Meaning Made Visible: Symbols

Bridges from Meaning to Practice

 If story and world view questions make up the “patterns of meaning” axis of our culture, symbols and praxis define the “strategies for action.”  We address symbols first, because they provide the logical transition from meaning to action. 

David Scotchmer sees the understanding and analysis of symbols as essential for an evangelical encounter with culture, because they “embody the meaning of culture and serve as vehicles and repositories of meaning.”  He draws on the work of Clifford Gertz, an anthropologist who, he claims, delivered the field of anthropology from both mentalism and materialism by conceiving of them as having been brought together in symbols. He maintains that “symbols express a worldview and join it to an ethos in ways that make it both meaningful and coherent, given the vagaries and humdrum of human existence.” (“Symbols Become Us: Toward a Missional Encounter with Our Culture through Symbolic Analysis,” in Husberger & Gelder, eds., Church Between Gospel and Culture, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996, 163)

Symbols, then, embody the meaning of story and world view in a tangible way, making them visible in the life of a community.  There is no culture without symbols, and preachers who would take on the task of cultural architecture must also explore and define the symbolic world of the culture in which they live, and the culture they wish to create. 

Essential Symbols of the Christian Tradition

Our Christian tradition, beginning with the New Testament, has already provided us with some essential symbols.  The Lord’s Supper portrays the essence and the meaning of the story of redemption.  Baptism embodies the identity of the believer as a creature reborn, regenerated, redeemed, and sent forth into a new life. These provide the cornerstones of the symbolic boundaries of Christian culture and merit the pulpit’s attention.  Every observance is an opportunity to clarify meaning and to portray practice.  But even on days when these ordinances are not observed, they stand as an embodiment of our worldview which we can tap in our preaching.

 The cross is an example of a symbol that requires ongoing definition.  In the early days of Christianity, the church gave new meaning to this instrument of execution, making it a central embodiment of Jesus’ work of redemption, as well as his call to sacrifice and discipleship.  Today, we must do a similar job of definition, reclaiming a symbol that has become to many a fashion statement, a cultural icon.  However, even in the process of reclaiming this symbol, we have opportunity to speak to both meaning and practice in our preaching.

Expanding our Symbolic World

 Traditional symbols are an undeniable part of our symbolic world but we need not be limited to these.  We may still appropriate objects and practices from the world around us or from our community life to join meaning and practice. 

 A Portuguese friend of mine took the image of the Caravela, the small wooden ship invented by his people in the Thirteenth Century to explore the world, as a symbol of the church, or the network of churches he sought to plant.  Resistant, light, rapid and versatile, this little ship could reach its destination even in contrary winds, could change course on a moment’s notice, and carried in its bow the best and bravest of its country’s culture.  My friend Paulo spoke of the Caravela so often in sermon and conversation that, for the community whose culture he was nurturing, every mention of it embodied in their minds the meaning of the kind of church God intended them to be.  And it inspired their hearts toward the mission to which God had called them.  At least one of the churches in the network chose “Caravela” as its name!

 When meaning and practice are thus joined, a symbol has emerged as a powerful element within the cultural architecture of a community.

Symbols tend to show up in visible ways in the physical architecture and even the branding of a church. The table, the baptistry, the cross on the steeple, and perhaps the church logo keep our symbolic world always before the eyes of the congregation. But it is the preacher who must connect the dots and help the people to see these symbols as a bridge between meaning (story and precept) and practice (our way of living in the world).

This “praxis” is the topic of the next post in this series.