Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me.
~John Newton~
JOHN NEWTON
By all accounts, including his own, John Newton was a wretch; being involved in the African slave trade during the eighteenth century, attaining the level of captain of his own slave ship. It took a fateful encounter with nature, in the form of a storm at sea, which could have ended his life that woke him up to how weak and wretched he was. The important and overwhelming feeling John had during this experience was that of being saved. So strong was this sensation of being saved that John Newton later became an ordained Anglican curate and composed his famous hymn, "Amazing Grace."
By all accounts, including his own, John Newton was a wretch; being involved in the African slave trade during the eighteenth century, attaining the level of captain of his own slave ship. It took a fateful encounter with nature, in the form of a storm at sea, which could have ended his life that woke him up to how weak and wretched he was. The important and overwhelming feeling John had during this experience was that of being saved. So strong was this sensation of being saved that John Newton later became an ordained Anglican curate and composed his famous hymn, "Amazing Grace."
For Newton the sense of being spared the ravages of a storm led him to encounter a unitive experience in which he sensed a connection to the OTHER, the holy. Why was he saved, when others in similar situations were not? Was there a purpose to this storm? Was this storm about him? Such questions could have crossed his mind. If so, Newton might have concluded that if this storm was about him, then everyone affected by it was in some way connected to him and he with them. He would have and likely did see the true connection between slave and master. They are the same, human in all aspects. Slave and master shared the same fateful storm. The storm didn't differentiate between slave and master, between white skin and black skin. The fear of the slave was the same as the master and vis versa. In the midst of the storm Newton reportedly cried out, "Lord have mercy."
When he, his crew, his ship, and his human cargo made it through the storm, it is said Newton recalled his crying out for God's mercy and was converted on the spot. Newton identified this moment as a moment of grace.
GRACE
Grace is such an interesting word. In Christianity, grace is viewed as an attribute of God. In the Christian New Testament, Ephesians 2:8, grace is defined as a free gift, "For by grace are you saved by faith, and not that of yourself, it is a gift of God." What one encounters in this definition of grace is that, while grace is identified as a free gift of God, it is a conditional free gift based on one's faith, which seems to support the well known American adage, "There's no such thing as a free gift."
In all theistic religions there exists some form of a behavioral or moral economy. For example, in Christianity one could liken its economy to a credit based system. Metaphorically speaking, everyone is given a credit account and everyone's account is filled with grace due to Jesus's salvific act. Grace is the only means to gain salvation. Of course, not everyone is aware they have a divine credit account just waiting to be accessed. Access is accomplished by employing the access code of faith. Faith, in this context, is a synonym for possessing a trusting belief in Jesus's salvific act. If one believes that they are or, as in John Newton's case, can be saved by grace through faith, they have access to their grace account and are saved. According to Christianity, these accounts can never be depleted.
Once John Newton uttered his converting cry, "Lord have mercy," he accessed his account. He was credited with grace by virtue of his faith, according to this system. I doubt that John would have thought of it in those terms. It was far too personal for him to attempt any speculative assessment of his experience. His humility would have rightfully prohibited him from doing so, and be it far from me or anyone to question his or another person's personal experience with grace.
The term grace appears throughout both the Hebrew and Christian testaments but is utilized differently. In the Hebrew scriptures, word used for grace is chen, which connotes a sense of favor, mercy, approval, or gracefulness. In the Hebrew scriptures, however, there is no sense of there being a universal credit account. Grace is related to God's mercy, but used in the Hebrew scriptures is displayed as a random act of God, to show approval or favor because God wanted to make a point. Whereas, in the Christian testament, the Greek word for grace, charis, is liberally used in the apostolic epistles. It connotes a sense of chen, but is invariably associated with Jesus's salvific act, and is considered unmerited, that there is nothing one can do to earn it. It's available to all those who have faith in salvation.
What I find interesting in Christian scripture; namely the gospels, is that Jesus never talks about grace. In fact, the only gospel it is mentioned is in John, the first chapter. A sense of grace is also found in Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would be Jesus's mother, however, in some translations the term used is in keeping with the Hebraic sense chen, favor. The only place Jesus is quoted as using the term is in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient... ." The point is it becomes a teaching about Jesus, rather than something Jesus taught. The term grace abounds in the apostolic epistles where salvation theology is a given.
