In my mind, I'm going to South Carolina ... to hear “Parables By & About Jesus”

Debo W. & David R. Dykes, The D. L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation

February 26, 2011

David R. Dykes, Richard Brennan Dom Crossan, & Marcus Borg

Anderson, South Carolina, February 2011.  More than 700 people attended a FAITHANDREASON® seminar for progressive Christians in this small southern town with its civil war history, to hear Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan present, “Parables By & About Jesus.” Natives of Anderson, SC, were already familiar with the sponsoring organization, The Anderson School of Theology for Lay Persons, inaugurated in 1960 by the very visionary young minister, Glenn Dorris.  It was a 50^th year celebration for the school which has brought some of the most prominent and widely respected scholars, authors, and lecturers to this southern city in the belly of the old confederacy.

Here’s what happened.  The Anderson School of Lay Theology decided that after 50 years of faithfully bringing some of the best and most progresses voices of the church to the region, it was time to take their work to the next level and pack the house, creating a critical mass of people who would participate a two day seminar and then engage in follow-on networking with other progressive congregations and groups in neighboring towns and cities.

They decided to collaborate with a notoriously progressive organization also from the deep south, The D. L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation of Jackson, Mississippi.  Together the Anderson School of Lay Theology and The D. L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation worked for 24 months to staff and promote a landmark seminar that would bring Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan to Anderson to redefine the meaning and statue of the parables that historical Jesus used, and the parables that were created about him by the early first century community.

We anticipated bringing 300 like-minded people together to be inspired by these two remarkable scholars.  We knew that there are many fine and noteworthy groups and organizations scattered across the south and the nation who share the hopes and the agenda of the wider progressive Christian movement. We hoped that the seminar in Anderson would ignite a new progressive Christian awareness in Anderson and beyond. We also hoped to draw progressives from surrounding cities and towns.

Imagine our amazement and our delight when over 700 people from the Carolina’s, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi showed up!  It was a sight to behold.  In fact one member of the Anderson School of Lay Theology wept with joy when she saw 50 years of effort and dedication manifesting in such a dynamic, enthusiastic audience.

Here’s why what happened in Anderson, SC, matters.  The language we use about faith is critical.  The words we select are crucial.  It matters very much that our claims about historical Jesus are grounded not only in a sacred text, but also that they are grounded in the stones and on the epitaphs of the first century.  To authentically participate in Christian tradition means to take seriously what was going on in the world when historical Jesus resisted the domination system of his own day and encouraged and insisted on non-violent alternatives to the way empire civilizations do business on any given day.  Our words, our claims matter greatly. We create our words; our words create us. We make our claims about what is historical and authentic about historical Jesus. And these claims we make about historical Jesus surely claim us. 

To claim the tradition is to know the tradition in its history and in its original meanings and contexts.  Nobody does it better with authentic tradition than Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.

So, in the aftermath of the Borg-Crossan seminar in Anderson, new progressive partnerships and new progressive alliances are forming. You'll be hearing about them.

By the way, not all organizations that claim to link "Faith" and "Reason" together are progressive. Hooking them together in print is easy; anybody can do it. Creating and maintaining serious dialogue between them is takes a different kind of effort with a different kind of agenda.  We are FAITHANDREASON® with the registered trademark. 

"FAITHANDREASON®," is a production of the D. L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation in Jackson, MS.