Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Some thoughts on the Wrath of Man -- by Fr. Michael Gillis

“The wrath of God came against them, and slew the stoutest of them, and struck down the choice men of Israel” (Psalm 78:31).

“For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

I think we have an anger problem.  The problem I’m talking about is not related to self control, but to understanding. Why does human wrath never produce the righteousness of God while God’s wrath seems to be ubiquitous in Scripture?  What’s the difference?  Why is God’s wrath righteous and human wrath never?

Many of the fathers of the church talk about two central feelings or urges from which all others derive. 

Love Wins -- An Orthodox View by Steve Robinson

Deuterocanonical Authority: The Real Authority by Ron Dart

Many within the reformed and evangelical traditions hold high the authority of the Bible, and such a tribe assents to the position that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and errant word of God. Those who uncritically accept such a position often fail to see that they dwell within an ethos that works, in fact, with two levels of authority. There is the Bible that acts as a formal and material source of authority (de jure) and there is the interpretive and factual (de facto) reality that is also authoritative. The Bible must always be interpreted, and it is in the interpretation (often not reflected upon) that a second or deuterocanonical form of authority emerges. There are many who naively assume that their interpretation of the Bible has the same authority as the Bible. In short, the Bible as authority (de jure) equals the authority of their interpretation (de facto).

Thomas Merton and Nouvelle Theologie by Ron Dart

If I can unite in myself the thought and the devotion of Eastern and Western Christendom, the Greek and the Latin Fathers, the Russian with the Spanish mystics, I can prepare in myself the reunion of divided Christians. From that secret and unspoken unity in myself can eventually come a visible and manifest unity of all Christians…. We must contain all divided worlds in ourselves and transcend them in Christ. 

Thomas Merton -- Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander 

I

Historic Context

The centre of Thomas Merton Studies in Canada, since the historic 1978 ‘The Thomas Merton Symposium’ in Vancouver, British Columbia, has been on the West Coast. The Thomas Merton Reading Room is at Vancouver School of Theology (where the symposium was held), and most on the national executive of the Thomas Merton Society of Canada (TMSC) live on the West Coast of Canada. There is, therefore, a thriving interest in Merton on the West Coast of Canada.

There have also emerged in the last decade from the West Coast two challenging books from the probing mind of Hans Boersma from Regent College: Nouvelle Theologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (2009) and the more popular Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry (2011). These two books have brought into sharp focus the essential role the 19^th-20 century New Theologians of the Roman Catholic church played in calling the church back to her grounding, rooting and ancient sources of renewal. The Roman Catholic tradition had become stalled and frozen, in many ways, in the Tridentine paradigm and confessional commitment, between the 16^th century and Vatican II. There was a narrowing between Trent and Vatican II within the much fuller and deeper Roman Catholic way. The earlier 16^th century humanists such as John Colet, Thomas More, Erasmus and Juan Vives, for example, had a broader understanding of their faith than Tridentine Catholicism. Erasmus was even put on the Index at Trent and remained there until Vatican II.

Who you callin' a Universalist? by Brad Jersak

I am starting to get the faintest whiff of how Rob Bell might feel.

This week yet another friend said to me, “Someone I know said he heard a rumor that you’re a Universalist. I don’t like gossip, so I thought I’d get it from the horse’s mouth. Are you a Universalist?” I so appreciated his heart to put the brakes on gossip or what the Bible calls, ‘Bearing false witness.’

No, I am not a Universalist. And by the way, neither is Rob Bell. It’s a convenient and dismissive label that just isn’t true of either of us. I know because I asked a real Universalist (Gary Amirault). Those who read Her Gates will Never be Shut or Love Wins will know that too. Or at least they will once we can rise above mudslinging and heresy-hunting to clarify the major Evangelical positions concerning hell, hope and divine judgment.

The purpose of this article is to define simply the most common positions concerning divine judgment and to help readers ponder where they might lean on this continuum. Among Christians who call themselves ‘Evangelical,’ I am aware of seven theories. All of them claim some biblical basis. They are, briefly:

Give 'em hell Harry -- by Brian Zahnd

Artwork "Way to Hades" by Sanjay Sonwani

Thinking.

Preface: I tend to see a lot our evangelical ills as connected with the seduction of empire. (Or as I call it in public these days, “superpower.” Because people who reject the notion that the United States is an empire, will proudly claim the moniker of “superpower.” So, empire, superpower, it doesn’t matter to me, both fall under the same prophetic critique.) Anyway, I realize I tend to pull a lot of diverse things into my critique of evangelicalism’s unholy allegiance to the compromised values of a superpower, so I could be off base here. But I don’t think I am.

Hell. Hell as an afterlife torture chamber generated by a wrathful God who is personally offended at the transgressions of sinners. (As opposed to sin-generated contemporary Gehennas and whatever afterlife self-imposed exiles and adverse reactions to the love of God there may be [which have the potential to be “forever” and are for ever…until they are not.]) That Hell—the punitive Hell of Jonathan Edward’s angry God (where the wrath of God is understood, not as an anthropomorphism for the consequences of sin in a universe created with a default mode of goodness, but as the literal fury of an offended deity)—that Hell serves a useful purpose in the psyche of those committed to the necessary violence of an empire…I mean, superpower.

In my reading of Cain and Abel, the city Cain built, Abraham’s quest for a different kind of city, especially in Jesus’ cryptic comments about lies and murder in John 8, and finally the city of God unveiled in the Apocalypse, allegiance to violence lies at the heart of much of what God in Christ is saving the world from.

But the good folk living in a superpower have a hard time hearing this. Because even if they only know it subconsciously, there is an intuition that our (all important!) lifestyle is maintained by violence. It’s simply the way the world is, if it is arranged around an axis of power enforced by violence. This is the world of Cain’s city and Pilate’s truth—the world of violence, collective murder, and the lies we tell ourselves about it.

So if the God of the Bible is ultimately a raging violent deity hurling his enemies into a burning hell, we have a powerful warrant for the necessity of utilizing violence for achieving our own good ends.

For example: If those godless Japs are headed to an eternal hell anyway, what’s the big deal if Harry Truman orders Hiroshima and Nagasaki turned into temporal hells? (Ironic factoid: Truman’s nickname was “Give ‘em hell Harry”) And if today we need to give some Muslims a taste of burning hell from an Apache helicopter, it’s nothing compared to what God is going to give them later on! So praise the Lord and pass the ammunition! (Or is it praise the ammunition and pass the Lord?)

