Written by: gfesadmin on March 14, 2013

Yesterday, I watched as Catholics across the globe celebrated a new pope – Francis I.  I couldn’t help but be excited, part of which is due to the name he chose, evidently after St. Francis of Assisi.  I will never forget my experience visiting the tomb of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy.  This white-washed city on a hill was not only beautiful but I felt peaceful there.  It was a different feeling there than when I visited the Vatican in Rome, somehow more full of “shalom.” 

The life of St. Francis, at least from what I have read was one of practicing what the author James Davison Hunter would call a life of enacting shalom, or living a “faithful presence.” In his book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, Hunter details a new approach for Christianity.  He explains that all previous Christian paradigms have been influenced by philosophies such as Hegel’s “idealism” and Nietsche’s radical skepticism.  The Christian “working theory” towards culture has resulted in the postures of “defensive against,” “relevance to,” and “purity from.”  He explains, “For Christians to regard the work of culture in any literal sense as “kingdom-building” this side of heaven is to begin with an assumption that tends to lead to one version or another of the Constantinian project, in which the objective is for Christians to “take over” the culture, fashioning all of the world in the image of the church or at least in accord with its values. Typically, this assumption leads to the dualism in which the culture either declares Jesus as Lord or it doesn’t. Christians are either “winning” the culture or “losing” it, “advancing the kingdom” or “retreating,” which is why all versions of the Constantinian approach to culture tend to lean either toward triumphalism or despair, depending on the relative success or failure of Christians in these spheres. This is why it is always dangerous to aspire to a “Christian culture” or, by extension, a Christian government, a Christian political party, a Christian business, and the like.” (234)

Instead, Hunter argues a way forward called “faithful presence,” a way of living which includes “flourishing people” – acting in ways of sacrificial love and support towards Christians and non-Christians alike, “formation,” which includes immersion of the individual in a community of faith, and a fully present commitment to a Christian’s life tasks – an engagement with everyday life.

Hunter explains that the theology of faithful presence happens when the “…Word of all flourishing – defined by the love of Christ – becomes flesh in us, in our relations with others, within the tasks we are given, and within our sphere of influence—absence gives way to presence, and the word we speak to each other and to the world becomes authentic and trustworthy.” (252)  It’s action requires modesty, humility and charity.

Finally, he explains that God is the one who will “change the world” into a place where “swords will be beaten into plowshares” and the “wolf will dwell with the lamb.”  Our job is not to “engineer” the world but to worship God in all we do.  This is outlined for us in Genesis 2:15 where God gives the instructions that we are to abad (nurture, sustain) and shamar (care for, protect) the Earth.  We are here to “enact shalom” and by doing so we do our part in fulfilling God’s purpose for us on Earth.

Will the new Pope Francis enact shalom like his namesake? 

How do you enact shalom and live in “faithful presence?”

Hunter, James Davison (2010-04-14). To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

About the Author

gfesadmin