Though
priest, sociologist, and novelist Andrew M. Greeley lived most of his life in
the 20th century, he was ahead of his time in his vision of what the Roman
Catholic Church is and what it could be, especially in the United States.
As a “renegade”
Protestant, I valued his protests against hierarchy, elitism, corruption, and
cover-ups, such as the one surrounding pedophile priests. I’m not aware of an
equally prominent Protestant figure who parallels his brutal directness and
public airing of dirty clerical laundry.
I did not
always agree with him (who did?), but I often
agreed with him, and I greatly appreciated the audacity with which he brought
scientific study to religion as well as matters of faith to both academia and
popular literature.
Peter
Steinfels’ obituary in The New York Times
and its subsequent editorial does him justice, but only Greeley’s own writings
can offer a full explanation of his life and times. Steinfels correctly
summarizes his work:
If there was anything tying Father Greeley’s torrent of printed words together, it was a respect for what he considered the practical wisdom and religious experience of ordinary believers and an exasperation with elites, whether popes, bishops, church reformers, political radicals, secular academics or literary critics.
AMEN!
And then:
Before religion became creed or catechism, he said, it was poetry: images and stories that defy death with glimpses of hope, and with moments of life-renewing experience that were shared and enacted in community rituals.
For me, too,
it all begins with poetry, images, and stories…
“The theological voice wants doctrines, creeds and moral obligations,” Father Greeley wrote. “I reject none of these, I merely insist that experiences which renew hope are prior to and richer than propositional and ethical religion and provide the raw power for them.”
Preach it,
brother! This is not far from my Baptist upbringing that taught me that
personal experience is crucial to one’s faith. In my own struggle with the
Presbyterian (and broader) church, it was such experience that prompted many
Christians to question the church’s attitudes toward LGBT people, while
opponents decried and denied personal experience as having moral or spiritual
authority. And experience collected, organized, and evaluated, as a sociologist
like Greeley did, is science.
Given our own
“renegade” status as progressive Christians, our spiritual grounding is
strengthened by poetry, images, stories, and experience—the stuff of reflection
and contemplation.
Rev. Greeley
was careful not to say or do anything that might prompt his silencing by
authorities. If he were really free to speak, I wonder what else he might have
said.
Posts
from this blog that reference Father Greeley:
Copyright © 2013 by
Chris R. Glaser. Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution of
author and blogsite. Other rights reserved. Check out past posts in the right
rail on the blogsite.
DONATIONS WELCOME! THANK YOU!
