Not sure how many Vox Nova readers are familiar with Duke theologian/ethicist Stanley Hauerwas, but I am sure that more of them should be. Ecumenical blogger Inhabitatio Dei passes along the following classic Hauerwas episode, an excerpt from a talk he gave for Princeton’s Forum on Youth Ministry:
“I assume most of you are here because you think you are Christians, but it is not all clear to me that the Christianity that has made you Christians is Christianity. For example:
How many of you worship in a church with an American flag? I am sorry to tell you that your salvation is in doubt.
How many of you worship in a church in which the fourth of July is celebrated? I am sorry to tell you that your salvation is in doubt.
How many of you worship in a church that recognizes Thanksgiving? I am sorry to tell you that your salvation is in doubt.
How many of you worship in a church that celebrates January 1 as the “New Year”? I am sorry to tell you that your salvation is in doubt.
How many of you worship in a church that recognizes “Mother’s Day”? I am sorry to tell you that your salvation is in doubt.”
The blogger comments Hauerwas’ words and their relevance for the sense evangelicals have (or do not have) of the keeping of liturgical time:
Hauerwas will always be able to deliver the great lines to shock the unsuspecting and comfortable Christians that may cross his path. However, one of the very interesting things about his litany of everyday church heresies is the fact that with the exception of the issue of the flag, they are all issues related to the calendar. Perhaps this goes to the crucial point that how we mark time is, in the fullest sense an indicator of where our true allegiance lies. To my mind this is just another reason why an emphasis on the liturgical year must be recovered in evangelical churches.
Of course, even with our own Catholic tradition’s emphasis on the liturgical calendar, our own peculiar form of American Catholicism gets its liturgical calendar mixed up with the American liturgical calendar all the time, as I have pointed out before. Of course, the marking of time relative to this (s)election year is yet another indicator of the “ultimate concern” of American Catholics. (For more on elections as religious rituals, see Carolyn Marvin and David Ingle’s fantastic book Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag.)
Roman Catholics in the United States need to hear the warnings of Stanley Hauerwas, and they need to hear them now. His brief but powerful article called “America’s God,” from the Fall 2007 issue of Communio would be a great place to start.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In