In reasonably secure retirement, there's not much to do at this age and stage but Walk or Think, Read & Write. I do a bit of Walk, but CHF gets the best of my walking long or far, so there's a great deal more Think, Read, Write, and - - bad, worse, worst for health but good, better, best for enjoyment - - Sit here at my bayside window watching water traffic move by 7H. Ships, boats, and birds. Ospreys. The occasional porpoise or shark. But/So, WTH, Life is Good, and We haven't much Time.

As for Think, it's no secret that one of my heroes is this line of wisdom in Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement address to the graduating class at Stanford:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice."

Which gives utterance to what has long been my own point of view as a priest regarding doctrine and creed: Church Fathers and General Councils did commendable work for their Time and worldviews,

and thank them very much, but I'll do my own thinking. Otherwise, the study disciplines I learned in theological seminary will have been a waste of my Time.

All coming to mind because of an email from The Christian Century captioned "Revising old beliefs and opinions" and printed as follows:

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Reconsidering history, reimagining faith

I’ve shared in past emails that I have a background in conservative evangelicalism. One of the consequences of this fact is that in the last 5-10 years I have had to put everything I used to believe under a microscope. This inspection, or interrogation, has not only applied to doctrines about the Bible or salvation, but to my entire “worldview,” from race to gender to US history to politics to morality to . . .

This is one aspect of the Century’s content that I love: its invitation to reconsider. Amy Frykholm helps us take another look at the theology of Julian of Norwich. David Gushee reviews a Jedidiah Purdy book that raises massive questions about the US Constitution. John Kohan comments on artist José Ignacio Fletes Cruz’s visual reimagining of Noah's Ark. It is sometimes difficult but usually refreshing to rework old ideas and beliefs.

Plus a great new video this week: I chat with CC associate editor Jess Mesman about her recent article on the history of tarot’s most famous illustrator. She even gives me my first (frankly ominous) tarot reading!

Email me: What belief or opinion have you reconsidered?

Jon Mathieu
community@christiancentury.org

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What belief or opinion have I reconsidered? Well,

the whole thing, to be honest, all of it. I'm certain of nothing, and my faith (Hebrews 11:1, faith is not certitude, but assurance, confidence, hope) is that of Doubting Thomas. Holding to what I learned in theological seminary - - but which the usual seminary graduate is afraid to share with her/his congregation once ordained and at work in a parish, lest people be disillusioned and the ordained one be fired - - when I gaze into the night sky,

all of it challenges beliefs and opinions that would have me, as Steve Jobs put it, "trapped by dogma which is the results of other people's thinking."

To some extent, I take shelter in the works of Friedrich Schleiermacher, late 18th early 19th century German Reformed theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant Christianity. I like his theses in which he wrote that in each of us there is implanted a sense of the infinite, and I appreciate that he took issue with the Nicene Creed on the basis that its assertions about God are beyond human knowing. God of yeh-HI is not to be a human construct trapped in a creed. The opinions of flat-earth bishops who insisted that we say We Believe things that were voted acceptable to other bishops and the Roman emperor, compiled at the emperor's bidding for the emperor's political reasons. The Nicene Creed's history might surprise many.

But yes, I stand and recite the Nicene Creed with everyone else on Sunday mornings as prayer book rubrics require. I do not hesitate, I do not zip my lip, I do not cross my fingers and toes: the Creed says, of our branch of the Christian church, "We believe" - - it's our institutional symbol of unity and orthodoxy. Jon Mathieu's challenge above surfaces my confession that I do my own thinking without causing a stir. And in all this, I try never to take myself seriously.

There is already one ancient creed of the church that's consigned to "Historical Documents" (the Creed of Saint Athanasius, BCP page 864), and the Nicene Creed should be tucked away back there with it. But that won't happen; it's even less likely to happen than that the Episcopal House of Bishops votes to remove the outdated, obscene and offensively inhospitable church canon that reads, "No unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this Church." To hell with rules that fail the WWJD test

Mind, I'm not dissatisfied, simply far enough along in my Time to speak my mind as I DWP (damn well please). It's Time, and I'm long decades vested!

So then, Think: what's your response to Jon Mathieu's challenge, "What belief or opinion have you reconsidered?"

RSF&PTL