Jesus is Lord: Can This Title be used with Integrity?
Matters of inclusion and exclusion are critically important within the Christian religion. There is much contention within the camp over where those lines are drawn as well as the more subtle issue as to who is doing the drawing. I would rather see this broader matter examined with much depth and care rather that to spend overly much time on symbolic issues such as the centrality of the single word, “Lord.” Broader issues, of course, are embedded in this highly evocative matter. Still, to get at the level of discourse that is perhaps needed, an effort to push beyond the immediacy of this specific issue to concerns of a more underlying nature may be instructive in helping to establish the kind of mediating center in a firmly grounded Christian theology which is the hallmark of the Confessing Christ (CC) vision. http://www.confessingchrist.net/Default.aspx?tabid=29
While linguistic subtleties abound, God and Lord would be along the same meaning, even as I acknowledge that connotation is everything. So would, to use the language of the psalms, in reference to the hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, “Take it to my Rock in prayer.” I wouldn’t want to eliminate any of these references to God, or the many others provided in the Bible, while at the same time I’m not sure I would want to insist on any as a litmus test given the partiality and time bound nature of our own limited knowledge. Moreover, at least in western democratic societies, contemporary usages for the term “Lord,” are archaic, which does not mean the word should be eliminated. Far from it, as far as I’m concerned. However, much subtle hermeneutical work would be needed if this term is going to be fruitfully appropriated at least among more than a few congregations.
Consequently, I would want to issue caution on insisting upon the term, particularly where there is considerable resistance against it, as long, however, as the issue revolving around this word usage can be discussed and respectfully argued about. I am opposed to the unequivocal removal of “Lord” in much of the worship service in UCC congregations and the New Century Hymnal (NCH). At the same time, if other language is available that refers to the sovereignty of God, I’m not sure what the insistence of the word “Lord” is all about, especially if that terminology becomes the basis for a separation or a reason that people, who may be on the margins of faith stop coming to church. What perhaps is missing in many congregations is critical and respectful dialogue where these difficult issues can be examined in a manner where no one feels repressed to mask his or her perspective, questions, or doubts.
There are social, cultural, and theological pressures of many sorts in virtually all congregations, and, I suppose we can all provide examples of “bias” across the ideological and theological landscape. The question for me is how to move forward in creating a constructive religious culture where the critical issues of mediating the faith once delivered to the saints in the midst of the secular city can take place and be examined.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The Viability and Challenge of God Talk
The Viability and Challenge of God Talk Within the Milieu of the Secular City
Given the current emphasis on the term (or title) "Lord," Avery Dulles’ reflections in The Assurance of Things Hoped For may be of relevance:
"Faith is a religious act. It involves an adoring submission of one’s whole self to God as supreme lord of all things. In faith I abandon the self-centeredness of my normal vision and consent to look at reality from God's perspective. I transfer my concern from narrow self-interest to the God on whom I depend and who is to be unconditionally esteemed, trusted, and loved for his own sake. The intrinsic motive of faith, the ‘authority’ of God, is God himself in his wisdom, truthfulness, holiness power, and fidelity. These divine attributes, though conceptually distinct, are all identical in God" (p. 275).
In the important work of coming to term with modernity many of the more liberal Protestant denominations and theologians sacrificed at least to some degree the clarity and power of this fundamental faith act. In reading through Dulles I get the impression that on the whole, Vatican I & II did a better job than Protestantism of grappling with the intellectual premises of modernity as well as that of inter-religious dialogue, while maintaining the radical particularity that in Christ the fullness of God’s revelation to humankind has been given once and for all even as there are always new insights to be gleaned from this core revelation.
To be sure this religious act is a matter of faith all the way down which cannot be proven by human reason, logic, or evidence. Nonetheless, these can, and need to be helpful, for without signs it would be very difficult to see, even in a glass darkly. Even still such faith viewed exclusively through secular channels might readily be viewed as absurd, or more charitably as obscurantist.
In seeking to come to terms with modernity, liberal Protestantism at its worst accepted too readily the underlying assumptions of secular intellectualism, particularly a diminishing of the radicality of God as transcendent Other over and above anything that can be conceived in the natural world or in the realms of our inner and social experiences. Thus, one might say that the notion of God was repressed from 20th century intellectual history and philosophy as a manifestation of a broader “death of God” phenomenon, particularly in Europe and less so in the US, notwithstanding persistent strains of fundamentalism as well as evangelical resurgences throughout the century.
At its best the effort to come to terms with modernity is indispensable, if there is going to be a credible apologetic aspect to the faith at all, not only in response to overt unbelief (and therefore to the culture at large), but in response to the multiplicity of identities among many who are overtly Christian (like many of us?) in their (our) various constructions of reality which are anything but purely Christian. Perhaps I might suggest that at least in Protestant circles that apologetic work has barely begun to take place outside the realms, say, of Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Langdon Gilkey. One might also place Walter Brueggemann in this apologetic category in his “funding” of postmodernity in the compelling breakthrough of the kairotc moment through the imaginative stimulus of the Holy Spirit. Such apologoteic theology is indispensable if such fundamental religious acts of claiming Christ as Lord and Savior are going to mediate in ways that are compelling.
As many here have pointed out, there is a broad range of problems linked to the liberal (post or otherwise) or neo-orthodox solution. Might we see as a next step a thick reformed-grounded evangelic apologetic that does not merely collapse into dogmatics, but confronts the intellectual premises of modernity and postmodernity on their own terms while maintaining a distinctively Christian perspective? Donald Bloesch and Gabriel Fackreand George Hunsinger, UCC centrist stalwarts, have done substantial work in this arena. I suppose one could argue that Barth’s turn to dogmatics was also a subtle form of apologetics by indirection, but a fuller apologetic effort may be needed, such as that as exhibited by Jurgen Moltmann if the religious act of faith is going to be viewed as credible by more than a remnant.
I don’t disagree that the more fundamental work may still be the need to sharpen a subtle dogmatic project right in the heartland of the UCC denomination and its supporting seminaries. In fact, I think it’s essential. Let that work go forth! On Bloesch, on Fackre, on Brueggemann, too! Still given the pervasive cultural and religious pluralism of our times along with a profound agnosticism in the heartland of the “thinking” middle class and contemporary intellectuals, perhaps there is a need to move beyond Karl Barth’s dogmatics (while drinking richly from his wells) and incorporate richer apologetic work in the very creation of a more subtle articulation of faith.
On that score, perhaps Dulles may have a point or two in Ch 11 in The Assurance of Things Hoped For, titled “Properties of Faith.” In that chapter, Dulles points to five key properties: “supernaturality, freedom, certitude and doubt, and obscurity.” For Dulles, faith is primary, but it is faith in search of knowledge amidst the dynamic tension of certitude and doubt within the context of the ultimate obscurity of the mystery of God, given the fathomless range of His Kingdom and the inherently limited and flawed nature of our own understanding and will. The gap between what we seek and what we possess is itself fathomless, though we press toward the mark in the midst of our groaning and travail, and in the process are occasionally given the light of the beautific vision of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of human history.
Given the current emphasis on the term (or title) "Lord," Avery Dulles’ reflections in The Assurance of Things Hoped For may be of relevance:
"Faith is a religious act. It involves an adoring submission of one’s whole self to God as supreme lord of all things. In faith I abandon the self-centeredness of my normal vision and consent to look at reality from God's perspective. I transfer my concern from narrow self-interest to the God on whom I depend and who is to be unconditionally esteemed, trusted, and loved for his own sake. The intrinsic motive of faith, the ‘authority’ of God, is God himself in his wisdom, truthfulness, holiness power, and fidelity. These divine attributes, though conceptually distinct, are all identical in God" (p. 275).
In the important work of coming to term with modernity many of the more liberal Protestant denominations and theologians sacrificed at least to some degree the clarity and power of this fundamental faith act. In reading through Dulles I get the impression that on the whole, Vatican I & II did a better job than Protestantism of grappling with the intellectual premises of modernity as well as that of inter-religious dialogue, while maintaining the radical particularity that in Christ the fullness of God’s revelation to humankind has been given once and for all even as there are always new insights to be gleaned from this core revelation.
