Communion of Saints in Context

By Eric Trozzo

The communion of saints has been called a ‘sleeping symbol’ within Christian churches, often overlooked and poorly understood. This is particularly true within the Protestant tradition, which has too often uncritically rejected concepts and practices related to talking about ‘the saints’. In this book, Protestant scholars working in Asia and Oceania consider anew the tradition of recognising the community of saints by lifting up how it may be more effectively expressed in their local contexts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Regnum Books International
• Release date: Dec 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781913363710

Book preview

Introduction

Eric Trozzo

The Roman Catholic feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson contends, The communion of saints is one of the least developed symbols in the history of theological explanation.¹ She goes on to explain that there are no systematic treatises from the early church, extended medieval discussions, nor many detailed attempts to explain the doctrine. Even in the Reformation, she noted that the debates were not on the communion of saints as such. Instead they were on the role of individual saints as intercessors. The inclusion of a chapter on the communion of saints in Lumen Gentium, from the Second Vatican Council, marked the first time that a pope or council gave a sustained statement on the teaching. However, Johnson points out that it is still more of a sketch than a detailed description.²

The communion of saints, in Johnson’s estimation, is a sleeping symbol; it is a profound statement of relationship that has gone largely ignored through the centuries of Christian theology. The communion of saints, I would add, points to both a horizontal, communal dimension of faith and simultaneously a sense of spiritual depth that transcends physical and temporal boundaries. Both of these aspects of spiritual life have been all too frequently truncated in modern Western Christianity. When these deficiencies get transplanted from Western Christian churches to Asian ones, it can promote an underdeveloped theological basis for a multidimensional Christian spirituality. Therefore, a robust understanding of the communion of saints can be tied closely to a lively spirituality. Building on the spiritual sensibilities of Asia, it may be that this is a doctrinal locus where Asian churches may be particularly well suited to providing significant insights for global Christian theology.

This book brings together a variety of voices from around Asia and Oceania. These writers consider what the communion of saints might mean in their contexts. The views included come from a variety of Protestant traditions, many of which have not placed a great deal of emphasis on this teaching of the church. The authors also come from a variety of countries and cultural contexts within Asia and Oceania and a range of theological disciplines. These many differences between contributors produce a multi-faceted conversation, highlighting the abundance of meaning and application generated by the doctrine of the communion of saints. The chapters come from a theological colloquium sponsored by the Lutheran Study Centre at Sabah Theological Seminary in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia in July 2019. The rich conversation amongst the participants, particularly the contributors to this volume, sparked the desire to turn the conference papers into the chapters of this book, with the hope that those conversations can spill over into other seminary and theological studies classrooms in Asia and globally. Our writers hope to contribute to the task of awakening the sleeping symbol for churches today.

This book is divided into three parts: The Living Cloud, Ancestors and Saints, and Remembering and Connecting the Living and the Dead. Each of the sections pulls on a different thread of the communion of saints. Taken together they point to the multifaceted potential of the theological symbol of the communion of saints.

The first section is The Living Cloud. The three chapters in this section follow the classic Protestant focus of discussing the aspect of communion of saints as being the living community of Christ on earth. The authors consider ways that the theme of the communion of saints illuminates aspects of the communal life of the church in the present. Each chapter considers a different sphere of concern in Christian life: personal relationships, ecumenical engagement of institutional church bodies, and the public engagement of the church.

The first chapter is written by Eric Trozzo, a philosophical theologian and Luther studies scholar who served for several years as a missionary in Malaysia. In his chapter, Trozzo follows Elizabeth Johnson’s use of the metaphor of friendship to talk about the saints. However, he questions how Western and Asian philosophical traditions about friendship may mutually challenge one another toprovide further nuance to Johnson’s metaphor. Reflecting on Jesus’ calling the disciples friends in John 15, Trozzo notes that this action simultaneously retains a sense of hierarchy in that the disciples are named friends of Jesus rather than proclaiming entirely mutual friendship, while also bestowing a radical level of inter-relationality between Jesus and the disciples by granting them full revelation. The combination of hierarchy and mutuality challenges too-easy cultural understandings of friendship to the nuanced spiritual friendship found among the living saints.