Yes, I think an “infernalist” view of hell (thank you for that term, Brad) is intimately connected to our still largely unchallenged allegiance to violence, a problem which is especially exaggerated in a superpower culture. I have anecdotal evidence of this. On several occasions when I have challenged our allegiance to violence by appealing to the Sermon on the Mount, I have been “trumped” by hell. People do connect the dots. And then look for an escape. They look for an someone to save them from the “impossible” demands of Jesus. Sometimes they go backward into the Old Testament and use Joshua to save them from Jesus (“Well, in the Old Testament God commanded war.”) Sometimes they leap forward into a literalist interpretation of Revelation and use Edward’s angry and violent God to save them from Jesus. (“God is not opposed to violence, look what he does in Revelation!”)

What I’m saying is that violence and our acceptance or rejection of it has a lot to do with how we form our eschatology, atonement theory, and ideas of eternal judgment.

And empire has a hell of a lot to do with our desire to find a way for violence to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One of the ways we do this is to imagine that God himself is eternally addicted to violence.

But I don’t believe it.

God is like Jesus.

God has always been like Jesus.

There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus.

We have not always known this.

But now we do.

 

The Sacredness of Questioning Everything (excerpt) -- by David Dark

From David Dark, The Sacredness of Questioning Everything (Zondervan, 2011).

... A forthright honesty about how little we know is a luxury many of us feel we can't afford if right belief is our salvation, if we are saved because of the intensity with which we know we're saved.

The business of having to feel a particular way or to feel a sense of absolute confidence in God  or to pretend to know that God is there all the time is one of the things I've actually been saved--and am being saved--from...

....For love of God, as the expression goes, or, perhaps better, for love of humanity, I want to exorcise the "fear god" who keeps us afraid of our senses, wary of imagination, frightened of looking too hard at ourselves, and too fearful to think things through.  This god who ISN'T love, made in our worst image, would keep us doubled up inside, putting on a brave face of fake confidence.  This dysfunctional deity often interacts within our own semiconscious dysfunction and can render "religious types" into some of the saddest and most fearful, hateful, and damaging people in the world.

I want to announce the good news that God, the God in whom I believe, never calls anyone to playact or pretend or silence their concerns about what's true.  I want to break through mind-forged manacles that render us incapable of seeing truthfully for fear we might let in the wrong information...

I encourage the use of whatever strong language might be employed in tearing down these idols, these false conceptions of who God might be.  Damn this demonic Uncle Ben business.  Damn it all to hell.  May we bear it no more.  Be explicit in bearing witness against such hellishness. Or pray, if need be, as Meister Eckhart paradoxically prayed, "God, rid me of God."

"God, rid me of God."  Does that strike us as scandalous?  Eckhart's prayer is scandalous to us only to the extent that we still believe that our conceptions of God--and not the grace of God--are what will save and deliver. As if our intellectual consent to certain truths is what will redeem, as if our faith in our own faith is the price of admission to eternal bliss.  This madness degrades both the biblical witness and the possibility of sane thinking. Leaning on our own understanding of God in this way is idolatry, an inappropriate and unfaithful dependence on our pictures, concepts, and broken ideas that can't hold life-giving water.  Nothing we claim to know or have hold of or pretend to believe as children or as adults places us on the winning side of God's affections.  Maybe we're only called on to be honest. Maybe a vision of a God whose love transcends the limitations of our visions enables such honesty.

Remodeling Hell? -- Brad Jersak

THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY, THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE ETERNAL PAIN, THROUGH ME THE WAY THAT RUNS AMONG THE LOST. JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGH ARTIFICER; MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY, THE HIGHEST WISDOM, AND THE PRIMAL LOVE. BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS WERE MADE, AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY. ABANDON EVERY HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE. (Dante's Inferno)

If Dante were to revisit the Inferno today, he would find his visions of hell deeply embedded in our Western psyche, culture, and religion. Images of fire and brimstone, dungeons and torture, demons and judgment continue to ignite imaginations and controversy. In our era of CGI everything Dante described in poetry can be recreated on the big screen for those who want to face their deepest fears in a climate-controlled environment where the smell of buttered pop-corn masks the stench of sulfur. Modernized upgrades of medieval artwork imbue movies like Jacob’s Ladder (1990) and What Dreams May Come (1998); comic books like Hellblazer and Hellboy; and video games like Inferno. One can even take the Dante’s Inferno Test online, where visitors are exhorted, “Test your impurity, find out which level of Dante’s hell you will be spending eternity in.” And for a personal taste of hell, why not marinate some chicken wings in Dan-T’s White Hot Inferno sauce? I’m sure even Dante would be confused: Is hell a place, a state or a brand?

Western civilization does not hold a monopoly on the dreams and nightmares of the afterlife. Taoist and Buddhist mythology contain their own layered maze of terrifying torture chambers (Diyu), and the Hindu Naraka features the usual fire, boiling oil and other instruments of abuse for karmic atonement between incarnations. And Dante’s hell barely holds a torch to the hellish punishments described in the Koran: 

Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers. Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. They shall be lashed with rods of iron. Whenever, in their anguish, they try to escape from Hell, back they shall be dragged, and will be told: “Taste the torment of the Conflagration!” (22:19–23)

Global belief in some form of divine judgment remains as unquenchable as its flames, the New Atheists notwithstanding. For their part, writers like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins give voice to those whose atheism is rooted less in unbelief than in hatred of a religion-projected god whose mind reflects humanity’s need to best one eternal excruciation with another. They and Bill Maher mock such notions as patently religulous and write off faith as laughable were it not for its dangerous capacity to incite fear and violence.

Do they have a point? I can only offer my own experience in response. As a sensitive little boy raised in the evangelical church, I was a horrified but Bible-convinced infernalist. I accepted in good faith the word of camp counselors who described the fate of the lost as we stoked orange coals during late night marshmallow roasts. Seeing as I had prayed the “sinner’s prayer,” they assured me I had no need to worry. But worry I did.

What about the unchurched cousins I loved so dearly? God loved them, but if they didn’t love him back, he would skewer them on an everlasting rotisserie—just like the stick I used for roasting my marshmallows. My great commis- sion was to “snatch others from the fire and save them” (Jude 23). And if I failed, I feared their blood would be on my hands (Ezekiel 33:6).

