Here is TG Darkly Podcast #4: The Triune God and Creation.
Use the player below to listen, or download the file.
Month: January 2011
Categories
Daniel Kirk on Community and Belief
An excellent post by Daniel Kirk, reproduced in full below.
When I was younger, I remember hearing and talking as though the most important thing you could say about a Christian is what that person does when no one else, or at least no other Christians, were around. Once you leave that protective sphere, who are you really?
I have almost decided that the opposite is closer to the truth. To play a role in the Christian drama is to be an individual who is part of a body. I am most myself when I am functioning within the body of Christ, and those possible deficiencies that surface when I’m not in close connection with the community show me how much I need the community to help me manifest who I truly am in Christ.
This is a smaller piece of a larger puzzle. Who we are, what we believe, and what we do are all to varying degrees part of the communities in which we participate. Sometimes this will be by way of agreement, sometimes by way of disagreement–often the communities we’re in will shape our thinking in ways we’re not even aware of by nature of the very questions it’s asking or not asking, or the way it’s framing the options.
All of this gets me to the real point, which is that the state of our faith as followers of Jesus is rarely separable from the Christian community of which we are a part.
When I was going through some of the worst of my struggles to find a Christian community where I could thrive, my belief in the God of the Bible was at its weakest. Other stories I hear of people slipping away from the faith often have lengthy struggles of finding a community that can bear the questions someone is bringing to the table.
Some places will be asking questions or giving answers that resonate deeply with us–and that very affinity will become part of what makes the Christian story compelling and believable.
Some places will be pouring out their energies in debates that seem arcane and ridiculous to us–and that very dissonance will become part of what makes the Christian story flimsy and unbelievable.
Some places will demand that Christianity entail certain positions or actions that we cannot endorse, and so not only does that community take a hit in our estimation, but the Christian story as a whole loses its luster.
In the Christian narrative, salvation is a communal affair. This is why I strive to send people to churches that will serve them well–even if those aren’t churches that would so serve me. And that is part of why I keep up this blog.
For all the various disagreements we might have with each other, I am convinced that there is a kind of person out there–someone who lives between giving up the Christianity of their youth, often, but is still passionate about Jesus, someone who might find some peace with God if they were given space to acknowledge various data about the Bible, evolution, sex, –who will find here freedom to keep believing.
James Kidder, a Christian paleontologist, comments on Al Mohler’s most recent critique of BioLogos. Mohler’s view of science seems to rest on an “appearance of age” argument. According to Mohler, “given a plain reading of Scripture, there is every reason that Christians should reject a uniformitarian presupposition.”
Big words like “uniformitarian” and “presupposition” make this idea sound smart. It is, however, profoundly anti-intellectual. I mean “anti-intellectual” here not in the sense of opposing the “academic elite” as a class. I mean it literally: adopting Mohler’s epistemology destroys our ability to “known” anything. It is, in fact, a relativistic, Gnostic and nihilistic world view, which is not at all compatible with Christianity.
Mohler effectively sells out a Christian realist view of the universe to Descartes’ Demon. Descartes was troubled by empiricism. How can I really know for certain, he wondered, whether the things I observe with my senses are “real?” I can’t prove, he reasoned, that the apparent reality I observe isn’t just an illusion created by a malevolent demon to keep me deluded. After all, whatever proofs I might offer would be part of the illusion. Thus he resolved to the one fact he thought could not be an illusion without self-contradiction: that of his own existence. “I think, therefore I am.”
Mohler’s epistemology says that Descartes was right to be afraid after all. The world that we think we observe, with its distant starlight, its layers of fossils, its rates of radioactive decay, and so on, is illusory. It may “appear” to be very old, but it is in fact something very different.
But, Mohler would say, Descartes’ Demon is vanquished because a “plain reading of scripture” tells us what really happened. Here is the insurmountable problem: a “plain reading of scripture” depends on “uniformitarian” assumptions about history. It assumes that the text we now have is really an ancient text, created thousands of years ago. It assumes that there really was a Jewish community and subsequently a Christian Church that existed in the past and preserved and handed these documents down as scripture. It assumes that people in the past used certain words that have meanings that can be known with a high degree of certainty through historical study.
If Mohler’s view of history is correct, then all of his assumptions about scripture are up for grabs. Absent a “uniformitarian” view of history, there is no way to be sure that what we now think of as “scripture” wasn’t poofed into existence with the “appearance of age” only moments ago. There is no way to know with any certainty what the “plain meaning” of these documents might be or whether there is any “language” with meaning at all. Indeed, there is no way to know whether Jesus really lived and truly rose again.
If your world view causes you to deny that history is real, that is a sure sign of trouble. Without history, there is no meaning.
Categories
Daybook: January 12, 2011
January 12, 2011
Lectionary
Since the children share in blood and Flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life. Surely he did not help angels
but rather the descendants of Abraham; therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God to expiate the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
Reflection
“Don’t whip yourself for your lack of spiritual progress. If you do, you will easily be pulled even further away from your center. you will damage yourself and make it more difficult to come home again. It is obviously good not to act on your sudden emotions. But you don’t have to repress them, either. You can acknowledge them and let them pass by. In a certain sense, you have to befriend them so that you do not become their victim. The way to ‘victory’ is not in trying to overcome your dispiriting emotions directly but in building a deeper sense of safety and at-homeness and a more incarnate knowledge that you are deeply loved. Then, little by little, you will stop giving so much power to strangers.” — Henri Nouwen
Prayer
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Give to the LORD, you sons of God,
give to the LORD glory and praise,
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
adore the LORD in holy attire.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
(Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10)
Categories
Daybook: January 10, 2011
January 10, 2011
Lectionary
MK 1:14-20
After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they left their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.
