EQUIPPING AND CONNECTING THE NEXT GENERATION OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

worldview coursepack

Published by CARDUS | www.cardus.ca

worldview coursepack Founding Editor Harry Antonides

Editor Gideon Strauss

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Alissa Wilkinson

Managing Editor Dan Postma

Design Joy Harris, with files from Compass Creative Studio Inc. www.compasscreative.ca COMMENT | MARCH 2009

All Scripture references in Comment are from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise indicated. CONTENTS

COMMENT Magazine is a quarterly print journal, and weekly online e-zine, published by Cardus—a North American public policy think tank based in Hamilton, Ontario. Cardus’ thought, research and policy weave through the integrity of the biblical story. This story is not a private story reserved for comment worldview coursepack the private delights of Sunday worshippers—it is a public story that touches the whole world. It is public truth—and it changes everything it touches.

CARDUS XX Reading the Bible . . . and articulating a 45 Frid Street, Suite 9 worldview Hamilton, ON L8P 4M3 BY MICHAEL W. GOHEEN (888) 339-8866 Fax (905) 528-9433 Understanding our story within the story

Email: [email protected] Becoming a thinking Christian Website: www.cardus.ca/comment XX BY TIMOTHY P. WIENS President “If someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.” Michael Van Pelt —1 Peter 3:15, NLT

director of RESEARCH Ray Pennings XX Making friends for life BY GREG VELTMAN subscribe www.cardus.ca/comment | “I want to be tangled up . . . in the thorns of love” 905.528.8866 Asking big questions ©2009 Cardus XX Cover image by Jason Bouwman, BY GIDEON STRAUSS Compass Creative Studio What do I love? What do I believe? What is to be done?

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, XX Cultural influence: an opportunity for the church stored in a retrieval system, or BY GABE LYONS transmitted, in any form or by any Christians serving the common good have unmatched influence means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior XX Discovering what God loves permission of the publisher or the BY STEVEN GARBER Copyright Licensing Agency. A journey from duty to desire XX But now I see (part II) BY DON OPITZ With a Christian worldview, our daily work can transcend the grind and connect to a great purpose XX Sex is easier than love BY STEVEN GARBER Why sexuality is at the very heart of life and learning XX What is to be done . . . to understand our moment? BY GIDEON STRAUSS Every Christian is confronted by the question, What does God ask of me at this time? XX What is to be done . . . in the public square? XX In search of the happy BY RAY PENNINGS life Christian efforts in the public square BY DAVID K. NAUGLE are analogous to a pickup hockey game In disordered lives, we love things unintelligently, excessively, and XX MINE! unrealistically BY RICHARD MOUW Kuyper for a new century XX Making peace with proximate justice XX The flash of a fish knife BY STEVEN GARBER BY CALVIN SEERVELD Christians in politics must learn to There is a spirit in the store, hallowing accept some justice, some mercy lowly work into rich service XX Who am I? XX Why bother going to BY BOB ROBINSON church? Rooting your identity in the image of BY JOHN SEEL God Recovering the lost logic of church XX Why are there so many XX But now I see (part I) other religions? BY DON OPITZ BY RON CHOONG A crash course on worldview, and why They cannot all be correct, so why does it’s important God permit other religions to exist? introduction

Gideon Strauss Comment Editor

elcome to the Comment Worldview Coursepack. We are delighted to present Wsome of the best pieces from Comment’s recent archive for this volume.

What is Comment Magazine? It is a worldview journal for the next generation of Christian leaders. We are animated by a vision of preparing tomorrow’s leaders to “think Christianly” in every sphere of human activity, and it is to this end that we publish quarterly glossy journals, in addition to exceptional essays and artwork online each week. Comment is published by Cardus, a Christian public policy think tank based in Hamilton, Ontario.

What follows is an excerpt from the 2008 Comment Manifesto, first published in December 2008.

Comment is a journal of public opinion bringing Christian voices to the dialogue in the public sphere, seeking the common good. Comment is committed to honest, humble thought; clear, simple writing; and courteous, civil dialogue—inclined toward identifying and affirming what is good rather than courting controversy.

A. Comment critically celebrates imaginative, skilful art work— literature and poetry, song and music, theatre and film, drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, and other forms—that expresses “with simple majesty the mixture of sorrow under sin in the world and joy at the presence of the Comforter,” as Calvin Seerveld writes in A Christian Critique of Art and Literature: art that will show “the hurt and the laughter, the thoroughgoing chiaroscuro to flowers and desires and prayers alike,” that “will let a childlike gladness of hope well up through the total groaning of all creation for the Great Day still to come.” Comment seeks in particular to recommend emerging artists to its readers, and to encourage and honour under- appreciated mid-career artists.

6 COMMENT worldview coursepack Comment respectfully encourages world-loving, both individualism and collectivism, Comment wisdom-seeking academic work that revels with resolutely campaigns for an accurate recognition delight in God’s glorious ordering of creation, and protection of different spheres of human reels with horror over the human evil that life, with the application and limitation of vandalizes the good creation, and searches for political power to the administration of justice ways of following Jesus’ repair of the broken (known as the principle of sphere sovereignty world. or differentiated authority), and the appropriate assignment of political authority, with a B. Comment is glad to profile prudent businesses preference for the more local authority where that steward the wealth of the world with possible (known as the principle of subsidiarity). enterprising innovation, patient investment, frugal management, skilful collaboration, and D. Comment cherishes the enjoyment of the playful fair exchange. Comment hopes to contribute delights and everyday comforts that offer to the cultivation of human societies in solace in solitude and enliven our common life: which economic markets flourish without simple food grown and prepared with care and overwhelming other spheres of human life. imagination, well-designed clothes worn with élan, streets and boulevards that invite walking Comment endorses responsible technical and cycling, board games and ball games that invention and cultivation that delights in the test the players and amuse the onlookers, and materials and forms of things, discloses and table conversation that is on occasion witty, rich, conserves the possibilities embedded in creation, deep, and lively—all to celebrate what it is to and enables a rich diversity of human ways of be human, with gratitude for the good gifts of a life, while carefully questioning human neglect loving Creator who delights in his creatures. and exploitation of creation.

C. Comment affirms that politics is only one dimension of our multi-faceted, common, public life and culture that is most deeply defined by religious beliefs, and informed and enriched by civil mores, intellectual opinion, artistic products and popular culture. Yet political life does possess power to define and to influence—for better and for worse—our common public life and culture. Comment esteems statecraft, the defence of peace, and the rule of law, and denounces anarchy, brigandage, and tyranny. Against

2009 7 By michael W. Goheen

ll of human life is shaped by some story. I say?” The psychotherapist says, “Oh, anything at Alasdair MacIntyre offers an amusing story all.” Or again he is Soviet spy who has arranged to Ain After Virtue to show how particular events meet his contact at this bus stop. The code that will receive their meaning in the context of a story. He reveal his identity is the statement about the Latin imagines himself at a bus stop when a young man name of the duck. The meaning of the encounter standing next to him says: “The name of the common at the bus-stop depends on which story shapes it: wild duck is histrionicus, histrionicus, histrionicus.” in fact, each story will give the event a different One understands the meaning of the sentence. But meaning. what on earth is he doing in saying it in the first place. This particular action can only be understood It is likewise with our lives. In his The Gospel in a if it is placed in a broader framework of meaning, Pluralist Society, Lesslie Newbigin writes in that “(t) a story that renders the saying comprehensible. he way we understand human life depends on what Three stories could make this particular incident conception we have of the human story. What is meaningful. The young man has mistaken the the real story of which my life story is a part?” What man standing next to him for another person he Newbigin is referring to, here, is not a linguistically saw yesterday in the library who asked “Do you by constructed narrative world that we fabricate to any chance know the Latin name of the common give meaning to our lives, but an interpretation of duck?” Or he has just come from a session with his cosmic history that gives meaning to human life. psychotherapist who is helping him deal with his N. T. Wright says in that a story is “the best way of painful shyness. The psychotherapist urges him to talking about the way the world actually is” (The talk to strangers. The young man asks, “What shall New Testament and the People of God). For those

8 COMMENT worldview coursepack of us living in the West there are two stories that are all things and ends with the renewal of all things. In on offer: the biblical and the humanist. As Newbigin between, it offers an interpretation of the meaning of points out: cosmic history. Therefore, it makes a comprehensive claim. Our stories, our reality must find a place in this In our contemporary culture… two quite story. Hans Frei makes this point in his The Eclipse of different stories are told. One is the story Biblical Narrative when he quotes Erich Auerbach’s of evolution, of the development of species striking contrast between Homer’s Odyssey and the through the survival of the strong, and the Old Testament story. Speaking of the biblical story, story of the rise of civilization, our type he says: of civilization, and its success in giving humankind mastery of nature. The other Far from seeking, like Homer, merely to story is the one embodied in the Bible, the make us forget our own reality for a few story of creation and fall, of God’s election hours, it seeks to overcome our reality: we of a people to be the bearers of his purpose are to fit our own life into its world, feel for humankind, and of the coming of the ourselves to be elements in its structure one in whom that purpose is to be fulfilled. of universal history… Everything else that These are two different and incompatible happens in the world can only be conceived stories. as an element in this sequence; into it everything that is known about the world… The humanist and biblical stories are to some degree must be fitted as an ingredient of the divine irreconcilable. They tell two different stories. If the plan. church is faithful, to some degree there will be a clash of stories. And yet it is the case that often Christians do not see the Bible as one story. As Newbigin relates it in A Walk Through the Bible, a Hindu scholar of the THE BIBLE TELLS ONE STORY world’s religions once said to him: I can’t understand why you missionaries The Bible tells one unfolding story of redemption present the Bible to us in India as a book against the backdrop of creation and humanity’s of religion. It is not a book of religion—and fall into sin. As Wright put it, the divine drama told anyway we have plenty of books of religion in scripture “offers a story which is the story of the in India. We don’t need any more! I find whole world. It is public truth.” in your Bible a unique interpretation of universal history, the history of the whole When we speak of the biblical story as a narrative we of creation and the history of the human are making a normative claim: it is public truth. It is race. And therefore a unique interpretation a claim that this is the way God created the world. of the human person as a responsible actor The story of the Bible tells us the way the world in history. That is unique. There is nothing really is. It is, in the language of postmodernism, else in the whole religious literature of the a “metanarrative” or, in the language of Hegel, world to put alongside it. “universal history.” Thus, the biblical story is not to be understood simply as a local tale about a certain We have fragmented the Bible into bits—moral bits, ethnic group or religion. It makes a comprehensive systematic-theological bits, devotional bits, historical- claim about the world: it is public truth for all people critical bits, narrative bits, and homiletical bits. and all of human life. It begins with the creation of When the Bible is broken up in this way there is no

2009 9 reading the bible and articulating a worldview

comprehensive, grand narrative to withstand the power This way of narrating the Biblical story shows our of the comprehensive, humanist narrative that shapes place in the story. In Act Five we live in a time when our culture. The Bible-bits are accommodated to the the kingdom of God is already here but not yet more all-embracing cultural story, and it becomes that arrived. How can the kingdom be already here but not story—the humanist story—that shapes our lives. yet arrived? And what is the significance of “already- not yet”?

THE BIBLE AS A SIX-ACT PLAY First, we have been given a foretaste of the kingdom. When the end comes we will enjoy the full banquet In The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the of the kingdom. In the meantime, the church has Story of the Bible, Craig Bartholomew and I attempted been given a foretaste. A foretaste of the kingdom to tell the story of the Bible in six acts. (The website constitutes us as witnesses. The reason we have been that accompanies our book, www.biblicaltheology.ca, offered a foretaste of the salvation of the end is so that offers many resources to equip the church to read the we can witness to that salvation. Another illustration Bible as one story). In Act One, God calls into being a makes this clear. The people of God are like a movie marvellous creation. He creates human beings in His preview or trailer. A movie trailer gives actual footage image to live in fellowship with Him and to explore of the movie that is coming in the future so that and care for the riches of His creation. In Act Two, people will want to watch it. The people of God are humanity refuses to live under the Creator’s word, a kingdom preview. We embody the salvation of the and chooses to seek life apart from Him. It results kingdom which is coming in the future so that people in disaster: the whole creation is brought into the will see it and want it. That is what the witness is all train of human rebellion. In Act Three, God sets out about. Our lives and words witness to the kingdom’s on the long road of redemption to renew the whole presence and its future consummation. A biblical creation. He chooses a people, Israel, to embody His witness is a witness to God’s rule over all of human creational and redemptive purposes for the world. life. As the contemporary testimony, Our World Israel is formed into a people and placed on the land Belongs to God, eloquently puts it: to shine as a light. They fail in their calling. Yet God The Spirit thrusts God’s people into worldwide promises through the prophets that Israel’s failure mission. will not derail His plan. In Act Four, God sends Jesus. He impels young and old, men and women, Jesus carries out Israel’s calling as a faithful light to the to go next door and far away world. But he does more: He defeats the power of sin into science and art, media at the cross, He rises from the dead inaugurating the and marketplacewith the good news of God’s new creation, and He pours out His Spirit that His grace… (32) people might taste of this coming salvation. Before He takes His position of authority over the creation He Following the apostles, the church is sent— gathers His disciples together and tells them: “As the sent with the gospel of the kingdom… Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Act Five tells In a world estranged from God, us the story of the church’s mission from Jerusalem where millions face confusing choices, to Rome in the first one hundred or so years. But this mission is central to our being… (44) the story ends on an incomplete note. The story is to continue. The church’s mission is to continue in The rule of Jesus Christ covers the and to all places until Jesus returns. We are invited whole world. into this story, to witness to the comprehensive rule To follow this Lord is to serve of God in Jesus coming at the goal of history. Act him everywhere, Six is a future act, yet to unfold. Jesus will return and without fitting in, complete His restoration work.

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as light in the darkness, as salt THE IMPORTANCE OF in a spoiling world. (45) UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE AS ONE STORY HEADING OFF The importance of understanding the Bible as one MISUNDERSTANDINGS story can be seen by noting Newbigin’s notion of a missionary encounter. A missionary encounter is the Saying that the Bible is one unfolding story could lead normal position the church assumes in its culture to misunderstandings. First, by saying that the Bible is if it is faithful. It assumes two comprehensive, yet one unfolding story, I am not saying that the Bible is incompatible, stories. The Bible tells one story about a nice, neat novel. In his discussion on the Bible as a the world and human life while another equally metanarrative, Richard Bauckham makes this point in all-embracive story shapes our culture. Christian Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern discipleship always takes cultural shape. So in the life World: “the Bible does not have a carefully plotted of the Christian community there will be an encounter single story-line, like, for example a conventional between two equally comprehensive stories. When the novel. It is a sprawling collection of narratives along church really believes that its story is true and shapes with much non-narrative material that stands in a their lives by it, the foundational idolatrous faith, variety of relationships to the narratives.” He notes assumed in the cultural story, will be challenged. Thus, that major stretches of the main story are told more it offers a credible alternative; it calls for conversion. than once in divergent ways. There is a plurality of It is an invitation to see and to live in the world in angles on the same subject matter (for example, the the light of another story. Our place in the story is Gospels). He points further to many ways in which to embody the end and to invite others into that true there is a “profusion and sheer untidiness of the story. If the church is to be faithful to its missionary narrative materials.” He concludes that all this “makes calling, it must recover the Bible as one true story. I any sort of finality in summarizing the biblical story agree with Newbigin, who wrote in The Gospel and inconceivable.” our Culture Newsletter 8 (1991): Secondly, the Bible is not only a narrative document. I do not believe that we can speak effectively There is much else in the Bible as well. While the Bible of the Gospel as a word addressed to our is essentially narrative in form it contains many other culture unless we recover a sense of the genre of literature: law, poetry, wisdom, prophecy, and scriptures as a canonical whole, as the others. Yet, at its core, the Bible is a grand story story which provides the true context for and all other parts can be fitted into that narrative our understanding of the meaning of our framework. lives—both personal and public. If the story of the Bible is fragmented into bits it can A third misunderstanding is tied up with the be easily absorbed into the reigning story of culture notion of story. In some approaches to narrative instead of challenging it. A fragmented Bible can theology the notion of story enables the reader lead to a church that is unfaithful, syncretistically to ignore questions of historicity. Story may accommodated to the idolatry of its cultural story be only a linguistically constructed narrative by or, in the words of Paul, a church “conformed to the a religious community, and no more than that. Yet I world” (Romans 12:2). So, much is at stake in reading use story to speak of an interpretation of history. It is the Bible as one story. important that these events really happened.

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THE NEED FOR ARTICULATING to modernity by reducing the comprehensive claims A WORLDVIEW of the gospel and relegating its faith to a private or religious realm. Thus, the gospel did not speak to Recognizing that the Bible is one story is not sufficient much of created reality. The confession, “Jesus is to bring the Bible to bear on public life in a formative Lord,” certainly did not reflect the comprehensive way. An example from Oliver O’Donovan’s highly scope of His reign in a way faithful to the original creative work of political theology The Desire of the gospel. The mission of the church was thus Nations is helpful. In this book, reading the Bible as a misunderstood and narrowed in keeping with an single narrative is fundamental. However, O’Donovan emaciated and reductionistic gospel. The term, correctly points out that sola narratione is insufficient “worldview,” offered a way of speaking that expressed for Christian analysis. A grand story provides the that the Christian faith is also a comprehensive and most comprehensive context and meaning for coherent way of understanding the whole world. The human life. But something more specific is needed Gospel is good news that God’s redeeming work is as to provide more specific guidance for public life. We broad as creation. This understanding of the Gospel need to develop, says O’Donovan, concepts normed offers a much more comprehensive understanding of by scripture in order to do analysis in the area of the church’s mission in the world. Indeed, it provides politics. O’Donovan is correctly looking for a way to an impetus for Christian involvement in the public bring the biblical story to bear on public life which square. avoids the problem of dualism, which sees no place Worldview articulates and develops the most basic, for scripture, and the problem of biblicism, which the most fundamental, most comprehensive beliefs forces the Bible to answer contemporary questions of the biblical story. It is important to clarify here it was never intended to answer. But it all hinges on the relationship between story and worldview. A what is meant by “concepts normed by scripture.” story is the fundamental shape of a worldview. In his A FRAGMENTED BIBLE CAN EASILY BE ABSORBED INTO CULTURE, INSTEAD OF CHALLENGING IT

I find helpful the model that elaborates the The New Testament and the People of God, Wright biblical story in terms of a worldview, and calls this a “worldview-story” or a “controlling story.” theoretically deepens that worldview in terms These worldview-stories “are the basic stuff of human of a philosophy which is brought to bear on public existence, the lenses through which the world is seen, life. This is not the place to develop his the blueprint for how one should live in it, and, above model. Yet some comments about worldview are all, it is the sense of identity and place which enables appropriate. human beings to be what they are.” Worldview- stories are “like the foundations of a house: vital, It is instructive to look at the very reason the term but invisible. They are that through which, not at “worldview” arose and has become so popular in which, a society or an individual normally looks; they evangelical circles. Key to this historical development form the grid according to which humans organize was the threat the church perceived to its faith from reality.” These stories function at a presuppositional its cultural story. The modern, scientific worldview, and precognitive level. Entailed in these stories are which came to maturity at the Enlightenment, was a basic beliefs and answers to the deepest questions of coherent and comprehensive way of understanding human existence. Worldview articulation, then, may the world that stood in opposition to the Christian be the exposition of the fundamental beliefs or an faith. In response to this threat the church succumbed explication of the answers to the most foundational

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questions of human life that are entailed in the story. provides the light by which answers can be found. As Wright suggests that our basic beliefs are “shorthand Stuart Fowler put it in The Place of the Bible in the forms of the stories which those who hold them are School (1975): telling themselves and one another about the way The place of the Bible in our task of studying the world is.” the creation is not to give answers, but to guide us in our search for the answers, to be The biblical story has been condensed or elaborated the light by whose illumination we will find in shorthand form in two ways. In the first, the most the answers in the creation itself. basic beliefs of the Bible’s teaching on creation, fall,

WORLDVIEWS MEDIATE BETWEEN THE GOSPEL AND HUMAN LIFE Dr. Michael W. Goheen occupies the Geneva Chair of Reformational and redemption are explicated. This has been done Worldview Studies marvellously well in Al Wolters’ Creation Regained. In this book Wolters elaborates the biblical story in at Trinity Western terms of creation, fall, and redemption. Another way University, Vancouver. to get at the same issues is to elaborate the biblical A long-time pastor answers to life’s most foundational questions, answers and worldwide that shape the entirety of human life. This is the lecturer, he seeks approach of Brian Walsh and Richard Middleton to communicate the concept of “worldview” in a in The Transforming Vision. The biblical narrative new (post or late modern) era, to many different answers fundamental questions of human identity: confessional traditions. He and his wife Marnie live the kind of world we live in, the problem with our in British Columbia and have four adult children. world, and the remedy for that problem. Careful study of these two books, and others like them, provides This article was published in Comment, June 2006 several examples of the way the biblical worldview www.cardus.ca/comment can help the church to be more faithful in its calling in the public square.

Worldview, thus, can equip the church for its missionary task in the public square by mediating between the Gospel and human life. Worldview plays this mediating or channelling function by unpacking the basic categories of the biblical story, clarifying their relationship, defending the gospel against error, and by providing light for the church’s cultural task. (This has been elaborated in my inaugural address The Power of the Gospel and the Renewal of Scholarship, 12-14). Seeing worldview as a mediating category enables us to struggle with the relevance of the biblical text to cultural life, yet to read the Bible with integrity. By articulating the Bible’s teaching in a worldview, the Bible does not offer ready-made answers, but it

2009 13 148 commentCOMMENT worldview coursepack “if someone asks ave you ever been asked a about your Christian question about your faith hope, always be ready Hyou just could not answer? Have you ever questioned your own to explain it.” —1 Peter 3:15, NLT beliefs and wondered if what you were taught was actually truth? I can say ‘yes’ to both questions. I am glad I can say ‘yes’, because in so doing, I have come to realize that I must improve my understanding of my faith, of my beliefs, and of my intellectual understanding of Christianity.

By Timothy P. Wiens There is a dangerous complacency among Christians today. Far too often we are content to listen to our pastors, our professors, or others around us without questioning what it is we believe. In many cases, we lack the skills and understanding to truly grasp what A. W. Tozer calls a “knowledge of the holy.” As Christians we have been plagued by a lack of attention to the intellect and to what an intellectual understanding of Christianity means. Too often, faith is the singular ingredient and the intellect is seldom, if ever, challenged.

On the other hand, historically there has been a dangerous emphasis on intellectualism that has torn many from an integration of faith and reason. Looking back upon the founding of the Americas, we understand that many of those landing in the New World came to escape the tyranny and oppression of being told what to believe and how to live. Schools such as the Boston Latin School and the Roxbury Latin School were founded in the mid-1600’s to train young men to read and write so that the intellect would be properly developed and a greater understanding of the Scriptures would be attained. This would ensure students would be fit “for publicke service both in churche and commonwealthe.” In 1636, Harvard College was founded “To advance Learning and perpetuate it to

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posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate for its academic institutions. The purpose ministry to the churches.” of Boston Trinity Academy (bostontrinity. org) was established to provide academic and spiritual training to a new generation Intellectualism and rationalism can be of leaders. Students from the city and traced much further back than Puritan the suburbs, from more than nineteen New England. Examining Western language groups, from multiple races, civilization we know that the Greek and from every socio-economic group intellectual movement, the Renaissance come together daily to engage the mind in Europe, the Scientific Revolution, and and body, to grow in spirit. They interact the Enlightenment each played a role in with adult teachers and mentors who There is a dangerous leading us to our current state. However, provide an education that would enable instead of perpetuating Christianity complacency among each student to graduate academically and creating a greater love of our God, prepared to enter the best colleges and Christians today intellectualism in many cases contributed universities in the world, spiritually greatly to the spiritual descent of many prepared to engage culture and defend within Christendom. the Christian faith, and socially prepared to fully engage the world around them. Developing an historical understanding It is my privilege to be the headmaster of of intellectualism is not my goal. Nor do this school. I wish to promote anti-intellectual fervor. On the contrary, in what follows, I want It is the goal of the school to provide to set a course to discuss the importance teachers and mentors who will equip of developing an intellectual passion young men and women to influence aimed at a greater understanding and the world with a well-developed love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. understanding of Christianity, with faith What does it mean to develop mental that is real and relevant, and with the maturity, to become a thinking Christian, knowledge that Christians are called to to embrace wisdom? use our hearts, bodies, and our minds to make a difference in the world in which I have begun with two examples of ways we live, work, and participate. in which Christians have fallen into traps that God never intended—the first being Christians of “blind faith”, and Blind faith the second being Christians who seek to develop intellectual capacities simply for At Boston Trinity Academy we go further the sake of knowledge. than “blind faith.” By no means do I want to suggest that faith is irrelevant. Because of the spiritual-intellectual On the contrary, faith is the key element conundrum faced by so many in the of Christianity. Paul writes in Ephesians Christian world, in 2002 a new secondary that by grace we are saved through faith institution was founded in Boston, and that we can do nothing ourselves to Massachusetts, a city historically known earn salvation. We are called to be people of faith. It is essential. It is imperative.

16 COMMENT worldview coursepack TIMOTHY P. WIENS

What I do not see in the Bible, however, is the call As students progress through Boston Trinity to be people of blind faith, ignorant of the tenets and Academy’s middle and high schools, a great deal underlying principles of Christianity. We are called to of time is spent considering what it means to be a the opposite. Matthew 22:37 implores us to “love the Christian—a true follower of Christ. Likewise, the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your school takes great care and exerts considerable effort soul and with all your mind”. In the same chapter to introduce students to the tenets and foundations of Matthew, we see that Jesus employed the ability of Christianity, and the historical reality of Christ as to debate using logic and rhetoric. The Pharisees, man, Lord, and truth. Not all students who attend it says in verse 15, sought to “entangle him in his the school subscribe to the faith. Some are Muslim, words.” Jesus, however, saw through their methods Buddhist, and atheist. Nonetheless, each is exposed and spoke to them in their language, quoting the law to the message of the Gospel. Each is trained in and interpreting the culture of the day. apologetics. Each must learn the logic necessary to defend the faith. As a result, it is the school’s mission that each student will leave fully grasping In 1 Peter 3:15 we are called upon to “always [be] an intellectual basis for the Christian faith with a prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you heart developed to love and follow Christ, the Savior for a reason for the hope that is in you”. In Love and Lord. your God with all your mind, J. P. Moreland writes: “If we are to love God adequately with the mind, then the mind must be exercised regularly, trained to Overemphasizing knowledge acquire certain habits of thought, and filled with an increasingly rich set of distinctions and categories.” only for the sake of Our intellects are to be stretched and worked often knowledge so that we can grow to love God more.

Christians must be intellectually equipped in Christians need to understand that God speaks to order to know God more deeply and in order to us and is revealed to us through his Word, the Bible. perpetuate the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately, As R. A. Riesen put it in Piety and Philosophy, “Since many Christians have fallen away from faith as they the message of God to man is delivered in the form have begun walking the slippery slope of intellectual of words, it is imperative that the exact meaning of advancement. those words be known.” This implies the opposite of what those who call for blind faith are extolling. We are called to be Christians who use our minds. This implies that we must dig in. We must get to In his wonderful essay, “Learning in War-Time,” know God with our intellects and understand who in the collection The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis He is through the study and examination of His writes, “Good philosophy must exist, if for no word and His creation. other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.” We must be ready to defend the faith, to By the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20), answer the questions of detractors, to supply ideas Christians have been called to make disciples and to those who are seeking, and to guide lost sheep teach all nations. We have not been given an option. in need of a shepherd. Being culturally relevant It is clear that we are to go into all the world. If we Christians requires us to have a strong grasp of the are to do so, like Jesus and the Apostle Paul we had foundations of Christianity as well as an intellectual better be equipped with more than blind faith. understanding of the world in which we live.

