At the Right Hand (A Review of Farrow's Ascension Theology)

7/28/2019 At the Right Hand (A Review of Farrow's Ascension Theology)

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R E V I E W S

At the Right H andby Hans Boersma

Ascension TheologyBY DOUGLAS FARROWT&T CLARK, 17 7 PAGES, $27 .95S imply put," writes DouglasEarrow, "our choice is be-tween a doctrine of the As-cension that truly affirms ourhumanity in Christ and onethat secretly or openly denies it." Inthis book, a sequel to his much ac-claimed Ascension and Ecclesia,Earrow, a Catholic theologian whoteaches Christian thought at McGillUniversity, presents what he hopesis a "more accessible sketch" of therelevance of the doctrine of the As-cension. He tries to "reach out tothe less-specialized reader, includingthe adventurous undergraduate"though my hunch is that the under-graduate would have to be ratheradventurous indeed. Earrow's book isnot an easy read, and some chaptersrequire particularly careful scrutiny.Earrow is a widely read and deepthinker, and the book evidences adeeply passionate commitment andengages, in an often feisty manner,the many issues at stake in moder-nity's gnosticizing attacks on thegospel.

After presenting the theme of as-cent and descent in the biblical narra -tive, Earrow takes his readers thro ughthe history of Christian thought. Hebegins with Origen, who focused on"ascension of the mind rather thanof the body." This sharp distinc-tion set in motion the body-deny-ing tendencies of much of the earlyChurch. Though St. Augustine wassometimes a critic of Origen, he andmany leading theologians through theMiddle Ages failed to take seriouslythe particularity of the human being.

Jesus of Nazareth. In discussions ofMaximus the Confessor, Luther, andmany modern thinkersincludingImmanuel Kant, Eriedrich Schleier-macher, David E. Strauss, and RudolfBultmannEarrow details this oth-erworldly, spiritualizing trajectory.Earrow holds up St. Irenaeus'Against Heresies as the antidote totheir gnosticizing tendencies, sinceIrenaeus "very definitely understoodthe ascension to be bodily ascension,ascension in the flesh." He also re-deems Augustine at this point, point-ing out that he affirmed the Lord'sbodily ascension as well as genderedexistence in the life of the world tocome. However, the liberal tradition(Teilhard de Chardin, for example)has reduced the ascended Lord to thedynamics of history. In contrast to thisoptimistic faith in progress, Kierkeg-aard and Bonhoeffer affirmed theparticularity of Jesus as the God-man.Today's challenge, as Earrow sees it, isto "recognize our age for what it isatestand reject the seductive vision ofOrigen's modern heirs."

Earrow is right to emphasize Ire-naeus' anti-Gnostic convictions. It ismuch less clear to me that this needsto be done by means of a sharp cri-tique of the Platonically informedtheologies of much of the Christiantradition. Earrow too easily dismisseslarge chunks of the tradition that hebelieves have fallen prey to Origen'sgnosticizing tendencies. At one point,while acknowledging Schleiermach-er's decisive break with the past, hestates that "it is nonetheless true thatit involves a genuine extension of theOrigenist tradition as mediated byAugustine." He draws back at po ints,asking: If theEathers had no difficultyholding bodily and spiritual ascen-sion together, "should we have anydifficulty? Is the contrast between anOrigenist and an Irenaean approachoverdrawn, if not actually m istaken?"I am convinced th at the co ntrast isoverdrawn. Henri de Lubac's recentlyHans Boersma isj. I. Packer Professor of Theology at Regent College.

translated History and Spirit placeOrigen in a rather different light thandoes Earrow. I am also convincedthat, in our materialist age, we coulddo with a good dose of Origenist (oAugustinian) otherworldliness.I doubt that Earrow would entirelydisagree. At one point, he presents aquite helpful elucidation of theAscen-sion as involving a "transformativerelocation into a time and space andmode of life defined by full participa-tion in the Trinitarian economy." Theeschatological "location" of heavendoes not allow us to identify whereJesus "is going on any map of ours,"although this "location," as Earrowexplains, remains integrally related to