Just as awful as being that traumatized eight-year-old camper was the fact that I was being groomed to become the next zealous counselor. My first convert responded quickly to the choice between eternal life and everlasting flames. I remember being troubled by his expression — not the wide-eyed fear I expected, just incredulity and a rushed prayer before the dinner bell rang. I sensed that he was un- convinced of the gravity of the decision, especially when I discovered that he had “fallen away” within days of returning home.

Highly visual, I became overwhelmed by mental images of bubbling skin and the attendant shrieks of the masses with whom I went to school, stood in line with at McDonalds, and prayed for every night before bed. Unlike Hitchens and Dawkins, I knew and loved (and feared) a living God too much to junk my entire worldview just because the idea of eternal, conscious torment in hell clashed with what I conceived to be his loving character.

I tried to swallow the discrepancies in denial or wallpaper over the holes like a writer trying to hide glitches in a bad plot. But eventually, the necessary rational and emotional disconnect got caught in my throat. There it would remain until I could discover an alternative view that was just as faithful to the Bible — not that I even dared to hope one existed. If only I had realized that the Christian theologians were already on the case — had been for centuries.

Renovating Hell: Theological Options for Divine Judgment

Sheltered in my tiny corner of Christendom, like many evangelicals I was unaware of the heated discussion around damming up the river of fire through various alternative perspectives on hell that did not transform God into a wrathful tyrant-judge who consigns the unrepentant to Dante-esque tortures for eternity. As it turns out, the view of hell with which I grew up — infernalism — is only one of several options handed down to us through our forefathers in the faith. We will survey each of them briefly here.

To download the entire article and Brad's interview, click here.

To listen to Brad's podcast interview with Greg Albricht, click here.

To order Brad's book Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hell, Hope and the New Jerusalem, click here.

 

 

Toxic Texts: Finding Good News in the Old Testament with Bob Ekblad

Toxic Texts: Finding Good News in the Old Testament 

Many stumble over difficult texts in the Old Testament, finding themselves confused and even repelled.  How do we deal with Scriptures that portray God as angry, violent, or vindictive?  How do we reconcile such texts with the loving God presented in the New Testament, represented in the person of Jesus?  Can we wrestle with such Scriptures as Jacob wrestled with the angel, refusing to let go until we are blessed?

This winter and spring, join Bob Ekblad as he guides us to fresh readings of “toxic” Old Testament texts in search of good news!  We’ll meet once a month on selected Wednesday nights at 7:00 pm at Tierra Nueva for some rich and honest teaching and discussion.  You’ll not want to miss out!

Wednesday January 12 – Genesis 18-19: Sodom and Gomorrah

Wednesday February 2 – Genesis 22: the Sacrifice of Isaac

Wednesday March 16 - Exodus 12: the Death of Egypt’s Firstborn

Wednesday April 13 - Numbers 16: the Korah Rebellion against Moses

Wednesday May 11 - Joshua 7: Achan

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 Tierra Nueva is caught up in a vision of a shepherding ministry that seeks after lost sheep until they are found through Skagit County Jail Ministry, migrant chaplaincy, and Tierra Nueva Honduras; cares for, defends, and protects through the Family Support Center; gathers, feeds and heals through our faith communities, bilingual jail services and healing services; and equips and sends out through the People's Seminary events and courses.  For more information, please call 360-755-5299. 

Courses and events meet at our Tierra Nueva office, 701 East Fairhaven, Burlington, WA (across from the Burlington Post Office), unless otherwise noted.  For more information and directions, visit our website, www.tierra-nueva.org.

 

Erasmus, the Eastern Fathers and the Great Tradition by Ron Dart

The name of Erasmus will never perish

John Colet (1516)

Erasmus has published volumes more full of wisdom than any which Europe has seen for ages.

Thomas More 

The chief aim of Erasmus in his life’s work as a humanist scholar was to restore theology. In his times this meant to replace the theology then being taught and practiced as a professional science by a more adequate study of Holy  Scripture and the Fathers of the early Church.

John Olin

Erasmus was a wild bird, willing to be caressed but refusing to sing in a cage.

Those who have dipped into the life and prolific writings of Erasmus (1466-1536) might be aware of the importance and significance of the Praise of Folly. Others know Erasmus well because of his Adages and Colloquies. The voluminous correspondence of Erasmus holds the attention of others. The clash between Luther and Erasmus is part of Reformation lore and legend.

The fact that Erasmus was put on the Index makes him an activist and writer of some interest. The peace theology of Erasmus makes him an anomaly of sorts in the war stricken 16^th century. Many 1^st generation Anabaptists cut their peace tradition teeth by sitting at the feet of Erasmus in Basel. Erasmus was front and centre in heralding and doing new translations of the Bible. But, Erasmus was deeply committed as a Christian humanist and renaissance scholar in bringing to the fore the Fathers of the Church.

Déjà vu: Alexandria and Antioch

This past week the Lower Mainland in British Columbia has been abuzz with a visit by N. T. Wright. Wright has thoughtfully challenged the reformed and evangelical clan to be more deeply reformed and evangelical.

Wright’s more catholic approach to the reformed exegetical tradition has challenged a way of doing exegesis. But, has it? I will return to this question shortly. There is no doubt that Wright has taken to task the Packer-Piper position, and he has done so in an informed manner. All are agreed that the Bible is the foundation and authority, but it has become obvious that how the Bible is interpreted is another form of authority. Why are some books in the canon elevated and others subordinated, some texts prized and others demoted, some sections cherished and others ignored? There are, therefore, two levels of authority both within the Old and New Testaments: the Bible and its interpretation. It is this deutero-canonical authority that Wright is, rightly so, questioning. There are those that so equate Bible-interpretation that they do not know the difference between the authority of the one and the questionable authority of the other. But, let us move on.

Does God Punish? by Fr. Michael Gillis (Holy Nativity Orthodox)

     Thomas Hardy says of the main character in The Mayor of Casterbridge, Michael Henchard, that “misery taught him nothing more than the defiant endurance of it.”   What does misery teach us?  What can it teach us?  Can it teach us more than just the fact that we must endure it?

     This is a tricky topic, for suffering is a mystery--a mystery in the deepest sense of the word.  We all suffer, some much more than others; and some suffer under the same circumstance that others would consider a blessing.  

     A lot depends on expectation.  The one who expects pain and finds only discomfort rejoices.  The one who expects luxury and finds discomfort is miserable.  We can be cheated or abused by a stranger and think little of it, but cruelty or mere neglect from someone whom we expected to love us leaves painful scars that last a lifetime.  Suffering and misery are never good, and yet good may come of it.  Misery does teach us, but what we learn depends a great deal on us.  

