I mentioned previously that I will be remotely attending SEEK21 this week–it begins on Thursday and proceeds through Sunday. Last week they held what they called a “pep rally” in anticipation of the conference. I wanted to share some initial reflections.
FOCUS and the SEEK conference I believe it is fair to say are charismatic in nature, and I mean that less as a personality trait and more of a…well it’s hard to say what exactly I mean when I describe them as charismatic. Let’s try and pin that down before I continue.
The word, as I use it, describes more the how of Christian praxis than the what. My parish puts on a ‘praise and worship’ event periodically which includes both adoration and praise music. When I have attended there are usually people in the front who, when the music starts, will be moved to stand and raise their hands and dance to their hearts content. It doesn’t apply to the “what” of praxis because both the people I observe and myself are there at this event; I choose to remain seated and focus on adoration, and for whatever reason these people are moved to stand and dance and raise their hands. There is nothing inherently right or wrong about this, but one attribute of a charismatic faith involves being very visible. Not my cup of tea but it does the job for some people.
My first exposure to a Charismatic faith was through a “non-denominational” pseudo-christian sect which I was not involved in but which people close to me were (I might write about this experience at some point). Their particular flavor involved “speaking in tongues” and prophesying. It is these latter two attributes that have left me with a poor taste for Charismatic faith and created an association between that style of worship and what one might call grifting. This makes me cynical.
A common feature with Charismatic faith is music. Pop-praise-music is usually paired with charismatic worship–again, nothing inherently right or wrong about pop-praise-music per se, but it is usually attended by the type of people I observed at the praise and worship event, up-front and in their own world, hands raised, trying to be as enthusiastic as possible.
NB: I’m reluctant to be overly critical because of my personal and extremely negative associations with the concept. This tempts me to be more negative, so I am trying to correct for that and emphasize that it’s not all bad, but I recognize that it might seem like I am using weasel-words. My own praxis might be totally inexplicable and unappealing to someone to whom the charismatic faith is relatable and appealing. My goal in writing this is not to express value judgments but to make observations.
To me, it strikes me as what I’ve seen described elsewhere as a “holiness spiral”. One person sings enthusiastically about faith. Another person wants to match their enthusiasm and so stands. Yet another person doesn’t want to be the only person sitting and so stands themselves, but also raises their hands. Another person also doesn’t want to be outdone–it goes on and on from there. It feels competitive to me–and that feeling makes me uneasy in a spiritual context. I’ve had conversations with people of a Charismatic bent which are totally unobjectionable theologically but which felt to me to be inauthentic. Recitation of platitudes demonstrates membership in the club but doesn’t tell me anything about what you actually think.
But again–the target audience for FOCUS is Catholic University Students (I am not a university student). The desire to appear dynamic and fun and interesting is a lure to keep University students engaged in their faith, so that they don’t lose hold of it as so many do during their college years. The parts of the charismatic faith that make it useful for grifters also makes it useful for missionaries trying to do an objectively good thing, which is keeping the Faith alive on college campuses.
So I don’t know what to expect with this conference. My hope is that it is substantive. I know many of the platitudes already and I am not interested in being trained in them again. I am interested in discussing the areas of faith where I am struggling, or in gathering resources for discussing faith. I read my way into the faith before learning to feel my faith, so the way I approach faith is completely different and will not be the same for everyone, so it will be interesting to see what comes out of this conference.
One final thought: Fr. Z over at his space has speculated that a true Catholic revival will require the elements of traditionalism to be wedded with the charismatic elements I’ve described above. St. Paul the Evangelist was, after all, both a charismatic preacher and totally committed to the tradition handed down from Christ. Such a union is possible.
More to come as the conference unfolds.
Times-Dispatch of Vichy Earth 