To be sure this religious act is a matter of faith all the way down which cannot be proven by human reason, logic, or evidence. Nonetheless, these can, and need to be helpful, for without signs it would be very difficult to see, even in a glass darkly. Even still such faith viewed exclusively through secular channels might readily be viewed as absurd, or more charitably as obscurantist.
In seeking to come to terms with modernity, liberal Protestantism at its worst accepted too readily the underlying assumptions of secular intellectualism, particularly a diminishing of the radicality of God as transcendent Other over and above anything that can be conceived in the natural world or in the realms of our inner and social experiences. Thus, one might say that the notion of God was repressed from 20th century intellectual history and philosophy as a manifestation of a broader “death of God” phenomenon, particularly in Europe and less so in the US, notwithstanding persistent strains of fundamentalism as well as evangelical resurgences throughout the century.
At its best the effort to come to terms with modernity is indispensable, if there is going to be a credible apologetic aspect to the faith at all, not only in response to overt unbelief (and therefore to the culture at large), but in response to the multiplicity of identities among many who are overtly Christian (like many of us?) in their (our) various constructions of reality which are anything but purely Christian. Perhaps I might suggest that at least in Protestant circles that apologetic work has barely begun to take place outside the realms, say, of Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Langdon Gilkey. One might also place Walter Brueggemann in this apologetic category in his “funding” of postmodernity in the compelling breakthrough of the kairotc moment through the imaginative stimulus of the Holy Spirit. Such apologoteic theology is indispensable if such fundamental religious acts of claiming Christ as Lord and Savior are going to mediate in ways that are compelling.
As many here have pointed out, there is a broad range of problems linked to the liberal (post or otherwise) or neo-orthodox solution. Might we see as a next step a thick reformed-grounded evangelic apologetic that does not merely collapse into dogmatics, but confronts the intellectual premises of modernity and postmodernity on their own terms while maintaining a distinctively Christian perspective? Donald Bloesch and Gabriel Fackreand George Hunsinger, UCC centrist stalwarts, have done substantial work in this arena. I suppose one could argue that Barth’s turn to dogmatics was also a subtle form of apologetics by indirection, but a fuller apologetic effort may be needed, such as that as exhibited by Jurgen Moltmann if the religious act of faith is going to be viewed as credible by more than a remnant.
I don’t disagree that the more fundamental work may still be the need to sharpen a subtle dogmatic project right in the heartland of the UCC denomination and its supporting seminaries. In fact, I think it’s essential. Let that work go forth! On Bloesch, on Fackre, on Brueggemann, too! Still given the pervasive cultural and religious pluralism of our times along with a profound agnosticism in the heartland of the “thinking” middle class and contemporary intellectuals, perhaps there is a need to move beyond Karl Barth’s dogmatics (while drinking richly from his wells) and incorporate richer apologetic work in the very creation of a more subtle articulation of faith.
On that score, perhaps Dulles may have a point or two in Ch 11 in The Assurance of Things Hoped For, titled “Properties of Faith.” In that chapter, Dulles points to five key properties: “supernaturality, freedom, certitude and doubt, and obscurity.” For Dulles, faith is primary, but it is faith in search of knowledge amidst the dynamic tension of certitude and doubt within the context of the ultimate obscurity of the mystery of God, given the fathomless range of His Kingdom and the inherently limited and flawed nature of our own understanding and will. The gap between what we seek and what we possess is itself fathomless, though we press toward the mark in the midst of our groaning and travail, and in the process are occasionally given the light of the beautific vision of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of human history.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Biblical Presuppositions and the Word of God
Biblical Presuppositions and the Word of God: Seeking Truth through a Mirror,
Dimly
"The meaning of biblical inspiration is that through the agency of the sovereign Holy Sprit the sacred text is at once God’s didactic witness and man’s celebratory witness to salvation through Christ—eternally planned, long prepared for, accomplished through incarnation at the appointed time, and now to be proclaimed everywhere as Scripture sets it forth. The person and the place of the Christ of space-time history is the interpretive key to all Scripture; the Old Testament is to be read in the light of the New Testament fulfillment in and by him, just as the New Testament is to be read in the light of the Old Testament foundations on which that fulfillment rested. For the Christian there is no Christ but the Christ of the Bible (specifically, of the New Testament teachers), and no understanding of the Bible but that which matches the expressed mind of Christ and his apostles (specifically, as they interpret the Old Testament and relate it to themselves" (J.I. Packer (1996). Truth and Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life (p. 192).
Presuppositions are unavoidable. So are ultimate commitments and vocabulary. There is no value free space that one can claim as above the fray of human experience.
That said where does one find ultimate trustworthiness even in the finiteness of our human condition? For there is something within us that seeks truth and ultimate harmonization notwithstanding the invariable gap between that for which we strive and that to which we attain even in our best or better moments. Vanity, all of it sayeth the preacher, who defines the ultimate human vocation in the mandate “To fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Why so? Because, says the preacher, “God will bring every word into judgment, including every single thing, whether it is good, whether it is evil” (Ecclesiastics 12: 13b-14) upon which the sinking sand of our own creations cannot stand. That so, Christ has even taken the burden of our failings and insufficiency upon himself for our own incapacity to follow God’s law with all our hearts, mind, strength, and soul even as the searching for such righteousness and health goes to the core of the human quest for wholeness, and ultimately salvation, whether recognized or not (Romans 1: 18-23).
As Christians, our ultimate justification is in Christ, in his completed work initiated on Calvary in which our calling is nothing short of placing all on the altar of radical Christ consciousness as did Christ on his utter fidelity to the will of God (Philipians 2:5-11): “Let this mind be in you which is in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God...made Himself of no reputation taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeliness of men.” It was this Christ who “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” In Christ the law is established, not by works but by faith that God through Christ embraces us as we are, even as we are called to perpetually reformulate ourselves, ultimately through grace via the modeling that Christ provides.
A major 20th theological struggle has been the determination of authority in biblical theology. To put it in current terms, the issue is whether the world (that is the culture) should serve as the context to interpret the Word or whether the Word should be the basis to interrogate the culture. Liberal theology has argued for the former. This, I believe, is a dead end, which is not to deny the importance of providing deep context of both the contemporary and biblical world in the engagement of biblical interpretation. In this claim, I raise the issue of authority as well as that of ultimate identification and vocabulary which are unavoidable in any event. Thus, for Christians, the critical issue is whether ultimate reliance is placed:
• In the teachings of the church
• On human experience and knowledge
• On the Bible
• On some kind of combination of the Bible, common and critical sense, the religious tradition, and dialogue with others both Christian and no Christian
If the latter, what is the criteria upon which various claims are made? That is, the matter of decisiveness cannot be avoided through this more eclectic approach. None of these are self-evident. Even the first one presupposes self-consciousness as the ultimate source of reliability.
I’ve held to the position laid out in the third bullet for a long time, as determined, ultimately by the Holy Spirit, and in the process have held to a very high view of Scripture and Christology. My shift toward a greater reliance upon the Bible with the support and grace of the Holy Spirit has been gradual through a continuous engagement with the biblical text, as much as possible, sacramentally.
Such reading, in turn, leads back out into experience and, however flawed, toward self-evident confirmation. Such ways of knowing through the certitude of faith, amidst the doubts that our human fragility cannot deny has been the common experience of many through a 2,000 year history in widely different contexts through various continents around the world. A rich drawing on the history of Christianity, particularly key writers is an incredibly important resource, which to overlook is to overlook much.
I do not embrace the Bible in an unthinking way. Rather, I acknowledge that it challenges many of my most fundamental presuppositions without which I would neither know God nor come to an understanding of who Jesus was and is, where I find my most enduring and sustaining significance, sometimes despite myself. I take the Bible, particularly in its New Testament revelation, as a profound and enduring (canonical) reflection of the apostolic witness, as utterly reliable in its fundamental claims. This is ultimately in Christ as the Incarnation of the living God, and it is only in the veracity of this belief, which I accept on faith, personal experience, and partial knowledge, that I ground my claim of Christ as the way, the truth, and the life in which no other god will do.
Anything less may be beautiful, and a reflection of a profound Christian sensibility within the syncretic world view of interfaith globalism or the secular paradigm of postmodern and radical non-foundational relativism. Such a reading, a profound marginalization of the New Testament, is nothing that would draw me—as it would be no more than an option, within the context of merely human knowledge, more or less persuasive in any given mind-set; nothing beyond a belief—a purely personal truth without ontological substance.
