Challenging Religious Issues English 10-2 - Amazon S3 · PDF fileWilliam K. Kay Worship: ......

ChallengingReligious

Issues

ISSN 2053-5163Issue 10

Spring 2016

Supporting A-level Religious Studies. The St Mary’s and St Giles’ Centre

William K. KayWilliam James on

Religious Experience

Bridget Nicholson Worship: Receiving,Developing and Living

Tradition

Phra Nicholas Thanissaroon The Enlightenment

Debate in EarlyBuddhism

Paul Wilsonon The Reformations :

Magisterial and Radical

Challenging Religious Issues

Supporting Religious Studies at A-level and beyond

Issue 10 Spring 2016

Contents

William James on Religious ExperienceWilliam K. Kay

Worship: Receiving, Developing and Living TraditionBridget Nichols

The Enlightenment Debate in Early BuddhismPhra Nicholas Thanissaro

The Reformations: Magisterial and RadicalPaul Wilson

Editor

3URIHVVRU�-HII�$VWOH\��*O\QGǒU�8QLYHUVLW\�Managing Editor

Dr Tania ap Siôn (University of Warwick, St Mary’s and St Giles’ Centre)Editorial Advisors

Professor Leslie J. Francis (University of Warwick)Libby Jones (The St Giles’ Centre, Wrexham)Professor David Lankshear (University of Warwick)3URIHVVRU�:LOOLDP�.��.D\��*O\QGǒU�8QLYHUVLW\�Phil Lord (System Leader, GwE)Professor Peter Neil (Bishop Grosseteste University)Dr Stephen Parker (University of Worcester)-HQQ\�5ROSK��*O\QGǒU�8QLYHUVLW\�'U�3DXO�5ROSK��*O\QGǒU�8QLYHUVLW\�Mary Stallard (The St Giles’ Centre, Wrexham)7KH�5LJKW�5HYG�'DYLG�:DONHU��*O\QGǒU�8QLYHUVLW\�Design: Phillip VernonChallenging Religious IssuesThe St Mary’s and St Giles’ CentreLlys OnnenAbergwyngregynGwyneddLL33 0LDTelephone: 01248 680131E-mail: [email protected]: www.st-marys-centre.org.uk

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St Mary’s and St Giles’ CentreISSN 2053-5163

Challenging Religious Issues, Issue 10, Spring 2016 2

William James’s philosophical startingpoint is the question what sort of placethe universe is and particularly whether amonistic view is correct. Monism is thedoctrine that the whole of reality isreducible ultimately to a single substance.A monist holds that the mind and all itscontents and activities are part andparcel of the material world, and thatyour mind and my mind are includedwithin this grand reality. This doctrinehas at least two consequences: first,everything, including spiritual reality, hasa material basis and, second, that goodand evil are not separate and distinct butfused together at a metaphysical level.James rejected these views. He held thatthe universe is founded on diverseprinciples and that God cannot beresponsible for evil and that, if evil isfinally to be overcome, God must beseparate from it. He also thought,

however, that God is ‘finite, either inpower or knowledge, or in both’ – a viewthat he believed to be that of the ‘commonbeliever’ also (Putnam, 2007, p. 189).

These considerations were in keepingwith James’s belief in the uniqueness ofhuman identity but they were alsocompatible with his understanding thateach person must possess a self towhich all experiences are in some wayattached. Or, to put this another way,there must be something that guaranteesthe continuity of each human individualsuch that the experiences you have aretruly yours and continue to be yours allyour life and that my experiences continueto be mine all my life. Traditionally the soulwas thought to provide the connectionbetween our experiences, the thread onwhich all of them were strung. James,although he did not rule out the possibilitythat each human being had a soul, put

Challenging Religious IssuesIssue 10 Spring 2016© William K. Kay

William James on Religious Experience

William K. KayThis article considers the discussion of religious experience of the Americanpsychologist and philosopher, William James (1842-1910), who published his bookThe Varieties of Religious Experience in 1902.

Specification links: WJEC/CBAC RS3 CS: Studies in Religion in ContemporarySociety (A2), 4. Religion and the individual; RS4 HE: Studies in Religion and HumanExperience (A2) Religious experience; RS1/2 PHIL: Introduction to Philosophy ofReligion (AS), 4. An introduction to religious experience: mysticism.

Challenging Religious Issues, Issue 10, Spring 2016


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the self at the centre of experience: itwas the self that received experience andinterpreted it.

Religious experience

What James meant by religiousexperience was shown by people whoreported encounters with religious ideas,or beings or conditions. A person mightexperience release from guilt and anxietyafter what he or she took to be anencounter with Christ; a person mightfeel swallowed up in the infinite and takethis to be an encounter with God; aperson might feel united with the wholeuniverse in one harmonious moment.These experiences have been reportedeither spontaneously andautobiographically in books or letters orelicited by researchers asking people towrite about encounters with powersoutside their everyday lives.

James collected dozens of suchreports in different languages and arisingout of different religions, and arrangedthem into groups (conversion, saintliness,mysticism) and tried to understand them.He believed that religion as a wholecould be traced to such experiencesamong countless numbers of individualsand he was careful to distinguish thereported experience and its value.

He was quite prepared to believe thatunusual and strange experiences couldhave psychological benefits and by thishe appeared to mean two things.

• First, he considered that in the normalcourse of psychological developmentall of us tend towards the unifying andintegrating of the personality such thatcontradictions and imbalances areremoved. The divided self – one thatwas constantly at war with itself –might be united by religiousexperience. The person who felt guilt

or anxiety might find these negativeemotions removed after an experienceof the infinite, especially if thisexperience was also one ofunconditional love.

• Second, he spoke of the ‘sick’ and the‘healthy’ soul and here characterisedtwo broad types of people (James,1902, lectures IV-VII). The sick soulwould be prone to pessimism, toseeing faults and flaws in him orherself, to looking at the dark side oflife – at disease, pain and death. Thehealthy soul, by contrast, would bebuoyed up by optimism and wouldlook at the positive side of life – atbeauty in nature, progress in humanhistory and the joys of humanrelationships. These two categories ofpeople, James thought, tended toapproach religion differently. The sicksoul would be self-tormenting butmight eventually, often through aradical conversion experience, findpeace and personal integration. Thehealthy soul would not need to makesuch a dramatic religious journey. Inthis instance the path to the religiouslife would be simpler though it couldlead in various directions, eithertowards conventional religionexpressed through congregational lifeand worship or towards a love ofnature verging on pantheism.

Criticisms of James’s work

James wrote very early in the 20th

century when psychology was in itsinfancy. There was widespreadagreement that human beings possesssubliminal modes of consciousness notimmediately open to our rational minds.We may have thoughts and feelings thatonly float to the surface in dreams orunder hypnosis or through word



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associations, the tools of early psychiatry.While James did not accept all thedetails of early psychiatric theory, he didaccept that an experience of God mightcome to us through our subconscious.None of the mechanisms by which thismight happen were explored by Jameseither in his writings or in the commentshe made on other people’s accounts oftheir religious experience. He simplynoted that our consciousness is far widerthan the awareness granted by oureveryday waking minds.

The most common criticism of Jamesclaimed that he made too much room forextreme or strange experiences and paidtoo little attention to common andunexciting religious experience. To thiscriticism James would have said that hewas trying to map out the field ofreligious experience and to categorise it,and that without exploring the full rangeof experiences he could not hope todescribe it properly. He needed the greatRoman Catholic mystics like St Teresa ofAvila and St John of the Cross and theProtestant John Bunyan, as well as non-Christian (the Upanishads) andhumanistic sources.

