Let me give some concrete examples. In the case of Rome, Vatican I and the papal centrism of that council were seen as essential if a bit radical in the moment. Now, in the wake of the failed papacy of Francis and how quickly he undid some of the better work of JPII and BXVI, it looks like irrational exuberance. If only one could go back and dial down some of the over the top rhetoric that virtually equated the papacy with the church and made bishops more assistants to the pope than real bishops. So what do you do in the wake of it all? If you are Rome, you try to ignore the excesses but you always have those folks who refuse to let it fade away.
Another example in Rome is Vatican II (sense a pattern here?). There was euphoria about updating a moribund church body and opening the door to some fresh air. It turns out, in retrospect, that some things that seemed dead were buried prematurely and the fresh air let in was poisoned with the headiness of the moment and it turned out not a great moment to make grand changes. Now Rome is caught between those who continue to try and redeem the euphoria of Vatican II and those who shrug that it was a case of irrational exuberance that probably should be forgotten. Of course, it does not help that Paul VI went on a bender drunk with Vatican II euphoria to make liturgical changes the council did not foresee or authorize.
Rome is not alone. In my own small world of the Missouri Synod, there was euphoria in 1989 about opening up the role of lay ministers to supplement the pastors in places where the ordained were in short supply. It turned out that the recension of Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession was irrational exuberance that required 20 years to fix and has still left us with the scars of the confusion of our own making. It was a bonehead move. Yet there are those who still live in the euphoria of that moment and keep trying to dredge back up the remnants of that ill-conceived resolution today.
Perhaps another example is the restructuring of 2010. The blue ribbon task force (who can recall the entire name) that proposed it seemed to have studied everything and come up with a radical solution to a management problem many admitted was real. There was euphoria in the air but the same convention that adopted most of the fix denied its architect from implementing the thing and passed the leadership baton to someone who did not favor it. Now, the same people who clamored for the centralization of power in the then president of Synod are claiming that the one elected has acted highhandedly to do what the new bylaws told him to do. Euphoria in 2010 has turned out to be irrational exuberance today as we look at the possibility that we will have to revisit the whole thing again sooner rather than later and undo what was then a classic example of a policy driven executive structure.
My guess is that you could add somethings here and I could to make this a rather long list of things that seemed perfect in the moment but ended up being not so good as we look back from the vantage point of today. Some will insist that the Church needs to act more quickly. I am chastened by some of our past euphoria to suggest that these examples are proof that we need to act more deliberately -- not less. The work of God's kingdom is of too great an importance for us to keep up with the heady euphoria of the day only to look back and see that our irrational exuberance has proven to be a major problem. My guess is that the undoing of our institutions will likely happen more because of what we felt we had to do or die rather than what we did not do quickly enough. I know some will disagree but that is my wisdom of the day.
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