The evangelical claim, buttressed by the sensibility of a reformed theological outlook asserts that the Bible has its own capacity to speak the truth to the human condition. Thus, while other resources are ministerially essential, the Bible is magisterially the single most authoritative source to draw on in the human quest to be in relationship to God. This requires personal engagement in a deep and continuous exploration of the biblical riches, and a drawing on as well, of a broad range of theological resources from the immeasurable repository of the Christian past. This claim is faith based all the way down. Nonetheless, it is a firm (ideally, unswerving) belief despite the inevitable doubts, that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life without equivocation and remainder. This faith in the biblically-revealed God is something that cannot be proved by reason even as much explanation can, and needs to be given. It can only be lived, experienced, and then only partially known in a mirror, dimly and shared with others via the fragileness of our earthen vessels.
Thus, while the Bible is very much a human document, more fundamentally, it is the Word of God, which has the capacity to convey to modern people, a message very foreign to contemporary presuppositions, which, nonetheless speaks to the core of the human condition. The Bible (in principle, all of it) does speak but it takes faith and a willingness to work with the text, which even then requires the illumination of grace to experience something of the awesomeness of God that engagement with the text can provoke. I frame this discussion within the circumference of two scriptures:
“The secret things belong to the Lord Our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of the law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, in righteousness that the man of God be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
I conclude by a call to read the Word sacramentally, in faith, seeking God’s face in every effort to understand, to “lean not onto thy own understanding,” but on every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. “My son, keep my words and treasure my commands within you… Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablets of your heart” (Proverbs 7: 3). “For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 5: 21b). “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes” Proverbs 4: 20-21a). Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lead not on your on understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct their paths (Proverbs 3: 5-6). There is no finer christological statement than that found throughout the Gospel of John, Paul’s letter to the Romans, and The Letter to the Hebrews.
And more, much more—the meditations of the Psalms, the teaching of Proverbs, the deep respect for the law in Deuteronomy, the ethical high point of true Christianity in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, the definition of Christ as the lowly servant in Philippians, of whom, for that very reason every knee “should bow” and “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (2: 10-11). And then there are the many parables of Jesus, and more, much more on the unfathomable treasure of the biblical revelation.
I do not discount the value of other ways, whether secular and religious. There is much to gain through study and the gaining of critical experience of many things. Not, however, to the point that one loses or even diminishes the most important thing—that “hidden treasure in a field,” which costs nothing short of everything that one possesses. Thus, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). This, in the most fundamental sense, is the cost of faith, which, while we never fully succeed in achieving, our striving toward the mark, in faith, is our due calling. While the spirit bloweth where it will, if we hear the prompting of God on our hearts today we are called upon to open the door.
One can either take the Bible as literature or metaphor, viewing it as essentially a creation of the human imagination, or one can, without denying the human construction of this text, appreciate it more fundamentally as the Word of God. Both choices, which are only partially in our power to embrace, have profound consequences. All things considered, I place my faith on the latter, which needs to be preached, taught, and expounded upon in and out of season with depth, subtlety, humility, but also with much boldness. This includes the effort to explain in language other than that used in the Bible.
Nonetheless, the dogmatics of faith takes priority over the important, but secondary work of apologetic explanation, lest the rationale become the basis for the interpretation itself even within the household of faith. Any reformation of mainline Protestantism needs to go and do likewise lest it lose its soul in the vain effort to be “relevant.”
In the stance of faith seeking knowledge we use all that is at our disposal to explain what it is we do believe. Paul’s sermon to the Athenians (Acts 17) serves as a model, though it needs to be added that Paul was not particularly effective among the Athenian philosophers of his day. Paul Tillich’s effort at correlation may be highly imaginative and his life on the boundary very tempting. For those who seek that path (including myself in another life time, and still at some level, my “shadow voice”) I not only wish them well. I look forward to the fruit of such work.
I believe, however, that another highway is called for. This is the reformation highway with all the tools of modern scholarship and sensibility available, but with also, all the resources as well as 2000 years of tradition at our disposal in the difficult, but essential work of revitalizing a deep respect for the Bible as the Word of God in our mainline churches. With the grace of God I have put my hand to the plough to take on such work.
Here I stand.
Dimly
"The meaning of biblical inspiration is that through the agency of the sovereign Holy Sprit the sacred text is at once God’s didactic witness and man’s celebratory witness to salvation through Christ—eternally planned, long prepared for, accomplished through incarnation at the appointed time, and now to be proclaimed everywhere as Scripture sets it forth. The person and the place of the Christ of space-time history is the interpretive key to all Scripture; the Old Testament is to be read in the light of the New Testament fulfillment in and by him, just as the New Testament is to be read in the light of the Old Testament foundations on which that fulfillment rested. For the Christian there is no Christ but the Christ of the Bible (specifically, of the New Testament teachers), and no understanding of the Bible but that which matches the expressed mind of Christ and his apostles (specifically, as they interpret the Old Testament and relate it to themselves" (J.I. Packer (1996). Truth and Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life (p. 192).
Presuppositions are unavoidable. So are ultimate commitments and vocabulary. There is no value free space that one can claim as above the fray of human experience.
That said where does one find ultimate trustworthiness even in the finiteness of our human condition? For there is something within us that seeks truth and ultimate harmonization notwithstanding the invariable gap between that for which we strive and that to which we attain even in our best or better moments. Vanity, all of it sayeth the preacher, who defines the ultimate human vocation in the mandate “To fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Why so? Because, says the preacher, “God will bring every word into judgment, including every single thing, whether it is good, whether it is evil” (Ecclesiastics 12: 13b-14) upon which the sinking sand of our own creations cannot stand. That so, Christ has even taken the burden of our failings and insufficiency upon himself for our own incapacity to follow God’s law with all our hearts, mind, strength, and soul even as the searching for such righteousness and health goes to the core of the human quest for wholeness, and ultimately salvation, whether recognized or not (Romans 1: 18-23).
As Christians, our ultimate justification is in Christ, in his completed work initiated on Calvary in which our calling is nothing short of placing all on the altar of radical Christ consciousness as did Christ on his utter fidelity to the will of God (Philipians 2:5-11): “Let this mind be in you which is in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God...made Himself of no reputation taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeliness of men.” It was this Christ who “humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” In Christ the law is established, not by works but by faith that God through Christ embraces us as we are, even as we are called to perpetually reformulate ourselves, ultimately through grace via the modeling that Christ provides.
A major 20th theological struggle has been the determination of authority in biblical theology. To put it in current terms, the issue is whether the world (that is the culture) should serve as the context to interpret the Word or whether the Word should be the basis to interrogate the culture. Liberal theology has argued for the former. This, I believe, is a dead end, which is not to deny the importance of providing deep context of both the contemporary and biblical world in the engagement of biblical interpretation. In this claim, I raise the issue of authority as well as that of ultimate identification and vocabulary which are unavoidable in any event. Thus, for Christians, the critical issue is whether ultimate reliance is placed:
• In the teachings of the church
• On human experience and knowledge
• On the Bible
• On some kind of combination of the Bible, common and critical sense, the religious tradition, and dialogue with others both Christian and no Christian
If the latter, what is the criteria upon which various claims are made? That is, the matter of decisiveness cannot be avoided through this more eclectic approach. None of these are self-evident. Even the first one presupposes self-consciousness as the ultimate source of reliability.
I’ve held to the position laid out in the third bullet for a long time, as determined, ultimately by the Holy Spirit, and in the process have held to a very high view of Scripture and Christology. My shift toward a greater reliance upon the Bible with the support and grace of the Holy Spirit has been gradual through a continuous engagement with the biblical text, as much as possible, sacramentally.
Such reading, in turn, leads back out into experience and, however flawed, toward self-evident confirmation. Such ways of knowing through the certitude of faith, amidst the doubts that our human fragility cannot deny has been the common experience of many through a 2,000 year history in widely different contexts through various continents around the world. A rich drawing on the history of Christianity, particularly key writers is an incredibly important resource, which to overlook is to overlook much.
