New Life: A Theology of Spiritual Transformation

Original Song & Theological Reflection on Easter Renewal

Around this time last year, following Easter 2024, I submitted a creative project for my Intro to Theology course at Emmanuel College. The project involved writing and composing a song titled “New Life” that reflected my ‘personal systematic theology’, primarily inspired by my take on Medieval mystic Julian of Norwich’s Parable of the Lord and Servant, from Chapter LI of Revelations of Divine Love.

Using language inspired by Julian’s parable, “New Life” tells the theological story of a triune God, who, through the son Jesus Christ (one of the members of the trinity) descended into the ‘ditch’ where the rest of humanity has fallen. In the ditch, Jesus reminds us of who we truly are: creatures made in the image of God, helping us to reconcile our relationship with the divine.

Jesus’ incarnation, life, death and resurrection show us the path to transmute our pain and suffering into healing and spiritual transformation. Through the Holy Spirit, we are guided to follow in Christ’s footsteps, realizing our innate God-given capacity for ‘divinization’ as embodied reality, and allowing new life to be birthed from within us.

“New Life” by Hannah Rose Deacon, Performed Live at Emmanuel College Chapel, March 27, 2024

Lyrics:

V1.
When all the light is gone
And I can’t see your face
When my body starts to break
You are there
Reminding me who I am
You came down to show me
What it means to be made
By the creator

Chorus.
I can feel it
Your holy spirit
Breathing new life in me
Breathing new life
I can feel it
Your tender spirit
Breathing new life in me
New life

V2.
When all that’s left is hope
And I’m overcome by loneliness
I’ll cry out your name
And you’ll be there
You know me better than I know myself
You feel what I’m feeling
You show me how to turn my pain
Into healing

Interpretive Reflection on “New Life”

The following interpretive essay will break down the theological narrative of “New Life”, focusing on four specific theological doctrines: the Fall, Christology, Soteriology, and Eschatology, reflecting on their implications for contemporary living.

Warning: Because this was written for a Christian Theology course, some of the language used in this essay may be unfamiliar to some of you. I recommend an AI or online dictionary companion to explain any unfamiliar terms!

Theological Assumptions of “New Life”

While page limits did not allow for all theological references in “New Life” to be explored in depth, it is worth briefly noting the following assumptions:

(1) A Dialogic God-World Orientation.

I subscribe to the panentheistic God-worldview of both an immanent and transcendent God whose Being incorporates all of creation. “New Life”, however, is written from a personal relational viewpoint which most closely mirrors a dialogic God-worldview, which emphasizes an “I-Thou relation between God and the human being” (i.e. a personal relationship).

(2) A Mixed Trinitarian Model.

Jesus Christ as God ‘descending into the ditch’ and Jesus’s spirit as ‘the Holy Spirit’ is referenced in the lyrics of “New Life”, alluding to a triune understanding of the divine. The trinitarian model most closely expressed in “New Life” is the classical model of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (this directly from the Nicene Creed). As expressed by Elizabeth Johnson, however, I do acknowledge the problematic aspects of the classical model, which due to its processional nature unintentionally subordinates the Holy Spirit. While I believe Jesus Christ was begotten from the Father, and the Holy Spirit played a significant role after Jesus’ resurrection, evidence of the spirit as ‘God’s spirit’ in scripture is present from the earliest creation story (Genesis 1:1, 2:7). Thus, I believe that the three persons do not follow processional timelines and have always existed from before time. With this in mind, my understanding of the Trinity is more recently influenced by Jurgen Moltmann’s “Social Trinity” as well as the Eastern theological idea of Perichoresis, which “evokes a coinherence of the three divine persons, an encircling of each around the others.” According to Johnson, Moltmann’s “Social Trinity” is also “inclusive of the world with all its joy and pain”, a concept which aligns with the theology of Julian’s parable of the Lord and servant, and my personal convictions reflected in the lyrics of “New Life”.

The Fall

In Chapter LI of Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich reveals a vision about ‘the fall of man’ that challenges the classical doctrine of original sin. In this vision, Julian describes a servant (who represents Adam as all humanity), standing before his loving Lord (who represents God). The servant and the Lord share mutual affection and adoration for one another. The Lord asks the servant to retrieve a treasure, and the servant responds with utmost joy. In a rush to do his Lord’s bidding, the servant accidentally falls into a ditch and enters into a state of great pain and suffering. Although the Lord is looking on with great compassion, the servant is so consumed by pain that he forgets his Lord is near, assuming that he is abandoned.

This story is reflected in the lyrics of the first verse of “New Life”; “When all the light is gone, and I can’t see your face, when my body starts to break, you are there”. The lyrics speak to the knowledge of God’s unconditional love being forever present, even when we cannot see or feel it.

In Julian’s vision, it is also revealed that Adam’s fall is by no fault of his own, and there is no blame from God, only love and compassion. Sin is thus interpreted as ‘great pain and suffering’, rather than something humanity should be blamed for. According to Julian of Norwich, God’s compassion for humanity’s pain is so great that through the figure of Jesus Christ, God “descended down with Adam into hell” keeping Adam “from endless death”. Christ is described as ‘one’d’ with humanity, thus the remainder of verse one in “New Life” is as follows; “You came down to show me, what it means to be made by the creator”, which also alludes to a soteriological understanding of ‘Divinization’.

