{"id":950,"date":"2009-09-21T06:42:09","date_gmt":"2009-09-21T13:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tgdarkly.com\/blog\/?p=950"},"modified":"2009-09-21T06:42:09","modified_gmt":"2009-09-21T13:42:09","slug":"light-from-the-christian-east-speaking-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/2009\/09\/21\/light-from-the-christian-east-speaking-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Light from the Christian East: Speaking of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my “Intro to the Christian Tradition” class at Biblical Seminary<\/a>, we’re discussing James Payton’s Light from the Christian East:\u00a0 An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition<\/a>.\u00a0 In Chapter 4, Payton describes how Eastern Orthodox Christianity historically has emphasized God’s ineffability to a greater degree than Western Christianity.\u00a0 As a result, Eastern Orthodox theology tends to stress “apophatic” or “negative” theology — speaking about God primarily by emphasizing what God is not<\/em> like — over “cataphatic” or “positive” theology.\u00a0 Here was one of our classroom discussion questions and my response:<\/p>\n

1. How do you respond to Orthodox theology\u2019s understanding that speaking of God is \u201ca hazardous enterprise,\u201d and that language is unable to fully convey God\u2019s nature? (p. 59)<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a very helpful reminder for those of us raised in evangelical independent church traditions.<\/p>\n

In some circles, I think our ways of speaking about God have become “scholastic.” We are very keen to make logical arguments brimming with \u201cevidence that demands a verdict.\u201d Our in-house arguments tend to focus on the precise meanings of terms in carefully drafted \u201cStatements of Faith.\u201d These arguments and Statements may have a place, but it\u2019s helpful to remember that they don\u2019t really begin to grasp or contain God. I believe God is concerned with our fidelity to Him, and that this involves the transformation of our minds and the ability to \u201cteach sound doctrine.\u201d However, God is so far beyond our ability to articulate who He is that I think we dishonor Him when we make doctrinal precision the sine qua non of the Christian life. In fact, I agree with John Franke\u2019s book \u201cManifold Witness<\/a>\u201d that some degree of difference in doctrinal articulation is part of God\u2019s design for the Church. This need not be disturbing when begin to realize that God truly is ineffable.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also helpful to remember that we cannot fully explain God\u2019s ways. Often, we display enormous confidence in our own ability to discern exactly what God is doing in the world. Perhaps we assume automatically that AIDS, or genocide, or a financial crisis or natural disaster, is a clear message from God about someone else\u2019s sin. Perhaps we assume equally quickly that our own \u201csuccess\u201d is evidence of God\u2019s blessing. It\u2019s true, of course, that God does discipline and punish sin and that we do experience His blessing as we follow Him. Yet, it\u2019s helpful to remember that our primary posture must be one of humble, kneeling humility and gratitude. In fact, one of the blessings of faith, I think, is the ability to leave such tangles in God\u2019s hands. If His love, justice and grace ultimately are beyond us, it is not for us to circumscribe how and when He must act with regard to others. It is for us simply to seek to be faithful with what He has given to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my “Intro to the Christian Tradition” class at Biblical Seminary, we’re discussing James Payton’s Light from the Christian East:\u00a0 An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition.\u00a0 In Chapter 4, Payton describes how Eastern Orthodox Christianity historically has emphasized God’s ineffability to a greater degree than Western Christianity.\u00a0 As a result, Eastern Orthodox theology tends to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,51,19,8,26,4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-and-film","category-eastern-orthodoxy","category-historical-theology","category-humor","category-science-technology","category-spirituality","category-theology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p824rZ-fk","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}