Questions, more questions…
So, tonight I was going to write a post on why we find it so easy to write on hell, and so difficult to write on heaven (with the help of C.S. Lewis). However, I became entangled in a question which has captured my interest, and for the last few hours I’ve been seeking an answer. The question I’ve been considering goes something like this: what do you do with a teacher (or a leader) who personally affirms the foundation of the Christian gospel, but simultaneously questions and implies that this foundation is in some way not essential. What do you do with a teacher who affirms the “essentials,” but teaches that they aren’t essential? Now perhaps I’ve answered the question in the phrasing (If they don’t believe the essentials are essential, then they don’t believe all the essentials!), but there are a lot of questions in this that I’d … (Read more)
People who hate questions
I’ve always known that there was a certain — and most assuredly, unreasonable — offense in asking questions. Not so much that the question itself was bad. I certainly don’t want to say that at all, there is much good in questions–much to learn. Socrates, I think, was right for the most part, “the unexamined life is not worth living”. And it is here that we find our problem, and also the answer to why so many people find questions offensive: they don’t examine anything, least of all “their life”. I’ve come across a great majority of people who don’t know why they believe what they say they believe. They’ve never considered the “great questions” (I don’t think many moderns do) and if they do, they don’t get very far. They spend far too much time reading recent books filled with pop-psychology and second-rate philosophical discourses (if you can even … (Read more)
Unable to Prepare for the Journey?
It’s an Adventure, Not an Axiom.
A Story Unfolding, Not a Tale Already Told.
The Journey Counts, Not the Destination.
Right?
I came across this collection of (emergent) catchphrases during a forum discussion which happened this past weekend. There is a visual which goes along with it, which you can find here. The visual itself is, I think, self-evidently brilliant (I highly recommend you look at the visual). The attitude towards truth that these catch-phrases convey is one I can never seem to take seriously. If I have a desire, or a thirst, to know the truth, then it seems to me obvious that my ultimate end is the destination. For how can we truly be prepared for the journey when we neglect the fact of where we’re going, or hope to be going ? It’s a casual attitude, fatally flawed.… (Read more)
Truth as a symptom
“The preoccupation with ‘truth’ among emergents has often been pushed on them by their conservative critics, primarily because truth is a central concern of theirs. And their preoccupation with truth is a symptom of their modernism. They want the Bible to be unswervingly factual (here, truth equals fact), for if it is, then its claims about eternal salvation cannot be ignored. So they publish books against emergents titled Truth and the New Kind of Christian and The Truth War, and blogs excoriate the emergents on the issue of truth.“[1]
The above comes from Tony Jones book The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier. What Jones says worries me, not least because this is yet another blog ‘excoriating’ him and by proximity emergent Christians on the truth question.
Al Mohler, in discussing the role truth plays within the emergent church, has warned that, “if you get the truth … (Read more)
Response to Postmodern Biblical Authority
Kurt Willems wrote an article on theooze.com regarding postmodern biblical authority, this is something of a response.
In his article, Willems examines the deconstructionist philosophies of Jacques Derrida and Jean-Francois Lyotard and from this, attempts to show that within a postmodern framework, the Bible can be viewed as authoritative. Willems suggests we can claim an authoritative view of the Bible as the Bible is not a meta-narrative in the modern sense, but a collection of smaller stories.1 “Postmodernists are suspicious of meta-narratives, but highly value the ‘small stories.’ Your story matters; my story matters. The modern meta-narrative of progress has turned out to be a lie, but the ‘small stories’ are what is real in daily life.2
Willems begins by discussing Derrida’s famous phrase, “there is nothing outside the text”.3 He explains this mantra with the words of James K.A. Smith:
“Thus, just before making his famous … (Read more)
Truth and unbelief
John 8:45
But because I say the truth, ye believe me not.
I figure more could be said about the verse above (the words of Jesus). Jesus isn’t speaking these words without authority (although I say the truth, ye believe me not), as if to say them with a hint of resignation (I’m asserting one truth of many proposed truths, none any better than the other that we could know). Jesus is speaking strongly, but because I say the truth, regardless and in the face of his opposition.
If there are those who will not hear the truth after hearing it plainly, how much more for those who aren’t given the truth? It is a dangerous thing, equalizing Christianity, turning into a religion for moralists and humanists. Truth divides and the Gospel is offensive. How could any Christian imagine themselves enough of an authority to diminish the truth of the … (Read more)
Fight fire with fire?
The survival of the church is dependent upon the ability of the church to engage in and relate to the society and culture it finds itself in, regardless of the society and culture it finds itself in. The danger is when church leaders propose we become like society to engage in and become relevant to and impacting of society. In this we have taken the first step towards compromise and the unique voice of the church within the world disappears. This, of course, being a different approach than understanding society and engaging society where it stands without adopting, necessarily, the presuppositions of society. In this we understand there is a difference between understanding society, engaging with society and maintaining the unique voice of the church and understanding society, becoming like society and losing the unique voice of the church. Paradoxically, the more relevant one wishes to become the less relevant … (Read more)
It’s spiritual, who cares about God?
It’s not meant to be a Christian book anyway, its a spirituality book so who cares if its wrong about God, that’s not the point about it! Christians can learn a lot from reading stuff about other aspects of spirituality…Open your minds people!
This was the sentiment I encountered while discussing the book The Shack with a few acquaintances, well, more ‘friends of a friend of mine’. As far as I’m aware they are all professing Christians which leaves me wondering: what are they thinking? Keeping in mind a Christian world view and all that this entails, is it even possible to create a distinction between ‘spirituality’ and ‘God’ and discuss one without it impacting the other? I would hazard a guess and say no, not that I agree with the view that The Shack is a ‘spirituality book’ and not concerned with God.
Not that this is intended as … (Read more)
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