Nouvelle Theologie & Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery by Hans Boersma -- Book Review by Ron Dart

The opportunity to spend an entire year Sabbatical year reading the theology of the ressourcement movement has been a sacramental gift. 

Hans Boersma (vii) 

Hans Boersma has already rendered exquisite and probing yeoman’s duty with Violence, Hospitality and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition (2004). This groundbreaking tome made it abundantly clear that the historic and patristic church had five main ways of understanding the atonement, hence there is no need to be committed to one particular version of the atonement (particularly the penal-juridical theory). Hans’ turn to the breadth and depth of the Great Tradition signaled, for the alert, the larger project that he is engaged in -- a return to the ancient sources as a site of insight and nourishment for the mind and imagination, soul and heart. The modern and postmodern project are thin and lack a decided depth, hence the much needed and delayed return to the life giving wells of the waiting past.

Freedom is Constrained: Brief Thoughts on the Freedom Problem by Eric H. Janzen

In some ways human history can be summed up in the search for freedom.  Not only to be free, but more profoundly, what it means to be free.  The path goes something like this: if we can figure out how to be free we will as a result be happy, satisfied, and fulfilled.  The search for freedom, as you can imagine, has followed many different routes each attempting to define those elusive elements needed to ensure true human freedom.  Ancient and modern philosophers, most religions and spiritual systems, science, technology, and social systems have all sought the answer.  After thousands of years and diverse propositions the world has come no closer to a real answer, for every human effort invariably fails to provide the freedom that the human heart is seeking. 

'We are free,' many have claimed, 'yet we are miserable', they conclude.  'We are free,' they say, 'yet we are corrupt' they realize.  Oppressive systems have attempted to impose control on societies valuing order over personal freedom, leaving populations far from happiness.  Democratic or 'free' societies have placed freedom so high upon a pedestal that restraint of any kind is revolted at, yet they are amongst the most depressed populations in the world.  To do as I want when I please is the order of the philosophical day, but it has not led to happiness.  One might conclude that 'freedom' is a kind of will'o'the'wisp, an illusion always just out of reach and that true happiness is also an illusion fooling us all as we grasp at empty air pursuing it through a dark forest.

Political Ressourcement: Anabaptist Inaccuracies, Radical Orthodoxy, Red Toryism and George Grant by Ron Dart

"George Grant was Canada’s most significant public philosopher."             

Graeme Nicholson, Athens and Jerusalem:  George Grant’s Theology, Philosophy, and Politics  (p. 323)

1

The Constantinian Fall Myth  

There is a rather inaccurate and shallow read of Christian history that unfolds in this manner. Once upon a time there was the pure New Testament church that was faithful and true to the radical commitment to Jesus Christ. This period of time was short, and the fire did not burn bright and with much light for long. The 1^st century soon gave way to the post-apostolic era, and in the 2^nd-3^rd centuries, the intensity and spirit of the martyrs gave way to assimilation, many compromises and a thinning out of the faith journey.

The most serious distortion and compromise of the church took place when Constantine came to power in the early decades of the 4^th century, and Eusebius’ oration and adoring speech to Constantine made it clear that the church had now become a lapdog and dancing bear of imperial politics. The age of true prophets and genuine martyrs was over. It was just a matter of time before Theodosius and Charlemagne took control of the church and reduced it to a vassal of political power.

A. James Reimer and Anabaptist Anarchism: A Prophet to His People by Ron Dart

 A. James Reimer died August 28 2010. For those who have not studied with him or read any of his books, he was one of the finest Mennonite thinkers of the 20th century. We have lost two of the best this year with the passing of Clark Pinnock and James Reimer. What follows is an article on Reimer that was previously published on Clarion (June 9 2006). We are reposting it in honour of Reimer's life? Reimer's life was not long (1942-2010), but he lived well and leaves us a significant legacy of Anabaptist thought.

Among his works, he wrote or edited The Emanuel Hirsch and Paul Tillich Debate: The Political Ramifications of Theology (Edwin Mellen Press, 1989), The Influence of the Frankfurt School on Contemporary Theology: Critical Theory and the Future of Religion (Edwin Mellen Press, 1992), Mennonites and Classical Theology: Dogmatic Foundations for Christian Ethics (Pandora Press, 2001) and The Dogmatic Imagination: The Dynamics of Christian Belief (Herald Press, 2003).

* * * * * 

There is little doubt that James Reimer is one of the most articulate and thoughtful Mennonite theologians in North America, and he is certainly one of the finest in Canada. The publication of Mennonites and Classical Theology: Dogmatic Foundations for Christian Ethics (2001) and The Dogmatic Imagination: The Dynamics of Christian Belief (2003) positions Reimer at the very forefront and cutting edge of Mennonite thought in Canada and North America.

J. I. Packer and N. T. Wright: Charting the Evangelical Way -- by Ron Dart

I have always believed that scripture stands over all our traditions,

including our evangelical traditions.

N.T. Wright, Anglican Evangelical Identity: Yesterday and Today (p.11) 

I don’t think there can be any doubt that J.I. Packer (1926….) is one of the most significant puritan theologians of the latter half of the 20^th century and the early decades of the 21^st century. There has been a consistent track and path in thought, published and spoken word and deed in Packer’s life and writings from the 1950s to the present. I was fortunate to study systematic theology and spiritual theology with Jim Packer when I was at Regent College from 1979-1981, and I co-authored a booklet with Jim, In a Pluralist Age (1998), in response to Bishop Ingham’s Mansions of the Spirit (1997). I am certainly not reformed or puritan in my thinking, but I respect the way Jim Packer has taken plough to soil, dug deep, planted many a fine seed and participated in the producing of a bountiful puritan and evangelical harvest.

From Abba Isaak the Syrian (c. 700)

From Abba Isaak the Syrian:

Even if such words as wrath, anger, hatred, and many meager others are pressed into speaking of the Creator, we should not suppose that He ever does anything in anger or hatred or zeal.

Many such figures are employed in the roiling span of Scripture, provisional terms far removed from Who He Is.

Even as our own, relatively rational persons have already been tweaked, increasingly if slowly made more competent in holy understanding of the Mystery -- namely, that we should not take things quite so literally, but should suspect (concealed within the corporal surface of unlikely narratives) a hidden providence and eternal knowledge guiding all – so too we shall in future come to see the sweep of many things to be quite contrary to what our current, puerile processes afford us.

