Archive of July 2009
Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.
Why doctrine matters
Posted at 5:30 PM
In a quote somewhat related to a few recent thoughts, we have John Piper on Athanasius:
What was clear to Athanasius was that propositions about Christ carried convictions that could send you to heaven or to hell. There were propositions like: “There was a time when the Son of God was not”; “He was not before he was made”; and “the Son of God is created”. These propositions were strictly damnable. If they were spread and believed they would damn the souls which embraced them. And therefore Athanasius labored with all his might to formulate propositions that would conform to reality and lead the soul to faith and worship and heaven. I believe Athanasius would have abominated, with tears, the contemporary call for “depropositionalizing” that you hear among many of the so-called “reformists” and “the emerging church”, younger evangelicals, “postfundamentalists”, “postfoundationalists”, “postpropositionalists”, and “postevangelicals”. I think he would have said, “Our young people in Alexandria die for the truth of propositions about Christ. What do your young people die for?” And if the answer came back, “We die for Christ, not propositions about Christ,” I think he would have said, “That’s what Arius says. So which Christ will you die for?”
“Which Christ will you die for?” is one very good reason why doctrine matters, and why words matter. The above John Piper quote appears on Dave Bish’s blog along with a fantastic quote from a Christian songwriter:
It’s no light thing singing doctrinally accurate & ‘sharp-edged’ songs. I am singing & writing the very truths that got my brothers like Athanasius exiled or killed. I must not cheapen their memory & the freedom they won by putting trivia in the mouths of God’s people. Nobody was ever burnt at the stake for saying “God is nice & He likes you”. (Matt Blick, A songwriter’s motivation)
Bish comments that preachers therefore have to think carefully about the words they use. We’ve both written about this before, though with a different emphasis. Here, what happens when we get this wrong is not just boring or confusing our listeners, but failing to point them to the true Christ. Which Christ are we worshipping, serving, proclaiming – a false Christ or the true Christ? Doctrine matters.
ToneMatrix
A great little flash synthesiser/sequencer. My recommendation – start with a rhythm on the top line, then swirl your mouse round the rest of the boxes. Lots of fun!
Thinking about emotions (Part II)
Tony Payne’s second article in this series (see my comment on his first) mentions Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections, and makes a distinction between “affections” and “emotions”. Emotions are the fluffy versions that change depending on the weather. Affections are a deep heart-inclination that can manifest themselves in emotion. Or as Tony puts it:
For us, an emotion is a strong state of feeling that arises within us, sometimes suddenly and usually unbidden. An emotion is usually responsive; it is an outpouring—a bubbling over of some well of feeling within us—in response to some sort of stimuli.
An ‘affection’, however, is more closely linked to the inclination of our hearts—to what we love or hate. Positively, it is when we perceive something to be good, lovely, attractive, desirable, and so passionately long for it; or negatively, it is when we find something to be evil, ugly, deadly or repulsive, and so shrink or run from it.
Change my entry on True Belief to mention affections, not emotions, and you end up with a better entry.
(In other news, I’ve just been given a copy of Edwards’ Religious Affections. Despite Tony’s description of it as “a bit of a slog”, I hope to give it a go at some point.)
Assumptions and worldviews
Posted at 6:17 PM
It’s always interesting watching stuff by Russell T Davies (most recently known for Doctor Who and Torchwood) because quite often his worldview seems to rise to the surface of the script. Take this example from the current Torchwood miniseries:
Rupesh: My first case – my first death – was a suicide. D’you know why she did it? ‘Cause—she’d written all these letters; she’d been a Christian all her life – and then, alien life appears. She wrote this bit: she said “It’s like science has won.”
Gwen: Lost her faith?
Rupesh: More than that. She said she saw her place in the universe – and it was tiny. She died because she thought she was nothing.
Gwen: I went through that. Even now I get terrified. But at the same time, it is brilliant, and beautiful, and … magic. It’s bigger you know. It’s like the whole wide world is bigger. My life is bigger.
(From Children of Earth – iPlayer link will no doubt expire soon.)
Ignore the fictional aliens for a moment. The underlying assumption is that science and Christianity are in conflict – the case for this isn’t argued, it’s merely assumed. Often Christian truth isn’t argued against; our society’s base assumptions are such that there is no longer an argument.
