Well, we may be getting a bit ahead of ourselves. But this summer, Pope Francis did publish a remarkable Letter on the Role of Literature In Formation, in which he made a provocative case (indeed, in his own words, proposed “a radical course”) for the role of poetry and fiction in spiritual growth and learning.
If you have visited this blog before, you probably know that we encourage church boards to read poems and other things together as part of their regular work. We believe that building board capacity for leading through complexity and ambiguity is often best achieved by stepping back from immediate tasks, taking a deeper look at life and faith, and practicing the art of listening and speaking with one another on all manner of topics, not just church topics. The regular habit of talking together about something like a poem can support this capacity-building in a powerful way. It can help us dig that deeper well of theological imagination for our life and work together.
But back to the Pope. While Francis is focused primarily on what religious leaders in training need, all his arguments point directly to what religious leaders in practice need as well. Is your church board tired? Is your church board confused? Is your church board wondering how you will work through a long list of tasks? Is your board docket so full that there is never time to talk about deeper things? Then consider what Pope Francis says, and how much it speaks to what your church board needs in this time.
Literature can free us from obsessive thoughts. “Time spent reading may well open up new interior spaces that help us to avoid becoming trapped by a few obsessive thoughts that can stand in the way of our personal growth.”
Literature helps us reach the “deep core of culture,” which is essential to spiritual growth. “We can recognize the presence of the Spirit in the variety of human experiences, seeing the seeds of the Spirit’s presence already planted in the events, sensibilities, desires and profound yearnings present within hearts and in social, cultural and spiritual settings.”
Literature counterbalances our tendency to become frenetic, task-oriented creatures who care only about efficiency and results. Remarkably, Pope Francis notes that this tendency infects even “our commitment to service … [which] can become focused only on goals to be achieved.” Reading literature helps us “to counterbalance this inevitable temptation to a frenetic and uncritical lifestyle by stepping back, slowing down, taking time to look and listen.” And again, “We need to rediscover ways of relating to reality that are more welcoming, not merely strategic and aimed purely at results, ways that allow us to experience the infinite grandeur of being.”
Literature helps us acknowledge the mystery of the world, saving us from a simple “right-wrong” dualism. “By acknowledging the futility and perhaps even the impossibility of reducing the mystery of the world and humanity to a dualistic polarity of true vs false or right vs wrong, the reader accepts the responsibility of passing judgement, not as a means of domination, but rather as an impetus towards greater listening.”
Literature helps us to listen to another person’s voice, an act of attention that is increasingly elusive. It demands that we receive, rather than resist, the reality of other people. “The most important thing is simply to read, to enter into direct contact with literature, to immerse oneself in the living text in front of us, rather than to fixate on ideas and critical comments.”
Literature develops our capacity to feel empathy for others. In one of his more powerful notes, the Pope suggests that “the problem for faith today is not primarily that of believing more or believing less with regard to particular doctrines. Rather, it is the inability of so many of our contemporaries to be profoundly moved in the face of God, his creation and other human beings.” Later, he says that by reading we “develop an imaginative empathy that enables us to identify with how others see, experience and respond to reality.”
You and your board may well say, “we don’t have time for this, we have too much to do and too much we need to figure out!” We respectfully reply that your board cannot afford not to take a fresh look, from a different angle, at all that is around and before you.
…Freed from obsessive thoughts and topics.
…Getting out of the echo-chamber of church talk to see the whole world that God has made and redeemed.
…Moving beyond focusing only on tasks and results.
…Escaping the polarities of true-false and right-wrong.
…Deeply listening to another’s voice.
…And in the process, discovering that church boards can become an incubator for empathy. (Let that one sink in for a moment…)
Of course in your context, “literature” could be a short story, a poem, a video clip, a piece of art, a musical offering, prayers and, yes, scripture. But the moment is now to expand the dimensions of your time together as a board. Freed, balanced, listening, learning, growing, and cultivating empathy – that is a board that everyone we know would like to join.
Thank you, Pope Francis, (and we’ll post travel pics if he invites us to Rome for a DDW staff meeting.…)
Think back on a good reading experience you have had. What made it good?
Which of the claims for literature listed above feels most important to your own spiritual growth?
Which of the claims above feels most important to your board’s spiritual growth?
What do you make of Pope Francis’s statement that “by acknowledging the futility and perhaps even the impossibility of reducing the mystery of the world and humanity to a dualistic polarity of true vs false or right vs wrong, the reader accepts the responsibility of passing judgement, not as a means of domination, but rather as an impetus towards greater listening”? What on earth is he saying here?
How will your church board make regular space for its own spiritual formation in this season? How might it become a better incubator for empathy?
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