the times and places of this-worldlyexistence. Clearly, for Earrow, this-worldly understanding of time andspace is at best analogically suitablefor speaking about that astoundingreality for which we aim.F arrow presents a strong plea totake the Ascension seriously inthe doctrine of the Eucharist,arguing tha t the Eucharist is not onlya celebration of the presence of Christbut a presence in absence, since weare still waiting for the return of theascended Christ. While Christ is pres-ent, he is "present in a manner dis-tinct from the parousia that is yet tocome." And so, although he rejectsthe Pelagianism inherent in memori-alist views of the Eucharist, he findshimself w ishing that "the western tra-dition had paid more attention to theeschatological features of the Eucha-rist." As he explains, "The real pres-ence effected in the Eucharist tha t iscelebrated on the earthly altar is , asthe liturgy indicates, a presence inand with Christ in heaven, where hestands before God as our great highpriest."It's a sentence that Calvin couldhave written, and in some ways Ear-row is close to the Genevan reformer.The eschatological focus, the no-tion that the Eucharist takes us tothe heavenly places, and the belief


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FIRST THINGS August/September2011

that the Eucharist "is not explicablein terms of the old creation" are allaffirmations shared by many Protes-tants. Earrow even insists that the Eu-charist cannot be understood withinAristotelian categories of substanceand accident, since the "bread doesnot turn into the body by acquiring anew form in its ma tter."In view of this theological analysisof the implications that Christ's as-cension has for Eucharistie theology,I must admit that it is not clear to mewhy Earrow still insists on using theunhelpful language of transubstan-tiation for the Eucharist. Nor do Iunderstand why he criticizes WilliamDix for the phrase "faith believes, norquestions how," for Earrow himselfinsists that the coming of the Wordin the consecration is not "explicablein terms of the old creation." I can-not help but think that his discussionof the Eucharist displays a real ten-sion in Earrow's thinking. Perhapsif he were to follow through on thethought patterns of John Calvin andHerbert McCabe, he might morefreely acknowledge that transub-stantiation cannot do justice to theabsence orsince I think the termabsence is unfortunatethe provi-sional nature of Christ's presence inthe Eucharist.F arrow is at his most articu-late and passionate when hespeaks of "the politics of theEucharist." In the Eucharist we cometogether "to participate in the ulti-mate political reality, the kingdomof God, from which its authorityderives." This starting point allowshim to relativize as provisional allforms of secular government. Histheologyessentially a theology ofmartyrdomtakes on a distinctlyapocalyptic tone when he refiects onthe various embodiments of the "manof lawlessness," which he describesas present in the German Christianmovement at the time of the ThirdReich, in John S tuart M ill's prioritiz-ing of liberty over truth, and in the

state's increasing appropriation ofpower, particularly in its arbitraryinvention of marriage without sexualcoinplementarity or procreative pur-pose. Earrow has particularly harshwords for King Henry VIII, who"exalted himself, Uzziah-like, beforeGod" and who "attempted to ruleover the souls of his subjects that hemight rule also over their bodies."T he final chapter presents awonderful discussion of "as-cension and atonement." Ear-row discusses Christ's ascension andits implications from the viewpointof the purification of the heavenlythings (Hebrew 9:23-2 4). He rightlyreminds us that Christ's "cleansing ofheaven produces trauma on earth."At the same time, Christ causes usto ascend with him and so offers upthe whole creation to be the king-dom of God. Again, Earrow refiectson the continuity and discontinuitybetween this world and the next. Hearticulates an eschatological real-ism in line with the broad Christiantradition. Our future involves incal-culable transformations, "but a realman there will be, and a real gardentoo, though we know not what willgrow there, or how."

Despite his overdrawn fears ofOrigenism in much of the history ofChristian thought, Earrow ends upaligning himself with the part of thetradition that puts the greatest em-phasis on the transcendent differencethat Christ makes. His affirmation ofdeification is unambiguous: "SinceGod has invested himself in man,man is no longer merely man, withhis own creaturely interests and re-sponsibilities under God. M an is nowan internal communicant in the verylife of God , for God has m ade himselfinternally comm unicant in the life ofman." Despite Earrow's sometimesharsh judgments on the tradition, hedoes describe lucidly the world-trans-forming, rather than world-denying,logic of the Christian witness throughthe centuries. 13

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At the Right Hand (A Review of Farrow's Ascension Theology)