pursuing faithfulness to the Word of God and fullness of the Spirit of God
Archive for October, 2007
N T Wright on the Christian worldview-story
Oct 31st
Here’s a quote from N T Wright’s The New Testament and the People of God, where he articulates the Christian story, and shows how Christian theology answers the four basic worldview questions. (the quote is from page 132, emphasis added)
First, Christian theology tells a story, and seeks to tell it coherently. We have already summarized this story, and can do so again briefly. The story is about a creator and his creation, about humans made in this creator’s image and given tasks to perform, about the rebellion of humans and the dissonance of creation at every level, and particularly about the creator’s acting, through Israel and climactically through Jesus, to rescue his creation from its ensuing plight. The story continues with the creator acting by his own spirit within the world to bring it towards the restoration which is his intended goal for it. A great deal of Christian theology consists of the attempt to tell this story as clearly as possible, and to allow it to subvert other ways of telling the story of the world, including those which offer themselves as would-be Christian tellings but which, upon close examination, fall short in some way or other.
Second, this story, as the fundamental articulation of the worldview, offers as set of answers to the four worldview questions. We may set these out as follows, noting as we do some of the alternative views that are thereby ruled out. …
1. Who are we? We are humans, made in the image of the creator. We have responsibilities that come with this status. We are not fundamentally determined by race, gender, social class, geographical location; nor are we simply pawns in a determinist game.
2. Where are we? We are in a good and beautiful, though transient, world, the creation of the god in whose image we are made. We are not in an alien world, as the Gnostic imagines; nor in a cosmos to which we owe allegiance as to a god, as the pantheist would suggest.
3. What is wrong? Humanity has rebelled against the creator. This rebellion reflects a cosmic dislocation between the creator and the creation, and the world is consequently out of tune with its created intention. A Christian worldview rejects dualisms which associate evil with createdness or physicality; equally it rejects monisms that analyse evil simply in terms of some humans not being fully in tune with their environment. Its analysis of evil is more subtle and far-reaching. It likewise rejects as the whole truth all partial analyses, such as those of Marx or Freud, which elevate half-truths to the status of the whole truth.
4. What is the solution? The creator has acted, is acting, and will act within his creation to deal with the weight of evil set up by human rebellion, and to bring his world to the end for which it was made, namely that it should resonate fully with his own presence and glory. This action, of course, is focused upon Jesus and the spirit of the creator. We reject, that is, solutions to the human plight which only address one part of the problem.
Word and Spirit
Oct 25th
Ever since naming my blog “Word and Spirit”, I have always been on the lookout for Biblical passages and themes that relate these two topics together. Initially, I tended to think of “Word and Spirit” in a purely ecclesiological sense – a “Word and Spirit” church is one that values both sermons and spiritual gifts. Most churches who present themselves as “Word and Spirit” are trying to indicate that they have this dual emphasis on preaching and pneumatology.
But over the last years I have noticed many ways in which the Word of God and Spirit of God work together in the life of an individual believer. I began gathering material, with the intention of writing a short book that I would make freely available to readers of this blog and friends (already two people have offered to buy it if I put their names in the foreword!).
So I was looking for opportunities to develop the material by teaching it, and last Sunday I had the chance to preach at a Sunday night student event at my church. I based the talk on the metaphors of the Word of God as our spiritual food and the Spirit of God as our spiritual drink.
I had far too much to say in the time I had available (I skipped over at least 10 points!), and was worried it would come across as more of an “information blast” than a sermon, but people seemed positive about it. I’ve put my notes online in PDF format here for those who are interested: “Being Filled with the Word and Spirit“. If the mp3 gets made available I’ll put a link to it as well.
The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that a charismatic evangelical spirituality is simply a life filled with the Word and Spirit of God. This involves being a “self-feeder” (as Willow Creek have just “discovered”), by regularly coming to meet God in private in the Word and prayer, but also encountering God in his Word and by his Spirit in community, as we enjoy a “Word and Spirit banquet” with other believers when we meet together.
Anyway, my next steps are to organize my material into chapters, and I’ll post them one at a time on this blog as they are complete, so you can be my proof-readers and editor if you like!
Peterson on Commentaries
Oct 13th
I came across a great section in Eugene Peterson’s “Eat This Book” encouraging people to read commentaries cover to cover. This is something I love to do, although until I read this, I have never heard anyone recommend it. He draws a great parallel between commentators and football fans. I’ll quote him in full. (emphasis added).