2009 17 BECOMING A THINKING CHRISTIAN

The problem is that “knowledge puffs up” (1 grow as they learn more about all of life. Seeking Corinthians 8:1). Many times those who seek and questioning ought to be a goal for an academic knowledge do so for nothing but the sake of greater institution. If we truly trust in the sovereignty of knowledge. James Packer suggests in his great God, those same questions will certainly lead right book, Knowing God, that when we seek theological back to the creator of all, the one true God, Jesus knowledge for its own sake, we risk our spiritual Christ. health. Earlier I mentioned the example of Harvard College and how it began as an institution dedicated This past year, one of Boston Trinity Academy’s to training men in spiritual and theological matters. brightest students—fluent in five languages—found Many other institutions were born for this, the truth in the person of Jesus Christ most noble and important cause. through questioning and doubting. They, too, have dissolved spiritually. This amazing young woman, now Knowledge became something to We must not a graduate and off this autumn be gained for knowledge sake, not  “shy away from to college, came to the school a for the sake of knowing and loving Muslim, secure in her beliefs, shared God more fully and furthering His apologetics by her family. In reading, writing, Kingdom. and logic and seeking answers, she came to ” the life-altering conclusion that Jesus It is the heartfelt goal of Boston Christ can only be the way to heaven Trinity Academy, and other Christian schools like and the answer to all of life’s questions. Because of it, to hold true to the faith and consistently to seek her commitment to asking the difficult questions guidance from God as decisions are made. The and the school’s commitment not to shy away from questions that may arise in such an institution allowing students to explore such difficult questions, include: When is the school too academic? How much the pursuit of the intellectual resulted in a deep and knowledge is too much knowledge? steadfast faith. Since this time, I have also been able to have some genuine conversations with her father, who himself is seeking truth. R. A. Riesen answers: It is not possible for Christian education… to be too academic. The purpose of education is precisely to be academic… The point is What is a Christian to do? simply that we in Christian schools must do How do we impress upon our generation the everything in our power to ensure that in importance of developing a Christian mind for the future generations there is no scandal of the glory of God? How do we integrate our faith with evangelical mind, that we have not opted out the necessary scholarship that will enable the mind of or reneged on our responsibility to engage to grow and the Kingdom of God to advance? The culture and the natural world intellectually Apostle Paul appeals to us: and academically; that is, that we have not given the impression that Christian faith is somehow inimical to careful, honest thought Do not be conformed to this world, but be or that honest thought destroys faith. transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God (Romans 12:1-2). We believe we must train students academically and intellectually. As we do, our students’ faith will

18 COMMENT worldview coursepack TIMOTHY P. WIENS

We must renew our minds. Books, articles, podcasts, and other forms of media from highly reputable sources are other modes We must see the importance of spending time in to be explored when seeking to renew our minds. the Word of God—reading, praying, and meditating Some worthy of attention are Tim Keller, Gordon on the text. The perfect example was Jesus Christ Hugenberger, and John Piper. himself. Consistently throughout the New Testament, Jesus used his knowledge of Scripture to thwart His We can renew our minds by memorizing Scripture, detractors and to keep Himself pure. When He was by reading and meditating upon the Bible, through tempted by Satan He quoted scripture in order to prayer, and by spending time seeking God’s truth avoid falling. When the Pharisees verbally attacked in every intellectual area of life. As we get to know Him, He not only quoted scripture, but He had a God more intimately, J. I. Packer claims that we will better understanding of Judaic law than did they. expend great energy for God, think great thoughts of God, show great boldness for God, and reap great When I was in elementary school, there was a church- contentment in God. based program called AWANA that I attended. For five years my parents made me attend and memorize verses from the Bible. Every night after dinner my We must find mentors and parents made me sit with my AWANA book and work on Bible memorization. While it would be leaders to help us grow in less than honest to say I enjoyed this at the time, wisdom and mental maturity. today, many years later, my recall of Bible verses memorized helps in many areas of my life. Knowing Parents and teachers build within children the and understanding the Bible is essential as we seek resources and reserves to handle the struggles and true wisdom. answer the questions the world will pose. Whether we are children of five years, or adults of twenty-five years, we continue to learn and to develop as we Likewise, if we are attempting to fill our hearts and watch those we respect. In The Abolition of Man C. S. minds with the true and the good, we should avoid Lewis suggested that Aristotle and Plato believed in inputting the wrong information into those hearts modelling. For Aristotle, the aim of education was and minds. At Boston Trinity Academy, difficult to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought. conversations with parents are needed to assure According to Lewis, Plato went further, saying: “the them that the amount of work their children are human animal must be trained to feel pleasure, doing is legitimate. Suggesting that studying is a liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which are priority sometimes means less “family time.” In all pleasant, likeable, disgusting, and hateful.” Lewis honesty, I have realized in many cases “family time” also argues that: has meant watching television together. In such cases, I am quick to recommend to parents that they The task of the modern educator is not to read along with their children the novels being read cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The in English class, that they sit at the kitchen table and right defence against any false sentiments is work along with their children on science projects, to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the and that they simply replace television time with sensibility of our pupils we only make them family study hall. It does not always go over as well as easier prey to the propagandist I might hope, I must admit. Nevertheless, I maintain when he comes. For famished that filling our minds with intellectual pursuits, be nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no they directly from the Bible or otherwise, beats time infallible protection spent watching “Gossip Girl” every day of the week! against a soft head.

2009 19 BECOMING A THINKING CHRISTIAN

Behaviorists call an education such as Aristotle influence this world for eternity? Have we spent and Plato suggest “conditioning.” You may recall the time necessary? Are we providing the necessary the experiment Pavlov conducted on his dogs, stimulation to reinforce the behaviors we desire, to teaching them to salivate when they heard a bell become godly men and women? Are we being trained ring. In college, one of the required classes I took intellectually as well as spiritually or spiritually as well for my psychology degree was called Conditioning as intellectually? Are we equipped, as British Prime and Learning. One component of the course was Minister Harold Macmillan spoke of an Oxford training a rat through conditioning. My lab partner University education, “to know when someone is and I tried to teach our lab rat to dunk a basketball talking rot”? With education and a greater knowledge on a rat-sized basketball hoop (both my lab partner of the Holy, we ought to understand when we are and I were huge basketball fans). Unfortunately, hearing that which is opposed to truth, that which our rat was terribly trained. Our reinforcement was is opposed to the foundations of our faith, and that inconsistent. Our training methodology was flawed. which may prevent a closer walk with Christ. As a result, the rat only got as far as pressing a lever for food. We wanted an intellectual and athletic rat, but only taught him to be a mediocre, We must expose ourselves hedonistic, food-seeking rat. We did not push him. to educational excellence. We spent no time outside of our allotted lab period training him. As a result, he gave us what we gave There is a reason that much of what exists in him—minimal results from minimal reinforcement. great schools has existed for centuries. Classical literature, grammar, and rhetoric ought to be studied seriously. Students should graduate as How much more important are people than lab articulate leaders. Advanced mathematics and rats! We are trained to act in certain ways when we science courses ought to be offered and taken. We are young and to follow in the ways of the Lord. should understand scientific laws and theories, able The question is, have we developed in a manner to defend our beliefs masterfully as informed and that is meaningful and has enabled us to lead and learned adults. This includes a clear understanding

Deeper

.Schola illustris: The Roxbury Latin .Excellence without a soul: Does .Knowing God by J. I. Packer. School by F.W. Jarvis. liberal education have a future? by R. L. Lewis. .Piety and philosophy: A primer for .The Abolition of Man Christian schools by R. A. Riesen. by C. S. Lewis. .Love your God with all your mind: The role of reason in the life of .The knowledge of the holy .The Weight of Glory and Other the soul by J. P. Moreland. by A. W. Tozer. Addresses by C. S. Lewis.

20 COMMENT worldview coursepack TIMOTHY P. WIENS

of evolution and Darwinism as well as other theories cause doubt and fear. As we do, we will certainly on creation. Becoming world language learners find truth waiting for us in the form of our Savior, should be a goal. Many of our forefathers translated Jesus Christ. entire books of the Bible from Greek to Latin as a part of their college entrance exam. In our global society, we ought to be minimally conversant in a second Maturing towards influence language. Developing historical understanding of what has led to current world affairs should be Boston Trinity Academy is just one example of common among educated men and women as we a school’s working to train students to become develop strategic initiatives to influence culture. transformative, Christian leaders. Whether attending How can we influence the future if we have no grasp a Christian or secular university, I challenge you to of our past? become a thinking Christian—mentally mature, willing and able to embrace wisdom. This is never-ending task, as Christians must seek daily to Knowledge of these subjects is further knowledge of know Jesus more and to embrace Him more fully. our God. If we believe that all truth is God’s truth, In so doing, we must strive to be people of faith, as Augustine said, we should not only seek truth, committed to enhancing faith with our intellects, but also be encouraged to question why. After all, by the renewing of our minds, learning from others, will not the answers lead us eventually to the Creator and growing in community as believers. Not only will of all knowledge and all learning? We must not be we mature mentally and spiritually, we will influence afraid of doubt and fear. Instead, we must find the the world around us. tools to uncover the answers to the questions that

Timothy P. Wiens is the Headmaster at Boston Trinity Academy, a Christian secondary school in urban Massachusetts. He serves as an educational consultant nationally and internationally, and holds a doctorate in educational leadership.

This article was published in Comment, September 2008. www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 21 making friends for life

I want to be tangled up…

“ in the thorns of love ”

22 COMMENT worldview coursepack hile I was in college, God’s providence placed me in relationship to a wise Wman. He challenged me to think about the connections between belief and behavior. I learned if I wanted to have a life of integrity and real knowing, that I would have to struggle to see how things connect. Seeing Steven Garber as a mentor and model of connecting knowing and loving was of vital importance for my college years.

In his book, The Fabric of Faithfulness, I have since been in pursuit he lays out three things that can and blessed to have a life full help college students find these of these things. connections. To oversimplify, they are: This past semester I put this theory to the test. I led a book 1. a worldview that is able to discussion class at Geneva College explain adequately human with eleven undergraduate existence and human action students. Using as our main text in the world, Tom Wolfe’s novel, I am Charlotte Simmons (Farrar, Straus & 2 . a mentor or teacher who is an Giroux, 2004), the students and I example of living the tensions explored the social life of college of the story—teaching how to order students and how that relates to priorities and contextualizing the goals and purposes of higher “information”—with conviction, education. The relevance of this a dedicated knower, who discussion slowly came to the teaches the meaning of “to surface as students saw themselves know,” and and others with vivid accuracy in these pages. Added to this was a making friends for life 3. a community, modelled in the recent scandal at Duke University setting of higher education, and (Wolfe’s primary inspiration) By GREG VELTMAN reinforced by communities surrounding the beliefs and following the college years. actions of the Lacrosse team. A community is a common (See the excellent article about context of living where one is the scandal in the June 15, 2006 challenged to live responsibly, issue of Rolling Stone Magazine). being refined and sharpened Wolfe’s portrait of college life in relationship with others as reminds me of the lyrics to one embodies the knowledge Dave Matthews’ “Grey Street” and ideas of one’s worldview. (see sidebar).

2009 23 Exploration of identity

Oh look at how she listens The lyrics of this song get at the crisis point of college She says nothing of what she thinks students in the 21st century. I imagine that the lyrics She just goes stumbling through her memories to this song might be going though Charlotte’s head Staring out on to Grey Street. She thinks, “Hey, how did I come to this?” I dream myself a thousand times around the community and friendship are things to get tangled up in. world “ They aren’t easy or efficient. But they give meaning to our lives. But I can’t get out of this place. There’s an emptiness inside her And she’ll do anything to fill it in But all the colors mix together—to grey as she reflects on her freshman year at the fictional And it breaks her heart Dupont University. A major theme in both this song How she wishes it was different and the novel is an exploration of identity. One She prays to God most every night barely has to look past the book’s title to see that And though she swears he doesn’t listen Charlotte and, to a lesser extent, the other characters There’s still a hope in her he might are experiencing a crisis of understanding themselves She says “I pray and their world as they journey through the halls of But they fall on deaf ears, academia. Am I supposed to take it on myself? To get out of this place?” There’s a loneliness inside her Giving up the search And she’ll do anything to fill it in And though it’s red blood bleeding from her for answers now The best parts of the book are the long It feels like cold blue ice in her heart sections of inner dialogue in which the When all the colors mix together—to grey students reflect on their situation, their history, and And it breaks her heart their views of themselves and others. The book uses There’s a stranger speaks outside her door Charlotte’s relationships with her three love interests, Says take what you can from your dreams Hoyt, Jojo, and Adam, to explore how Charlotte can Make them as real as anything become herself. Hoyt uses her, she uses Adam, and It’d take the work out of the courage she finally settles on Jojo since “aside from him, she But she says “Please was as alone as on the day she arrived at Dupont.” Her There’s a crazy man that’s creeping outside my identity is wrapped up in these relationships, and she door, can only choose one. Hoyt is over-hyped and Adam I live on the corner of Grey Street is not “mature” enough. And Charlotte soon comes And the end of the world.” to realize that Jojo has no idea what the “life of the There’s an emptiness inside her mind” might look like. And she’ll do anything to fill it in And though it’s red blood bleeding from her The story’s main characters, a freshman girl from now the mountains of North Carolina named Charlotte It’s more like cold blue ice in her heart Simmons; Jojo, the lone white basketball starter; She feels like kicking out all the windows Adam, a prominent and geeky writer for the school And setting fire to this life newspaper; and Hoyt, the cool and suave leader of the She could change everything about her main fraternity on the campus of Dupont University, Using colors bold and bright contribute to the exciting and disturbing adventure, as But all the colors mix together—to grey And it breaks her heart It breaks her heart To Grey

—Dave Matthews, “Grey Street” 24 COMMENT worldview coursepack GREG VELTMAN

the reader traverses the joys and dangers of plagiarism, Charlotte has started to ask the questions that are partying, sex, cliques, the life of the mind, questions of worth asking but, alone and overwhelmed by the race, tolerance, and, ultimately, the search for identity. cacophony of college life, she decides to give up the search for answers. community and friendship are things to get tangled up in. My students’ experiences weren’t that different from Charlotte’s, even at a Christian institution. But when They aren’t easy or efficient. But they give meaning to our lives. asked the questions of identity, “Who are you?” or ” “What are you going to do with your education?”, instead of being “lost in the cosmos,” like Charlotte, One of Wolfe’s major themes is students’ yearning these students could articulate the ideas they had for acceptance, as seen both in the basketball star, learned in college. Worldviews had been presented Jojo, who looks for acceptance in his reputation that equipped them to use their Christian faith and talent, as well as in the student writer, Adam, to make sense of the world. They talked about in his influence through the media. Even Charlotte communities of friends that supported them in eventually gives up her virginity after concluding that challenging times. And they pointed out mentors and sex is the currency of love at a place like Dupont. The teachers who gave guidance that pointed them in the book ends with her confusion about her own identity, direction of wisdom. College for most students is, and she finally chooses to ignore the uneasy feelings indeed, making friends that will last a lifetime. that it all should have been different, that something is wrong, but she is alone in her thoughts: Why, then, the uneasy feeling, the Think about getting sometimes desperate feeling, that came tangled up over her now…and almost every day? If only she had someone to talk to about In her book, My Freshman Year (Cornell it…to assure her that she was a very lucky University Press, 2005), Rebekah Nathan recounts girl, after all… But there was—when she her research project, living in a residence hall on her thought it through—only Jojo. Aside from campus and seeing the world of student life from him, she was as alone as on the day she the inside (she was previously a faculty member in arrived at Dupont.… All right, I’ll say, “I anthropology). While trying to remain objective and am Charlotte Simmons.”… So why do I anonymous, she sees the pain and hurt of students keep hearing the ghost asking the same and the chaos of their lives. Their highest goal, it tired questions over and over. “Yes, but seems, is to have “the perfect schedule.” The students what does that mean? Who is she?” You she observed were looking to get in, get a diploma, can’t define a person who is unique, said and get out—the fewer distractions, the better. They Charlotte Simmons. It, the little ghost who were not about to let classes and deep relationships wasn’t there, said, ‘Well, then, why don’t get in the way of their pursuit of a better life as college you mention some of the attributes that set graduates. These students suffer from what Michael her apart from every other girl at Dupont, Flynn’s band Slow Runner calls being “Streamlined” some of the dreams, the ambitions? Wasn’t (see sidebar). it Charlotte Simmons who wanted a life of the mind? Or was what she wanted Today’s students live in a culture that tells them to all along was to be considered special be streamlined. It is less painful, and it will get you and to be admired for that in itself, no where you want to go most efficiently. Charlotte was matter how she achieved it?’ streamlined, and it left her “wishing it were different.” Being streamlined is the process of being numbed to

2009 25 Making friends for life

the worlds crying and laughter. It is to retreat into oneself. Our fear of intimacy allows us to take the path of least resistance—streamlined.

I think we ought to think about getting tangled up. The streamlined life is not worth living. Community The fewer and friendship are things to get tangled up in. They aren’t easy or efficient. But they give meaning to our lives. What does a tangled life look like? It has all the distractions, components of connecting belief and behavior that I described at the beginning. It starts by understanding the better? the relationship of loving to knowing. We get close to both ideas and others. The thorns of intimacy bring to light our brokenness and we learn to be humble. But we Now loneliness is so refined come to embrace our callings. It’s streamlined I slip through doors, I pass the time Streamlined Vulnerabilities become I want to be connections Weighted down Tangled up For me, college was marked by the In the thorns of love experience of dissolving relationships, But this year I by family’s scattering about the globe, and by home- Ended up packing-up and relocating hundreds of miles away. Streamlined I have rarely returned to a place. Everything seems All extra weight different where I used to belong. I am a stranger. But I’ve left behind that reality is not just in the past, it is with me in the between the rain present. And this tangled life makes me remember that beneath the signs a heart can hurt. But it has also given me courage to I want to be take risks, to know that the way of real redemption Tangled up means taking off an old self, and being made anew. The Weighted down solution cannot be to turn life into an abstraction. As we Lost and found tell our stories in community, we see our entanglement, Cause these days I and our vulnerabilities become connections with who Just walk around we are, together. Streamlined But college was also a time of deep and intimate —Slow Runner, “Streamlined” conversations that formed friendships that will last a lifetime. Having risked entanglement, I have found others that allow me to know them and I found a place where I could be known. I continue to discuss the big ideas with friends, and often just rambling about the everydayness of life. Friendship shows us that it is possible to know and be known, to love and be loved. As friends share in your joys, you can share in theirs-next

26 COMMENT worldview coursepack GREG VELTMAN

summer, I’ll be in a wedding. Our stories start to share about sexuality, politics, economics, education, and chapters. You almost never get back what you invest in all of life. The best place to work these questions out is a friendship, but what is gained is different, mysterious, with a mentor who has travelled the road before us, who and always greater than you could loves deeply the complexity of the have thought. Friendship means questions, and who is committed rejecting being streamlined. Friendship means to the pursuit of truth. The tangled- up life is not solitary. One needs a College is an ideal time in people’s “rejecting being community of friends and “fellow lives to learn how to navigate streamlined. travelers” to be challenged by and to life, entanglements and all. With serve. College is a space for each of wisdom as a guide we can learn and ” these, and Christians interested in teach a worldview-a way of being the renewal of culture have the opportunity to put these in the world that sees the reality of pain and suffering, ideas into practice in persuasive ways. College is a place to the hope of redemption, and the joy of intimacy. A learn and to live storytelling… and storied living. robust worldview is not a trite response that God’s ways are far beyond ours (and they often are), but that we need questions to go deeply into what we believe

Greg Veltman is a doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh. He publishes extensive film commentary at gregpveltman.blogspot.com.

This article was published in Comment, September 2006. www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 27 askingbig questions

Pop quiz: • What do I love? • What do I believe? • Where do I belong? • Who am I? • What hurt needs healing in the world? • What potential waits to be realized? • What is to be done?

Yes, this will be on the final.

By GIDEON STRAUSS

28 COMMENT worldview coursepack ollege is a time for falling in love, reading great books, and asking big C questions. It is a time for adventure askingbig and exploration, discovery and delight— for “tensed leisure,” as Calvin Seerveld sometimes calls it. While our deepest loves may take root questions in childhood, it is in our young adult years that we are most likely to begin to articulate the implications of what we love for how we hope to live. For those of us privileged to spend time at college, the provocations offered by books and movies, paintings and songs, teachers and friends encountered during these years bring us to question the answers we have inherited from our parents. Sometimes we appropriate those answers for ourselves with deepened conviction, and sometimes—wrenchingly— we reach for other more convincing and more coherent answers. It is a time in which we can try out different ideas, ways of life, kinds of work, with a little more wiggle-room in the face of destiny, and a little more tolerance from others for backing out of options we find to be cul-de- sacs. For some of us, there is a little less pressure to put food on the table by the sweat of our brows and, therefore, a little more of Seerveld’s classical leisure for reading, visiting art galleries, staying up late over beer or coffee to talk through things, wrestling with writing in which we bring our selves to bear on concerns common to humanity through the ages or peculiar to our own time and place. I remember with great fondness long hours spent in the library of the University of Cape Town in the early months of 1990 when, unexpectedly released from conscripted work, I briefly laboured as a full-time graduate student. It is in those months that I fell in love with the New York Intellectuals through their opinion journalism—one of the great loves of my life—and for the first time began struggling with the big questions raised by African poverty in an honestly post-utopian way. Compared to the preceding five years of doing a full-time day job as a conscript and doing a full load of undergraduate and graduate studies at night, it was leisure indeed. But it truly was “tensed leisure”—filled with effort and potential, like an archer’s bent bow. My reading started early in the morning and ended late at night, and I spent long laborious hours trying to think and write through the perplexing troubles of postcolonial Africa, and the questions they raised about being human, living together in a society, and trying to change the way things are in a world bent out of shape. The questions I considered in those months were genuinely academic—that is, informed by the long traditions and stringent standards of scholarship, while simultaneously being urgently connected to the salient issues in late apartheid-era South Africa. My

2009 29 ASKING BIG QUESTIONS

intellectual forays were prompted by that they write down a few notes on the curiosity, but sustained by a near- relationships between these four to six. irresistible insistence that rose up out of both the times and my own life stage The list of my own four to six deepest of young adulthood: to choose a life, loves includes God, Angela (my wife), to take a stand, to decide what is to be Tala and Hannah (my daughters), reading, and neocalvinism. I have done. learned a great deal about myself in the I am convinced that any attentive, last three or so years as I have considered thoughtful young adult will find big the relationships among my deepest questions rising up within themselves. loves. For example, I have realized that there is a close and perhaps inextricable The following seven questions are connection between my love for Angela important for all of life—and the college and my love for God. It was Angela who years offer a uniquely privileged setting was instrumental in introducing me in which to seriously consider them. to the love of God, when in 1982 she bought me a previously owned copy of 1. What do I love? The Good News New Testament at a street market in Cape Town—and it is my love The most basic question of God that ultimately anchors me to anyone can ask themselves is, a faithful and trusting marriage with These seven “What do I love?” Steven Garber writes Angela, despite my vigorous appreciation questions are in The Fabric of Faithfulness that “It is in of feminine beauty at large. As my love that question and the spiritual dynamics of God is nurtured, so is my love for important for all implicit in its answer that belief and Angela—and vice versa. of life—and the behavior are woven together.” Human loves are not rhizomatic but, college years We love a great many things. I enjoy instead, exist in a hierarchy, with all offer a uniquely asking people to write down a list of of our loves being ultimately rooted fifty things they love. Making such a list in a single, deepest love, an ultimate privileged is an illuminating exercise. I review my commitment that enables and at the setting in which own list several times a year—usually in same time relativizes all of our other loves—a love that serves as a god. When to seriously preparation of a class or workshop in which I am planning to use the exercise. I asking the question, “What do I love?”, consider them. encourage people to list items that range during the college years, our answers from the sublime (for example, their include matters of taste—in clothes and love for their spouse) to the ridiculous music, food and poetry, coffee and (for example, my love for Stabilo Sensor beer—and intimate relationships—a pens), in random order, to share their man or woman with whom, maybe, to lists with others, and to amend their partner for life or a circle of friends—but lists whenever they wish. Once they have all of these emerging loves derive their a provisionally complete list, I suggest deepest meaning from the decisions we that they circle the four to six items on make about the god we will love and the list that they love most deeply, and who will root, centre, and encompass all of our lives.

30 COMMENT worldview coursepack GIDEON STRAUSS

2. What do I believe? head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that Our most sincere convictions grow in everything he might be preeminent. For out of our deepest loves. Our ultimate in him all the fullness of God was pleased commitment to something that is radical, central, to dwell, and through him to reconcile to total—something that roots, holds, and encompasses himself all things, whether on earth or in all of our lives, as one of my college mentors, Danie heaven, making peace by the blood of his Strauss (no relation), taught—is expressed in our cross” (Col 1:15-20, ESV). beliefs about the relation between the world and the Our ultimate commitment finds expression in divine. divinity beliefs, which themselves most often ground the big stories—the grand narratives—we tell Everyone understands the world to be somehow as truth about the genesis, coherent structure, and dependent upon something that is itself purposeful meaning (in the face of evil) of reality. independent—something self-existent, as Roy Clouser calls it in his Myth of Religious In seeking to answer the Neutrality, something that question, “What do I can therefore be defined believe?”, perhaps a good as “divine.” Sometimes we way to go about it is to ask: identify some part or “What stories do I believe aspect of the world as self- to be true to the reality of existent, as the very early things?” Much has been Greek philosopher Thales written in recent years did water. Clouser calls about the importance such divinity beliefs pagan. of stories to the ways in Sometimes we identify the which we humans make world as a whole to be a sense of the world— part or aspect of that which the narrative ethics of is self-existent, as is the case Stanley Hauerwas and in Hindu philosophies. the narrative theology Clouser calls such divinity of N. T. Wright being beliefs pantheist. The teaching of the Bible is that prime examples. “Story” in this sense is a metaphor, God is not part of the world, and the world is not and there are certainly other warranted metaphors part of God, but that the whole world is entirely for the ways in which we try to make sense of the dependent on God for its existence—it is a creation of world and our lives. We can think of the world and God. The truth of creation and its surprising focus our lives in terms of maps and journeys, as lists, as in the incarnate Jesus is expressed best, I think, by logical arguments, as prospects and perspectives the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Colossians when (like the popular metaphor of a worldview), or in he writes: the terms of number of other metaphors. But stories “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, are the most common and profound ways in which the firstborn of all creation. For by him we try to understand the world. Stories are dynamic all things were created, in heaven and on and coherent. They have a plot with a beginning, earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones a dramatic climax in the middle, and a conclusive or dominions or rulers or authorities—all and meaningful end. They have characters and a things were created through him and for conflict, so that it makes imaginative sense to trace him. And he is before all things, and in the trajectory of a human life from birth through him all things hold together. And he is the the travails of life to death in terms of a story. Stories

2009 31 ASKING BIG QUESTIONS

have protagonists and antagonists—heroes and adults yet, have come to profound conclusions villains. We understand our own stories in those about the nature of love and justice, wit and terms. honesty, through their watching and reading In wondering what stories As we tell our stories, of Shakespeare’s plays— are true, young adulthood “and weave them into perhaps, the most can unfold as years of imaginative and thought- imaginative flourishing if the grand narrative provoking set of stories they include the pleasures we believe in, we begin in English literature. of being educated by novels, Similarly, we can discover plays and movies. While to make sense of who what we believe by I cannot say with Joseph we are. asking questions of the Epstein that “novels … have movies we watch, if to been the most decisive in ” a lesser degree. Denis forming my character,” I do believe that digging Haack writes that some of the best storytellers of into novels—and in particular the greatest novels, our time are using the medium of film to tell their by Austen and Bellow, Cervantes and Dostoyevsky, stories, so that if we want to understand the stories Eliot and Flaubert—and the list goes that people of our own time believe to be true to reality, we have to watch and consider movies.

