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| an original german woodcarving madonna in a side chapel of the main abbey |
These are my recollections of the event.
I arrived the afternoon before so I could relax, meditate, walk the grounds, read, and have some peace and quiet the evening before about 400 delegates would arrive for an all-day conference. An hour-long walk around Lake Sagatagan, a few hours reading at Emmaus House where I stayed, evening prayer in the Abbey Church with the assembled community of monks and visitors, supper in the student commons, and I was as native as Johnnie Bread.
The morning opening session stressed social justice and diversity. After a welcome, we were placed in random groups to discuss various aspects of social justice. In my group, one person objected to the mention of politics. The suggestion that a person can be politically active in the pursuit of social justice was not acceptable. I explained that I do not make a dichotomy between politics and theology.
We were given options of attending three out of twenty possible sessions on a variety of highly accomplished theologians who excel in the use of the graphic and performing arts. With a very strong emphasis on social justice as an integral component of both their life experience and their teaching material, these presenters had a great deal to offer.
My first session was entitled “The Religious Imagination at the Movies.” Dr. Linda Mercadante, a Theology Professor at Methodist Theological School in Ohio, has an Italian/Jewish background which might have made her Catholic or Jewish. She compromised, she said, by becoming Protestant. Though ordained Presbyterian, she teaches at a Methodist College. In the course of her teaching theology to sometimes bored undergrads, she found that the one thing that they connected with was movies. She dug in, took classes, worked up materials, and after some years has become adept at bringing vibrant discussion to life in her classes. She also has quite a road show for guest seminars throughout the country. Her e-mail is lmercadante@mtso.edu, in case you have need of a guest instructor.
Our class consisted in film clips with discussion. The films used were “Matrix,” “The Truman Show,” and “What Dreams Will Come.” “Matrix” was pushed into Dr. Mercadante’s consciousness by her 14-year-old son. She finds in this film a major metaphor that speaks to our young people, because it portrays a global high-tech, civilization in which artificial intelligence controls everyone. Humans are subsumed by computers, lose all freedom, and become energy and software to support the artificial intelligence hardware. Just to see the clip showing Keanu Reaves morph into a mercury-like cyborg brings alive a world of discussion on consciousness, free will, and human destiny. Dr. Mercadante says that “Matrix” is currently one of the key metaphors to which our young people resonate, having grown up on electronic and digital information. There is so much more to discuss in the movie. Don’t bring a predetermined theological agenda to a film, says Mercadante; you create meaning with your faith.
I also attended Fr. Jan Michael Joncas’(right) “Diviner, Visionary, Advocate: Prophetic Preachers and Their Preaching.” Though not in his best known field of music, it was a creative and informative talk on the five kinds of “prophets: Nabi, Hozeh, Ro’eh, Ish ha Elohim, and B’nai Nebi’im. These correspond to the 5 modes of preaching: expository, evangelistic, catechetical, festal and prophetic. Joncas is able to bring alive a discussion on prophetic utterance as it affects contemporary events. He read us a section from Ezekiel and asked what it suggested: I said “War in Iraq.” He asked, if I were preaching next Sunday, how would I expound on this? I said: “Very carefully.” I guess it would make a difference whether I were speaking at St. Joan of Arc or Our Lady of Grace. But in either case, I would have to say exactly how I believed those words of the prophet should guide our leaders and us. We can certainly differ on political courses of action. But our conclusions should be the product both of current information and of thoughtful contemplation. And in my case they would vehemently discourage brash military intervention without ignoring the need for enforcement of international law, such as it is in its adolescence.
As Prayer Partners at St. Joan of Arc, we are not preachers. We try to help create and facilitate prayer experiences that speak to the minds and hearts of fellow parishioners, and to empower others who join us to do the same. A special conference like “The Sense-able God” was a treat from St. Joan of Arc to us to enrich our repertory.
My third choice for break-out session was Toni Harris, OP, Prioress of Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation, “Action for Justice.” Toni has worked locally, nationally and internationally on social justice, and has done most of her ministry among Native American communities. To sit in a circle with her and the other attendees was a privilege. The people there seem to know lots of things without even saying them out loud. They are things that point to the real end of prayer and theology, that of giving birth to love and justice.
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