Previous Post – Missional Justice Opportunity

I am currently reading “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco, a fascinating murder mystery set in a Benedictine monastery.  As my friend Christopher says, it is more of an exploration of epistemology than a historical whodunit.  The story is told from the perspective of a young Benedictine who is apprenticed to an unusually scholastic Franciscan who, through his rational mind, is adept at discovering truth (again, in both sleuthing and philosophy).  In one scene, when the young apprentice asks his mast to explain the confusing multiplicity of heresies and renewals, the friar answers with this:

“Imagine a river, wide and majestic, which flows for miles and miles between strong embankments, where the land is firm. At a certain point, the river, out of weariness, because its flow has taken up too much time and too much space, because it is approaching the sea, which annihilates all rivers in itself, no longer knows what it is, loses its identity. It becomes its own delta. A major branch may remain, but many break off from it in every direction, and some flow together again, into one another, and you can’t tell what begets what, and sometimes you can’t tell what is still river and what is already sea. . . .”

“…I was trying to explain to you how the body of the church, which for centuries was also the body of all society, the people of God, has become too rich, and wide, and it carries along the dross of all the countries it has passed through, and it has lost its own purity. The branches of the delta are, if you like, so many attempts of the river to flow as quickly as possible to the sea, that is, to the moment of purification. My allegory was meant only to tell you how the branches of heresy and the movements of renewal, when the river is no longer intact, are numerous and become mingled. You can also add to my poor allegory the image of someone who is trying to reconstruct the banks of the river with brute strength, but cannot do so.” (pgs. 232-233)

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As the character goes on to admit, this is an awkward and clumsy allegory, but one worth pondering.  What do make of this view?  Is it inevitable that the streams of renewal will be caught up together with the tributaries of heresy?

Let me know what you think.