-- Saint Isaac of Nineveh

J. I. Packer or Donald Dayton? Sanhedrin Elder or Prophetic Witness -- by Ron Dart

J.I. Packer and the Evangelical Future: The Impact of His Life and Thought. Edited by Timothy George (2009).                          

From the Margins: A Celebration of the Theological Work of Donald W. Dayton. Edited by Christian Collins Winn (2007).

The Post-WW II Evangelical ethos has been largely dominated by a decided Reformed and Puritan theological tradition. Luther, and even more Calvin, have set the stage for how St. Augustine and St. Paul are to be read and interpreted. Those that dare to differ with the Reformed Sanhedrin are often banished from the clan or fated to live from the margins.

There is no doubt that J.I. Packer is one of the most significant leaders of the Reformed and Evangelical Sanhedrin, and J. I. Packer and the Evangelical Future demonstrates why this is the case. All of the contributors to this tidy and hagiographical tome walk the extra mile to clarify how and why Packer has provided guidance and leadership for a new generation of reformed-evangelical theologians, pastors and academics. Packer’s biographer, Alister McGrath, sets the tone for the book by highlighting how Packer has been a lighthouse and gatekeeper for ‘The Great Tradition’ in an age of fragmentation and Christian capitulation to the liberal agenda in both the church and society. Charles Colson is yet another voice that lauds the contribution of Packer as do many other worthies in J.I. Packer and the Evangelical Future. The obstinate fact that the post-WW II evangelical ethos has been dominated by the reformed way has meant that those who see themselves as standing within such a tradition find it hard to have a voice if they question such a merging of evangelical and reformed thought at the highest levels of leadership, education, politics and ecclesial direction.

God's Great Secret -- Excerpt from Canterbury

From Rowan William's Enthronement Speech (Feb. 2003)

Once we recognise God's great secret, that we are all made to be God's sons and daughters, we can't avoid the call to see one another differently. No-one can be written off; no group, no nation, no minority can just be a scapegoat to resolve our fears and uncertainties. We can't assume that any human face we see has no divine secret to disclose: those who are culturally or religiously strange to us; those who so often don't count in the world's terms (the old, the unborn, the disabled). And this is what unsettles our loyalties, conservative or liberal, right wing or left, national and international. We have to learn to be human alongside all sorts of others, the ones whose company we don't greatly like, the ones we didn't choose, because Jesus is drawing us together into his place, into his company.

So an authentic church has a difficult job. On the one hand, it must be constantly learning from the Bible and its shared life of prayer how to live with Jesus and his Father; its life makes no sense unless we believe that the secret Jesus reveals to those hungry for life is the very bedrock of truth. The Church can't believe and say whatever it likes, for the very sound reason that it is a community of people who have been changed because and only because of Jesus Christ. I am a Christian because of the change made to me by Jesus Christ, because of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which gives me the right to call God 'Abba Father; what other reason is there?

In Conversation with Islam -- Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Faith, Freedom and the Human Vocation

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo Abbot of the Monastery of All Saints of North America 

Civil Liaison for the Orthodox Church of Canada

An Invited Paper

The Risale-i Nur: Faith, Morality and the Future of Humankind

An international conference of The Istanbul Foundation for Science and Culture

I

THE LAMP OF BELIEF 

(The illumination of the soul)

    For those of us non-Moslems who have recently been introduced to Sa’id Nursi, his writings are enlightening. The more I read of his thought, the more attracted to him I become. His views and concepts should especially resonate with Orthodox Christians whose formation is rooted in the spiritual milieu of the near and Middle East.

        Had I been able personally to dialogue with Nursi, I should want to have begun with a discussion of "relationships as the manifestation of belief and faith." When we in the Orthodox Christian community speak of "energies," this is precisely what we are referring to, so let me begin with a few words about energy as relationship. In both physics and Orthodox theology, this is the essential meaning of "energy." "Energy" is the manner in which our inner person relates to God and to other human beings. The uncreated energy of God is the manner in which He establishes His relationship with us. We call this uncreated energy of God "grace." The energy with which we establish our relationship with God, we refer to as "faith." Faith is a higher fruit of "belief," for belief opens our hearts toward God so that we can receive the illumination of faith by means of grace. Our energies form the mode in which we relate to other human beings, and this relationship is truly appropriate only when we have a vital relationship with God.

        In the Signs of the Miraculous (V3, p.50.), if I understand Nursi correctly, he tells us that belief in God shines a light into our minds that allows us to seek a reconciliation with our own conscience. Belief is ultimately a gift to those who seek it. Once established in us, belief — which has opened for us the possibility of a relationship with God — provides us with consolation in the face of adversity, and the strength to endure even in the midst of suffering.

        In the Orthodox context, we would refer to this light or lamp of consolation in belief as "the Holy Spirit." Though we express this gift in different forms, the end result, the "relationship" is the same. Here, then, we begin to see the fount of loving dialogue. Nursi would lead our souls to the green pastures that are ever verdant even when the world around us is perishing from spiritual drought and desiccation. This is a quest which is mutual for both Orthodoxy and Islam.

To read the rest of this article, Download Faith_Freedom_Archbishop_Lazar

"Your moralism is killing you" by Brian Zahnd

  I'll never forget the time I was sitting at the Starbucks in downtown Estes Park, Colorado with my friend Brad Jersak and his relating to me how Archbishop Lazar Puhalo of the Orthodox Church of Canada had replied upon being asked, "What message would you have for the evangelical church?" The Archbishop's reply was this:

"Your moralism is killing you."

Wow! That hit me like a ton of bricks. And the line has stuck with me ever since. "Your moralism is killing you." Sometimes it takes the perspective of an outsider to get to the heart of the matter. Orthodoxy has its own issues to contend with, but as far as I'm concerned Archbishop Lazar's diagnosis of the chief malady within evangelicalism is right on target. Our moralism is killing us. But Jesus wants to save us!
Here is another quote from Archbishop Lazar which expounds upon the topic.

"If our faith is primarily a mantra to drive away punishment, our faith isn’t really a faith, it is a fear. We feign faith in order to keep from being punished. When we do that it usually manifests itself as a kind of harsh and brutal moralism. Because in this system it is psychologically comforting to see ourselves as better than other people. Thus trying to hype up our ego leads us to a kind of moralism where we have to denigrate others in order to make ourselves feel better." -Archbishop Lazar

Alright, that's all I wanted to share with you, but if you are interested in more of this conversation you can view theSymposium on Deep Structural Fear with my friends Brad Jersak, Ron Dart and Archbishop Lazar. It will be well worth your time.
Grace and Peace,
BZ
Symposium on Deep Structural Fear from Orthodox Canada on Vimeo.

