Nothing Sacred/Postmodernist Church
Sheramy D. Bundrick
Personal Opinion: I found Nothing Sacred's third episode to be quite good,
although I still think the first episode was the best one yet. The writing
has evidently been scaled back a bit (too bad, nothing wrong with a little
risk and bite), but the episode still managed to present some interesting
perspectives. The overriding theme of the episode was the tension between
traditional and modern/conservative and liberal Catholicism, rather
apropos given the usual dialogue on this list.
Thoughts and Reflections:
IMHO what makes this a good show is the way it brings issues out into the
open and leaves them up for debate. So, this morning as I was making the
daily commute :), I pondered this question of traditional vs modern--is
there such a thing as too traditional or too modern? Oh, yes, both ways.
As Fr Ray says in Episode 3, "The Church had to change," and it did, and
it does still need to in some respects. But too I think there is such a
things as too modern. So how about a postmodernist Church? In
architectural parlance, postmodernist architecture is architecture that
takes into account the aims of modernism (which basically means the bare
essentials of a building, eg Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier), and yet
brings back elements of traditional architecture (eg Classical, Gothic,
Romanesque, et al). Postmodernist architecture simply uses those elements
in new and exciting ways, paying homage to tradition but maintaining
innovation (eg Michael Graves, architect of the Disney headquarters in
Anaheim and the Swan and Dolphin hotels at Disney World ;) ).
What's good about the modernist approach to the Church? Well, speaking as
a parishioner in a modernist parish, I would say: more power to the
laypeople, increased roles for women, more focus on community, a less
removed priesthood, more opportunity for dialogue about issues and
concerns, more relaxed atmosphere (lots of hugging included). There's
probably more, but that's what stands out to me. There's a wonderful,
indefinable spirit of closeness, excitement, and enthusiasm in my
hopelessly modernist (and hopelessly huge) parish that I haven't seen in
any other parish I've visited (and I've visited a few; my RCIA leaders
tell us to check out different parishes to make sure we're choosing the
whole Church and not just our parish).
What's not so good about the modernist approach? Well, I think the
character of Grace's husband hit it on the head when he said of the old
Church, "We knew who we were." Granted, I'm new and I'm not even Real
yet, but I know what initially led me to the Church: the beauty, wonder,
art, architecture, the sacramentality of it all. I bemoan our hopelessly
modernist building: no statues, no images, not even a corpus on the cross
suspended above our altar. It looks like a Protestant church (no offense
to them of course). It makes me crazy. If I didn't love the priests and
the people so much I would have left a long time ago for aesthetic
reasons and gone searching for a more "Catholic" physical environment. :)
In a postmodernist Church we would bring back the art, we would bring back
the images, we would bring back figural stained glass, for crying out
loud. This issue was alluded to in last night's episode, when Sister
Maureen hired the Italian-looking sculptor to restore the broken statue,
and commissioned him (although the commission had to be abandoned) to
sculpt a new statue for the church.
Devotional practices. The modernist Church tends to downplay these (Fr Ray
was spoken of as having cancelled the Benediction and the Thursday night
Rosary group). In a postmodernist Church they would be brought back.
They're part of it. (As much as I like the character of Fr Ray, I say
shame on him!)
Ritual trappings. Where's the incense? Where's the occasional Latin chant?
In my modernist parish we bring out the incense and the Latin on the most
holy days of the year, and the rest of the time they stay in the sacristy.
My favorite scene in last night's episode was the funeral Mass, when Fr
Ray joined Grace's husband in singing the Latin hymn.
Saints. In my modernist RCIA class we never talk about saints. That really
bugs me. In a postmodernist Church the saints would be revered again. The
fact that Fr Ray mentioned St Anthony last night was a real plus, as was
the fact that their processional cross was the Franciscan San Damiano
crucifix.
I think we will begin to see a swing towards postmodernism in the next few
years, with all that modernist spirit of change still there but with more
incorporation of traditional ideas and motifs. I visited a new church in
our archdiocese a couple of weeks ago, and was happy to see it was
constructed in a Romanesque Revival style--it looks the part. Our
archdiocese is also promoting a Eucharistic Renewal program, which seeks
to bring greater focus on the Eucharist. We don't have Benediction at my
parish, but we do have Perpetual Adoration (founded last year), which has
dozens of volunteers (myself included). Our Day Chapel for Perpetual
Adoration even has a real crucifix in a traditional style, will wonders
ever cease. My parish has (re)instated a Marian rosary group too. We're
the most modernist of the modern and we're starting to bring back some
traditional ideas. Is this a trend in the larger modernist Church? I hope
so. Let's by no means ditch modernism but let's bring back some tradition
too.
Somewhere there must be a happy medium between extreme traditionalism and
extreme modernism. Me, I'll keep hoping for a postmodern Church. Moving
forward but not forgetting to look backward once in a while.
--Sheramy
(recommended reading: Andrew Greeley's _How to Save the Catholic Church_)
JPauwels
Dear Sheramy,
I agree wholeheartedly with nearly everything you wrote. However, one request:
if I'm not mistaken, the term "modernist" technically refers to a quite
specific heresy (of which I'm sure your parish is not guilty). Why don't you
refer to yourself as "modern" instead of "modernist"? You're probably
confirming the worst suspicions of several people on the list :-)
Jim
Dwayne K. Lanclos
In article <Pine.GSO.3.95.971003...@curly.cc.emory.edu>,
"Sheramy D. Bundrick" <sbu...@EMORY.EDU> wrote:
>
>Devotional practices. The modernist Church tends to downplay these (Fr Ray
>was spoken of as having cancelled the Benediction and the Thursday night
>Rosary group). In a postmodernist Church they would be brought back.
