Lets talk about what it means to be a "post-reformation" community... Is the reformation (and the enlightenment age that stressed the autonomous knower) the reason that most people think that Romans is a letter about an individual's salvation through faith and not through works, and the reason that most people articulate the purpose of Christ's work in terms of individual sin and individual salvation? I'm starting to think that my reformation-lens has given me a very small, limited understanding of a much larger bibical story. I'm a little worried that I (and my surrounding Christian community) have been reducing a cosmic and communal biblical story to an individualistic one; and efforts to reverse the reduction tend to be blown off as just another way of "watering down the gospel" at best or rejected as heretical at worst.
I experienced a similar, inner gasp from my classmates this last semester when we encountered the text of Jonah 4:11 (within the larger context of the book as a whole). Our esteemed professor, Dr. Delamarter had the audacity to suggest to us, that perhaps God's intention is not to ONLY redeem select pockets of humankind, but ALL of Humanity and ALL of creation, including things like lakes, prairies, mountains and animals, even aliens on other planets if they exist.
I say "my classmates" because I think I've been on-board with God's redemptive heart on this particular issue for sometime now. Not that I have it all figured out. I too, am a product of the Reformation culture I grew up in, but I am continually being stretched in new (sometimes painful) ways. May the stretching continue.
I am also leaning heavily towards the idea of inclusivism (not to be confused with universalism), because I know that God passionately loves EVERYone, and has already demonstrated his willingness to span every chasm, and clear every path for humans (as individuals and as groups) to find him and to be found BY him. It is a great insult and the pinnacle of arrogance to think that God's purposes are all about US, or even worse, all about ME. God is far bigger than we understand. May we understand God as he is and not as we suppose him to be. May we lead our traditions redemptively and expansively in the right directions.
Jonah 4:11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
Lets talk about what it means to be a "post-reformation" community... Is the reformation (and the enlightenment age that stressed the autonomous knower) the reason that most people think that Romans is a letter about an individual's salvation through faith and not through works, and the reason that most people articulate the purpose of Christ's work in terms of individual sin and individual salvation? I'm starting to think that my reformation-lens has given me a very small, limited understanding of a much larger bibical story. I'm a little worried that I (and my surrounding Christian community) have been reducing a cosmic and communal biblical story to an individualistic one; and efforts to reverse the reduction tend to be blown off as just another way of "watering down the gospel" at best or rejected as heretical at worst.
ReplyDeleteWell said, my friend.
ReplyDeleteI experienced a similar, inner gasp from my classmates this last semester when we encountered the text of Jonah 4:11 (within the larger context of the book as a whole). Our esteemed professor, Dr. Delamarter had the audacity to suggest to us, that perhaps God's intention is not to ONLY redeem select pockets of humankind, but ALL of Humanity and ALL of creation, including things like lakes, prairies, mountains and animals, even aliens on other planets if they exist.
I say "my classmates" because I think I've been on-board with God's redemptive heart on this particular issue for sometime now. Not that I have it all figured out. I too, am a product of the Reformation culture I grew up in, but I am continually being stretched in new (sometimes painful) ways. May the stretching continue.
I am also leaning heavily towards the idea of inclusivism (not to be confused with universalism), because I know that God passionately loves EVERYone, and has already demonstrated his willingness to span every chasm, and clear every path for humans (as individuals and as groups) to find him and to be found BY him. It is a great insult and the pinnacle of arrogance to think that God's purposes are all about US, or even worse, all about ME. God is far bigger than we understand. May we understand God as he is and not as we suppose him to be. May we lead our traditions redemptively and expansively in the right directions.
Jonah 4:11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”