Theologian's Almanac for Week of January 22, 2023
Welcome to SALT’s “Theologian’s Almanac,” a weekly selection of important birthdays, holidays, and other upcoming milestones worth marking — specially created for a) writing sermons and prayers, b) creating content for social media channels, and c) enriching your devotional life.
For the week of Sunday, January 22:
January 22 is also the day Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” premiered at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1938. “Our Town” is about ordinary life in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. The play was revolutionary for its time, primarily because of its spare, minimalist staging; Wilder wanted to tell a universal story, akin to the Greek tragedies — and so he stripped down the production of scenery and props, and had a group of characters who had died in Grovers Corners comment on the action, like a Greek chorus. “Our Town” opened to mixed reviews, but eventually became a beloved American classic. The play won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1938.
One of the play’s signature moments is when the Stage Manager says: “We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars... everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.”
And another is when Emily says, “Oh, earth, you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it — every, every minute?”
January 22 is the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. The plaintiff was “Jane Roe,” a woman living in Texas (where at the time abortion was illegal) who couldn’t afford to travel to a neighboring state where abortion was legal. The defendant, Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade, argued that human life begins at conception, and that the state had a compelling interest in protecting that life.
Not many today think of the Court’s 7-2 decision as in any way theological — but in fact, the justices called on theology at key moments in the official opinion. First, they pointed out that for the vast majority of Western Christian history, abortion was not considered homicide in the first phase of pregnancy, prior to “quickening” (the time when a pregnant woman can sense the fetus’ movement inside her). Both Augustine and Aquinas, for example, held this view.
And second, the Court referred explicitly to theology with respect to the crucial question underlying the case: “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.” Thus the Court argued that each woman has the right to answer this question for herself, applying her own medical, philosophical, and theological values, judgment, and discernment, and, in consultation with her doctor, acting accordingly. With all of this in mind, the Court ruled that the State has no right to outlaw abortion during the early months of pregnancy.
The Court’s decision was overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022. Here’s SALT’s short essay, “A Brief Theology of Abortion.”
January 25 is the feast day commemorating the sudden conversion of St. Paul. Born “Saul” in Tarsus, he was a well-educated, tenacious persecutor of Christians, even participating in the stoning of St. Stephen. Traveling on a road to Damascus, however, he was blinded by a sudden bright light, and heard the voice of Jesus calling him to pivot from persecutor to apostle of the faith. A good day to remember that real change is possible in our lives, and so that no-one — even supposed “enemies” — should be counted out.
January 27 is the feast day of St. Paula, who lived in Rome in the fourth century. Widowed as a young mother of five children, she found support and solace with a group of women studying with St. Jerome, the biblical scholar — to whom Paula became so devoted that she followed him to the Holy Land, where she founded a monastery and a hostel for pilgrims. Remembered today for her extraordinary generosity, intelligence, and adventurous spirit, Paula is the patron saint of widows.
January 27 is also the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in Salzburg, present-day Austria, in 1756. He was the son of a musician and composer, and he began performing as a young boy; after seeing him perform, Voltaire is said to have remarked that he had at last seen a miracle. Mozart died of a sudden, unidentified illness at the age of 35, with very little money to his name, and was buried in a mass, unmarked grave — having by then composed over 600 pieces of music.
When he was 13, he and his father visited the Sistine Chapel for a performance of Gregorio Allegri’s nine-part choral composition, “Miserere.” The piece had never been published, but after hearing it, the young Mozart was able to write it out from memory, with only a few minor errors.
The Swiss theologian Karl Barth once wrote that in Mozart, above all, we hear the music of creation, playful and buoyant, full of both light and shadow, both “Yes” and “No,” but with the “Yes” nevertheless taking precedence. “It may be,” Barth wrote, “that when the angels go about their task of praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together en famille, they play Mozart — and that then, too, our dear Lord listens with special pleasure.”