William James seems to have been thefirst writer to conceptualise conversionas the unification of personality, apersonality previously at odds with itselfand bound up in contradiction (cf. James,1902, lectures VIII-X). Within theevangelical tradition that James drawsheavily upon at this point, conversion isseen as a theologically forensic processof justification but there is little or noreference to this aspect of conversionwithin James’s writing. Nor does hefocus upon conversion as a process ofliberation from sin and accompanyingguilt although, within his writing, theseelements can be implied from his earlydiscussion of the nature of reality as

containing the contradictory principles ofgood and evil. In this respect, then, hisfailure to give a full examination to thetexts he has collected is unfortunate. Forthe evangelical Christian, the sinful self isexchanged for a righteous self by aspiritual or psychological transactiondependent upon identifying with Jesus.

Extensions of James’s work

Other studies have taken selectedextracts from James’s Varieties‘presented them in booklet form, and hadrespondents rate on a 5-point scale thedegree to which they had ever had anexperience like each of these’ (Hood, etal, 1996, p. 250). The ReligiousExperience Episodes Measure (REEM)produces results that can generatescales that measure how widespreadsome of the experiences collected byJames are today – and they aresurprisingly widespread though thefigures vary by age, sex, country,religious orientation and so on. In 1985David Hay interviewed a sample ofresidents of Nottingham and found that62% had ‘been aware of or influenced bya presence or power, whether you call itGod or not, which is different from youreveryday self’; while questionnairesurveys of a random sample in Britain inthe 1970s and 1980s gave an affirmativeresponse to the same question ofbetween 36 and 48% (Hay, 1987, chs8-10; 1990, ch. 5 and pp. 79-84. Otherresearch has revolved around the manytriggers for facilitating mysticalexperiences and noted that individualsreported a loss of self by being absorbedin an object of perception. Such loss ofself was deemed analogous to hypnoticsuggestibility and subjected to furthertests in an attempt to refine theory aboutreligion.



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Implications of James’s work

We may note three implications ofJames’s work.

• First, his concentration on experienceshifts the direction of our attentionfrom beliefs, institutions and rituals tothe subject of experience. Beliefs maybe studied and measured byquestionnaire data, and religiousbeliefs and non-religious beliefs canbe compared and correlated.Religious institutions can also bestudied by direct observation as wellas by historical research. We can seewhat impact religious institutions havehad on society and, to an extent, onindividuals. Similarly, religious ritualscan be studied by direct observationand the purpose and the origin ofritual can be traced so as to give usan idea of what it is like to participatein religious activities. Experience, bycontrast, is more transitory andimpalpable and more difficult to focusupon. James has brought the wholedimension of experience into theresearch domain and made religiousstudies scholars aware of itsimportance.

• Second, we note the distinctionbetween solitary religious experienceand communal religious experience.Most of the experiences Jamesreported were solitary and many wereoutside the context of any religiousceremony or activity. Yet there arereligious experiences that occur incommunal or congregational settingsand it is important to include these inany full assessment of the impact ofexperience upon individuals. A studyof religious experience does notprevent the study of the communal

aspect of religion or the way religiousexperiences and religious institutionsmight be connected.

• Third, James separated religiousexperience from its value. He wasquite clear that unusual experiencesmight have great value in the sensethat they were psychologicallybeneficial. One may argue that thisdistinction is in keeping with the‘learning from’ aim within muchreligious studies. Just as men andwomen who underwent extraordinaryexperiences in the past were able toreport upon them and benefit fromthem so the modern student can, inthe study of religion and experiencesassociated with it, draw out variousethical and other lessons.Nevertheless, ‘James is quite explicitthat the answer to the “objectivity”question is quite independent of thebiological and psychological benefitsthat accrue from mystical experiences’(Gale, 2009, p. 19; cf. Astley, 2015).



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Links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience(Wikipedia)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James (Wikipedia)

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjPy6fDvODJAhUDfRoKHYayC38QFggsMAI&url=http

%3A%2F%2Fpinkmonkey.com%2Fdl%2Flibrary1%2Fbook1126.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFDxifg9fKEOcpdd3jo13BTbVlvJw&bvm=bv.110151844,d.ZWU&cad=rja (Text of TheVarieties of Religious Experience)

Discussion points

1. How would you define ‘religiousexperience’? Can you think of abetter method than the one devisedby James?

2. Do you think that it is valid toseparate the value of an experiencefrom the experience itself, asWilliam James did?

3. How reasonable do you think it is tosee religious conversion asinvolving the unification of thehuman personality?

4. Can you suggest how you mightstudy religious experiences andreligious institutions and ritualsand use the evidence from such astudy to construct a compositeaccount of religion?



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References

Astley, J. (2015). The objectivity ofreligious experience: Philosophicalarguments. Challenging ReligiousIssues, 7, 2-8 (http://www.st-marys-centre.org.uk/resources/Aleveljournal.html)

Gale, R.M. (2009). William James. InTwentieth-century philosophy ofreligion (pp. 13-25). Eds. G. Oppy &N.N. Trakakis, Durham: Acumen.

Hay, D. (1987). Exploring inner space:Scientists and religious experience.London: Mowbray.

Hay, D. (1990). Religious experiencetoday: Studying the facts. London:Mowbray.

Hood, R. W., Spilka, B., Hunsberger,B., & Gorsuch, R. (1996), ThePsychology of religion: Anempirical approach. London:Guildford Press.

James, W. (1902). The varieties ofreligious experience: A study inhuman nature. New York:Longmans, Green, & Co (andmany other editions).

Putnam, R.A. (2007), William James.In The Routledge companion tothe philosophy of religion(pp.181-190). Eds. C. Meister & P.Copan, London: Routledge.

The Revd Professor William Kay was founding director of the Centre for Pentecostaland Charismatic Studies at Bangor University and later Professor of Pentecostal6WXGLHV�DW�&KHVWHU�8QLYHUVLW\��+H�LV�FXUUHQWO\�3URIHVVRU�RI�7KHRORJ\�DW�*O\QGǒUUniversity. His books include Pentecostalism: A very short introduction (OxfordUniversity Press, 2011) and Pentecostalism: Core text (SCM Press, 2009).



Challenging Religious IssuesIssue 10 Spring 2016© Bridget Nichols

Worship: Receiving, Developing and

Living Tradition

Bridget NicholsThe article considers worship as pre-eminently a shared practice, whose forms havemuch to say about the way communities understand God. As well as looking toScripture and tradition as principal sources for patterns of worship, it reflects on theway these strands are absorbed in the living context. This takes different forms indifferent Christian communities. The role of worshippers as interpreters, and the role ofthe body in worship are important topics in this development.

Specification links: WJEC/CBAC RS1/2 CHR: Introduction to Christianity (AS), 3.Worship and sacraments in contemporary Christianity; also RS4 HE: Studies inReligion and Human Experience (A2), Religious experience [in Christianity]Introduction to religious experience; WJEC RS4 HE: Studies in Religion and HumanExperience (A2), religious experience.

Why worship?

