Categories
Spirituality Theology

Mouw on Bell

Quoted in USA Today (of all places!):

Richard Mouw, president of the world’s largest Protestant seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary based in Pasadena, Calif., calls Love Wins “a great book, well within the bounds of orthodox Christianity and passionate about Jesus.The real hellacious fight, says Mouw, a friend of Bell, a Fuller graduate, is between “generous orthodoxy and stingy orthodoxy. There are stingy people who just want to consign many others to hell and only a few to heaven and take delight in the idea. But Rob Bell allows for a lot of mystery in how Jesus reaches people.”

Categories
Spirituality Theology

Mark Galli, I think, Doesn't Really Get It

Mark Galli’s CT review of Rob Bell’s book, on the whole, seems balanced and decent.  Maybe it’s a bit too balanced and decent. 

I think Galli is right in his basic conclusion that the Gospel is shown to be even more robust and more beautiful when we take account of the full Biblical witness to judgment.  Indeed, a crucial part of the “good news” — even a crucial part of the Cristus Victor model of the atonement — is that Christ’s victory judges and destroys evil.  A primary reason we ought to long for Christ’s return is that evil will be exposed, judged, and defeated forever.  Justice is an essential part of the good news.  Judgment is an essential part of justice.

But it’s this very issue of “justice” that prompts the questions Rob Bell has had the courage to raise.  Galli acknowledges that Bell raises important questions, but Galli himself seems afraid to give them voice.  Instead, he whips out the “L” word (“Liberal”) — the Evangelical equivalent of an F-bomb — which he kinda-sorta applies to Bell, and then mumbles past the questions.

Here are some realities I wish Galli had acknolwedged:

  • The hardline restrictivist soteriology that fueled the postwar Evangelical coalition’s missions energies betrays our inward moral sense as well as the Bible’s account of justice.  A soteriology that can’t systematically account for children who die in infancy, or the mentally disabled, or pious Jews exterminated by Hitler, or peasants who died on Cambodian killing fields without hearing of Jesus, and on and on …  it all flies in the face of the Biblical narrative of justice for the oppressed. 
  • The “Liberal / Evangelical” divide is a product of a bygone time — and it is good that this time has passed.  The coalition that birthed Christianity Today is dissipated.  Thoughtful “evangelicals” today are post-liberal and post-conservative — maybe post-capital-E-Evangelical. 
  • Post- / progressive- evangelicals don’t raise questions  just because we want to make the gospel attractive.  We do it because we have become better educated and we care about truth.  We do it because the system passed down from the first generation of Christianity Today’s editors, at crucial points, simply doesn’t withstand even modest scrutiny.  We do it to improve in our discipleship of the mind and in our doxological proclamation.  A by-product of this is that the gospel becomes more attractive — or, better, the beauty inherent to the gospel becomes clearer.  Truth is beautiful.
  • Retreating into the bunkers of a presumed quasi-denominational orthodoxy isn’t an option.  The Fundamentalists and Neo-Evangelicals were able to do this for a while in the 20th Century because information traveled much more slowly.  Today everyone can fact-check instantly.  Today everyone — at least every American middle-class evangelical — can travel the world and actually meet human beings who live and think outside our little bubble.
  • Genuine “orthodoxy” is generous, and generous orthodoxy is the only path to unity.  The essential narrative of generous historic orthodoxy includes God’s judgment of sin and the exclusivity of Christ.  It does not, however, presume to explain in detail, for all time, how to harmonize the universalistic and particularistic strands of Biblical eschatology.  Great “evangelical” scholars from C.S. Lewis to Leslie Newbiggin to N.T. Wright to Richard Bauckham to Alister McGrath have recognized this.

I feel like Galli and CT are too keen on preserving an anachronistic coalition at the expense of real progress towards a “moderate” center.  That’s too bad.

Categories
Spirituality

God and Japan?

Out of Ur’s post on missions in Japan has generated some heated commentary, led by Tony Jones. 

I agree with much of the discomfort that’s been expressed in that commentary.  A terrible disaster should never be thought of as an “opportunity” — much less should we seek or pray for such an “opportunity.”