I do not embrace the Bible in an unthinking way. Rather, I acknowledge that it challenges many of my most fundamental presuppositions without which I would neither know God nor come to an understanding of who Jesus was and is, where I find my most enduring and sustaining significance, sometimes despite myself. I take the Bible, particularly in its New Testament revelation, as a profound and enduring (canonical) reflection of the apostolic witness, as utterly reliable in its fundamental claims. This is ultimately in Christ as the Incarnation of the living God, and it is only in the veracity of this belief, which I accept on faith, personal experience, and partial knowledge, that I ground my claim of Christ as the way, the truth, and the life in which no other god will do.
Anything less may be beautiful, and a reflection of a profound Christian sensibility within the syncretic world view of interfaith globalism or the secular paradigm of postmodern and radical non-foundational relativism. Such a reading, a profound marginalization of the New Testament, is nothing that would draw me—as it would be no more than an option, within the context of merely human knowledge, more or less persuasive in any given mind-set; nothing beyond a belief—a purely personal truth without ontological substance.
The evangelical claim, buttressed by the sensibility of a reformed theological outlook asserts that the Bible has its own capacity to speak the truth to the human condition. Thus, while other resources are ministerially essential, the Bible is magisterially the single most authoritative source to draw on in the human quest to be in relationship to God. This requires personal engagement in a deep and continuous exploration of the biblical riches, and a drawing on as well, of a broad range of theological resources from the immeasurable repository of the Christian past. This claim is faith based all the way down. Nonetheless, it is a firm (ideally, unswerving) belief despite the inevitable doubts, that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life without equivocation and remainder. This faith in the biblically-revealed God is something that cannot be proved by reason even as much explanation can, and needs to be given. It can only be lived, experienced, and then only partially known in a mirror, dimly and shared with others via the fragileness of our earthen vessels.
Thus, while the Bible is very much a human document, more fundamentally, it is the Word of God, which has the capacity to convey to modern people, a message very foreign to contemporary presuppositions, which, nonetheless speaks to the core of the human condition. The Bible (in principle, all of it) does speak but it takes faith and a willingness to work with the text, which even then requires the illumination of grace to experience something of the awesomeness of God that engagement with the text can provoke. I frame this discussion within the circumference of two scriptures:
“The secret things belong to the Lord Our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of the law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, in righteousness that the man of God be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
I conclude by a call to read the Word sacramentally, in faith, seeking God’s face in every effort to understand, to “lean not onto thy own understanding,” but on every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. “My son, keep my words and treasure my commands within you… Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablets of your heart” (Proverbs 7: 3). “For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 5: 21b). “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes” Proverbs 4: 20-21a). Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lead not on your on understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct their paths (Proverbs 3: 5-6). There is no finer christological statement than that found throughout the Gospel of John, Paul’s letter to the Romans, and The Letter to the Hebrews.
And more, much more—the meditations of the Psalms, the teaching of Proverbs, the deep respect for the law in Deuteronomy, the ethical high point of true Christianity in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, the definition of Christ as the lowly servant in Philippians, of whom, for that very reason every knee “should bow” and “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (2: 10-11). And then there are the many parables of Jesus, and more, much more on the unfathomable treasure of the biblical revelation.
I do not discount the value of other ways, whether secular and religious. There is much to gain through study and the gaining of critical experience of many things. Not, however, to the point that one loses or even diminishes the most important thing—that “hidden treasure in a field,” which costs nothing short of everything that one possesses. Thus, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). This, in the most fundamental sense, is the cost of faith, which, while we never fully succeed in achieving, our striving toward the mark, in faith, is our due calling. While the spirit bloweth where it will, if we hear the prompting of God on our hearts today we are called upon to open the door.
One can either take the Bible as literature or metaphor, viewing it as essentially a creation of the human imagination, or one can, without denying the human construction of this text, appreciate it more fundamentally as the Word of God. Both choices, which are only partially in our power to embrace, have profound consequences. All things considered, I place my faith on the latter, which needs to be preached, taught, and expounded upon in and out of season with depth, subtlety, humility, but also with much boldness. This includes the effort to explain in language other than that used in the Bible.
Nonetheless, the dogmatics of faith takes priority over the important, but secondary work of apologetic explanation, lest the rationale become the basis for the interpretation itself even within the household of faith. Any reformation of mainline Protestantism needs to go and do likewise lest it lose its soul in the vain effort to be “relevant.”
In the stance of faith seeking knowledge we use all that is at our disposal to explain what it is we do believe. Paul’s sermon to the Athenians (Acts 17) serves as a model, though it needs to be added that Paul was not particularly effective among the Athenian philosophers of his day. Paul Tillich’s effort at correlation may be highly imaginative and his life on the boundary very tempting. For those who seek that path (including myself in another life time, and still at some level, my “shadow voice”) I not only wish them well. I look forward to the fruit of such work.
I believe, however, that another highway is called for. This is the reformation highway with all the tools of modern scholarship and sensibility available, but with also, all the resources as well as 2000 years of tradition at our disposal in the difficult, but essential work of revitalizing a deep respect for the Bible as the Word of God in our mainline churches. With the grace of God I have put my hand to the plough to take on such work.
Here I stand.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Would the Incarnation Have Happened if the Atonement was not Necessary
There is sometimes a debate in Christian theological circles on whether the Incarnation (God entering into the world in human flesh) or the Atonement (Christ's sacrificial gift as the sufficient and full substitute for humankind's sins) is the more fundamental phenomena. A great deal of nuance has often accompanied such discussions. This issue has reently been raised on the Confessing Christ discussion list which can be accessed here http://confessingchrist.net/Discuss/tabid/55/Default.aspx. The following is a slightly elaborated reflection that I initially wrote on the CC listserv earlier today.
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Would the Incarnation have Happened if there was not a Need for the Atonement?
Let us consider 2 Corinthians 5:19, "In Christ God was reconciling the world to him." Without the Fall of Adam would the reconciliation have been necessary? In this C.S. Lewis like fictional world the Word, who was in the beginning with God as God himself, would, one presumes have been present, though in some pre-incarnate form as that term is currently understood in Christian theology. On this interpretation both Incarnation and Atonement were secondary matters as a response to the Fall to which they are intimately connected.
Some place the Incarnation in the priority status in the central role of Christ coming into the world in human flesh. However, if one assumes that the Word made flesh coming into the world is not synonymous with the Son's begotten status as the Father's agent in creating the world, then there is no need to prioritize the Incarnation. While the revelation of God in Christ remains in many ways a mystery beyond human comprehension, without the Fall, in my estimation there would have been no need for the second person of the Trinity to have entered into the world at least in the manner as depicted in the New Testament. Similarly, without the Fall there would have been no need for the Atonement. This is not to deny that the second person of the Trinity would not have been present and even conceivably in an incarnational presence, but not in the manner depicted in the New Testament.
Stated otherwise, the comprehensive Christian story as it has come to humankind in its current condition requires due attention to the healing, teaching, and earthly life of Christ as well as to the crucifixion, resurrection, post-resurrection presence, the continuing gift of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the early church, and the ultimate promise of full earthly restoration of the New Israel in the pure light of the Kingdom of God. In terms of God in Christ reconciling the world in God, the Incarnation and the Atonement mutually contribute to the intended saving power of the Trinitarian revelation that comprises our faith.
There may be practical reasons for emphasizing one strand or another of basic Christian doctrine, but the story parts need to be placed within the context of the full narrative plot in which Incarnation and Atonement in their mutual work provide the healing power leading to human salvation and world restoration (Romans 8: 18-25).
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Would the Incarnation have Happened if there was not a Need for the Atonement?
Let us consider 2 Corinthians 5:19, "In Christ God was reconciling the world to him." Without the Fall of Adam would the reconciliation have been necessary? In this C.S. Lewis like fictional world the Word, who was in the beginning with God as God himself, would, one presumes have been present, though in some pre-incarnate form as that term is currently understood in Christian theology. On this interpretation both Incarnation and Atonement were secondary matters as a response to the Fall to which they are intimately connected.
Some place the Incarnation in the priority status in the central role of Christ coming into the world in human flesh. However, if one assumes that the Word made flesh coming into the world is not synonymous with the Son's begotten status as the Father's agent in creating the world, then there is no need to prioritize the Incarnation. While the revelation of God in Christ remains in many ways a mystery beyond human comprehension, without the Fall, in my estimation there would have been no need for the second person of the Trinity to have entered into the world at least in the manner as depicted in the New Testament. Similarly, without the Fall there would have been no need for the Atonement. This is not to deny that the second person of the Trinity would not have been present and even conceivably in an incarnational presence, but not in the manner depicted in the New Testament.