The greatest stories challenge us most deeply with their possible truth. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey; Shakespeare; the Bible. I do not see how a young adult, seeking to make sense of the world, can get around reading these stories, with critical humility, trying to understand if they tell the truth, or not.

Deciding what we believe is not only about the stories told by others. It is also about the stories we tell ourselves, and most significantly, the story we tell of our own lives. A grand narrative only gains meaning for us as it intersects with our personal narratives. Telling our own stories and being listened to attentively and with care, by friends, is one of the most profound—while often unsettling—experiences available to us at any time of our lives. It is as we tell our own stories, and imaginatively weave it onto the grand narrative we believe to be true of the whole world, that we begin to make sense of who we are. It is as we explain where we started, where we come from, as we articulate the coherent plot lines of our lives, despite many detours, highs and lows, and on—is a necessary part of reach for a sense of personal meaning and purpose, the education of our imaginations, necessary to a in particular as we face up to the evil around and discovery of the stories we believe to tell the most within us, that we discover—and to a significant truth. My own daughters, while not quite young extent forge—our individual identities. Through our stories we make sense of what it is we are living for.

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3. Where do I belong? of belonging. In recent years the importance of friendship has been a leading theme in popular The confessional tradition into culture, as in the television series Friends. It is a which I am adopted has as one of its biggest and great gift if we are able to cultivate friendships in most familiar big questions this: “What is your only our youth and young adulthood that can persist comfort in life and death?” The historical answer to throughout our adult lives, and if these friends can the question is, “That I am not my own, but belong— challenge and encourage us to live lives true to our body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful deepest commitments and most sincere convictions. Savior Jesus Christ.” As Greg Veltman writes in “Making friends for life,” “Friendship shows us that it is possible to know and One of the things this interrogatory gets right is the be known, to love and be loved.” link between our deep need for comfort and the necessity of its being met in a complete belonging. While the deepest sense of belonging can only 4. Who am I? be met by being rooted in a relationship with the divine, we humans are neighbourly creatures. We Our character, and with it our also need the comfort of belonging to and among sense of personal identity, is other human beings. rooted in our commitments, nourished by our communities, and articulated in terms of our Abraham Maslow correctly identified the need for convictions. I best understand myself in terms of belonging as a basic human need. While I am not what I love, with whom I am friends, and by what a wholesale social constructionist, I I believe. As Steven Garber writes think Kenneth Gergen, and perhaps in The Fabric of Faithfulness, our more so Peter Berger, are on to Young adults in character is additionally shaped something when they suggest that our “college have the in relation to more experienced sense of identity is derived from our mentors who in their lives social relationships. I am to a large double privilege embody the commitments and extent who I am—or at least who I of developing convictions we share. understand myself to be—because of the people among whom I belong. relationships Mentors whom we know face-to- with mentors face and heroes whom we know For most people, the close mostly through our readings relationships of the family provide us and of immersing of history, literature, and sacred with our earliest and most immediate themselves in scriptures serve as models for our sense of belonging. For many people, a own development of character. faith community provides perhaps the great books. The question, “Who am I?”, is deepest and most enduring sense of ” answered in part when we ask belonging. Today, perhaps most obviously, our work “Like whom am I?” Young adults in college have the communities loom largest in giving us a less profound double privilege of developing relationships with but more consuming sense of belonging. Perhaps, mentors and of immersing themselves in great less than before but still significantly for many books inhabited by a great variety of heroes against people—including my family—our neighbourhood whom to consider their own lives and aspirations. provides us with a familiar place and community. Consider, for example, some of the questions raised Among young adults, at least since the advent of by Shakespeare’s heroes. Is enduring historical fame modern popular culture, the friendship of peers worth the sacrifice of everything else? Is passionate is the most decisive matrix for developing a sense romantic love worth civic disturbance and family

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honour? When is a mentor a millstone, and what purposes, it is also a call to us to participate in that is to be done in that event? Is revenge possible and work. It is a phrase popularly used by Jewish social necessary? Do we forge our own personalities, or is it activists (reflected in the name of the journal of shaped by forces beyond ourselves? opinion Tikkun) and by followers of the currently fashionable mystical kabbalah tradition in Judaism. My own sense of identity has been shaped by several Without succumbing to the mystical panentheism of heroes and mentors, but in no case have I tried to the kabbalah, this phrase does point us to the need emulate someone else comprehensively. For example, for people belonging to God to be involved in God’s one of my mentors during my teens was an Anglican repair of the world. monk in South Africa, Anthony Perry, whose monastery was the only site we could find in our Finding our task in the world, our mission in life, province for a multi-racial youth camp. I strive to be requires attending to the pain, the brokenness in the like Anthony in his relentlessly living his convictions world. Abraham Kuyper—another of my heroes—said in in the face of political censure, in his commitment to a famous speech in 1891, on the “social problem”—the building institutions, in his combination of thorough problem of urban poverty in the wake of the industrial scholarship with passionate (but quiet, below-the- revolution—that radar) activism. I do not, however, seek to live a life of Only one thing is necessary if the social monastic poverty, celibacy, and obedience. Especially question is to exist for you: you must not the celibacy! As another example, Angela and I seek realize the untenability of the present to live a life like that of Edith and Francis Schaeffer, state of affairs, and you must account for in nurturing a home and family life characterized this untenability not by incidental causes by generous hospitality, thoughtful conversation, but by a fault in the very foundation of and thoroughgoing trust in the care of God. But we our society’s organization. If you do not do not seek for our home to be an exotic pilgrimage acknowledge this and think that social evil destination, and we do not see our primary vocation as can be exorcised through an increase in a couple to be that of missionaries. piety, or through friendlier treatment or more generous charity, then you may believe that we face a religious question or possibly 5. What hurt needs healing a philanthropic question, but you will not in the world? recognize the social question. This question does not exist for you until you exercise an Perhaps the most often quoted architectonic critique of human society, which sentence by novelist and essayist leads to the desire for a different arrangement of Frederick Buechner reads, “The place God the social order. calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and Finding our vocation requires exercising an the world’s deep hunger meet.” The question of calling architectonic critique, also in our age. The college or vocation—obtaining a sense of personal purpose years offer a wonderful opportunity to hear, read and or mission in the world, in particular with regard to view insightful social criticism that exposes the evil in our work—is one of the most burning questions facing the world and in our own hearts, and its consequences college-age people. It is partly in paying attention to the in the oppression, exploitation, injustice, poverty, world’s hunger, pain, and brokenness that we begin to anger, fear, pain, and loss suffered around the world discover our own answers to this question. and in our own neighbourhoods. There are faults in Tikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase translated as “repairing the very architecture of society, and if we do not know the world.” While it refers in the first place to the where the faultlines lie we cannot know where to insert work of God in returning the world to its original ourselves as healers and bringers of hope.

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But answering this question requires more than The vocational quest of the college student listening, reading and watching. It also requires that demands more than critique—it requires reflection our hearts be broken. on the patterns embedded in the structure of reality, patterns that provide a template in terms of which critique is possible, and that offer a matrix 6. What potential waits within which discovery and invention flourishes. to be realized? I remember the deep delight of such reflection, in catching glimpses of the wisdom that shapes the The world is not only broken—it also… world, the awe and wonder that arise in the process of no, primarily… continues to be God’s good creation, discovery, and the subsequent pleasure of invention with all of the possibilities embedded in it by God and organization, as we enjoy the entrepreneurial at the beginning of time. The world is pregnant with pleasure of educated prudence brought to bear on potential, waiting to be disclosed through human professional and institutional tasks and challenges. care, stewardship, and cultivation. College is a time for cultivating a sense of wonder that can feed a lifetime of opening up the possibilities God enfolded the patterns of possibility into in the world, be it in taking care of a small backyard the world—the poetry of human-making lies vegetable garden or restructuring global commodity in the imaginative unfolding, opening up markets, writing laws or raising a family, singing of these possibilities. songs or teaching students.

Finding our “ vocation requires more than listening, reading and watching. It also requires that our hearts be broken.”

Photo by Markus Biehal, www.westausgang.de

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7. What is to be done? The college years, in offering a space for heartbreak and wonder, and strategic The question raised by Lenin argument, offers a space in which to draws young adults out of begin to realize and answer calling. the appropriate reflection and “tensed To make the most of that space, it leisure” of the college years into the is necessary to do more than read— responsibilities of a lifetime. provided one does read! It is necessary to acquire certain kinds of experience: Love, brokenheartedness, and wonder the experience of travel, finding an are necessary elements of college understanding of places different from life, but by themselves, insufficient. one’s home town, sharing the wonder of Critique and discovery must translate new landscapes and the pain of foreign into responsible action. And action shanty towns, and the experience of requires strategic vision and tactical volunteer service, in which a certain skill. generosity at work and humility in leadership can begin to be cultivated. As I have written elsewhere, young adults need college cafeteria alcoves ~ in which to passionately “argue the world,” figuring out what is to be done. There are big questions that only A college One of my favourite examples of college become urgent later in life. After some education limited students arguing over what is to be done years of adult work, most of us begin is Alcove No. 1 at the City College of asking, “How am I doing?” What to beer and New York, in the 1930s, as described by expertise have I developed during business skills Irving Kristol: my years of apprenticeship? It is good to cultivate an attitude of reflective is the prelude It provided serious conversation, even heated debate, around big practice: open to learning from failure, to a life wasted. questions as they connected engaged in relentless incrementalism but not stubborn foolhardiness, So I beseech with public life. It provided options and nuances on regularly stepping back to consider our my student current affairs, but in conscious work by means of a journal, a retreat, and morning prayer. In time, some of readers… interaction with a grand encompassing tradition (in this us begin to wonder, “Who can I tell?” Fall in love! case, marxism and its nearest Out of our own experiences grows a desire to mentor and teach others, to Read beyond neighbourhood, especially as mediated by an immediately share our expertise, to testify to our the requirements! preceding generation). It offered discoveries, to pass on the torch to someone who can carry on a tradition And ask big companionship around shared concerns, but also over and and steward a legacy. And for those who questions! against a common adversary take on the responsibility of leadership, (stalinism, and in particular in time the question arises, “How do the stalinism of the alcove next I say thank you?” The business leader door!). It was a place where and thinker Max De Pree famously books and magazine articles wrote that “The first responsibility of could be enthusiastically shared a leader is to define reality. The last is and vigorously discussed. to say thank you. In between the two,

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the leader must become a servant and a debtor. It is good to “party.” It is necessary to learn skills That sums up the progress of an artful leader.” that can be traded in the job market. But a college Saying thank you is one expression of the ethics of education limited to beer and business skills is the gratitude: an approach to life that grows out of the prelude to a life wasted. So I beseech my student realization that we receive all of life, including our readers… Fall in love! Read beyond the requirements! own work, as a gift, and that the best we have to offer And… Ask big questions! is the expression of gratitude, also by giving away our efforts as gifts, even when we are getting paid to do a job.

Dr. Gideon Strauss is Senior Fellow at Cardus, and the editor of Comment.

This article was published in Comment, September 2006. www.cardus.ca/comment

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

—Psalm 119:18 (NIV)

2009 37 38 COMMENT MAGAZINE b y g a b e lyons B y Gabe Lyons Cultural Influence: An Opportunity for the Church

’ve heard it said that you knew needed to read this book. I just knew that if don’t choose the books you more Christians could grasp this bigger picture, it could change the face of Christianity throughout Iread—great books choose our nation. you. In some peculiar way, I Unfortunately, I knew none of my twenty-something believe that is what happened friends would want to read a 600-page book. So, I in 1999 as I consumed Charles was left with two choices: get new friends, or, do Colson and Nancy Pearcey’s everything within my grasp to take these ideas and convey them in the most practical, life-giving, and Never before How now shall we live? encouraging way to everyone I could. had I planned to read a 600-page, non-fiction book, but once I devoured the introduction (a version of I chose the second option. As Henry Blackaby writes which is re-published in this edition of Comment), in Experiencing God, the role of every Christian is to

I could not put it down. On vacation in Mexico, I “watch to see where God is at work and join him.”A found myself reading this thick, green, hardcover shift in Christian praxis within our culture may be book by the pool, on the beach and in my room one such place where God is at work. I believe God during every waking moment. My worldview was is calling the church in the United States to grasp its challenged and my view of Christian influence in calling to influence the greater culture. We can feel culture was invigorated. My wife wondered what had it in the rebuke of pretentious Christianity and sense gotten into me—and with good reason. When was it in the hearts and minds of young Christ-followers the last time you saw a grown man create flash cards desperate to live lives pleasing and honouring their for reading that was not required… on vacation?! Maker. I can’t imagine anything more important Up until that time, I had wrestled with several or significant in our lifetimes than to be a part of questions surrounding the role of my faith in this the church’s recapturing its role in shaping culture. world. I had no problem grasping the idea of eternal When we do this, the life-giving message of Jesus Christ will go forward in ways unprecedented life and the need for personal salvation, but the answers I was familiar with were deficient when it throughout the 21st century. came to how my faith practically played out during my years in this present world. The origins of cultural Nobody addressed what to me seemed an obvious influence problem: Christianity gained more conversions in America over the last two hundred years than any Modern-day evangelicals are most familiar with other faith. Simultaneously, Christianity steadily God’s saving grace—the means by which God’s saving lost cultural influence despite its rapid conversion power, through the death and resurrection of Jesus growth. Christ, can redeem people from their sin and give them new life in Christ and throughout eternity. As I read Colson and Pearcey’s book, for the first What we hear less about, today, is another theological time in my life I encountered Christians who concept called common grace. Wayne Grudem defines had dared to set aside the talking points and “go common grace as “the grace of God by which he off message.” They had recognized the problems gives people innumerable blessings that are not and offered biblical, logical solutions. I began to part of salvation.” This common grace is available reconnect to Christian purpose. Colson and Pearcey through and to all of His creation. David refers to laid out all of what being a Christian was about. They it in Psalm 145: “The Lo r d is good to all, and His challenged my worldview and invigorated my view mercy is over all that He has made… The eyes of all of Christian influence. It felt simple, yet complex, look to you, and you give them their food in due true and historic. I was convinced that everyone I season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire

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of every living thing.” Jesus also referred to it when idea of a “catechesis” was based on an intentional, he admonished us: “I say to you, love your enemies deliberate process of growth that introduced a new and pray for those who persecute you, so that you believer to the life they aspired to live on this earth. may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He Conversion was not achieved in a moment. Both makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and the mentor and the disciple saw it as a process that sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew required serious, disciplined engagement over time. 5:44-45). Although eternal salvation might be grasped in a moment, the lifestyle of winsome engagement could Understanding both saving grace and common take a lifetime to achieve. grace helps us to understand the cultural mandate. It dates back to the Garden of Eden when on The Christian explanation for existence made the sixth day of creation a momentous delegation sense to Kings and paupers alike. As Colson and unfolds as God hands Adam the responsibility to Pearcey write, it was a “comprehensive life system pick up where He has left off. He is called to reflect that answers all of humanity’s age-old questions: God’s image and to have dominion over all things, Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am to “steward” God’s good creation and all of its I going? Does life have any meaning and purpose?” resources in the service of God and man (Genesis It competed and won the day against other stories’ 1:26-28). God’s declaration to humanity of their explaining human existence. Even intellectuals divinely appointed duties provided deep purpose embraced it, since Christian faith offered answers and meaning to human life. Humankind were called to the nagging questions of the human condition. to partner with God in the work He wanted to do Sadly, this way of thinking would be drastically throughout creation. transformed by the Enlightenment and the Second Awakening. It was Colson and Pearcey’s explanation of the cultural mandate that grabbed my mind and my The Enlightenment initiated a philosophical shift heart: that would change everything. The basis for human existence shifted away from God God cares not only about redeeming and toward humanity. Human souls but also about restoring his Christians reason, scientific research, and creation. He calls us to be agents not “serving the individual achievement had no only of his saving grace but also of his need for divine intervention. common grace. Our job is not only to common good Innovation was in the air. build up the church but also to build a have unmatched Speed, volume, and progress society to the glory of God. As agents of would become the celebrated God’s common grace, we are called to influence measures for success, as Michael

help sustain and renew his creation, to ” Metzger observes. Speed would uphold the created institutions of family overtake intentionality, volume and society, to pursue science and scholarship, to create would surpass quality, and progress would overrun works of art and beauty, and to heal and help those tradition. This philosophy of human-driven cultural suffering from the results of the Fall. advancement characterized the modern view that would influence Christian thinking. Christians live to serve the common good of our neighbours, and that service creates unmatched Here is one possible way of explaining what happened influence on the culture. to North American Christianity as it developed alongside the influence of the Enlightenment. Cultural influence lost Movements like the Great Awakening in England, New England, and the eastern seaboard of North For centuries, Christian growth and maturing was America, and the Second Awakening that spread understood as a gradual process. The historical from New England through to the American

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frontier in the late 1700s and early 1800s introduced As more evangelical Christians adopted this half- many people to Christ. Methodist preaching and story explanation of the faith, their cultural influence

Presbyterian Lord’s Supper gatherings staged as began to fade. The emphasis on heavenly pursuits camp meetings convened on the frontier, having little overshadowed the idea of living a life that offered effect on the educated intellectuals in the city. The common grace and promoted cultural influence. great orators of the day used emotional preaching And as personal decisions for Christ became the and proclaimed boldly the most dramatic points of short-term measure of success, the church added the Christian story; “You are a sinner, and Christ’s shallow converts who were unable to see the cultural death and resurrection can give you new life. If you implications of their faith. If being a Christ-follower get saved, you will have eternal life in Heaven.” is only about getting a free pass to heaven and trying They initiated special invitations to capture the to bring everyone else with them, it will alienate most possible conversions from a given audience Christians from the broader dialogue about life, in a limited amount of time. They didn’t have the justice, and the here and now.

benefit of living among the people and modeling Relying on the half-story explanation of the gospel the life of a Christian over the course of years. Their is like handing someone a John Grisham novel demanding schedule of traveling by horseback from with the first and last fifty pages removed. They’d town to town gave them weeks, and sometimes just be left with the middle portion of the book, a days, to convey the depth of the message of Jesus. half-story depicting some of the most dramatic developments of the story but giving little It’s easy to see that when forced to convey the most understanding of the characters, their aims and dramatic parts of the Christian story in a short period beliefs, and how they got into their dilemma in of time, parts of the story are easily overlooked. In the first place. The story might still be intriguing the process, Christianity was losing its profound and but the reader would be left feeling empty. The life-giving answers to central questions no longer impact of the story would be lost. They could call representing an entire life-system and worldview. themselves a John Grisham reader, but they would It had become relegated to a personal, spiritual miss most of what makes him a compelling author. decision about where you would spend the afterlife. And the story doesn’t make sense to them because it is an incomplete truth.

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When Christians dismiss the cultural Channels of mandate as an insignificant part of the Cultural Cultural Influence Christian life, separatism and piety increases and cultural influence fades, leaders shape What are the social institutions But, if Christians learn and embrace the the ideas, of our culture that Hunter refers full story gospel and partner with God to? They are the social institutions in restoring and redeeming his creation, thoughts and that govern any society, including their cultural influence will follow and preferences business, government, media, the Good News will spread. church, arts and entertainment, of millions of education, and the social sector. Their combined output of ideas, others How now shall films, books, theology, websites, we influence? ” restaurants, investments, social work, laws, medical breakthroughs, and technology The idea of culture-shaping is widely debated. As drive an entire nation. The ideas and values they James Davison Hunter observes in his Trinity Forum perpetuate sustain the moral fibre and social briefing, To Change the World, most people—and until conscience of the culture. The people who lead these recently that would have included me—implicitly influential institutions shape the ideas, thoughts believe that cultures are changed from the bottom- and preferences of millions of others. If Hunter is up—that to “change our culture, we need more and right, a very few can effect dramatic shifts in the more individuals possessing the right values and convictions and aspirations of a culture. therefore making better choices.” The problem is that it is only part of the solution. Hunter argues The church is a unique channel of cultural influence. that “[it] is this view of culture that also leads some Few other institutions draw participants from so faith communities to evangelism as their primary many areas of society. When Christians embrace means of changing the world. If people’s hearts and the common goals of both redeeming cultures and minds are converted, they will have the right values, individual souls, the possibilities for positive cultural they will make the right choices, and the culture will influence dramatically increase. change in turn.” I believe that the church is the hope of the world Hunter goes on to argue that “the renewal of and is positioned like no other channel of influence our hearts and minds is not only important, it is to shape culture. Its people are called to be in the essential, indeed a precondition for a truly just and world. As John Stott puts it in Basic Christianity, “We humane society. But by itself, it will not accomplish find ourselves citizens of two kingdoms, the one the objectives and ideals we hope for.” This could earthly and the one heavenly. And each citizenship explain why Christianity as practiced by many well lays upon us duties which we are not at liberty to meaning, admirable Christians in the past failed to evade.” Although the work of culture creation may achieve significant traction. take place outside the physical walls of a church building, the local church creates a natural space Cultures are shaped when networks of leaders, where social networks of leaders, within all seven representing the different social institutions of a channels of culture, can work together towards a culture, work together towards a common goal: common goal. Nowhere else does this potential for “Again and again we see that the impetus, energy and synergy exist. Unlike other channels, the church is a direction for changing the world were found where living organism where God’s spirit constantly moves cultural, economic and often political resources and seeks to express Himself through a willing Body. overlapped; where networks of elites, who generated Sadly, by focusing on just the “spiritual” and the these various resources, come together in common afterlife, the Christian church has strayed from its purpose.” potential influence in the here and now, positioning

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itself instead as just another subculture. Many Jon’s Christian community exemplifies a shift in the Christians currently hold unique and influential church. As one piece of a greater movement, we’re positions throughout the seven channels of just beginning to see what might happen. As Tim culture, but have never been supported by fellow Keller writes: believers. If we produce thousands of new church-communities that regularly attract and engage secular people, that Engaging Cultural Leaders seek the common good of the whole city especially the Consider my thirty-four-year-old friend Dan, poor, and that produce thousands of Christians who a leader in the business channel of cultural write plays, make movies, express creative journalism, influence who meets with captains of industry and begin effective and productive new businesses, use their strategic leaders throughout the free world. He cares money for others, and produce cutting-edge scholarship deeply about Christian engagement in the place God and literature we will see our vision for the city realized has called him, but doesn’t feel comfortable labelling and our whole society changed as a result. himself a Christian due to the negative baggage that This vision demands that leaders in the church comes with it. When we first met four years ago, wrestle with the complexity of embodying the Gospel Dan was desperate for a community of believers in culture. As the church rediscovers its unique that could understand him and his life in the wider role in culture, and supports the calling of their culture. He had no community or church that could cultural influencers, it will be a force for good in our support him as he tried to fulfill his calling. Dan had communities, cities and the country. given up hope and felt like the only Christian in his predicament. The way forward His story is all too common. In the work that I do, I come across cultural leaders who feel disconnected The call to the church—to all Christians—is to from the local church or, worse yet, misunderstood or rediscover the cultural mandate, embracing the “used.” The story for some is that the church tends to opportunity to influence culture. In the church, only be interested in them if the church organization we must teach about calling and cultural influence can benefit in some way. Church leaders fail to and provide vital support to cultural leaders. We recognize the current and potential influence these must become an integral piece of the local culture, leaders wield within culture, and they unknowingly convening and encouraging creation of future culture drive them away. that serves the common good. We must become connoisseurs of good culture, recognizing and Still, an undeniable opportunity for the church to celebrating the good, the true, and the beautiful to regain ground exists. My friend Jon, a top model in the glory of God, and begin to lead the conversations the fashion industry, experienced something different that will shape future culture. in the local church. As he pursued the opportunity to lead a culturally redeeming project to captivate There’s the big idea. The vision. The challenge. The the vanguard of the fashion industry, he found help opportunity. Here are a few steps you can take to and support. His pastor spent time with him and realize this vision personally and throughout your probed deeply to find ways the church could actively church. support these efforts. Whether volunteering to help at local events or assisting in the organizational and 1. Explore and embrace the cultural administrative details of his project, this church mandate provided the back-up Jon needed to engage where Educate yourself on the whole Gospel—the complete God has placed him. counsel of God—and become familiar with how the

44 COMMENT worldview coursepack gabe lyons

story (creation, fall, redemption, consummation) good in all things and identify the redemptive nature shows up in all of life and brings clarity to the of humanity and its place in creating a better world. Christian’s responsibility in a fallen world. Read Genesis 1 and 2 with this perspective in mind and 5. Convene conversations about future investigate other writings that delve deeply into the culture topic. Read books by C. S. Lewis, John Stott, Os Guinness, Chuck Colson, Nancy Pearcey, Michael Initiate conversations about the values of your Metzger, or Neil Plantinga for specific insight into the community. Host them at your church or in a neutral cultural mandate. location and drive the cultural conversation instead of simply responding to it. Raise issues of injustice 2. Teach about calling and cultural and offer potential solutions. Be the first to praise influence the good culture being created in your community and inspire imagination around opportunities that Inspire people within your church to discover their support the common good, elevate beauty and align callings and pursue them with excellence, while with truth. Most of all, convene the cultural leaders celebrating their successes. Educate those around in your local church to encourage and inspire them to you about how cultural influence happens. Find renew their channels of influence. the people within your church who hold unique and influential positions throughout the seven None of us knows how human creativity will alter channels of culture. Help them cultivate and create the world we live in next. However, our Christian culture that serves the common good. Your interest responsibility is to be good stewards of all that God in serving them will go a long way in building their has entrusted to us and to renew all things. This confidence in the church’s understanding of their alone, brings glory to God. opportunities for influence while reminding them of God’s provision.

3. Connect with your local community This article is a revision of a Fermi Short by Gabe Lyons: a chapter-length essay commissioned by the Fermi Ask yourself, as Rob Bell suggested in a March 2006 Project, “created to keep you informed of the ideas shaping podcast, “If your church were removed from the our cultural context and the church’s opportunity for community today, would anyone even notice?” As an influence.” integral piece of your local culture, adopt a missional approach to the needs of your community. Add value Gabe Lyons is the to the culture, support local artists, businesses, and founder of Fermi Project schools, and serve the community with volunteers for and the creator of Q, a good events that are redemptive in nature. Be an boutique event designed advocate for goodness and beauty throughout your to inform and expose surroundings, so that if you ever left you’d be sorely missed. church leaders to future- culture. 4. Look for the good

Become known as connoisseurs of good culture, This article was published in Comment, March 2008 www.cardus.ca/comment able to recognize and pick it out in a fallen world. Instead of being offended when confronted with darkness, suggests Michael Metzger, be provoked to get involved. Challenge yourself to find something

2009 45 DISCOVERING WHAT GOD LOVES: a journey from duty to desire

by great grace, our deepest commitments and concerns can become like God’s

46 COMMENT worldview coursepack DISCOVERING by Steven Garber WHAT GOD LOVES: a journey from duty to desire

had expected a quiet evening But, although Jude had diligently prepared himself with a book. After a long day through a regimen of self-disciplined study—learning Greek and Latin and reading all the required texts— I of work, I found a pub with he was not able to get in because he had neither outdoor tables not far from the connections nor money. And we Bodleian Library, and settled talked for some time about the intellectual snobbery which in with Thomas Hardy’s Jude had so defeated the obscure the Obscure. Jude. For months I had been looking forward to reading this novel, while doing some summer study and work in Oxford. Set in 19th-century Oxfordshire, it is a portrait of the life and times of Jude the stonecarver. More deeply it is a study in the meaning of education, which on a more theoretical level was the direction of my study.