Part of the problem is the “us vs. them” mindset of some kinds of missions.  “This, perhaps, could be one of the ways the Lord pierces the darkness of Japan with His light,” said one mission leader from Japan.  Wow — what a presumptuous and judgmental statement about Japan and its people!  What a slap to the memories of the thousands of ordinary folks, families, and children, swept away by the Tsunami!

I know that the Church is better than this.  We will grieve along with Japan, and send aid and workers, and, yes — share as best we can the hope that is found in Jesus Christ and pray that the Church might begin to flourish in a place where it has not historically found much purchase.  We might even, in time, reflect on how God uses horrible, evil circumstances for good.  But I hope we can do so as fellow human beings, motivated simply by the love of Christ.

Categories
Podcasting Science and Religion

TGD Podcast #6: Method in Theology and Science

Here is TGD Podcast #6.  In this edition, I discuss perspectives on method in theology and science.  You can listen to the podcast or download the file using the controls below.

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Theology

Carl Braaten on Eschatological Dogma

Here is a helpful snippet from Carl Braaten, a Lutheran theologian whom I admire.  This is from his book That All May Believe:  A Theology of the Gospel and the Mission of the Church.

The church has never solemnly promulgated an eschatological dogma.  Some eschatological sharpshooters claim to know how everything will turn out in the end.  I am an eschatological agnostic.  There is a Chinese proverb that says, “To prophesy is very difficult, especially with respect to the future.”  There is simply no magnum consensus in Christian tradition on how things will turn out in the end.

For those getting hot and bothered about the Rob Bell flap, this might be a useful reminder.  In fact, I heartily recommend this book, which is a very readable and balanced discussion of Church, mission, theology and culture.  For a bit more detailed discussion, see Braaten’s chapter on “The Uniqueness and Universality of Jesus Christ” in Braaten and Jenson, eds., Christian Dogmatics, Vol. 1, as well as the chapter on Eschatology:  The Content of Christian Hope written by Hans Schwarz in Vol. 2 of that treatise.

Schwarz makes a very strong case against universalism:  “The origin of the notion of a universal homecoming goes far beyond the Bible and seems to be anchored in a cyclic view of history…. Universalism contradicts the New Testament insistence that our response to the gospel determines for us the outcome of the final judgment” (pp. 575-78).  And yet Schwarz notes that, particularly in the descent of Christ into Hell,

Without circumventing the salvific power of Christ, the church evidently affirmed that hope that those also could be saved who had not encountered Christ during their lifetime on earth.  Yet it never dared to declare that therefore everyone will eventually be saved, nor did it define how someone could be saved through Christ’s descent.  Our reflection today must show a similar restraint.  While we fervently hope and pray that all humanity will be saved, we cannot take for granted that it will be so or outline a way in which God will reach this goal.  We know that the saved will be saved only for Christ’s sake.  (p. 579)

Braaten sounds what is perhaps a more hopeful note than Schwarz:

At this point I often like to quote Gustaf Wingren:  ‘That everyone should be saved is not an assertion of fact that has any biblical support.  But it is something one can certainly pray for….  No one has arrived.  So, while we are in the process of moving toward the goal, we can pray what we cannot assert.’  To let our prayers rhyme with God’s intention to save all is appropriate to faith in the living God who loves sinners and the godless.  The salvation of those who do not believe in Christ in their lifetime is ultimately a mystery that we cannot unveil by speculation.  Meanwhile, we would not limit our hope born of love and active prayer that God will win in the end.

Perhaps the careful hopefulness of theologians such as Schwarz and Braaten can help us avoid the extremes in our present debates about eschatology.

Categories
Spirituality

Sweet Sixteen

My little girl turns sixteen today.  I’m sitting at a little desk at a bay window in the living room of my home, the home where my little girl has grown up, reflecting on time.

Scraps of memory:

Eighteen years ago, my wife and I, married two years, walked into the very spot where I now sit with a real estate agent, and we both knew instantly that this house would become our home.

Sixteen years ago in March.  We are home from the hospital — with no instruction manual! — and a beautiful, perfect baby girl lies in the car seat.  On the very spot where I now sit, I hold this precious gift in my arms and promise her I’ll do my best for her.