Stated otherwise, the comprehensive Christian story as it has come to humankind in its current condition requires due attention to the healing, teaching, and earthly life of Christ as well as to the crucifixion, resurrection, post-resurrection presence, the continuing gift of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the early church, and the ultimate promise of full earthly restoration of the New Israel in the pure light of the Kingdom of God. In terms of God in Christ reconciling the world in God, the Incarnation and the Atonement mutually contribute to the intended saving power of the Trinitarian revelation that comprises our faith.
There may be practical reasons for emphasizing one strand or another of basic Christian doctrine, but the story parts need to be placed within the context of the full narrative plot in which Incarnation and Atonement in their mutual work provide the healing power leading to human salvation and world restoration (Romans 8: 18-25).
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Puritan Spirituality and the Quest for a Deepened Walk in Faith in Our Time
One of the challenges of attempting to write regular posts is that my reading and what I might want to say about a given text are difficult to keep in tandem; in fact, it's practically impossible. Therefore, I can only dive in in the midst of the ever flowing stream.
My reading of J.I. Packer has brought me to the writings of the English Puritans, especially John Owens, Jeremiah Burroughs, John Bunyan and Richard Baxter. It's Owens and Burroughs who have especially evoked my quest for a deep Christian spirituality--deeper than I live out my life even in the vision of making every thought captive in Christ which at sometimes in life seem easier to do than others, though that perception itself may be an illusion in which at some profound level God knows us better than we can possibly come to know ourselves.
What I appreciate in Burroughs and Owen in particular, clearly reflected in Packer, is the radical embrace of justification by faith only while in simultaneous in search for greater sanctification and holiness in God. While some theologians and devotional writers tend to emphasize one of these divergent emphases (I won't call them polarities) more than the other, when taking the entirety of the New Testament into account, it's difficult for me to fathom that they are anything but ultimately linked.
Consider 1 John alone for a moment, 1:5-10, 3:19-22. Clearly, faith is the baseline without which we cannot even begin to come to God, for without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6) in which believing in God in Christ reconciling ourselves and the world to God is characterized by Paul and other NT writers as our foremost work. Thus, what we place our focal point orientation on, what the 20th century theologian Paul Tillich refers to as "ultimate concern," is the basis for setting everything else in place. For the NT writers the only point of legitimacy in which all else, however pen ultimately important, is God in Christ reconciling the worlds, in which by comparison, all else is only dung.
Thus in our desire to convey something of the depth and mysterious power, love, and all sufficiency in Christ, with our secular friends, in which everything else by comparison is of ultimately no account, the communication gap often lies at the level of coming to terms with core assumptions, in which gaping communication chasms often lies on both sides of the faith/non faith divide. Of course, as Tillich so well argues, all people believe something in which whatever they believe most, often without seeing, that becomes by definition their ultimate concern. Where your treasure is so will your heart be.
What we argue on conviction in the faith of things unseen, through the evidence of a mighty cloud of witnesses, through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit to illuminate our own spirit, however dimly, and through the canonical Word of God itself as expressed throughout Scripture (2 Tim 3:16) is that this ultimate concern is in the Holy God who both transcends creation and yet is totally invested and immersed within it in a way that remains intimate yet separate from the world. Our secular friends, on the other hand, will typically have invested their ultimate concern in some aspect of the creation, which, in the most radical sense, even as charity and good common sense precludes us from bandying the term in a loose and insensitive way, would, to use the biblical language, be one type or another of idolatry.
One of the communication challenges as I see it is to draw fully on thick biblical literacy in our own communiqués and in each of our individual desire to remain as close as possible to God in Christ, and yet to seek out ways to effectively covey something of the inexpressible riches in which God has blessed us in the heavenly realms in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). This is challenging work in which the Puritans probably were not that much more successful in leading those who were not of faith into its inner mystery that requires faith as the basis for believing in the first place, which becomes the framework through which we gain increased knowledge.
Where the Puritans may have had more of an influence is in persuading a broader public that accepted the Christian revelation as a foundational truth claim at some level, however much practically speaking they may have been walking toward an increasingly secular mindset with the ever pressing pressure of placing this revelation of God in Christ reconciling the world to increasing back burner concerns. For our generation and throughout much of the 20th century, the secular challenge has been more in the nature of the existential force of other realities in themselves—science, nature adoration, business, the seemingly self-evident given of pluralism, articulated forms of agnosticism and atheism, etc. challenging any assumption that the ultimate revelation of God to humankind is in and through Christ as a result of the confluence of the Incarnation and the Atonement in the biblical and theological fullness of what this revelatory gift means (John 1:14, 3:16). Still, too, the Puritans were stymied as what they perceived as the rampant secularism of their time, the 17th century! And that at least may give us some comfort in coming to an appreciation of what they were contending with within their own lives and within the culture which at least in some ways is not that dissimilar to our own
While they were perhaps no more successful than we are in our persuasive efforts to illuminate something of the faith once for all delivered to the Saints (Jude 3), what they have left for us is a treasury of awesome devotional reflections at both intense pietistic and profoundly theological levels. For those who have not dipped into the vast Puritan literature on faith I encourage you to do so in which the homely and ever edifying short book of Jeremiah Burroughs, A Treasury of Earthly Mindedness is as good a start as any. Read slowly, read thoughtfully, a little each day and if possible, look up and meditate on each biblical verse Burroughs sites in amplifying his own little text. And then as inspiration moves, go to Packer for a contemporary reflection, first his book A Passion for Holiness and then to A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life.
No doubt we are led to what we are inspired to read by the Spirit of God and what illuminates one reader may not have a similar impact on another. Notwithstanding that important caveat, I do recommend the English Puritan devotionally-based preachers and theologians. In this era of dummying down, one could do a great deal worse.
My reading of J.I. Packer has brought me to the writings of the English Puritans, especially John Owens, Jeremiah Burroughs, John Bunyan and Richard Baxter. It's Owens and Burroughs who have especially evoked my quest for a deep Christian spirituality--deeper than I live out my life even in the vision of making every thought captive in Christ which at sometimes in life seem easier to do than others, though that perception itself may be an illusion in which at some profound level God knows us better than we can possibly come to know ourselves.
What I appreciate in Burroughs and Owen in particular, clearly reflected in Packer, is the radical embrace of justification by faith only while in simultaneous in search for greater sanctification and holiness in God. While some theologians and devotional writers tend to emphasize one of these divergent emphases (I won't call them polarities) more than the other, when taking the entirety of the New Testament into account, it's difficult for me to fathom that they are anything but ultimately linked.
Consider 1 John alone for a moment, 1:5-10, 3:19-22. Clearly, faith is the baseline without which we cannot even begin to come to God, for without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6) in which believing in God in Christ reconciling ourselves and the world to God is characterized by Paul and other NT writers as our foremost work. Thus, what we place our focal point orientation on, what the 20th century theologian Paul Tillich refers to as "ultimate concern," is the basis for setting everything else in place. For the NT writers the only point of legitimacy in which all else, however pen ultimately important, is God in Christ reconciling the worlds, in which by comparison, all else is only dung.
Thus in our desire to convey something of the depth and mysterious power, love, and all sufficiency in Christ, with our secular friends, in which everything else by comparison is of ultimately no account, the communication gap often lies at the level of coming to terms with core assumptions, in which gaping communication chasms often lies on both sides of the faith/non faith divide. Of course, as Tillich so well argues, all people believe something in which whatever they believe most, often without seeing, that becomes by definition their ultimate concern. Where your treasure is so will your heart be.
What we argue on conviction in the faith of things unseen, through the evidence of a mighty cloud of witnesses, through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit to illuminate our own spirit, however dimly, and through the canonical Word of God itself as expressed throughout Scripture (2 Tim 3:16) is that this ultimate concern is in the Holy God who both transcends creation and yet is totally invested and immersed within it in a way that remains intimate yet separate from the world. Our secular friends, on the other hand, will typically have invested their ultimate concern in some aspect of the creation, which, in the most radical sense, even as charity and good common sense precludes us from bandying the term in a loose and insensitive way, would, to use the biblical language, be one type or another of idolatry.
