What Do We Believe?

I finished a book several months ago, titled,  "Heretics: The Creation of Christianity" by Jonathan Wright. It is/was very interesting read. His main premise is that Orthodox Christianity likes to suggest that it has always believed the basic things since the church's inception--but in fact,this has not been the case. The Church has worked out what it defines as "Orthodoxy" over the centuries. What has been labeled as heresy is often what has been needed to help spur the church on to clarify its stance on various doctrines. The truth is, there has been great variation within the Church on what is believed to be orthodox teaching.

In fact, as I read the book, I became a bit concerned. Why? Because as an adult, right this very minute, I hold at least 5 beliefs that people at one time in church history were chased out of town, punished or even martyred for:
      1. Believer's (adult) Baptism (vs. infant baptism).
      2. Having the Bible in your own language (vs. Latin).
      3. Ordination of Women to the Priesthood (vs. soley men)
      4. Importance of Icons.
      5. Active gifts of the Spirit.
Yes-people--fellow Christians were once punished, excommunicated--and even murdered over these beliefs by other Christians. This is appalling to me! What really sobers me is this: that right now, we may hold "orthodox" beliefs now that we might determine are wrong in the future! Yikes!!! And this is no small question. Just as in the past, people's well-being, and even their lives are at stake.

So, my next thought is, what does it look like to humbly say: "We don't know?" Many times we act as if every belief we hold is required for eternal salvation. I once heard a very well-respected Christian theologian say in a chapel service, "The older I get, the fewer things I am willing to die for." I think I am coming to the same conclusion. St. Augustine of Hippo wrote:
              "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."
So, given that Augustine said, "in all things charity," we may do well to start from there while we try to determine the" essential" from the "non-essentials." It is my guess that the "essentials" are a lot fewer in number than we might like to admit. And we as the Church may find many more people coming into our doors vs. being told they can't come in unless they believe as we do. God help us.

Faith...Can ya feel it?

Hmmm. A feeling faith. What do you think?

I cannot count the number of times I have heard people say, "You know, faith is not what you feel, it is what you believe." The suggestion in this statement is that what we feel is not to be trusted, while what we think/believe is to be trusted. As a psychologist, I can tell you people think a lot of things that are just plain not true. So, thinking our brains are somehow less impacted by the fall is poor theology. But in the West, we have elevated the mind to a point where we do tend to trust our minds more than our feelings. And I am not sure about the wisdom of that.

John Wesley may have had a similar conviction. Wesley believed that we should feel our faith. Faith is not just a mental assent or a cognition--faith should be experienced...i.e., FELT. A historian, Amanda Porterfield writes about Wesley's conviction:

“Wesley’s investment in religious experience complemented this interest in health and healing. His   understanding of religious conversion affirmed the presence of bodily sensation in that spiritual transformation…Wesley expected grace to stimulate feeling…In spite of his dectractors, Wesley’s openness to bodily sensation as a natural part of Christian life proved enormously popular both in Britain and in North America. His promotion of religious experience and encouragement of sensory and emotional feeling as part of that experience contributed to revivals on both sides of the Atlantic. By the 19^th century, these revivals made the Methodist church the fastest growing denomination in North America.”  p.164-65  Healing in the History of Christianity (2005).

Why was his view so embraced by the people? BECAUSE PEOPLE FEEL! :) In our everyday lives, we experience feelings and sensations. Why should we expect our faith to be any different? Every other relationship in this world causes us to feel things...we have feelings about our pets, homes, spouses, loved ones, children, etc...and Evangelical Christianity, by definition cultivates a personal relationship with God. Should we not realize that our feelings are just as much a part of our faith as our beliefs? I believe and feel (with great conviction) the answer is a resounding YES.

What this all has to do with Bodywork is that one of the goals of bodywork is to help people get in touch with how they feel. In general, people's awareness of their feelings increases as they receive bodywork. Some come in with locked muscles so tight--they don't feel anything in an area and usually they also can't move it. Get some focused bodywork and I will make a bet that not only can they start to feel--but the first thing they feel is pain. But the good thing is they usually can also start to move. And better yet--after it loosens up--they don't feel the pain, they begin to feel the good!

Back to faith. I think this is why people are seeking "spiritual experiences." Whether it be in a church, weekend retreat, chanting, yoga, etc....people want to feel their faith--we intuitively know that faith should be an Experience..an Encounter. We should feel something. Just believing is not enough. We want to know with our hearts not just our heads. And part of bodywork--and faith--is awakening to the feeling of the movement of the Spirit.

So...Faith...Can ya feel it?