Worship, in its broadest sense, begins asresponse to a supernatural ortranscendent being, or to an object withtranscendent significance. A powerfulpersonal experience of God, such asMoses’s vision of the burning bush(Genesis 3:1-6) or the Magi’s encounterwith the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:9-12),will evoke a particular disposition of aweand reverence. Experiences whichconvince individuals of the intervention ofGod in their lives may lead to outburstsof praise and joy, as in the case of Marywhen she is acclaimed by Elizabeth asthe mother of the saviour (Luke 1:46-55).

On their own these examples can givethe misleading impression that worship isa distinctively personal phenomenon.Anyone who is accustomed to being partof a gathering for the purpose of prayerand praise within a faith tradition willknow this to be untrue. The collectiveoffering of thanksgiving, intercession andadoration to God is what we might thinkof as normative – the default mode –when speaking of worship. This kind ofgathering may actually provide thecontext which gives rise to a powerfulexperience of God, as in the call ofIsaiah during prayer in the Temple(Isaiah 6), and the appearance of the

Worship: Receiving, Developing and Living Tradition


angel to Zechariah, announcing the birthof John the Baptist (Luke 2:5-14).

How is worship offered and

organised?

The way in which worship is offered is animportant source of information about thecommunity’s understanding of God. ThusNicholas Wolterstorff has written of theGod who addresses us in our own timethrough Scripture and through thechurch’s customary patterns of prayer,as one who is vulnerable to injury byhuman beings (a conclusion drawn fromthe fact that we confess our sins and askforgiveness) and who not only speaksbut also listens (evidenced by thefrequency of prayers which ask, andexpect God to hear us) (Wolterstorff,1995, 2015).

This assumes what is true for thegreater number of Christiandenominations, that they organise theirgatherings and the words and actionsthey use according to a system. Toexplore this further, it is necessary tointroduce another term: liturgy. Thedefinitions of and relationship betweenworship and liturgy are not uniformlyagreed. Louis Weil tells us that ‘“worship”is larger in scope than, for example,liturgy or ritual. . . . [I]n a specificallyreligious context . . . worship isunderstood as some form of response tothe one who is called God . . . . Inliturgical rites, particularly since theinvention of printing and the consequentstandardization of liturgical texts, wordshave been the dominant mode of thatresponse’ (Weil, 2013, p. 4).

Benjamin Gordon-Taylor explains that‘’liturgy” has come to denote thestructural body of text and ritual by whichthe church as a corporate body offersworship to God’. The assumption that

they are synonymous ‘has ledunhelpfully to an association of “worship”with the Reformed traditions and “liturgy”with Catholic and Orthodox’; rather‘liturgy is the means whereby worship isoffered to God by the church’ (Gordon-Taylor, 2013, pp. 13-14).

Nevertheless, it is common to find‘liturgy’ and ‘worship’ usedinterchangeably, or to hear thoseresponsible for organising acts ofworship describe their practice as ‘notliturgical’. And in the Eastern Orthodoxtradition, ‘the liturgy’ would mean thecelebration of the eucharist.

Authority in worship

Roman Catholics and Anglicans will beaccustomed to prescribed forms ofliturgical speech and clearly definedspeaking roles for those leading worshipand those forming the congregation.Much of the content may have rootsgoing deep into the history of Christianpractice (frequently drawing on liturgicalcomposition in Rome in the fifth to eighthcenturies). This is precisely whatbecomes problematic for others –especially in locally formed, ‘grassroots’bodies, house churches and communitychurches, with no explicit denominationalidentity. Here, the idea of words imposedby a central body is resisted, on thegrounds that such language cannotarticulate the community’s day-to-dayexperience or its experience of God.

Patrick Littlefield writes of the ‘appealin emerging churches to mysticalexpressions of spirituality that not onlyconnect with God, but also connect witha culture’. Emerging churches ‘are doingsomething unique as they interact withthe culture in which they find themselves’(Littlefield, 2010, pp. 43-44, 48). Thiscontextual consciousness is



commendable, but it does not in itselfguarantee that the self-generatedspeech of the community will be anauthentic response to the God whospeaks. Nor will it protect against moreinsidious forms of authority exercised bypowerful group leaders.

How have the rules governing

worship developed?

The way that the two main sources ofinformation for the origins of Christianworship – Scripture and tradition –exercise their influence is by no meanssimple. Practising Christians tend toreceive Scripture as interpreted by thechurch (the worshipping communities towhich they are affiliated). Understandingof concepts like ‘sacrifice’ have beenworked out differently by different churchbodies through history. From the earliestdays of organised groups gathering toworship God, the Christian message hasbeen passed along various pathwaysand has encountered different localcultures.

Paul Bradshaw advises great cautionin assuming that particular eventsrecorded in the Bible or by earlyChristians refer to actual rites, or even –as in the case of accounts of the LastSupper – that they are distinctive toChristian communities (Bradshaw, 2002,pp. 55-56). Although we can point toreferences to the last supper and tobaptism, and instructions to share themeal and to baptise, there is noguidance on how this should be done(McGowan, 2014, p. 10). The closest weget to any sort of ruling is when Paulrebukes the local Christians for badpractices (1 Corinthians 11:17-22). Muchharder to establish are the links betweenthe Last Supper and the JewishPassover meal in later developments of

eucharistic practice, or between Jewishbaptismal rites and the custom ofinitiating new Christians by baptism fromthe very earliest moments of theChristian tradition.

Is the liturgy biblical?

We have noted the role of Scripture inoffering precedents for actual practicesin the communal life of the church, evenif it does not provide actual ritualinstructions. Arguably, the more directinfluence of the Bible on Christianworship is in the determination tobalance prayer and praise withinstruction and exposition. In mostchurches, readings from the Old andNew Testaments are chosen accordingto a system designed to provide astrategic exposure to Scripture.Examples of such lectionaries can befound from a very early time in thedevelopment of the church. Currently,the major churches share the use of theRevised Common Lectionary. Thisscheme aims to ensure that worshippersbecome acquainted with the Gospels,the writings of the prophets, the narrativeof God’s covenant with Israel, the lettersof St Paul, and the account of the spreadof the church in Acts (O’Loughlin, 2012).Appropriate readings are chosen for themajor seasons of the Church’s Year andfor prominent saints’ days.

There is an internal logic to the choiceoffered for the eucharist each Sunday,for the themes of the Gospel will betouched on in the Old or New Testamentreading and sometimes in both. This isanother way of teaching a congregationabout the interpretation of Scripture,setting passages widely separated intime and circumstances side by side sothat common interests, and fulfilment ofevents foreshadowed in an earlier



period in a later period can be madeapparent.

Slightly less obvious are the directquotations from the Bible which find theirway into forms of address or prayers. Ofthese, the Lord’s Prayer is the mostoutstanding illustration (Matthew 6:9-13;Luke 11:2-4). The eucharistic greeting,‘Grace, mercy and peace’, borrowsverbatim from 2 Timothy 1:2 and 2 John1:3. Other regularly used expressions ofpraise and acclamation likewise quotedirectly – e.g. the Sanctus (‘Holy, holy,holy’ Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8) and theAgnus Dei (‘O Lamb of God, you takeaway the sin of the world’ John 1:29, 36).Finally, quite substantial pieces of text,short quotations or single words may bewoven into prayers, and often providethe inspiration for composition. This isparticularly true of the form of prayerknown as the collect, which is recited aspart of the opening rite of the eucharist,and of many hymns and songs (e.g. ‘Asthe deer longs for the water’ based onPsalm 42).

