N.T. Wright Project

In the opening section of “The New Testament and the People of God”, Wright defines worldview around four central functions.  Worldview “provides the stories through which human beings view reality”, “discover[s] how to answer the basic questions that determine human existence”, is “expressed in cultural symbols”, and “include[s] a praxis, a way-of-being-in-the-world” (123-4).  These four functions combine to form one’s worldview, which is “the basic stuff of human existence, the lens through which the world is seen, the blueprint for how one should live in it, and above all the sense of identity and place which enables human beings to be what they are” (124).  Thus, worldviews are extremely important in our daily lives and allow us to live in the world and make sense of it.

The aspect of worldview which most intruiged me as I was reading this week about the Jewish worldview as described by Wright, is that of symbol.  For the Jews, there were four key symbols, that of Temple, Land, Torah, and Racial Identity (224).  The Temple especially functioned as “the focal point of every aspect of Jewish National life” (224).  It was the place where God lived and where the people gathered, where not only religious but economic and financial decisions were made.  It was the place of celebration and being in community.  And it was “the heart of Judaism…the organ from which there went out to the body of Judaism…the living and healing presence of the covenant god” (226).

As I’ve been reflecting on the Christian Church in light of this view of the Jewish Temple, I wonder if we have allowed ourselves to loose sight of the importance of this symbol.  So many of our churches now resemble gyms or stadiums with no outward appearance of the divine.  We assemble once a week for 90 minutes, but our time there is spent not as the coming together of a community to live life together, but as a consumerist “let me get what I need to survive the coming week and then get out of here” attitude.  Wright does warn that “a symbol which loses touch with either story or praxis becomes worthless” (230).  And maybe that fear is what has caused us to abandon our traditional church building to create an environment we think fits the story and praxis of the culture we live in.  But in fully abandoning the symbol of a Christian Church building with its altar and it steeple and its references to the divine, what else have we abandoned?

This is one of the reasons I dearly love the church in Philadelphia of which I am a part. We meet in a beautiful reclaimed Presbyterian Church which carries the spirt of the generations of people who have worshipped there before.  But we have also made it our own, combining the symbols of our community with those that have been part of our tradition for ages.  The stained glass windows on one end of the building are mirrored on the other end by a beautiful mural created by artisits in our community.  The grand open ceiling space which draws one’s attention to the greatness of God is filled with oragami birds containing the prayers of the city and an art installation of windmills reminding us of the Spirit moving through our midst.  Our community worships God through a traditional hymn that has been sung for decades in that same space, followed by a song of lament written by one of the musicians in our community.  We have found a way, as best we can, to express our worldview through the symbols which have been part of the Christian story for generations, and through those which have emerged from the stories, questions, and praxis of our own particular community.  And this encourages us to make that space, our Church, truly a place where a community gathers not only to worship God together, but as the heart, the central organ through which we live our lives together and from which we go out together into the city.