The Church in the Midst of Creation

December 5, 2005

We talked about ecclesiology a few weeks ago in Systematic Theology, and we read through Veli-Matti Karkkainen’s “Introduction to Ecclesiology” and he had a chapter entitled “A World Church” in which  he discussed the ecclesiology and theology of Vincent Donovan. Donovan wrote Rediscovering Christianity, and I just ordered his follow up book, The Church in the Midst of Creation. Karkkainen’s description of Donovan’s theology and ecclesiology is very appealing to me, and I wanted to share some quotes from Karkkainen’s book, in which he quotes some of Donovan as well. When I get the book, I’ll let you know some more thoughts on it, but I think these are some very interesting things to think about in relation to the church and its place in a 21st century pluralistic world.

“According to Donovan two almost opposing worldviews are bitterly vying for attention and dominance; the religious view and the secular, scientific view. The former is still involved with the saving and redeeming of a fallen world, while the latter focuses on the creation of a new world. Too often, he laments, the energies of the church are spent in condemning sin and saving people from worldly temptations. What makes this situation so ironic to Donovan is that in fact the secular mindset is doing much of what the church was supposed to do, namely saving life on earth and caring for creation. Donovan writes, “It is we who originally believed in the new creation, already begun on this planet earth with the resurrection.” (from Karkkainen’s book, with exception to the last quote from Donovan)

“We have to admit that after all this extensive and scientific scholarship, after nearly two thousand years of Christianity, the Christ that is worshiped in our churches, the Christ that is the basis for our church and all its faith life and activity, is no more than a Mediterranean Christ. That is as far as Christ has grown. European and American theologians see nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with the fact that we have not even begun to think of, or search for, the meaning of a planetary Christ, a world Christ. We continue to let all our efforts revolve around a Mediterranean Christ. We of the West have monopolized Christ.” (from Donovan’s The Church in the Midst of Creation)

“The Spirit is still being poured out on non-Christians, as much to our astonishment as it was to our Jewish forebears in the time of Peter and Cornelius. Revelation is still going on in the midst of traditional religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, in the knowledge behind the scientific revolution, in the universe - in all creation.” (from Donovan’s The Church in the Midst of Creation)

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