Without God, our significance is lost – and that leads, in this story, to an increase of suicides. Davies goes further, though, by trying to put something on top of this nihilistic view. The world is nonetheless brilliant, beautiful and magical – which makes the pointlessness, the smallness of it all irrelevant. Perhaps we can make our own significance.
Maybe I was the only one who was struck this way, but it seems that this is Davies making any need for God seem both unnecessary and incomprehensible. God doesn’t fit the worldview of the Torchwood universe. This recurring theme comes up in so much of both Doctor Who and Torchwood: the universe is huge and beyond our understanding, but isn’t it just marvellous anyway? Scientific advances, new planets – these are the things we wonder at and take delight in. Doctor Who is like a small child making discoveries. In this Torchwood scene, Gwen is similar – but also, her final sentences read like a convert speaking of new spiritual life to an unbeliever, but with this new big universe in the place of God.
The worldview of Torchwood and Doctor Who strikes me to be making an idol out of science – and as such, is very in keeping with the zeitgeist. How many people hold these sorts of assumptions? I don’t know, but we absorb them from the things we see, hear and read. It’s in scenes like this one I feel that Davies is pushing something onto us. (Let’s pray for more Christian writers for TV!)
I’ll try and close this rambling entry. There are certain ideas that are almost in the air we breathe; even Christians can be influenced by the worldviews and values portrayed in entertainment, news and comment. We need the revolution of theology. Mike Reeves (quoted in the entry just linked to) is excellent on this:
Theology is the “true research: as we re-search reality afresh in the light of how God has revealed it to be. It’s walking through life with a torch on. It’s refusing to drift with the zeitgeist”. We Christians need to “wash our brains with the Mediator, rather than being brainwashed by the media”.
Another way of putting this is: we need to critically engage with what we’re watching, hearing or reading, and not be mindless consumers.
With regards to the worldview portrayed above – well, I love science and scientific discovery, but science is too small. I can say about life with God: “it’s like the whole wide world is bigger. My life is bigger.” We were made for something bigger.
Some manly things Jesus did
To be a man like the Man doesn’t look manly to men. A man must be man enough to reject men and follow the Man.
I love Glen Scrivener’s way of putting this. Men: man up, and get involved in sacrificial service. I definitely need to think like this.
Life as a graduand
Posted at 2:20 PM
Today is my first day in what seems like a very long time without a home in Bristol. I’m back in Oxford for a month or two before moving to Brighton, and it’s lovely being back, but the city of Bristol seems like home in a way that Oxford isn’t. I’m excited about what my church is doing, most of my friends live there, I love the city itself, and I’ve just done my first proper gig. I’ve recently got to know many like-minded people (my last night in the city was spent making sushi and watching Japanese films, mainly with guys I’ve got to know this year), and I’ve pushed out beyond the student bubble. It feels like home.
I thought it appropriate, however, that I ended up listening to Dvořák’s New World symphony on the way home (by accident as it happens), as it’s the new world – the next step – that I should be focused on. Relay begins in just under two months, and it’s going to be a very different year. Those who are interested in praying for me, please let me know (in the comments, via Twitter or email) so I can add you to the list. (Those interested in financially supporting me, please drop me an email – it’s my first name at my domain name, in case you were wondering.)
Currently, I’m organising a fundraising concert (if you’re able to get to Oxford on Saturday 15th August (not finalised, confirmation and details to follow), your presence would be most welcome!), as well as trying to track down somewhere to live, raising support, organising what I’m doing this summer, and fixing what’s broken about this website! (Let me know if you spot anything; as far as I can tell, it’s all my end not yours.) I might even finish sticking my South Africa photos up on Flickr.
I graduate on the 17th July, which should be… interesting. I’m told there’s a lot of clapping involved. Meanwhile, I’d like to unpack my clothes, but as we’re trying to sell our house, the chest of drawers in my room is filled with hidden-away extraneous clutter.
I’m quite enjoying life as a graduand!
Thinking about emotions
Tony Payne writes on a related issue to my entry True Belief:
Emotions, I am assured, are an important part of who we are as humans created by God, and so Christian faith should also be emotional in some way. It’s not enough just to think and to do; there’s something a bit wrong with us if we don’t also feel….
[T]he assumption seems to be that experiencing these emotions is an indicator of, or even a path to, spiritual maturity and intimacy with God.
I don’t agree.
Posted directly following mine, you can imagine I was interested to read it – and I’m now looking forward to his part two, as I don’t think I disagree with him, and want to refine my view in light of his. Read the article to make sense of his quotes above.