Can Religious Life Be Prophetic?

by Crosby, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780824522704
• ISBN10: 0824522702
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-01
• Publisher: Crossroad

Summary

This bold and visionary new book calls monks, priests and nuns to rediscover their heritage as prophetic witnesses. Challenging the watered-down sense of prophecy in the present day, he ignites us to return to the scriptures as the center of religious life. Only prophetic life grounded in Jesus Christ can nourish and give direction to attempts at social change and reformation.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Prophetic Proclamation in a Church Constitutively Clerical	7	(16)
The Rationale for and Structure of This Book	7	(3)
The Problem of Official Church Teaching about Religious Life as "Prophetic"	10	(3)
The Problem of Religious Accepting Religious Life as "Prophetic"	13	(4)
The Difficulty of Putting into Practice Proclamations about Religious as Prophetic	17	(6)
1. An Overview of Prophecy in Scripture and Tradition	23	(32)
The Rise of Prophetic Voices in Israel Judah's History	23	(3)
The Identity and Message of Prophets in the Old Testament	26	(5)
Charism and Prophecy in Scripture and Tradition	31	(2)
The Jesus Movement	33	(2)
The Charisms of Prophecy and Authority in the Roman Church	35	(7)
Addressing Some Internal Obstacles That Keep Religious from Being Prophetic	42	(2)
Entering with One Set of Values; Finding Ourselves Needing to Practice Others	44	(8)
The Dominant Consciousness of Individualism and Its Effect on Community	52	(3)
2. The Mystical Prophetic Vocation of Isaiah	55	(30)
Isaiah's Call as Prototype	55	(3)
The Call Occurs within Concrete Historical Exigencies: "In the Year That King Uzziah Died" (Isa. 6:1a)	58	(4)
This Call Imprints on Our Consciousness the Reality of God's Own Holiness (Isa. 6:1b-4)	62	(5)
Experiencing God's Holiness Gives Us an Enlightened Consciousness of Sin in Its Individual and Social Manifestations (Isa. 6:5)	67	(3)
The Recognition of Sin in Our Lives Opens Us to Be Healed and Empowered by a Force beyond Us: The Word of God (Isa. 6:6-7)	70	(3)
Empowered in This Word, We Accept the Invitation to Go into the World as God's Ambassadors (Isa. 6:8)	73	(3)
Preaching God's Holiness and the Need for Societal Conversion Promises Rejection by Those Made Apathetic by Its Imperial Infallible Consciousness (Isa. 6:9-13a)	76	(4)
Despite Rejection, an Alternative Community Will Serve as the Seed for Implementing the New Vision of God's Holiness (Isa. 6:13:b)	80	(5)
3. Jeremiah and the Scroll: The Need to Be Formed in the Word	85	(26)
Jeremiah as Transitional Figure between the "Old" and the "New"	55	(33)
The Witness of Jeremiah: To Be without Wife or Children	88	(2)
The Difficulty of Challenging One's Own People and One's Co-Religionists	90	(2)
The Call to Allow God's Word to Penetrate Our Beings	92	(2)
Jesus as Word, Scroll, and Text	94	(4)
Francis's Experience of the Word	98	(3)
Allowing the Divine Pathos to Capture Our Beings	101	(2)
God's Pathos-as-Wrath and Our Empathy-as-Anger toward Societal Apathy	103	(8)
4. Ezekiel as Exile	111	(26)
Jerusalem's Destruction Invites Us to Experience God's Presence beyond That Mediated by the Temple's Priests	114	(3)
The Boundaries That Limited God's Activity to One Clerical Group Give Way to Those Defined by the Spirit	117	(2)
The Temple's Abomination Arising from Worship of "Man-Made" Images Is Replaced by a Worship Celebrating God's Holiness	119	(2)
Being Uprooted from What Previously Provided Meaning Is Expressed in Purifying Grief	121	(3)
Being Carried into Captivity Leads to Contrition for the Circumstances That Caused It	124	(4)
The Way of Vengeance Based on Exclusion Gives Way to Wisdom Based in Compassion	128	(3)
Babylon's Seductive Culture Must Be Countered by the Creation of Communities of Resistance	131	(2)
The Indifference Generated in Face of Long-Standing Structures of Control Gives Way to a New Vision of Hope	133	(4)
5. The Prophetic Witness of Non-Assent and Non-Submission	137	(38)
The Challenge of Being Prophetic in the Midst of Imperial Injustice	137	(3)
The Challenge of Being Prophetic in a Clerical Church: A Case Study	140	(5)
The Role of Non-Assent in the Roman Church	145	(5)
The Role of Non-Submission in the Roman Church	150	(9)
How the Charism of Our Founders Was Ensured in Face of the Hierarchy	159	(2)
Francis's Alternative "House" to the Other "House" Falling into Ruin	161	(3)
Clare's Model of Resistance: A Feminine Way to "Repair the House"	164	(4)
Principles for Repairing the House Falling into Ruin	168	(7)
Notes	175	(12)
Guide for Reflection	187