THE DIFFERENTIATING PARADIGM
While the apostolic letters are remarkable for their broad application of grace, they cannot escape the differentiating paradigm found in all religions. Grace, as a free gift, is not freely dispensed. It's only dispensed if accessed. One can argue that this is essential in order to preserve free will, which basically is argument for saying no one should be forced to be saved. This is the point where salvation theology begins to fall apart.
Predestinationalists believe only those who were or are predestined to be saved have been credited with God's grace because they were predetermined by God to have the access code, faith. Of course, the concept that Jesus died to pay the price of sin for all simply disintegrates in this theology. Predestination is nothing more than a rationale for why some don't appear to be or act saved.
Universalists, who believe in universal salvation (and there are a growing number of theists, particularly progressives Christians who think this way) are attempting to ignore the differentiating paradigm of religion as it relates to salvation theology. [See post on Salvation] If grace has been dispersed to all, it no longer requires knowledge of or faith in the salvific act of Jesus. At best such a faith merely becomes a nice way of acknowledging what Jesus did, but is nonessential for salvation.
John Newton's experience with grace could be expressed differently. I doubt that it would have resulted in his composing a favorite hymn, but what Newton encountered was an awakening to the paradox that resides within the differentiating paradigm. The paradox that results in seeing same or the unitive connection between the identified different. [See Theory and Theology in Religious Intuition]
A BEATIFIC REALIZATION
If I were to put this in mystical terminology, I could say that John Newton had a beatific vision or realization when recognizing his wretched state. No, the heavens did not open. He did not see the throne of God, or the angelic hosts. He saw something far more beatific; his own vulnerability, his own enslavement to the forces of nature, his oneness with the human cargo his ship was carrying. It was not, as he believed, that he cried out, "Lord have mercy." It was that he cried out as the vulnerable human being he and all of us are. He encountered the religious impulse, "We need each other" because we're all in the same boat.
The storm did not occur to allow him to experience grace by being saved from death at that moment. He eventually died as we all will. Frankly, his experience could be viewed as a fateful moment as much as a grace-filled moment, and whether it was fate or grace is matter of perception determined after the fact of him surviving the storm. Nevertheless, the feeling of grace John Newton experienced left him feeling fated to do something different with his life, and he did.
JESUS AND GRACE
As mentioned above, Jesus didn't talk about grace, which should give us pause to wonder why or to wonder how it became so prevalent in salvation theology. In some ways, grace becomes the Christian response or the equivalent of the ancient world's concept of fate. The primary difference between fate and grace is that, although both involve some form of determinism, the outcome of fate generally is not known until an outcome or destination is achieved or reached. Fate can neither be accessed nor avoided per se. We are all victims of our own fate. Grace, as understood in salvation theology, has a predetermined known outcome, salvation. In salvation theology, grace cannot be accessed or recognized apart from faith, but grace can be avoided because of a lack of faith.
If I were to extrude a theology of grace based on what Jesus taught, I would say that Jesus saw life - being - itself, as a state of grace. Life is unmerited. It happens because God is happening. Based on what Jesus said in his parables and his sermons, Jesus was not about saving lost souls, but reclaiming a lost sense of our own worth and the original goodness of creation in the eyes of God; a sense of God's abundant kingdom in our midst. Such a sense of grace is more in keeping with chen rather than charis. There is a gracefulness to life, in being alive.
Jesus makes a direct appeal to our primal religious impulse by teaching us to love our neighbors as ourselve and to love our enemies as the only means to love God. We need each other. Grace, understood here is accessed in the act of living love. Faith, as I have posted before is more attuned to living than believing. [See Faith Part I and Part II]
FATE AND GRACE
In the end grace, like fate, is a retroactive feeling about or an understanding of an occurrence that is the byproduct of one's ideological beliefs. One feels graced or one feels fated as a result of a life-changing experience such as the one John Newton experienced. We feel graced when the change leads us to a positive outcome. We tend to feel fated, if the outcome is negative. Christians, for the most part, don't like the idea of fate. Devout Christians tend to seek grace in the most fateful experiences. There is nothing wrong with that, and as I said earlier I cannot be judgmental of the feelings others have.
