Theologian Mark McIntosh Sees Drama in the Cosmos

For "The Drama of the Cosmos," final chapter of his book Mysteries of Faith, Mark McIntosh works with an analogy close to my heart: life is like a play, the divine Author and Director collaborating with us on our roles. But we're like McIntosh in his school's 8th grade musical, saying lines and pretending to feelings that he didn't understand (148). "Most of us engage in benign or humdrum exploitations of the world around us," he writes, while an actor "who is really living the part" will be able to risk "true presence" to others (147), and be "able to turn what was a mere stage prop into something significant and meaningful." The church, he says, teaches us how to live into our roles, to be present with others and to care for creation.

Further, McIntosh imagines humankind as "third - rate actors, rehearsing over and over again fragments of unrelated plays," little dramas that never connect (151). Jesus seems to have had the effect of drawing people out of those lives and into reality, as McIntosh cites the disciples' leaving their fishing boat in an instant (Mark 1.16-17), and the promise that we can become children of God (John 1.12-13). I've always read that promise as assurance of inheriting eternal life; McIntosh sees it as redirection of our present - day lives (150).

From the earliest pages of this book, McIntosh has written of "attention" to moments of beauty or tension that break through our lives, and "desire." That ties in with the drama analogy, too, as characters' desires, called "objectives," animate the actors in their roles. The threads of attention and desire tie together in the final chapter, where McIntosh observes how Jesus operates in his earthly ministry, not by "merely" preaching but by redirecting our desire. "He puts his hands on our heads and directs our gaze right through the world's antic posing to the One who loves him, and thus he suggests to each of us a new identity" (154). McIntosh gives us a wonderful passage from Augustine, a list of senses that God has transformed to new desire, ending with touch: "You have touched me, and I have burned for your peace" (155).

Observing that Jesus chose to form a community to share his ministry, McIntosh concludes the book making the case that we learn how to be our true selves through the church. He cites Simone Weil's idea that "'to be' most fully is to 'be for another'; our lives need "freeing up" from being "constrained, wasted, exhausted in self - preservation" (161). My qualm about all this is to observe that fellowship of teams, squadrons and even physical therapy clinics are all places where we practice giving and growth. What takes the church beyond those places? McIntosh's earlier chapters provide some answers: this kind of growth and care is what church is intended for, and the church plugs us into the intellectual - aesthetic - narrative universe of Anglican liturgy and theology.

(In a note, McIntosh credits Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, author of a five - volume exploration of Theo - Drama.)

Related Readings on this Blog
Blogposts about McIntosh's earlier chapters:

• "Not the Moral but the Story" concerns chapters 1 and 2 (01/19/2019)
  
• "How Episcopalians Believe" concerns chapter 4 (01/26/2019)
  
• "Jesus Saves - But How?" concerns chapter 6 (01/30/2019)

For more about redirecting desire and achieving communion with God through the institution of the church, see Ronald Rolheiser's The Holy Longing. My response, "Spirituality Needs Community," was posted 09/27/2012. Also related to how Episcopalians believe is "Believing and Beloving," my response to Diana Butler Bass's "Christianity After Religion" (02/26/2015).
More about McIntosh's BookMcIntosh, Mark. Mysteries of Faith. Vol. 8 in The New Church's Teaching Series. New York: Cowley Publications, 2000.