Saturday, September 27, 2014

Blessings From Poverty

Lessons Learned by the Blessing of Poverty

Child labor was seen as it's proponents as a way to relieve poverty for families. That was just a justification for greed. Education then was understood to be the real key to moving out of the tenements.

Source: Wikimedia

See No Evil

Poverty is only important to the public when the middle class start to use that term to describe their future. The chronically poor never benefit fully from the slight swings from left to right in the political arena. They benefit from the social action that is left in place after the pendulum has swung the other way. It is never a swoop of justice that changes things in the long run. It is only the movement of inches that better the lot of the poorest of the poor. We only care about the economic cliff when we ourselves are about to fall off.

When poverty is widespread as it was in the Depression, those who fall from the middle class learn lessons that hopefully will lead them to remember the chronically poor.

Source: Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)Wikimedia Commons- Public Domain

Mindful of the Blessings Bestowed

Really if you think about it the time of counting and thinking about your blessings runs from Thanksgiving to New Year's. At Thanksgiving we are supposed to be thankful on a national and personal level for our current blessings. Most of us just do the holiday rush and food overindulgence. Christmas is our time to be thankful for the gift of Christ to the world.

Again, we just think about the gifts we have to give and what we would like to get. We could think about how the gift of Christ has blessed our lives. The New Year is a time to count our blessings of the past year and our hopes of blessing for the New Year. We many time use it to pledge to make those improvements we think will bless our lives, that we just somehow never achieve.

It is the time of year that even the pagans celebrated in order to return the blessing of full light that spring brings. It is a time when in the past the farmer was surviving of the blessing of the crops from the fall harvest and hoping for the blessing of good weather for the planting of the spring crops. It is the time of year where the blessings of past, present, and future collide.

President Johnson's poverty tour in 1964th War on Poverty was not won, but some of the social programs have lifted some out of poverty and made it bearable for many.

Source: Wikimedia Cecil Suagdon Public Domain

Blessing of Poverty

I could focus on the blessings of past, present, and future. I want to look at the blessing of poverty, because it is something most considers not a blessing. It is a blessing for the lessons it teaches and the joys that it only can bring.

Poverty can be the source of endless futile worry that zaps one of all happiness. There is a unique peace that comes when you finally realize that there is not job, sweepstakes, or kind relation who is going to change your status of poverty. It is out of your hands and you can only count on the blessing of God to survive day to day. The blessing of poverty can be the end of constant anxiety and true reliance on God to see that your day to day needs are met. Keeping the heat on is not a task of worry in your life, but a testament to the grace of God. Each month you are not cold is a small miracle. It brings joy to be blessed with the necessities of life. It also helps you to count the blessing of having the essentials because there are many who do not.

Poverty brings the joy of hope. When you have hit what you consider the rock bottom and there are no easy fixes you latch on to hope. You face each day with the hope of the blessing that you will get what you need to survive that day. There is not far off hope that you can retire in the Bahamas or travel in Europe some day that only brings a distant twinge of joy. You get the joy of knowing that at the end of the day all is well in the moment. Your joy is in the moment.

We play a game at our house. It is if tomorrow you had a large amount of money what would you do. Even my kids get great joy out of using at least half of their imaginary money to make someone else happy. Being poor teach you the joy of sharing with others and the blessing of the common good as the highest call of God to each of us.

The hope of having brings as much joy as the actual act of having. My children know how to be grateful and therefore hopeful. When they are blessed with something extra even if it is small it is a source of large joy.

The best lesson of poverty is that you learn happiness, joy, and blessing is a choice. Money cannot buy happiness because it is the individual who chooses to feel blessed. Now this is not to say that a mother who has a dying child and cannot save them do to lack of money feels blessed.

Lessons Learned and the Dignity of the Poor

There is a level of poverty that is simply evil and the reality of poverty is an evil that does not please or show the glory of God. It is the existence of a sense of blessing in the lives of the poor that shows forth the Glory of God. It is the reality of the poor themselves working towards justice in the world that show us the true grace of Christ.

