by
VOW
When the VOW Board met in April, we carefully reviewed the Horizons Bible Study for 2005-2006, For Everything, A Season: A Study of the Liturgical Calendar, by Kathleen Long Bostrom with Suggestions for Leaders by Elizabeth F. Caldwell. We reflected on the lessons in light of the evaluative questions that appeared in our March 2004 newsletter:
1. Does the author take the Scriptural “context” seriously? That is to say, does she carefully note when the passage was written, why it was written, and to whom it was written? Further, does she set forth the clear and plain sense of the passage before she attempts to apply its meaning to the lives of women today?
2. Is there a contemporary political, philosophical, or theological “agenda” that the author “reads into” her understanding of the text, or is the text allowed to speak for itself?
3. What speaks with the most authority to the author — the plain meaning of Scripture itself, or other, extra-biblical sources?
4. Does the writer consistently write from a Trinitarian perspective, lifting up the one God who has been revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
5. What is the mission emphasis of the study? Does it hold up the person and work of Christ, and His power to transform individual lives, as of equal importance to political, social, and economic change?
6. When you have finished studying each lesson, do you have a deeper understanding of what it means to be an obedient disciple of Jesus Christ?
We also considered the needs and concerns of the various women in our constituency. As a result, we adopted the following statement:
This year’s study is unique in that it really is (as its subtitle indicates) a study of the liturgical calendar as opposed to a study of Scripture, per se. When the author really does exegesis (drawing out the meaning) of Scripture, she does it well (for example, her discussion in Lessons Six of “The Temptation of Christ” from Matthew 4:1-11). Although the author recommends the reading of a large amount of Scripture, she does very little exegesis. Therefore, the above evaluation questions don’t apply as directly as they might where the focus of the study is Scripture itself. Nevertheless, the study does encourage the reading of a great deal of Scripture (particularly in Lesson 7 on “Holy Week”), and that has to be considered a good thing. In addition, there is value in studying the liturgical calendar, which is a tool to bring Scripture to our attention in a disciplined and systematic way.
One troubling feature of this series is a dichotomy that pervades the entire series of lessons. There is a blatant contradiction between the author’s clearly-communicated respect for the profound importance of remembering that God’s incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ is the single most significant event in all of history and the insistence on the part of someone (the editorial staff, the publisher?) to embrace the currently popular secular practice of designating time before and after Christ with the labels “B.C.E.” (“Before the Common Era”) and “C.E.” (“Common Era”). In the Suggestions for Leaders for Lesson One, for example, Elizabeth F. Caldwell recommends closing a litany with these words of Kathleen Bostrom: “With Christ as the center of time, all the times and seasons of our lives become centered in Christ.” Later in the same lesson she states (quoting from the Praise and Worship Study Bible) that “we see Christ as the cosmic center of all history. Everything before Christ finds fulfillment in Christ. Everything since Christ finds its meaning by pointing back to Christ.’” We strongly support this affirmation by the authors and are very disappointed that someone (the editorial staff, the publisher?) has chosen to negate such an important affirmation by knuckling under the pressure of our secular culture to join the “politically correct” campaign to remove Christ as the centerpiece for measuring all of time!
Another troubling feature of the study is the feminization of God. The study
eliminates all masculine pronouns for God the Father (cf. Galatians 4:4-5
quoted on p. 7); as well as leaves out any reference to God as Father except
in a quote of Matthew 28:16-20 (p.55) which is qualified by a footnote. This
footnote goes beyond eliminating masculine language for God but actively
promotes the use of the title “Mother” for God and the use of the Oxford
University Press Inclusive Version of the New Testament and Psalms. This
corresponds to the reference used in Lesson Three when the author refers to God
mending the brokenness of our world and says, “God the seamstress, the tailor,
will bring everything together” (p.19). Granted, the study places the
masculine names alongside the feminine ones, but that does not change the fact
that in using these feminine names for God the study carries itself beyond the
names for God revealed to us in accurate translations of Scripture.
In general, the study series is worthwhile and can provide valuable insight and understanding into the structure and purpose of the liturgical calendar. For the most part, the prayers are useable, as are many of the discussion questions. As always we would encourage you to evaluate carefully the supplemental resources listed in the back of the book. The following supplemental resources are appropriate: The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Part II: Book of Order; the Book of Common Worship; and The Presbyterian Hymnal (now organized according to the chronology of the liturgical year). On the other hand, the quotes from Joan Chittister* (who is cited many times throughout the study) are frequently off the mark. For example, she claims that “Ecclesiastes calls us to the universals of life so that we can understand it before we lose it, enjoy it before we miss it.” Ms. Bostrom herself misses the mark when she quotes Chittister’s statement that “The purpose of time is to alert us to ourselves so that we can become the only thing it is really worth our time to be: a totally human, human being” and then declares that “in this statement,” [of Chittister] “the words of Ecclesiastes ring loud and clear.” In reality, the message of Ecclesiastes is that self-fulfillment (being “a totally human, human being”) is insufficient (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:12-14 and 12:13).
One other concern merits specific comment: In Lesson One on “The Nature of Time” the author’s main point seems to be to differentiate between sacred (kairos) time and secular (chronos) time. She suggests that they must be separated and that we need to carve time out of our chronos lives for moments of kairos living. Perhaps instead she should have encouraged making every chronos moment of our lives a kairos moment — dedicating ourselves to God alone and making our purpose be the worship of God alone (as opposed to Chittister’s notion that our purpose should be to “understand [life] before we lose it, enjoy it before we miss it”). A better resource than Chittister would have been J. S. Bach, who inscribed virtually every composition he created with the words Soli Deo Gloria (to God Alone the Glory). That’s how each of us should be living every chronos moment of our lives!
On the whole, we are encouraged at the direction toward faithfulness to the biblical witness in this year’s study. Yet we are mindful that some things do need to be said to help women decide about using it. We know, for instance, that some women’s groups have not used Horizons in several years. This set of lessons will likely not change your minds. Some of you would like to study the same material as the rest of the PC(USA) women. Some of you are still trying to work with your pastors and Christian Education committees of Session toward a decision about which curriculum to use. We hope that the following suggestions will assist you in your decision.
We believe that the Horizons Bible Study, with some modifications, will be acceptable for use by many Presbyterian Women. We invite and encourage everyone to use the questions posted above as you engage in your own evaluative process.
For those who wish to use the Horizons study, we will post some suggestions for your consideration on our website, as well as some supplemental questions for each lesson.
As always, we encourage those who use the Horizons material to voice their concerns directly to PW Horizons staff at 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY, 40202.
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* Joan Chittister is a Benedictine nun, a speaker at the 2003 Presbyterian Women’s Churchwide Gathering, and social psychologist. She is also the author of many books including There is a Season and In Search of Belief. In the latter book Chittister reworks the Apostles Creed giving a detailed account of her own religious beliefs. She denies many biblical beliefs of the Church including the atoning work of Christ on the cross. She mangles the two natures of Jesus Christ (fully God and fully man) writing of the Jesus of history metamorphosing into the Christ of faith (p. 134). Chittister often destroys the personhood of the Holy Spirit, referring to him as the “life force” and an “electric charge animating the world at every level” (p. 162). This author’s material is inappropriate for a Christian study.