The type of priest you shouldn't be, and why.
(GGWB) - In this article, originally entitled “Brother, Can You Spare A Paradigm?”, Fr. Aris makes clear that misconceptions about what the priest is, and isn’t, are failing, and that there is one legitimate alternative, and it is catching fire across America, and beyond! This essay was first published June 30, 2006 on Orthodoxytoday.org, and not only uncovers the dangers of old paradigms of priestly identity, but also reveals the only one of value in the Church. We reproduce it here with permission.
Is it time to retire “paradigm shift?”
This overwrought cliché is used to describe everything from new laundry soap to the wireless mouse. Even worse, religious types have taken a liking to it. Clergy and lay leaders are convinced if they could just figure out how to shift their paradigm, the pews and offering trays would overflow. (Do we really need to sit through one more mission statement formulation?)
The late physicist Thomas Kuhn coined the term to describe how scientific thought advances. A paradigm shift occurs when a radically new way of framing a problem makes all previous methodologies obsolete. Newtonian physics replaced the Aristotelian model of the universe, for example. Relativity, quantum physics, and string theory trumped Sir Isaac and company.
Kuhn would wince at how people use the term today. Putting crumbled instead of block feta cheese on the salad at the Greek Festival is not a paradigm shift. Shifting correspondence from snail mail to email is.
If we are going to use the term, let’s use it correctly. I propose a true paradigm shift in the way Orthodox priests in America conduct their ministry. It will sound the death knell for the ways some priests have served in America in the past century. If we can’t adjust to the paradigm shift, we’ll end up like meteorologists tracking a hurricane using only algebra.
First let’s dispense with some of the traditional paradigms priests use...
Complete article here.
Many "buzz words" have become very popular and then faded away during the past three decades. Paradigm is one of these popular buzz words.
ReplyDeleteOther buzz words that have been popular during the past three decades include venue, awesome, quintessential, modus operandi, carte blanche, purview, -driven (hyphenated to a noun) to name just a few.
I am sure that new buzz words will be introduced in the future, as doing so has become an ongoing trend. Ongoing? Yes, that's also a buzzword....
How about a comment about the real subject matter of this article . . . . As a relatively recent convert (now four years in the Orthodox faith), I'm heartsick at so much of what apparently passes for ministry in many U.S. Orthodox parishes and at the sorry state of so many aspects of the institutions of His Church on this continent and world-wide. I also rejoice and thank God every time I read or hear of an exception to this. This article is a must-read for every Orthodox seminarian, Priest, Bishop, and parish council member. It will be my heartfelt prayer for the rest of my Orthodox life that the Lord of the Harvest send more true workers--those who live and preach the fullness of the gospel--into His harvest fields, beginning with me.
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