Reflection
“Faith — when it is truly faith rather than a mere intellectual assent to some proposition or other — will always seek to enter into a fuller and deeper knowledge and understanding of that which matters most to it. And so Christian faith is driven by a desire to know more of that which is its source and raison d’etre; to learn to speak and think more appropriately of that reality, and of the various component parts of the knowledge of it which has been handed down through the ages by the community of faith; to consider the way in which all the things which are believed about this reality cohere with one another; and to explore the pattern of truth which pertains to it. In all this, faith is concerned with what might be called the ‘internal coherence’ of its own story or gospel.” — Trevor Hart
Prayer
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Give to the LORD, you sons of God,
give to the LORD glory and praise,
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
adore the LORD in holy attire.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
(Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10)
Categories
Daybook: January 9, 2011
January 9, 2011
Lectionary
Is 42:1-4, 6-7
Thus says the LORD:
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
upon whom I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Reflection
When the soul is tempest-tossed, troubled and cut off by worries, then is the time to pray, so as to make the soul willing and responsive towards God. But there is no kind of prayer that can make God more responsive to the soul, for God is always constant in love.
And so I saw that, whenever we feel the need to pray, our good Lord follows us, helping our desire.
And when, by his special grace, we behold him clearly, knowing no other need, then we follow him and he draws us to himself by love. — Julian of Norwich
Prayer
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Give to the LORD, you sons of God,
give to the LORD glory and praise,
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
adore the LORD in holy attire.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
(Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10)
Categories
Daybook: January 8, 2011
January 8, 2011
Lectionary
Jn 3:22-30
Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew
about ceremonial washings. So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him.” John answered and said, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Christ, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”
Reflection
“Lifting our lives to others happens every time we speak or act in ways that make our lives for others. When we are fully able to embrace our own lives, we discover that what we claim we also want to proclaim.” A life well held is indeed a life for others. We stop wondering whether our life is better or worse than others and start seeing clearly that when we live our life for others we not only claim our individuality but also proclaim our unique place in the human family.” — Henri Nouwen
Prayer
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
(Ps 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8)
Categories
Daybook: January 7, 2010
January 7, 2011
Lectionary
1 Jn 5:5-13
Beloved: Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and Blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and Blood. The Spirit is the one who testifies, and the Spirit is truth. So there are three who testify, the Spirit, the water, and the Blood, and the three are of one accord. If we accept human testimony, the testimony of God is surely greater. Now the testimony of God is this, that he has testified on behalf of his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God.
Reflection
“Christ is a God of joy. . . A Christian should be and must be a man of joy.
The devil is the spirit of sadness, but God is the Spirit of joy, and he is our salvation.
We have more occasion for joy than sadness. The reason is we believe in the living God, and Christ lives, and we shall live also.
God can make himself known only through those works of his which he reveals in us, which we feel and experience within ourselves. When the experience is to learn that he is a God who looks into the depths and helps principally the poor, despised, afflicted, miserable, forsaken and those who are of no account, at that very moment a love for him is created and surges up from the heart’s core. The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God.
In this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy.
You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.”
— Martin Luther
Prayer
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
(Ps 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8)
Daniel Kirk is hosting a virtual Karl Barth reading group in which I hope to participate. We’re commenting this week on section 1.1 of the Church Dogmatics. I had started reading the Dogmatics this past summer so I’m looking forward to this group interaction.
Barth defines “dogmatics” as follows: “[a]s a theological discipline dogmatics is the scientific self-examination of the Christian Church with respect to the content of its distinctive talk about God.”
I love this definition because it lays some important groundwork. First, dogmatics is a sort of “science.” That is, dogmatics seeks to explain some aspect of reality. It gets at the essences of the way things really are.
Second, dogmatics is an act of “self examination.” The theme of ever and always getting back to the sources, of critically reappraising our thinking about God, is important to Barth’s project. The theological task never ends.
Third, dogmatics is distinctively situated within the Christian Church. The “science” of dogmatics is not like the supposedly neutral, objective enterprise of the natural or social sciences. Rather, dogmatics asserts its own grounds and grammar, ultimately based in revelation. As we’ll see, Barth’s doctrine of revelation is both objective and dynamic, rooted ultimately in God’s Triune person.
For Barth, the science of dogmatics “does not have to justify itself” before other sciences that proceed according to their own methods. This will prove to be, I think, a great strength and a potential weakness in Barth’s project. Christian theology cannot submit to any standard as final arbiter of its claims other than God’s revelation in Christ, or else it will lose its integrity. As we move through the Dogmatics, however, we may want to modify or soften some of Barth’s opposition to some kinds of natural theology.
A good conclusion to this brief introduction is the definition of who is a “theologian,” quoted from Johannes Coccejus: “A theologian is someone who speaks of God, from God, before God to God’s glory.” May it be so!
Categories
Daybook: January 6, 2011
January 6, 2011
Lectionary
1 Jn 4:19–5:4
Beloved, we love God because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen
cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Reflection
“It is eighteen hundred years or more since Jesus Christ walked on earth. But this was not an event like other events which, once past, disappears into the mist of history. No. His presence here on earth never becomes mere history, and never recedes into the mist of time. Or rather, to a person without faith Jesus is indeed only an historical figure. But to a person with faith Jesus is contemporary: he lives here and now, just as he lived here and now for the first disciples. This contemporaneousness is a condition of faith. Or, more precisely, it is faith.
— Soren Kierkegaard
Prayer
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
(Ps 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8)