But my quiet was interrupted with the question, “What are you reading?” I looked up and saw a young, earnest face. He introduced himself as a second-generation Keble College student; although Indian, he had grown up in Rome. I told him that I was reading about another young man who had come to the city of steeples and spires with high hopes of being a scholar at Oxford.

2009 47 discovering what god wants: a journey from duty to desire

“What are you studying at Keble?” studies and his hopes and dreams When I grow up I won’t have to think I won’t have to see unpleasant things I asked. Having lived my life among for the future—in Oxford’s oldest It’ll all be perfect just like on TV students it was obvious within pub, a venerable institution serving When I grow up I won’t feel a thing sentences that this young man was students since the 13th century! I won’t trifle in other people’s pain unusually articulate. He told me of I’ll put those childish things away his studies in political theory, and I In the back-and-forth of conversation asked more questions. The longer we talked about what we were When I grow up, when I grow up we talked, the more ironic our reading. He had come to finish When I grow up conversation seemed. I was talking out his graduate study, wanting I won’t have to think so much about a book which explored the to “think theologically” about a question, “What’s the point of very contemporary and complex When I grow up I’ll look out for me education?” with a student who political question, and knew that It’s a small lifeboat and baby, some of the best people in the it’s a great big sea seemed remarkably insensitive to world were on the Oxford faculty. And your tears are nothing, the responsibility of knowledge. don’t put that guilt on me His own studies were extremely I had been reading in the works self-oriented, with no concern of Michael Polanyi, the scientist When I grow up, when I grow up for people—political theory, with and philosopher whose analysis of When I grow up no apparent concern for the polis. modern ways of knowing has been I won’t have to think so much In the most selfish way, he saw so transformational, as we move into his education as a passport to of what many are calling “the post- The one who does with privilege. modern” era, in these last years of the most toys wins the 20th-century. Polanyi’s critique The one who dies in unspeakable sin I pressed the young student, of the Enlightenment epistemology While the hungry multitude hoping—as Hamlet taught, that was that, fundamentally, it led to is condemned to live “the play’s the thing to catch the detachment and disengagement, Loaves and fishes and fairy tales Let them eat cake, conscience of the king”—to tell i.e. I can know but not care. We let the strong prevail enough of Jude’s story to help him wondered together about a way of Let me alone, see himself more truthfully. We knowing, a way of learning that let them help themselves parried back-and-forth for a long might be inextricably linked with time, but throughout he seemed as the notion of responsibility. I wanna kill this little voice hard-hearted as he was articulate. I inside of me shook my head sadly as I watched As we parted I found myself The crazy little bastard saying him walk away, knowing that he had thinking a lot about what had passed things I will not believe little if any sense of the stewardship between us. I don’t know that I have I wanna slide just like a snake of his gifts in service to the world. ever met a more graceful young into the driver’s seat man; that is, a young man so full I’m so glad I’m lining in the USA On the other hand. Just a couple of grace. Not only was that evident With my BMW and my MBA months ago I was again in Oxford, in his personal qualities, showing Driving over these slums high on the new beltway and met another young man a remarkable thoughtfulness and studying political theory who was kindness to all. But beyond that, it When I grow up, when I grow up also of Indian descent. Unlike the was his “full of grace” vision for his When I grow up first student, this one was almost academic labor itself that impressed I won’t have to feel so much done with his education. Having me even more. The categories and gone through Harvard for his B.A. questions that he used to make and Ph.D., he was completing a year sense of his studies were deeply and “When I Grow Up” distinctively marked by the gospel Pierce Pettis of post-graduate study in Oxford. Windham Hill Records, 1988 We went off for lunch together and of the kingdom. talked for a long time about his

48 COMMENT worldview coursepack steven garber

The longer we talked the more impressed heart” (Matt 15:18). And He pictures this I was with the contrast in conversations biblical truth for us in His response to between these two unusually intelligent the widow of Nain whose only son had Indian students studying politics at died: “When the Lord saw her, His heart Oxford. If the first student was marked went out to her and He said, ‘Don’t cry.’ by a hard-hearted concern for him and Then He went up and touched the coffin, him alone, the second was marked by a and those carrying it stood still. He said, remarkable care for “the least of these,” ‘Young man, I say to you get up!’” (Luke to remember the words of Jesus. If the 7: 13-14). We see and hear out of our one was able to study the “polis” with hearts, and so seeing and hearing are no evident concern for people, the other moral acts and result in moral action. had forged a worldview that had people made in the image of God at its very This is true for every son of Adam and heart. If the one saw his education as daughter of Eve, in every culture and every simply and straightforwardly a passport century. And so we need to understand to privilege, the other saw his life and that these two students’ worldviews and learning in stewardship to God and in ways of life are different—because of service to the world. To put it starkly, it their hearts. They see and hear the world was the difference between selfishness differently—because of their hearts. They and selflessness. make sense of the world and of their place in it differently—because of their hearts. How is it that in studying the same “stuff” two students could come to such different How then do we grow our hearts so that No longer is conclusions about its meaning? To press we see and hear as we ought? The word THE self at the the question even a bit more deeply: how “ought” is a tip-off to a dilemma that must did the second student learn to love what be understood, if we are ever to learn to centRE of the cosmos God loves, and to see that concern as at love what God loves. In the moral life, the very centre of his studies—even in the whatever one’s heart commitment, it is very secularly spirited settings of Harvard all too easy to do what one ought to do and Oxford? simply because one ought to do it. At least for a while. Most of the time, that These questions are rooted in the biblical motivation wears down and out. And reality which teaches that what we see then what? In a life where one’s moral and hear is most profoundly affected by vision has been transformed by the the nature and direction of our hearts. In amazing grace of God, it is possible for the Hebrew worldview, which explicitly duty to grow into desire. frames the Old Testament and implicitly the New, the heart is the centre of all that Inch by inch and day by day our desires we are as human beings. In it we are most are transformed, so that we increasingly truthfully understood, and out of it we long for what is real and true and right; are most clearly known. For this reason in sum, for God himself. No longer is the Proverbs put it plainly: “Lay hold of the self at the centre of the cosmos, and my words with all your heart” (4:4), and so no longer is it possible to see one’s “Above all else guard your heart, for it education as a passport to privilege. is the wellspring of life” (4:23). Jesus is Instead—and this is all by great grace—we just as straightforward: “For out of the start to see that history begins and ends overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” with God, and that its unfolding in our (Matt 12:34), and “But the things that own times and places only makes sense come out of the mouth come from the if He is there. And then slowly, slowly,

2009 49 discovering what god wants: a journey from duty to desire

we come to understand that it is only as our deepest What do you love? What are you learning to love? commitments and concerns are transformed— For Christian students, this movement from head becoming holy as He himself is holy—that we to heart, from doctrine to discipleship, is what become fully human, true the college years are all about. In the reading and sons and daughters of the reflection upon texts, in the choice and deepening of Choice by choice, second Adam, Jesus, who friendships, in the listening to music and watching “ year by year, was, is, and ever shall be of films, in the decisions about semester breaks and God Incarnate. summer vacations, in the forming of vocational duty can grow visions—in and through it all, it is nothing more or It is as we draw near to this less than learning to love what God loves. into desire God in worship and service ” that we come to know Him Two very bright students, studying the same “stuff” and to love Him, and then, in the same place, and yet… and yet, one is learning choice by choice, year after year, we begin to know to love what God loves. In a word, it is a matter of what His commitments and concerns are—and to the heart. That is the difference, and the difference love them because we love Him. Augustine’s it makes is all the difference in the world. insight echoes through the centuries, probing the deep place where belief and behavior are formed: This article appeared in Boundless Magazine, and is reprinted “For when there is a question as to whether a man here by permission of the author. is good, one does not ask what he believes... but what he loves.”

Habits of Heart

The last half of my book,The Fabric present commitments and their of Faithfulness, is a report on what experiences as students two or I found as I listened to men and three decades earlier. women from all over the U.S. 3 and the world who, twenty-five What did I learn? That those years later, were still pursuing a who keep on keeping on, growing coherent faith—who had sustained in love with God spiritual depth. I asked them a and his world, are people host of questions centred upon marked by three habits of heart: the relationship between their

50 COMMENT worldview coursepack steven garber

Steven Garber directs The Washington Institute, helping young people understand the integration of faith, vocation, and culture. The author of The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior, he lives and works in Virginia.

This article was published in Comment, March 2007 www.cardus.ca/comment

1. They developed a worldview 2. They pursued a relationship 3. They committed themselves to that could make sense of with a teacher whose life others who had chosen to live life, facing the challenge incarnated the worldview their lives embedded in that of truth and coherence in that they were learning to same worldview, journeying an increasingly secular and embrace; and together in truth, after the pluralist society; vision of a coherent and meaningful life.

-Steven Garber

2009 51 WHAT IS TO BE DONE… IN THE public square?

By Ray Pennings

’ve admitted in this space (“Learning from about the exercise of power and the mediation of the journey,” Comment, V. 22, I. 9, November conflict. The public square is concerned about the 2004) that my analysis of North American exchange of ideas. Ideas do matter, and they do Ipublic life has changed significantly in the have consequences. Already in this series, we have past twenty-five years. Christians who take their seen the implications of presumptions regarding faith seriously, today, constitute a small minority. the human person, the role of the state (and other The liberal-democratic framework within which social institutions) as well as our understandings we live needs some tinkering, but actually works of power and justice as they impinge on political reasonably well. Our governments are reasonably theory. Vincent Bacote focused on creation, the representative of society. When mediocrity and church, the Holy Spirit, and the human person hedonism shape the lives of the citizens, why (dealing with race and ethnicity) as priorities for should their governments look any different? I renewed theological enquiry and development (see don’t like it. I believe we are on a path towards “The Spirit and institution-building,” Comment, V. spiritual—and with it inevitably legal and social— 23 I. 13, August 2005, and “What is to be done in suicide. But it doesn’t do us any good to deny theology?” Comment, V. 24, I. 4, September 2005). the realities of our present environment. North Both disciplines—while having an integrity and American society is such that North American identity in their own right—also are part of the Christians in general are apathetic and hedonistic, public square. We could stretch our definition of and as such are generally satisfied to live in the the public square so broadly that the term becomes culture as it is without seeking to effect cultural practically meaningless and any suggested agenda renewal. unmanageable. My focus is those institutions which have as their mandate the communication A few terms require clarification. The term of a message to the general public or to be adopted “public square” is used by some as a synonym for as public policy. This includes political parties, politics. In my understanding, politics is only a the media, think tanks, industry associations, and subset of the public square. Politics is concerned labour groups whose public agenda are broadly

52 COMMENT worldview coursepack recognized. It also includes, however, arts groups, be relegated to a “private good” in which the reach the academic community, and the church—among of that good belongs to a more limited group. In the others—who influence the public agenda in different case of the various institutions we mentioned earlier IN THE ways. Not everything that each of these institutions as possessing a role in the public square, the general public does is a public square consideration. Some serve consequence has been that they’ve ‘morphed’ into memberships or constituencies in a manner that have service organizations to their own constituencies. little public impact or import. However, each of these institutions works from a particular understanding of Tolerance is the screen to sort out what does and does not belong in the public square. When understood square? as the opposite of “intolerance”—a term whose NORTH AMERICAN contemporary stereotype is a Muslim society which CHRISTIANS IN GENERAL ARE persecutes infidels and denies women their rights— APATHETIC AND HEDONISTIC, most North Americans, including Christians, want to be tolerant. But to force a choice between the two AND AS SUCH ARE GENERALLY polarities is to pose a false dilemma. Christians ought SATISFIED TO LIVE IN THE to be civil and charitable in their public contributions, but that’s quite different from contemporary tolerance. CULTURE AS IT IS WITHOUT As Meic Pearse notes in his helpful book, Why the Rest Hates the West (IVP, 2004), SEEKING TO EFFECT Where [tolerance] used to mean the respecting CULTURAL RENEWAL. of real, hard differences, it has come to mean instead a dogmatic abdication of truth-claims truth, and each engages in activities that address the and a moralistic adherence to moral relativism— public beyond their own memberships. The public departures from either of which is stigmatized as square is more than politics. Our efforts should shift intolerance (p. 12). from short-term grasping after political power toward medium-term influence through ideas on a variety of This understanding of tolerance has as its by-product public square fronts. the relegation of truth-claims to the private sphere. In this context, identifiable institutional voices Another term that requires some comment is the contributing to the public square with ideas rooted in term “public.” While the distinction between public defined truth claims are silenced. No longer are the and private is still one that is understood, the line transcendental ideas of truth, beauty, goodness and between public and private and what belongs to each unity subjects on which relevant comment is heard. has changed over time. It used to be that the notion of Instead, churches focus on the needs of their members, “public” included a sense of service to others beyond arts groups recruit and keep patrons satisfied, social one’s immediate group. “Public service” or the agencies become advocacy groups for their constituents, “public good” involved a willingness to look beyond and our unity is reduced to a common acquiescence family and friends, and to do something that would to the latest court pronouncement or feel-good, wrap- benefit society at large. Today, if that “public good” yourself-in-the-flag speech from our political leaders. relies on any truth claim for coherence, it either needs As long as we are willing to accede to this post-modern to be watered down to the point of inoffensive vanilla arrangement, there will be no effective Christian voice nothingness in order to be “tolerant” of all, or it must

2009 53 what is to be done...in the public square?

in the public square. The essential message of the It used to be that the church sat on the main street Scriptures—that God made the world for His glory of each town, with its steeple the highest point. Even and although humans messed up everything through those who never set foot inside its doors were reminded sin, God has provided and is carrying out His plan of of its presence, even if they chose to ignore everything redemption—is reduced to a private belief system. The beyond the here and now. Vibrant churches, while a notion that God has jurisdiction or that His Word necessary prerequisite, are by no means a guarantee offers wisdom in matters concerning here and now of a Christian voice in the public square. The lessons becomes about as relevant to the public square as of history painfully remind us that some of the most whether I prefer my coffee “black” or “double-double.” anti-Christian, destructive agendas have advanced Christians must not submit to being silenced by the while religious life appeared to be thriving. Other hegemonic ideology of a mock tolerance. institutions involved in the public square also play important roles. The public square really cannot thrive For a Christian voice to speak, there must be a body without any of them. Churches must practice public and community from which that voice can be raised. theology—recovering a central place on the public I am not simply referring to the organizational or square by proclaiming the meaning of the gospel for

CHRISTIANS MUST NOT SUBMIT TO BEING SILENCED BY THE HEGEMONIC IDEOLOGY OF A MOCK TOLERANCE.

institutional manifestation of that body. Rather, I am the common good. Vibrant churches with biblical and referring to a worldview that understands I am not a confessional grit, sacramental heft, and serious moral privatized individual who happens to live alongside discipleship are central to any cultural strategy. many other individuals, some of whom share my faith in God and others who don’t. That I am part of Christ’s There are three strategic priorities on which we need to church on earth who are called to be salt and light in focus if we are to advance this agenda at all. Although the world. If I understand myself to be part of the body some strategies make impact on one institution of Christ, then every action I undertake I will reflect more than another, it is the synergies created by the on the witness of the church in the world. Then the activities of all of these organizations that generate the “my-life-is-my-business” mindset which is too prevalent momentum necessary to observable change. Christians among church members will change. A different are working in virtually every quarter of the public culture will emerge within the Christian community square, but the accumulation of individual efforts do as to a view of authority and community. Let me state not amount to a strategy. Cultural change does not the point starkly for clarity. When churches back off result from the accumulation of individual efforts, no their confessions in an attempt to avoid controversy, matter how well people do their individual jobs. Most when the authority of ordained church leaders is haven’t really considered our efforts in the context of ignored by church members and a blind eye is turned a cultural change effort. They simply latch onto good to lifestyles that flagrantly contradict what the church ideas when they hear about them, get enthusiastic stands for, when the sacraments are debased and any and write cheques until they tire themselves out, transcendent significance lost, then those outside the and retreat to the safety of the sanctuaries to tell war church have no way of identifying who the church stories and lament the lack of progress. Christian is, much less any reason to pay attention to what is efforts in the public square are analogous to a bunch said in the church’s name. While various theological of hockey players who show up at the arena for a pick- traditions and local church circumstances will apply up game, hop onto the ice, and take on whomever this to their own context, it holds implications for the happens to be carrying the puck at the moment. They public square. don’t know who is on whose team, let alone positions

54 COMMENT worldview coursepack ray pennings

or a game plan. I fear the analogy is more true than Not only do we need individuals to diversify those in public life care to admit. I have more fingers themselves, but we need forums that bring leaders and toes than there are individuals in Canada (I make from these sectors together. Time spent in no claims as to whether this is similar in the United discussion is necessary in order to bring coherence States or not) who are: to a Christian framework of public life that will be communicated through a compatible vocabulary 1. consciously Christian, and based on some broadly recognized principles. 2. active in public life, and who have Today, most Christian organizations are re-inventing 3. cultivated meaningful relationships with like- the wheels. minded significant leaders in each of the political, I noted earlier that participation in the public business, media, arts, and church communities. square understood as an exchange of ideas should be distinguished from politics understood as managing Those Christians who are culturally active more the conflict between those ideas and determining often than not lack a viable strategy, partly because which ideas govern. However, as James Davison of the pervasive consequences of individualism. Hunter points out in his speech, To Change the The cumulative effect of uncoordinated individual World, while ideas matter, not all ideas matter. There efforts is sadly inadequate. Christians need to shift are tactics, tools, and competency involved in every from an individualist mindset to a sense of being the Body of Christ The building of diverse networks and investing the time necessary to build understandings CHRISTIAN EFFORTS IN and relationships of reliability are essential at both THE PUBLIC SQUARE ARE leadership and grassroots levels. At an individual level, people need to diversify their involvements where ANALOGOUS TO A pickup they meet different people. While not everyone can hockey game be involved in everything, people should consciously rotate their organizational commitments. It is the aspect of public square participation. While the rare person who has the interest, aptitude, or energy quartet of tools I identify here is usually linked in to develop strong relationships in all five of the people’s minds to partisan political activities, most institutions I mentioned as being “key” to public life. overlap with all institutions. There are four essential But we need many more three- and four-institution components to any organizational strategy: a message, players than we have today. There are two natural human resources, money, and leadership. While the consequences that emerge from a conscious effort philosophy, background data, option papers, and toward institutional diversification. The first affects alternatives considered in building any platform take our perspective. The ability to look at a problem many words, the core message is reduced to a simple through various lenses will deepen our understanding image or clear slogans. While most of us would like to of both the problem and result in a far more creative think we are more sophisticated than to be influenced process in proposing solutions. It will also help our by marketing, the truth is that marketing does work. communications. The age of broadcasting in which The marketing and “branding” of Christian public a single newscast or newspaper singularly shaped square involvement needs some work. For most, the environment is over. In an era of narrowcasting, Christian public involvement today equates to “sex aided by technological tools that equip everyone and family issues,” with a secondary brand of “peace to communicate more broadly—even if it is simply and poverty issues” that has carved out its place on forwarding emails to contacts on their contact list, the left. Neither is an adequate distinguishing brand. diverse networks are essential to the arsenal required This isn’t a call for an advertising makeover or cute to fight the culture war. slogans. However, “Joe and Mary Public” who drive by

2009 55 what is to be done...in the public square?

the local church and notice its steeple should equate 1. Existing Christian cultural leaders need to reach out the Christian church with something different from to one another across the divide between the various what they do currently if our voice is to be heard in spheres to develop a common overarching strategy. the public square. This can unfold only if new forums are organized for intentional conversation about such Human resources, leadership, and money are a strategy; significant pieces of the strategy, but these are mainly internal challenges. There is simply not enough 2. Christian cultural engagement must be re- experience and practical know-how to fill the many branded both among Christians and in public crucial positions required. Even today, with the relative opinion. It is not enough to be identified narrowly dearth of Christian candidates and cabinet ministers with either sex and family issues or peace and seeking and holding office, finding competent staff poverty issues; and members to fill out their teams is a challenge. When it comes to the day-to-day tactical and communications 3. It is important for Christians to recalibrate skills required to conduct significant campaigns expectations to allow for perseverance over targeted to the general public, our best do not match decades of effort, rather than be exhausted by up against their best. In fact, those who would oppose the rollercoaster ride of short-term triumphs and a Christian voice can go through several rungs on disillusionment. We must gather our strength their depth chart before the levels even out. The only from the source of our hope and the promise of cure for this is time and experience. the gospel.

Perhaps the most significant challenge will be The work required toward envisioning a public reorienting expectations and the framework within square in which a Christian voice is heard, at least success or failure as currently evaluated. Although in proportions to our numbers in society, can seem motivating that majority for whom the public square intimidating. But if we take the claims of Scripture is not on the priority list is the biggest challenge, the seriously, we have little choice but to pursue such an expectations of activists also need reorienting. While agenda. When such an agenda is faithfully pursued, successes are to be preferred to failures, the battle we can be certain it will have positive results. Change for public square influence is not dependent on any will be realized in ways we can hardly imagine, albeit one policy initiative, election, or campaign. Results may not be in our lifetimes. will only be measured over decades, and we need to develop the persistence and perseverance to keep at it. The recent debate about redefining marriage is a prime example. It is only in the past few years that there has been anything that even approached a widespread awareness of this issue in the Christian community. For many, this was their first political experience. They became despondent when their petitions, protests, and ballots seemed not to affect the outcome. What is forgotten is that this issue is the culmination of about three decades’ very active work by the gay-rights advocacy community. They used a variety of societal institutions and patiently worked, always keeping their longer term objectives in mind. We have some lessons to learn:

56 COMMENT worldview coursepack ray pennings

Ray Pennings is Director of Research with Cardus, leading the organization’s economic and industrial relations research. He has wide experience with trade unions, public affairs, business consulting, public policy, and political activism. He has authored several books and hundreds of journal and magazine articles, and lives in Calgary, Alberta

This article was published in Comment, December 2005. www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 57 Mine!5858 COMMENTCOMMENT worldview worldview coursepack coursepack (This is a condensed version of the “Abraham Kuyper Prize Lecture,” delivered at Miller Chapel, Princeton Theological Seminary, March 29th 2007.)

Kuyper for a new century

By Richard J. Mouw

Mine!JUNE 20072009 5959 MINE!

n an essay offering a never far removed from his public commitments as Jewish assessment of Karl the founder of two newspapers, a university, a political party, and a denomination. In addition, IBarth’s contribution to “divine he regularly wrote articles for his newspapers, command” ethics in his “Talking while also leading his party both as a member of with Christians: Musings of a the Dutch parliament and, for a few years, as Prime Minister. Jewish Theologian” (2005), Rabbi David Novak expresses some Even when Kuyper sat back and engaged in systematic theological reflection, his thoughts were never far puzzlement about why Barth removed from his public roles. Two key themes was so negative about natural that Kuyper held in tension within his theological law thinking. He sees Barth as a lot like system—the radical antithesis between Christian some prominent Jewish thinkers, teachers who and non-Christian thought on the one hand, and advocate a “retreat into sectarian enclaves, where the reality of common grace on the other—played [people of faith] can live more consistently and an important role in his political leadership. continually according to the direct commandments When Kuyper wanted to rally the Calvinist troops of God.” Novak rejects that kind of approach. And to support an unpopular partisan effort he would having pointed to what he sees as an important preach antithesis, but when the opportunity arose weakness in Barth’s perspective, Novak suggests a to forge a strategic alliance with another party on remedy that should gladden the hearts of at least a given issue he would remind his followers that some Reformed Christians. Expressing the wish God often works mysteriously in the hearts of the that Barth “had been more of a Calvinist in his unregenerate to restrain their sinful tendencies. treatment of law,” Novak offers, in a footnote, My guess is that Kuyper’s common grace preachments some examples of people whose writings he wishes are the kind of thing that led Rabbi Novak to suggest Barth had read with openness to learning from that Karl Barth might have profitably interacted their views. And at the beginning of his list is “the with Kuyper’s thought. And while I take delight in Dutch Calvinist theologian/statesman Abraham that piece of counsel, I have my doubts whether Karl Kuyper.” Barth would actually have received much help from As someone who does his theological scholarship, Kuyper on the topic of natural law in particular. as the Dutch would say, “in the line of Kuyper,” I Kuyper’s understanding of God’s lawful ordering of take much delight in that counsel to Barth. To be the universe was of a very dynamic sort. As Kuyper’s sure, in the same breath in which Novak commends younger colleague Herman Bavinck put the view: Kuyper’s thought he also observes that Kuyper “was “God does not stand outside of nature and is not certainly not in Karl Barth’s theological league.” This excluded from it by a hedge of laws but is present is a legitimate assessment. When it comes to sheer in it and sustains it by the word of his power.” sustained scholarly theological brilliance, Barth was Kuyper’s God is ever-present to his creation, a in a league of his own. There are other theological cosmic legislator whose law “lays full claim, not only leagues, however, and if we were to do our ranking to the believer (as though less were required from the unbeliever), but to every human being and to all with reference to a very broad range of roles and activities, Kuyper does stand out as a giant in the human relationships.” league that we have come to think of as public While these emphases are clearly grounded in a theology. Much of Kuyper’s theological output was robust theology of creation, they are also linked to produced on the run. His theological probings were

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a theology of redemption that features the notion, stop signs. Approaching the school, I overheard to use the apt phrase that Albert Wolters chose for two teachers mention a fire-safety inspection that the title of his book setting forth the Kuyperian the city had conducted the day before. Later, as I perspective, “creation regained.” One of Kuyper’s drove during the noon hour to the campus where images for Christ’s redemptive mission is as a kind I was teaching, I passed another school where a of cleaning operation. “Verily,” he says, “Christ uniformed crossing guard was taking children by has swept away the dust with which man’s sinful the hand to lead them across the street. limitations had covered up this world-order, and has made it glitter again in its original brilliancy.” These phenomena all struck me as life-promoting Kuyper included the full range of cultural reality services provided by the government, for which I as within the scope of this cleaning operation. a parent was deeply grateful. In the light of those services, the unqualified rhetorical depiction of “the American system” as given over to “a way of death” Traffic signals and fire struck me as rooted in, among things, a theological inspections myopia. My uneasiness with that kind of perspective was grounded in what I am presenting here as a very I discovered Kuyper in the 1960s when I was basic Kuyperian impulse. struggling with fundamental tensions between my evangelical pietism and what I had come to see as the The late Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder non-negotiable biblical mandate to work actively for once captured the impulse quite nicely when, in the justice and peace in the larger human community. course of one of our public Anabaptist-Calvinist Kuyper helped me, more than any other thinker, to debates in the 1970s, someone in the audience asked see the profound connection between the atoning him if he could put in simple terms what he saw as work of the loving Saviour who is my “only comfort the basic issue of disagreement between his views in life and death” and that Saviour’s kingly rule over and mine. Here is how he answered: on questions of all spheres of human interaction. culture, he observed, “Mouw wants to say, ‘Fallen, but created,’ and I want to say, ‘Created, but fallen.’” During the 1970s, I attended a gathering of folks who were focusing on “radical discipleship,” and one That was a helpful way of putting the differences, of the speakers kept describing the United States as including the element of ambivalence in each given over to “the way of death.” He formulated his case. We Kuyperians do pay considerable attention case theologically by citing William Stringfellow’s to fallenness—at least we ought to—but our basic argument, quite popular at the time, that the United Kuyperian impulse is to look for signs that God has States was the present day manifestation of the not given up, even in the midst of a fallen world, on biblical portrayal of fallen Babylon. restoring the purposes that were at work in God’s initial creating activity. As I listened, I was struck by the gap between this unqualified rhetorical depiction of the American This calls for Christians, then, to work actively political system as given over to death dealing and together as agents of this restorative program my own experience that very week of accompanying that encompasses the whole range of cultural our son on his way to school. He had just started involvement. In those circles where Kuyper’s name kindergarten, and his daily walk to school followed is still revered, laypeople credit Kuyper’s influence a path through many blocks in the inner city. As I in their understanding of what it means to serve took the journey with him, I was especially aware, the Lord in the insurance business or journalism, as a parent concerned for the safety of our son, as a state legislator or in the teaching of English of the places where there were traffic lights and literature. Even when these folks may not know much

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about the technical details of Kuyper’s theological is Kuyper’s insistence that God has programmed system, they are quick to quote at least some version creation to display a marvelously complex diversity, of his bold manifesto, set forth toward the end of including a complex array of spheres of human his inaugural address at the founding of the Vrije interaction. The other is the necessity, especially Universiteit: “There is not a square inch in the whole under sinful conditions, that we be diligent in

domain of our human existence over which Christ, keeping clear about the differences among these who is sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” diverse cultural spheres.

