Richard Rohr – New Perspectives on Apostolic Succession

Much of Christian experience, from all of our groups, is acknowledging that it’s mostly at the energetic level, the lifestyle level, the love level, that the mystery of Jesus is passed on; and not just getting the words right—or belonging to the correct group. I personally believe this is the deepest and truest meaning of “apostolic succession,” or how the Christ Mystery is really passed from generation to generation. There is slight evidence that this is primarily done by bishops laying their hands on young men’s heads.

Up to now, the hegemony on Christian teaching and theology was held by a very small and exclusive group: males, the educated, the Northern Hemisphere, those with a vested interest in organized religion, those who never went beyond their own denominational seminaries, etc.

Finally the neglected perspectives are having their day—the feminine lens, the lens of those on the bottom instead of just those on the top, the lens of Blacks, Latinos, and Asians, the lens of sexual minorities and all minorities, the honest Jewish lens, the lens of the incarcerated, and even the lens of sincere secular seekers.

Truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And we have a lot of new beholders.

Adapted from the webcast What is the Emerging Church?

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