Louis-Marie Chauvet has describedthis phenomenon as ‘the liturgical Bible’(Chauvet, 1992, pp. 123, 133). It doesnot displace the traditional scholarlymethods of interpreting Scripture; rather,it invites the worshipping community tobecome an interpretative community inthe living context of worship. Bradshaw(1992) helps to specify how thisinterpretation might take place bydescribing four functions of Scripture inthe liturgical setting (these categoriesmay not be exclusive).

• A didactic function, by which thereading of the Bible teachesworshippers about importantnarratives (e.g. the creation story, theExodus, the Jacob and David cycles),

introduces them to prophecy,familiarises them with the story ofJesus and instructs them how to liveas a Christian community (e.g.through the Pauline letters);

• a kerygmatic/ anamnetic function,enabling Scripture to speakprophetically of God’s promises ofsalvation, and to remind those whohear it of the sources and evidence forthose promises;

• a paracletic function describes the roleof Scripture in speaking to the needsof the people gathered for worship ata particular time and in a particularplace (e.g. funeral services, in whichreadings are often chosen becausethey say something about thedeceased, or because they have adistinctively comforting resonance forthe bereaved; the task of suchreadings is to console rather than toteach the doctrines of death andresurrection);

• a doxological function concerned withthe praise of God, which may take theform of a psalm or canticle (e.g. Psalms146 – 150; Luke 1:67-79), or a joyfulprayer prefacing a communicationintended to encourage or teach (e.g.Ephesians 1:1-8; 1 Peter 1:3-8).

We hear Scripture in liturgical action asa multiplicity of dialogues – with otherbiblical passages; with psalm, hymnsand worship songs; with preaching; andwith the unexpected dynamics of any actof worship (e.g. spontaneous emotion, ordisruption from unconventionalbehaviour or timing). Scripture poses thequestion, ‘Who is God for us today?’ Atthe same time, its use in worship musttry to engage with the constancy through



time of God, who has always been andwhose nature is unchanging.

Worship and experience

Theologians cannot control the way thatworshippers experience, for example,the eucharist. It is through more formalreflection on that initial experience thatparticipants can be instructed in themeaning of the eucharist as participatingin the saving acts of Christ, andbecoming part of his own earthly body,the church (Ostdiek, 2015, pp. 5, 9). Thesacraments offer particularly direct formsof experience through their use ofmaterial elements: water and sometimesoil in baptism; bread and wine in theeucharist. The physical engagement ofworshippers by touch and taste, as wellas sight, sound and smell, is of adistinctive kind and it is not surprisingthat the eucharist has been the settingthrough the course of Christian historyfor profound and even mystical

experience. Visions of hosts(consecrated wafers) which bled whenelevated by the priest were reported bymedieval worshippers.

Our understanding of liturgical actionbegins with our bodies, and all worshipinvolves the body to some degree. Eventhough the traditional repertoire ofgestures (kneeling, standing, sitting,bowing, raising the hands, crossingoneself) has contracted, bodilymovement remains most evident incontemporary practice within thecharismatic and Pentecostal churches.Here prayer and song may beaccompanied by uplifted hands, swayingof the body, dancing and speaking intongues (glossolalia); and worshippersmay fall to the ground suddenly, or adopta relaxed posture on the floor to ‘soak’ inthe presence of God (Lindhardt, 2011;Wilkinson & Althouse 2015).

Links

http://www.commontexts.org/rcl/(Revised Common Lectionary)

https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/collects-and-post-communions.aspx (Collects ofthe Church of England)

https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/the-liturgical-year.aspx (The Christian LiturgicalYear)

https://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/sites/default/files/churchgrowthresearch-freshexpressions.pdf (TheChurch Army Research Unit’sReport on Fresh Expressions ofChurch)



1. How important is it that Scripturereadings should address theimmediate context and needs ofworshippers? Would you place this‘paracletic’ function above theteaching and prophetic dimensionsof Scripture?

2. The ‘spontaneous’ prayer of manynon-liturgical communities is oftennoticeably formulaic. Whatconclusions might you draw fromthis?

3. How do the shared experience ofthe worshipping community and theexperience of individuals engagedin worship interact with and supporteach other?

4. Having reflected on the topicsraised in this article, how wouldyou formulate your own definitionsof ‘worship’ and ‘liturgy’?

Discussion points



Dr Bridget Nichols is currently Lay Chaplain and Research Assistant to the Bishop ofEly. She studied at the universities of Cape Town, Witwatersrand and Durham and hastaught liturgy and worship at Durham University and Sarum College in Salisbury. Herpublications include The Collect in the Churches of the Reformation (SCM, Press,2010), Literature in Christian perspective: Becoming faithful readers (Darton, Longman& Todd, 2000) and Liturgical hermeneutics: Interpreting liturgical rites in performance(Peter Lang, 1996).

Bradshaw, P.F. (1992). The use ofthe Bible in liturgy: Some historicalperspectives. Studia Liturgica, 22,35-52.

Bradshaw, P.F. (2002). The searchfor the origins of Christian worship.London: SPCK.

Chauvet, L.-M. (1992). What makesthe liturgy biblical? – Texts. StudiaLiturgica, 22, 121-133.

Gordon-Taylor, B. (2013). Liturgy. InThe Study of Liturgy and Worship(pp. 12-20). Eds. J. Day & B.Gordon-Taylor, London: SPCK.

Lindhardt, M. (Ed.) (2011). Practicingthe Faith: The ritual life ofPentecostal-Charismatic Christians.New York: Berghahn Books.

Littlefield, P. (2010). Emergingexpressions: How social trends areimpacting the Christian church.Sheffield: Church Army ResearchUnit.(http://churcharmy.org.uk/Publisher/FIle.aspx?ID=138658)

McGowan, A.B. (2014). AncientChristian worship: Early churchpractices in social, historical and

theological perspective. GrandRapids, MI: Baker Academic.

O’Loughlin, T. (2012). Making themost of the lectionary: A user’sguide. London: SPCK.

Ostdiek, G. (2015). Mystagogy of theeucharist. Collegeville, MN:Liturgical Press.

Weil, L. (2013). Worship. In The Studyof Liturgy and Worship (pp. 3-11).Eds. J. Day & B. Gordon-Taylor,London: SPCK.

Wilkinson, M., & Althouse, P. (2015).The embodiment of prayer incharismatic Christianity. In ASociology of Prayer (pp. 153-167).Eds. G. Giuseppe & L. Woodhead,Farnham: Ashgate.

Wolterstorff, N. (1995). Divinediscourse: Philosophical reflectionson the claim that God speaks.Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Wolterstorff, N. (2015). The God weworship. Grand Rapids, MI:Eerdmans.

References



Introduction

The debate over NirvanaNirvana is the goal of practice for mostBuddhists – a transcendental havenoutside the cycle of existence (VDPVƗUD)and invulnerable to the marks ofexistence (VDPDxxDODNNKDƼD). For aplace so important to Buddhists, anoutsider might expect that Nirvana wouldbe explained clearly in Buddhism, with adefinition all Buddhists could agree upon.Unfortunately for students of Buddhism,there are complications that preventsimplification and this mini-overview,rather than claiming clarity where there isnone, seeks to present some of thecomplexities of the debate existingamong Buddhists concerning thecharacteristics of Nirvana. There aresome Buddhist texts that go as far as toclaim that Nirvana doesn’t exist, that it is

just a metaphor for having come to anend of mental impurities or is a placewhere even animals can go. Theseviews tend to belong to laterphilosophical developments ofBuddhism; in this article I will restrictmyself to the debate in early Buddhism.