Grace and fate share the common bond of determinism. Determinism is, itself, a retroactive deduction based on past occurrences suggesting the future follows a designed trajectory. Determinism continues to be debated in both scientific and philosophical circles. What is undeniable is that humans are very much programmed to think in these terms. We are, after all, emotional, feeling creatures and our feelings are linked to our capacity for intuition. To feel graced is to feel loved. According to what Jesus' intuitive teachings tell us we have always been fated to be graced with God's love.
Until next time, stay faithful.
When he, his crew, his ship, and his human cargo made it through the storm, it is said Newton recalled his crying out for God's mercy and was converted on the spot. Newton identified this moment as a moment of grace.
GRACE
Grace is such an interesting word. In Christianity, grace is viewed as an attribute of God. In the Christian New Testament, Ephesians 2:8, grace is defined as a free gift, "For by grace are you saved by faith, and not that of yourself, it is a gift of God." What one encounters in this definition of grace is that, while grace is identified as a free gift of God, it is a conditional free gift based on one's faith, which seems to support the well known American adage, "There's no such thing as a free gift."
In all theistic religions there exists some form of a behavioral or moral economy. For example, in Christianity one could liken its economy to a credit based system. Metaphorically speaking, everyone is given a credit account and everyone's account is filled with grace due to Jesus's salvific act. Grace is the only means to gain salvation. Of course, not everyone is aware they have a divine credit account just waiting to be accessed. Access is accomplished by employing the access code of faith. Faith, in this context, is a synonym for possessing a trusting belief in Jesus's salvific act. If one believes that they are or, as in John Newton's case, can be saved by grace through faith, they have access to their grace account and are saved. According to Christianity, these accounts can never be depleted.
Once John Newton uttered his converting cry, "Lord have mercy," he accessed his account. He was credited with grace by virtue of his faith, according to this system. I doubt that John would have thought of it in those terms. It was far too personal for him to attempt any speculative assessment of his experience. His humility would have rightfully prohibited him from doing so, and be it far from me or anyone to question his or another person's personal experience with grace.
The term grace appears throughout both the Hebrew and Christian testaments but is utilized differently. In the Hebrew scriptures, word used for grace is chen, which connotes a sense of favor, mercy, approval, or gracefulness. In the Hebrew scriptures, however, there is no sense of there being a universal credit account. Grace is related to God's mercy, but used in the Hebrew scriptures is displayed as a random act of God, to show approval or favor because God wanted to make a point. Whereas, in the Christian testament, the Greek word for grace, charis, is liberally used in the apostolic epistles. It connotes a sense of chen, but is invariably associated with Jesus's salvific act, and is considered unmerited, that there is nothing one can do to earn it. It's available to all those who have faith in salvation.
What I find interesting in Christian scripture; namely the gospels, is that Jesus never talks about grace. In fact, the only gospel it is mentioned is in John, the first chapter. A sense of grace is also found in Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would be Jesus's mother, however, in some translations the term used is in keeping with the Hebraic sense chen, favor. The only place Jesus is quoted as using the term is in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient... ." The point is it becomes a teaching about Jesus, rather than something Jesus taught. The term grace abounds in the apostolic epistles where salvation theology is a given.
THE DIFFERENTIATING PARADIGM
While the apostolic letters are remarkable for their broad application of grace, they cannot escape the differentiating paradigm found in all religions. Grace, as a free gift, is not freely dispensed. It's only dispensed if accessed. One can argue that this is essential in order to preserve free will, which basically is argument for saying no one should be forced to be saved. This is the point where salvation theology begins to fall apart.
Predestinationalists believe only those who were or are predestined to be saved have been credited with God's grace because they were predetermined by God to have the access code, faith. Of course, the concept that Jesus died to pay the price of sin for all simply disintegrates in this theology. Predestination is nothing more than a rationale for why some don't appear to be or act saved.
