Shame and the Church

Sally Nash

Description

Seeking to establish the causes and consequences of shame, Shame and the Church explore how theology and the Bible engage with shame, and consider personal firsthand accounts of shame in a church context.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian Theology

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 28 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780334058861
• Langue: English

Extrait

Shame and the Church

© Sally Nash 2020
Published in 2020 by SCM Press
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The Author has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this Work
Unless otherwise indicated, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
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A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
978-0-334-05884-7
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
How to Use this Book
Part 1 Defining Shame
1 Defining Shame and a Typology of Shame in the Church
2 Biblical Perspectives on Shame
3 Personal Shame
4 Communal Shame
5 Relational, Structural, Theological and Historical Shame
Part 2 Confronting Shame
6 Shame, Liturgy and Ritual
7 Pastoral Care with Those Experiencing Shame
8 Shame in Teaching and Learning
9 Creating a Less Shaming Church
Appendix 1: Defining Shame in Relation to the Literature
Appendix 2: Overview of Themes from the Research in Relation to the Typology
References and Further Reading
Index of Bible References
Index of Names and Subjects
Acknowledgements
The origins of this book were in the study I undertook as part of my ordination training. I am thankful to the Bishop of Birmingham, David Urquhart, who allowed me to do this and to David Hewlett and Stephen Pattison, who were willing to share their wisdom with me as supervisors. Stephen’s own writing and teaching on this subject as well as many conversations have taught me so much. I also shared much of this journey of writing with Helen Blake and have wonderful memories of meals together and hospitality in Birmingham, Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Cornwall.
I am immensely grateful to the many people who shared their experiences with me, both anonymously through my questionnaires and through focus groups and responses to things I had posted on social media. These include several people who wrote things specifically for the book and who are named in the relevant places (if they wanted to be). The book would not have been written without these contributions.
I am appreciative of the help of several people who very kindly commented on a final draft of the book and made it a better one: Helen Blake, Paul Goodliff, David Hewlett, Rachel Hudson, Catherine Matlock and Stephen Pattison. Thanks also to David Shervington, my editor at SCM Press, for his work on my text.
The book is dedicated with gratitude to all those whose experience, wisdom and story is reflected within it.
Preface
I have written this book because of my own experiences over many years, and because I love the church and hate that which damages her. Some of my passion to address shame is encapsulated by Jamieson: ‘If false guilt (What you did was wrong!) has caused some to walk away from the church, shaming (You are a bad person!) has done far greater damage’ (2016, pp. 57–8). I hope that the book will help to raise awareness of shame in the church and prevent some of the difficult practices that have hurt people and caused them to walk away from a body they had hoped to belong to. I am very grateful to all of the people who shared their stories with me, often through an anonymous online survey. This has helped me understand shame in greater depth and become more aware of the ways in which it is manifested in the church.
How to Use this Book
I am a practical theologian and theological educator as well as a Church of England priest licensed to a parish in Birmingham. Ministry has been both my paid and voluntary work for over 35 years. This dual focus for ministry has been a tension for me as I wrote this book. I want to ensure that anyone who would like to study shame in more depth has plenty of leads to follow through my references but, more importantly, I want the book to be accessible to anyone with an interest in this topic. I recommend reading Chapter 1 first as it introduces all the concepts that are unpacked in the rest of the book. The other chapters can be read in order but all stand alone too and can be read whenever they seem to address what you want to reflect on. Each chapter has questions to aid reflection on its content and these can be explored individually or in a group.
Structure of the book
The book consists of three main parts:
Chapters 1 and 2 present some of my theoretical and theological underpinning, signposting other authors which may be helpful for anyone wanting to study shame in more detail for themselves. Chapter 1 contains my definitions of shame and introduces a typology of shame in the church, which I devised to help raise awareness of shame and our propensity to shame or be shamed.
In Chapter 2 , I offer some biblical perspectives on the topic drawn from two specific areas: the creation narratives (where shame is first encountered) and the life and work of Jesus (as our primary exemplar in ministry). The chapter contains quite detailed references for anyone who wants to read around the biblical background material in greater depth.
Chapters 3 to 5 explain the typology that I devised to understand shame in the church and the different ways it is manifested. These chapters in particular are full of people’s experiences which help to illustrate the different types of shame. Chapter 3 describes personal shame and Chapter 4 communal shame. The remainder of the typology – relational, structural, theological and historical shame – is discussed in Chapter 5 .
Chapters 6 to 8 focus specifically on ministerial practice. Liturgy and ritual are considered in Chapter 6 , which includes examples of material that can be used in practice or can act as a starting point to develop your own. Teaching and learning are the focus for Chapter 7 . Creating a less shaming church is explored in Chapter 8 , which includes a case study on Christmas.
Remembering what is true
What I find most difficult about shame is that it can be so easy to embrace falsehood and to negate who God is and the truth of what God says about us. Graham summarizes this powerfully:
If shame tells me that I’m defective, grace tells me that I’m valuable. Shame’s greatest weapon is the fear of judgment, grace’s even greater weapon is the relief of unconditional love. Shame says that because I am flawed I am unacceptable, grace says that though I am flawed I am cherished. Shame believes that the opinion of others is what matters, grace believes that the opinion of God is what matters. Shame is the language of the serpent, grace is the language of Jesus. The enemy uses shame to hold us back from true freedom. Shame has a voice – lies! (2009, p. 42)
My hope for this book is that it will raise awareness of shame – of the ways that we are shamed, and the ways we may shame others – with the end goal of liberating people into all that God created them to be.


PART 1 Defining Shame

1 Defining Shame and a Typology of Shame in the Church
I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. (Martin Luther King’s last speech, 1968)
Treasure and a promised land
My promised land after ten years of studying shame in the church is a church that does not have ‘disgrace shame’ as part of its repertoire for those who have done nothing wrong in the eyes of God. Shame is about who we are, our very being, it is about feeling flawed, defective, unlovable. In over 30 years of Christian ministry I have seen much damage done to individuals, groups and communities who experience shaming at the hands of other Christians, sometimes based on ignorance, fear or difference. When, after 25 years of full-time Christian ministry, God called me to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England, I thought it was important to re-examine ministry in practice. This led me to study shame and the church with a particular focus on what Smedes (1993) refers to as the shame we don’t deserve. McNish argues:
It is ironic but perhaps not surprising that a faith which exalts as part of the Godhead itself a man who spent his life loving and accepting people out of shame, a person who took upon himself the ultimate shame – a man/God who ‘endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Hebrews 12.2) – has emerged as the ‘shamingest’ institution of all. (2004, p. 188)
While this may be a disputable claim, and is not everyone’s experience, I wanted to play my part in trying to change this.
As part of my ordination service the Bishop said: ‘Remember always with thanksgiving that the treasure now to be entrusted to you is Christ’s own flock, bought by the shedding of his blood on the cross. It is to him that you will render account for your stewardship of his people’ ( Common Worship ). If fire