Thirteen years ago in December.  There is a Christmas tree in the corner, right next to where my desk is now.  My little girl is hanging decorations, singing “Hallelujah,” tossing her hands in the air.

Ten years ago, in this room, I am crouched on the floor, covered in a blanket.  My little girls is running in circles around me, laughing, waiting for the “monster” to grab her with the blanket and tickle her toes.

This tiny little living room has seen lots of life.

Categories
Spirituality Theology

The Ventriloquist's Gospel

Recently I attended an event sponsored by a para-church organization that was aimed at evangelizing children and their parents.  The main attraction was a ventriloquist.  He was a skillful ventriloquist and his schtick was pretty funny.  By the end of thirty minutes, he had most of the audience on his side.

If you’ve ever been to this kind of evangelistic event, you will recognize what happened as his routine began to wind down.  Slowly he became serious.  It was time for the illustration, the connection between ventriloquism and the gospel.

“I speak for my ventroliquist dummies,” he said, “but before God, no one can speak for me or for you.”  He continued with the dilemma: “God is perfect and he can only let perfect things into his heaven.  But if you’ve done even one wrong thing, you aren’t perfect.”  Then, the product / solution:  “Now, God sent Jesus to die for you and so he has done everything necessary for you to get into his heaven.  But he has left one thing up to you — only you can do this one thing.”  And, the pitch:  “You need to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  Only you can do it.  Your parents, your grandparents, your church — they can’t do it for you.”  Finally, the close:  “Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes while we pray.  Maybe you want to pray these words….”

I don’t use the language of sales — dilemma, solution, pitch, close — to demean this man’s character.  He seemed to be, and I think he was, earnest and sincere in his desire to share the gospel.  Yet this language fairly describes, I think, the techniques that were employed.

Maybe “techniques” aren’t so bad.  All communication employs some methods, tropes and techniques.  But what if the drive to simplify the technique distorts the message?

Driving home from the event, I reflected on the message distilled into this exercise of technique.  

Only perfect things can get in to God’s heaven.”  How distant is the idea of “getting in to God’s heaven” from the Bible’s vision of creation and new creation, of God’s purposes for the “very good” of each person and this world, of the physicality of the Resurrection!  The Gospel is good news precisely because — and only when — it unveils God’s transformation of this created world.

“God left one thing up to you….”  How vastly alien to the Biblical Gospel!  You and I on our own have gotten it all wrong.  We have bound ourselves to the addiction of sin.  The Gospel is good news precisely because — and only when — we realize that God did everything because we could do nothing. 

Only you can do it — not your parents, your grandparents or your church.”  How utterly foreign to the Biblical ekklesia, the “body of Christ,” the authority given to loose and bind, the great cloud of witnesses of the saints through the ages!  Yes, God calls each of us to respond with  repentance, faith, worship, and good works.  But it is not all about you or me as individuals.  It is all about participation in Christ through participation with the Church.  The Church is the bearer of the Gospel’s good news precisely because — and only when — the individual sinner is enfolded into the community that is engrafted into the vine of Christ.  

This is the Gospel:  new creation!  This is the Gospel:  God did it because you cannot.!  This is the Gospel:  Christ lives in and through the Church because you cannot do this yourself! 

This is the invitation:  you are invited to participate in the Church, joined to Christ by the Grace of God, in the life of the new creation.

Categories
Daybook

Daybook: March 9, 2011

March 9, 2011
Ash Wednesday

Lectionary

Psalm 32

Blessed is the one
   whose transgressions are forgiven,
   whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one
   whose sin the LORD does not count against them
   and in whose spirit is no deceit.

When I kept silent,
   my bones wasted away
   through my groaning all day long.
For day and night
   your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
   as in the heat of summer.

 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
   and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
   my transgressions to the LORD.”
And you forgave
   the guilt of my sin.

 Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
   while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
   will not reach them.
You are my hiding place;
   you will protect me from trouble
   and surround me with songs of deliverance.

 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
   I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
Do not be like the horse or the mule,
   which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
   or they will not come to you.
Many are the woes of the wicked,
   but the LORD’s unfailing love
   surrounds the one who trusts in him.

 Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous;
   sing, all you who are upright in heart!