The past few years have been difficult for a whole group of Americans who have found themselves doing things that were not part of any experience they have ever had. They found themselves losing homes, collecting food stamps, and taking jobs below their skills and education. Many will as the. Economy improves .move back into the middle class. I hope that there will be lessons learned by many, who never counted their blessings when they were blessed. The,”I did it” attitude of the apathetic middle and upper classes to the plight of the poor in this country has hopefully softened. The great recession did not leave those who had done nothing to improve their lot in life in the proverbial bread line; it left those who had dedicated their lives to economic gain there as well. Poverty, many times a life altering disease is not respecter of persons. We however, should learn to respect our fellow citizens and their right to a basic level of human dignity that no one should be deprived of. This is what the blessing of poverty should ultimately teach all of us.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Our Developmental Dance With God

Sir Edward Tylor was responsible for forming the definition of animism currently accepted in anthropology. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Venus von Willendorf, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Sorcerer of Le Gabillou (Dordogne, France) Español: Hechicero de Le Gabillou (Dordoña, Francia) Français : Sorcier de Le Gabillou (Dordogne, France) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The world is full of different concepts of God. Religious tradition introduces it‘s abstract on what God is in their stories of origin. Stories of origin have their own start in the evolution of humanity. The human mind had to gain concept environment beyond existence in the present moment. This was self awareness and the ability to inject self in the past and future.

Social scientists, anthropologist, and historians with the help the archeological community believe that the ability of humans to have religion occurred very early in Paleolithic societies. Humans live in larger familial groups forced on hunting and gathering .They was not significantly removed from nature and had the fear of things in the natural world. Yet, they had more complex feeling than those instinctual to all higher functioning species, fear was tempered with awe and appreciation of the beauty and plenty that nature provides. ‘

Cave art may be an example of the creator to somehow draw into existence the state of plentiful or to tell the story of a good hunt. It may be the sake or art for art. Art too many speaks of the existence of a more complex being. Many bodies have been found buried with personal objects. There is some evidence that in parts of Asia during this period the skulls of the dead were used for drinking vessels. There may have been some idea that the living was consuming the life energy of those who passed. The existence of art and rituals were probably were precursors to humans first attempt to deal with the concept of God and well eventually religion. It may have all revolved around death and what happens after we die, but soon the

In the Paleolithic period it seems to have been a pregnant idol craze. The ‘Venus’ of Millender is standard example of these figurines. Yes, there are images of men, but few compared to that of women. Feminist and others have suggested that the prominent image of God was female Creation of life and ongoing fertility of all creation was a female trait. If any part of the concept of God from this period carried over into our western culture it would be the concept of God the Creator and source of all life.

The concept of God is really not a statement of monotheism .Animism has been the religious focus of most primitive societies. The simple idea that spirit in habits all living things. Yet, even in religions that use animal totems and seem to focus on individual spiritual presence, there is a larger spiritual concept of creation. The roots on polytheism and monotheism come from the free floating spirits of animism. If a tree has a spirit, the maybe there is a larger Spirit of all trees or all Forests. Maybe a specific Spirit rules our forest. Therefore we should appease that spirit by worship or sacrifice. You get the idea has humanity become more complex in organization so did their concepts of God.

If the Goddess concept of God lost out it was not some evil plot some early version of a conservative WASP male, it was simply that moving into organized community to engage in farming and to claim territory was dangerous for women who were almost always with child or caring for children. Munity became warlike to defend the land they farmed in hunted from others. Being male meant being the one who protected all that was created. Therefore, the concept of God became male. It was also that it is instinctual for males to assure that their seed is going forth into the future. Therefore controlling who women reproduced with became a focus the male concept of God and brachial religion. This may be a simplistic view. If you look at how those in Hebrew scripture see Israel relationship with God, you kind of can get it. When she is a faith lover and clinging to her one God all is well, if her eyes wonder else where it is not.