It is useful for readers of the Bible to keep company with some of our master exegetes; the easiest way to do it is to use their commentaries. Biblical commentaries are, for the most part, employed by pastors or teachers in the preparation of sermons or lectures. They are treated as “tools”. But there are treasures in these books for the ordinary reader of the Bible. Among those of us who read – eat – this text not in preparation for an assignment, but simply for direction and nourishment in following Jesus, which means most of us, biblical commentaries have for too long been overlooked as common reading for common Christians.
I recommend reading commentaries in the same way we read novels, from beginning to end, skipping nothing. They are, admittedly, weak in plot and character development, but their devout attention to words and syntax is sufficient. Plot and character – the plot of salvation, the character of Messiah – are everywhere implicit in a commentary and persistently assert their presence even when unmentioned through scores, even hundreds, of pages. The power of these ancient nouns and verbs century after century to call forth intelligent discourse from learned men and women continues to be a staggering wonder.
Among those for whom Scripture is a passion, reading commentaries has always seemed to me analogous to the gathering of football fans in the local bar after the game, replaying in endless detail the game they have just watched, arguing (maybe even fighting) over observations and opinion, and lacing the discourse with gossip about the players. The level of knowledge evident in these boozy colloquies is impressive. These fans have watched the game for years; the players are household names to them; they know the fine print in the rulebook and pick up every nuance on the field. And they care immensely about what happens in the game. Their seemingly endless commentary is evidence of how much they care. Like them, I relish in a commentary not bare information but conversation with knowledgeable and experienced friends, probing, observing, questioning the biblical text. Absorbed by this plot that stretches grandly from Genesis to Revelation, captured by the messianic presence that in death and resurrection saves us one and all – there is so much to notice, so much to talk over.
Not all commentaries fill the bill – some of them are written by scholars who seem to have no interest in God or the story, but there are enough that qualify to convince me that they provide welcome and indispensable companionship to all of us readers of the text who, as we follow Jesus, don’t want to miss anything along the way.
Book Review – The Church on the Other Side (Brian McLaren)
Oct 8th
The thesis of this book is pretty straightforward: the times are changing, and the church had better move with the times. We are transitioning from modernism to postmodernism and the church on “the other side” of this great cultural shift will look very different to the modern church. McLaren therefore offers us twelve strategies to help us successfully navigate the change and build churches that are appropriate and relevant for the new world. “A new world needs a new church.”
McLaren clearly believes there is something very wrong with the current state of the church – “human beings are incurably religious, yet Christianity has lost its power to satisfy us”. His solution is not renewal or reformation (indeed he is critical of these approaches). No the church must be “re-invented”. He claims that there are no “blueprints”. Most evangelicals will be wondering what place he gives to the Bible as the foundation for our ecclesiology. They will still be wondering by the end, and left suspecting that the answer is “almost none”.
Many of the typical emerging church concerns are outlined. The church needs to be more honest about its failures, less dogmatic, less arrogant, less caught up with traditions (and more connected to “Tradition”), less about personal salvation and more about community now. We should focus on what unites us rather than our doctrinal distinctives and embrace all types of Christian spirituality. A nuanced Amen to most of that.
He talks about the need for a new apologetic. “Proofs” of the Christianity to make it more credible are no longer needed for a postmodern world. Rather, Christianity must be seen to be plausible by being a community people would want to join.
McLaren is very hard to pin down on doctrine (probably deliberately). His approach seems to be the politicians favourite “I can neither confirm nor deny that doctrine…”. For example, he speaks of the need to stop fighting against other religions and fight alongside them, leaving you not quite sure of his position on the exclusiveness of Jesus for salvation.
The church needs to find a new rhetoric, which is to say it needs to talk less and do more. He calls for churches to become a lot less attached to their structures, and to reject the models of leadership found in modern evangelicalism such the “Bible answer man” who will fix any doubt with a quick proof-text, or the “successful” mega-church pastor who promises you perpetual victory and prosperity.
He lists many reasons why traditional “missions” are running out of steam, and suggests new models where we think more holistically about “mission”.
The book finally closes with three chapters on postmodernism. He is convinced that it is the future, and that we should not only understand it, but embrace it. He sees it as the future not only in western culture but worldwide.