Even politics—often depicted by theologians as a Multiformity—a favorite term of Kuyper’s—was in purely post-lapsarian remedial response to human his view necessary for created life to flourish in a rebellion—is grounded for Kuyper in God’s original “fresh and vigorous” manner. Referring to the creating purposes. Even in a sinless social setting biblical account of creation, Kuyper noted that the some sort of collective decision-making would be Lord willed “[t]hat all life should multiply ‘after its necessary for the harmonious ordering of kind.’” That the Genesis writer human affairs. In a sinless world where Our basic employed this phrase specifically complex activities take place, rules and with reference to animal life did regulations would have an important “Kuyperian not deter Kuyper from making function. Even totally benevolent, God- impulse is to a more general application. “[E] glorifying human beings would have very domain of nature,” he says, had to decide which side of the road to look for signs displays an “infinite diversity, drive on, and would have had to stipulate God has not an inexhaustible profusion of when individuals who wanted to practice variations.” And this many-ness playing their tubas could do so without given up also rules the world of humanity, unnecessarily disturbing the naptimes ” which “undulates and teems” of children who live in the same sub-section of the with the same sort of diversity, bestowed upon our Garden. It is this same kind of ordering/regulating collective existence by a “generous God who from the

function that also promotes flourishing under riches of his glory distributed gifts, powers, aptitude, present sinful conditions by setting up traffic signals and talents to each according to his divine will.” and hiring school crossing guards. It is Kuyper’s sense that God loves many-ness that also informs his sphere sovereignty doctrine. A Families are families; healthy culture, Kuyper insists, will be characterized churches are churches by many-ness, plurality. God built these patterns of associational diversity into the very fabric of creation. Things get especially interesting in Kuyper when Families, schools, and businesses do not exist by the he discusses what it is that God actually wants to permission of governments or churchly authorities— be ordered by government, a subject that Kuyper Kuyper was equally critical of totalitarian states and develops at length in setting forth his theory of politically powerful churches. God has ordained the “sphere sovereignty.” This theory has much to offer plurality of spheres, and no human power has the to contemporary discussions of civil society, but right to inhibit their proper functioning. not without some serious re-working in the light of present-day conditions. This leads immediately to the second crucial theme: the importance of keeping clear about the Foundational to the requisite re-working is, as I see it, boundaries that define the unique character of each the preservation of two key Kuyperian themes. One sphere. Consider, for example, two persons who are

62 COMMENT worldview coursepack Kuyper founded two newspapers, a university, a political party, and a denomination

related in three different ways. She is the young man’s Sphere-repair and mother. She is also an elder in the church where their worldview nurturing family worships. And she is the academic dean at the university where he serves on the faculty. Suppose, So far, so good. There is a problem today, however, however, that he commits a serious crime—using, in following Kuyper too closely in the way he spelled for example, a university computer for illicit sexual out the practical implications of this theme. purposes. As his dean she will be required to fire him. As his church elder she might even participate During many visits to mainland China over the past in a decision to excommunicate him. But as his decade, I have discussed with church, seminary, and mother she continues to love him as a member of the government leaders some pressing cultural challenges family. In each case her authority role is a different being faced in changing urban communities: one, as is the basis for acceptance within each especially, a rising divorce rate, new patterns of inter- relationship. In the university she judges his fitness generational conflict, and an increase in the number to remain a member of the community by some of suicides. Much of this seems to be a result of a straightforwardly formal standards of performance. breakdown of traditional kinship systems because of In the church, she also enforces certain norms, increasing social mobility and the reconfiguring of but here with a pastoral openness to repentance urban neighborhoods. The supportive infrastructure and restoration. In the family, the provided in the past by ties go much deeper—so much stable extended families has so that the bond is not easily A healthy culture been deteriorating. broken by either bad performance “is characterized The Christian community or unrepentant sin. In short, in China would do well to families are families, churches are by plurality place a special emphasis churches, and the academy is the ” right now on the biblical academy. Suppose, for example, image of the church as the the young man were to complain to his mother: family of God, and for the church to take on some of “How can you fire me from my teaching job? —I’m the functions of the family. I must confess that there your son!” This would be a clear case of blurring the was a time in my life when I would have resisted boundaries of the spheres.

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such a recommendation on Kuyperian grounds. to be known as “church shopping.” Families think Churches are churches; they are not families. Each nothing of moving from a Presbyterian church to, mode of association has its own place in the divine say, a Nazarene congregation—while also sending the ordering of human life. What God hath put asunder occasional contribution to a Baptist TV preacher let no human being try to put together! and enrolling their children in a Christian school sponsored by Pentecostals. I think differently these days. In many situations one of the spheres becomes severely weakened. Having Not only are we experiencing sphere-shrinkage, identified the missing functions, we must do one of but also worldview-fragmentation. The necessary two things. Either we repair that sphere in the light remedies, then, will require both sphere-repair and of our understanding of God’s creating intentions, worldview nurturing. These in turn require patient or, when that is not immediately feasible, we look work within civil society, in a variety of spheres, for ways in which some other sphere can compensate including an address to issues in public policy, for the loss by taking on additional cultural “work.” a focus on various vocations, specific kinds of It is important for the church to provide some marriage and family counselling, and so on. And all infrastructural support for cultural “shrinkage” in of that requires new concerted educational strategies the sphere of family life. on liberal arts and seminary campuses, as well as in think tanks and para-church ministries. And in In Kuyper’s day Dutch families tended to be churches. Especially in churches. associated with rather stable confessional or ideological communities. Thus the “pillarization” Be near unto God pattern of Dutch life in which various worldviewish pillars—Catholic, Reformed, Liberal, Socialist— In some insightful reflections published in Comment generated distinctive school systems, labour unions, awhile ago, Al Wolters suggested that a neocalvinism art guilds, and farming organizations. that is well equipped for our present situation must be under-girded by a deep spirituality that draws Things are very different in our own day. We have on various spiritual disciplines, including those, been experiencing not just a thinning-out but a for example, from both Ignatian and Pentecostal kind of slicing-up of worldviews. The leader of resources. I agree wholeheartedly. an evangelical campus ministry observed to me a few years ago that today’s students think nothing Kuyper has inspired many of us with his profound of participating in an evangelical Bible study insights into the ways in which all of the diverse on Wednesday night and then engaging in New spheres of cultural life stand directly coram deo, Age meditation group on Thursday night, while before the face of God. But this is an important spending their daily jogging time listening to a taped time to remind ourselves that he also wrote many reading of The Celestine Prophecy, followed by a yoga meditations about the spiritual life, published under session—without any sense that there is anything the general title, Nabij God te Zijn, “to be near under inappropriate about moving in and out of these very God.” We need to work diligently today at making a different perspectives on reality. strong connection between the “every square inch” of cultural engagement and a sense of nearness to God People change religious affiliations frequently in that must necessarily be grounded in the worshipping our culture—thus, the phenomenon that has come and nurturing life of the local church. Only then

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can we hope to form the kinds of congregations that public virtue,’ communities that seek to form the will function, in Ronald Thiemann’s apt phrasing kind of character necessary for public life.” in Constructing Public Theology (1991), as “‘schools of

Richard J. Mouw has served as Professor of Christian Philosophy, since 1985, and President, since 1993, of Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.

This article was published in Comment, June 2007. www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 65 The Flash of a Fish Knife By calvin g. seerveld

y father is a seller of fish. We children know the fish behind the counter, “Beautiful, beautiful! Shall I Mbusiness, too, having worked from childhood in clean it up?” the Great South Bay Fish Market, Patchogue, Long Island, New York, helping our father like a quiver full And as she grudgingly assented, ruefully admiring the of arrows. It is a small store, and it smells like fish. way the bargain had been struck, she said, “My, you certainly didn’t miss your calling.” I remember a Thursday noon long ago when my Dad was selling a large carp to a prosperous woman and She spoke the truth. My father is in full-time service for it was a battle to convince her that the carp, “is it the Lord, prophet, priest and king in the fish business. fresh?” And customers who come in the store sense it. Not that we always have the cheapest fish in town! Not that It fairly bristled with freshness, had just come in, but there are no mistakes on a busy Friday morning! Not the game was part of the sale. They had gone over it that there is no sin! But this: that little Great South Bay anatomically together: the eyes were bright, the gills Fish Market, my father and two employees, is not only were a good colour, the flesh was firm, the belly was a clean, honest place where you can buy quality fish at even spare and solid, the tail showed not much waste a reasonable price with a smile, but there is a spirit in and the price was right. Finally my Dad held up the the store, a spirit of laugher, of fun, of joy inside the

66 COMMENT worldview coursepack buying and selling that strikes an observer pleasantly; Calvin G. Seerveld is and the strenuous week-long preparations in the back Professor Emeritus rooms for Friday fish-day are not a routine drudgery in Aesthetics at the interrupted by “rest periods,” but again, a spirit seems Institute for Christian to hallow the lowly work into a rich service, in which it Studies in Toronto, and is good to officiate. the author of several When I watch my Dad’s hands, big beefy hands with influential books, broad stubby fingers each twice the thickness of mine, including Rainbows for they could never play a piano; when I watch those the Fallen World. hands delicately split the back of a mackerel or with This piece first appeared in Christian Workers, Unite! by Calvin a swift, true stroke fillet a flounder close to the bone, Seerveld (Mississauga, ON: Christian Labour Association of leaving all the meat together; when I know those Canada, 1964). hands dressed and peddled fish from the handlebars of a bicycle in the grim 1930’s, cut and sold fish year after year with never a vacation through fire and sickness, thieves and disasters, weariness, winter cold and hot muggy summers, twinkling at work without complaint, past temptations, struggling day in and day out to fix a just price, in weakness often but always in faith consecratedly cutting up fish before the face of the Lord: when I see that, I know God’s Grace can come down to a man’s hand and the flash of a scabby fish knife.

2009 67 WHY BOTHER?

Recovering the lost logic of church

By John Seel

68 COMMENT worldview coursepack Personal spirituality v. organized religion ook after book and survey after survey tell us what WHY BOTHER? Bany parent can easily observe by watching their “twenty-something” children: “spirituality is cool, church is not.” Dan Kimball’s book, They Like Jesus but Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations (Zondervan 2007), is representative of this. For the emerging generation, “church” is too homophobic, too male-dominated, too judgmental, too negative, and too political. Kimball’s conclusion is that the traditional church is significantly “out of synch” with postmodern youth. As with many others, he suggests changing the style without changing the substance. There is more at stake here than what first meets the eye. The generational fault line is actually more than style. Ceding style usually results in ceding substance as well. This strategy is an example of well- intended incremental decisions that frequently lead to disastrous unintended consequences.

Price of consumer religion

Consider for a moment the typical beliefs of the emerging generation. For them, religion is a personal experience relegated to one’s private life. It meets a personal need and is chosen accordingly. For those born after the cultural dislocations of the 1960s, religious truth is subjective—that is, person- specific. When I’m talking about “spirituality,” I’m talking about “my” truth. I dare not impose my views on you, and the reverse is especially true. If religious truth is subjective, if authority is personal, and if religious experience is individual, then church as the traditional, institutional locus of religious authority has no place. In reaction, church leaders appeal in myriad ways to the consumer preferences

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of a particular target market. But in so doing a History of skepticism consumerist mindset is reinforced and the authority of the institution is ceded to the individual. Under A student in college does not lose her faith these conditions, the church no longer claims overnight. It is a gradual process, but slippage can be any binding address on the person. The threat of profound within a single semester. In Tom Wolfe’s excommunication or withholding the Eucharist novel about contemporary, college life, Charlotte is of little consequence when one can go down Simmons lost her faith and her virginity by the end the street to sample from a different religious brand. of the first semester of her freshman year. As with This is the cultural situation that Nietzsche foresaw, Wolfe’s character, it is not the academic subjects when he stated that it would soon be impossible for that present the greatest spiritual dangers, but the any institution—family, church, school, or state—to social environment. The Christian student wants say with any meaningful conviction, “Thou shalt to fit in, and only later uses pseudo-intellectual not.” In consumer religion, the consumer rules. rationalizations to defend his loss of faith. The process was described brilliantly by William Under these conditions, many ask, “Why bother Wilberforce in the nineteenth century: going to church when I don’t feel like it?” Cannot a walk in the woods be as spiritually meaningful? A typical case of such unbelief begins when young men Cannot a latté at Starbucks be as deep a time of are brought up as nominal Christians. Their parents fellowship? Cannot sleeping in on Sunday morning take them to church as children and there they become be as personally refreshing? acquainted with those passages of the Bible used in the service. If their parents still keep some of the old The church has lost its logic for church. habits, they may even be taught in the catechism.

But they go off into the world, yield to youthful Church and college life temptations, neglect to look at their Bible, and they do not develop their religious duties. They do not even try This is especially true for college students. College to reflect, study, or mature in the thoughts that they life has its own rhythms and church is not one of once might have had as children. They may even travel them. Only 20% of students who attended church abroad, relax still further their religious habits, and tend regularly before college will attend church at all after to read only about those controversial issues of religion. two years in college. There is an 80% drop-off rate. Only 10% of students who identify themselves as Attending church occasionally, these occasional incidents Christians attend church regularly while at college. more often offend such youth than strengthen them. Perhaps But regular church attendance while at college is the they are tempted to be morally superior to those they think single strongest, statistical indicator of whether or are superstitious. Or the poor examples of some professing not a person will maintain their faith commitments Christians disgust them. Or else they stumble because of after college. the absurdities of others who see they are equally ignorant to themselves. At any rate, they gradually begin to doubt the These statistics prompt three observations: the reality of Christianity. A confused sense of relief that it is all church has lost its logic for church attendance by untrue settles within them. Impressions deepen, reinforced young adults; the typical way the church is seeking to by fresh arguments. At length they are convinced of their restore its rationale—by becoming more appealing—is doubts in a broad sweep over the whole realm of religion. counter productive because it doesn’t address the underlying issues; and church attendance is the This may not be universally so, but it may be termed most important variable for maintaining an ongoing the natural history of skepticism. It is the experience of relationship with Jesus while at college. This is a those who have watched the progress of unbelief in those significant, personal and institutional problem.

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they care about. It is confirmed by the written lines of Gathering with the people of God was Jesus’ practice some of the most eminent unbelievers. We find that from youth. It will become yours. Luke writes, “He they once gave a sort of implicit, inherited assent to came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. the truth of Christianity and were considered believers. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day” (Luke 4:16). Wanting to worship How then did they become skeptics? Reason, thought, and with other believers is a sign of genuine belief. The inquiry have little to do with it. Having lived for many Psalmist observes, “As for the saints in the land, they years careless and irreligious lives, they eventually matured are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight” in their faithlessness—not by force of irreligious strength but (Psalms 16:3). As with David, attending church will by lapse of time. This is generally the offspring of prejudice, not be a burden, but a joy: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” (Psalm 122:1). But proof texts don’t constitute an Gradual decisions and argument. “ subtle changes in priorities The institutional church only makes sense if truth are what undermine faith is objective, if belief is determinative, if plausibility ” is communal, and if real presence is uniquely promised. and its success is the result of moral depravity. Unbelief is not so much the result of a studious and controversial age as it is one of moral decline. It disperses itself in proportion Truth is objective as the general morals decline. People embrace it with less apprehension when all around are doing the same thing. If truth is objective, then the source of truth is outside myself. I am no longer the epistemic centre What Wilberforce described is the gradual decisions of the universe. I stand under truth—both that and the subtle changes in priorities that undermine revealed in nature and in Scripture. I am accountable faith. Rarely is the loss of faith the result of careful to truth, and I need others to help me guard against inquiry or a single experience. It’s more like gaining my own intellectual self-deception and behavioural weight than falling off a ladder. When your friends, rationalizations. We harbour suspicion of your roommate, and others in your dorm all treat institutions because it is often easier to see the church as irrelevant, it is easy to adopt the same failures in institutions more readily than in ourselves. attitude. Arguments against organized religion But at a deeper level, we don’t want to acknowledge are used to bolster these already formed attitudes. the authority of institutions over ourselves. We are If a relationship is involved, if casual sex is in the rebels. Paul warns his spiritual son, “This charge picture, then the arguments take on a particular I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance inevitability. Let’s be honest: if you are sleeping with with the prophecies previously made about you, that your boyfriend or girlfriend there are a lot of things by them you may wage the good warfare, holding one might think about doing on a Sunday morning at faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some college, other than attending church. have made shipwreck of their faith” (1 Timothy 1:18- 19). We must hold on to a body of doctrine. Faith is more than having a religious experience. It is a Signs of apprenticeship dynamic ongoing relationship based in truth about the Truth. We need regular instruction in God’s However, if you are serious about being apprentices Word and for others to hold us accountable to of Jesus, you will go to church each Sunday. God’s Word.

2009 71 WHY BOTHER?

Beliefs are determinative

Our beliefs determine our behaviour. We may not live what we profess, but we always live what we believe. Wrong behaviour is symptomatic of what we really love, trust, and follow. Over time our beliefs will always be revealed in our practice—most honestly in what we do in secret behind closed doors away from public view. This is why we need public confession before others and accountability to others. Although little practiced in Protestant circles, we are commanded for good reason to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16). There is more honesty in the local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting We don't want than in most church services on Sunday to acknowledge morning. the authority of institutions Plausibility is over ourselves… we communal

are rebels Social context determines the plausibility of belief. The pious quip, “One person Without constant resistance, we will and God is a majority,” may be good inevitably mirror our immediate social theology, but it is terrible sociology. Social context. The pervasive culture on college context does not make something true, campuses today combines nihilistic but it can strengthen or weaken whether hedonism with metaphysical naturalism. or not I think it is true. Take heroin, for Meaning is personal pleasure. Life is example. The average student will readily an accident. Everything else follows acknowledge that heroin is dangerous. naturally from these two beliefs. Unless But consider the seventeen-year-old over- one makes the choice to go to church, to dose victim who taught Sunday school place oneself periodically in the context at a local church. She told Newsweek, “In of those who believe the truth about the beginning I was so against it. I was reality, this unreality will become one’s raised in a real strong Christian home, own personal reality. Attendance at and I’m strong-willed. But once you’re campus parachurch activities, however around it every day, it becomes pretty valuable, are no substitute for going to ordinary. Then you get curious, and you church, because they do not really break think it’s not a big deal to do it one time.” one out of one’s insolated sub-cultural

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both “holy” in the sense of “set apart” and “to the Lord your God.” The purpose of keeping Sabbath is directed by this defining relationship (Exodus 20:8- 11). It is a creational ordinance that we disregard or dilute with serious consequences.

“In synch” with reality

The church is collectively the Bride of Christ. There are no “Lone Ranger Christians.” We are part of a body, an institution. The church is Christ’s idea. Uniquely through it we are nourished to do His work. Through it His Word is received. Through it His body is given as food. Contemporary, western culture is “out of synch” with God’s reality. If the emerging generation is individualistic, subjectivistic, consumer-oriented, anti-authoritarian, anti- institutional and consequently anti-church, then they are in great peril. If we want to know how we can grow spiritually—to increase in love and good deeds—the author of the Book of Hebrews writes, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, Unless we constantly resist it, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near”

we will inevitably mirror our (Hebrews 10:24-25). immediate social context ” We need each other because we need Jesus. He is the Rock on which He builds His church (Matthew reality, nor are they God’s chosen institution. At 16:18). To deny this anchor is to be set adrift. their best, they should point one to church rather Church leaders must do more than pander to the than being a substitute for church. preferences of potential participants. They must address underlying assumptions that make church a personal, consumer option… instead of a spiritual Real presence is promised necessity.

Most importantly, we are promised that God uniquely shows up at church. Jesus said, “For where John Seel is a writer, two or three are gathered in my name, there am I educator, and cultural among them” (Matthew 18:20). We come to church analyst. He is a viral to be with Jesus in the preaching of the Word and marketing consultant the administration of the sacraments. We need and writer for Walden real presence. We need an encounter with the living loving, communicating Heavenly Father. We need a Media, where he was sense of the sacred, a space and time set apart from involved in the release the routine of daily life. The Sabbath is not a day of Amazing Grace. of leisure, but a day when we rest or stop our daily This article was published in Comment, September 2007. routines to receive spiritual nourishment. It is to be www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 73 But now I see

74 COMMENT worldview coursepack he furnace repair man who came by my house, today, Tchatted politely about my family, asking about their work and studies. He complained about taxes and about the limits of the medical coverage provided by his employer and the state. Mostly he enjoyed describing his cottage on Lake Canadoda, the place that was for him the reward of a life of hard work. Now, these things don’t seem strange to us, but place (PART I) this repair man in some other cultural setting and his I see personal inquiries might be invasive, his expectations of government and his employer absurd, and his hope for the future extravagant beyond imagination. The repair man’s life and dreams make sense under our cultural heritage of beliefs: that humans have rights and freedoms and should be treated with dignity, that A crash course the government should keep its hand out of my purse on worldview, but provide for my basic needs, and that the good life is marked by comfort if not by prosperity. and why Individual beliefs vary, but in a particular cultural it’s important context people share many beliefs, values, and ways of thinking and living in common. Questioning such beliefs and patterns generally doesn’t occur to the people who hold them because these cultural beliefs are so deeply integrated with their perceptions and By Don Opitz expectations. Such culture-shaping constellations of belief are sometimes called worldviews.

For some time, now, the term “worldview” has shown up in almost every discipline in the academy, and has been widely used in discussions about faith, philosophy, culture, and education. The word migrated into English from the German, . The history and development of the notion are discussed in other places, most thoroughly by David Naugle in (2002). I want to offer a working definition of worldview, and to highlight the role that particular worldviews play in shaping everything from art to zoology. (In “Part II,” my emphasis will be on work and leadership.)

2009 75 BUT NOW I SEE (PART I)

”Worldview” is variously defined as: people. I remember to stop to pick up a gallon of milk on the way home. What a good Dad I am! • “a set of presuppositions which we hold about the basic makeup of our world”—James W. Just one half hour, and so many assumptions, most Sire, (1997); of them unconscious. Why does work go until five, and why do I make this distinction between the forty • “a comprehensive framework of one’s beliefs or sixty hours of work (which belongs to someone about things which function as a guide to life” else) and the “discretionary” rest of my time? Why —Albert R. Wolters, (1985); and are my satisfactions and delights so weekend- focused? Apparently I have beliefs about the nature • “a vision of life and for life” —Brian J. Walsh of work and leisure, though I don’t often think and Richard J. Middleton, (1984). very clearly about what these beliefs are. I value my friends, my family, and my church, but I also A worldview is a set of eyeglasses through which we value my own freedom to recreate. A sense of the see everything. It is the perspective or perceptual urgency of my own life is revealed by my impatience framework that frames our thoughts and actions. in traffic. Why am I always in such a hurry? I muffle A worldview opens up ways of seeing, and it points the curse and the song, desiring to appear both civil our attention toward certain things. Our worldview and macho. I don’t even think about stopping by also blinds us and limits our understanding and the bars anymore, but a would be nice. I value time appreciation of certain things. It sketches the with my family, and I think we are still on for dinner contours of what is real and what really matters, and together. My girls must drink a gallon of milk a day. it provides instructions about how to go about living I don’t need to milk a cow or even think about dairy in that reality. Worldviews for us the reality that we farmers or pasteurization. “Pull in, two dollars and will experience, and they to us how we ought to live change, out with the milk.” That took about four in that reality. minutes, so I’ll be home by 5:44 p.m. Most of us haven’t been critically attentive to our I imagine that many of these rituals and the thoughts worldview. Instead, we live relatively unreflectively. that accompany them are similar to your own. We Because worldviews are generally lived unreflectively, think in similar terms because our lives are similar it is misleading to make them sound too academic or in many ways. Our lives are similar because we share philosophical. They are everyday patterns of shared deeply culture-shaping assumptions. thought and behaviour.

The weekend routine More “caught” than “taught” It is five o’clock on Friday, and everything on my desk at least appears to be in order. My attention There are several ways to begin the process of turns to the weekend, and I begin to anticipate time identifying and clarifying fundamental beliefs with some good friends, my daughter’s softball game, and worldviews. I have found the basic worldview and the Sunday school lesson I still have to prepare. questions listed by James W. Sire in his (1990) to be Could I fit in a round of golf if I got up early on helpful. Questions like these help get at the beliefs, Saturday? As usual on a Friday afternoon, traffic the deep convictions, upon which people build their is tight, I curse (under my breath) a pushy driver lives: who is nudging into the lane ahead of me to save ten seconds of commuting time, and I sing along • Who am I? What does it mean to with the radio—cautiously so nobody can see my lips be a human being? move. I pass bars and fast food joints crowded with

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• Where am I? What is the nature and purpose of the cosmos, this earth, my community?

• What’s wrong? What is causing all the problems in my life and world?

• How can it be fixed? How should these problems be addressed or resolved?

• How should I act? Are there any standards, guidelines, principles for behaviour?

• What lies ahead? What does the future hold for me, and for everything?

Most of us haven’t “journaled” answers to these “Questioning our questions or struggled to develop responses that are “everyday” doesn’t consistent and coherent. Responses to such questions that are carefully and consistently bundled together generally occur are sometimes called ideologies—Marxism, scientism, to us.” economism, Darwinism, feminism, for example. Those that have developed broad culture-shaping influence are also called worldviews. Marxism, for example, was far more than a theory about human nature, history, and revolutionary redemption. It was a way of life, shaping every institution and everyday life for millions of people.

As we look back to my half-hour commute, a consistent ideology is difficult to detect. Indeed, we live under a quilted worldview, a little piece of this sewn to a little piece of that. Snatches of the Christian faith, though often generalized into a friendly humanism, are stitched to various patches of hyper- rationality (“scientism, economism, consumerism, and technicism”). These patches of hyper-rationality (the “isms”) develop when the breadth of life is viewed through the lens of one of its particular dimensions. The pieces are stitched onto the quilt- backing of individualism. Each individual’s interests and needs become rights that take priority over the common good. Utilitarianism (if it works, let’s try it) stitches all of these different pieces of fabric together. This analysis—that our North American worldview is best described as utilitarian individualism—is argued by Robert Bellah and his co-authors in (1985) and (1991).

