A debate was hosted awhile ago featuring atheist Christopher Hitchins and prominant theologian Alister McGrath (to be viewed online here: http://fora.tv/2007/10/11/Christopher_Hitchens_Debates_Alister_McGrath#chapter_01). The subject matter is religion: poison or cure? Hitchins, suprisingly more intelligent than I had assumed, avoids the deification of science and resorts to logical deductions in his attempt to deconstruct the Christian faith. One of his appeals is against 'the preposterous notion of compulsory love'. He deems that the God of Christ demands our love, and that we must simultaneously be terrified of Him. I suppose Hitchins sees this as fragmentary and stupid, an anthropological impossibility and an undermining of true love. Where, I ask, did he get these doctrines? From Sinai? 'Moses said to the people,"Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." (From Exodus 20:20) It would appear that a right interpretation of the Revelation of God on Sinai; the trumpet blast, the thick darkness and cloud, the fire and storm would not be fear; but trust and protection. Where then did he get this idea of love and terror? From the Gospel? "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." (From 1 John 4:18) I challenge the reader to carefully search all of the divine manifestations, examining closely the verbal challenge of God. It would seem that God textually speaks against fear and terror before Him. It is plausible that the ultimate purpose of God is to drive out all of our fear; convincing us that His purpose is not to punish us but to love us. Augustine sees this as an eschatological reality; a promise not yet fulfilled. From time to time we face dread and terror before a Holy God. "For those to whom it is said,"I call you servants no longer, but friends"(John 15:15) are not afraid of one who is now a friend, when they have been led right through to what was promised." -Augustine (Exposition of Psalm 5 p.98)
In the meantime we must challenge and weigh our fears before the God whom we address as 'Abba'. Are they hindrances or helps?
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
On Silence.
Some have advised that I carry on with this blog. What can I say to this?
"....A wise man listens to advice." (Proverbs 12:15)
Tranquility overcomes me when I ponder how few readers stop by. I am off in the wilderness with my God, with my Father. A few stragglers pass and take note and grin; but in reality I am left with God, with Father.
Why then have I written so little? I clap my hands over my mouth. I have nothing to say other than to give exegesis to my own muteness. God has said enough; Martin Luther and Augustine and Yancey have added a little more....and that is good. Why then ought I to speak? I ought rather to listen....and when I've had my fill of wisdom and find the world awry still; then I'll rebuke myself and the world and listen closer. Why not a theology of listening rather than speaking? Take note of this! (James 1:19) I'll take my cap and my crown off and give it to more qualified men. Why cannot Jeremiah and Solomon and Ezekiel be our theologians? I think they do it better; I want to learn to treasure their words.
Lord Father,
Teach us to listen. Especially let us listen to and to listen more to your Words.
Amen.
"....A wise man listens to advice." (Proverbs 12:15)
Tranquility overcomes me when I ponder how few readers stop by. I am off in the wilderness with my God, with my Father. A few stragglers pass and take note and grin; but in reality I am left with God, with Father.
Why then have I written so little? I clap my hands over my mouth. I have nothing to say other than to give exegesis to my own muteness. God has said enough; Martin Luther and Augustine and Yancey have added a little more....and that is good. Why then ought I to speak? I ought rather to listen....and when I've had my fill of wisdom and find the world awry still; then I'll rebuke myself and the world and listen closer. Why not a theology of listening rather than speaking? Take note of this! (James 1:19) I'll take my cap and my crown off and give it to more qualified men. Why cannot Jeremiah and Solomon and Ezekiel be our theologians? I think they do it better; I want to learn to treasure their words.
Lord Father,
Teach us to listen. Especially let us listen to and to listen more to your Words.
Amen.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
From Ecclesiastes: An Ethic of Today
"Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well." (Ecclesiastes 11:6)
It is impossible for me to read Ecclesiastes for longer than two minutes without giving a hearty affirmation to its canonicity. The Teacher is a theologian of stellar quality, authoritative for proposition, innovative and new. But here we are not so much concerned with theology as we are with ethical living. In the spirit of Solomon we have a doctrine of Today that gives high credence to work, to usefulness, to output and discharge. The day must become a metanarrative of itself; a prolegomena and a denoument encapsulating a rich tapestry of life. Let us begin the morning with work and let us end it with work. Amen!