It is not hard to see why Brian McLaren is so popular. He certainly identifies a number of real problems in the church, and suggests many good ideas for improvement. However, this book left me feeling uneasy for a number of reasons.
First, while I do not claim to be in any way an expert on culture, it seems remarkably simplistic to subsume everyone under one new umbrella of “postmodernism”. I see a world containing many diverse cultures, and though “modernists” may indeed be dying out, they certainly still exist and need to be reached with the gospel.
Second, after identifying many ways in which the church has unfortunately embraced the negatives of modernism, it seems bizarre that he should be so eager for the church to reconfigure itself to be exactly what post-moderns are asking for. He somewhat cheekily suggests that he need not critique postmodernism because (grumpy old) D A Carson has already done enough of that!
Third, while making clear that he does not accept relativism, it is almost entirely unclear what he believes the basis for knowledge is. He wants to encourage creative and “messy” thinkers, to re-invent the church, to embrace new paradigms. But how will he judge these ideas? It certainly does not seem like he would offer the Bible as any kind of objective standard.
Maybe McLaren would say that this question reveals that I am stuck in a “modernist” mindset. And perhaps it does. But when one of his messy thinkers suggests that all religions lead to God, or that we should all dance round naked at the church worship service, on what basis will he accept or reject their proposals? Is the church on the other side able to detect heresy? Or is the only heresy the idea that heresy is even possible?
I would only recommend this book to those interested in understanding the emerging church’s ecclesiology. The good ideas he proposes can also be found in books by those far more rooted in Scripture. Jesus has already “invented” the church. We do not need to re-invent it, but maybe we do need to re-discover his original intentions for it, and re-configure the way we speak and act so that we are truly able to communicate the unchanging truth of the gospel to a post-modern world.
Book Review – Discovering Christ in the Song of Solomon (Don Fortner)
Oct 5th
This is essentially a commentary on the Song of Songs taking an allegorical approach. Indeed, the author insists that the book “is not in any sense to be interpreted literally” and “it would lead to great evil to interpret it literally”. Personally, I find that approach too limiting, but the allegorical interpretation does have good pedigree, with Spurgeon and the Puritans seeing in this book a love story between Christ and the church (and indeed between Christ and the individual believer).
The book has no introduction and is divided into 32 short chapters, which make it suitable for reading a chapter a day as a devotional guide. The early chapters in particular are very good at stirring us up to desire to know the manifest presence of the Lord in our lives. We are to treasure his presence above all things, not being content with mere religious gatherings, and not allowing even our sins to keep us from Christ.
As would be expected in an allegorical interpretation there are some rather speculative interpretations, and the author rarely admits to uncertainty over the meaning of a passage. It has a strongly reformed theology and he even manages to find references to Arminian theology in places! There are some good sections on assurance of salvation and the believers struggle with sin and its effect on our relationship with Christ.
Overall, there is much good devotional material in here, but the jury is out on the hermeneutics. It is not until chapter 7 of Song of Songs that he even considers that there could be an application for husbands and wives. But the call to love Christ more deeply and to treasure his presence is always a valuable one, and even if other commentaries may need to be consulted, I think the allegorical approach should not be lightly dismissed.
As long as it is informed by other plainer passages of Scripture, this approach brings to life Paul’s observation that the relationship between a husband and wife mirrors that of Christ and the church. I would probably however recommend that those wanting to study Song of Songs allegorically start with John Owen’s “Communion with God” or Hudson Taylor’s “Union with Christ” rather than this book. I still also consider Tom Gledhill’s Bible Speaks Today commentary on Song of Songs which takes a completely non-allegorical approach to the book to also be well worth a read.
Newfrontiers Magazine
Oct 4th
There is a new edition of the newfrontiers magazine out and it has just been made available on the web. The theme of this edition is the cross, and, as expected there is a strong affirmation of a commitment to a substitutionary understanding of the atonement.
I particularly appreciated two things about their approach. First is the irenic tone, even when addressing the attacks on penal substitution from within evangelicalism (see in particular Mick Taylor’s article). Second, is that the doctrine of the atonement is not reduced to, or summed up entirely in the model of penal substitution. They recognise the importance of a symphonic view, with Andrew Wilson’s great article on Christus Victor demonstrating a willingness to embrace a fully orbed biblical understanding of significance of the cross.
