Secret Faith in the Public Square

Jonathan Malesic

Description

In this groundbreaking and provocative book, Jonathan Malesic argues that the best way for Christians to be caretakers of their tradition and to love their neighbors selflessly is to conceal their religious identity in American public life. The alternative--insisting on Christianity's public visibility in politics, the marketplace, and the workplace--risks severely compromising the distinctiveness of Christian identity.Delving deep into the Christian tradition, Malesic explains that keeping Christian identity secret means living fully in the world while maintaining Christian language, prayer, and liturgy in reserve. He shows how major thinkers--Cyril of Jerusalem, Søren Kierkegaard, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer--sought to protect Christian identity from being compromised by the public sphere. He then shows that Christians' dual responsibilities for the tradition and for the neighbor must be kept secret.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441204844
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2009 by Jonathan Malesic
Published by Brazos Press a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.brazospress.com
Ebook edition created 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-0484-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Except when quoting another author, all scripture is taken from the New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
To the memory of Msgr. Stephen P. Happel 1944–2003
“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them. . . . But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Matt. 6:1, 6
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Secrecy and Christian Faith in Contemporary America
Part One: Concealment of Christian Identity in the Theological Tradition
1. Promoting Secrecy in a Christian Empire: Cyril of Jerusalem’s Discipline of the Secret
2. Liturgical Secrecy as Cyril’s Defense against Opportunism and Imperial Authority
3. The Secret of Faith in Kierkegaard’s Works of Love
4. How Kierkegaard’s Secret Agape Subverts Bourgeois Culture
5. Bonhoeffer’s Arkandisziplin : Christian Confession in a World Come of Age
6. The Limits of Arkandisziplin and of the Secular
Part Two: Concealment of Christian Identity in Contemporary America
7. The Secret-Keeping Self and Christian Responsibility for the Other
8. The Church as a Community of Hidden Disciples
9. Secret Faith’s Fulfillment of the Church’s Mission in America: An Engagement with Hauerwas
Epilogue: The Challenge of Ambiguous Religious Identity in Wise Blood and The Moviegoer
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
This book was conceived in a parking lot.
I had written a dissertation on secrecy in Christianity, but it took a fortunate chance encounter with Charles Marsh in the Corner Parking Lot across the street from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville he the customer who had just parked his car, I the PhD-holding attendant sitting in the booth at the exit to the lot for my outlook on that research to shift decisively. Until then, I hadn’t thought that I was advocating secrecy about Christian identity at all, but Charles convinced me that this was just what American Christianity needed at a time when its identity was so often abused in public life.
I was lucky to have also been at that time a Visiting Fellow at the Center on Religion and Democracy, a part of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, where conversation with scholars from many disciplines helped make me aware of the range of ways to think about this project. James Hunter and Joe Davis kindly opened the doors of the center to me, and Chuck Mathewes, Slavica Jakelić , Justin Holcomb, Jennifer Geddes, Josh Yates, Murray Milner, and Pete Slade were superb conversation partners.
Prior to that, the religious studies department at the University of Virginia was my institutional home. I began this research under the judicious and generous guidance of Jamie Ferreira, whose academic virtues themselves provided me countless lessons. Additionally, Gene Rogers, Walter Jost, Larry Bouchard, Peter Ochs, Robert Wilken, and Cindy Hoehler-Fatton shaped my thinking and offered helpful criticism and advice early on.
Many friends from U.Va. read parts of the manuscript, suggested different angles for the argument, and listened to me think about the project aloud: Jason Danner, Jacquie Bussie, Brian Sholl, Jenny McBride, Trent Pomplun, Willie Young, Troy Dahlke, Craig Danielson, and Greg Hite. Likewise, the participants in a Mellon Foundation dissertation seminar led by Herbert Tucker brought needed commentary from several other disciplines.
Recently, King’s College has done much to support the completion of this book. The college provided me with a generous summer research grant and the flexibility in scheduling to afford me time to write. Thanks to Rev. Tom Looney, CSC, Rev. Tony Grasso, CSC, and Nick Holodick. I am grateful to my insightful, supportive, and patient colleagues in the Theology Department at King’s: Joel Shuman, Janice Thompson, Phil Muntzel, Anna Minore, and Rev. Dan Issing, CSC. Beth Admiraal, Regan Reitsma, Garrett Barr, and Anne Bramblett gave their time and moral support in many conversations about this project.