It is impossible for me to read Ecclesiastes for longer than two minutes without giving a hearty affirmation to its canonicity. The Teacher is a theologian of stellar quality, authoritative for proposition, innovative and new. But here we are not so much concerned with theology as we are with ethical living. In the spirit of Solomon we have a doctrine of Today that gives high credence to work, to usefulness, to output and discharge. The day must become a metanarrative of itself; a prolegomena and a denoument encapsulating a rich tapestry of life. Let us begin the morning with work and let us end it with work. Amen!
Friday, December 5, 2008
The Theologian of the Cross: A Poem
I recently published this poem in the midst of a bout of temptation. It is the second of two (the first being The Theologian of Glory)devoted to Martin Luthers Heidelberg Disputations which will forever change the way I see life.
The Theologian of the Cross
Food is my enemy, and I revile the raiment draped over my shoulder,
When I cry to God there is no one there to answer, He is gone out of sight!
“Why Oh Lord, do you stand far off? why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”
I am made to see sin upon sin, temptation upon temptation, judgment for both,
The promise has hidden, threatenings are my revelations from God.
But scarcely do I escape one threat before another one stands in the way.
My complaint is cut short lest my mouth in bitterness utter sin,
Lest I grumble as the Israelites did and release the fury of the Most High.
I could ask for death, and find comfort in the darkness of the grave,
But the flames of Hell lick the fringes of this solace,
The everlasting fire stands to attention, since my assurance is gone.
Tomorrow no longer bothers me, but today has become a dread.
My soul writhes under the pressure of today!
I am like those without youth, oh how bitter!
Like Martin Bucer stripped of his prime by the cares of the church.
Sleep only stays the wound, like anesthesia,
When I awake no surgery has been done and the wound festers open.
Where is my Maker? Where is Christ? He is on the cross,
But I must suffer with Him! Oh I must suffer and do the things He has done.
Oh God.
The Theologian of the Cross
Food is my enemy, and I revile the raiment draped over my shoulder,
When I cry to God there is no one there to answer, He is gone out of sight!
“Why Oh Lord, do you stand far off? why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”
I am made to see sin upon sin, temptation upon temptation, judgment for both,
The promise has hidden, threatenings are my revelations from God.
But scarcely do I escape one threat before another one stands in the way.
My complaint is cut short lest my mouth in bitterness utter sin,
Lest I grumble as the Israelites did and release the fury of the Most High.
I could ask for death, and find comfort in the darkness of the grave,
But the flames of Hell lick the fringes of this solace,
The everlasting fire stands to attention, since my assurance is gone.
Tomorrow no longer bothers me, but today has become a dread.
My soul writhes under the pressure of today!
I am like those without youth, oh how bitter!
Like Martin Bucer stripped of his prime by the cares of the church.
Sleep only stays the wound, like anesthesia,
When I awake no surgery has been done and the wound festers open.
Where is my Maker? Where is Christ? He is on the cross,
But I must suffer with Him! Oh I must suffer and do the things He has done.
Oh God.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Creation and Intelligent Design
“I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design.... There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae [parasitic wasps] with the express intention of their [larva] feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.” (The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, 8:224)
Theologian Ben Myers agrees with Charles Darwin that the created order often reveals a a god of tyrannical fashion and malevolence (see 'Darwin on Intelligent Design' post at http://faith-theology.blogspot.com/) And yet in this concession to Darwin he has inadvertently allowed a bottom-up if/then theology of the creator God. If this type of larvae does this and it is designed as such, the designer must be cruel. Such is a rather avant-garde conclusion given the reflections God makes on the created order near the end of Job. After all of the destruction of Leviathon and Behemoth, after Job by divine permission loses house and family and health, God still remains the 'I Am' to be feared and worshipped and loved. God as wholly other can author chaos and still remain unswervingly Love. We know this by the revelation of Christ on the cross, where God the Father had His own beloved Son crushed and cut off for our sakes. We know this because as Christ was cut off by God He was also coronated by God (Phillipians 2:9,). We know that as Christ stood before the judgment of God he stood before the Love of God. "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life-only to take it up again." (John 10:17)
If the cross is the Revelation of God, then it is our starting point for the doctrine of creation. I propose that with this 'top-down' analogia fide we can sufficiently articulate the created order in all its cruelties and glories. We can proclaim in faith that God is indeed the Creator of all things, from the butterfly to the parasite, and that He loves all things in Christ.