"The External Philosophy": The Fathers and Platonism by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

The “External Philosophy”: The Fathers and Platonism

It is a commonplace of modern scholarship that the Fathers of the Church, Latin and Greek, were Platonist, with exceptions of Sts Leontios of Byzantium, John of Damascus and Gregory Palamas who were ostensibly Aristotelians. In the case of Platonism, it has a long tradition from ancient to modern times. There is more than one “Platonism.” The Platonism of Plato himself and Hellenic Platonism (before Alexander the Great), finally, there is Hellenistic Platonism (after Alexander’s conquest). The latter consists the schools of Plotinus (Neo-Platonism) or Antiochus of Ascalon (Middle Platonism) or some combination of the three above mentioned.

With special regard to the influence of Greek philosophy in general and Platonism in particular on Christianity, many academics tend to agree with the thesis of the liberal Protestant church historian, Adolph von Harnack (1851-1930), that beginning with the Fathers of the second century, the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ, was overwhelmed by Greek philosophy. He described this era in the life of the Church as “hellenization.” Not a few scholars believe that the Fathers were complicit with St Paul in the formation of a Christian metaphysic, or a Christian version of Greek philosophy. Roman Catholic theologians argue that in fact the Fathers, like the medieval Scholastics, created a synthesis of Plato or Aristotle and Christianity. Most Protestants like to think of these syntheses as a detriment to the Gospel and, therefore, justification for the Reformation and its adoption of the “original” ecclesiology.

To view the rest of this article, Download PLATON.

Jesus and Nonviolence - Podcast by Bob Ekblad

New Podcast: Jesus and Nonviolence

 

How can we as Christians reconcile the apparent violence of Old Testament texts with the self-sacrificing, non-violent life and teachings of Jesus?  Many on both sides of the issue use Scripture to justify their stance on war, the death penalty, and violence in our culture.  This short (1 hour) but informative recording by Bob Ekblad delves into the difficult and often divisive questions surrounding non-violence perspectives and the way of the cross.  Very useful for personal study or small group discussion.

Click here to visit our podcast site and listen to this podcast online.  No special tech knowledge required.

Anglicanism and Orthodoxy by Ron Dart

The centre cannot hold—mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.                       

W.B. Yeats 

so that they may be one as we are one. 

Jesus

My theological journey, as a young man in my early twenties, took me to L’Abri in Switzerland from 1973-1974. I was quite taken by Francis Schaeffer, but I was never fully convinced by his brand of an updated version of Calvin and the Calvinist tradition. In short, I was never held by the Reformed tradition. The Reformation is the womb of modernity, and much of the fragmentation we face today is the consequence of the reformation. The children are out of the womb, now adults and each doing what is right in the sight of their own eyes (and few agree on what the right is).    

I had been reading a great deal of C.S. Lewis in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and I was quite aware that Lewis and Schaeffer dwelt in different environs. Lewis was grounded in the classical way, a Medieval-Renaissance scholar, a catholic Anglican and he had serious doubts about both the Reformation tradition and puritan Calvinism. Schaeffer was a true believer in the Reformed read of the reformation, and its implications for the church and society. Lewis could argue the case for mere Christianity, but there comes a point in the trail when Schaeffer and Lewis part paths for substantive theological, ecclesial and cultural reasons.  

Peccatum Originus - poem by E. H. Janzen

Peccatum Originus 

Circling this tree we wondered

what mystery lay behind

the fruit of our question

We put distance between us

and the boughs heavy with temptation

branches reaching out like hands and talons

to gather us in like

fish fighting the shame baited barbed hooks

so brutally adorned with lures of light

that draws us without an chance to escape

And coming round again

we are surprised, feigning innocence

in the face of the partaking, the peeling,

of the cursed answer.

Deuteronomy, Jewish Prophets and the Sermon on the Mount by Ron Dart

Evangelicals have been reading the Sermon on the Mount for centuries with little evident intention of taking the text seriously.

Clark Pinnock, Revolution (1971)

I have taught courses on political philosophy for many years. I tend to highlight both the Jewish and Greek sources of the Western political tradition rather than beginning with Plato and Aristotle and moving fastforward. The course, then, moves onward, after the Greeks and Jewish traditions, to the Roman tradition and into the Christian political tradition of the Patristic Latin West and Greek East. It is rare in a class in political philosophy that Deuteronomy and the Jewish prophetic tradition are taught. This speaks volumes about the secular and liberal prejudices of modernity. But, in the teaching of Deuteronomy, a variety of tensions emerge, and some of the more substantive tensions seem quite irresolvable.  What are these tensions, and why are they a problem? 

"Testing faith: redeeming Christians from themselves" - Reflective Review of L. Huskinson's 'Nietzsche' by Brad Jersak

“Testing faith: redeeming Christians from themselves”

A Reflective Review of Lucy Huskinson’s Introduction to Nietzsche

 

Nietzsche’s Test of Faith

 In Lucy Huskinson’s brilliant, all too brief missive, An Introduction to Nietzsche (SPCK 2009), she assesses and affirms the value of engaging Friedrich Nietzsche’s thought for Christianity. Huskinson’s Introduction prepares readers who hope to dip into Nietzsche by avoiding reductionist caricatures that naively paint this great philosopher as either the devil incarnate or some sort of closet Christian. She maximizes what we might learn from Nietzsche by reminding us not to simply react to his provocations, but rather, to observe and diagnose our own instinctual responses to them.

Her final chapter is titled “Testing faith: redeeming Christians from themselves.” I wish that SPCK had used this chapter title on the book’s cover, for it is a great contribution to an urgent need of the day. In it, Huskinson sees Nietzsche’s primary target audience as Christians, provoking them to test the strength of their faith. By opening ourselves to Christianity’s harshest critic and facing into his deepest questioning, ones faith is ‘salted with fire—but salt is good’ and ought to be internalized (Mark 9:49-50). After Nietzsche’s fire tests the Christian heart, will any faith remain? He is doubtful.

