A Word from Augustine for a Polarized World.
Years ago, the movie Independence Day illustrated a phenomenon known as disaster resilience. The movie depicted an alien invasion which galvanized the peoples of earth in a united response to defeat an external threat. Sociologists have long noted that communities typically band together in the face of a common threat or in the wake of disaster. In our own country we witnessed this phenomenon after 9/11 and after natural disasters like Hurrican Katrina. I recall my grandparents describing how the attack on Pearl Harbor unified the country. Citizens universally sacrificed and embraced rationing to help defeat the Axis powers.
But the recent pandemic has not produced a united therapeutic response in the U.S. or many other western countries. Sociologists suggest the divisions are so deep in our nation that even a global health crisis has not bound people together in a common purpose.
Boleslaw Szymanski, director of the Army Research Laboratory Network Science and Technology Center had this to say after a recent study on division in the U.S: "We see this very disturbing pattern in which a shock brings people a little bit closer initially . . . but if polarization is too extreme, eventually the effects of a shared fate are swamped by the existing divisions and people become divided even on the shock issue. If we reach that point, we cannot unite even in the face of war, climate change, pandemics, or other challenges to the survival of our society."1
This study and others seem to confirm what most of us observe. A frightening level of polarization has developed in our world. Unfortunately, the church is not exempt from this phenomenon. A slew of theological and social issues divides those who claim to follow Christ. On those issues I hold strong commitments. Many get at the core of historical Christian faith and doctrine. I cannot compromise on my convictions. But one thing I do and encourage others to do – pray.
In these divisive days I find praying the Psalms particularly encouraging. The book of Psalms represented the prayers of Israel for use in corporate worship. Many voices lifted these words to God as one voice. The Israelites prayed in concert and their common prayers formed common commitments and a common worldview. But it wasn’t just the Jewish people who prayed the Psalms.
In his work Confessions, St. Augustine describes a time when the Psalms grasped his heart and mind like no other part of Scripture. The context of his words are important. Augustine was engaged in a deep and divisive struggle with the Marcionites who rejected the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and their portrayal of God. Of course the Marcionites did not use the Psalms. But Augustine articulates how the Psalms impacted him so profoundly: “I was enkindled toward thee by them! I burned to sing them, if possible, throughout the whole world, against the pride of the human race.” Augustine longed to pray and proclaim these prayers around the globe, but then he catches himself and writes, “And yet, indeed, they are sung throughout the whole world, and none can hide himself from thy heat.”2
In the polarizing struggle with the Marcionites Augustine stumbled upon a profound truth; there is nothing so universal in Christian worship, corporate or private, as the Psalms. They are sung throughout the world and have been for millennia. To one degree or another all Christians - Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox - have lifted the words of the Psalter to God in prayer. When I pray the Psalms, I unite across time and space with a great cloud of witnesses who have and are praying the same words. I pray with King David and Asaph, with Jesus, Peter, and Paul, with the Desert Fathers and Mothers, with Augustine and Athanasius and Bernard of Clairvaux. I pray with Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Merton and C.S. Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
When I pray the Psalms I not only pray with countless brothers and sisters on whose shoulders my faith stands, I also pray with those who still pray the Psalms today. I pray with my friends in New Zealand and Australia and Scotland and Tanzania. I pray with Palestinian Christians and Brazilians and Iraqis and Romanians. Call me a mystic, but I believe something unifying happens when people of faith around the world lift the same words to heaven.
Sadly, the Marcionites never embraced these prayers and their movement quickly faded. But we might learn from Augustine’s admonition. Perhaps praying the Psalms is an antidote to the polarization running rampant in our country. Not only because we pray the same words to God, but because those words draw our attention to the only One who can mend our broken places - broken places that may very well foster a spirit of division in our soul.
1 ‘Tipping point’ of polarization threatens democracy’s survival. Linda B. Glaser, Cornell Chronicle
12/08/2021 https://sociology.cornell.edu/news/tipping-point-polarization-threatens-democracys-survival
2 Augustine, Confessions, Book 9. Chapter 8.