Theologian Ben Myers agrees with Charles Darwin that the created order often reveals a a god of tyrannical fashion and malevolence (see 'Darwin on Intelligent Design' post at http://faith-theology.blogspot.com/) And yet in this concession to Darwin he has inadvertently allowed a bottom-up if/then theology of the creator God. If this type of larvae does this and it is designed as such, the designer must be cruel. Such is a rather avant-garde conclusion given the reflections God makes on the created order near the end of Job. After all of the destruction of Leviathon and Behemoth, after Job by divine permission loses house and family and health, God still remains the 'I Am' to be feared and worshipped and loved. God as wholly other can author chaos and still remain unswervingly Love. We know this by the revelation of Christ on the cross, where God the Father had His own beloved Son crushed and cut off for our sakes. We know this because as Christ was cut off by God He was also coronated by God (Phillipians 2:9,). We know that as Christ stood before the judgment of God he stood before the Love of God. "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life-only to take it up again." (John 10:17)
If the cross is the Revelation of God, then it is our starting point for the doctrine of creation. I propose that with this 'top-down' analogia fide we can sufficiently articulate the created order in all its cruelties and glories. We can proclaim in faith that God is indeed the Creator of all things, from the butterfly to the parasite, and that He loves all things in Christ.
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Logos Spermata
'For all writers were able to see the truth darkly, on account of the implanted seed of the Logos which was grafted into them.'
-Justin Martyr
In the second century of Christianity the prominant apologist Justin Martyr (followed more eloquently by Clement of Alexandria) developed the idea that the Word of God had been spattered across the globe long before its taking on flesh; long before Jesus Christ was revealed. This was a useful missional tactic; quite in the line of Paul in Athens who built upon a pre-existent theology in Hellenistic culture. This the idea that Jesus was globally anticipated; was unkown but known as such and thus worshipped.
Today the seed seems to remain just as it did then, if we are to take Paul and Justin seriously. Though Christ has been revealed to the earth, the two-tiered Word of God always projects towards a point and returns with a harvest (Isaiah 55:11). We are the elected bearers of this Word; we the church.
But what of this spermata? In our eagerness to proclaim to the world the Revelation of Christ we neglect to attend patiently to the world around us. Where are the seeds? What is being said already?
One example struck me as I watched the latest Mummy flick. The film was awful; I despise popular culture and would prefer the whole of it go to Hell where it ought to be. Our minds have suckled on stale milk long enough...
One thing dawned on me though: the resurrection of the dead. Everywhere and from beginning to end figures in the film were coming back to life after being long dead. This theme is actually common in most movies (more recently 10,000 B.C where the young lady is killed, but shortly thereafter receives the spirit of her guardian and returns to life). Could it be that in a world long sold out to a biological death followed by nothingness, the very arts that sustain our shallow worldview tinker with the idea of resurrection? God always gets the last Word.
To remain true to the gospel though, I propose that these evident revelatory themes are not salvific. I propose in the line of Paul, of Luther and of Barth that the Logos Spermata serves only to reveal the despair of man in knowing who God is.
-Justin Martyr
In the second century of Christianity the prominant apologist Justin Martyr (followed more eloquently by Clement of Alexandria) developed the idea that the Word of God had been spattered across the globe long before its taking on flesh; long before Jesus Christ was revealed. This was a useful missional tactic; quite in the line of Paul in Athens who built upon a pre-existent theology in Hellenistic culture. This the idea that Jesus was globally anticipated; was unkown but known as such and thus worshipped.
Today the seed seems to remain just as it did then, if we are to take Paul and Justin seriously. Though Christ has been revealed to the earth, the two-tiered Word of God always projects towards a point and returns with a harvest (Isaiah 55:11). We are the elected bearers of this Word; we the church.
But what of this spermata? In our eagerness to proclaim to the world the Revelation of Christ we neglect to attend patiently to the world around us. Where are the seeds? What is being said already?
One example struck me as I watched the latest Mummy flick. The film was awful; I despise popular culture and would prefer the whole of it go to Hell where it ought to be. Our minds have suckled on stale milk long enough...
One thing dawned on me though: the resurrection of the dead. Everywhere and from beginning to end figures in the film were coming back to life after being long dead. This theme is actually common in most movies (more recently 10,000 B.C where the young lady is killed, but shortly thereafter receives the spirit of her guardian and returns to life). Could it be that in a world long sold out to a biological death followed by nothingness, the very arts that sustain our shallow worldview tinker with the idea of resurrection? God always gets the last Word.
To remain true to the gospel though, I propose that these evident revelatory themes are not salvific. I propose in the line of Paul, of Luther and of Barth that the Logos Spermata serves only to reveal the despair of man in knowing who God is.
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