Loading...This month, my thoughts are (again) on books. As I and others continue to sort through Fr Bob’s book collection, we’re separating out what seems likely to be saleable from what probably isn’t. In the latter category are items – often not really books, more like booklets, or pamphlets, or just a few pages – that are reminders of the Church’s stormy past. Even the titles sometimes have a breathless quality to them: “The Altar and the Reverence that is Due to It,” “Against Popish Innovations,” “Vindication of Anglican Orders” (this isn’t merely a book, but two whole volumes!).
They make curious reading, if one can make any sense of them at all. In many cases, the arguments presuppose an understanding of context that is lost to us. And even when we do know what the authors are talking about, the urgency and passion in what they write can seem quaint, if not out-and-out bizarre.
In fairness, we have the benefit of hindsight. Much of what they were fighting about – Should there be a cross on the altar? (gasp) Should the choir wear surplices and cassocks? (fetch the smelling salts) – seems uncontroversial to us. The strength of opinions has attenuated, or at least we have found other things to give most of our fighting energy to.
This is all worth stopping to think about. If we can look beyond the hubris that afflicts every generation, we may be able to imagine a future time in which the crises and causes that preoccupy us will seem so foreign as to be beyond understanding.
So is the message that we should renounce passionate disagreement and live in perfect harmony? I’m not so foolish as to suggest we should, even if it seemed possible that we could. Nor am I blind to the fact that each generation is able to have its preoccupations in large part because its ancestors have already gotten other problems out of the way.
But perhaps it should take the edge off our rhetoric and teach us a certain humility. If our best ideas and strongest arguments will one day find their way to the discard pile, it might not be quite as necessary to shout them.
Blessings
Howie+
