Gene TeSelle comments on Mark
Achtemeier's support for the Confessing Church Movement
On April 3, soon after the publication of a
statement by Mark Achtemeier praising the "Confessing Church
Movement" currently being urged upon all PC(USA) congregations by
the Presbyterian Lay Committee, Gene TeSelle sent two comments.
TeSelle is former president of the Witherspoon Society, and has
recently retired as a professor of historical theology and Vanderbilt
Divinity School.
[4-7-01]
I notice that Mark
Achtemeier's applauding of the Confessing Church Movement on the Layman
web page has an interesting statement:
"In a situation such as ours, where the larger
church seems to lack an authoritative teaching office that can
effectively uphold and defend its identification with this faith of
the church catholic, such a confessing movement holds out the promise
of a continuing, faithful witness to the Gospel among
Presbyterians."
The Reformed tradition has not thought much of the
traditional Roman Catholic doctrine of a "teaching office,"
let alone a "Holy Office" which can discipline erring bishops
and theologians. The General Assembly in recent years has rejected
proposals for a Presbyterian equivalent.
Our only teaching office is that exercised by ministers of Word and
sacrament as they try to preach week by week in fidelity to the Word of
God, guided by the confessions of the church, but in full recognition
that these are confessions, not creeds or dogmas.
If the "confessing movement" is to be seen as the Presbyterian
equivalent of the Roman Catholic teaching office, then this is worth
knowing, so that we can judge it accordingly. It is one thing to defend
infallible dogmas. It is quite another thing to proclaim the gospel of
justification so that it will both challenge and comfort in appropriate
and saving ways.
How are we to approach the church's
doctrines?
I have done a fair amount of work on Augustine's On the Trinity,
which stretches to fifteen books and took twenty years to write. It is
an attempt to go beyond the mere words of Scripture, and beyond any
existing creeds, to a more comprehensive and explicit
"understanding" of what is believed. There are many passages
in which he attempts to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity in a more
precise way.
Some of them have even found their way into the so-called Athanasian
Creed, whose opening words are, "Whoever desires to be saved must
above all hold the Catholic faith." It does not come from
Athanasius; it was formulated around 525 in southern Gaul, perhaps by
Caesarius of Arles or those associated with him. In any case it came to
be a standard of orthodoxy, a far more definitive formulation than
either the old baptismal creeds or the Nicene Creed. Some of its
language clearly comes from Augustine, as when it says,
Thus the Father is God, the Son God, the Holy Spirit
God; and yet there are not three Gods, but there is one God. Thus the
Father is Lord, the Son Lord, the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet there are
not three Lords, but there is one Lord.
These driving affirmations have an air of dogmatic
exactitude about them, and through the centuries they have evoked the
thrill of discovery in some, and have caused others to turn away with
disgust. When Augustine uttered them he thought that he was gaining a
degree of understanding that went beyond mere belief on the basis of
authority.
Augustine did not suppose, however, that he was formulating statements
that could be a substitute for growth in faith and understanding. He
still called for an ongoing process of personal initiation. In the later
books of On the Trinity, therefore, he keeps relativizing and
de-stabilizing his own discoveries. While he affirms that faith is the
beginning of certitude, he also reminds himself that knowledge cannot be
complete until God is seen face to face. He constantly corrects the
language of Scripture and the creeds: God is not gendered; if the Holy
Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son this does not mean that the
Spirit is the "grandson" of the Father; and the Spirit is not
the "father" of Jesus. Religious language remains
metaphorical, constantly demanding further insight. Therefore it is
better to keep on seeking than to presume that one has found; better
yet, God is to be sought even after being found, and when God is found
more sweetly, God must continue to be sought all the more eagerly
(IX,i,1; XV,ii,2).
It was in Augustine's spirit, therefore, that F.D. Maurice reinterpreted
the bold first line of the Athanasian Creed to mean quite simply
"that eternal life is the knowledge of God, and that eternal death
is Atheism, the being without him." Such a perspective may actually
be more faithful to the original meaning of the creed, for it was first
used in baptism and soon found additional use as a convenient summary of
the "apostolic proclamation," the good news that goes to all
the nations. It functioned as a kind of "common denominator"
among the many apostolic churches in an era when there was diversity and
conflict over many points. In the next generation, Origen understood the
creed in the same way, as a summary of the basics of the apostolic
proclamation which left many items open, inviting further, more diligent
inquiry.
This is the same Augustine who, even in the midst of defending the
doctrine of predestination, urged a shift from theoretical statements to
practical ones, using direct address in "second person" so
that the language of predestination will be employed in a hopeful way -
not saying "Some will not make it" but calling upon people to
respond to the call of prevenient grace.
That's how doctrine is best approached, because that's how doctrine
first came into existence!
