While so much has
seemingly become disposable, this isn't true for Christianity. The saints who
have gone before have much to teach us. Chuck Gutenson's The Right Church: Live Like the First Christians
serves as a helpful way to explore the diverse wisdom from early church
theologians. I was amazed in my church history classes to learn how much those
theologians disagreed but even more by how much they challenged conventional
wisdom. Gutenson's book hits a number of relevant topics and explores them
through the lens of a wide variety of early church fathers. His aim is to put
us in conversation with their ways of thinking in order to challenge some of
our current presumptions that too often go unexamined.
For
example, while there were lots of agreement about the importance of Scripture
in the early church, there was also a variety of interpretations and even
schools of interpretations. Gutenson
challenged me to see that it wasn't the more historical perspective of the
Antioch school, but the more allegorical school from Alexandria that had the
lesser tendency to fall into heresy. From a quote fromOrigen, Gutenson reminds
us what has been too often forgotten, "the goal of Scripture is to form us
into the people of God, into a people who live out with integrity the life of
faith." (12) Additionally the early church fathers point out why
individualism and schism is a danger to ourselves.
Another concept that
too often goes unexamined is our use of the word freedom. This was evident to me watching the news
recently in an interview with a person smoking pot who could do so legal for
the first time in the state of Washington. He declared, "I am free to be
free." Gutenson's discussion reveals why many staunch conservatives would
be surprised to learn how "liberal" their ideas about freedom really
are philosophically speaking. Instead, Professor Gutenson shows why slavery to
Christ is highest and the only real freedom.
It was illuminating
having just finished Gutenson's exploration of the early church fathers on
wealth and poverty prior to reading about the factory fires in Bangladesh where
workers were killed and burned making low cost clothes in inhumane conditions. This
made St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom's words that much more convicting.
Perhaps most thought-provoking and convicting was St. Chrysostom's observation
about 2 Thessalonians 3:10 ("Anyone who would not work should not
eat") wasn't simply for the poor, but the wise ancient preacher points out
was instead for the rich who "are often guilty of worse idleness."
Having someone quote that passage to me to justify their own inaction recently,
I was glad I had read that chapter. Similar is true for the chapters on
Stewardship of Creation, Society and Government, and especially fascinating is
his observations about the early church's stance on war and military service
pre-Constantine.
For those looking
for a few short stories or even sermon examples that sum up the early church's
critique's to our way of life, the last chapter on the Desert Fathers is for
you. Gutenson invitation "to reflect upon these 'strange' early fellow
Christians" is certainly true. Their lives present a stark contrast to our
society that builds debt amounts hard to comprehend, clamors for more gadgets,
eats our way into a heath-care crisis, and requires storage units for all our
excess possessions. The long quotations throughout further his intention about
engagement with, not necessarily agreement with the early church. For ours is a
different time. Yet in reflecting upon their lives and wisdom with openness
instead of chronological snobbery, hopefully Gutenson's attempts will spark
renewal to a people called to distinct way of love.
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