Reflection

“Sin is first of all unfaithfulness to the ‘Other,’ a betrayal.  For a long time now, sin has become reduced to morals.  And nothing leads away from God, from thirst for God, as precisely as these morals.  All morals consist first of all of bans and taboos….  A saint is thirsty not for ‘decency,’ not for cleanliness, and not for absence of sin, but for unity with God.  he does not live interested in himself (the introspection of a clean fellow), but in God.” — Fr. Alexander Schmemann

Prayer

God who waits
while we rush off
to spend the riches you’ve given us
on unworthy pursuits
that always end with us slopping with the pigs
in the mud.

God who waits
each morning outside the gates
straining into the distance
to see if we’ve finally begun,
once again,
the long and tired slog back home,
into your happy embrace,
into feasting and laughter and dance.

God who waits
here we are
now waiting with you.

Categories
Spirituality

Reading Journals

Last week I picked up a copy of The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann.  There is something beautiful about reading a thoughtful and spiritual person’s journals.  In Schmemann — in his formal theology of worship and liturgy and in his personal journals — I feel that I’m finding a kindred spirit.  Here is a person of great learning and insight, a theologian and pastor, who struggled with the daily grind of life and the difficulties of dealing with people in the Church, who often becomes quite discouraged, but who always returns to the practices that proclaim light and resurrection. 

Perhaps it’s particularly helpful that his ecclesiastical context — Eastern Orthodoxy in the 1970’s and 80’s — is so far removed from mine.  The joys and the problems are the same.  No one is immune — but also no one is alone.  Here, for example, is part of his entry for March 26, 1973:

Today, I thought about it all:  about the low level of church life, about fanaticism, lack of tolerance, the enslavement of so many people.  A ‘New Middle Ages’ is engulfing us in the sense of a new barbarian era.  Many churchmen are choosing and, what is worse, love Ferapont [a Dostoevsky character who is illiterate and rigid].  Especially ‘clear’ is the fact that all that is higher,  more complex, more difficult to comprehend — all this is a temptation and has to be destroyed….  If one remains in the system, one accepts it, albeit unwillingly, along with its methods.  If one leaves — in the role of a prophet or an accuser — one slides into arrogance and pride.  I feel constantly tortured and torn.

Or this on March 30, 1973:

Only when we write it down do we understand how much of our time is spent empty, how much fuss there is, not worthy of our attention, unimportant yet devouring our hearts.  All these days, in a state of total exhaustion as well as revulsion at the duties I need to be performing.  I find myself passively watching television.  But at the same time, when lecturing in the morning, I feel inspired again and again.

Or this, on October 22, 1974:

Yesterday we had a faculty meeting at our house.  Rather peaceful, but, Lord, how difficult it is for people not only to agree with each other, but simply to hear the other.  If it is the case with a small group of people who are essentially of one mind, what about the world at large?  Division and alienation are the essence of the original sin.  Unity can be restored only ‘in Christ.’

 Yes Father Schmemann — we need to hear this today again.

Categories
Daybook Spirituality

Daybook: Feb. 25 – March 8, 2011

February 25 – March 8, 2011

Lectionary

Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me and heard my cry.
He brought me up out of the pit of
destruction, out of the miry clay,
And He set my feet upon a rock making my
footsteps firm.
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of
praise to our God;
Many will see and fear
And will trust in the LORD.

Reflection

“I am convinced that if people would really hear Holy Week, Pascha, the Resurrection, Pentecost, the Dormition, there would be no need for theology. All of theology is there. All that is needed for one’s spirit, heart, mind and soul. How could people spend centuries discussing justification and redemption? It is all in these services. Not only is it revealed, it simply flows in one’s heart and mind. The more I live, the more convinced I am that most people love something else and expect something else from religion and in religion. For me this is idolatry, and it often makes contact with people so difficult.” — Fr. Alexander Schmemann

Prayer

God who waits
while we rush off
to spend the riches you’ve given us
on unworthy pursuits
that always end with us slopping with the pigs
in the mud.

God who waits
each morning outside the gates
straining into the distance
to see if we’ve finally begun,
once again,
the long and tired slog back home,
into your happy embrace,
into feasting and laughter and dance.

God who waits
here we are
now waiting with you.