2012 Nurture Workshop Story, Practice, and Virtue: Holistic Spirituality for Fragmented People

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1 2012 Nurture Workshop Story, Practice, and Virtue: Holistic Spirituality for Fragmented People Introduction Frank Guertin/ICS Managing Director 1929 Hubble and 1998 Perlmutter, Schmidt, Riess My personal interest in transformation through 12 Steps and Free Church Christianity Francis Schaeffer s Line of Despair and Truth (circa 1968) Philosophy Art Music General Culture Theology Wilhelm Hegel ( ), Sören Kierkegaard ( ), etc. The Story of Me (or You) Looking at Bloom s Taxonomy A reading from Buyology A reading from Redirect 1 Diagramming the story process 2 The difference between author and narrator 1 Excerpted and abridged from Timothy D. Wilson, Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change (New York: Little Brown and Company), The visual idea for this flow chart comes from Crystal L. Park, Making Sense of the Meaning Literature: An Integrative Review of Meaning Making and Its Effects on Adjustments to Stressful Life Events, Psychological Bulletin 136 No. 2 (2010):

2 Is life an anthology or a novel? Thinking of story as Origin, Now, and Destination The Story of We (And Thee) Embedded narratives come from community experiences The articulation process requires communal reflection to expand our interpretation of events Journeying together strengthens the new choices we are hearing Let s consider this text from Matthew 18:15 20: If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

3 Let s review some important attempts to story a Christian society Egyptian Scetis (269) and the rise of the Christian empire (313) The rise of the sacred king (post 476) The rise and fall of medieval scholasticism The pope, Luther (1517), Calvin, and Arminius René Descartes (1619) and clear knowing 1. Never accept anything as true unless it is clearly and inescapably so 2. Reduce a problem to the simple or particular 3. Organise particulars into general knowledge 4. Check for completeness The rise and fall of the nation state (post 1945) How God s story seems to be intersecting Christianity today A New York Times video op/doc Dismantling Detroit (5 minutes) People and Practices The differences between immanent, imminent, and immediate Today s appetite for immediacy A list of practices 3 to consider When incorporated into story, practices assist in the meaning making process A video clip from American Experience: The Amish (10 mins) To become contemplative is to learn how to pause the narrating Let s try the photo album exercise to illustrate this 3 Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005),

4 Becoming a Virtuoso (or Virtuosa) Understanding the origins of desert spirituality through Evagrios (383) and John Cassian (415) Reading from Texts on Discrimination Reading from On the Eight Vices The Magnificent Seven Lust (luxuria) Chastity (castitas) Gluttony (gula) Temperance (temperantia) Greed (avaritia) Charity (caritas) Sloth (socordia) Diligence (industria) Wrath (ira) Patience (patientia) Envy (invidia) Kindness (humanitas) Pride (superbia) Humility (humilitas) Augustine splits the Adam Aristotle a la Aquinas and the importance of telos When placed in a storying process, virtues flow from Origin, into Now, and express Destination Christ formed narration can be framed as prophet, priest, and king

8 Excerpts: Buyology In short, the results revealed that we have no memory of brands that don t play an integral part in the storyline of the program. They become white noise, easily, instantaneously forgotten. When we see a commercial showing Idol contestants merrily sponging down a Ford at a car wash, or crowding into a vehicle like lunatic 1950 s teenagers, we pay practically no attention to the product, because it s clearly just an ad. Through subtle and brilliant integration, Coke, on the other hand, has painstakingly affiliated itself with the dreams, aspirations, and starry eyed fantasies of potential idols. Want to be high flying and adored? Coke can help. Want to have the world swooning at your feet? Drink a Coke. By merely sipping the drink onstage, the three judges forged a powerful association between the drink and the emotions provoked by the show... Ford, on the other hand, has no such archetypal role whatsoever on American idol. Viewers don t link it with victory, defeat, dreams, adoration, klieg lights, standing ovations, encores or anything other than gas, tires, highways, and automatic transmissions. Idol contestants have no natural connection or aspirational affiliation with the brand so we, as viewers, have no emotional engagement with it, either. 4 Philokalia Reading 1 All thoughts inspired by the demons produce within us conceptions of sensory objects; and in this way the intellect, with such conceptions imprinted on it, bears the forms of these objects within itself. So, by recognizing the object presented to it, the intellect knows which demon is approaching. For example, if the face of a person who has done me harm or insulted me appears in my mind, I recognize the demon of rancour appealing. If there is a suggestion of material things or of esteem, again it will be clear which demon is troubling me. In the same way with other thoughts, we can infer from the object appearing in the mind which demon is close at hand, suggesting that object to us. I do not say that all thoughts of such things come from the demons; for when the intellect is activated by man it is its nature to bring forth the images of past events. But all thoughts producing anger or desire in a way that is contrary to nature are caused by demons. For through demonic agitation the intellect mentally commits adultery and becomes incensed. Thus it cannot receive the vision of God, who sets us in order; for the divine splendor only appears to the intellect in during prayer, when the intellect is free from conceptions of sensory objects. 5 Philokalia Reading 2 Self reform and peace are not achieved through the patience which others show us, but through our own long suffering towards our neighbor. When we try to escape the struggle for long suffering by retreating into solitude, those unhealed passions we take there with us are merely hidden, not erased; for unless our passions are first purged, solitude and withdrawal from the world not only foster them but also keep them concealed, no longer allowing us to perceive what passion it is that enslaves us. On the contrary, they impose on us an illusion of virtue and persuade us to believe that we have achieved 4 Martin Lindstrom, Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (New York: Doubleday, 2008), Evagrios the Solitary, Philokalia: The Complete Text Volume 1 (New York: Faber & Faber, 1979),

9 long suffering and humility, because there is no one present to provoke us and test us. But as soon as something happens which does arouse and challenge us, our hidden and previously unnoticed passions immediately break out like uncontrolled horses that have long been kept unexercised and idle, dragging their driver all the more violently and wildly to destruction. Our passions grow fiercer when left idle through lack of contact with other people. Even that shadow of patience and long suffering which we thought we possessed while we mixed with our brethren is lost in our isolation through not being exercised. Poisonous creatures that live quietly in their lairs in the desert display their fury only when they detect someone approaching; and likewise passion filled men, who live quietly not because of their virtuous disposition but because of their solitude, spit forth their venom whenever someone approaches and provokes them. This is why those seeking perfect gentleness must make every effort to avoid anger not only towards men, but also towards animals and even inanimate objects. 6 6 St. John Cassion, Philokalia: The Complete Text Volume 1 (New York: Faber & Faber, 1979), 85.

St. Christopher s Confirmation Class Oct 30 th 2016

St. Christopher s Confirmation Class Oct 30 th 2016 St. Christopher s 2016 2017 Confirmation Class Oct 30 th 2016 Opening Prayer Lord, give us the ability to listen, the desire to learn and the understanding when to apply this knowledge that comes to us