My Modern Medieval Monster

Here's a thought prompted by history class today. During medieval times, three orders of society crystallized. There were:

1. Those who fight (knights, nobles, lords)
2. Those who work (serfs, peasants)
3. Those who pray (monks, priests, clerics)

These orders of society were indications of professionalization. In other words, those who fought were the only ones who fought; they fought on behalf of the whole society. Similarly, the serfs did the manual labor for the whole community. More interestingly to me, the clerics did all the praying for the society. In general, others (whether lords or peasants) didn't do their own praying. When they felt the need for God's intervention, they asked the priest to pray for them.

That's all very interesting, but what does that have to do with us? We don't continue the same "professionalization of prayer." As good ol' Protestants, we each pray individually. But with a little further reflection, it seems like we continue the same tradition with a twist: we have a very definite "professionalization of theology." Our "clerics" do the thinking for the whole community. When others (whether lords or peasants) have questions about God, they don't often dig through those questions themselves. Rather, they ask the preacher (who in turn asks the commentaries).

Am I wrong? I'm sure most of us want to react against this criticism. And obviously I'm over-generalizing. There are many dedicated Christians who spend much time contemplating on the things of God. But I think what I'm saying is still an accurate broad picture of our church. And what are we going to do about it? I'm a poor one to bring up this subject - my training is making me a professional thinker! It's like trying to reverse the negative effects of monasticism by becoming a monk.

So I'll leave this to you who still have a chance...