Herein, we shall recount Dr. Huskinson’s clear explanation of Nietzsche’s ‘God is dead’ test, then proceed to testing the test for its criteria and assumptions—not to avoid it but to stoke it and shape it for those Nietzsche calls ‘the most serious Christians’—with one such Christian in mind. Namely, the early 20^th century French philosopher-activist-mystic, Simone Weil.[1]

Thomas Merton & C. S. Lewis: book reviews by Ron Dart

                            Thomas Merton & C.S. Lewis:

                                       Book Reviews

      I think that Thomas Merton could easily be called the greatest

      spiritual writer and spiritual master of the twentieth century in

      English speaking America….The only contender would be the

      enormous popularity of C.S. Lewis.   Lawrence Cunningham

           Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton pgs. 183-4

 

                     C.S. Lewis & Philosophy as a Way of Life:

A Comprehensive Historical Examination of his Philosophical Thoughts

                                      Adam Barkman (2009)

                      

                                           Soul Searching:

                              The Journey of Thomas Merton

                                   Morgan Atkinson (edited)

                                                   (2008)

 

We read, study and meditate upon the writings and lives of those fuller than ourselves so that we mature into the large and demanding issues of the soul and society. Our lives are raised to a higher level by heeding and hearing those who have gone further and deeper than ourselves. There is no doubt that C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton dared to plumb the depths and ascend to heights that few do, hence the fact they are held so high as icons of the 20th and 21^st centuries. The publication of C.S. Lewis & Philosophy as a Way of Life and Soul Searching ably and amply illustrate why Lewis and Merton have such an ongoing and perennial appeal for those who souls are searching for deeper waters to slake their philosophical and spiritual thirsts.

End of the Line by Brian Zahnd

This is an article I wrote for the May issue of Charisma Magazine at the request of the new editor, Marcus Yoars.

END OF THE LINE
By Brian Zahnd

God is shifting the church from one seasonal platform to another. Are we ready?

Western Christianity is at a critical juncture. Those who care deeply about the church are aware of this. Things are not as they once were. Things are changing. Dramatically so. Even if we don't understand what is happening, we can certainly feel it. There is an uneasy feeling throughout evangelicalism that everything is changing. Long-held certitudes are being challenged from both within and without the Christian faith. The way things were even ten years ago is no longer the way things are today. It's easy to be disconcerted by it all. 

In the midst of pronounced uncertainty it is tempting to succumb to nostalgia and pine away for some point in the past that we identify as the "glory days." But we cannot go back. The healthy practice of recognizing the contributions of the past and building upon them is not the same thing as a regressive attempt to return to a bygone era. This is the problem with revivalism. Too often it is a naive attempt to recapture a particular past. It's like a Renaissance fair-nice entertainment for a Saturday afternoon but you can't live there. An idealized memory of the past is not a vision which can carry us into the future. Nostalgic reminiscing about the past is for those who no longer have the courage to creatively engage with contemporary challenges and opportunities. All of this is related to the critical juncture we have come to in the course of Western Christianity.

The Prophetic Culture of the Kingdom (conclusion and appendixes) by Eric H. Janzen

Conclusion

As I neared the end of writing this book I had coffee with a close friend of mine.  He told me a story about a young man that he had become friends with.  This young man left the Church because his experience of it had been of a surface faith.  He saw people calling themselves Christians, but living their lives as they pleased and caring little for those around them.  Sadly, this led to not only his rejection of Church, but Jesus as well.  He continues to be a spiritual man seeking God and attempting to live a spiritual life, but due to his experience of Church he wants nothing to do with Christians and thus nothing to do with Jesus.  How many of us know people like this?  Too many have encountered Christians not living out the culture of the kingdom and have as a result not encountered Christ.  This story is why I care about the things I have written.  That my friend’s friend was at the gate and walked away because of those within breaks my heart.  It should break your heart as well. 

James and Martin Luther: The Jewish Law, Faith and Social Justice by Ron Dart

There is good evidence to suggest that James was the brother of Jesus, and James was a significant leader (many would suggest he was the first bishop) of the church in Jerusalem. There is no doubt that James would have  heard Jesus’ insights on the Beatitudes many times, and, as bishop of the fledgling church in Jerusalem, he attempted to apply such incisive wisdom to the parishioners in Jerusalem and many Jewish Christians scattered throughout the Roman world and ethos of the time.

James wrote the book of James (probably one of the earliest Christian letters), and the missive has had a substantive impact on the origins of the  catholic church, throughout church history and now. Although Martin Luther held high the centrality and authority of the Bible, he was most selective in how he priorized what was of primary and what of secondary importance in the Bible. Luther thought James was but a meagre piece of straw, and not to be taken with the same level of seriousness as the gospels and many of the Pauline epistles.

What was it about James that so offended Luther, and how did Luther go amiss and astray by relegating James to a lower level of worth in the New Testament? There are three central areas where James and Luther (if they had been contemporaries) would have clashed. Sadly so, significant clans in the Christian tradition have followed Luther rather than James in their understanding of the Bible. The results have been somewhat problematic. It is ironic, though, that Luther held high the Bible, and yet his read of it was somewhat erratic and reductionistic. Let us, though, touch on the three areas where James and Luther parted paths and why. 

Crazy Love by Brian Zahnd

Why is there something instead of nothing?
The only feasible answer is an Absolute Being (God).

But why would God create?
Why would God bother?
Why would Absolute Being sufficient in itself create other?

The only feasible answer is...
LOVE
Love Love Love
Crazy Love

The reason for (existence in the ultimate sense) is...
God and his crazy love.

The reason for everything is...
God and his crazy love

The Prophetic Culture of the Kingdom (pt. 7) by Eric H. Janzen

Chapter Seven

The Prophetic Culture of the Kingdom

The community of Christ is a prophetic community.  The prophetic message of the community is Jesus.  The prophetic message of the community is the Gospel of his kingdom.  The community of Christ is to be the prophetic voice in the desert of the world declaring the truth and hope of the Gospel, declaring the culture of the kingdom and revealing that culture to the world.  This is our prophetic role.  The prophetic is to be a sign of something.  In the previous chapter I spoke of this sign as being a mirror reflecting God’s glory (who he is and what he is like) to the world and being an arrow pointing to Jesus.  This is one way of describing the Church’s identity, its means of being relevant in today’s world.  Our kingdom culture is thus a prophetic culture.  When the community of Christ lives a style of life that is marked by the cultural values of the kingdom it embodies the prophetic message of that culture and the Gospel.  By demonstrating the cultural values of the kingdom in the way that we live we prophetically declare the reality of the kingdom to the world.  In holding true to loving God with all your being and loving your neighbor as yourself we find the pinnacle of prophetic action.  This shows us that love is the foundation of true prophecy and not judgment as some believe.  In Revelation 19:10 we read that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.  It is the message of Jesus to humanity, his testimony, that is the Church’s prophetic message.  The Gospel is the message of Jesus and the Church must hold to that message as its core, its prophetic declaration even if it is a difficult one.