Why the Buddha was sometimes notspecific in his teachingIn Buddhism, ethical teachings are oftenpresented very differently frommetaphysics. Where ethical teachingssuch as the Noble Eightfold Path arefrequently explained clearly and inabundant detail, teachings onmetaphysics are often nothing short ofcryptic. When treating metaphysicalsubjects, the Buddha would oftenintentionally avoid giving a direct orcomprehensive answer – not because he

Challenging Religious IssuesIssue 10 Spring 2016© Phra Nicholas Thanissaro

The Enlightenment Debate in Early Buddhism

Phra Nicholas ThanissaroFierce historical debates surround the concept of ‘true self’ in Buddhism and itsrelevance to enlightenment. Opponents of the concept consider ‘true self’ an impostorderived from a Hindu worldview. The article presents ‘true-self’ or Buddha-nature as apossible key to understanding the differences between the nature of phenomena in thecycle of existence and Nirvana.

Specification links: WJEC/CBAC RS1/2 ER: Introduction to Eastern Religions (AS),Section A: Introduction to Buddhism; RS3 ER: Studies in Eastern Religions (A2),Section A: Studies in Buddhism, 2. Enlightenment; also RS4 HE: Studies in Religionand Human Experience (A2) Religious experience (in Buddhism).



couldn’t be clear, but because he knewthat if enquirers had not practised to asufficiently high level, they wouldmisunderstand his answer. TheBuddha’s metaphysical teachings wouldleave gaps for students to fill subjectivelythrough their own practice.

This lack of detail is a double-edgedsword, because although it protectsagainst dogmatism among those whohave not yet reached direct experienceof metaphysics in their own practice, italso leaves room for interpretation. Forpractitioners, some guidelines are useful,if only to inspire them with the confidenceto practise until they can know Nirvanafor themselves. Giving too manyguidelines, however, may becounterproductive since practitioners willmeditate with pre-conceived notions ofwhat they are meant to attain. Whenstudying Nirvana, it is wise to start withguidance from the little scripturalevidence the Buddha did leave behind.

Nirvana

Two levels of NirvanaThe word ‘Nirvana’ (in the Pali languageQLEEƗQD) has a variety of meanings.Nirvana can be translated as‘extinguishing’ (of mental impurities), or itcan mean ‘escape’ (from suffering).Given that the word ‘Nirvana’ leavesroom for interpretation, Buddhists seek toclarify it by distinguishing betweenNirvana as a state of mind and Nirvanaas a realm of existence (It.38).

Nirvana as a state of mind (sa-XSƗGLVHVDQLEEƗQD) is a living person’sexperience of Nirvana – that is, theperson who attains it doesn’t have to diefirst to reach it. He or she touches uponNirvana in their meditation at the pointwhere they have purified their mind of allmental impurities, but their fiveaggregates (khandha) remain intact.

Buddha-nature1 will manifest inside sucha person, imparting the same happinessto them as if they really were insideNirvana as a realm of existence – butthey are still ‘alive’ in their human body.

Nirvana as a realm of ‘existence’2(DQXSƗGLVHVDQLEEƗQD) is a realm outsidethe body and mind, sometimes known as‘posthumous’ Nirvana because theattainer can go there only after thebreaking up of their five aggregates forthe last time (for they will not be rebornagain). The Buddha-nature1which theyhave attained as a state of mind is thevehicle that conveys (what is left of) themto Nirvana as a realm of existence.

When speaking of Nirvana, theBuddha did assert that Nirvana existsand is the end of all suffering, but hisdescription of the characteristics ofNirvana consists of a series of negations(for the reasons already mentioned) andHODERUDWHG�LQ�WKH�3D৬KDPD�1LEEƗQDSutta (Ud.80):

O! Monks! There exists a sphere inwhich earth, water, fire, air, sphere ofinfinity of space, sphere of infinity ofconsciousness, sphere ofnothingness, sphere of neitherperception nor non-perception, thisworld, the next world, the moon, thesun have no part. O! Monks! I do notsay that that sphere has coming,going, existence, arising, falling away,in a place that has no abode, withoutfeeling . . . this, is the end of suffering.

1 Also sometimes referred to as GKDPPDNƗ\D or the ‘bodyof enlightenment’2Some Buddhists might quibble here, because strictlyspeaking beings that enter Nirvana no longer exist in a wayrecognisable to the cycle of existence (VDPVƗUD).



As summarized in the above table,there is evidence in early Buddhistscriptures to support Nirvana beingpermanent rather than impermanent(DQLFFƗ) (Nidd II.56): ‘(Nirvana) cannotbe taken away or changed’. EarlyBuddhist scriptures also maintain thatanything that is permanent is no longercharacterised by suffering (dukkha) or‘not-self’ (DQDWWƗ) (S.iii.22):

Whatever thing is (of the nature of)impermanence is also (of the natureof) suffering. Whatever thing is (of thenature of) suffering is also (of thenature of) no/not-self.

Furthermore, the Buddha specificallysaid that Nirvana is of the nature ofhappiness (Dhp.57): ‘Nirvana is thehighest happiness’. Thus Nirvana isspecifically said to be of the nature ofhappiness and permanence. However, itis only by implication that Nirvana is saidto be of the nature of ‘self’ (atta) ratherthan ‘not-self’ (DQDWWƗ). Even in thepresent day, both Western and Easternacademic scholars are still debating thisissue. The issues which form the otherpart of the debate include the question ofwhether the Buddha taught ‘true self’(Buddha-nature), and if so, what ‘trueself’ might actually mean to Buddhists.

The debate

Is ‘true self’ (Buddha-nature) amongthe Buddha’s teachings?Some Buddhists believe that ‘true self’ isa useful Buddhist concept while othersdisagree. Proponents of ‘true self’ inBuddhism appear to be greater innumber than opponents. Amongstadvocates of ‘true self’ are establishedWestern scholars such as Caroline RhysDavids (Collins, 1982, p. 7) and IsalineB. Horner (Harvey, 1995, p. 17). Bothwere scholars of incomparablededication and expertise in the study ofBuddhist scriptures. Both had animportant role to play in the compilationof the Pali Text Society (PTS) edition ofWKH�3DOL�7LSL৬DND��ZKLFK�LV�UHFRUGHG�LQRomanised script and is the edition ofWKH�3DOL�7LSL৬DND�DFFHSWHG�E\�VFKRODUVthroughout the world as the mostauthoritative. Among other scholarssubscribing to the same view areChristmas Humphreys (1959, p. 88) andEdward Conze (1962, p. 39). Suchscholars agree upon two majorarguments: first that the Buddha neverclearly denied the existence of the trueself (atta), and secondly that the originalteachings of the Buddha imply that thetrue self exists in a state that is higherthan the level of the Five Aggregates(khanda). Such scholars reason that the

Characteristics of NirvanaOne part of the debate surrounding Nirvana concerns the extent to which it sharescharacteristics with the cycle of existence (VDPVƗUD) – that is, the three Marks ofExistence.

1LUYDQD�DQG�6DPVƗUD�FRPSDUHG�LQ�WHUPV�RI�WKH�0DUNV�RI�([LVWHQFH

�6DPVƗULF�3KHQRPHQD��1LEEƗQLF�3KHQRPHQD

impermanent permanent

suffering happy

not/no-self self...?