One of the communication challenges as I see it is to draw fully on thick biblical literacy in our own communiqués and in each of our individual desire to remain as close as possible to God in Christ, and yet to seek out ways to effectively covey something of the inexpressible riches in which God has blessed us in the heavenly realms in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). This is challenging work in which the Puritans probably were not that much more successful in leading those who were not of faith into its inner mystery that requires faith as the basis for believing in the first place, which becomes the framework through which we gain increased knowledge.
Where the Puritans may have had more of an influence is in persuading a broader public that accepted the Christian revelation as a foundational truth claim at some level, however much practically speaking they may have been walking toward an increasingly secular mindset with the ever pressing pressure of placing this revelation of God in Christ reconciling the world to increasing back burner concerns. For our generation and throughout much of the 20th century, the secular challenge has been more in the nature of the existential force of other realities in themselves—science, nature adoration, business, the seemingly self-evident given of pluralism, articulated forms of agnosticism and atheism, etc. challenging any assumption that the ultimate revelation of God to humankind is in and through Christ as a result of the confluence of the Incarnation and the Atonement in the biblical and theological fullness of what this revelatory gift means (John 1:14, 3:16). Still, too, the Puritans were stymied as what they perceived as the rampant secularism of their time, the 17th century! And that at least may give us some comfort in coming to an appreciation of what they were contending with within their own lives and within the culture which at least in some ways is not that dissimilar to our own
While they were perhaps no more successful than we are in our persuasive efforts to illuminate something of the faith once for all delivered to the Saints (Jude 3), what they have left for us is a treasury of awesome devotional reflections at both intense pietistic and profoundly theological levels. For those who have not dipped into the vast Puritan literature on faith I encourage you to do so in which the homely and ever edifying short book of Jeremiah Burroughs, A Treasury of Earthly Mindedness is as good a start as any. Read slowly, read thoughtfully, a little each day and if possible, look up and meditate on each biblical verse Burroughs sites in amplifying his own little text. And then as inspiration moves, go to Packer for a contemporary reflection, first his book A Passion for Holiness and then to A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life.
No doubt we are led to what we are inspired to read by the Spirit of God and what illuminates one reader may not have a similar impact on another. Notwithstanding that important caveat, I do recommend the English Puritan devotionally-based preachers and theologians. In this era of dummying down, one could do a great deal worse.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New Years Resolution
This year I will begin my trek to Weight Watchers again.
This year I will write on this blog every day and keep my posts more focused on devotional theology and practice.
This year I will...
New Years' Resolutions. Man disposes, God disposes. Whether or not all such intensions are vanity (James 4:13-15) perhaps our collective human experience will enable us to darw the reasonable conclusion that in such "resolutions," we often miss the mark. With this acknowledge, Jonathan Edward's 70 Resolutions bear, in my view, much studied reflection, preferably one or two at a time, seeded, as it was with Edward's with the quest for God's grace in enlightening their meaning for us in our time and place almost 300 years after Edward's annunciated them. Just as taking them on their own terms has value in seeking bridges between Edward's spirituality and our own quest for the holy, so does re-writing them in our own idiom and in some cases revamping at least some of them them altogether to more accurately reflect some of the different ways God may be speaking to us in our own time and context. Still, I would not want to be too quick to take on such revision so as not to miss the spiritual depth of Edward's own probing of the mind and heart of God even when at least a few of the statements seem somewhat repulsive to our own sensibilities (e.g., # 5,9, 10, 15, 38).
A happy and most blessed New Year
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Rsolutions (1722)
Jonathan Edwards
Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God’s help, I do humbly entreat Him, by His grace, to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to His will, for Christ’s sake.
Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.
1. Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved, to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved, so to do, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever.
2. Resolved, To be continually endeavouring to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the forementioned things.
3. Resolved, If ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.
4. Resolved, Never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God, nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it.
5. Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.
6. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live.
7. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
8. Resolved, To act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings, as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.
9. Resolved, To think much, on all occasions, of my dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.
10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.
11. Resolved, When I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances do not hinder.
12. Resolved, If I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.
13. Resolved, To be endeavouring to find out fit objects of liberality and charity.
14. Resolved, Never to do any thing out of revenge.
15. Resolved, Never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.
16. Resolved, Never to speak evil of any one, so that it shall tend to his dishonour, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.
17. Resolved, That I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
18. Resolved, To live so, at all times, as I think is best in my most devout frames, and when I have the clearest notions of the things of the gospel, and another world.
19. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour before I should hear the last trump.
20. Resolved, To maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.
21. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.
22. Resolved, To endeavour to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigour, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
23. Resolved, Frequently to take some deliberate action, which seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs, and ends of it; and if I find it not to be for God’s glory, to repute it as a breach of the fourth Resolution.
24. Resolved, Whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then, both carefully endeavour to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.
25. Resolved, To examine carefully and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and so direct all my forces against it.
26. Resolved, To cast away such things as I find do abate my assurance.
27. Resolved, Never wilfully to omit any thing, except the omission be for the glory of God; and frequently to examine my omissions.
28. Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive, myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
29. Resolved, Never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a petition of a prayer, which is so made, that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession which I cannot hope God will accept.
30. Resolved, To strive every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.
31. Resolved, Never to say any thing at all against any body, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of christian honour, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said any thing against any one, to bring it to, and try it strictly by, the test of this Resolution.
32. Resolved, To be strictly and firmly faithful to my trust, that that, in Prov. xx. 6. ‘A faithful man, who can find?’ may not be partly fulfilled in me.
33. Resolved, To do always what I can towards making, maintaining, and preserving peace, when it can be done without an overbalancing detriment in other respects.
34. Resolved, In narrations, never to speak any thing but the pure and simple verity.
35. Resolved, Whenever I so much question whether I have done my duty, as that my quiet and calm is thereby disturbed, to set it down, and also how the question was resolved.
36. Resolved, Never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call to it.
37. Resolved, To inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent,—what sin I have committed,—and wherein I have denied myself;—also, at the end of every week, month, and year.
38. Resolved, Never to utter any thing that is sportive, or matter of laughter, on a Lord’s day.
39. Resolved, Never to do any thing, of which I so much question the lawfulness, as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or not; unless I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.
40. Resolved, To inquire every night before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking.
41. Resolved, to ask myself, at the end of every day, week, month, and year, wherein I could possibly, in any respect, have done better.
42. Resolved, Frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism, which I solemnly renewed when I was received into the communion of the church, and which I have solemnly re-made this 12th day of January, 1723.
43. Resolved, Never, henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God’s; agreeably to what is to be found in Saturday, Jan. 12th. Jan. 12, 1723.
44. Resolved, That no other end but religion shall have any influence at all on any of my actions; and that no action shall be, in the least circumstance, any otherwise than the religious end will carry it.
45. Resolved, Never to allow any pleasure or grief, joy or sorrow, nor any affection at all, nor any degree of affection, nor any circumstance relating to it, but what helps religion.
46. Resolved, Never to allow the least measure of any fretting or uneasiness at my father or mother. Resolved, to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eye; and to be especially careful of it with respect to any of our family.
47. Resolved, To endeavour, to my utmost, to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a good and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented and easy, compassionate and generous, humble and meek, submissive and obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable and even, patient, moderate, forgiving, and sincere, temper; and to do, at all times, what such a temper would xxii lead me to; and to examine strictly, at the end of every week, whether I have so done.
48. Resolved, Constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interest in Christ or not; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of.
49. Resolved, That this never shall be, if I can help it.
50. Resolved, That I will act so, as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world.
51. Resolved, That I will act so, in every respect, as I think I shall wish I had done, if I should at last be damned.
52. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, That I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.
53. Resolved, To improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer.
54. Resolved, Whenever I hear anything spoken in commendation of any person, if I think it would be praiseworthy in me, that I will endeavour to imitate it.
55. Resolved, To endeavour, to my utmost, so to act, as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven and hell torments.
56. Resolved, Never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.
57. Resolved, When I fear misfortunes and adversity, to examine whether I have done my duty, and resolve to do it and let the event be just as Providence orders it. I will, as far as I can, be concerned about nothing but my duty and my sin.
58. Resolved, Not only to refrain from an air of dislike, fretfulness, and anger in conversation, but to exhibit an air of love, cheerfulness, and benignity.