>They're part of it. (As much as I like the character of Fr Ray, I say
>shame on him!)
Yeah, Fr. Ray didn't come off very well in that scene. He grudgingly
admitted, "I guess I am the anti-Christ," without explaining why he felt it
necessary to cancel Benediction (not enough people attending?) and the
Thursday night Rosary group (did they expect him to be there every week?).
>--Sheramy
>(recommended reading: Andrew Greeley's _How to Save the Catholic Church_)
I read that book a few years ago, and Greeley is very much in favor of
statues, and lives of the saints and Benedictions and the other things you
mentioned that are part of the Church culture.
----
dwayne lanc...@flash.net
"Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."
Hobson, John
in a Catholic discussion group is like using "communist" when you mean
"communal". Modernist has a quite specific meaning to Catholics, one
which is not well received.
--
Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea; massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of
mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it. -- Gene
Spafford
John Hobson (hob...@mail.cai.com)
Computer Associates, Lisle, IL USA
Sheramy D. Bundrick
On Mon, 6 Oct 1997, Hobson, John wrote:
> > JPauwels[SMTP:jpau...@AOL.COM] wrote:
> >
> > Dear Sheramy,
> >
> > I agree wholeheartedly with nearly everything you wrote. However, one
> > request: if I'm not mistaken, the term "modernist" technically refers
> > to a quite specific heresy (of which I'm sure your parish is not
> > guilty). Why don't you refer to yourself as "modern" instead of
> > "modernist"? You're probably confirming the worst suspicions of
> > several people on the list :-)
> >
> I agree completely with Jim. Using "modernist" when you mean "modern"
> in a Catholic discussion group is like using "communist" when you mean
> "communal". Modernist has a quite specific meaning to Catholics, one
> which is not well received.
Oops! I really didn't know that. In art history/academia "modernist"
is anything but an unacceptable term. I had no idea I was making my
_modern_ parish sound positively terrible! Which of course it absolutely
is not...! Can someone please explain exactly what "modernist" means in a
Catholic context so I won't goof again? :) Thank you!
--Sheramy
who is, after all, still learning the Catholicspeak :)
Hobson, John
chemist and asking "what is a mole?" The chemist would likely start,
"Well, it's like this ..."
Modernism is a collection of ideas condemned by Pope Pius X in 1907 in
the encyclicals Pascendi Dominici Gregis and Lamentibili Sane -- the
texts of which may be found online at
http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/church/papal/pius.x/pascendi.html
and
http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/church/papal/pius.x/syllabus.asc
Let me give you a few of the highlights of Lamentibili, which is a list
of erroneous opinions.
5. Since the Deposit of Faith contains only revealed truths, the Church
has no right to pass judgment on the assertions of the human sciences.
7. In proscribing errors, the Church cannot demand any internal
assent from the faithful by which the judgments she issues are to be
embraced.
11. Divine inspiration does not extend to all of Sacred Scriptures so
that it renders its parts, each and every one, free from every error.
16. The narrations of John are not properly history, but a mystical
contemplation of the Gospel. The discourses contained in his Gospel
are theological meditations, lacking historical truth concerning the
mystery of salvation.
42. The Christian community imposed the necessity of Baptism, adopted
it as a necessary rite, and added to it the obligation of the Christian
profession.
43. The practice of administering Baptism to infants was a disciplinary
evolution, which became one of the causes why the Sacrament was divided
into two, namely, Baptism and Penance.
44. There is nothing to prove that the rite of the Sacrament of
Confirmation was employed by the Apostles. The formal distinction of
the two Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation does not pertain to the
history of primitive Christianity.
45. Not everything which Paul narrates concerning the institution of
the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 11:23-35) is to be taken historically.
50. The elders who fulfilled the office of watching over the gatherings
of the faithful were instituted by the Apostles as priests or bishops to
provide the necessary ordering of the increasing communities and not
properly for the perpetuation of the Apostolic mission and power.
52. It was far from the mind of Christ to found a Church as a society
which would continue on earth for a long course of centuries. On the
contrary, in the mind of Christ the kingdom of heaven together with the
end of the world was about to come immediately.
53. The organic constitution of the Church is not immutable. Like human
society, Christian society is subject to a perpetual evolution.
56. The Roman Church became the head of all the churches, not through
the ordinance of Divine Providence, but merely through political
conditions.
57. The Church has shown that she is hostile to the progress of the
natural and theological sciences.
62. The chief articles of the Apostles' Creed did not have the same
sense for the Christians of the first age as they have for the
Christians of our time.
Now, some of these things are quite debateable -- I would be hard
pressed to defend number 62, for example -- and I suspect that no one
believed all of them. Essentially, the attack on modernism was an
attack on some ideas that were circulating among Liberal Protestants.
Sheramy D. Bundrick
Thank you, John, for the Cliff Notes explanation of "modernism" Catholic
style. Definitely, definitely was I not thinking of it that way! Well, now
I know...I did after all sign onto this list to learn new things! :)
--Sheramy