Buddha never referred directly to theexistence of a true self because thosewho have not attempted to practisemeditation for themselves mightmisunderstand that the ‘true self’ inBuddhism was the same as SDUDPƗWPDQin Hinduism. Even so, there are otherscholars such as David Kalupahana(1994, pp. 69-72) who assert that there isno such thing as ‘true self’ in theteaching of the Buddha.

What ‘true self’ might mean toBuddhistsThe difficulty of interpreting Buddhistscripture arises because the same termsmay have different meanings in theScriptures according to context. Eachtime the Buddha preached he adaptedhis teaching to the character and needsof the listener. Thus the use of terms inthe Scriptures, even the same ones, mayhave hundreds of different implications.The words ‘atta’ and ‘DQDWWƗ’ are noexception. Some say that the word ‘atta’means ‘self’ in the same way that ‘ƗWPDQ’means ‘self’ in the Upanishads. Hindusteach that there is a ‘self’ inside everyone of us, which will ultimately be re-united with Brahma, the Great Being(SDUDPƗWPDQ). Buddhists are afraid thatif they accept ‘self’ then they will begiving in to Hinduism. In fact, these fearsare ill-founded because the word ‘atta’has many possible meanings. It canmean ‘imagined self’ (ego) or the higherconcept of ‘me’ and ‘my’ for an angel or agod, which must be qualitatively verydifferent. The word ‘atta’ can also mean‘true self’ in an ultimate sense, of the sortthat the Buddha advocated followers toadopt as an ‘island’ or ‘refuge’ (D.ii.72):

May you all take your self as yourisland.May you take yourself as a refuge.

Take no other thing as your refuge.May Dhamma be your island.May Dhamma be your refuge.Take no other thing as your refuge.

In this case ‘atta’ obviously has adifferent meaning from the word ‘atta’ asused in the case of ‘ego’ or the word ‘atta’as used by Hindus. Thus in the study ofWKH�7LSL৬DND��LW�LV�HVVHQWLDO�WR�GLVWLQJXLVKthe definitions in the two differentcontexts. The word ‘DQDWWƗ’ needs noless care. There are those who believethat the word ‘DQDWWƗ’ means ‘no-self’ (i.e.selflessness) and others who believe thatit means ‘not-self’ (i.e. that which is not aself). It is the same as looking at theword ‘manusso’ which means ‘person’;the word ‘amanusso’ also exists – but ittends to refer to non-human beings, notthe lack of a person.

So the ‘a-/an-’ prefix might morecorrectly be considered to mean ‘non-’than ‘no -’. This gives a new perspectivewhen we look at the usage of the word‘self’ – for example, when the Buddhataught that the Five Aggregates are notthe ‘self’, the implication is that the real‘self’ is elsewhere, outside the FiveAggregates. Thus it would seem that theBuddha taught that true ‘self’ is one’srefuge, and that one can attain true ‘self’by the practice of the Noble EightfoldPath.

Nirvana: Accessible to all

Buddhism is not an exclusive religion.Anyone who has cultivated as manygood deeds as the Buddha or thearahants can, like them, enter uponNirvana. Anyone who practises theNoble Eightfold Path properly, keepingthe Precepts, practising meditation andaccruing wisdom, will eventually attain itfor themselves.



Aggregates (Pali khandha, Sanskritskandha) are the psycho-physicalcomponents of a living beingconsisting of the bodily constituent‘form’ (the body), and the mindconstituents, ‘sensation’,‘perception’, ‘mental formations’and ‘consciousness’. Death whichinvolves parting of body and mindis sometimes depersonified inBuddhism by referring to it as the‘breaking up of the aggregates’.

Pali: the earliest extant language ofthe literature of Buddhism as

FROOHFWHG�LQ�WKH�7LSL৬DND�DQG�WKHVDFUHG�ODQJXDJH�RI�7KHUDYƗGDBuddhism.

Pali Text Society is a text publicationsociety founded in 1881 by T. W.Rhys Davids in Britain to foster andpromote the study of Pali texts.

Upanishads: a collection of textswhich contain some of the centralphilosophical concepts ofHinduism.

Glossary

Links

Some examples of Buddhist opinionconcerning enlightenment more or lessrepresentative respectively of7KHUDYƗGD��OLWHUDO��0DKƗ\ƗQD�DQG9DMUD\ƗQD�GHQRPLQDWLRQV�http://bodhimonastery.org/what-does-

it-mean-to-be-enlightened.html(Bhikkhu Bodhi on What does itmean to be enlightened?)

http://bodhimonastery.org/what-does-it-mean-to-be-enlightened.html (Kusala Bhikshuon Buddhist Enlightenmentversus Nirvana)

http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/blog/posts/what-does-buddhism-mean-by-enlightenment (MatthieuRicard on What does Buddhismmean by enlightenment?)

1. What opinions are held inBuddhism about what sort of selfactually becomes enlightened?

2. What does this debate tell youabout disagreement in Buddhism

between scriptural experts andthose with meditational attainment?Do examples of similardisagreements exist in otherreligions?

Discussion points



Phra Nicholas Thanissaro recently successfully completed his doctoral thesis at theUniversity of Warwick’s Centre for Education Studies, entitled ‘Templegoing Teens:the Religiosity and Identity of Buddhists growing up in Britain’. A Buddhist monkaffiliated with the Dhammakâya Foundation, he also holds a Postgraduate Certificateof Education from Manchester Metropolitan University.

3. The alternative to ‘self’-basedexplanations of the Buddhist path isthe metaphor of a selfless ‘flame’passed from one candle to the next(representing lifetimes) andeventually extinguishing in Nirvana.Following this conception, what sortof Nirvana would you expect to finddescribed in the BuddhistScriptures?

4. How might Buddha-nature andNirvana be explained todifferentiate them respectively fromthe Upanishadic ƗWPDQ andSDUDPƗWPDQ in a way that wouldsatisfy Hindus and Buddhists alike?

Collins, S. (1982). Selfless persons:Imagery and thought in TheravadaBuddhism. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Conze, E. (1962). Buddhist thought inIndia. London: Allen & Unwin.

Harvey, P. (1995). Selfless mind:Personality, consciousness and

Nirvana in Early Buddhism.Richmond: Curzon Press.

Humphreys, C. (1959). Buddhism.Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Kalupahana, D. J. (1994). A history ofBuddhist philosophy. Delhi: MotilalBanarsidass.

References

Conventions for Citing Early Buddhist Primary TextsAs with biblical citations, Buddhist academic works referring to primary texts conventionally usenon-Harvard style references. Agreed abbreviations refer to volumes of the PTS Pali languageedition Tipitaka. Romanised numbers refer to volume numbers and Arabic numbers refer topage numbers. Abbreviations used in the article are as follows:

D = Digha Nikaya Nidd II = CullaniddesaDhp = Dhammapada S = Samyutta NikayaIt = Itivuttaka Ud = Udana

Interested students can find a comprehensive listing of agreed Buddhist textual abbreviationsat http://www.palitext.com/subpages/PTS_Abbreviations.pdf



Challenging Religious IssuesIssue 10 Spring 2016© Paul Wilson

The Reformations: Magisterial and Radical

Paul WilsonThis article contrasts the Protestant Reformation with the Radical Reformation(Anabaptism).

