Prolepsis...
...living as if goodness is already upon us.
There is something to be said for living out the cosmic promise of the God of History as if it has already come into its fruition. That is the essence of prolepsis. In theology, it refers to instances where biblical texts or Christian teachings describe future realities—such as the final resurrection, the full establishment of God's kingdom, or the ultimate victory over sin and death—as though they are already accomplished in time and space.
The alternative is to wallow in the darkness of the moment, which necessarily leads to hopelessness. Drawing upon their Jewish history, Christians live as if the Kingdom of God has come to dwell among us, while recognizing the reality that we exist in the paradox of the “now and not yet.” Prolepsis does not deny the imperfection of the present by regarding it as illusory or as somehow morally inert. On the contrary, proleptic anticipation acknowledges the current darkness—where appropriate—while simultaneously affirming the ultimate victory of freedom over empire, healing over brokenness, abundance over greed, and finally, life over death. As Barbara Brown Taylor has famously said, it is the task of the commissioned church, and those of us who preach, to “raise the dead, some of whom are unwilling!” I know the feeling.
Have I lost you yet? Please bear with me!
Image by Zac Durant on Unsplash
This is Advent in the Christian tradition, the weeks before Christmas. The liturgical season has morphed over the centuries from a Second-Coming orientation to the anticipation of the First Coming of the Christ, Still, the readings prescribed for the season come from apocalyptic literature. That sort of imagery, with its end times emphasis, is often confusing and even frightening. Far too many folks are fixated on that. Even Jesus reminds his followers in Mark 13, the so-called “Little Apocalypse,” that the day and the hour are known only to “the Father.” I have always maintained that such speculation is of minor significance in the collective consciousness of the faithful community. It is all up to God, so we ought not to sweat it!
Advent contrasts the present darkness with the coming light, and true to form, Advent arrives at the darkest time of the year. We are reminded that the present will soon be the past and that the future is in God’s hands.
The people of God—who might be Jews. Christians, or Muslims—march to the beat of a different drummer when it comes to assessing present circumstances. The question is rightly asked as to why—if God’s transformative promises are true—hasn’t anything changed for the better. The short answer is that they have!
Christians understand that the history of biblical Israel is also their history, after a fashion. My Jewish colleagues know of my high regard for the ancient prophetic tradition, which I would argue is the same worldview out of which Jesus spoke and taught. Prophecy is often misunderstood as merely foretelling future events—soothsaying, if you will. But authentic prophecy involves insightful and creative commentary on the present. Some of that might involve conjecture as to what is likely to happen if the people do not repent. The faithful prophet—who might even be a certain short chubby preacher I know—is the one who speaks for the High and Holy One—even when the vocation involves wandering the streets naked, according to Isaiah 20! Let’s hope it never comes to that!
The prophet’s words are sometimes strident, and his (or her!) imagery is often dark and foreboding. The point is that genuine prophecy establishes and disseminates a different narrative vis-a-vis the one we have been used to hearing. The prophet affirms the sovereignty of God and continually announces the dawn of a new era in human history. The image of “rivers in the desert” is both encouraging and striking in the way in which it imposes redemptive transformation upon an inhospitable environment. If God is in fact “doing a new thing,” perhaps we ought to pay attention!
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert (Isaiah 43:19, NRSVUE).
The prophetic traditions calls us to view Creation as being redeemed by God constantly, and humans are to be seen as partners with the Deity in the continuing task. It is a matter of living into the goodness that is already upon us—despite appearances to the contrary.
I am keenly aware of those who suggest that we ought to deconstruct all we have been taught about the Bible and about the tenets of Christianity. I am on-board with that to the extent one does not conclude that the very notion of God is erroneous. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about spiritual things that many of us have carried with us for years. But I am unwilling to dump the concept of God, favoring instead a reimagination of Deity in a non-theistic fashion. Thomas Merton said something similar:
“There is ‘no such thing’ as God because God is neither a ‘what’ nor a ‘thing’ but a pure ‘Who.’ He is the ‘Thou’ before whom our inmost ‘I’ springs into awareness. He is the I Am before whom with our own most personal and inalienable voice we echo ‘I am.’
―Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
Unfortunately, our concept of God has deteriorated into a heavenly Santa Claus who receives our various petitions, granting some and denying others, in what might seem like a capricious fashion. The problem, I think, lies in a misconception about prayer. In fact, God always hears our prayers, but bad things still happen to good people. Much of life is a matter of learning that “it is what it is!”
The temptation to conclude that life is pointless is also great, but that would deny the conviction of the people of God that history is leading somewhere—the telos (Greek). Apocalyptic thought teaches us that enduring truths are often hidden from us—but that we may come to these truths as the layers of obfuscation are peeled back, revealing all that which is of “ultimate concern,” in the words of the great Paul Tillich.
Prolepsis bids us to embrace the present moment in all of its tension, but with the conviction that God has inserted Godself into human history—first in the Abrahamic covenant—and continuing into the incarnation event of Christianity. It is a matter of living as if the divine promises have already been fulfilled—because they have!
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