Thanks also to colleagues at other institutions who read, heard, and commented on the work in progress: Chris Denny, Michael Raposa, and Alexis Doval. The comments of four anonymous reviewers commissioned by Brazos Press greatly helped strengthen the argument once it neared completion.
The staff at Brazos Press provided outstanding support and guidance through the publishing process. Rodney Clapp believed in the project’s merit early on and gave wise editorial counsel throughout. Special thanks are due to Steve Ayers for bringing the project to Rodney’s attention. Thanks also to Lisa Ann Cockrel, Jeremy Wells, and Julie Noordhoek for their efforts in bringing the project to its audience.
Parts of chapter 7 appeared in my article, “A Secret both Sinister and Salvific: Secrecy and Normativity in Light of Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling ,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74 (2006): 446–68.
Thanks to my family for tremendous trust and love. My parents and my sister Nicole have always supported my career and writing endeavors, no matter how improbable their success might have seemed.
My wife, Ashley, always seemed to know just what I and the book needed at every step of the way: to be listened to, to be criticized, to be propped up. She did these and many other works, great and small, always with love and patience. She deserves many thanks.
Finally, I wish that my teacher, mentor, and friend Msgr. Stephen P. Happel could have seen this work completed. In gratitude for everything he taught me, I dedicate this book to his memory.
Introduction
Secrecy and Christian Faith in Contemporary America
On two separate occasions when my parents-in-law were taking bids on some work they wanted done on their house, the contractor made sure to point out that he was a member of the First Baptist Church in a nearby town. In that context, such a confession could only have been intended as a selling point evidence, perhaps, that the contractors were hard-working, honest men, not of the sort who break contracts or run off with the money. These contractors echoed nearly exactly a typical statement of religious identity that Max Weber heard during his visit to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century: when a physician in Cincinnati asked his patient how he was feeling, the patient said, “I am from the Second Baptist Church in X Street.” Weber reasoned that the statement was a way of telling the doctor, “Don’t worry about your fee !” Weber concludes that in America, “The question concerning church affiliation, officially frowned upon, but privately still highly significant, is on par with the Homeric question regarding place of birth and parentage.” [1]
Religious identity has long been a form of currency in American society. Even though it is unconstitutional to require public officials to pass a religious test or to inquire about religion on census forms and thus “officially” a particularistic religious identity and American public life have nothing to do with each other it is often said that an atheist couldn’t get elected dog-catcher in this country. As a whole, we Americans do expect our public officials to exhibit a religious identity. In pockets of American society, we expect them to exhibit a religious identity that is quite particularistic. In my city in 2006, for instance, a candidate for a seat in the state legislature felt compelled, after the questions asked in an opinion poll seemed to insinuate that he was a Scientologist, to affirm publicly that he is a committed Catholic. According to a newspaper report, the candidate “belongs to St. Therese’s Church in Wilkes-Barre and attends Mass every Sunday with his family.” That the reporter also noted that the candidate “receives Communion” weekly suggests that in my district, simply claiming belief in God or allegiance to a Christian church is not enough. [2] It is clear that displaying a Christian identity is thought to win politicians votes. It also can help someone advance a career in business. Corporations now routinely build chapels and meditation rooms in their offices and hire chaplains to minister to employees during work hours. [3] Is it hard to imagine a supervisor in such an office taking note of who visits the chapel regularly, and making promotion decisions accordingly? Is it hard to imagine an employee visiting the chapel in the hopes of being noticed by a Christian supervisor? This trend mirrors one in which many evangelical Christian corporate managers are making their religious identities more visible and drawing upon networks of well-placed coreligionists to attain and fill positions. [4]
Such practices presume that religion, and Christianity in particular, has much to contribute to political, economic, and social life. They are so widespread in the culture of American elites t