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Most of us live according to this culture-shaping radical switch from one set of foundational beliefs cluster of beliefs and values. And we live according to another alternation. In religious parlance this to these beliefs and values, not so much because we is called “conversion.” Alternation is a fascinating have chosen them, but because we have grown into social, psychological, and, sometimes, spiritual them. Worldviews are more caught than taught. We transformation. On occasion corporate executives inherit them, absorbing them by osmosis through really do get fed up and leave it all behind to till the experiences of everyday life. In youth, our the earth. Hindus become Christians, and long-time primary “others” and language were key “carriers.” church-goers become Muslims. Curiously, changes Later, the institutions and rituals of life, peers, the in belief often don’t translate into comprehensive media, and just about everything changes in behaviour. In the context in culture communicated the of North American culture, religious dominant, cultural worldview to Most of us beliefs are so privatized, so discrete us. Our North American worldview “ don’t choose from the rest of life, that they often has been programmed into our have only a marginal life-shaping brains by family, friends, school, beliefs and influence. In my town Baptists and TV, and other worldview “carriers” values; we Buddhists talk, spend and play pretty since we were babes. much like Anglicans and atheists. grow into This is because they share a number This does not mean that we them of beliefs in common that go further are powerless to change our in shaping their lives than the beliefs or lifestyle. We are largely ” distinctive religious beliefs that they programmed, but not entirely so. Human beings are hold. Religious conversion is no guarantee that remarkable creatures with both the freedom and the an individual’s worldview and way of life will be responsibility to make choices and to change. The radically transformed. worldview we have grown up in may be adapted as we encounter other perspectives. Let’s employ a little theoretical jargon and refer to these adjustments Influencing as alteration. For example, many of us have been convinced that we must change our answer to the North America question, Where am I? We know we cannot treat Transforming one’s values, habits, hopes, and the world as an unlimited source of resources or as culture is a difficult and generally painful—and life- a dump for our discarded waste. North Americans long—process. If all of the institutions and carriers continue to consume more natural resources of our culture’s dominant worldview have been and create more waste per person than any other shaping us from early on and throughout each day, continent on the globe, and our environmental the possibility of “alternation” is slim and even efforts have not gone far in changing this pattern “alteration” becomes a struggle. Reflective Christians of consumption. But at least we are beginning to experience this conflict. Many recognize that their believe differently. Changing the patterns of life own lives and their culture are not consistent with the woven throughout the institutions of our culture desires of God and the message set forth in the Bible. will take far more time, and it will require vigilance Most of our churches have not helped us develop our and sacrifice to change. Changing beliefs that run Christian beliefs into a worldview, a way of thinking deep in a culture, and in each of us, is an extremely about, living in, and challenging the world in which difficult process. we live. Change is not easy, and deep faithfulness will require that we pursue it in the company and with the More thoroughgoing change is also possible, though encouragement of others. it is experienced rarely if at all. Let’s call the more

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A biblical worldview is a basic way of looking at all structures, and management theory. We know that of reality from the perspective of the biblical story. we will not purge all evil and redeem the creation by It involves recognizing the structural goodness of our own efforts. The glory of a renewed creation will creation, that creation itself is not finally be revealed when God judges the problem—that it was designed to and cleanses all things. Until that honour God. Human beings were Changes in time, however, we participate in the designed to honour and obey God “now, but not yet” work in Christ. “belief often in this creational context, to develop creation in ways that display God’s don’t mean Our North American worldview good intentions. Because of sin, has been influenced deeply by however, our lives have become full changes in Christianity, and it has also been of confusion, pain, and self-interest, behaviour shaped by beliefs that are alien to the and all creation bears the marks of testimony of Scripture. Our task is to ” recognize and to defeat the dualism our disobedience. Nothing is as it should be, and all institutions are in need of the of the Greeks (inherited as the sacred-secular redemptive and restorative attention of Jesus and divide), the individualism of the Enlightenment, His followers. The Bible provides us with the big and the spirit of domination and exploitation from picture (creation, fall, redemption, consummation), our American experience that have been woven and with basic principles for obedience, but it does into our own worldview. Our culture’s view of work not detail all of our responsibilities for the various and leadership is also in need of some reform. The areas of responsible cultural activity. We need to resources of the Christian faith can point us in the work together to apply what we do know through right direction. That is where we will turn in “Part Spirit and the Word, and to seek faithfully to wrestle II”. with what God might desire in politics, sports, education, economics, business ethics, corporate

Don Opitz is Associate Professor of Sociology at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and co-author of The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness (Brazos, 2007).

This article was published in Comment, March 2007. www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 79 But nowI see (PART II)

With a Christian worldview, our daily work can transcend the grind and connect to a greater purpose

80 COMMENT worldview coursepack By Don Opitz

In Part I of “But now I see”, we whirled through an extremely high, but they are driven by engines that introduction to worldviews. In this brief essay, we want may eventually propel them toward self-destruction. to slow down and employ our insights about worldviews They may be on an intense quest for money, power, to explore two aspects of our daily lives—work and or status, or they may be seeking to assuage guilt, leadership. win favour, or affirm their own self-worth. It is no more pleasant to work in the company of these workaholics than it is with the job-haters. he Conference Board’s

surveys of job satisfaction What shapes our various views and attitudes about T suggest that about 40% work? of working people in the United States were unsatisfied with I have a friend who is a successful investment banker. their jobs in 1995, and that the Stan makes about ten times more money each year than I do. His workouts each day at lunch are proportion of unsatisfied working extremely grueling and accurately timed. No harm people grew to about 50% by in that—in fact, he is in great shape. But there isn’t 2005. For the unsatisfied half much play or joy involved, and one gets the feeling that time away from work must be as efficient as time of working Americans, work is an ugly on the job. Time is, after all, money. Stan knows how necessity, something they need to do to get by. If much an hour of his time is worth, not to the dollar work is despised, it is easy to imagine that motivation but to the penny. It is wasteful, he reasons, for him and morale on the job will be low and the need for to mow his own grass, fix his own gutters, or iron vigilant oversight and incentives will be high. It is his own shirts. Even this doesn’t seem all that bad, also understandable that many will seek to define and you might argue that it keeps the local economy themselves by their leisure activities more than by alive. But what if Stan’s company offered a service their careers. Such workers will naturally work for that not only took care of his car and his personal the weekend where they can “grab the gusto” (as bills, but also picked up his kids before and after the old Schlitz beer ads used to encourage) and live school? What if his secretary bought nice gifts for large, or they will pour their lives into family and Stan to give to his wife? What if all of Stan’s friends community affairs as a way to find some meaningful were executive coworkers, because those were the centre of their existence. What forces have been at only people he had time for? work to forge such a low view of work?

What I am trying to describe here is a kind of Other people seem to live by a super-inflated sense spillover from Stan’s work to the rest of his life. I of the importance of work. Their motivation is think that a healthy economy is a good thing, and

2009 81 BUT NOW I SEE(PART II)

that it is good for some people to know how to yet still feeling somehow off-course. We worship in manage money, even huge amounts of it. Certain market-driven churches, and find it hard to imagine skills and ways of thinking are essential in order to recreation without a ten-million-dollar movie or an do such a job well. But when those ways of reasoning, eight-hundred-dollar mountain bike. evaluating, and valuing spill over into other areas of life, the results are disastrous. Michael Ende addressed the When an economic orientation threat of economism in his takes on too central a role in When economism fairy tale novel, Momo (1974). a person’s worldview, other  “takes hold, Strange businessmen began to aspects of life are reduced in move into town. They were all significance. Ethical questions paintings become identically dressed: gray suits, become merely questions of only investments, gray shoes, gray Derby hats, cost-benefit analysis. Paintings gray briefcases, and prominent are viewed solely as investments. friends become pocket watches. The adults in Friends become clients. When only clients town were quickly drawn into such views take hold of the heart the gray army of workers. A and imagination of a culture, we ” small group of children provided can call this perspective economism. the only resistance. They met daily in the old ruins just outside of town to assess the strange invasion. A Working more, young girl became the leader of the resistance. Her buying more, and only credential for leadership was that she cared in excessive and expressive ways for almost everyone. feeling off-course She was called Momo, perhaps because she didn’t Two of the primary paradigms for organizing mark time by minutes and seconds. She took the modern economic life, Marxism and capitalism, are time necessary, at any given moment, to respond both prone toward economism (the domination of with concern and compassion. This was her great life by economic rationality and concerns). While gift, and with it she was eventually able to locate and the success of capitalism has all but extinguished restore the time and life that had been stolen by the Marxism from the Western world, it is important gray parasites. to recognize their similarities and the way in which spillover from the marketplace is shaping our North I don’t think this story was about the fear of growing American worldview. Both Marxism and capitalism up, like Peter Pan. It wasn’t the adult world that was define people too much by their role in economic life. gray, but something that was happening to adults. If we begin to believe that we are first and foremost They were being drawn into something that was not economic beings, then we will identify problems and bringing them life and happiness, but something solutions in economic terms. Marxism sees human that was turning them gray. Many of us feel ourselves beings fundamentally as producers who have been growing gray at work. We have lost the exuberance we alienated from the fruit of their labour and who once had, and we have many reasons to feel cynical. must rise up against the bourgeoisie to reclaim their For some of us, the only reason we don’t quit is that freedom and identity. Capitalism sees human beings we’re not sure we could find something better. At fundamentally as consumers who can solve problems least we are making enough to make ends meet. But and obtain happiness with money. The market- it’s tough to get up for work every morning when driven media reinforce this consumerism daily, and the job is merely instrumental, a means to an end, we respond by working more, buying more, and to a paycheck.

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Many of us feel Work can, and I think ourselves growing is resting, parenting, praying, should, be something celebrating, and helping those much more. Our work ‘gray’ at work in need. God has called us into can have meaning. ” responsible action in a number To have meaning it of different areas of life. To view has to be connected all of life through one aspect to something greater, of the creation (like work or to some purpose that economics) leads to distortion. transcends the daily If we work to bolster our self- grind. A Christian esteem, to gain power, or to hide view of work can from other responsibilities, we connect us to this will ultimately be disappointed. greater purpose. A We ought to “work heartily, as look at the institution for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23) of work in Genesis 2, without being consumed by the before sin entered the grayness of economism. world, indicates that work is something more than a necessary Worldviews evil. Adam and Eve forge leadership are commanded to work, not as punishment or as models a means of survival, but because it was part of their God-given nature and mission as God’s agents in the Work doesn’t exist in isolation. In fact, all of us engage world. They were given the gifts and tasks of filling in our work while connected to others in some way. and cultivating the creation in a way that would And in these contexts we are at times frustrated by honour God and demonstrate His gracious rule over those who lead us, and we often find ourselves leading all things. Their happiness was linked to the obedient somewhat ineptly. Leadership, put rather simply, is the execution of their office. They were responsible to act of mobilizing people to bring about change. It is care for creation, to care for one another, and to concerned with both the means (the mobilizing) and the honour God with the fruit of their hands. We were ends (the desired change). Leaders mobilize followers in created to be workers in God’s creation. To begin to all sorts of ways. They lead by example, the strength of recapture meaning in the workplace, we need to go their character, sharing or clarifying a vision, selecting to work with the intention of honouring God in all excellent managers, developing functional teams, our relationships, calculations, and transactions. This executing sensible strategies, removing obstacles doesn’t mean that Christians won’t have gray days, be or creating incentives, encouraging and serving worn down by the daily grind, or be trapped in jobs coworkers, and in dozens of other ways that you that apparently contribute little to the common good. have practiced or witnessed. There is also a long list Christians, after all, live and work in the same hard of the potential goals or changes that the leader may world as everyone else. be pursuing: policies, laws, products, services, beliefs, attitudes, productivity, innovation, growth, and so forth. With this broad field of possible leadership In the Christian view work is situated in the broader behaviours and objectives, I think you can imagine perspective of a life of responsive service. Working how dynamic and challenging the field of leadership is one expression of our loving obedience to God, as studies has become.

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If worldviews are as pervasive and We also ought to be able to study formative as I argued earlier in Comment, various leadership models and begin we ought to be able to anticipate what to “sniff out” the underlying beliefs kind of leadership models will emerge and assumptions held by theorists and in certain cultural settings. It probably organizational leaders. Even if we can’t won’t surprise you to learn that Genghis detect exactly what answer a particular Khan, one of the world’s greatest military theorist or organizational consultant leaders, was raised in the fastest and would give to the first worldview question fiercest army of the world, that Frederick about human identity, we can suspect Taylor’s scientific management theory was that their answer is not very satisfying if hatched around the turn of the century their theory does not recognize the value Understanding life's in the incubator of a culture warmed and dignity of the follower. Strategies for to the possibilities of rational control manipulating followers and exploiting frameworks, we can and calculation, and that Total Quality resources are disguised as leadership become hope-bearing Management rolled off the floors of theories. Assumptions and theories are Japanese assembly lines. Worldviews forge unwittingly affirmed by those utilizing agents of cultural certain kinds of leaders. Of course, some a particular leadership model. And to renewaL leaders defy the status quo and seem to make matters more confusing, leaders draw from different sources, even sources sometimes jump from one leadership outside their own worldview community. model to another, cycling through several Several of the biblical prophets strike fashionable models in a year! me as good examples of this, and several important scientific breakthroughs have Christian leaders ought to be leery of the come about because scientists were able strategy du jour, and thoughtful Christian to imagine things according to entirely leaders ought to be able to sniff out the new paradigms.

LEADERSHIP

ServantIt begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to “lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions… The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.” The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority “needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?” —Robert K. Greenleaf The Servant as Leader (1970) | see www.greenleaf.org

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foul odor of manipulative leadership models. Many at hand through the lens of creation-fall-redemption models are designed to help people with power to can lead to the revitalization of organizational exploit those without it. The only goal is getting a culture. Healthy approaches to leadership are being job done as quickly and cheaply as possible. When explored by scholars and deployed in the workplace work is defined simply in terms of efficiency, it is no (such as transformational leadership and various wonder that workers begin to feel like they are simply empowerment models). Others are attempting to cogs in the machine. Bureaucratic management draw even more deeply upon Christian ideas such as techniques are no substitute for real leadership. the servant leadership approach pioneered by Robert In fact, such impersonal bureaucratic processes Greenleaf. Christians still have a great deal of work generally create a culture in which real leadership to do, not only to develop servant leadership as a is impossible. In organizational cultures dominated viable approach for the workplace, but to explore by control and coercion, relationships are strained, other models of leadership that are informed by trust is broken, and real leadership becomes a mere the biblical narrative. pipe-dream. Every area of life and every area of the academy Thoughtful Christian leaders ought to draw upon a is shaped by worldviews. It is tough to recognize biblical worldview to discern the leadership challenges worldviews in everyday life because life is so thick, and opportunities of their place and time. What are and we are enmeshed in it. Working together, the deep and good things that God has in view for however, we can become more adept at recognizing this area of life? How is sin masking and twisting these foundational beliefs and frameworks for life. that good potential? And how can we rely upon God Together we can become sin-contending cultural and work together to pursue mutual goals that will critics and hope-bearing agents of cultural renewal. honour the Lord of all work and all places? Learning to see work and leadership and the particular issue

Don Opitz is Associate Professor of Sociology at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and LEADERSHIP co-author of (Brazos, 2007). This article was published in Comment, March 2007. Servant www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 85 Sex is easier than love: why sexuality is at the very heart of life and learning

By Steven Garber

86 COMMENT worldview coursepack Only if the Do you believe in love? Christian I believe in saying, ‘I love you.’ vision of —All That Jazz sexuality can couple times each year make sense I teach a course called of what I feel A Learning to Read the Word most deeply, and the World, at the Same Time. We spend the first month exploring sexuality. Although the class has a reputation now, in some ways it is always a surprise for the students. Why? Simply, most have never been invited to think seriously about the meaning of sexuality.

Sex, they know, of course. Everywhere in every way in everything. As the wonderfully gifted poet Steve Turner puts it in “Creed,” capturing with his characteristic brilliance the air we all breathe, of what I We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage. know most We believe in the therapy of sin. profoundly… We believe that adultery is fun. We believe that taboos are taboo.

Or in the words of Jon Foreman, the front man for “Switchfoot,” who puts his poetry to song, Sex is currency She sells cars, She sells magazines Addictive, bittersweet, clap your hands, with the hopeless nicotines

Everyone’s a lost romantic, Since our love became a kissing show Everyone’s a Cassanova, only then can Come and pass me the mistletoe

I be persuaded Everyone’s been scared to death of dying here alone of the Christian She is easier than love vision of Is easier than life everything else It’s easier to fake and smile and bribe

Photos: Annie Ling 2009 87 SEX IS EASIER THAN LOVE

Most understand this, painfully so. They know the Christianly about everything and anything—I am aching and the yearning that is always mixed up with sure that unless we are confident that the Scriptures the hope and dream of being young—and male or tell the truth about sexuality, about being bodies, female. They know that there is something about and about being full of sexual longings and desires, being a body that is beautifully right, viz. “This is it is hard to believe they are true when they speak the way I am meant to be! This is how I am meant to about the rest of life. feel—and I feel most alive when I feel this way!” How can I be persuaded that it is worth all the work And yet, and yet. They also know that there is true of developing a Christian vision of literature, of sorrow and grief that comes with the desire to love music, of political responsibility, of international and be loved. They know that there are amazingly justice, if I am not persuaded that the Christian complex feelings that come with being male, with vision of sexuality really makes sense of what I feel being female, with being embodied, with having eyes most deeply, of what I know most profoundly? and ears, minds and hearts—yes, and with having genitals too. The Bible itself seems to understand this. Or to put it another way, God in his grace gives us the Bible as A question I ask, again and again, is this: Is it possible a lens into reality, about the way the world really is, to be holy and to be sexual at the same time? You telling the truth about God, the human condition, see, my desire is not to offer and history. Everything… one more session—a month- everything, depends on long one at that—on why sex We are made to be that—it is the cosmic line- is wrong. Incredibly, most of “holy and sexual at in-the-sand. Calvin argued those I talk to and teach about that the Scriptures are like this, who over the years have the very same time. spectacles: we see ourselves ranged from seventeen-year-olds ” and the world through the to twenty-four-year-olds, tell me, biblical story. And it is a “We have never ever heard anyone say anything other story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. than ‘No!’” In the beginning, God made us in his image, male While I agree that there are proper ‘noes’, I am even and female he made us—and it was good. To be more sure that there are proper ‘yesses’—and if we fully human is to be a man in relation to a woman, are going to find our way to a biblically rich and to be a woman in relation to a man; together we honestly Christian vision of sexuality, then we are are the image of God. There is a deep truth in that, going to have to dig more deeply into the possibility with psychological, social, and sexual implications. that we are in fact made to be holy and sexual at the The very last word of Genesis 2 is that Father Adam very same time. and Mother Eve were naked and not ashamed. We are to learn from that, to ponder that, to remember that. God in his goodness made us sexual, and it Why sexuality? was good. I begin with sexuality because it is a line in the sand for everything else. While I believe that we have to The next chapter tells the story of the Fall, and the get to the arts, politics, economics, and globalization first words after their sin is that “they were naked eventually—that we have to learn to think and ashamed.” The last word, and the first word:

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yes, we are to learn from that, to ponder that. There The world that is really there, the world that God is something about being bodies that is central to has created, and in which we live and move and our humanity, at the very core of our humanness as have our being, is tinged with meaning. If we have image-bearers of God. Faithfulness and faithlessness eyes to see, we see it to be holy, as God Himself is are first of all seen and known in relation to our holy. But that very reality is what makes it, at the sexuality. Sort of scary, isn’t it? But to know that very same time, so susceptible to idolatry. We will about ourselves is to know the true truth about adore someone or something—at our deepest, we ourselves. are homo adoramus, man the adorer.

As the story of Scripture unfolds, this same dynamic Why is it that the Canaanites, in their idolatry, is seen in every generation. The history of redemption represented their vision of the good life with a giant is story after story of persons and peoples whose phallic symbol? Do your own work, and think again deepest identities are played out with sexuality at about Baal worship and the meaning of asherah the center. Why is it that God chooses circumcision poles, which were set up on the hills of the promised as the sign of the covenant? A strange way to mark land, standing larger than life for the people of Israel one’s faithfulness to God, isn’t it—unless it is a to ponder. How could they possibly “be holy as the sign of something profoundly important? Why is it Lord your God is holy” with giant penises looking that idolatry is primarily seen in sexual distortions? down upon them? Centuries and civilizations are full of strangely sexual windows into the hopes and dreams of What was it about the idolatries of the human beings, even in our fallenness. Why does Mediterranean world of the New Testament, the God choose the marriage bed, and the relationship cities that Paul and Peter visited in their missionary of husband to wife, as the primary metaphor of travels that became incarnate in female statues his relationship to his people? Intimacy, adultery, with 60 breasts? The next time you feel weighted prostitution, commitment are all words God uses to down—or maybe even intrigued—by the promises teach us about faithfulness, and faithlessness. of Cosmopolitan in the grocery-store checkout line, think about what the early Christians had to see on Idolatry is always and everywhere a twisting of a good their way to the market—and realize that the call gift of God. We make idols because we are prone to to be holy and sexual is perennial, it has been the pervert what God intends as good and beautiful and challenge for God’s people in every time, in every true, making the gift either more important or less place. important than God intends. What is meant to be meaningful, full of meaning—the sky, the sea, a bull, Or ponder what the world looked like to Patrick, a fish, money, freedom, a breast, a penis, even love as he returned to Ireland, committed to giving itself—in our bentness becomes something, first of the gospel to the pagan peoples who had earlier all, with inflated meaning—and then tragically and enslaved him. Walking through the streets with the sadly, inevitably it becomes meaningless, as it cannot good news of the kingdom he found his way among stand having been made so meaningful. The reality statues of naked women and men with incredibly of God’s world will not allow it. The poets over the engorged sexual organs. centuries have captured this with poignancy. Hear Hart Crane: “Love—a burnt match skating in a urinal.” My family and I were in India at Christmas. It is a wonderfully alive culture, with spices and colours that

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How do we see the proper “yes” that is written into our DNA as sons of

Adam and daughters of Eve? Photo: Annie Ling

are threaded through its historic Hinduism. There is not—is so close to the heart of our humanness, and a 2000-year-old tradition of Christian witness, too. of our longing to be holy, to touch transcendence. As the story is told, the Apostle Thomas came to India’s west coast, establishing what is now called the Mar Thoma Church, among others. What did A proper “Yes” Thomas find? He saw what we saw, travelling twenty Creation, fall, and redemption. We find ourselves in centuries later. In every Hindu temple we visited, the this story that God tells, beginning in Genesis with pillars which hold the roofs in place are girded by “It was good,” and ending in Revelation with “By penises. To say it plainly, it is the male sexual organ amazing grace, it will be good again, even glorious.” that holds the temple together. The fall is real, horribly so. Its reality is not only in sexualized statues, which to the 21st-century person may seem a bit abstract. More personally, it is felt Homo adoramus? Yes, we will worship. What we in the human heart, full as we all are of longing worship will promise to make sense of life; it will and hope, of yearning and heartache. The very promise to give meaning to life. It is uncanny that possibility of knowing and being known, of being in the history of the human race, in centuries and naked and not ashamed in every dimension of life, cultures the world over, being naked—ashamed or

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in our fallenness becomes the dynamic center of that the writer waxed eloquently about real breasts, our most deeply-felt fears. There is not a week that and wonderfully so, and that they are not mostly goes by that I don’t have a tender conversation with a metaphor for the beauty of Christ? The fall so someone somewhere about relationships in general, twisted our reading of the Word and the world that and sexuality in particular. Feelings are always deep, we have a lot of work to do, if we are to “untwist” and often there are tears. the meaning of God’s grace to us in the gift of sexuality.

What do we do with this? How do we begin to rethink sexuality? To redeem sexuality? To see the I ask them to read Wendell Berry, so grandfatherly proper “yes” that is primordially written into our in wisdom and yet so radical in his analysis and DNA as sons of Adam and daughters of Eve? To insight too. His poetry is probing, and beautiful, understand that in this now-but-not-yet world it is and thoughtful, offering poem after poem about truly possible to be holy and to be sexual at the same the meaning of love, even of sexual desire. And his time? short stories are also included, where he tells the tales of a community over time of people who know and love, even amidst heartache and loss. In my class I begin in this way. I ask the students to bring in film and music that reflects the truth of the human condition, especially about sexuality, in But I also want them to read his essay, “Sex, both its glory and shame. The whole world becomes Economy, Freedom, Community,” in which he our classroom at that point, and the songwriters insists that we see sexuality in the context of larger, and storytellers whose work shapes and reflects deeper responsibilities and relationships. He resists our culture, become our companions. We do work the reductionism of “sex.” It is as important an our way through Tom Wolfe’s Hooking Up and I argument for the redemption of sexuality as I have Am Charlotte Simmons, and we read Naomi Wolf’s found—and by someone who has loved his wife well “The Porn Myth,” but the burden of the reading for over fifty years, which is not a small thing. While and reflection is to find our way into the goodness I do love books, at the end of the day we need to of this gift. find teachers for whom ideas have had legs, who in their lives offer honest integrity, where words have become flesh, and yes, where love has flourished. I want my students to understand that the real issue And then, listen carefully. is truthfulness—that is, does the song or story tell the truth about the human condition, about the meaning of sexuality? What are the glimmers of real If it is true there, glory, of our true humanity? What do we learn about it is true everywhere the way things ought to be—even as we carefully and critically work to understand the contours of Looking back on my own undergraduate years, our culture, so very fallen as it is. I remember being drawn into the richness of the worldview that grows out of the gospel of the kingdom. I desperately wanted a vision that I want them to wrestle with the Song of Songs, and made sense of all of life. But I knew that, truth its gloriously perplexing account of sexuality—even be told, most of my thinking was about girls, not as I want them to ponder why the Church for 2000 macroeconomics. I wanted to know who they were, years has so stumbled over its interpretation. Why, what they meant, what my life meant in relation to for example, do we have such a hard time believing

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them—and it seemed honest and right that I should the physical sciences, psychology and sociology. see whether my new convictions about truth and Thoughtful Christian students will get there too, meaning and reality could really make sense of my because they know they must—doing the hard work complex feelings about girls, full of holy and unholy of asking important, foundational questions in their hopes as they were. disciplines, reading the required texts, thinking through what they believe and why they believe what they believe about anything and everything that the I am deeply persuaded that there is an ancient curriculum, in class and out of class, sets before wisdom in beginning where human beings have them. That is the task of the Christian student, always begun—with our nakedness, with our always and everywhere. bodies, with our maleness and femaleness. We are perennial people, after all. Reading the Confessions of Augustine always reminds me of that. I ask that But they will get there because they are confident my students read it, too. Some things change, but that their faith is coherent, that what they believe most things don’t. The same longings, the very about the world makes sense of the world. same temptations that were his are ours. His story is amazingly contemporary. And so when he writes Several years ago one of my students told me at the that “I had not yet fallen in love but I loved the idea end of the semester that she had come to believe of it,” it is not so far at all from the headlines on that “truth is woven into the fabric of the universe.” CNN.com as I write, “Jessica Simpson loves to be I pray and teach towards that end. It is always my in love.” Perhaps, even and especially, when “sex is hope that my students will come to that conviction, easier than love,” as Jon Foreman laments. That too as it is the raison d’être of learning for Christian is perennial. students wherever they are, in the most faith-formed institutions and in the most secular-shaped ones. My So here is the vision, and the vocation that comes own best guess is that to get there we have to walk out of it. It is crucial to develop a proper confidence through an honest conversation about sexuality, that what the Bible teaches about our bodies is seeing whether or not biblical faith can adequately really true. Otherwise, it is a hard sell to believe account for what we know so well and feel so deeply. that the Christian vision can really make sense If it is true there, it is true everywhere. of aesthetics and astronomy, political theory and

A teacher of many people in many places, Steven Garber directs The Washington Institute, which has as its passion the conviction that faith shapes vocation shapes culture. With a long interest in the relation of popular culture to political culture, he is also the author of The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior, now out in its 2nd Edition. This article was published in Comment, September 2008. www.cardus.ca/comment

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2009 93 WHAT IS TO BE DONE… tounderstand our moment By Gideon Strau?ss

he late Bernard Zylstra, a political philosopher One of the wiser men of our moment, the cultural and a mentor to many Christian social activists, critic Denis Haack, writes that Twrote in a little booklet, Challenge and Response (1960): If anything is certain for Christians today, it’s that we find ourselves living Millions of Christians are spread over the face of the among people who do not share our earth today. In one way or other they are all confronted deepest convictions and values. If we with the question, What does God ask of me at this are to be faithful as Christians in such time? That question can only be answered when the a pluralistic setting, we need to develop Christian knows God’s message, that is, His Word, skill in discernment. An ability to respond and secondly, the spirit of the times. winsomely to those who see things very differently than we do, instead of merely I have tried over the years to develop a discerning reacting to the ideas, values, and behavior attentiveness to the spiritual tectonics of the times in of the non-Christians around us. An which I live. What an earlier immigrant generation ability, by God’s grace, to creatively chart a of Dutch-Canadian neocalvinists called gereformeerde godly path through the maze of choices and voelhorens, “zeitgeist antennae,” if you will. I have options that confront us, even when we’re found the development of such deep-going cultural faced with situations and issues that aren’t discernment to be an immensely difficult effort. specifically mentioned in the Scriptures.

