QUESTION: There is a strong feeling among thinkers that the finitude and sinfulness  of human reason have corrupted Christianity. As a believer and a theologian, what do you think as a way back to authentic Christianity?  Fr Jacob M.

ANSWER : Jacob Parappally MSFS

It is the faith affirmation of the Christians that everything that is needed for a meaningful life on earth and beyond this life is revealed through Jesus Christ. The offer of salvation, liberation or wholeness through Jesus Christ is mediated in history though the community of the believers called the Church. The Church as the Body of Christ and as the Temple of the Holy Spirit can never be corrupted by humans because it is beyond the manipulation of any human power. The mystery of the Church is such that it came into existence by the power of the Spirit to continue the mission of uniting everything in Christ for the glory of God the Father. It is the sacrament of Christ the light of the nations – Lumen Gentium! While the inner reality of the Church cannot be corrupted, its existence in history as a religion can be corrupted and in fact it has been corrupted.
While responding to Peter’s confession about the identity of Jesus as Christ, the Son of the living God Jesus said, “I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” ( Matthew 16:18). But the evil of corruption entered Christianity .Why does it happen? The Church as a social entity or as a religion called Christianity suffers certain corruption because it is a community of humans who can misuse their God-given freedom and grace to live a life worthy of their vocation as humans and Christians. One may say that it is due to the finitude and sinfulness of human reason that Christianity has been corrupted. Even if we admit that it is due to the failure of human reason or due to its limited knowledge of everything that is to be known and is by sinful attitudes and actions of individual members of the Church that corruption enters into Church. There may also be other reasons for corruption in the Church. However, a distinction must be made when we think of Christianity being corrupted as a religion even though many identify the Church with Christianity.

Corruptibility: The Cross of Religion

Religions originate as an answer to the question humans raise about the meaning of their existence here on earth and about their final destiny beyond this life on earth. Further, religions claim to have answers to the question about the cause of sufferings in this world. Why do humans have to suffer misery and misfortune in this world? This question has plagued human minds since their minds have evolved to reflect on themselves, their existence and their relationship with other humans and the entire creation. Cosmic religions like Greek religions and Hindu religious traditions explain that suffering in this world is caused by ignorance of recognizing the unreal as real, untruth as truth. Thus the possibility of corruption is built into the system of religion itself. The way to overcome ignorance is through attaining true knowledge which seems to be the privilege of a few. Therefore, a large majority of humans remain in ignorance and some of them choose to reject true knowledge and corrupt religion by manipulating it for their advantage and selfish interests.
The Semitic religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam answered the ultimate questions of life as well as about the cause of misery humans suffer in life by referring to the experience of God who created everything as good but is destroyed by humans. God wished humans to be happy by cooperating with the plan of God. But they have refused to cooperate with God’s plan and brought down misery on themselves. Such non-cooperation with God’s plan or disobedience to God’s command to follow God’s ways brought about the corruption of their nature and consequently the corruption of the society and eventually the destruction of their world. But the Christian faith affirmation that the process of corrupting the revealed salvific plan of God is reversed by Jesus by his obedience to God and by taking upon himself the consequences of the corruption of humans and their world. The community which Jesus established to continue the process of renewing humanity and liberating its sinful structures became organized as the Church and eventually as a religion called Christianity. As a religion Christianity like other world religions has to bear the same cross of corruption of manipulating its structures and practices by individuals and groups for their selfish ends. Certainly, such corruptions affect the credibility of the Church and its mission.

Corrupt Humans corrupt Religion

It is an accepted fact that religion, society, politics and economics etc. are meant for the well-being of humans and the structures that maintain them are good in themselves. However, all over the world we find abuse and misuse of religious structures, social evils, dirty politics and discriminatory and dehumanizing economic systems. Why do humans corrupt these systems and structures that are meant to serve humans for their well-being and happiness? Is it due to any flaw in human nature that at least some humans always and all humans sometime in their life use the perverse aspect of their nature bringing about misery and unhappiness for others and eventually for themselves? Christian theology answered this question by referring to the biblical revelation of the Fall of the first parents.
Augustine’s anthropology emphasized the effect of the sin of disobedience committed by the first parents on the entire human race. This original sin, according to him, made human nature which was created in the image and likeness of God, vitiated, corrupted, lost and dead. On account of this original sin human will is weakened, human reason darkened and human body inclined towards lust. Thus the evil effect of original sin on humans’ will, mind and body is termed as concupiscence. Human nature which was created to love God and one another was turned to self-centred love and worldly love. The vitiated human nature is the cause of every corruption in the world. Thomas Aquinas agrees with Augustine that the Fall caused human nature’s inclination towards evil but still there is certain inclination towards good in human nature. So humans have the possibility of being good and doing good in spite of concupiscence. It is the choice one makes to do evil or good that determines one’s own destiny and the destiny of the society in which one lives. As long as humans have the inclination towards evil and decide to actualize it in doing evil, religion and society will be corrupted.
According to the anthropology of Irenaeus of Lyons humans are not created perfect but created for perfection. Humans are created with an innate capacity to become perfect. Though humans were created in the image and likeness of God, the image of God was darkened or weakened and their likeness of God was lost by the fault of the first parents. For Irenaeus the image of God in humans is their will and reason and the likeness of God is humans’ relationship with God. With the weakened will and reason humans cannot attain perfection or establish relationship with God. Therefore God becomes human and enables them to reach perfection and thus fulfils God’s plan for humans. Thus the hominization of God itself is liberative for humans as the image of God in them is restored and their friendship with God is re-established. Humans can appropriate this liberation or salvation by surrendering themselves to Christ in freedom by their baptismal incorporation into Christ.
Still there can be a question about the corruption of Christianity as a religion by those who have experienced wholeness or liberation through Jesus Christ through their baptismal surrender to him. A baptized believer of the Church is a member of the Body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit. In him or her the Holy Spirit has turned concupiscence or worldly love into love of God. How can such transformed persons still corrupt Christianity? It is possible and it has been done by both the religious leaders and ordinary members of the Church and all those who claim to be Christians because they are either not aware of their human and Christian vocation or their core Christic identity or they choose not to actualize it because it involves self-emptying and suffering. Therefore, they give into the temptation of ego-centrism, manipulation of religious structures and religious beliefs to attain power and remain in power, abuse and misuse power as leaders of the people, compromise the Kingdom values of justice, equality, love, fellowship, reconciliation, inclusiveness and transparency or sincerity. It is not the finitude of human reason alone that corrupts Christianity as a religion but it is the choice some make to use their human reason inappropriately for their selfish ends.

Conversion to Authentic Christianity

It is the never changing promise of Christ that the powers of evil cannot prevail against the Church or authentic Christian religion as it the community created by God the Father through Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. However, it needs constant renewal by constant conversion of the members of the Church from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness and other-centeredness, from self-promotion to self-emptying, from the will to power as leaders to servant-leadership, from domination to animation of communities, from ordering to listening, from the protection of structures and systems to the protection of human rights, from a law-centred morality to person-centred morality, from the external expressions of religion through emphasis on the correctness of cultic performances to a spirituality of communion and works of justice. Such a conversion is both a grace and a task. It is the concern of the Holy Spirit that Christianity communicates God’s love for humans and their world through Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Spirit of God generously gives grace and empowerment to all who believe in the Spirit’s presence and action in history. But it is also important that all who call themselves Christians through their surrender to Christ let themselves be converted to authentic Christian life that involves commitment to justice to the poor in all aspects of life! “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27 – 2:1).