The structural system within the church is seen as the reason for the abandonment of some of the members of the Christian community. Michael Crosby, ofm suggest that the church is involved in denial and cover up in its addiction to controlling power and authority, and the co-dependency of the faithful allows the focus on maintaining to dominate and overshadow community mission and authentic spirituality; and this he calls “dysfunctional church”. Other authors like Larson and Parnegg say something about the “recovering catholic” who refers to the struggle facing many Christians who seek to overcome the shame and pain they feel as a result of their experiences in an authoritarian church of secrets and controlling power. Their “religious experiences” means shame on you. These authors also see the possibility of healing if the institutional church recognizes her limits and open herself for criticism than as divine and infallible, above all criticism.
The church declares herself as a divinely-instituted organization that must be distinguished from any other human institution. The priest are considered as metaphysically elevated and ontologically changed. Their function is seen as brokering of grace and salvation to a humanity so wounded by original sin. This self-understanding of the church is radically challenge by the theologians. Grace is not seen as a dualistic concept as Tridantine theology, but instead defined as, is given with human existence itself, meaning humans are capable for this grace even without being baptized or being a member of the Christian community or having faith in Christian belief and so therefore explicit faith is what necessary. The church is just one of the support groups for the transcendent experience; Jesus as both sacrament of God’s self-gift and model for human transcendence. The church understanding must shift from within, from hierarchical and judicial brokerage to pilgrim people who bear the memory of Jesus and celebrate their existence in communion with his searching for personal and corporate transcendence within the context of lived experiences and historical transformation.
The dysfunctional church finds its foundation to dysfunctional Christology. Dysfunctional Christology is caught up in the denial of Jesus’ humanity and giving more emphasis on his divinity that lead to become Docetism. Jesus is seen as God who came down from heaven to die and save us from sins. His death makes satisfaction (St. Anselm Theory of Satisfaction) to an angry God, who now rather reluctantly offers forgiveness and salvation through the church and its sacrament. Only through returning to historical Jesus as a ground for a contemporary theology and the separation of literate and nonliterate sources of Jesus tradition can help us see the true Jesus of Nazareth. In Latin American liberation theology, they see the need for a shift in understanding the concept of Christology from traditional Christology (paschal mystery as the salvific act of God, iconization) to Jesus’ historical existence and his meaning, first within his own contexts, then in our own. Liberation theology has intuited an image of Jesus from their own historical contexts, their own experiences of oppression and poverty. Faith in Jesus is not having fear or threat but taking responsibility for one’s own body and sitting at the table with whoever is hungry, refusing to honor the proper hierarchies and discriminations, overcoming the polarities that segment and separate. To believe is to be set free from pretentions, to overcome one’s codependent status.
The reconstruction of Jesus provides a scholarly, historical basis for codependent Catholics who have grown up with a shame-based imperative theology and seek internal liberation from shame and guilt. Codependent Christians are those Christians that cannot stand on their feet. Catholic spirituality somehow also made the faithful numb and develops and even maintains the false-self because of the suppression of feelings, thinking, and acting. They are not allowed to dissent but to believe what the church is teaching. This kind of spirituality is dysfunctional. Only through looking at historical Jesus can set us free from tyranny and false self identity. Real Jesus can heal our shame and set us free from the prison of our false selves. He calls us to take responsibility of our own lives, to live an uncontrolled life whether from state of church. Grace is the most profound ground for self esteem (with humility) and personal empowerment (admitting powerlessness). It is our capacity for transcendent openness and our actually acting on the impulse to go beyond. A new Christology can help if one can dispels any false flights beyond our humanity, one that sees and feels the real pain of suffering in history, one that activates our imagination by listening to our deepest hungers and our most passionate drives, one that tolerates ambiguity and imperfection and shadows, and finally, one that heals, empower, and liberates because it is grounded in real healing, empowering, and liberating. This can be found in the historical reconstruction of Jesus of Nazareth.
The church declares herself as a divinely-instituted organization that must be distinguished from any other human institution. The priest are considered as metaphysically elevated and ontologically changed. Their function is seen as brokering of grace and salvation to a humanity so wounded by original sin. This self-understanding of the church is radically challenge by the theologians. Grace is not seen as a dualistic concept as Tridantine theology, but instead defined as, is given with human existence itself, meaning humans are capable for this grace even without being baptized or being a member of the Christian community or having faith in Christian belief and so therefore explicit faith is what necessary. The church is just one of the support groups for the transcendent experience; Jesus as both sacrament of God’s self-gift and model for human transcendence. The church understanding must shift from within, from hierarchical and judicial brokerage to pilgrim people who bear the memory of Jesus and celebrate their existence in communion with his searching for personal and corporate transcendence within the context of lived experiences and historical transformation.
The dysfunctional church finds its foundation to dysfunctional Christology. Dysfunctional Christology is caught up in the denial of Jesus’ humanity and giving more emphasis on his divinity that lead to become Docetism. Jesus is seen as God who came down from heaven to die and save us from sins. His death makes satisfaction (St. Anselm Theory of Satisfaction) to an angry God, who now rather reluctantly offers forgiveness and salvation through the church and its sacrament. Only through returning to historical Jesus as a ground for a contemporary theology and the separation of literate and nonliterate sources of Jesus tradition can help us see the true Jesus of Nazareth. In Latin American liberation theology, they see the need for a shift in understanding the concept of Christology from traditional Christology (paschal mystery as the salvific act of God, iconization) to Jesus’ historical existence and his meaning, first within his own contexts, then in our own. Liberation theology has intuited an image of Jesus from their own historical contexts, their own experiences of oppression and poverty. Faith in Jesus is not having fear or threat but taking responsibility for one’s own body and sitting at the table with whoever is hungry, refusing to honor the proper hierarchies and discriminations, overcoming the polarities that segment and separate. To believe is to be set free from pretentions, to overcome one’s codependent status.
The reconstruction of Jesus provides a scholarly, historical basis for codependent Catholics who have grown up with a shame-based imperative theology and seek internal liberation from shame and guilt. Codependent Christians are those Christians that cannot stand on their feet. Catholic spirituality somehow also made the faithful numb and develops and even maintains the false-self because of the suppression of feelings, thinking, and acting. They are not allowed to dissent but to believe what the church is teaching. This kind of spirituality is dysfunctional. Only through looking at historical Jesus can set us free from tyranny and false self identity. Real Jesus can heal our shame and set us free from the prison of our false selves. He calls us to take responsibility of our own lives, to live an uncontrolled life whether from state of church. Grace is the most profound ground for self esteem (with humility) and personal empowerment (admitting powerlessness). It is our capacity for transcendent openness and our actually acting on the impulse to go beyond. A new Christology can help if one can dispels any false flights beyond our humanity, one that sees and feels the real pain of suffering in history, one that activates our imagination by listening to our deepest hungers and our most passionate drives, one that tolerates ambiguity and imperfection and shadows, and finally, one that heals, empower, and liberates because it is grounded in real healing, empowering, and liberating. This can be found in the historical reconstruction of Jesus of Nazareth.
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