Despite the difficulty of this task, I remain convinced The first strategic challenge to the present generation of its crucial importance. Without wise discernment, of Christian cultural activists is not knowing what to without the ability to identify the relationship, as do about the challenges facing us. The first strategic Bernard Zylstra insisted, between the Word of God challenge is to identify correctly what those challenges and the spirit of the moment, we will not know what are, at root. In this essay I will suggest that there God asks of us in our time. are four major root challenges to Christian cultural faithfulness in these times, and that we have a long

94 COMMENT worldview coursepack way to go before we will adequately understand their potential for responsible cultural action. Instead, I am true nature and most significant implications for us. concerned about the spiritual power that animates both liberal democracies and capitalist economies. It The most perplexing of these root challenges is also the is a spiritual power that seeks to combine unfettered most immediate to most of us: the challenge of modern individual liberty with the commodification and liberalism. I am at turns amused and frustrated by my bureaucratic subjugation of all of nature, and that academic colleagues who continue to insist that we live recognizes no law or power beyond or independent in postmodern times. The suggestion that somehow of nature. the spiritual force of modernity has been exhausted and replaced by something altogether different simply I am astonished by the power of liberal capitalism does not ring true to what I experience in my own to persuade even those whose deepest commitments daily work nor to the cultural forces I see at work in should predispose them against the libertarian the world. erosion of communal ties and the grasping extension of market logic beyond its proper economic sphere Following the Dutch philosopher Herman that there is no alternative. Living in a society guided Dooyeweerd, I understand modernity to be a spiritual by liberal capitalism is like being submerged in an force that has bound and guided an historical epoch. acid ocean stretching to the horizon—there seems no I view it as a spiritual force that emerges out of the possible escape, and the very flesh is being eaten off dialectical relationship between two beliefs: a belief in our bones. the moral and intellectual autonomy of the human person, and a belief in scientific and technical control LIVING IN A SOCIETY over nature. GUIDED BY LIBERAL The most forceful expression of this spiritual force—so CAPITALISM IS LIKE BEING forceful that Francis Fukuyama considers it to represent the teleological end of history, in the hegelian sense— SUBMERGED IN AN ACID is liberal capitalism. Other contenders to represent OCEAN STRETCHING TO THE this force—the foremost of these being communism, fascism, and national socialism—have been consigned HORIZON. to the ash heaps of history. But liberal capitalism is ” not losing steam, and not relinquishing its hold on Having seen the pragmatic power of liberal the reins of the leading cultures of our time. To the capitalism in action up close, in the shaping of the contrary, it is assimilating the elites of an ever-growing decisionmaking of marxist politicians in Africa and number of cultures around the world, and extending of evangelical social activists in North America, I am its reach ever more pervasively into every nook and perplexed by the difficulty of figuring out how to live cranny of those cultures where it enjoys hegemonic faithfully to the gospel, in every sphere of life, in the power. smothering embrace of a society that is radically and comprehensively guided by this sweetly destructive Lest I be misunderstood, this is not a screed against force. Given that there is no new found land constitutional democracy or a market economy, both remaining to which Christians can repair to establish of which I believe are blessings to humanity with rich a new city on a hill, how should we now live, in the

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very midst of this often so seemingly welcoming but supposedly shared concern for religion’s finding yet so profoundly antagonistic social order? a space within a secularist political order, and because of our supposedly shared concern for what The second and most obvious of these challenges is is here often term a “social conservative” stance on the challenge of Salafiyyah Islam. This is the movement issues like marriage and abortion. I have also heard in contemporary Islam that seeks to return to that Christians argue that within the context of what, religion’s purest roots in its first three generations, first, Bernard Lewis and, then, Samuel Huntington generations known collectively as the Salafi, or termed the “clash of civilizations,” Christianity and predecessors. It is a complex movement symbolized liberal modernity are—as the religious expressions of in popular sentiment by Osama bin Laden and the “Western civilization”—closely allied against the global destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New expansion of the Islamic ummah. York City on September 11, 2001. While there are several sets of such multilateral inter- religious relations in the world (yes, liberal modernity It is easy to mistake Salafiyyah Islam for a simplistic, is religious in nature), the relations between even backward, historical force. There is no doubt Christianity, Islam, and liberal modernity are perhaps that its intentions are anachronistic and reactionary, the most difficult to understand, particularly when we SHOULD “JOHNNY CHRISTIAN” GO TO WAR IN IRAQ TO HELP ESTABLISH A LIBERAL DEMOCRACY, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME MARCHING HAND IN HAND WITH YUSUF ISLAM BACK HOME IN WASHINGTON D.C. AGAINST ABORTION?” desiring to return Islam to its most ancient practices try to comprehend the relationships simultaneously and at the same time to extend the territorial on a local and a global scale. What seems expedient supremacy of Islam over all of the earth. But it is by globally does not always seem to make sense locally, no means unsophisticated in either an intellectual and the reverse. Should “Johnny Christian” go to war or an organizational sense. Salafiyyah Islam has in Iraq to help establish a liberal democracy at the a theoretical base that has taken careful account historical heart of the Islamic caliphate, while at the of modernity in its historical expression in every same time marching hand in hand with Yusuf Islam sphere of human life. It has found modernity not back home in Washington D.C. against abortion on only inimical to the teachings of the Koran, but also demand? inadequate for the cultivation of a wholesome human society. The contemporary adherents of Salafiyyah It might seem strange to go from modernity and Islam are technically competent in the arts of war, and Islam to a more concretely geopolitical entity, but organizationally adept at the social technologies of the third challenge facing us in our moment is China. terror and subversion. Conceiving of itself as the Middle Kingdom, or the central political entity in the world, China has What is not at all clear is how Christians should succeeded in assimilating several waves of religious respond to the struggle between modernity and change and barbaric invasion, while maintaining this Salafiyyah Islam for global hegemony. I have heard vision of itself. At present it seems to be in the process Christians argue that within the context of North of extracting from modern capitalism certain key America we are more closely cobelligerent with elements of economic organization, while refashioning Muslims, against liberal modernity, because of our its official communist political order into something

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resembling a blend of the fascism of Benito Mussolini a global moral responsibility, an with the nine-rank mandarin bureaucracy of the Tang “Augustinian” national self-view, dynasty. if you like.

Both China itself and the overseas Chinese China presents its own Christians with a cultural communities—the approximately 34 million Chinese challenge very different from that presented by people who live throughout Southeast Asia, North liberal modernity, but perhaps no less perplexing. America, and Australia—have been fertile fields for How does one live within an established social and the expansion of the Christian faith. political order that is at once seemingly tolerant of and fundamentally antagonistic to one’s most basic China is simultaneously repressive in its relations with commitments and convictions? For Christians in independent Christian churches and welcoming to North America, one additional question is how we scholarly engagement with Christian intellectuals. An relate to Chinese Christians as our co-religionists in example of the former is the arrest of approximately a complex geopolitical situation, particularly given ten Catholic bishops and priests who have been the high probability of serious international conflict and jailed or sent to labour re-education camps as between America and China in the twenty-first recently as April of 2005. An example of the latter century, as predicted by pundits like Robert Kaplan? is the Chinese Studies Program at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, where many scholars The last challenge I want to identify is the challenge of and theologians in Christian studies from academic post-Western Christianity in Africa, Asia and Latin America. institutions in China and Hong Kong have been In books like The Next Christendom: The Coming of involved in short-term lecturing and research since Global Christianity by Philip Jenkins and Whose Religion 1992. Each year at Regent College, up to ten doctoral Is Christianity?: The Gospel beyond the West by Lamin students, in their second year of studies at key Sanneh, it is argued that Christianity has burst forth academic institutions in China, do academic research from its primarily European and North American on dissertation topics in the areas of Christian context over the past hundred years to become a religion philosophy, theology and Chinese studies. weighted toward the global South. There are now more Christians, and a more vital Christian religious The relationship of China as a geopolitical entity practice, in Africa, Asia and Latin America than there to Christianity as a religion holds fascinating and are in the countries of the North Atlantic. The rapid troubling world historical potential. David Aikman, secularization of Europe and Canada particularly the author of Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is since the 1960s—that is, the mass displacement in Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance personal belief and public influence of Catholic and of Power, suggests that China might in this century Protestant Christianity with liberal modernity—and become substantially Christian, and explores (in an the even more rapid Christianization of Africa since interview with National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez) 1900 are perhaps the most significant features of this some of the consequent options: turn of events.

What would a non-Christian China be This shift in religious demographics gains like if it became a superpower capable of additional weight if it is considered that North rivaling the U.S.? Probably dangerous Atlantic Christianity has in many ways internally and unpredictable. A Christian China accommodated itself to liberal modernity. This is would be far more likely to view exemplified in the doctrinal acquiescence of liberal its role in the world as containing Protestantism to the key intellectual notions of

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liberal modernity, and in the pragmatic adjustment in Africa, in every sphere of life. of evangelical Protestantism to consumerism and a celebrity-focused media culture. By contrast The sociologist David Martin has documented (although this is an over-simplification), Christianity the social effects of the emerging pentecostalism of in Africa, Asia and Latin America (“give or take” a Latin America, most famously in Tongues of Fire: The local syncretism or two …) is attempting to be more Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America (1990). orthodox both in faith and life. This leads, for According to Mr. Martin, this explosion is already example, to the contemporary conflicts within the bearing significant social consequences, not the least Anglican communion between African and Asian of which is the relatively rapid alleviation of poverty bishops (on the one hand) and British and North among the pentecostal poorest of the poor. Admittedly American bishops (on the other hand) over the Latin America is a a case very different from Africa. question of the ordination of practicing homosexuals Whereas in Africa mass conversions have been effected to the priesthood. over the past hundred years from an autochthonous While, from my Christian perspective, the growth of paganism to a missionary evangelical and Catholic Christianity, in Latin America, Pentecostal and more THESE FOUR ROOT broadly evangelical conversions are unfolding in the context of hundreds of years of a CHALLENGES TO WESTERN hegemonic Catholicism. CHRISTIANITY—LIBERAL The situation is different yet again in Asia. There MODERNITY, SALAFIYYAH ISLAM, Christianity continues to be very much a minority CHINA, AND POST-WESTERN religion, despite its rapid growth. Like Africa but unlike Latin America, Christianity is very much CHRISTIANITY IN AFRICA, ASIA a newcomer to much of Asia. Unlike Africa, the AND LATIN AMERICA—ARE OF competing religious systems in Asia have proven to be much more overtly tenacious. The evidence EQUAL IMPORTANCE of Christian cultural influence in Asia—outside of ” South Korea, perhaps, and some overseas Chinese Christianity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America is an communities—remains very limited. exciting historical development, this massive shift in religious adherence has as yet resulted in only limited How are we Christians in Europe and North America positive social change. to relate to our fellow Christians in Africa, Asia, and Latin America? Against the background of a rising The most obviously troubling problem in this regard Christianity in the global South, what—perhaps more is the devastating AIDS pandemic in Africa, which is broadly—are our responsibilities for Africa, Asia, and almost entirely the result of personal sexual practices Latin America? As I have written elsewhere, that are in every respect at odds with a Christian sexual ethic. In the long run, however—if we are to My Africa problem is not whether there is take as an example the slow emergence of Christian something wrong with Africa, or whether cultural influence in western Europe between, say, the something should be done about it if there deposition of Romulus Augustus as Roman emperor is. Both reliable research and my own in AD 476 and the crowning of Charlemagne as direct experience assures me that something Imperator Romanorum in AD 800—it is entirely possible is indeed very wrong with Africa, and I that Christianity will result in a rich cultural flowering have no doubt that something should be

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done about it. My problem has to do with generation—a cosmopolitanism very much in evidence, what should be done, and by whom. More for example, in early international Calvinism, or in the particularly, what is my own personal early Christianity described in the New Testament, for responsibility toward Africa, and how does that matter. that responsibility weigh up against my other responsibilities? (the New Pantagruel, All I have done, here, is to point out four big challenges. Issue 1.4). What these challenges mean for us, and how we are to address them, will require much study and debate, and Similar questions trouble me about Asia and Latin at least this is clear: Western Christians must think America. through these issues in partnership with Christians from around the world, if we are to truly understand These four root challenges to Western Christianity— the implications of what we discover. liberal modernity, Salafiyyah Islam, China, and post-Western Christianity in Africa, Asia and Latin I fear I must disagree with V. I. Lenin, from whom we America—are of equal importance, even if only the borrowed the title of this series, “What is to be done?” first has an immediate and intimate influence on He wrote: our daily lives. Christianity is a global religion, and Christians share a responsibility for one another and It is not a question of what path we for the planet as a whole, regardless of our particular must choose (as was the case in the location. late eighties and early nineties), but of what practical steps we must take upon I have friends who argue that all that we need to the known path and how they shall be do—indeed, that our only appropriate action—is to taken. It is a question of a system and take part in the life of our local church, to nurture plan of practical work—What Is To Be our immediate family and friends, to cultivate our Done? (1901-1902). own garden or farm, to steward our own business, to help govern our own parish or township. This There is as yet much thought that needs to go into what localism I reject for its neglect of a serious and active path we must choose. Perhaps our greatest difficulty is taking up of responsibility for negotiating the global that we cannot avoid taking practical steps even as the challenges listed in this essay. Yes, we have local path ahead remains, to a large extent, unknown. responsibilities, but they must be balanced with our global responsibilities. In this sense, we must cultivate an earnest Christian cosmopolitanism in our

Dr. Gideon Strauss is Senior Fellow at Cardus, and the editor of Comment.

This article was published in Comment, December 2005. www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 99 in search of the Happy Life.

100 COMMENT worldview coursepack in search of the Happy Life.

Disordered love, ’m simply unhappy. If anyone is disordered lives… “ unhappy, I am.” So mourned Leo reordered love, ITolstoy’s doleful character Anna Karenina in the famous novel that reordered lives bears her name. Chances are that we can all identify with her dejected state at some point in our lives. Although some may tend to romanticize unhappiness, who among us, when actually miserable, doesn’t wish that a present By David K. Naugle condition might change somehow for the better?

Happiness—we all want it, whether or not we are willing to admit it. Although we are rarely reluctant to wish people happiness on their birthdays or at the beginning of a new year, cynicism often abounds when people broach this topic overall. As the character Mac Sledge in the film Tender Mercies uttered on one occasion, “I don’t trust happiness. Never did, never will.” The humourist Garrison Keillor, of Prairie Home Companion fame, talking about being raised with a mid- western American fatalism, said something similar in a 2006 interview. “We come from people,” he said, “who brought us up to believe that life is a struggle. And if you should ever feel really happy, be patient. This will pass.”

We may be suspicious of happiness, but it is an innate human yearning, even a God-given desire. We are all, according to one truth-telling bumper-sticker, “In Search of the Eternal Buzz.” If we are to be genuinely happy, then we need to

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know something about it. I am convinced that truth humanity into sin. Some may brush it aside as an about the happy life is bound up with the essential inconsequential myth, but we must take its message components of the biblical narrative and the order seriously. As Peter Kreeft writes in his article, “C. S. of our loves. Lewis’s Argument from Desire”: “What happened in Eden may be hard to understand, but it makes everything else understandable.” What this story God’s recipe for enables us to understand is the origin of evil and the happy life suffering in the world. It accounts for the tragic character of the human condition—idolatry, In the account of creation in Genesis 1 & 2—a immorality, falsehood, warfare, disease, famine, good news story if there ever was one—we discover earthquakes, poverty, injustice, greed, and so on. that God formed, filled, and illuminated an initially Things are no longer the way they are supposed to formless, empty, and darkened earth. In six creative be. Shalom has been vandalized, to use Cornelius days, he fashioned all things into a beautiful world, Plantinga’s terms—the peace has been disturbed. designed for human habitation and well-being. As Bob Dylan has reminded us in his 1989 lament, Everything necessary for us to flourish was present “Everything is Broken”: in the beginning. Spiritually, we were made to enjoy intimate union and fellowship with God the Creator. Broken bottles, broken plates, Vocationally, we were made to undertake fulfilling Broken switches, broken gates, work based on the commandment to rule the earth. Broken dishes, broken parts, Socially, we were made for companionship with our Streets are filled with broken hearts. neighbours, especially as man and woman in the Broken words never meant context of marriage and family. Nutritionally, we were to be spoken, made to partake freely of food and drink, as seen Everything is broken. in the generous provision of plants, fruitful trees, and water in the Garden of Eden. Sabbatically, we Searching all our lives were made to rest and play, based upon the blessing and sanctification of the seventh day. Habitationally, Despite this major alteration in our consciousness we were made to take pleasure in our surroundings and circumstance, our interest in the happy life since God set us in the delightfulness of Eden amidst remains intact. Perhaps, it has even intensified. As the astounding beauty of the whole creation. Augustine writes in the City of God, “For certainly by sinning, we lost both piety and happiness; but when we lost happiness, we did not lose the love of it.” These six ingredients make up God’s recipe for the happy life as He ordained it—God himself, work, people, food, rest, and place. Boethius, according The German term Sehnsucht is used to describe this to Thomas Aquinas, defines happiness as “a state obstinate aspiration for something that satisfies, made perfect by the aggregation of all good things.” even though we seem perpetually estranged from God intended us to live fully in Him and in the it. Amidst the storms and stresses of daily life, this multifaceted aspects of His marvelous creation “inconsolable longing” for “we know not what” gets in a complete and satisfying way. This is not a triggered unexpectedly and “stabs” us in mind and “hedonistic” but an “edenistic” happiness, rooted in heart in most unexpected ways and times, as C. S. the Creator and His creation. The Hebrews called Lewis wrote in the preface to the third edition of it “shalom.” The Pilgrim’s Regress. “Because the sky is blue,” sang The Beatles on their Abbey Road album, “it makes me cry.” In whatever way it is evoked, we occasionally What robbed us of this blessing and peace that God experience a mysterious and tremendous feeling originally intended? The answer is found in Genesis that attracts and baffles us simultaneously. We 3, which contains the bad-news story of the fall of

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need “it” and want “it,” whatever “it” is. It seems to loving things immoderately, our inconsolable be what we have been searching for all our lives. longings continue. Our hearts feel empty, our souls shrivel up. There’s got to be something more.

But right here we often go wrong, terribly wrong. In our desperate search to find something In disorder, we love things that satisfies, we attach our loves in disordered ways to things we think will make us happy. Our spiritual “unintelligently, excessively, ignorance and the deceptive images and messages and unrealistically. of our culture lead us astray. Problems don’t arise because we need or love things or because of the ” things themselves that we love and need. Problems The New England Patriot’s quarterback Tom Brady arise when we fail to grasp the nature of the objects testified to this void in his own life in a revealing that we need and love, the manner in which we love interview on the November 6, 2005, edition of them, and the expectations we have regarding the CBS’s 60 Minutes. outcome of our love. Many of us fail to grasp the unique character of each object, the place it should Brady: “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and hold, and the purpose it is to fill in our lives. In still think there’s something greater out there for me? Augustine’s words in The City of God, people “do I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, not observe the value of . . . things in their own this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my sphere and in their own nature; their position life. Me, I think, ‘God, it’s got to be more than this.’ in the splendor of the providential order and the I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked contribution they make by their own special beauty up to be.” to the whole material scheme, as to a universal commonwealth.” Interviewer Steve Kroft: What’s the answer?

Since we are metaphysically discombobulated, Brady: “I wish I knew. I wish I knew… I love we love things unintelligently, excessively, and playing football and I love being quarterback for unrealistically that is, in the manner of disordered — this team. But at the same time, I think there love. Augustine used sobering words like “cupidity” are a lot of other parts about me that I’m trying and “concupiscence” (cupiditas and concupiscentia) to to find.” describe misdirected forms of “love” and “desire.” He also used the word “curiosity” (curiositas) to refer to our consuming interest in created things but Since finding real fulfillment is a matter of life and without reference to their Creator. When cupidity, death, we keep on looking, keep on striving, keep concupiscence or curiosity happens, then the on hoping, keep on demanding that something, happiness we hoped to obtain from loving things somewhere will finally work. Is it him? Is it her? Is it the way we do is surely to be frustrated. this? Is it that? Is it here? Is it there? Is it now? Is it then? In the midst of needing to have some happiness, we quietly change—typically not for the better. In other Things can only impart what they possess, a trait of words, our disordered loves become disordered lives reality we must surely remember. You can’t squeeze of idolatry, and our idolatry transitions naturally blood out of a turnip or get water out of a rock. In into the seven deadliest sins of all—pride, envy, and anger rooted in an undue love for ourselves; sloth in a deficient love for God; avarice, gluttony and lust in an insatiable love for money, food, and sex. Should these sins convert into habits and addictions, as they often do, they can foster crime or even warfare, if we think violence is necessary to remove obstacles to

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get what we want. “You desire and do not of Lazarus stood for “the general misery have, so you murder” (James 4: 2). Who of the whole human race,” according to can calculate the consequences of these John Calvin (Commentary on a Harmony missteps in our quest for the happy life? of the Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, What shall deliver us, who shall save us and John 1-11). Sin, Satan, and death had from this deadly living, from this living reduced the cosmos to chaos. Life itself death? was in ruins. God’s very good creation had become a deviant uncreation. “Jesus wept” because of the vandalism of cosmos to chaos shalom. “Jesus wept” (John 11: 35) may be the English Bible’s shortest verse, But Jesus had a plan all along. After but it contains the core of the gospel. offering a prayer to God, Jesus cried When Jesus “burst into tears,” he was out before the tomb with a loud voice, approaching the grave of his beloved “Lazarus, come out,” and that’s exactly friend Lazarus. Jesus wept because he what Lazarus did. Death was no match had lost a dear friend, and because he for Jesus’ prevailing word (John 11: 43- was sad for his friend’s surviving sisters. 44). The Saviour was no stoic. Jesus wept not only out of sorrow and sympathy, but The restoration of also because he was mad and filled with This sign of release and renewal showed rage. Twice in the story about Lazarus we that Jesus was moved to redemptive shalom is underway. read that Jesus was emotionally disturbed action to salvage a sin and death-wrecked and troubled within (John 11: 33,38). world. Sinners needed forgiveness. According to Princeton’s late 19th-c., Falsehood needed correcting. Diseases early 20th-c. principal and theologian needed curing. Demoniacs needed B. B. Warfield, the original wording delivering. Hunger and thirst needed indicates that there was something about satiation. Storms needed stilling. Death the heartrending scene before him that needed defeating. Life needed restoring. evoked his indignation, as tears flooded In Christ, we see the kingdom of God in his eyes and fell from his cheeks (see dynamic action. It was the divine empire “The Emotional Life of our Lord,” in striking back! The restoration of shalom The Person and Work of Christ). was underway.

What was it that prompted this geyser of The gigantic secret of indignation? It was death—the sickness the Christian that caused it and the grief that followed after it—that angered Jesus so. It was also Paul interpreted God’s mighty deeds in Christ the underlying source of death in the devil in terms of propitiation (substitutionary against whom his anger burned. Jesus was sacrifice), redemption, and reconciliation. “mad as hell” at the devil—the enemy who For him, Christ was the truly good news was a murderer from the beginning and story that God’s justice has been satisfied the father of all lies—because he was the and his anger has been averted. By grace one who was ultimately responsible for those who believe are delivered from all the desolations and anguish inflicted bondage to sin and death, and restored on humanity and the earth. The death to friendship and peace with God.

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Although many seem to think that salvation has to do habits of a godly mind. The overall goal is “devotion with an escape from earth to heaven, from the physical to Christ set on fire by truth” (John Stott ). Reordered to the spiritual world, this is a major mistake. We are love also displaces the seven deadly sins with the seven not saved out of the world, but in it! The only way we cardinal virtues. These make a huge difference in how are saved out of the world, to employ Charlie Peacock’s we live our lives and in the impact we have on others— language, is by God’s choosing us for Himself, by in terms of faith, hope, and love; in pursuit of courage, replacing the world’s ways with His ways, and by leaving justice, temperance and prudence. Reordered love us here in the world to complete the work He has generates new attitudes and actions with regard to all given us to do. This is the new way to be human, the things physical. We discover that ‘matter matters’ since only way to be human. At the heart of this incredible it is God’s creation, especially when it comes to how transformation is the reordering of our loves. we treat our bodies, in stewarding the resources of the earth, and even in how we relate to the kingdom of the animals. Finally, if we do the math, we will find that “Who would have thought my shriveled heart / Could the love of God and these virtues will give us strength have recovered greenness?” asks George Herbert in to overcome bad habits and addictions, and to thwart his poem, “The Flower.” Yet this is one of the chief any propensities toward violence, crime, and warfare. benefits of the gospel! It reorders our love for God, How we live is rooted in how we love—whether well ourselves, other people, and for all things. Then we or badly. As Augustine noted in his “Reply to Faustus experience newness of life! In the holy of holies of the the Manichean”: “For every man’s life is good or bad first commandment, we learn to love God the Creator according as his heart is engaged.” and Redeemer supremely with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. In the holy place of the second commandment, we learn to love our neighbours as The problem is that in our insurgency against God we love ourselves. This necessarily includes a love for we have abused our loves in search of an enduring creation since that’s what we and our neighbours are! happiness, but with miserable results. Disordered If Christians sported a tattoo, then love would be it. loves equal disordered lives. The grace of the gospel “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, has quelled our revolt against God and ended our “said Jesus, “if you have love for one another” (John alienation from Him. In our redemption, we have 13: 35). There is no greater sign of the power of the redirected our loves with satisfying results. Reordered gospel of Jesus Christ at work than in the reordered loves equal reordered lives. Now we know something of loves of Christians. Love is “the mark of the Christian” shalom. We have discovered the happy life in Christ, the (Francis Schaeffer). satisfaction of that inconsolable longing, a “foretaste of glory divine.” There is no reason to be skeptical about it. “Joy… is the gigantic secret of the Christian” (G. K. A reordered life born of reordered love results in a Chesterton in Orthodoxy). We must persevere in order major transition in our character from vices to virtues, to experience it. With Gerard Manley Hopkins in his whether of the intellectual, moral, or physical kind. poem, “Thou Art Indeed Just,” let us pray: “O thou Reordered love for God reorders how we think and Lord of life, send my roots rain.” prompts us to cultivate intellectual virtues and the

David K. Naugle is chair and professor of philosophy at Dallas Baptist University, director of the Paideai College Society, and author of Worldview: The History of a Concept (Eerdmans, 2002).

This article was published in Comment, June 2008 www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 105 Makingpeace withproximate justice

106 COMMENT worldview coursepack few years ago a pastor in the city asked if I would meet Christians in Asomeone in his congregation politics must whose work was in the world of learn to accept national security. A senior official with complex responsibilities, he knew that his some justice, deepening faith required him to “think Christianly” proximatesome mercy about his life and labour, but he did not know where to begin. What could he read? With whom could he talk? As he put it, “Day by day I have unimaginable evil coming across my desk. What am I supposed to do? How do I By Steven Garber respond in light of my faith? I cannot do nothing—but what am I to do?” And so we began to think together. I arranged a conversation with a handful of friends from across the city whose theological instincts I trusted, but whose own work ranged from the U.S. Congress to a Cabinet office to the State Department to a think tank: all people who with fear and trembling have given themselves to working out the meaning of their salvation in the world of politics.

