Theology & Spirituality
To talk about theology and spirituality is perhaps the most important conversation we can have. How dowe see God? How do we relate to God? Is God violent? Do we project our violence onto God? Did Jesus come to show us a new way? Bethany Center is a space where we can ask all these questions on a sustained and continually growing basis. It is a place of on-going prayer and contemplation offering healing from the violence which everyone has within them and which hurts their lives. We hope the journey Bethany offers brings new life and possibility to the people who come here and to all who are touched by its presence and message.
Bible Study
The mainspring of our activity at Bethany is the Bible Study. For over twenty years we have offered a weekly study. Bible study is very traditional in the evangelical churches. What Bethany offers is a new lens, both historical-critical and transformative, for understanding the Christian scriptures. The record of the Bible, its own long journey through time and space, is not about getting to a heaven beyond, but changing the very character of our life on earth. The biblical anthropology of Rene Girard, showing how humanity is founded in violence - and how the Bible reveals and changes this – is a vital key to unlocking this interpretation. Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by the coordinated violence of his time and place, but he rose again, triumphing over the world’s system and creating a way for humans be together in love.
Seven Stories
Seven Stories is a book we published in 2017. It provides a study guide covering the whole Bible according to the method used at Bethany. It sees the whole text encompassed in “seven stories” mapping a gradual process of revelation, from a God caught up in human violence to a God fully disclosed as compassion and nonviolent love. Seven Stories has been used by many groups across the English-speaking world and continues to be the primary means of spreading our message.
Here is the link for Anthony Bartlett’s latest (March 11, ‘22). It’s a generative retelling of the grand biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation. The book represents an historic break with any literalist reading of divine violence in the Bible. In contrast, Signs of Change enables us to see violence as precisely the issue with which the heart of biblical revelation is grappling.
Prayer
The energy of study is never purely in the mind. It belongs always in the wider context of prayer and life. Our community has always sought to focus on the practice of prayer in its many forms. From choruses and praise, to Taizé chants and icons, to silent centering and adoration, the Bethany community uses a rich variety. Any means to bring a person into heartfelt relationship with the God who abides in love!
Jesus Yoga
As its name implies Jesus Yoga is a unique combination of yoga and Christian prayer. While doing “cat and cow” and “downward dog” we experience the healing that Jesus brings to mind and body. The practice has been developed by Heather Scanlon who spent a year at the Kripalu Yoga Center and had the original inspiration to merge yoga practice with the gospel of nonviolence. A typical Sunday class begins with scripture and prayer, goes through breathing, stretches, and postures, and ends with silent meditation. Recently we have added a transition to sharing the Eucharist, making an organic connection between body prayer and Jesus’ bread and wine of transformation.
Interfaith conversation
Bethany has been blessed by friendship with a group of Turkish Muslims based at the RISE Center on Seneca Turnpike. They are followers of revered Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen who teaches a doctrine of nonviolent religious practice. In many meetings and studies together, Bethany and this group of Muslims have discovered a rich vein of shared spirituality around the God of love. One of the outstanding consequences of nonviolent theology is profoundly fruitful interfaith dialog.
Gulen’s words: Visit your therapists or respected imams to rehabilitate yourself after this tyranny. Prepare yourself to forgive these people who committed genocide against you. When they come back with a sorry heart, let them find you with an open arm. Do not become a tyrant yourself by responding in kind. You are the fighters of love.
Tony’s Books
Tony Bartlett gained his Ph.D. in 1999. His dissertation was published in 2001 as Cross Purposes, The Violent Grammar of Christian Atonement. This was one of the first in the ever-growing contemporary revisiting of atonement theology. More recently he has published what may be understood as an attempted systematic alternative to theology with roots in violence. Theology Beyond Metaphysics (2020) starts from the thought of human signs, of where they came from, and how the gospel breaks in with a completely different set of sign values. His follow-up book, Signs of Change (2022), provides a step by step narrative of the bible’s progressive shifts bringing about this semiotic revolution.