Christology

Julian’s understanding of Christ descending into the ditch with us and being ‘one’d’ with fallen humanity tells us something about the person of Jesus Christ. In line with classical notions of Christology (such as the views popularized by the early church father Athanasius), and as delineated in the Nicene Creed, Jesus Christ is both human and divine. While the divinity of Christ is evident in Julian’s parable as the Lord ‘descending through Christ’, Julian’s parable also makes clear that Christ’s humanity means he is united with us in our suffering.

According to James Cone, our understanding of Jesus in the historical context of the first century means he is not docetic, an idea that was propagated by the early Christian gnostics who believed Jesus’ body was an illusion and thus was divine only. According to Cone, this means that from the perspective of oppressed blacks, Jesus becomes one of them. Christ takes “their suffering as his suffering… revealing that he is found in the history of our struggle, the story of our pain, and the rhythm of our bodies.” While I am not African American, I resonate with Cone’s sentiments of a God who struggles with us. Jesus is a man who, as the lyrics of “New Life” says in the second verse, “feels what I’m feeling”, and “shows me how to turn my pain into healing”. Thus, we can call on Jesus’ Spirit of humanity/divinity to aid us in coping with trauma, loss, and grief, helping us through our healing processes no matter the situation.

Soteriology

“New Life” primarily touches on the Divinization model of atonement, although elements of the Moral Exemplar model of atonement are also present within the song.

According to Athanasius, human beings are made divine through Jesus Christ's incarnation as ‘The Word’ in “a body capable of death”. Christ’s death on the cross was “an act of pure love for humanity, so that by all dying in him the law concerning the corruption of humanity might be abolished”. Athanasius also states that a Christological understanding of Christ as both human and divine, and a Soteriology of Divinization are inextricably linked; “if the works of the divinity of the Word had not taken place through a body, humanity would not have been made divine.” In the Moral Exemplar model of atonement, Jesus’ life and ministry serve as a guidepost for right living, eliciting “a particular transformative response in individuals that encounter it.”

Both atonement models are evident in the chorus lyrics of “New Life”. Christ’s Holy Spirit can be felt “breathing new life” in the suffering individual, who has emptied themselves to make space for the transformative power of the Holy Spirit to divinize the human soul and show the soul how to live as Christ lived. In my personal systematic theology, Christ’s death and resurrection become a symbol for the human soul to be spiritually purified, shedding a layer of ego (ie. ego death), and becoming ‘reborn’ into her next level of spiritual growth and evolution.

Eschatology

While there are elements of Augustine’s vision of a joyous heavenly realm as expressed in “The Eternal Happiness of the Saints” that I do align with theologically, the song “New Life” does not focus on such an eschatology illustrated after bodily death. Instead, “New Life” most closely aligns with Shelly Rambo’s notion of an afterlife as the ‘aftermath’ of loss, tragedy, and trauma in the here and now. It is my view that one need not wait until after death, or for Christ’s second coming to experience new life. Throughout our lifetime we will experience many ‘ego deaths’ and subsequent rebirths. Such notions are beliefs I’ve carried with me both from my previous studies of Eastern traditions (Tibetan Buddhism and Yoga Philosophy), as well as personal experience.

It is also my long-held belief that through the healing power of aesthetics (beauty), as acknowledged by Shelly Rambo, one can truly live into an embodied theology of transformation that changes one at the very core of being. Serving as powerful channels for an immanent and transcendent God, art forms such as music, visual arts and poetry exercise “different muscles, strengthening heart and head for the work of transformation.” “New Life” uses such notions of aesthetics to offer a theology of transformation through music, designed to evoke an emotional response that liberates the body from dormant emotions and makes space for inspiration and new possibilities to flourish.

Both lyrics and melody signify that new life can be found when we allow the healing power of Christ’s loving spirit to work through us in the here and now, inspiring positive change individually and communally, and serving to revive us from life ‘in the ditch’.

Final Thoughts

As Julian’s parable suggests, we live in a world that we perceive to be as fuelled by pain and suffering. What if we were to remember once more that we are all beloved creatures made in the image of the divine? What if this knowing was not just intellectual, but a lived way of being? I am convinced that an experiential embodied reality of the divine is what is needed to transform many of the global challenges we face today. “New Life” speaks to such a reality.

Bibliography

Athanasius, “5.4 Athanasius on the Death of Christ.” In The Christian Theology Reader. 2nd ed, edited by Alister E. McGrath, 331-332. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.

Athanasius, “5.5 Athanasius on the Relation of Christology and Soteriology.” In The Christian Theology Reader. 2nd ed, edited by Alister E. McGrath, 332-333. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.

Augustine, “3. Augustine: The Eternal Happiness of the Saints”. In Readings in Christian Theology, edited by Peter C. Hodgson and Robert H. King, 329-333. Minneapolis, USA: Fortress Press, 1985.

Cone, James H. “Chapter 6: Who is Jesus Christ for Us Today?” In God of the Oppressed. Rev. ed, 122-149. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.

Crisp, Oliver D. “Moral Exemplarism and Atonement.” Scottish Journal of Theology 73, no. 2 (2020): 137–149. Accessed March 30, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0036930620000265.

Johnson, Elizabeth A. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2017.

McFague, Sallie. In Essentials of Christian Theology, edited by William C. Placher, 101-116.Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003.

Of Norwich, Julian. Revelations of Divine Love. Translated by Grace Warrack. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classic Ethereal Library, 1901.

Rambo, Shelly. “Salvation in the After-Living: Reflections on Salvation with Joshua Ralston and Sharon Betcher”. In Comparing Faithfully: Insights for Systematic Theological Reflection, edited by Michelle Voss Roberts, 296-316. New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 2016.