in turn, they bear a certain iconic significance for the larger priesthood. Recognizing this fact, I trust, will enable us to deal more effectively with some of our practical problems.

The present work, in attempting these tasks, crosses a number of the existing boundaries of theological thinking. This work touches on biblical studies, church history, history of religions, theology, practical theology, and spirituality. We are not used to having one book traverse all these terrains. Church polity has usually been kept safely away from spirituality, lest their interaction set off a chain reaction that would prove mutually destructive. Biblical scholars and theologians keep to their separate turfs and eye one another suspiciously. GOD knows that each of us has enough to do at home without trespassing on one another’s territory, and I certainly have no illusion of having mastered all these fields.

It may be that only the proverbial fool would rush into such a cross-disciplinary trek. If so, I plead guilty to foolishness, and hope that the reader will at least accept that it has been a faithful kind of folly. The examination is inspired less by the illicit pleasures of trespass than by a sense that we are exploring central issues in the life of faith today, and that none of the theological disciplines can handle these issues alone. If the present effort does not fully satisfy every reader (and I think I can guarantee that it will not), perhaps it will at least provoke wiser heads to do the job better.

I do not pretend to deal with all the issues raised for each separate discipline. I hope, rather, that my work may make up for its failure to plumb the depths of each by focusing the disciplines together on a set of common issues and ideas. Above all, I hope that you, the reader, may find in this work something that will support your own priestly ministry in the presence of the HOLY and in the priestly company of all humanity.

* I prefer “priesthood” not only because it is part of my Anglican heritage, but because it carries with it a connotation of standing in the presence of the HOLY that is not perhaps quite so strongly felt in the word “ministry.” Readers for whom the term “priesthood” is not comfortable or familiar, however, will find that if they mentally substitute “ministry” for it, they will not lose the main import of the ideas I am presenting here.