An Imagined Community: Abridging an Abyss

Abstract

An examination of the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man raises significant questions. Why is this life a zero sum game where a gain by one person or side must be matched by a loss by another person or side? Where is the mutuality necessary to break the cycle of all or nothing? Indeed, turning to the doctrine of the Trinity, especially in Athanasius's understanding of it, one finds that love and not transcendence, giving and superiority, are the qualities and the mark of God's divinity. There is no imbalance of power within the being of God setting forth superior-inferior parties. There is mutual self-giving. With these two strategies for living in the world, Christianity developed an Arian compromise and an Athanasian dream. On one hand, nature and social hierarchies are the givenness of human community. On the other, the Athanasian dream creatively imagines community with the audacity of difference and mutuality modeled in the Godhead and demonstrated in the life of Jesus. As the Church gained power and influence, the more egalitarian tendencies in Christianity gradually lost ground, at least among church leaders. The Arian compromise came in time to be regarded as virtually a matter of doctrine. The concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement invite the church to a social space it has not been lately.