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First I want want everyone to give a moment of your time to acknowledge the passing of Dr. Sallie McFague.
Her writing and ideas have been a great personal comfort to me as I was raised by a mother that subscribed to a Christian cult. And her cult beliefs eventually killed her.
I was 17 years old and watched my mother die following a prolonged agonizing confinement to bed for over two years. She believed God would heal her and rejected medical care. She prayed and studied her bible every day and never gave up her belief in God. I learned first hand the about the overwhelming power that Religious belief can command. And I also learned that and I learned that religions or cults that reject science can kill their followers.
It was through reading Dr. Sallie McFague writings on metaphor and theology that allowed me to intellectually understand why my mother did what she did. And most importantly it was Dr. McFague that restored in me an understanding of why the stories about Jesus are of comfort and utility to those that hear and understand them. From Wikipedia:
The experience of Jesus - his parables, table fellowship and healing ministry in particular - makes him a rich source of the ‘destabilising, inclusive and non-hierarchical’ metaphors Christians might profitably borrow from him as paradigmatic, a ‘foundational figure’.[10] But he is not all they need. Experience of the world, and of God's relationship to it, must add to that illustration and re-interpret it in terms and metaphors relevant to those believers, changing how they conceive of God and thus care for the earth.
From Wikipedia: McFague's sources of new metaphors and models
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In my political life I credit an understanding of Dr. McFague’s metaphorical approach to theology with giving me the ability to reach and communicate with the so called religious right. Quite simply I monopolize the conversation with giving example after example of using the parables of Jesus as a metaphor.
Dr. McFague leaned heavily on George Lakoff’s pioneering work on metaphors and applied it to theology, Christian feminism, and ecological issues. And if we remember our Lakoff 101 the first rule is change the frame. Dr. McFague thought me how to change the frame in conversing with right wing conservative folk.
Move the conversation from talking about applying laws or commands to seeing how many ways a parable of Jesus can be applied in the real world. This ability has served me well in local politics as it has allowed me to get to know and work with religious folks to pass local laws and ordinances.
Vancouver School of Theology announces with deep sadness the passing of Dr. Sallie McFague today in Vancouver, BC. Sallie was Distinguished Theologian in Residence at VST since 2000 and the author of many books and articles in theology. She was the Carpenter Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School from 1980-2000. Her theological work in metaphorical theology earned her an esteemed place in the theology of the 20th century, especially in her 1982 book, Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language. In recent years, her research focused on ecological theology; her recent books included Blessed Are The Consumers (2013) and A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming (2008). VST extends our sincere condolences to Rev. Janet Cawley, Sallie’s partner. Arrangements for a service celebrating and commemorating her life will be forthcoming.
Below is a short audio only 6 minute video that I hope you are able to listen to. I think you can get a taste of her wisdom.
In addition to her theories on theology she devoted her life to “saving the planet” by viewing it through the metaphor of God as mother. It is this metaphor the quote below is referring to.
Care for creation – the world as God's body
From this metaphor developed another: the metaphor of the world (or cosmos) as God's body. McFague elaborated this metaphor at length in The Body of God: An Ecological Theology. The purpose of using it is to ‘cause us to see differently’, to ‘think and act as if bodies matter’, and to ‘change what we value’.[15] If we imagine the cosmos as God's body, then ‘we never meet God unembodied’.[16] This is to take God in that cosmos seriously, for ‘creation is God’s self-expression’.
From Wikipedia: Care for creation – The world as God's body
Below is a video with a taste of her thoughts on politics and how to change human nature to address the challenge of climate change.
Thank you Sallie for improving my life and teaching me a few things.