We began with Augustine, and made our way through the centuries, eventually coming to the contemporary political philosophers Hannah Arendt and Jean Bethke

Day by day I have unimaginable“ evil coming across my desk” Elshtain, intriguingly both scholars of Augustine’s political vision, 1500 years later. As we got up to leave after several hours, the friend whose questions had brought the meeting into being said, “Thank you for taking my vocation seriously. That has never happened before.”

The stark simplicity of his statement stuck with me. How is it possible to find our way into great work, even great work in the realm of politics, without the collegiality of kindred spirits who will pray with us, think with us, work with us, as we give heart and mind to living the vision of the coming of the Kingdom?

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Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God?

Please, grow up.

That’s for the young and idealistic.

There is not a week in my life when I do not think to take up vocations in the public square. Formed about the tensions of the now-but-not-yet nature by a deeply wrought understanding of Christian of the Kingdom, where Jesus has made all things responsibility, the curriculum centred upon an new, and yet where we still do not see that reality exploration of the themes of truth, justice, shalom, completely incarnate in history. I have to make peace and hope, set amidst concrete, contemporary policy with proximate justice, even as I ache for hope and debates ranging from welfare reform to Middle East history to finally and fully rhyme. politics.

If one issue perennially reared its head among the Something is better students it was this: I used to believe that doing justice than nothing was possible. In fact, that brought me to Washington. But now I see that hope is naïve: it just isn’t going to happen. For many years, I taught in the American Studies It was as if we were always living and learning within Program on Capitol Hill, an interdisciplinary the tension created by the Machiavellian temptation, semester of study focused on nurturing in which lurks for anyone who dares to care about the undergraduates the vision and virtues required

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polis, viz. “Please grow up, will you? Do justice, love he searched Scripture for a way of understanding his kindness, walk humbly with God? That’s for the young own moment. How do the people of God remain and the idealistic. If you are going to make it here in faithful to the vision of the Kingdom, when evil and the city, you will have to leave that injustice seem to rule, when innocence behind.” there is more heartache than When evil and happiness in being citizens And so, semester-by-semester I in“justice seem to set in time and space, in would reflect on the hard-won finite, fallen cities and states? and, perhaps, even, hard- rule, proximate The now-but-not-yet of the bitten wisdom of Lord Bismarck: justice guides Kingdom was his bread-and- If you want to respect sausage butter and, therefore, he gave and law, then don’t watch us through the us proximate justice as a way of either being made. There is a ruins finding our way amidst the truthfulness about the aphorism ruins of political economies that is more than just realpolitik. ” anywhere and everywhere. Bismarck offers a window into the reality of political life in a fallen world, even though his story is not Proximate justice realizes that something is better the whole story. than nothing. It allows us to make peace with some justice, some mercy, all the while realizing that it will I know of no one who has honestly tried to be only be in the new heaven and new earth that we politically faithful—in the general vocation of God’s find all our longings finally fulfilled, that we will see people to be the salt and light of the Kingdom in all of God’s demands finally met. It is only then and every sphere of human concern nor in the more there we will see all of the conditions for human specific occupation of politics, whether as elected flourishing finally in place, socially, economically, official or in some other manifestation of public and politically. service—who has not navigated through the shoals of the conflicting calls of the city of God and the city of man. The calling implicit to that quest requires that Living between times we ponder the sausage-making with our eyes wide When we pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be open, and still choose to act with a responsibility done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are yearning marked by love. I do not know of any challenge that for the way things ought to be, and someday will be— is more difficult than to really know the world, and even as we give ourselves to what can be in a world still choose to love it. where evil persists, sometimes very malignantly. If we think that the Lordship of Christ over every It is one thing to come to a capital city like square inch of the whole of reality means that we Washington with great hopes of change. If I work can settle for nothing less than explicit recognition hard, then it will be different—at least in a year or of that claim and its reality in public life, then we two or, at the most, maybe five. But putting one’s will never be able to sustain the vocations that are shoulders to the wheel of history more often required for meaningful political witness in the face than not produces a bruise to one’s spirit, not the of the continuing injustice which comes from the advent of the Kingdom in all its fullness. world, the flesh, and the devil. Augustine understood this a long time ago. A couple of years ago during Advent I offered a Wrestling with the ruination of the Roman meditation in the White House that I called “Always Empire—what we now know as its decline and fall—

2009 109 Making peace with proximate justice

Syriana But Never Christmas.” The film Syriana had no one has any real integrity, and truth, justice, been out for several months, and it seemed to fall and mercy are never really part of the political into line with other stories of cinematic cynicism equation. Therefore, our cynicism is justified. that were recent box-office hits. I saw them all, and strained against them each time. On the one hand I Always Syriana but never Christmas? I was thinking do remember Bismarck and sausage-making—all too of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, well, given my years in Washington. Like everyone, and the yearning for the White Witch’s cursed rule, I feel the weight and complexity of our globalizing “Always winter, but never Christmas,” to finally be overruled by the coming of Aslan into his kingly

My desire was to world, and I am aware of some of its terror and set before this distress. The love of money and power is the root of group of White House all kinds of evil. staff a vision of And yet, and yet… I protested the end-of-the- vocation that was story “realism.” That if we watch long enough, then everyone will finally sell out, the last man both honest will finally be compromised because, of course, and hopeful”

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Corruption charges. glory, making all things new and right. All Narnia longed for that, and then, one day, winter finally Corruption? became Christmas. Corruption ain’t My desire was to set before the group of White “ House staff a vision of vocation that was both honest nothing more and hopeful. The spirit of Syriana is a perennial than government temptation, even as the siren call of Machiavelli’s intrusion into market realpolitik and realeconomik seem more real than the efficiencies in the voice of Israel’s prophet, Micah of Moresheth. Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God!? Where form of regulation. and when and how? Isn’t it all a bit naïve, given what That’s Milton we know about politics in the push-and-shove of the Friedman. He got a Washingtons of the world? ***damn Nobel prize. I recently read the prophet’s words, wanting to hear him speak into my heart, into my time and place. We have laws against The prophet is also a poet, seeing visions of God, it precisely so we human nature, and history all entwined together “during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, can get away with it. kings of Judah.” Nation against nation, the peoples of the earth and the people of God called to the very Corruption is our high standard of the character of God himself, and protection. Corruption judged in history for failing to do what God requires of Everyman and Everywoman, “It is ruined, beyond is what keeps us safe all remedy,” Micah laments. But also there is the and warm. Corruption clear vision of what will someday be true: is why you and I are here in the white- He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; hot center of things and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, instead of fighting and their spears into pruning hooks; each other for scraps nation shall not lift up sword against nation, of meat out there in neither shall they learn war anymore; but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his the streets. fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, Corruption... for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. is how we win. We long for that day. It will surely come. The hard part is living between times, honestly taking account Stephen Gaghan, Syriana (Warner Bros. of what is in the light of what ought to be, believing Pictures, 2005) ” that someday in history it will be seen and heard,

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known and experienced, by every son of Adam and or the most public, as with political engagement. I every daughter of Eve, viz. “Every knee will bow and really hoped, I really tried, and it didn’t work—so I’m done. every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord of lords His words have been a great grace to me for a long and King of kings,” and there will be no more tears time. A person can touch and feel something that is and sadness, evil and injustice, disappointment substantial; it is real, even if it is not everything—but and grief. it is not nothing, either.

My own reflection over the years has also persuaded Hope in repairing the ruins me that in addition to the vision, those who carry In the here-and-now, I vote—but always with a torn on find teachers who embody the vision. Words heart. I have not yet met a candidate or a political must become flesh for us to understand them. It proposal that embodies all that I dream for as one is only as we find mentors who offer us that over- whose deepest loyalties are grounded in the hope of the-shoulder and through-the-heart learning that we the Kingdom. But I do vote. As William Imboden begin to “get it.” And finally, those who sustain their wrote in the Public Justice Report, “It is clear that commitments time and again embed themselves in the precepts and practice of proximate justice are communities of kindred spirits where, in Lesslie deficient when judged by the standards of the City Newbigin’s words, “the congregation becomes the of God, but they may be superior to no justice at all.” hermeneutic of the gospel in and for the world,” We take up our responsibility as citizens, realizing keeping our hearts alive to what matters most. It is that our best efforts are clay-footed, our best insights one thing to sense a call to political engagement. It are flawed. And yet it matters for this earth and the is something else altogether to develop the habits of one that it is to come that we work alongside others heart that can sustain that call over a lifetime. to establish what Walker Percy called “signposts in When I graduated from college I was given the award a strange land” of what is already real and true and for the senior student most concerned for political right in the now-but-not-yet of the Kingdom. responsibility. It surprised me, and I was glad—even To keep on keeping on in our callings is the hard as I felt the weight of its implication. Years later, thing. Crucial to that ability is a theological vision I have never run for office, or even worked in a shaped by Scripture, one that gives us the cast of political role, but I have cared about our life together, heart and mind to understand the frailties of our the polis, passionately. That commitment has been a own selves, as well as those of our societies. And, thread through all that I have done vocationally. It still, to hope for the reality and meaning of the way still gets me up in the morning, giving me energy to things ought to be in every area of life, from painting keep trying to care for my culture, as well as cultures to play to politics, and on and on and on. all throughout the world. It is the work of repairing the ruins, the calling to act with responsibility for What keeps us going is the possibility of proximate history, hoping for the renewal of all things, even as justice—of something rather than nothing—knowing I know that at my best I am a pilgrim in the ruins. ahead of time that it will never be everything on this side of the consummation. Francis Schaeffer Even after a lifetime of bumping up against the called this the vision and hope of substantial brokenness of life, seeing and hearing the wounds healing, arguing that it was the antidote to the all- of both persons and polities, I still believe that the or-nothing syndrome that so afflicts us, whether in vision of vocations as salt and light—John Stott the most personal parts of life, as with marriage, calls them affective commodities, transforming their

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environments—sends us into the world If that can be true of me, of you, then we week by week, year after year, with callings will have made peace with the doing of to care about the way things are and proximate justice. And that is not a small ought to be. Bono echoes this vision in thing for people who yearn for the whole his reflection on his own vocation: “I’m cosmos to be made right, and who know a musician. I write songs. I just hope that that someday it will be. when the day is done, I’ll have torn a little corner off of the darkness.”

Steven Garber directs The Washington Institute, helping young and old understand the seamless relationship between faith, vocation, and culture. The author of The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior, he lives, worships, and works in Virginia.

This article was published in Comment, December 2008 www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 113 Who am I?

Rooting your identity in the Image of God

114 COMMENT worldview coursepack ollege can be an anxious time. You have finally Cescaped the box in which your high school had placed you, where you were labelled a certain type of person. You no longer need to be categorized by that box. But who are you? You also have breathing space from family obligations and expectations. You can reinvent yourself outside of the way your parents or siblings have defined you. But who are you?

Just about everybody asks you, “What’s your major?” as if you know what you will do for the rest of your life. It’s a daunting task to choose a major because it identifies you.

Yes, this is the time to ask yourself, “Who am I?”

College is a time of real wrestling with this big question. For the first time in your life, you have the freedom and responsibility to decide for yourself who you are. Many college students try to find themselves by partying or sleeping around. They try B y B o b to reinvent themselves but merely find that they are Robinson conforming to new destructive patterns of pleasure- seeking.

Some of your peers seem self-confident with who they are and how that influences what they do. But the reality is that all college students are struggling with this issue, no matter how well they appear to by bob robinson have it all together. You are not alone.

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And, thankfully, you are also not left Created to represent alone in figuring out who you are either. In the ancient, Near Eastern cultural To answer your personal question, “Who context within which the book of am I?”, the best place to start is with how Genesis was first read, the idea of the God answers the larger question, “What “image of a god” was familiar. It was is a human being?” commonly believed that humanity was created as an afterthought to do In the first chapter of Genesis, we read, the work the gods no longer wanted to do. The gods would bestow their Then God said, “Let us make human image to kings who would rule people beings in our image, in our likeness, to serve the gods’ desires. The distorted so that they may rule over the fish in worldview of this creation story created the sea and the birds in the sky, over a social order that was inherently unjust, the livestock and all the wild animals, exploiting the mass of human beings to and over all the creatures that move the benefit of the powerful few. along the ground.” Our culture’s In contrast, God reveals that all of So God created human beings in his humanity (both “male and female”) warped standards own image, in the image of God he possesses the dignity the ancients for beauty, talent, created them; male and female he bestowed only on kings—we are all created in the image of God. Notice how celebrity, wealth, created them. the first chapter of Genesis echoes this and power have God blessed them and said to them, concept: God commands all humans to “rule.” J. Richard Middleton, in no claim to a “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over his book The Liberating Image, says this person’s value. “serves to elevate the dignity of the the fish in the sea and the birds in the human race with a noble status in the sky and over every living creature that world.” moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:26- 28, t n i v ). Therefore, as God’s image-bearer, you have dignity. Our culture’s warped The wonder of being a human being standards for beauty, talent, celebrity, is that you are created in the “Image of wealth, and power have no claim to God” (“Imago Dei” in Latin). However, a person’s value. Each person has a sin has cracked the image in humanity so distinct ability to radiate the infinite, that we have deviated from the original divine image. When we look at the vast plan for our development, no longer tapestry of the human race, with all living out the wholeness and beauty of our particular gifts and talents, all of being image bearers. The Gospel places our quirkiness and idiosyncrasies, we those with faith in Jesus Christ back on see the reflection of God! Together we course toward God’s intended goal for shine forth the glory of God. Humbly us—to be fully human, glorifying God remembering that our dignity is derived as the Imago Dei. from God, we can affirm that each and every human being (including the

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person in the mirror) is created in the is a discerning process—learning how image of God, awaiting full restoration. you uniquely reflect God’s creativity and character, coming to know how you’ve The image of God in humanity is cracked been gifted to take the raw materials God because we treat some humans with less has given to craft culture. We find joy and dignity than others. Our culture looks fulfillment when we live purposefully down upon the old, the weak, those as the persons God has made us to be, who don’t fit in, and those who do not working interdependently with others contribute to our agenda. But when we in response to this cultural mandate. deny the dignity of others made in God’s This is a constant discovery—your image, we dishonour God. entire life will continue to be a deeper unearthing of your contribution to the Jesus Christ came, however, to redeem Kingdom of God, bringing glory to and to serve humans so that we can God. experience the fullness of what it means to be the image of God. The answer to “Who am I?” is disclosed as we participate Created to relate in the body of Christ, cooperating with God does not tell us that our identity as Christ in his ongoing reconciliation image-bearers is individualistic. God tells project for all things (Colossians 1:15- We find joy and humanity to “be fruitful and multiply 20), serving those who are different from and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). To fulfillment when we us, who have different views from us, and be the image of God means to be a part respectfully proclaiming the Gospel of live purposefully. of the human family, relating to one restoration to each one. another as interdependent persons in community, building societal institutions: Created to cultivate families, churches, schools, clubs, trade associations, cities, and governments. The human race is mandated to “subdue the earth” (Genesis 1:28). We do that God is a Trinity, an eternal loving when we “cultivate it and keep it” relationship. Father, Son, and Holy (Genesis 2:15, n a s b ). We are to cultivate Spirit exist in a social relationship with the world: not only are we to plant one another, for one another, and in crops, we are to create cultures—develop one another. The ancients called this civilization, build bridges, compose “perichoresis,” from a word root similar music, conceive new cuisines, and invent to our word “choreography.” Tim Keller and improve things. The human race was writes in The Reason for God: “Each never meant to be stagnant. We were [of the divine persons of the Trinity] created with great potential and placed voluntarily circles the other two, pouring in a cosmos of great potentiality. love, delight, and adoration into them … That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance In his Heaven is a Place on Earth, Michael of joy and love.” Wittmer writes that “God has humbly chosen to complete and care for his The Gospel of Jesus Christ holds this creation through you.” Selecting a major purpose for those who follow him: To

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unite us in this perichoretic love, “that they may all be serve rather than to be served, finding your place in one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that the community that is impacting the culture with they also may be in us” (John 17:21). God is love (1 the Kingdom of God. John 4:16) and we are created in God’s perichoretic image. We are more human when we love. We are more human in community. Restoring the Image Each of us struggles to find our identity and The “cracks” in the Image of God can be seen in how significance. With abundant mercy, God does not broken our relationships are. Scot McKnight writes, leave us as “cracked” people. “The Eikon (image) of God cracked and its glory quickly faded. Why? Because what was designed for Jesus Christ restores the Image of God in humanity. one purpose started to unravel. Arms that Adam He is the Image after which each of us was made, and and Eve previously used for an embrace were now now He is redeeming us back to that Image. Christ being used to push God and others away” (Embracing “is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians Grace). In a culture that has sunk deeply into 1:15). Most of us read that and think that it refers individualism, the Gospel of Jesus Christ restores to the Jesus’ divinity. However, not only is Jesus fully the relational nature of human beings. Remember, God, he is fully human. Jesus’ mission is to restore Jesus told us that the “greatest commandment” is to humanity to our original trajectory. Since Jesus as love God and to love others (Mark 12:30-31). the head of the human race fulfills the mandate to be the image of God, we who follow him can fulfill North America’s individualistic culture is displayed that mandate as well. in our consumerism. In her book No Logo, Naomi Klein correctly called corporate marketers the “brokers Paul explains that as we yield to Jesus Christ, we of meaning.” They seek to define you through the “are being transformed into the same image” (2 place you live, the image-based fashions you wear, or Corinthians 3:18). The promise for those who the latest tech toys you own. Young people may think are called into a relationship with God, those they’re above the marketing machine’s influence, who willingly decide to love God in Jesus, is that but Rob Walker’s new book Buying In shows that we will experience ongoing transformation. Both they are only kidding themselves. In fact, marketers the goodness and the difficulties of life, from the are cashing in on the young generation’s desire to be exhilaration of first love to the tragedy of when individualists, promoting products by casting them parents divorce, are used by the sovereign God to as anti-corporate. Don’t allow consumerism to mold us into the image of Jesus Christ, the perfect feed your individualism and thus divert you from image of God. That is our destiny, finally arriving loving God and others and from cultivating God’s at what God intended all along. We will be God’s creation. representatives on earth, in harmonious relationship with the Trinity and with our fellow human North American church life reflects this consumerist beings, continuing to carry out that original culture. Many youth groups are consumer-driven, cultural mandate. doing little beyond responding to the impulses of young people. Now that you are in college, it is time We are not transformed as individuals. We need to actively participate in the whole life of the church, to be interconnected with a faith community that knowing others and getting to be known, seeking to walks with us toward this shared destiny, where

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we all contribute and experience “What can I do to connect with God encouragement for the journey. The and with a community so that we can eschatological future is not about interdependently live our purpose persons experiencing individualistic as God’s representatives on earth, bliss in some ethereal heavenly realm. fulfilling the cultural mandate and Some day, God and God’s people will positively moving toward God’s destiny live in harmony on a redeemed earth. for us as the human race?”

So, “Who am I?” Root your identity in the Image of God. Ask yourself,

Bob RobiNson serves the Coalition for Christian Outreach as Area Director for Northern Ohio, supervising campus ministry staff placed strategically on university campuses and starting new college outreach ministries at churches and schools. He has served as a pastor of adult ministries in a large church, and as a church planter.

This article was published in Comment, September 2008 www.cardus.ca/comment

2009 119 Why are there so many other religions

? by ron choong

f God is one and the Christian faith is the diversity makes it impossible to make simplistic true understanding of God’s revelation, why statements about what they are, so I will limit Iare there so many other religions? They do not myself to considering how Christians ought to refer to the same idea of God. They cannot all be relate to them. I believe we should engage other correct — they are mutually exclusive. So why does religions with respect, humility, and awe. Why awe? God permit other religions to exist? If God is not Because the persistence of religions in every known without a witness in the entire world, then are non- human culture testifies to humanity’s restlessness Christian traditions not also God’s witnesses? If they — a restlessness that prompts humanity to seek are, then Jesus cannot be the only way. If they are security and significance beyond the biological not, then God cannot have witnesses among them. needs. It reminds us that among creation, humanity This is a demanding issue facing theologians, and alone is the praying animal. We anticipate future no one has offered a fully satisfactory answer. That joy with our imaginations and suffer the anguish is why I am grappling with it. My tentative attempt of the past with recollective memory. We invest reflects a passion for “the lost,” and represents a huge amounts of resources in celebrating births small step toward a theology of religions. and mourning deaths. We ritualize the passage of time with symbolic markers of our existence, and Let us begin by defining what we mean by religion. we create art, music, and poetry to express the The Christian notion of religion refers to the inexpressible as we monumentalize our presence. Is binding belief of communities in their response to it any surprise then that the study of religion is the divine revelation. Non-Christian religions need not oldest persistent preoccupation of human existence include a god, a community, or revelation. Their or how it bears on every discipline of inquiry?

120 COMMENT worldview coursepack I grew up in Malaysia, a multiracial, multicultural condemnation, killing any opportunity for building and multi-religious nation once colonized by the trust and dialogue. Yet dialogues are not fusions Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms of the Indonesian of thought. They demand clarity and precision of archipelago and of India, the Chinese mariners thought regarding one’s convictional beliefs while of southern China, the Arabs, followed by the respectfully learning about others. This discipline Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and then the is a labor of love, one that requires a suspension of Japanese. Each left its religious influence and, today, disbelief while engaging the opinions of another. we have no fewer than twenty different religious faiths actively practiced. How did I end up a Christian? The challenge before the Christian claim in a world Why do I remain one when so many options are of religious pluralism is Jesus himself, specifically, present? Bertrand Russell argued that where you grew the finality and particularity of Christ. Why should the up and how you were exposed strongly influences non-Christian accept the view that Jesus alone is the your religious inclinations. Living in New York City, source of salvation? The quick answer is in fact, a today, I am reminded of the increasing options for retort: no other religion really avoids this question religious beliefs around me and the appearance of of particularity. Even the most amorphous notions new religious identities brought by immigration of Hinduism and animism claim particularity and from faraway countries. This led me to ask: What is finality. Yet, asserting the finality of Christ does the Christian view of other religions? not relieve us from explaining the status of other religions. Do they also save? Do they offer truths?

Elements of truth in other The finality and particularity of Christ rest on two biblical claims: Jesus is the full and authoritative religions revelation of who God is and what God desires. He is the particular and unique individual whom Christians of my background typically assert that God designates as our savior. No other revelation non-Christian religions are demonic. We describe will surpass him (John 1:9) and God has not left them as works of the Devil, or we consider them himself without a witness among non-Christian man-made, false attributions of divinity. But why traditions (Acts 14:17). The ‘scandal of particularity’ would demonic religions also teach many of the is the conviction that God has revealed himself in moral values shared by Christianity, and why would particular places and times, especially through the man-made religious continue to thrive alongside Jews and Jesus, and not to every human being in Christianity? Could it be that many of these religions equal measure. that share kernels of truth claims with the biblical teachings survive as corruptions of the original, The Christian church in line with the witness of syncretized with animism, legendary myths, and the scriptures holds that God has revealed himself shamanism? Or are other religious local variants in an authoritative manner. This first truth claim of the Western, idealized faith we call Christianity. is the starting point for a theology of religion. The When we ignorantly assume that non-Christians second truth is that God has made all humans in His have no knowledge of God, or that non-Christian image, whether or not they acknowledge this. God’s religions, usually coupled to nationalistic cultures, definitive but not exhaustive revelation is written in are demonic, we project a climate of hostility and the Bible. God has at various times revealed himself

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directly to specific people outside the covenant seriously the claim that all humans are made in the community of Israel (and hence for us today, outside image of God—made to be morally aware of right the Church). These include Abimelech of Gerar and wrong by God’s standards, then we ought not (Gen. 20:3-7), the Egyptian pharaoh (Gen. 41), be surprised by elements of truth in the teachings of Balaam (Num. 22), Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2, 4), other religions. People are, first and foremost, made Jethro, Job, the Queen of Sheba, and Cornelius in the image of God before they are Buddhists or (Acts 10:3-5). God’s creation has been corrupted by Muslims or Hindus, observant Jews, or pagans. We sin. But the atoning work of Jesus on the cross allows are all related to God whether or not we acknowledge humanity to be reconciled to God. this relationship. Our differences are secondary to what primarily unites us: our humanity as made Jesus is the unique incarnation of God and is the in the image of God. From this starting point, we only Savior for all peoples. But it is not necessary should expect to find nuggets of truth and echoes for everybody to possess a conscious knowledge of of Christian belief in every religion. We may think Christ in order to benefit from redemption through of other religions as displaying varying degrees of him, since this would physically, geographically, understanding God. Their teachings may be partial and historically limit the work of Christ and put and often distorted. One example of a universal the bottleneck of evangelism at the competence of teaching is the Golden Rule: we are not to do to missionaries and evangelists. Indeed, neither Adam others what we do not wish to be done to us. Even or Noah, nor Abram, nor any of the Old Testament its positive variant, we are to do to others what we prophets knows Christ as the Logos incarnate. The wish others to do to us, pales in comparison to work of salvation was accomplished by the second the striking teaching of Christ—you shall love your person of the eternal Triune God who penetrated neighbor as yourself! space-time as Jesus. J. I. Packer, Millard Erickson, John Stott, and Christopher Wright argue that in So why did God allow so many other religions? I principle God might, indeed, save some who have suspect that God’s way included the progressive never explicitly heard the gospel but respond to revelation to different human groups through general what they know of God through general revelation revelation. This seems an unsatisfactory answer as it and turn to him for forgiveness. We simply do not raises up the question of favouritism. The Bible is know. Our wisest approach is not to rule out this unashamedly open about how God chooses one over possibility. Should this mean that all other religions the other: Jacob over Esau, for example. However are the equal of Christianity? No. Does this mean we try to parse the biblical text to soften this blow, that we need not evangelize those of other religious the fact remains that each day, millions die without beliefs? No. What it does mean is that while we direct knowledge of Jesus. I welcome at least their urgently share the message of the gospel, we must understanding of nuggets of truth through other remain agnostic about the exhaustive means by religions instead of no knowledge of God at all. And which God draws His creation to Himself. We must we may pray that God will have mercy on them and continue to affirm with confidence the truth of the judge them according to their level of understanding scriptures while not assuming to comprehend all the coupled with their response in worship. mysteries of God.

A word of caution Imagebearers first A study of non-Christian religions, while part of What did Muhammad receive as revelation, and a maturing process for our faith, holds certain what knowledge awakened the Buddha? If we take temptations. One may be tempted to water down or

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compromise the truth claims of Christianity it order commitments. However, commitment to Jesus does to make it more palatable to other religious claims. not rule out acceptance of the truths that other One may flirt with commitment to another faith out faiths may incidentally contain. Finally, danger lurks of admiration or disappointment with some aspects for those of us whose knowledge of Christianity is of Christian worship or in the mistaken impression shallow. The answer is not to avoid learning about that a suspension of one’s own commitments is other religions but to hasten one’s understanding of necessary in order to study other religions. This was the Christian faith. the route taken by the formerly conservative scholar John Hick, who turned from a Christian apologist to become the preeminent religious pluralist of our time. There is no such thing as a person with no

Ron Choong is founder and director of the Academy for Christian Thought in New York City. He lives a three- minute walk from Ground Zero in Manhattan. He loves to play ping-pong on his project table when not working on a research project. And he loves watching Foodie shows and counting the number of TV chefs who can eat durian with a straight face.

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