Post Tenebras Lux: Theology

Showing posts with label Theology. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Take a Moment...

Did God command Joshua to slaughter babies?

Brian McLaren officiates his son's homosexual commitment ceremony...

Two major streams of Reformed theology...

The beauty of the impassible God...

Nine tips for picking good books...

Monday, September 24, 2012

Why Thinking Matters

**Note - The following is the beginning of a series I will be working on surrounding the importance of thinking and why we need Christian thinkers, authors, pastors, and scholars.**

Doctrine can seem archaic and mind-numbing.

In today’s world, pragmatism is emphasized (i.e., loving people, caring for the widow and orphan, etc.). And although we must love people; although we must care for the widow and orphan; my contention is that pragmatism ought to be an effect of our theological training (rather than what affects our theology).

Theology means the study of God. We would be hard pressed to find another subject matter so worthy of our attention and study. In fact, we are all theologians; and yet, our charge is to structure our theology around skilled biblical exegesis, rather than emotive pragmatism. We need to let our theology shape how we live, rather than let how we live shape our theology.

Formulating doctrine is a subset of studying theology. As we think through various theological topics we begin to form positions on certain aspects of theology. However, despite this massive opportunity and responsibility to study God, our culture has succumbed to banality.

[I]t doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that our entire culture is in trouble. We are staring down the barrel of a loaded gun, and we can no longer afford to act like it’s loaded with blanks…Our society has replaced heroes with celebrities, the quest for a well-informed character with the search for a flat stomach, substance and depth with image and personality.[1]

This quote from J.P. Moreland was written 15 years ago! How much more has our culture shifted into complacent triviality?

And to make matters worse, Christians have, within recent history, conceded the intellectual world to secular society. Most notably, this has been demonstrated through Fundamentalism.[2] What a tragedy! In fact, “[t]he average Christian does not realize that there is an intellectual struggle going on…”[3]

So, rather than Evangelical Christians leading the way in philosophy, business, politics, art, and science, we have, in general terms, surrendered those fields of study to secular society (e.g., Austin Dacey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jimi Hendrix, and Stephen Hawking).

To be sure, this is not simply a battle to be fought by scholars and pastoral professionals, “but also laypeople who need to be intellectually engaged if our culture is to be effectively reformed. Our churches are unfortunately overly-populated with people whose minds, as Christians, are going to waste.”[4]

Our responsibility as Evangelical Christians is to use our brains to glorify God; to not only toil at being a means of spiritual conversion, but intellectually as well. We ought to spend less time watching sports and more time reading apologetics. We ought to spend less time on Facebook and more time reading philosophy. We ought to spend less time watching reality TV and more time reading biblical theology.

This doesn’t mean that we will not act pragmatically on our knowledge, but my desire is that we would acquire knowledge that helps us to better interact with our families, friends, and co-workers for the glory of God and the joy of His people.

[1] James Porter Moreland and Dallas Willard, Love Your God With All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1997), 21.

[2] Merriam-Webster defines Fundamentalism as “a movement in 20^th century Protestantism emphasizing the literally interpreted Bible as fundamental to Christian life and teaching.”

[3] James Porter Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003), 1.

[4] Ibid., 5.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Take a Moment...

New theologian, may I have a word?

4 things every intellectual should remember...

When should my children be baptized?

Do you have a soul?

You don't have to sin...

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Take a Moment...

Questions for our pro-abortion friends, church leaders, and politicians...

Where did the New Calvinism come from?

Does ignorance drive both science and theology?

Evolution: What about God?

Who cares about conferences?!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Take a Moment...

On trying to lead a church to both theological precision and conversion growth...

Good news for bad preachers...

The patient mercy of a holy God...

Faith = Obedience

Could believing in God harm your soul?

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Take a Moment...

5 myths about Reformed theology

Is the Bible a constitution?

Is your theology weighing you down?

Why you need to know your culture

Gleanings in Pacifism

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Take a Moment...

Making sense of Scripture's "Inconsistency"

A brief A-Z of theological jargon

Has God called you?

Jesus had a fallen nature, just like the Bible

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Take a Moment...

10 Reasons to attend seminary...

4 common misconceptions about egalitarianism...

Let's get our theological priorities straight...

The role of an exegete...

The seduction of pornography and the integrity of Christian marriage: Part One and Part Two

Monday, June 4, 2012

The (un)Certainty of Being (un)Certain

Skepticism is frustrating.

As a general philosophical framework, skeptics employ an attitude of incredulity, or, in other words, they posture an attitude of uncertainty (i.e., you cannot be certain about what you know).

Simply put, I believe this framework cannot survive.

If we cannot be certain about anything, then we cannot be certain about skepticism as a correct epistemological framework.

And yet, what I find more frustrating than a generalized framework of epistemological skepticism is what I might label an epistemologically skeptical theological framework. To be sure, I am skeptical (!!) as to whether this is historically cyclical, or somehow singularly linked with post-modernity; perhaps time will tell.

I recently read that, “it is difficult to convince people there is life in letting go of certainty.” Now, being that this quote came from a pastor, I am going to take the dangerous step in assuming that this concerns scriptural certainty. If this step, albeit dangerous, is correct, then I think the quote falls under the aforementioned epistemologically skeptical theological framework, which is a framework wrought in the claimed uncertainty of biblical texts.

Now, hear what I am saying…

At times, uncertainty is acceptable.

Paul, near the end of his magnum opus, quotes the Old Testament in declaration that, amongst other things, God’s judgments are unsearchable and no one has known the mind of the Lord (Rom 11:33-36).

But could Paul’s declaration have been more doxological than epistemological? Did he not just spend the previous eleven chapters outlining various theological positions?

In prepping for my Ph.D., I have been simply overwhelmed by the amount of excellent scholarship within the realm of biblical and theological studies. Therefore, I think we ought to employ caution in affirming an epistemologically skeptical theological framework. Although we must also employ caution to root our scriptural certainty within an appropriate hermeneutic, if we are willing to put in the work, we will be able to find answers to most of our uncertainties.

Oh, and for those who are so sure they are sure. Do not forget to be humble. You might be wrong…