I’ve had some extra free time and have been perusing the blogosphere to see if anything of import has been written.  Tragically, I’ve found little worth mentioning, save the passing of Bruce Metzger.  We should all be thankful for the tremendous contributions Dr. Metzger made for the Church.  We should mourn his passing, but rejoice that he is home.

I did come across one point that has me intrigued.  So, I’ll briefly share some thoughts pertaining to Steve Camp’s post “Removing the Offense of the Cross” in which he accurately describes much of modern evangelicalism’s attempt to win converts as turning Jesus into people’s “spiritual Pez dispenser.”  However, I find Camp’s critique rather uncharitable.  Does he just hate any and all aspects of meeting people where they are?  Is it always unacceptable to talk about God’s love and use the Scriptural analogies given to us in evangelism?

Now, don’t get me wrong - I agree that seeker-sensitivity has done as much harm as good to the Church overall, and the watered-down Gospel has often turned Christ into a teddy bear instead of the Lion of Judah, but is it not also fair to levy criticisms against those who make zero effort to portray God as desiring a relationship with those who He is drawing towards Himself?  Is contextualizing the Gospel out-of-bounds in reaching out to a post-modern society?  The fundamentalist attitude which exalts itself over and against all other needs to pull the log out of its own eye, yet again.  This either-or, my way is better than yours mentality has got to go.  It must be a both-and Jesus that we present to people, not one or the other.  Only then will we be presenting the full counsel of God.  Oh, and it doesn’t necessarily have to happen in one sitting.  It may take a few conversations to discuss the ins and outs of God’s character and His feelings towards His creation - even in its rebellion.  And, if we’re going to be guided by the Holy Spirit and not some religious methodology, we probably won’t always start with wrath, nor will we always start with love.

But, these are my thoughts.  Anybody else have ideas?

I’ve been enjoying a dialog with my new friend, Alastair Roberts, a student at University of St. Andrews in Scotland. I’ve been following his blog alastair.adversaria for quite awhile, but this latest joke on the two source theory of the Synoptic Gospels was just too funny. I had to comment. In hopes of meeting him this summer during my studies in England (and visits to potential Ph.D programs like St. Andrews and Aberdeen) I sent him a comment. After we went back and forth a few times expressing various interests to each other, one subject stuck out in which we share especially common thought. It revolves around a number of separate, yet related issues such as soul competency, individualism, ecclesiology, post-modernism, Bibliology, Tradition, and hermeneutics, besides all the others. In it, Alastair interacts with a number of brilliant theologians like N.T. Wright, Stanley Hauerwas, Peter Leithart, Joel Garver, and Walter Ong.

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Here is a great example of why we shouldn’t criticize others hastily, and never without fixing our own faults first (Matthew 7:1-5).  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people speak evil of the Roman Catholic church and its sex scandals as though our own denomination, the SBC, is flawless.  Oh, cont rare…

Sex Abuse Victims’ Advocates Go After Southern Baptists (HT: CNN)

Perhaps, as the article demonstrates, there are more reasons than the Bible and Tradition to return to a high-church ecclesiology.   Though pragmatism alone is never a good reason to do anything theological, it is a variable that we must consider.  If the SBC is going to survive, church discipline must be rediscovered, and not just at a “local church” level.  Excommunication means nothing if someone can be booted from one church only to walk down the street through the doors of the congregation down the road and become a full-fledged member the next Sunday.

Even worse, because of moral failure, be dismissed from leadership in one body only to serve at another.  Does the SBC, as a corporate entity, have anything to say about upholding the biblical parameters of leadership (1 Timothy 3, and Titus 2)?  How can they when the strongest resolution they can pass, in its strongest language “strongly recommends” that churches agree with/follow/(obey?) the resolution, all with no consequence if they choose not to, in the name of local autonomy.  Give me a break.  If not for the Lord’s sake (though unity in His church and His glory ought be enough), consider some changes, all brought on my modernity’s emphasis on individualism (not just soul competency, but also individual churches as individual bodies autonomous from any real accountability), from our current weak, low-church (if we can even call it that) ecclesiology.

Sorry for the harshness, but things have got to change.  Lives depend on it.

Searching for God Knows What – Donald Miller

I find it sad that so many who disdain Miller’s previous book, “Blue Like Jazz,” will likely never bother to read this one.  Though categorized in the Emergent Church movement, which has more than its fair share of theological inept heretics, Miller brings out the best of what the Emergent conversation is really all about in this volume.  There are three main points: the primacy of the Christian narrative over propositional truths, how the fall has often resulted in mankind’s judgmental defense mechanism, and how we have exchanged the truth of relationship with God for the lie of legalistic morality.  These concepts overlap significantly throughout the flow of the book, all of which can be attributed to Miller’s amazing writing style – poetic, captivating, and devotional, yet easily accessible, readable, and surprisingly enjoyable.

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The Trinity and the Kingdom - Jurgen Moltmann

Jurgen Moltmann, renowned liberal theologian from the Tubingen school, raises some fascinating questions in this astounding work.  I am thankful that my professor required this book for reading in a class on the Trinity, for I would otherwise would have never read it.  Moltmann presupposes the possibility of God in his volume on the Trinity.  He is careful to not call his work “dogmatic,” as have many other theologians of history, but rather a contribution.  It is his presupposition against impassibility that I personally find fascinating, and wish to discuss in more detail.

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The Person of Christ – Donald MacLeod

The academic nature of this book made it enjoyable, yet difficult to read. MacLeod has written in a way that is both intellectually stimulating, yet readable. I picked up this volume in hopes of understanding certain Christological passages in the New Testament, and how they relate to each other. I was specifically interested in MacLeod’s take on the kenosis theory which developed in the 20th century – modernity’s “logical/reasonable/rational” (heretical ???) response to the traditional/orthodox view which holds the relationship between the divine and human natures of Christ during the Incarnation in tension and mystery as articulate in the Definition of Chalcedon.

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Federal Husband – Douglas Wilson

Too many books have flooded the Christian market with the latest ideas on how to improve your marriage. Thankfully, this books isn’t one of them. I have enjoyed Douglas Wilson’s writing over and over again, and the latest of his books that I read didn’t disappoint. In Reforming Marriage, Wilson wrote a theodicy of the doctrine of the institution of marriage. This is much needed in helping us understand what a marriage is, and from there understanding how it should, and shouldn’t work. Written as a sequel to that book, Federal Husband takes his thought even farther.

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