59. Resolved, When I am most conscious of provocations to ill nature and anger, that I will strive most to feel and act good-naturedly; yea, at such times, to manifest good nature, though I think that in other respects it would be disadvantageous, and so as would be imprudent at other times.
60. Resolved, Whenever my feelings begin to appear in the least out of order, when I am conscious of the least uneasiness within, or the least irregularity without, I will then subject myself to the strictest examination.
61. Resolved, That I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it—that what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done.
62. Resolved, Never to do any thing but my duty, and then, according to Eph. vi. 6-8 to do it willingly and cheerfully, as unto the Lord, and not to man: knowing that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall be receive of the Lord.
63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true lustre, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, To act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time.
64. Resolved, When I find those ”groanings which cannot be uttered,“ of which the apostle speaks, and those ”breathings of soul for the longing it hath,” of which the psalmist speaks, Psalm cxix. 20. that I will promote them to the utmost of my power; and that I will not be weary of earnestly endeavouring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness.
65. Resolved, Very much to exercise myself in this, all my life long, viz. with the greatest openness of which I am capable, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him, all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and every thing, and every circumstance, according to Dr. Manton’s Sermon on the 119th Psalm,. July 26, and Aug. 10, 1723.
66. Resolved, That I will endeavour always to keep a benign aspect, and air of acting and speaking, in all places, and in all companies, except it should so happen that duty requires otherwise.
67. Resolved, After afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them; what good I have got by them; and, what I might have got by them.
68. Resolved, To confess frankly to myself, all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin; and, if it be what concerns religion, also to confess the whole case to God, and implore needed help.
69. Resolved, Always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it.
70. Let there be something of benevolence in all that I speak.
This year I will write on this blog every day and keep my posts more focused on devotional theology and practice.
This year I will...
New Years' Resolutions. Man disposes, God disposes. Whether or not all such intensions are vanity (James 4:13-15) perhaps our collective human experience will enable us to darw the reasonable conclusion that in such "resolutions," we often miss the mark. With this acknowledge, Jonathan Edward's 70 Resolutions bear, in my view, much studied reflection, preferably one or two at a time, seeded, as it was with Edward's with the quest for God's grace in enlightening their meaning for us in our time and place almost 300 years after Edward's annunciated them. Just as taking them on their own terms has value in seeking bridges between Edward's spirituality and our own quest for the holy, so does re-writing them in our own idiom and in some cases revamping at least some of them them altogether to more accurately reflect some of the different ways God may be speaking to us in our own time and context. Still, I would not want to be too quick to take on such revision so as not to miss the spiritual depth of Edward's own probing of the mind and heart of God even when at least a few of the statements seem somewhat repulsive to our own sensibilities (e.g., # 5,9, 10, 15, 38).
A happy and most blessed New Year
_________________________________________
Rsolutions (1722)
Jonathan Edwards
Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God’s help, I do humbly entreat Him, by His grace, to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to His will, for Christ’s sake.
Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.
1. Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved, to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved, so to do, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever.
2. Resolved, To be continually endeavouring to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the forementioned things.
3. Resolved, If ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.
4. Resolved, Never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God, nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it.
5. Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.
6. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live.
7. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
8. Resolved, To act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings, as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.
9. Resolved, To think much, on all occasions, of my dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.
10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.
11. Resolved, When I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances do not hinder.
12. Resolved, If I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.
13. Resolved, To be endeavouring to find out fit objects of liberality and charity.
14. Resolved, Never to do any thing out of revenge.
15. Resolved, Never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.
16. Resolved, Never to speak evil of any one, so that it shall tend to his dishonour, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.
17. Resolved, That I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
18. Resolved, To live so, at all times, as I think is best in my most devout frames, and when I have the clearest notions of the things of the gospel, and another world.
19. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour before I should hear the last trump.
20. Resolved, To maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.
21. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.
22. Resolved, To endeavour to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigour, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
23. Resolved, Frequently to take some deliberate action, which seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs, and ends of it; and if I find it not to be for God’s glory, to repute it as a breach of the fourth Resolution.
24. Resolved, Whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then, both carefully endeavour to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.
25. Resolved, To examine carefully and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and so direct all my forces against it.
26. Resolved, To cast away such things as I find do abate my assurance.
27. Resolved, Never wilfully to omit any thing, except the omission be for the glory of God; and frequently to examine my omissions.
28. Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive, myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
29. Resolved, Never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a petition of a prayer, which is so made, that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession which I cannot hope God will accept.
30. Resolved, To strive every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.
31. Resolved, Never to say any thing at all against any body, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of christian honour, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said any thing against any one, to bring it to, and try it strictly by, the test of this Resolution.
32. Resolved, To be strictly and firmly faithful to my trust, that that, in Prov. xx. 6. ‘A faithful man, who can find?’ may not be partly fulfilled in me.
33. Resolved, To do always what I can towards making, maintaining, and preserving peace, when it can be done without an overbalancing detriment in other respects.
34. Resolved, In narrations, never to speak any thing but the pure and simple verity.
35. Resolved, Whenever I so much question whether I have done my duty, as that my quiet and calm is thereby disturbed, to set it down, and also how the question was resolved.
36. Resolved, Never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call to it.
37. Resolved, To inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent,—what sin I have committed,—and wherein I have denied myself;—also, at the end of every week, month, and year.
38. Resolved, Never to utter any thing that is sportive, or matter of laughter, on a Lord’s day.
39. Resolved, Never to do any thing, of which I so much question the lawfulness, as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or not; unless I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.
40. Resolved, To inquire every night before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking.
41. Resolved, to ask myself, at the end of every day, week, month, and year, wherein I could possibly, in any respect, have done better.
42. Resolved, Frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism, which I solemnly renewed when I was received into the communion of the church, and which I have solemnly re-made this 12th day of January, 1723.
43. Resolved, Never, henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God’s; agreeably to what is to be found in Saturday, Jan. 12th. Jan. 12, 1723.
44. Resolved, That no other end but religion shall have any influence at all on any of my actions; and that no action shall be, in the least circumstance, any otherwise than the religious end will carry it.
45. Resolved, Never to allow any pleasure or grief, joy or sorrow, nor any affection at all, nor any degree of affection, nor any circumstance relating to it, but what helps religion.
46. Resolved, Never to allow the least measure of any fretting or uneasiness at my father or mother. Resolved, to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eye; and to be especially careful of it with respect to any of our family.
47. Resolved, To endeavour, to my utmost, to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a good and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented and easy, compassionate and generous, humble and meek, submissive and obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable and even, patient, moderate, forgiving, and sincere, temper; and to do, at all times, what such a temper would xxii lead me to; and to examine strictly, at the end of every week, whether I have so done.
48. Resolved, Constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interest in Christ or not; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of.
49. Resolved, That this never shall be, if I can help it.
50. Resolved, That I will act so, as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world.
51. Resolved, That I will act so, in every respect, as I think I shall wish I had done, if I should at last be damned.
52. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, That I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.
53. Resolved, To improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer.
54. Resolved, Whenever I hear anything spoken in commendation of any person, if I think it would be praiseworthy in me, that I will endeavour to imitate it.
55. Resolved, To endeavour, to my utmost, so to act, as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven and hell torments.
56. Resolved, Never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.
57. Resolved, When I fear misfortunes and adversity, to examine whether I have done my duty, and resolve to do it and let the event be just as Providence orders it. I will, as far as I can, be concerned about nothing but my duty and my sin.
58. Resolved, Not only to refrain from an air of dislike, fretfulness, and anger in conversation, but to exhibit an air of love, cheerfulness, and benignity.
59. Resolved, When I am most conscious of provocations to ill nature and anger, that I will strive most to feel and act good-naturedly; yea, at such times, to manifest good nature, though I think that in other respects it would be disadvantageous, and so as would be imprudent at other times.
60. Resolved, Whenever my feelings begin to appear in the least out of order, when I am conscious of the least uneasiness within, or the least irregularity without, I will then subject myself to the strictest examination.
61. Resolved, That I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it—that what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done.
62. Resolved, Never to do any thing but my duty, and then, according to Eph. vi. 6-8 to do it willingly and cheerfully, as unto the Lord, and not to man: knowing that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall be receive of the Lord.
63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true lustre, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, To act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time.
