After a strong discussion with my brother-in-law, Ed Gentry, last week, some important ideas are emerging in my heart and mind as we navigate the current trends in Church thinking.
I suggested that in the next 30 years or so, the primary challenge to Christian faith will not be Islam, Judaism, Hinduism or even atheism. It will be Theism. (Moltmann suggests that Christianity and a simple Theism are extremely far from one another.) Agnosticism (to be unsure if there is a God) will run a close second.
Why will Theism (or in some cases, agnosticism) be the challenger in the ring within the community of the faithful? The Church is discovering that it has severely lacked in its creational worldview - the magnificence of love, human aid, social justice, environmental concern and general appreciation for this world in which we live. The world around us has held up a mirror to cranky and pie-in-the-sky go-to-heaven-when-I-die Christianity, and the image has not been pretty. Creation and creationalism (a celebration of this good world), in all aspects human and environmental, are vital verbiage for the Christian vocabulary.
It doesn’t take a Christian to figure out that these things are important, so in many ways, we’re discovering how much we have in common with other human beings who do not believe that the Jesus’ words are true - “No man comes to the Father but through me.” The Church is in recovery, and we are slow. It’s both our curse and our gift to be slow, it seems. I usually believe it is our gift to the world.
So, in an age of tolerance (which can be taken to its own extreme) and understanding, Christians are awaking to the reality that others actually have something beautiful to say in art, philosophy, science and many other fields. It’s a glorious rediscovery that shimmerings of God’s truth are everywhere. We actually like people of other faiths, backgrounds, nationalities and histories - and even find affinities on many levels. We’re getting it, connecting with fellow human beings, and it’s all so thoroughly biblical, GodTrue and JesusRight.
In addition to this awakening, the age has waged it’s battle around the King (Father Raneiro Cantalamessa). Attacks on the person of Jesus being God have been many, and the new incarnations of age-old Gnosticism have railed their attacks on the divinity of Jesus. Jesus, coupled with Mary, DaVinci, Judas and the whole gang have been the subjects of the spiritual tabloids for many a moon these past years.
Many thoughtful Christians, however, they have rallied and sought to academically and credibly address these questions and the onslaught of disbelief. The average Christian has in some way felt strengthened by these helpful challenges and counter-challenges, and yet the air has changed.
I believe the changed air has put a question mark in many Christian’s minds about the “scandal of particularity” - i.e. the specific connection of Jesus with God. In my estimation, this will result not in a disbelief in God (sorry, Mr. Dawkins). Christians see too much glory, beauty and wonder in the world to trace it all back to mud.
Rather, I believe that a subtly diminished view of the biblical Jesus, and an aligning of ourselves with all things eco-, socio-, enviro- and human friendly is beginning to replace (for some) a vibrant connection with Jesus as Lord.
Now, on to the point of this brief post on a vast topic.
For this post, my point is that a rediscovery of creationalism makes us feel like we all believe the same story - Christians and good human beings alike. This has some strong elements of truth in relation to creational ideas, as mentioned above. There is much common ground, and they are all ideas with strong biblical support (love, social justice, care for the environment, care for the poor, ending slave trafficking, etc.). In my estimation, the biblical story, and Jesus culmination of it, is meant to aid us in recovering our true humanity.
However, as Ed shared with me so beautifully the other evening, the Christian’s Redemptive story is not the same as everyone else.
Resurrection. New Creation. A Champion. Sacrifice + Resurrection = Cosmic Salvation. Hope has entered the room. A reason for personal and corporate hope today, and tomorrow. Inner transformation by the Holy Spirit. A universe in the final throes of it’s brokeness, resulting one day in new heavens and a new earth. A returning Lord, with Whom we rule and reign. Eden amplified and restored. Death as beginning and not end. Marriage as a sacred act and microcosmic icon of relationship with God.
God-centric and inspired redemption… on and on and on.