Universalists, who believe in universal salvation (and there are a growing number of theists, particularly progressives Christians who think this way) are attempting to ignore the differentiating paradigm of religion as it relates to salvation theology. [See post on Salvation] If grace has been dispersed to all, it no longer requires knowledge of or faith in the salvific act of Jesus. At best such a faith merely becomes a nice way of acknowledging what Jesus did, but is nonessential for salvation.
John Newton's experience with grace could be expressed differently. I doubt that it would have resulted in his composing a favorite hymn, but what Newton encountered was an awakening to the paradox that resides within the differentiating paradigm. The paradox that results in seeing same or the unitive connection between the identified different. [See Theory and Theology in Religious Intuition]
A BEATIFIC REALIZATION
If I were to put this in mystical terminology, I could say that John Newton had a beatific vision or realization when recognizing his wretched state. No, the heavens did not open. He did not see the throne of God, or the angelic hosts. He saw something far more beatific; his own vulnerability, his own enslavement to the forces of nature, his oneness with the human cargo his ship was carrying. It was not, as he believed, that he cried out, "Lord have mercy." It was that he cried out as the vulnerable human being he and all of us are. He encountered the religious impulse, "We need each other" because we're all in the same boat.
The storm did not occur to allow him to experience grace by being saved from death at that moment. He eventually died as we all will. Frankly, his experience could be viewed as a fateful moment as much as a grace-filled moment, and whether it was fate or grace is matter of perception determined after the fact of him surviving the storm. Nevertheless, the feeling of grace John Newton experienced left him feeling fated to do something different with his life, and he did.
JESUS AND GRACE
As mentioned above, Jesus didn't talk about grace, which should give us pause to wonder why or to wonder how it became so prevalent in salvation theology. In some ways, grace becomes the Christian response or the equivalent of the ancient world's concept of fate. The primary difference between fate and grace is that, although both involve some form of determinism, the outcome of fate generally is not known until an outcome or destination is achieved or reached. Fate can neither be accessed nor avoided per se. We are all victims of our own fate. Grace, as understood in salvation theology, has a predetermined known outcome, salvation. In salvation theology, grace cannot be accessed or recognized apart from faith, but grace can be avoided because of a lack of faith.
If I were to extrude a theology of grace based on what Jesus taught, I would say that Jesus saw life - being - itself, as a state of grace. Life is unmerited. It happens because God is happening. Based on what Jesus said in his parables and his sermons, Jesus was not about saving lost souls, but reclaiming a lost sense of our own worth and the original goodness of creation in the eyes of God; a sense of God's abundant kingdom in our midst. Such a sense of grace is more in keeping with chen rather than charis. There is a gracefulness to life, in being alive.
Jesus makes a direct appeal to our primal religious impulse by teaching us to love our neighbors as ourselve and to love our enemies as the only means to love God. We need each other. Grace, understood here is accessed in the act of living love. Faith, as I have posted before is more attuned to living than believing. [See Faith Part I and Part II]
FATE AND GRACE
In the end grace, like fate, is a retroactive feeling about or an understanding of an occurrence that is the byproduct of one's ideological beliefs. One feels graced or one feels fated as a result of a life-changing experience such as the one John Newton experienced. We feel graced when the change leads us to a positive outcome. We tend to feel fated, if the outcome is negative. Christians, for the most part, don't like the idea of fate. Devout Christians tend to seek grace in the most fateful experiences. There is nothing wrong with that, and as I said earlier I cannot be judgmental of the feelings others have.
Grace and fate share the common bond of determinism. Determinism is, itself, a retroactive deduction based on past occurrences suggesting the future follows a designed trajectory. Determinism continues to be debated in both scientific and philosophical circles. What is undeniable is that humans are very much programmed to think in these terms. We are, after all, emotional, feeling creatures and our feelings are linked to our capacity for intuition. To feel graced is to feel loved. According to what Jesus' intuitive teachings tell us we have always been fated to be graced with God's love.
Until next time, stay faithful.
No comments:
Post a Comment