The institution of the Christion Church is composed of different experiences and perspectives. These experiences and perspectives create life within the Church—intimately interlocking the Christ Movement into the fabric of humanity. The elements of experience and perspective allow for humanity to constantly engage Christ in ways that are relevant. Experience and perspective make Christ eternal. It is in every age through all people that the teachings of Christ are found a new. One of the most vital experiences that shape Christian perspective is race. Race not only shapes how one sees the Church, but how the Church as an institution (an extension of the culture) treats people. Through studying cultural attitude and the sayings of Abba Moses,
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It cannot be ignored that in Antony’s response to this manifestation of Satan linked a “Black mind” to a “powerless child”—the very degrading notion that Blackness lacks complexity and the fullness of humanity. However, it is through the sayings (and life) of Abba Moses that the perception of the Church from the first century Black perspective is better understood. Even within the prejudice and resistance toward Blackness, there is something to discover about the Black identity and Black practitioners in the early Christian …show more content…
Moses embodied the message of humility by living out a spirituality rooted in self-reflection and respecting the divine in other people and experiences. Moses embodied the message of persistence by resisting momentary insults and pursing the broader vision of a more inclusive community. Together these themes define not just a man, but speak to an experience found in the formation of the Christian community. These themes are more relevant today than they’ve ever been. The world in its current state has never been in more need of bridgebuilders. As the Church of the contemporary world wrestles with its own identity, Abba Moses stands as a model of how the Church must interlock the Christ Movement into the fabric of humanity by speaking to experience and perspective. In understanding how experience and perspective shaped the early Church, the Christ Movement of today can find a path to relevance and serve as an active force in the world. In understanding how experience and perspective shaped a Black man’s spirituality in the face of adversity, the marginalized and the oppressed of today can a find a path to navigate and resist the extremely hostile spaces of our society to create that vision of a more inclusive
It cannot be ignored that in Antony’s response to this manifestation of Satan linked a “Black mind” to a “powerless child”—the very degrading notion that Blackness lacks complexity and the fullness of humanity. However, it is through the sayings (and life) of Abba Moses that the perception of the Church from the first century Black perspective is better understood. Even within the prejudice and resistance toward Blackness, there is something to discover about the Black identity and Black practitioners in the early Christian …show more content…
Moses embodied the message of humility by living out a spirituality rooted in self-reflection and respecting the divine in other people and experiences. Moses embodied the message of persistence by resisting momentary insults and pursing the broader vision of a more inclusive community. Together these themes define not just a man, but speak to an experience found in the formation of the Christian community. These themes are more relevant today than they’ve ever been. The world in its current state has never been in more need of bridgebuilders. As the Church of the contemporary world wrestles with its own identity, Abba Moses stands as a model of how the Church must interlock the Christ Movement into the fabric of humanity by speaking to experience and perspective. In understanding how experience and perspective shaped the early Church, the Christ Movement of today can find a path to relevance and serve as an active force in the world. In understanding how experience and perspective shaped a Black man’s spirituality in the face of adversity, the marginalized and the oppressed of today can a find a path to navigate and resist the extremely hostile spaces of our society to create that vision of a more inclusive