Gospel Trajectories

Its easy when we look at the surrounding culture to identify problems and to be critical of the cultural logic used to order society.  Its harder to recognize our role in the problem or to see how multiple problems hang together.  Its always true that every problem is a gospel problem…sin and its effects lie at the root of every societal problem.  That insight on the nature and cause of cultural problems must be kept in mind.  Sharing Christ with individuals is, after all, our simplest and most profound Christian task. On one level, suggesting that sin is the root cause of all cultural problems may seem to be too simple.  Economic collapse, ecological crisis, political power plays, the drift of morality, etc. all seem more complex than “sin” and to require more than the proclamation of the gospel.  On the one hand, I would agree.  They are more complex than a generic conception of sin and require a multifaceted proclamation of the gospel.  At th...

One of the first books I read on the Ten Commandments was written by Harrelson.  It dealt with the potential connection between the Ten Commandments and human rights.  In the end, Harrelson concluded that if world governments incorporated the Ten Commandments into their respective legal systems the world would be more just.  He went on to suggest a paradigm for incorporating the Ten Commandments into legal systems.  Some of the commands, like ‘Thou shall not murder’ stayed th same.  Others, like ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me’ were transformed into something a bit less theological (or at least less biblical): ‘Do not have more than a single ultimate allegiance.’ While I can certainly appreciate much of Harrelson’s work, I think he goes too far in trying to adapt the Ten Commandments to something that might fit within a secular context.  God, after all, is the reason that the Ten Commandments make sense.  These are universal principles embed...

No reading of the biblical text or the world around us is free from influence.  We see the Scriptures and the world through a number of different lenses and multiple different perspectives.  While we are certainly capable of grasping truth or aspects of it, our understanding of the truth is limited by our own mental capacities and perspectives.  Truth is not relative.  It would be a mistake for us to make assumptions about the character of truth based on our ability to grasp it.  Truth exists.  It is knowable.  It just isn’t always easily knowable. As we consider what influences impact our reading of the Scriptures, I have found it helpful to break it down into four broad categories: (1) self, (2) society, (3) subject, and (4) Spirit.  These four influences are described below Self-  This category refers to those aspects of our personal identities that influence the manner in which we view the world.  Our experiences, relationships, ...

We don’t always think about the way that we use time as a means of demonstrating who God is.  I seldom feel that I have enough time, yet I don’t often think that I will run out of time either.  Time is, for me, something I tend to take for granted.  Time, despite my more relatively lackadaisical attitude toward it, is an important theological category.  One way in which time features in the biblical narrative is through sacred calendars incorporating events such as Sabbath, various festivals, the day of atonement and the year of Jubilee.  These events created an ongoing cadence for Israel in which the people of Israel were given the opportunity to recognize God and his continued role in the community. Sabbath, for instance, became a vehicle for Israel to remember the exodus from Egypt.  As opposed to their time in Egypt, which was characterized by unceasing layer that squeezed out worship so that Pharaoh could resource his realm, under God Israel is empow...

While it is certainly appropriate to understand space as a physical concept, the symbolic aspect of space is also significant.  Physical space does have an impact on the manner in which we view the world.  It creates and/or constrains the options we have before us by structuring the world and defining the options that we have before us.  The spaces we occupy are not neutral.  They have an impact on the way in which we see and experience the world.  They alert us of some issues while blinding us to others. Physical space is almost always interacting with symbolic space (one’s position in relation to others).  Part of the reason that physical space is so impactful is because of its connection to symbolic space, which establishes the boundaries and rules of space, what matters in that space, and what sort of skills we must develop to thrive within a given space.  Physical space and symbolic space are connected, but neither is logically prior to the othe...

