{"id":361,"date":"2008-03-20T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2008-03-20T17:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/2008\/03\/20\/obamas-theology-of-reconciliation-an"},"modified":"2008-04-24T13:11:32","modified_gmt":"2008-04-24T17:11:32","slug":"obamas-theology-of-reconciliation-and-perfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/2008\/03\/obamas-theology-of-reconciliation-and-perfection\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama’s theology of reconciliation and perfection"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Senator Obama\u2019s address on Tuesday<\/a> has largely been received as a call to national dialogue about race, the 37-minute speech also revealed much about his religious and spiritual views. In it, Obama clearly invokes core Christian principles and beliefs, from original sin to God\u2019s grace. \u201cPerfection\u201d was his refrain \u2013 he invoked the word nine times \u2013 yet he did not use it to describe a teleological achievement, but rather a continuous mission of going on to perfection<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.
\n[emphasis added]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Salvation, in this view, is an ongoing process, not an outcome; a constant exercise of choice rather than a final destination. Known as \u201cChristian perfectionism,\u201d this idea is a cornerstone to the theology of John Wesley, a leader of the Methodist movement. Interestingly, the most powerful Methodist today \u2013 George W. Bush<\/a> \u2013 appears to profess a very different view of perfection, one that involves accomplishing specific goals based on knowledge about God’s plan for the world:<\/p>\n

The cause we serve is right, because it is the cause of all mankind. The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable–and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bush professses a theology of certainty: God’s will can be known — indeed, it has been revealed to us — and our task on earth is to realize it. By contrast, Obama offers a theology grounded in a process, not an outcome: to work out salvation with fear and trembling.<\/p>\n

Obama’s professed beliefs puts him at odds not only with President Bush, but his own pastor. As he states emphatically, “The profound mistake of Reverend Wright\u2019s sermons is… that he spoke as if our society was static.” Christian perfectionism, by contrast, sees imperfection as God’s challenge rather than fatalist destiny.<\/p>\n

Some pundits and bloggers continue to ask why Sen. Obama has stood by a pastor with whom he disagrees so vehemently. There is, of course, a first-pass answer in the speech itself: “I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother” — uncomfortably close, perhaps, to the reality of Hillary standing by Bill. Yet Obama makes clear that he is not just standing by an old mentor and father-figure, but an entire community: black Americans. “These people are a part of me,” he says of the American black community, a locution that implies both identity and yet also separation \u2013 acknowleding that Obama had come to the church as an outsider and made a conscious decision to stay and belong there.<\/p>\n

This loyalty to a community that Obama acknowledges is both strong and imperfect invokes another theme related to perfection: reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Our current notion of post-conflict reconciliation is largely informed by the work of Bishop Desmond Tutu in healing the wounds of South African apartheid. Today, there is a practice and a process of reconciliation that\u2019s widely studied, refined, and applied across the world. Sen. Obama\u2019s speech reflects two steps in this process: acknowledging of the merits of both sides and suggesting options for redress.<\/p>\n

Bishop Tutu\u2019s practice of worldly reconciliation was rooted in Christian belief in a divine one. And for Christians, Obama\u2019s decision to devote himself to the imperfect community of black Americans may just echo another outsider who chose to stand with a broken people. For Christians believe that God sent his only son to become fully human in order to redeem the world; through Jesus, Christians find reconciliation with God.<\/p>\n

Critics who perceive Barack Obama as “messianic” may be on to something, for as much as he asks America to join in racial reconciliation, he cannot help but embody that reconciliation in himself. Obama, of course, is not Jesus, and we will not achieve redemption \u2013 worldly or otherwise \u2013 by believing in him. If Americans are to heal our racial divide, we must commit ourselves to a process and not just a person. And yet this one person may just have the right message for the right time to begin that process. Perhaps for an issue as intractable as race in America, a leap of faith is all that is possible in an imperfect world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Senator Obama\u2019s address on Tuesday has largely been received as a call to national dialogue about race, the 37-minute speech also revealed much about his religious and spiritual views. In it, Obama clearly invokes core Christian principles and beliefs, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/anderkoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}