Within the second chapter, Laurence Gatawa examines Presbyterians and ecumenism in the Philippines based on Jesus’ declaration in John 10 that he, the Good Shepherd, has other sheep as a means of understanding the communion of saints. Gatawa is a Filipino Presbyterian New Testament scholar and brings all of these strands of his background into his reflections. Developing from the exegetical insight that the reference to other sheep indicates Gentile Christian communities, he holds the text as foundational for openness to holding diverse communities within the Body of Christ. Drawing on the confessional writings of the Reformed tradition, meanwhile, he finds unity amongst diverse Christian communities in seeing Jesus as the Good Shepherd, and ecumenical openness as the attempt to live out being the communion of saints. Nevertheless, in reviewing the challenges of Protestant ecumenical cooperation within the Philippines, he concludes that such unity is an eschatological hope rather than permanently achievable in this world. Striving for visible unity is a response to the call for the church to be the living communion of saints, even as the existence of many folds or flocks responding separately to the Good Shepherd is the reality of the contemporary situation.

The section is rounded out with a chapter from Will Frost. Frost originally comes from South Africa but has lived and ministered in Australia for many years. As a scholar, his interest is in the public engagement of the church with the society around it. In his writing in this collection, he draws on the Lutheran tradition of understanding the communion of saints as an undergirding for public theology amid secularizing forces in Australia. He understands the Lutheran tradition to be a pastoral theology rooted in the doctrine of justification. For the Lutheran tradition, justification makes one a saint. Fellowship with God is established through justification, and this fellowship produces a love of the neighbor. Drawing on this mode of thought, he argues for understanding the communion of saints as speaking to the creation of a public heart. Behind this public heart is a communion of virtue aimed at making a positive contribution to society through its commitment to self-giving love for the sake of all neighbors that is inclusive and universal.

The second section turns to the theme of the role of ancestors in many Asian cultures, with the chapters considering how traditional Asian understandings of ancestors may intersect with Christian thought on the communion of saints. This section questions whether it is permissible for Christians to talk about ancestral spirits, and whether such spirits can be considered saints if they were not Christian.

Cheong Weng Kit works from a Malaysian Chinese perspective, considering more broadly whether it is acceptable to link ancestors and saints, and if so, with what limitations. A missiologist, his approach draws on anthropological as well as theological sources. He considers various ways that ancestral spirits are understood to communicate with the living in a variety of cultures, particularly in Africa and Asia, understanding ancestor veneration to be perceived as an ongoing interaction. Turning to biblical texts, he finds that intentionally contacting ancestors is forbidden, though there is no prohibition with a passive reception of messages such as through dreams. Descendents are encouraged to relate to the positive or saintly examples and by rejecting the sinful bad examples. Beyond this, he suggests that Jesus can be understood as a Christian’s prime ancestor.

Long-time intercultural partner in Southeast Asia, Uwe Hummel considers the local theology of an indigenous Christian movement in Papua, Indonesia, and the ways it relates to ancestors as a means of pondering the possibility of local communities identifying particular saints. In particular, he considers the Wege Bage indigenous Christian movement among the Mee people of the Papuan highlands that began after World War II, pioneered by Zakheus Pakage. Led by Zakheus Pakage’s theological thought, not only was Christian theology reinterpreted through an indigenous lens by the movement but also the history of the Mee people. It was re-interpreted so that the biblical narrative was seen to be their history. Of particular concernis that, ancestors are seen to be present and active in contemporary life. For Hummel, this raises two theological questions. One is whether post-contact Christian ancestors can be seen as part of the communion of saints, a position he finds plausible. More profoundly, he wonders whether pre-contact non-Christian ancestors can rightly be considered as saints. He finds this contention less sure, but not implausible, citing the case of Rahab the prostitute being included in biblical genealogies despite not being an Israelite. Ultimately, he finds such questions to be beyond human decisions and in the hands of God alone.

The final section considers how remembrance of those who have gone before gives shape to Christian life now. The chapters are particularly attuned to the histories of conflict in specific places. The heritage of these conflicts continues to resonate. At the same time, while histories of conflict to affect present relationships, recalling such conflicts also gives an opportunity for remembering those who have contributed to peace and the overcoming of division or oppression. Much depends on how the memory of the conflict is carried. Therefore, the remembering of the saints, becomes a means of establishing a contextual sense of the power of the gospel to bring reconciliation through the work of the church.

Sientje Latuputty is Dean and Lecturer of Church History and Ecumenical Studies at the College for Philosophy and Theology in Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia. Latuputty considers the history of antagonism between the many cultures of the Papua region of Indonesia and how this creates challenges for Christian unity today. Looking at her church body, she notes the blessing of having many different cultural and ethnic groups within one church institution, groups that cherish and honour their traditional cultures within a Christian framework. Yet, she also notes that such diversity can lead to issues of tribalism within the church. She finds in the creedal uplifting of the communion of saints an essential affirmation of the inclusive nature of the church. She urges readers to find reconciliation of old tribal animosities within the gospel, so that the circle of who is considered my people can be expanded.