Another thing that caught my eye was Adrian Holloway’s brief evangelistic message. The reason I found it interesting was because it represents exactly the type of gospel presentation that many in the emerging church are criticising. It is personal rather than about community, and it has a clear focus on eternal salvation and going to heaven without really mentioning the gospel’s power to transform life on earth.
But having said that, given the small space he had available, did he do a bad job? I think not. The initial presentation of the gospel will always have to be somewhat limited in scope. We can hardly expect people to be fully educated in the entire biblical metanarrative on our first occasion of sharing the gospel with them. He managed to fit in the concepts of universal sin, the love of God, substitutionary atonement, the resurrection and eternal life all in the space of a few paragraphs. There is of course much more to be said about the gospel. But should we really be bashing each other for failing to get the entire thing into a 60 second summary?
LibraryThing & Book Reviews
Oct 4th
I first came across the LibraryThing website about a year ago. The idea is remarkably simple – it allows you to catalogue your books, tag them and review them. You can create a free account and manage up to 200 books to get a feel for it, but to add more you have to pay. The lifetime membership fee is very reasonable though, at $25 which works out at about £12, and I finally signed up this week.
Its a great way of keeping track of what books you have read, and also which ones you have lent to other people. I’ve still got a way to go before I will have added my entire collection. You can look at my library here. Another nice feature is that it will show you who has a similar library to you, which can be useful as you can look at the ratings people with similar tastes to you have given to books you are thinking of reading.
I’ve also put links to my book reviews on there, and discovered that I have now reviewed just over 100 books on this site over the last 3 years or so. I’ve been trying for the last couple of years to read more books than I buy (not counting books I am given).
Which brings me to a rather disturbing quote I found in Joanna & Alister McGrath’s book on self-esteem I read recently.
As Lewis W. Spitz, professor of history at Stanford University, once said: "There are those who write. Those who can’t write cut them down in reviews, which is one way of asserting themselves against their intellectual superiors.
I think there is value in a book review, even in one that is highly critical of the book in question. But those of us who write reviews need to beware of the review being more about ourselves and our impeccable gift of discernment than about the book in question.
Book Review – NIV Application Commentary on Jeremiah & Lamentations (J Andrew Dearman)
Oct 27th
Posted by Mark Heath in Book Reviews
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A 480 page commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations that seeks to bridge the gap from what happened “back then” to how Christians can apply it to their own lives today.
The Introductions
Both Jeremiah and Lamentations have their own reasonably sized introductions. He explains that Jeremiah was written to help God’s people make sense of their fall to the Babylonians. Dearman takes a strongly Christological perspective in seeing how themes of temple and land would be ultimately fulfilled. He thinks it unlikely that Lamentations was written by Jeremiah, and notes that in the New Testament, it is on the lips of Jesus himself that we most frequently find lament.
The Commentary
As with all volumes in the NIVAC series, the full text of a chapter or section is included, followed by three sections of commentary. The first section, entitled “original meaning” attempts to explain what the text meant in its original context to its original hearers. “Bridging Contexts” shows both the points of continuity and discontinuity between our modern context and theirs. Finally “Contemporary Significance” seeks to apply the message directly to our own lives. The “Original Meaning” section is most similar to a standard commentary, while the “Contemporary Significance” section is what might be heard in a typical sermon on the passage in question.
Most of the commentary is done in sections of one chapter at a time, although there were a couple of places where five or six chapters were tackled in one big section.
Strengths
Since Jeremiah is not arranged chronologically, it is very helpful to have good information linking what is prophesied in each chapter to the historical situation at the time. Dearman is also careful to apply the passages in the light of the New Covenant, but at the same time does not blunt the social and ethical implications of the prophecy. He works hard to keep the application sections varied and interesting. He tackles a wide variety of subjects including pluralism, politics, abortion, worship, social justice, and the fulfilment of prophecy. He likes to pick out incidents from modern history to illustrate his points.
Weaknesses
With the limited space given to “Original Meaning”, not everything can be commented on, so those looking for exegetical answers on particular verses may not find what they are looking for. The “Contemporary Significance” sections are often focused on the American church and culture, so it won’t always hit the mark for readers from other parts of the world.
Why Buy It?
This commentary will be useful for two groups of people. First, those personally studying their way through Jeremiah will find the format helpful – one chapter a day can be managed without too much time commitment. Second, those preparing sermons or Bible studies on Jeremiah and Lamentations will doubtless find some good ideas on how to present the “relevance” of this ancient book to modern audiences.