Finding Language to Speak About God
The answer is not found in books. That truth revealed itself to me while in seminary and this adage keeps coming back around. I read quite a lot, usually a book a week, but I have learned that I can’t depend on books to give me answers. Books instead tend to give me more perspectives as well as questions I had not yet begun to think through. Lately, I have been following a thread that I think matters quite a bit and I want to share not any answers, but the new questions arising.
Anyone in the church today can see we are undergoing a great change in which younger generations are attending less frequently at best and often not at all. But I have been working through the thoughts of some helpful guides. In his book Learning to Speak God from Scratch, Jonathan Merritt shares how we can no longer assume someone knows what we mean when we use words like “grace” and “gospel”. He then begins the work of reclaiming theological language. While I am less sure of the later half of the book, I know he is writing of something critical when he names that we have lost a common language of faith. It is far too easy to end up with buzz words and theological babble. So we have to work on speaking in ways we can be heard if we want to share what it means to us that God became human and lived among us as Jesus of Nazareth.
My friend and fellow Episcopal priest Kit Carlson points to these same issues, while providing a way forward. In her book Speaking of Faith, she describes how to walk with a small group through constructing their own language for talking about faith. Any short treatment here will not do her book and leader’s guide justice. Kit has crafted, tested, and honed a five-week discussion group designed to assist someone in discovering how God has been active in his or her life and then finding language to put this into words. Kit mostly helped me see clearly the very real internal obstacles to speaking about faith at all.
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Two other Episcopal priest friends, Melody Shobe and Scott Gunn, write Walk in Love: Episcopal Belief and Practices which walks the reader through the liturgical year and the sacraments of the church to teach the Christian faith from a distinctly Anglican perspective. With straightforward language and in a compelling way, the authors demonstrate how prayer shapes our beliefs and draw us closer to Jesus. This is the perfect companion for newcomers curious about the Episcopal Church and a helpful boost to an adult forum in a church. Their book challenges me to reflect on how formative liturgy and private prayer practices are in shaping my faith.
Finally, Rachel Held Evans once more shares her own journey and struggles in a way that really resonates with me in her Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again. She rises to the challenges named above to reclaim the Bible for herself and along the way helping us see anew the value in the old, old story.
While I haven’t found answers in these books, I have discovered some new truths I only held dimly and been challenged to let go of some easy answers when it comes to sharing the Good News of what God is up to in the world, through us and often in spite of us.
peace, Frank
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue, Canon to the Ordinary
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