As many benefits as community may bring, it would be a mistake to assume that being part of a community is all roses.  In addition to the inevitable miscommunications, frustrations, and hurts, communities have their own set of dynamics, unwritten rules that govern the behaviors of the community.  Often such dynamics are healthy and appropriate.  When we interact with one another, it is important to have some boundaries…community isn’t anarchy. At the same time, community dynamics do have their impact and influence on the way we think, what we do, and the values we adopt.  Our communities are bad (usually) or good, but they aren’t neutral either.  Communities help us and hinder us as we seek to understand God more faithfully.  They help us by challenging our individual perspectives, encouraging us, and providing social interactions.  They hinder us by creating artificial boundaries, selecting specific attributes or activies that are of value, or limit...

After completing my doctorate in Old Testament theology, one of the more frequent questions I get from people is about the relationship between the Old Testament law and Christians today.  Do we have to follow all the Old Testament laws?  If not, which ones are we required to follow?  How do we know? These questions are challenging and, in many ways complex.  I won’t be giving a full answer in this post; however, I do want to highlight an aspect of the discussion of Old Testament law that is often neglected.  Law is a form of literature.  It is not simply a set of statues, but a form of literature that reinforces the narratives and values of a particular culture.  While laws are often separate, isolated statements, they can also be imbedded within a broader written or oral narrative (as in the Old Testament). When we read Old Testament law, we do so recognizing that the Old Testament law as we have received it has been woven into a broader theologi...

In a previous post, I talked about how to write a theological narrative.  There is a sense, however, in which all narratives are theological…they may not be correct, but they are theological.  All narratives portray God in one way or another.  As individuals interact with one another, define boundaries of right and wrong, and determine which events from the past are important.  As cultures establish narratives, they also make decisions about who God is and what role he plays in the life of the culture. Whether we are reading a story in the paper, watching a television show or movie, listening to a radio program, or simply having a conversation with someone on the street, we are having a theological conversation that can shape and form the way we view the world.  We also have the opportunity to gain insight about how those with whom we will be interacting understand God and his place in the world.   As believers, we need to be diligent to maintain a heal...

There are some stories I love to tell.  The way I met my wife in high school, the time I trained Donnie Osmand, or when I found myself in a steam room with one of the Backstreet Boys.  Telling stories gives people a sense of who we are, what we value, how we see the world, and what we find humorous.  So, why is it that I am so bad about sharing the gospel? I have spent more than a decade in theological education. I’ve been in ministry for my entire career.  Yet, it is still easier to talk about my degrees and my vocation than it is to share the gospel.  In some ways, I believe that I do share the gospel in the way I tell my story.  God features prominently in the retelling of my years as a wild, arrogant undergraduate student who had only recently received Christ, in my seminary training when, despite a growing understanding of God, I felt lost and without direction until some of my professors pushed me in the right direction, and even into my early years...

The body of Christ is a people apart.  We are a community of the Word.  Having recognized the Scriptures as God’s word and Christ as savior and pinnacle of revelation, we are now called and empowered to live differently.  The church has not only been given a unique narrative about how the world works in the gospel…the church has been called to live out that narrative and to be God’s story told to a watching world. The church is a counter-narrative simply because the church knows the gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God to bring salvation, and the sort of life that God’s rule affords.  In Philippians, Paul illustrates well at least two virtues, unity and self-sacrifice, that the church is called to exhibit because God stands behind his people.  Paul highlights the unity of the Philippians and the community’s solidarity with him in the gospel (Phil 1:3-6), highlighting the manner in which God used his imprisonment (1:12-26), highlighting Epaphroditus’ sacrif...

In his book entitled Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman suggests that the brain likes simple stories.  As such, when looking at stories of success or failure, we generally tend to “exaggerate the role of skill and underestimate the part that luck played in the outcome” ().  For example, with regard to the rise of Google, Kahneman notes, “Of course there was a great deal fo skill in the Google story, but luck played a more important role in the actual event than it does in the telling of it.  And the more luck was involved, the less there is to be learned.” I don’t disagree with Kahneman’s assessment of the human tendency to simplify stories, nor do I think he is wrong to suggest that there was more than skill involved in Google’s success.  So, if Kahneman is right about these two things, has he written a theological narrative…not quite.  Where I disagree with Kahneman is in the use of the word “luck.”  Ultimately, I don’t know much about Kahneman or...