64. Resolved, When I find those ”groanings which cannot be uttered,“ of which the apostle speaks, and those ”breathings of soul for the longing it hath,” of which the psalmist speaks, Psalm cxix. 20. that I will promote them to the utmost of my power; and that I will not be weary of earnestly endeavouring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness.
65. Resolved, Very much to exercise myself in this, all my life long, viz. with the greatest openness of which I am capable, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him, all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and every thing, and every circumstance, according to Dr. Manton’s Sermon on the 119th Psalm,. July 26, and Aug. 10, 1723.
66. Resolved, That I will endeavour always to keep a benign aspect, and air of acting and speaking, in all places, and in all companies, except it should so happen that duty requires otherwise.
67. Resolved, After afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them; what good I have got by them; and, what I might have got by them.
68. Resolved, To confess frankly to myself, all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin; and, if it be what concerns religion, also to confess the whole case to God, and implore needed help.
69. Resolved, Always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it.
70. Let there be something of benevolence in all that I speak.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Life Challenges of a Budding Christian Scholar
I'm studying for the CBEST exam to begin the process of becoming certified in adult education in California, my new found state. While I passed the math and reading texts, I actually failed the writing test; go figure. In any event I am now studying to retaking it and and working through the practice questions. The one that I recently wrote on was the following:
Describe a time in your life when you had difficulty making an important decision. Identify the situation and explain whether you were able to solve the problem. If it was resolved, then how? If not, then why not—what happened?
The following, which I thought would be of some interest here, was my response. Whether such an essay would garner me a passing grade on the CBEST exam remains something to be determined.
GD
_____________________________________________________
One of the most difficult decisions I made was that of shifting my book writing focus from adult literacy studies to that of 20th century biblical theology. At the time I began grappling with this issue I was in my mid-50s, had just completed publishing a major book in the field of adult literacy studies, had written about a dozen articles on various topics within adult literacy education and had worked in the field for about 20 years, mostly as an on-site program manager. Meanwhile, I had a born-again religious experience in the early 70s, had gone through various periods of intense and declining fervency in my faith walk, and had written a variety of informal religious reflections that I was able to place online.
After an initial euphoria in completing the book, I became slowly disillusioned in the limited readership and seemingly limited impact of my work notwithstanding the years of hard equity sweat that went into the work. I felt I had another book within me, and in fact, had written a couple of in-depth articles on adult literacy scientific philosophy that I placed online as I thought they were too lengthy for journal publication and not long enough for possible monograph consideration.
I did begin to work with a publisher on the prospect of a collection of my journal articles supported by a newly written introduction, but the deal went south for reasons that remained unclear to me. Still, I did think that I could produce another book in my field if that was the direction, in fact, that I chose to pursue.
Two factors were at work that helped me to shift my direction: a sense of deep inner questioning about the wisdom in continuing along this pathway in light of the length of time needed to complete another book on adult literacy; the realization that if I were to pursue the prompting inspiring my faith walk to the depths that sometimes moved me I would need to make a radical commitment to it with all my mind as well as my heart, strength, and soul.
As someone who was able to publish in adult literacy studies with no university-based training in the field, I sensed I had the capacity to put together a monograph on biblical theology which I had studied for years through voluminous reading, through extensive theological list-post writing and argumentation, and through the creation of a number of informal biblically-based and theologically informed texts that I have placed online on a theological website, and by participating and sometimes leading a number of adult church education classes.
One thing in particular, did perplex me; namely as an “amateur,” with no official church or seminary standing would I be able to break into the highly competitive field of contemporary Christian publishing with a monograph that was likely to be complex and would likely only draw a limited readership? My book on adult was my second effort in that field in which my first attempt while considered at several publishing houses never made it to the contract level.
While this matter (the challenges of the publishing business) was churning in my mind, I did receive very favorable feedback from a retired theologian of some prominence who thought my biblical theology project was viable. So certainly did I in a book project that was designed to heal the fissures between mainline and evangelical Protestant theology on the role of the Bible in contemporary theological reflection and pietistic practice. In addition, there was an inner drive motivating me in this direction which to deny would be to miss an opportunity that might not come again.
After four years, 400 pages of thick text, two rejections from major Christian publishing houses I am currently at a crossroads with this project. I view the topic as inherently valuable and I think I covered a great deal of ground, though the prose may need some radical reconstruction. Yet at bottom I am uncertain whether this book in any form is publishable other than through self-publishing in which I have no positive sense that I would draw a readership worth the effort of going forth in that direction.
I do not view the project as a waste, far from it and am committed to seeing it in print in some form even though for now because of other pressing commitments it needs to stay on the back burner. In the meanwhile as I search for ways to reconstruct my career in light of a recent downsizing and a move across country to California from New England I will continue to tinker with this text as time allows and try to figure out where such writing fits in within my life both in the near and in the more distant future.
Now I see in a glass darkly; then I shall see face to face.
Describe a time in your life when you had difficulty making an important decision. Identify the situation and explain whether you were able to solve the problem. If it was resolved, then how? If not, then why not—what happened?
The following, which I thought would be of some interest here, was my response. Whether such an essay would garner me a passing grade on the CBEST exam remains something to be determined.
GD
_____________________________________________________
One of the most difficult decisions I made was that of shifting my book writing focus from adult literacy studies to that of 20th century biblical theology. At the time I began grappling with this issue I was in my mid-50s, had just completed publishing a major book in the field of adult literacy studies, had written about a dozen articles on various topics within adult literacy education and had worked in the field for about 20 years, mostly as an on-site program manager. Meanwhile, I had a born-again religious experience in the early 70s, had gone through various periods of intense and declining fervency in my faith walk, and had written a variety of informal religious reflections that I was able to place online.
After an initial euphoria in completing the book, I became slowly disillusioned in the limited readership and seemingly limited impact of my work notwithstanding the years of hard equity sweat that went into the work. I felt I had another book within me, and in fact, had written a couple of in-depth articles on adult literacy scientific philosophy that I placed online as I thought they were too lengthy for journal publication and not long enough for possible monograph consideration.
I did begin to work with a publisher on the prospect of a collection of my journal articles supported by a newly written introduction, but the deal went south for reasons that remained unclear to me. Still, I did think that I could produce another book in my field if that was the direction, in fact, that I chose to pursue.
Two factors were at work that helped me to shift my direction: a sense of deep inner questioning about the wisdom in continuing along this pathway in light of the length of time needed to complete another book on adult literacy; the realization that if I were to pursue the prompting inspiring my faith walk to the depths that sometimes moved me I would need to make a radical commitment to it with all my mind as well as my heart, strength, and soul.
As someone who was able to publish in adult literacy studies with no university-based training in the field, I sensed I had the capacity to put together a monograph on biblical theology which I had studied for years through voluminous reading, through extensive theological list-post writing and argumentation, and through the creation of a number of informal biblically-based and theologically informed texts that I have placed online on a theological website, and by participating and sometimes leading a number of adult church education classes.
One thing in particular, did perplex me; namely as an “amateur,” with no official church or seminary standing would I be able to break into the highly competitive field of contemporary Christian publishing with a monograph that was likely to be complex and would likely only draw a limited readership? My book on adult was my second effort in that field in which my first attempt while considered at several publishing houses never made it to the contract level.
While this matter (the challenges of the publishing business) was churning in my mind, I did receive very favorable feedback from a retired theologian of some prominence who thought my biblical theology project was viable. So certainly did I in a book project that was designed to heal the fissures between mainline and evangelical Protestant theology on the role of the Bible in contemporary theological reflection and pietistic practice. In addition, there was an inner drive motivating me in this direction which to deny would be to miss an opportunity that might not come again.
After four years, 400 pages of thick text, two rejections from major Christian publishing houses I am currently at a crossroads with this project. I view the topic as inherently valuable and I think I covered a great deal of ground, though the prose may need some radical reconstruction. Yet at bottom I am uncertain whether this book in any form is publishable other than through self-publishing in which I have no positive sense that I would draw a readership worth the effort of going forth in that direction.
I do not view the project as a waste, far from it and am committed to seeing it in print in some form even though for now because of other pressing commitments it needs to stay on the back burner. In the meanwhile as I search for ways to reconstruct my career in light of a recent downsizing and a move across country to California from New England I will continue to tinker with this text as time allows and try to figure out where such writing fits in within my life both in the near and in the more distant future.
Now I see in a glass darkly; then I shall see face to face.
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