D. John Samuel Ponnusamy is the Principal of Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute in Chennai, India, and an Old Testament scholar from the Church of South India. In his chapter, he reflects on the ways that conflict is remembered as being central to how community functions; holding onto disputes contributes to continuing social conflict today. He particularly points to the role of statues and monuments as a means of collective memory that too often memorializes conflict in contemporary India. In response, he offers up the biblical image of Moses as a symbol of a saint who overcame conflict. It was Moses’ diplomatic ability to resolve conflicts in ways that were beneficial to all that was seen as vital. It was particularly in his ability to navigate the individual concerns of the tribes of Reuben and Gad with the needs of the people of Israel as a whole. Therefore, Moses is memorialized as one who was able to solve conflicts rather than continue them. While recognizing the complexity of historical remembering, Moses is shown to be paradigmatic of the remembered saints as being figures of healing and conflict resolution rather than of continued division and community trauma.

Naw Myatt Hsu Mon, meanwhile, is a missiologist from Myanmar in the Anglican tradition and serves as a lecturer at Holy Cross Theological College in Yangon, Myanmar. In her contribution, she considers how the festival celebration held on November 2 has become an event of ecumenical connections within the churches of Myanmar, It is a means of ritualizing acts of communal Christian remembrance, particularly between the Anglican church and the Roman Catholic Church. For the Anglican Church in Myanmar, saints are understood to be models of holiness and sources of inspiration. However, saints are generally only seen as being biblical figures and early martyrs. She thus lifts the need to identify local saints who can speak to the realities of being a Christian in Myanmar and inspire Christians in Myanmar in a way that relates to their contextual experience and history. From the Anglican tradition, she presents the martyred Daw Pwar Sein as a candidate for such honouring.

From these three sections, we find several critical dimensions of considering the communion of saints. The first section illuminates the importance of the theme as an image of the living members of the church. It is both a theological description of the community as it called to be and an ideal to which it imperfectly aspires. The chapters here present the personal relationships of intense friendship, the ecumenical relationships of different church bodies, and the public call of the church with society as a whole. In each of these views, to be a community of saints is to be righteous in these various types of relationships. It is to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a type of community that resists the tendencies towards separation and obsession with self-gain promoted by the forces of the world.

The second section considers the connection to the past as part of the current reality. The chapters within this section look to the role of ancestors in Asian cultures and seek to reclaim a role for this sense of connection within Asian Christianity and indeed in the church more broadly. The symbol of the communion of saints is seen as capable of speaking to this connection in ways that have been too often under-emphasized by Christian theology. Building on the insights of the previous sections, the third section considers the way that the memory of those who have gone before shapes the lives of those now living. Amidst the claims of connection and unity, the reality of conflict remembered and continued is too often dominant in society and the church. As Sientje Lattuputty poignantly asked during the original colloquium, how can we speak of any hope for communion among the saints when what we see now in the church is division? Can we elevate the saints and ancestors as figures of peace and conflict resolution? Can we find in histories of struggle stories to inspire hope of realized connection?

In these chapters and the conversations that gave rise to them, I have come to a deeper appreciation for the complex and wide-ranging ways in which the doctrine of the communion of saints speaks to the church universal and the experiences of Christians in specific contexts. My conviction is that paying attention to the ways that the doctrine speaks in the specific situations addressed in this book can help the church more broadly see the doctrine bring about vibrant and dynamic communities in new ways in other contexts in which it may be considered. I hope that these chapters may be part of the process of awakening the sleeping symbol, bringing it to new depths and inspiring further lively spirituality with one another in Christ now, from our past, and moving us towards a future united by the direction of the Good Shepherd.

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¹ Elizabeth A. Johnson, Friends of God and Prophets (New York: Continuum, 1998), 9

² Ibid, 10.

Part I

The Living Cloud

1. Being Called Friends: The Friendship Metaphor for Saints in an Intercultural Context

Eric Trozzo

You are my friends if you do what I command you, Jesus tells the disciples in John 15:13. Jesus, in this farewell discourse, re-defines his relationship with the apostles. Rather than teacher and students, the nature of the relationship has changed to that of a group of friends.