Specification links: WJEC/CBAC RS1/2 CHR: Introduction to Christianity (AS), 2.Roots of Christian diversity: The Protestant Reformation.

Introduction

As I write (December 2015), theCommission on Religion and Belief inBritish Public Life has just published itsreport ‘Living with Difference.’ TheTelegraph’s headline is ‘Britain is nolonger a Christian country and shouldstop acting as if it is, says judge.’1

Whether or not the Commission madesufficient distinction between pluralismas a sociological fact and as aphilosophical position, it has raised someinteresting issues. On the practical side,the place of bishops in the House ofLords and of the Archbishop ofCanterbury in the coronation of the nextmonarch highlight the connectionbetween church and state, as do theroles of the monarch and the PrimeMinister in choosing the Archbishop. Onthe theological side, the Church ofEngland’s reaction to the report begs thequestion of whether Jesus intended tostart a new religion at all, let alonewhether he intended it to be allied to thestate.

Christendom

The church-state alliance is known asChristendom, and has its origins in thefourth century, when the RomanEmperor Constantine gave Christianityincreasing recognition in the Empire and,conversely, gave the Emperor increasinginfluence in the church. By the end of thefourth century, in an attempt to unifychurch and state, Theodosius I haddefined the church as those ‘incommunion with the bishops of Romeand Alexandria,’ following this up withpressure on free-thinking Christians toconform and on pagans to convert.‘Together, these measures establishedChristianity, legally defined, as the officialreligion of the Empire’ (Greenslade,1954, p. 29, cited in Murray, 2004, p. 40).

1See:https://corablivingwithdifference.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/living-with-difference-community-diversity-and-the-common-good.pdf andhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/12036287/Britain-is-no-longer-a-Christian-country-and-should-stop-acting-as-if-it-is-says-judge.html


Challenging Religious Issues, Issue 10, Spring, 2016 22

Unsurprisingly, the church grew, and in529 the Emperor Justininian issued anedict making conversion to Christianitycompulsory for all but Jews (Murray,2004, p. 54). Babies were to be baptisedby law, identifying submission to thestate with membership of the church.Although the Roman Empire wasdeclining, the spread of Christianity northto formerly barbarian lands held Europetogether. This was solidified in the formof the Holy Roman Empire in 800.

Debate continues as to whether theConstantinian shift was a good thing forthe church or a disaster. Either way,Christendom continued in central Europefor over a millennium in the form ofmedieval Catholicism, and we still see itsvestiges today.

Reformation in Germany

It would be easy to imagine that thepioneers of the Protestant Reformation,such as Luther and Calvin, attempted todismantle Christendom, giving rise to achurch free of state control. But this is farfrom the case. The fact that they areknown as the Magisterial Reformers‘draws attention to the manner in whichthe Lutheran and Calvinist reformersrelated to secular authorities, such asprinces, magistrates, or city councils’(McGrath, 1998, p 159).

As a young man, Martin Lutherbecame a monk and was sent to teach atWittenberg in what is now Germany. Hisalleged posting of 95 theses on the doorof the University Church (the localequivalent of Facebook) was intended toopen up a debate, but it changed history.He had initially wanted to challenge thesale of indulgences by the church, but heended up convinced that the wholesystem was corrupt. Following hisexcommunication by the Pope, he was

denounced by the Holy Roman Emperor,the church-and-state-in-league declaringhim a heretic and an outlaw. He wouldalmost certainly have been executed hadhe not been rescued by his friendFrederick, the elector of Saxony, andhidden in a castle, giving him time totranslate the New Testament intoGerman.

Luther’s writings spread quickly,encouraging priests to break free fromtheir loyalty to the Pope. He alsoencouraged German princes to breakfree from the Emperor. The Reformationin Germany depended on both of thesehappening in one principality. The princedeclared for or against Luther, the priestsfollowed the prince, and the peoplefollowed the priests. So freedom ofreligion – Protestant or Catholic – was forprinces only (possibly taking notice of theconsensus among the priests). Everyoneelse fell in line. There were now twoforms of Christendom.

Luther’s central doctrine of justificationby faith (a personal response to God)was propagated in his writings andpreached in the churches, but the meansby which people became Lutheran ratherthan Catholic was purely geographical.Luther recognised that there was a ‘truechurch’, composed of people who werejustified by faith, but it was invisible –nobody could tell the state of grace ofanother person’s heart. But he believedthat there should also be a visiblechurch, meeting to hear preaching andreceive sacraments. This idea of twochurches – visible and invisible – goesall the way back to Augustine. Thecontinuing practice of infant baptismperpetuated the idea that all wereChristians, making the idea ofconversion redundant. Luther died adisappointed man, ‘stating that the



people had become more and moreindifferent towards religion and the moraloutlook was more deplorable than ever.’

Between 1522 and 1527 Lutherrepeatedly mentioned his concern toestablish a true Christian church, andhis desire to provide for earnestChristians who would confess thegospel with their lives as well as withtheir tongues. He thought of enteringthe names of these ‘earnestChristians’ in a special book andhaving them meet separately from themass of nominal Christians, butconcluding that he would not havesufficient of such people, he droppedthe plan. (Bender, 1944)

It comes as a surprise to many that theReformers were not like modernevangelicals. The Lutheran Reformationwas a Reform movement withinChristendom, not in any sense amissionary movement as it could onlyoperate where the state was Lutheran.Stephen Neill, although writing aboutEngland, could be describing almost anycountry in Europe when he asks us toenvisage a typical village

of not more than 400 inhabitants,where all are baptized Christians,compelled to live more or lessChristian lives under the brooding eyeof parson and squire. In such acontext ‘evangelization’ has hardlyany meaning, since all are in somesense already Christian, and need nomore than to be safeguarded againsterror in religion and viciousness in life.(Neill, 1968, p. 75)

Reformation in Switzerland

Ulrich Zwingli, Luther’s contemporary inSwitzerland, was minister of the main

church in Zürich. Intent on reforming boththe church and the city, he preachedagainst practices such as treating themass as a sacrifice and priests’ takingmistresses. He was initially more radicalthan Luther, advocating the abolition ofthe mass and of infant baptism.However, he relied on the city council todetermine the pace of change, and theywere too slow for some of Zwingli’sfollowers who thought that it should bepossible for Christians to follow biblicalprinciples without the permission of thecivic authorities. In a dispute betweenZwingli and his more radical followers inJanuary 1525 the council ruled in favourof Zwingli, leaving the radicals the choiceof conforming, leaving Zürich or facingprison (Estep, 1996, p. 13).

Later that month a small group ofthese radical Christians met in the homeof Felix Manz in Zürich, having reachedthe conclusion that infant baptism wasnot valid, as children were not able tocommit themselves to following Christ inlife. Some of the radicals had defied thestate by not having their childrenbaptised. But now they followed thisthrough to its logical conclusion bydeclaring their own childhood baptismsinvalid. This made them ‘unbaptised’ andtherefore eligible for baptism. GeorgeBlaurock asked Conrad Grebel to baptisehim, in an act of obedience (to Christ)and disobedience (to the state-churchalliance), and they continued until all hadbeen baptised.2

Like Luther’s Facebook post, thisunleashed a huge conflict. Their critics –both Catholic and Protestant – calledthem ‘Anabaptists’ or re-baptisers. Butthe real issue for the Anabaptists was notbaptism per se, but the right and duty of2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GskZlcV1RIA is adramatized film clip of this event and the subsequentpersecution.



