"Theology for an Age of Terror" by Timothy George has been made available online at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/009/1.78.html.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this short article is one of the best biblical reflections I've seen on the September 11 attacks and related issues.

Tags: 9/11

Few of us will ever forget where we were on September 11, 2001, when we received the horrible news of the attacks upon our nation. Just two or three weeks earlier, I had begun my second year of teaching Bible at Whitefield Academy (then known as Highview Baptist School). My classroom had been moved to the basement (eventually referred to as "the dungeon"), which I liked very much because its isolation allowed for fewer distractions for my students. Although the first tower was hit at 8:46 AM, I did not receive word of it until early in second period (the classes were roughly an hour long at the time--before block scheduling). The seniors were in my classroom that hour. And that morning, since I was also chaplain, we were planning a chapel service revolving around their experience from the retreat we had taken the seniors on during the first week of school.

At the exact moment I received word that something had happened, I was sitting at my iMac helping Hannah Davis, a senior, edit footage that we had filmed at the retreat. David Balty, our English department chair, sent word via a student that something had happened in New York and there was smoke pouring from one of the World Trade Center buildings. There was a television in my room used for videos and PowerPoint, but it was not connected to cable service, so all we could see were static-filled images. From what we could see, though, there was definitely something happening in NYC. I know that a teacher is not supposed to leave students alone, but I slipped upstairs to the office of our principal, Brian Rose, because he had a television in his office. There was already a group huddled into his office transfixed by the images on the television. After viewing the images on television, I went back down to my classroom and informed my students with what I knew at that point. We said a prayer, but not knowing how serious the situation was yet, I encouraged them to continue planning the chapel service. My students remember that they first heard the name "Bin Laden" from my lips that morning (of course at the time, they asked "Ben who?"). Coincidentally, I had just read or seen something about Bin Laden in the days before this event. When my students asked me who I thought would do something like this, he was the first name that came to mind. Over the next couple of hours I stole up to Brian's office at various points. It was on his small television, that I saw the horrible images of the second tower struck, the attack on the Pentagon, and both towers fall. I remember people in Brian's office and on television speculating how many people worked in those towers. The highest figure I heard at the time was 50,000.

That was a very frightening day for us all. I remember the uncertainty as to how widespread the attacks were. We had seen the twin towers fall, a plan crash into the pentagon, and a false rumor that a car bomb had gone off in front of the State Department. From the point that the second tower in New York was hit, we knew that this was no accident--that our nation was under attack. When word reached us that a plane had crashed in Pennsylvania, there was fear that the attacks were spreading west. How widespread was this attack? Would it hit us, too? There were reports on television suggesting people stay away from public places such as malls and especially government buildings.

I can only remember a couple of parents coming to pick their children up from school that day. Such parental instinct is certainly understandable, but I was glad that this was not the pattern. As word of the attacks spread through the student population, many in my classes wanted to suspend our work and move to one of the classrooms with actual television reception. A few students maybe even thought I was slightly unconcerned about the situation because I insisted that outside of a prayer for the situation that we carry on class as usual. I still believe that was the right thing to do.

The best Christian reflection I've come across on September 11, I only read a few days ago. In the current issue of Christianity Today, Timothy George writes a profound piece titled "Theology for an Age of Terror" (not yet available online) in which he looks to Augustine, St Francis, and C. S. Lewis for direction on how to look at the world in the midst of seeming chaos. I especially identified with the words of C. S. Lewis quoted in George's article. The quotation came from an address Lewis gave at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Oxford on October 22, 1939. He was speaking to students a mere two months after the Nazis had invaded Poland. Lewis said:

It may seem odd for us to cary on classes, to go about our academic routine in the midst of a great war. What is the use of beginning when there is so little chance of finishing? How can we study Latin, geography, algebra in a time like this? Aren't we just fiddling while Rome burns?

This impending war has taught us some important things. Life is short. The world is fragile. All of us are vulnerable, but we are here because this is our calling. Our lives are rooted not only in time, but also in eternity, and the life of learning humbly offered to God, is its own reward. It is one of the appointed approaches to the divine reality and the divine beauty, which we shall hereafter enjoy in heaven and which we are called to display even now amidst the brokenness all around us.

Lewis was right. History has indeed shown us that life is short and the world can be fragile. But in the midst of seeming chaos, we must never forget that God is in control regardless. We have a calling, and in response to that calling, we press on.

Tags: 9/11