As a Christian, we embrace the creational story, and are happily in recovery through the herculean efforts of current and emerging church thinkers, writers and activists. However, now that we realize that we are human beings again, along with the rest of the world, that doesn’t make us all the same in how we view the world in which we live.
Our redemptive story rumbles with an eternal thunder that heals then, now and forever. Jesus is the living Lord who brings this redemptive story to pass at the nexus of our shared past, present and future.
That’s all I have time to write for now, but this should get things started.
10 Comments
That’s a great piece there… Dan! Thanks!
Dan,
Nicely put. It’s still a bit of a shame that Christianity is the late comer to the “Green” scene as well as the latecomer to recognising the common humanity, and hence much common truth, we share with all people - irrespective of their religion.
You also summarise the changing view on Jesus nicely.
Do you believe that we can proactively find truth in other religions while simultaneously and unashamedly and (hopefully) in power heralding Jesus and the kingdom/reign/dream of Godde?
It seems that many feel that doing so is what diminishes Jesus. Can you suggest ways in which this won’t?
Great question, Tim. I do believe that we can, though it takes strong hearts and minds to do so well without diluting the specificity of Jesus, and without being confused along the way (which can actually be, in my estimation, an important part of the growth process).
Creationalism tells us that truth is bubbling in broken image bearers everywhere, throughout time and throughout the stories of religion (and philosophy). Truth resides in culture, art and even socio-religious worldviews outside of Christianity.
However, an effective study of world religions shows us that there is good theology, and bad theology in the world. There are helpful ideas in religions, and harmful (especially when a seemingly innocuous idea is extrapolated to its logical conclusions en masse).
Often, I believe that there are riches, especially creationally, to be gleaned from the world cultures of the ages (primitive to today). I also believe there are many ideas that would make us poorer if we all followed them.
In the realm of redemptive stories, I believe much “separation of the good from the bad” begins to take place.
Does the “all things will be made new and we will participate in the restoring of new creation” view of the eschaton (age to come) ring more beautifully and soundly than “eventually we’ll all evolve to a place where we become smart enough, and peaceful enough, to manage this good earth?” It’s a good question. I think the gift of the new atheists (Dawkin’s, et al) is to suggest that the Christian view of heaven weakens our enthusiasm to fix things in the here and now.
How important it is to hear that. And then, how important it is to understand that our contemporary views of heaven, as Wright and others are helping us to see, are fundamentally unbiblical (heaven as eternal escape).
The creational story of the Scriptures tells us that we are participants in the healing of the world in the here and now, that we will live on a new earth forever in new creation, and that God will redeem all things with us as participants and co-missioneers in the process (ruling and reigning). I.e. Christians should be extremely focused on the present world, fixing it, and loving/living within it as bearers of extraordinary love. That is the message I resonate with when I read the scriptures.
Redemptive stories that discount a brokenness in the human condition seem (in my estimation) bear a fundamental flaw. So do stories that say we are horrible, incomplete vessels that have no worth until we pray a prayer (enter some brands of Christianity).
I.e. The short answer is yes - and I believe the quest for truth never diminishes Jesus. In my estimation, it amplifies that resounding truth of this story (not always the Church’s representation of it) to synthesize and illuminate the human experience.
I believe that all things can be explored - some of those things should be explored - we learn as much from that with which we disagree as from that with which we agree. However, I encourage the explorer to have a strong mentoring/conversational relationship with someone who has explored these things similarly and has retained a strong faith in God, and in particular, in Jesus and the Christian story.
We are poorer if we don’t study these things, and richer if we come out the other end of what can be a painful process, able to speak to the deepest questions of the age.
I don’t presume to be there yet, myself, but I am on the quest as a creative leader, teacher and thinker-in-the-night about these things.
In my personal search, every time I look in to the riches and flaws of the world’s religious traditions, Jesus (his ways and representations of God) and his message (his transforming words and evocation of our call to be fully human) actually rise higher in my estimation. Not lower.