Christians to follow Christ according toScripture and conscience withoutreference to or interference by the state(or the state-church alliance). They werenot against the state as such, but theywere for freedom of religion. The Zürichcity council, for its part, embracedZwingli’s Christendom assumption thatthe church functioned in alliance with thestate, and they therefore regarded theAnabaptists as outlaws.

Calvin, a generation later inSwitzerland, sought the support of theGeneva civil authorities to make the citya theocracy, with Christian faith andconduct taught by the church andenforced by the state. It is not clear howCalvin reconciled his confidence insecular rulers with his foundationaldoctrine of ‘total depravity’.3

The Swiss Anabaptist movementbecame known as the Swiss Brethren.Like many grass-roots movements, suchas the recent ‘Arab Spring’, Anabaptismarose in other parts of Europe. Insouthern Germany it was associated withthe Peasants’ Revolt, which Luther hadopposed, favouring the exploiters ratherthan the exploited – a compromisesymptomatic of the Protestant Church’sreliance on the state. One supporter ofthe Peasants was Michael Sattler, aBenedictine monk who fled to Zürich andjoined the Anabaptists. He wasresponsible for drafting the SchleitheimConfession which was adopted by theSwiss Brethren in 1527.

On the whole, Anabaptists werepacifists and were marked by theirprincipled following of Jesus’ ethicalteaching, such as the Sermon on theMount (Matthew chapters 5-7), ratherthan by subjective revelations. But therewere ‘inspirationists’ on the fringe of themovement, including those who

attempted to set up a theocracy inMünster in north-west Germany. Lackingthe diplomatic skills that Calvin latershowed in Geneva, and driven byprophetic enthusiasm, followers of JanMatthys from the Netherlands relied onforce to set up Münster as the ‘NewJerusalem.’ The failure of this rebellion iswell-known, and made Anabaptism littlemore than a footnote in history books forcenturies.

Despite the Münster fiasco, north-westEurope was a place of serioustheological thought in the sixteenthcentury. Renaissance humanists, unlikemodern secular humanists, were almostall Christians. Erasmus, perhaps thegreatest of them, was a Dutch Catholicpriest and an influence on Zwingli. Hisemphasis on reading the Bible rationallyencouraged other priests to exploreideas such as ‘community of goods’ andbelievers’ baptism (Francis, 2010, p. 9) –important ideas in developing Anabaptistthought. Menno Simons emerged as arespected leader among DutchAnabaptists, who were later known asMennonites. Calvin’s influence laterspread to the Netherlands in the form ofthe Dutch Reformed Church, though thiswas not good for Mennonites many ofwhom fled to Eastern Europe, England oreventually Canada.

Is the Bible flat?

The Reformations – Magisterial andRadical – happened in the sixteenthcentury, before the Enlightenment (theAge of Reason). All the Reformerswanted to take the Bible seriously, ifrather more literally than would becommon today.

3See http://www.calvinistcorner.com/tulip.htm



The Magisterial Reformers – Luther,Zwingli and Calvin – sought justificationfor their doctrines of grace and salvationin the New Testament, particularly inPaul’s letters. But their models of church-state alliance were more like the OldTestament, with monarchy andpriesthood running side by side.

The early Christians were almost allpacifists, taking seriously teachings like‘Turn the other cheek’ and ‘Love yourenemies’ (Matthew 5:39, 44). TheConstantinian shift made pacifismimpossible, as Christians owed loyalty tothe Emperor, and were eligible forserving in the army. Stuart Murray writes:

Once, being a Christian and joiningthe army had seemed incompatible,but now a Christian army was beingassembled to defend an Empire thatwas becoming Christian; soon onlyChristians would be allowed to enlist.(Murray, 2004, p.48)

The Anabaptists rejected theConstantinian shift, and therefore

rejected Christendom, whether Catholicor Protestant, as an untenablecompromise. Theologically, as regardsjustification by faith they had much incommon with the Protestants but theybelieved that faith entailed followingChrist in life, not just assent to somedoctrines.

Following on from this, they believedthat the church was not formed bycompulsory baptism of infants, but bytrue conversion to a life of discipleship.They therefore rejected the Reformers’distinction between a visible (mass)church and an invisible (real) church,and recognised only one type of church,visible and real.

While they read the Old Testament aswell as the New, they did not regard bothas of equal importance. In particular, theethical teaching of Jesus was their ‘ruleof life,’ the ‘high point’ of the Bible. Thisincluded love and non-resistance.(Bender, 1944.)

Glossary

Indulgences were grants to remit thepunishment of purgatory.

Justification by faith is an act of God’sgrace, received solely by trust inGod, in which sinners are declaredinnocent or ‘righteous’.

http://www.anabaptists.org/history/the-schleitheim-confession.html (TheSchleitheim Confession)

http://www.calvinistcorner.com/tulip.htm (Matthew J. Slick, The FivePoints of Calvinism)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magisterial_Reformation (Wikipedia, TheMagisterial Reformation)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnster_Rebellion (Wikipedia, TheMünster Rebellion)

Links



Discussion: Animaginative exercise

Imagine that you are a convincedChristian in the early sixteenthcentury. You do not see this samecommitment in most of the people inyour local church, whether Catholic orProtestant. Reflect on this summaryof Anabaptist principles, based on theSchleitheim Confession. Give each ofthem a mark out of 10 indicating theirappeal to you as you consider joininga small Anabaptist church.

a. Baptism (including admission tochurch membership) is only forthose who have committedthemselves to following Christ inthe way they live.

b. Breaking of bread (communion)is only for those who have beenbaptised and are living consistentChristian lives.

c. Church discipline. Any who stopliving consistent Christian livesshould be warned once or twiceprivately. If they do not heed thewarnings, they should be openlydisciplined, and required to leavethe church.

d. Separation from evil. Members ofthe Christian community will notenter into any alliance withoutsiders which could lead tocompromising their obedience toChrist.

e. Pastors in the church areresponsible for teaching, leadingworship, sacraments (baptism andcommunion) and church discipline.They must be of good reputation.

f. Non-resistance. As Jesus taught,violence must not be used in anycircumstance, including resistingpersecution. It is not fitting for aChristian to be a magistrate,soldier or police officer.

g. Swearing oaths by way of apromise is neither fitting nornecessary for a Christian, as Jesustaught that we should always keepour word.

If you can find someone else who hasdone this exercise, discuss yourscores together. Do you think thatthese would be good principles for aChristian community today?



Bender, H.S. (1944). The Anabaptistvision. The Mennonite QuarterlyReview, 18, Xlll, 67-88(https://www.goshen.edu/mhl/Refocusing/d-av.htm).

Estep, W.R. (1996). The Anabaptiststory. Grand Rapids, MI:Eerdmans.

Francis, A. (2010). Anabaptism.Bristol: Imagier Publishing,

Greenslade, S.L. (1954). Church andstate from Constantine toTheodosius. London: SCM Press.

McGrath, A. (1998). Historicaltheology. Oxford: Blackwell.

Murray, S. (2004). Post-Christendom.Milton Keynes: Paternoster.

Neill, S. (1968). The church andChristian union. London: OxfordUniversity Press.

References

Paul Wilson, formerly Senior Teacher at Bede Sixth Form College, holds Master’sDegrees in mathematics and theology. Now retired, he is still active in teaching bothdisciplines, just for the joy of it.

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