So what will the concept of God evolve into? We may see a glimpse is process theology. It at its core sees God as the common connecting energy for all things. Sounds like the concept as God as undefined Spirit or even a ‘God Particle”, is sort of a move back to an earlier time with a modern twist.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Christian Education In The Early Church

English: The story of the Eden Garden. The temptation of Adam & Eve by the devil. Pedestal of the statue of Madonna with Child, western portal (of the Virgin), of Notre-Dame de Paris, France Français : L'histoire du Jardin d'Eden. Au premier plan la tentation d'Adam & Eve par le Diable. Base de la statue de la Vierge à l'Enfant, trumeau du portail de la Vierge, Façade ouest de Notre-Dame de Paris. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John Chrysostom and Aelia Eudoxia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

St John Chrysostom (c.349—407) Archbishop of Constantinople (398—404) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

During the early centuries of the Church education was limited to the theological interest of the Church. The persecution of the early church made it difficult for most Christian communities to participate in serious theological discourse. The educated clergy were products of what we would recognize as a classical education based on the great thinkers of the predominant Roman and Greek culture at the time. Other Christian communities were influenced by the education systems predominant in Middle Eastern and African culture at the time.

This all provided fertile intellectual ground for the early leaders of Christian communities to draw from and refine Christian teaching. In periods of time when the Church was not driven so far underground monasteries were established .These monasteries were the first centers of Christian learning. Later, schools were established by Teutonic Christians to teach the Catechism. These Catechumen schools were initially for adult converts.

Later, they catered to children and focused on matters of orthodox faith. They can be thought of as early Sunday schools. Eventually these schools taught reading and writing .The also took on curriculum's that taught the philosophical foundations of Greek and Roman society as a way to understand the theology and history of the Church. The by product of this teaching was that during the dark ages much of most important teaching of classical cultures was preserved. Even in times of persecution the early Church fathers had views on what constituted a good Christian education.

Clement of Alexandria (150-220)

He saw faith as the foundation of all learning including secular. Clement looked to impart the concept of reason into early Christian teaching. Clement used Mosaic Law and the classical philosophies of ancient Greece and Rome to "prove" that intellectual thought had prepared the way for the Gospel.

Origen (186-253)

Origen took a more personal approach to early Christian education. He believed that the Christian instructor could not legitimately teach any as ethic practice they did not engage in themselves.Oriegen took this approach because he believed the goal of all education was to become more Christ like. The Christian instructor was to be a spiritual director of sorts and help students focus on their own character flaws that had the potential to draw their focus away from God and the work of the church. Still the role of teacher was to direct students into their own spiritual discovery rather than insist on some sort of spiritual conformity.

Basil the Great (329-379)

Basil was the first to advocate Christian education for very young children. He saw no separation between preparing young Christians for a holy life and parenting. Correction for young children and older students revolved around monastic practices such as fasting and solitude. In formal Christian education, Basil advocated classical education playing a secondary role to use of Christian and Hebrew scriptures to teach theology.

Chrysostom (347-407)

Chrysostom saw mothers as the first and primary educators in Christianity for young children. The Christian home was to be the foundation of all later religious education with mother's being the most important examples of Christ-like behavior for young children. He did advocate formal instruction in Christian teaching for older children at which point the instructor became the example of Christ in the world for the student.

Chrysostom believed that a teacher must have an understanding of the world that the child had in order to effectively teach. Religious teaching moved a child from rote instruction to one in which a child would come to their own conclusion without the instruction of the teacher. In Chrysostom view a teacher did not do for a student what they in the end learned to do for themselves. Religious instruction was seen as the foundation of all later secular learning and lens which secular learning was judged. Chrysostom saw his own ability to be a great orator as a result of his pagan education and did not see that type of training in conflict with essential Christian teaching. He advocated using secular learning in all forms to advance the work of the Church.

During the Dark Ages, 401 to 451 A.D Benedictine Monks who were missionaries among Anglo-Saxon, Frisians, and Thurigians peoples preserved libraries they encouraged scholars to study the agricultural knowledge of the great ancient civilizations and apply it to local farming. This is just one example of how religious instruction in the early church came to preserve and promote practical knowledge of humanity at a time of great social upheaval. The church in this time was the only social structure with enough power to preserve centuries of vital human knowledge in a world where such things could have been lost for eternity. The Church becoming main source of secular as well as religious instruction by being truly catholic in nature became the foundation of all education in Europe and eventually in the United States as well.

Sources:

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0144.htm

http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/mcgovern/newmanfathers.htm

Anglo Catholic Prespective.

http://www.antiochian.org/node/17013

http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Socrates_(historian_of_the_early_Church)

http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-religion/medieval-benedictine-monks.htm