There is always risk in the search - I choose when and what I search well given my life at present. Having mentors, and tethers to a shared life in Christian community, are so vital in the process.
I, as an artist, come back to a wide range of songs of worship when my heart and mind is confused. They restore my soul, and I find my love for Jesus and the God of the scriptures rises.
Dan,
This is great conversation on a area of our faith that has troubled me for some time. The conversations we had last fall on the subject have sparked much searching and thinking. I have found that many of us (Christians) are afraid to dive into this perspective that there are things outside of our christian bubble that could greatly enrich our relationship with Christ and the way we connect to those whom do not know Him yet. I have found that when I step out of the Box that we have placed our faith in, I begin to know Christ more intimately because I begin to see Him from different perspectives. I have had some conversations lately with close friends that are stepping out of their bubble to gain greater perspective on the Creator and Healer of all things. What they are experiencing as they explore different streams of the Church and even spiritual truth outside of our defined church has brought them to act and live a life that more resembles that of Jesus Christ. I am excited to be on that sort of path now and can’t wait to see what the Lord will show me as I dip my foot in the waters of these converging streams that have been around us for ages yet as of late we Christians have become complacent in our journey down the calm creek of Western Christianity. I don’t know if you’ve read it yet but Shane Claiborne’s book Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical is a great example of someone who steps out of the Box and real life change occurs.
Great input, Dylan. Thanks for the pointer to Shane’s book as well.
Hi Dan,
Great response. I’m one of those Christians proposing such distinctions as well as a deliberate and responsible exploration.
I believe this in part benefits Christians, enabling a greater scope of spiritual practices that may be appropriated and applied to the pursuit of Jesus along with the kingdom/reign dream of Godde.
Christians, in my experience, have generally used theology as a stumbling block, expecting people wrestling with broader questions of faith to subscribe to something without sufficient engagement. Our ‘need’ to evangelise is often not tempered with sensitivity to the process/journey people are going through.
I believe that we have to be more sensitive to the process, the journey, of others and find ways of enabling them to deliberately and responsibly explore toward finding Jesus themselves (or not).
Would you be keen on a synchro-blog on this subject?
Let me dive into the edges of heresy here and suggest that a part of the problem may be the lack of good imaginative ways to conceptualize or even create good metaphors for the trinity. After a good invigorating chat with Ed Gentry myself (he seems good at that doesn’t he), he pushed me into my frustrations with normal trinitarian formulations. (My deepest frustration comes in response to the ease with which so many writers, and others that I otherwise like, lay the foundation for a relational/love-based universe on the wonderful loving pre-existent relationships among the Trinity. My brain has no grid for this picture - I start thinking about my own loving relationship with my spirit and get nowhere.) What emerged was the speculation (on my part) that Trinity language is less useful as a description for the pre-creation Godhead and is better seen as a manifestation of God-ness that results from creation - particularly creation climaxing in humanity made in God’s image.
I think the direction that communicates the essence of the relationship between God and Jesus the best for these times might be the language of Jesus as the incarnation and revelation of the Creator God whose love enables reconciliation and relationship through the potent combination of trust with the willingness to become powerless (accept powerlessness? - the centrality of the cross).
In terms of the uniqueness of Christ, we could then emphasize less the confession of Christian dogma (which has been so grotesquely distorted by being involved in completely non-Jesus-like power plays and association with non-Jesus-like ways of living) as the ticket to heaven and more the common human pursuit for holistic salvation that finds such a unique possibility in Jesus’ revelation/teaching/example. People in other faith traditions can come to appreciate that powerful new possibility while slowly integrating the ways in which this challenges prior assumptions and traditions (of course this applies to a lot of Christian traditions and assumptions as well).
Great comment, Walt! And greetings. I, too, would love to embrace the sweet refrain that ‘Jesus points to the Father who points to the Spirit who points to the Son’ trinitarian relational dance. My head would like to spin in this beautiful harmony, but it feels more like vertigo.
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