Metanoia
As part of my theological training I never did take up the challenge to study the Biblical languages, Hebrew and Greek. At the time I suppose expediency was more on my mind than scholarship. As a substitute I became fairly good at using Strong’s Concordance and a variety of Interlinear Greek/English texts for word comparisons. As a result, while understanding the basic concepts of Biblical words, the nuances of the language were often lost to me. As I began teaching more, I soon realized that the Bible says a lot more than what is revealed in English terms of doctrine and rational concepts. What is implied by doctrinal words is often more than my limited understanding of them by using an English dictionary. Such was the case with the Greek word “metanoia”, a verb that both John the Baptist and Jesus used in their ministry. (Mt 3:2; 4:17)
The most common biblical translation of metanoia is “to repent” often with the emphasis of REPENT! This is a word in Christian circles that is loaded with meaning and is usually associated with “Repent of your sins!” However, metanoia has the much more nuanced meaning of “shift your thinking/heart or change your mind.” Hence in the context of doth John the Baptist and Jesus, the foundational message that they offered the Jewish people was, “Change the way you are thinking, the kingdom of Heaven is very close.” Part of the response of the people to this message was to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins, but the crux of the message had to do with something new emerging very soon and therefore, new thinking was a precursor for this new thing, the advent of the kingdom of God/heaven.
I was introduced to this richer understanding of metanoia not in a theology book, but through a book on the creation of Learning Organizations. Peter Senge writes:
“To grasp the meaning of ‘metanoia’ is to grasp the deeper meaning of ‘learning,’ for learning involves the fundamental shift or movement of the mind…Real learning gets to the heart of what it means to be human. Through learning we recreate ourselves. Through learning we are able to do something we were never able to do. Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life.”[1]
Senge is onto something here. All it takes is a cursory read through the Gospels to notice how Jesus was taking his disciples on a learning journey of who he was, and what God’s new kingdom was all about. In this process the disciples are slowly being transformed, and their learning was as much about themselves as it was about new spiritual realities. In the course of this discipleship journey sins need to be repented and forgiveness offered, but there were multiple other arenas were the disciples thinking shifted into a new way of seeing reality.[2]
There was a season when learning organizations used the term “Metanoic Organizations.”[3] Learning Organizations as a label quickly ecilpsed Metanoic, but I have often mused, what if Metanoic Communities would have caught on 2000 years ago instead of the Ekklesia[4], the Church.
Metanoia in the Catholic tradition was translated as “to do penance for your sins” which set the Western Church on a course of sin management[5], rather than heart and mind transformation implied by metanoia in all it’s fullness of meaning. Another “meta” word captures the biblical concept of transformation. “Metamorphoses[6],” the word describing the process of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly, implies the change that may take place through well intentioned discipleship.
Jesus discipleship methodology is to be extended into our lives through elders within church communities (ekklesia[7]) that embrace a fullness of what Metanoia could be. No transformation is likely without continual transformation of all involved in discipleship. Continual learning and growth are the biblical norms. Transformation is a “growth in grace and knowledge” and implies continual growth even after we see Jesus face-to-face (2 Pet 3:18).
If this is the challenge of life-long learning or discipleship, then it is also the challenge for elders to engage this with all their hearts. Only then will we see biblical transformation take place to reach beyond ourselves to the part of creation where we live and minister.
[2]
The Sermon on the Mount is rich with the shift in religious thinking from the
old way to the new way Jesus was teaching.
(Mt 5-7; Lk 6:20-49).
[4]
For a fuller treatment to the concept of “ekklesia”, the Church, see: Silvoso, Dr. Ed (2017). Ekklesia: rediscovering God’s instrument
for global transformation.
Minneapolis, MN: Chosen Books.
[5]
For a fuller treatment of sin management see: Willard, Dallas. Divine conspiracy, the (1998). San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. Chapter 2, pg. 35-60.
[6]
Romans 12:2.
[7] Ekklesia in the First Century “always
referred to people, never to buildings, and it was made up of individuals who
operated 24/7 from house to house all over town as a transforming organism not
as a static institution (Acts 2:46; 5:42).
Its objective was the transformation of people and of society, rather
than acting as a transfer station for save souls bound to heaven.” From Silvoso, pg. 20.
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