Gandhi and Grant -- Review by Brad Jersak

Barua, Arati (ed.), Gandhi and Grant: Their Philosophical Affinities. Delhi, India: Academic Excellence, 2010).

Review

I recently received a first edition copy of Arati Barua's collection of scholarly essays comparing and contrasting Canada's George Parkin Grant with India's Mahatma Gandhi. The book features contributions primarily from Indian and Canadian scholars and serves to further promote the interfaith dialogue that both Gandhi and Grant modelled and championed.

The book opens (see end of review for contents) with a concise introduction to George Grant by biographer William Grant and a piece on the "Motive for Coincidence between Gandhi and Grant" by Gandhi expert, Ramjee Singh. As the reader proceeds through articles by some top Grantians (Christian, Dart, Emberley, Kaethler, et al), it becomes apparent that the affinities between Gandhi and Grant are neither superficial nor contrived. In spite of their very different backgrounds, their faith-based philosophies led to comparable, independently discovered conclusions and convictions.

Both men were prophets of dissent against the prevailing modernism of their age, critical of the way technology can dehumanize the masses as we lose the capacity for contemplative life and thought. They both opposed modernity's inevitable tyranny through Western imperialism and militarism in their quite different contexts. Gandhi the Hindu and Grant the Christian both embraced a synthesis of contemplative theology, political philosophy, and their public outworking toward a just society. They lived as promoters of nonviolent resistance to moral darkness and opposed political oppression in costly and courageous ways.

The Prophetic Culture of the Kingdom (pt. 5) by Eric H. Janzen

Chapter Five

A Call to Citizenship

At the outset of this book I said that the basic question the Church needs to answer today is what it means to be in the world but not of the world.  In understanding that the community of Christ has a distinct culture in the kingdom of heaven I believe we have found an answer.

Jesus calls us out of darkness and into his light.  He rescues us from the bondage of sin and our imprisonment in the kingdom of darkness.  Consider that we were all once citizens in this dark kingdom, but now that citizenship has been negated.  When we choose to follow Jesus we shed our old home and walk freely out of that spiritual darkness to our new home in the kingdom of heaven.  We are now a part of the community of Christ, citizens of his realm.  When we choose this narrow path we are answering a call to leave one culture for another, opting for the spiritual culture of Christ’s kingdom and accepting the divine paradigm of God.

Editorial: Fasting from Blown Metaphors by Brad Jersak

I write this as a reflection on Eric Janzen’s “Prophetic Culture of the Kingdom” (part 4).

In pondering your well-thought, well-stated articles on the Kingdom of God, part 4 gave me pause to consider your admittedly biblical use of military and imperial metaphors.

I 

Military Metaphors

Re: military metaphors, you describe Christians as living ‘upon a spiritual battleground where a very real battle is underway.’ You continue,

The kingdom of heaven opposes the kingdom of darkness and opposes the powers of this world that do not worship Jesus as their lord, their savior, or their king...  We are the presence of the kingdom wherever we gather and we are to express that presence on the battleground.

All of this is familiar territory to Biblicists who read about spiritual battles, armies, and weapons in New Testament passages like Eph.6, 2 Tim. 2, Rev. 19, etc. And of course, you acknowledge that while this battle is ‘real,’ it is also ‘spiritual.’ The weapons of our warfare are not the literal weapons of the world (swords, scuds, and lawsuits); they are metaphors for the Christian practices of love (as you explained), forgiveness (Rom. 12), and prayer (2 Cor. 10). In other words, the military metaphors are not merely spiritual counterparts to the physical realities. They also function ironically. Christ did not simply talk about overpowering evil forces by means of more lethal, spiritual ammo. He calls his followers to disavow violence, harm, hatred, and force altogether. Our new weapons are upside down kingdom traits like meekness, mercy, and mourning. An entirely new set of actions is called for: turning the other cheek to the enemy that strikes you; blessing the enemy that curses you; praying for the enemy that abuses you. These aren’t just spiritual symbols … it’s irony, virtually sarcasm if we’re talking about ‘armor.’ The disciples eventually got that.

"Justice" by George MacDonald

From George MacDonald's Unspoken Sermons

Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for thou renderest to every man according to his work.--PSALM lxii. 12.

Some of the translators make it kindness and goodness; but I presume there is no real difference among them as to the character of the word which here, in the English Bible, is translated mercy.

The religious mind, however, educated upon the theories yet prevailing in the so-called religious world, must here recognize a departure from the presentation to which they have been accustomed: to make the psalm speak according to prevalent theoretic modes, the verse would have to be changed thus:--'To thee, O Lord, belongeth justice, for thou renderest to every man according to his work.'

Let the reason of my choosing this passage, so remarkable in itself, for a motto to the sermon which follows, remain for the present doubtful. I need hardly say that I mean to found no logical argument upon it.

Let us endeavour to see plainly what we mean when we use the word justice, and whether we mean what we ought to mean when we use it--especially with reference to God. Let us come nearer to knowing what we ought to understand by justice, that is, the justice of God; for his justice is the live, active justice, giving existence to the idea of justice in our minds and hearts. Because he is just, we are capable of knowing justice; it is because he is just, that we have the idea of justice so deeply imbedded in us.

Am I Missing Something by Joe Beach

'Christian' Militia in the News

This morning, I read about the arrest in Michigan of eight "patriotic Christians" who had plotted to bomb a funeral service of a policeman. On the same day, I received another email about the "pray for Obama" bumper sticker - this time from my sister (who's really a very committed Christian, intelligent, etc. A wonderful person). So I wrote down these thoughts:

Most of us, by now, have heard of the bumper sticker going around which reads: "Pray for Obama - Psalm 109:8”. It’s may be a trivial example of how ugly some of us Christians have become in recent years – but it’s also a horrific example. The full passage, which is supposed to elicit satisfying chuckles from us when we look it up, reads “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow." As my friend likes to say, “yeah, funny… but not in a HA-HA way.”

The Matrix of Liberalism: A Seven Act Drama - by Ron Dart

“Liberalism was, in origin, criticism of the old established order. Today, it is the voice of the establishment.”
--George Grant

“The end is in the beginning.”
--Plato

“I have found from many observations that sometimes our liberal is incapable of granting anyone else his own convictions and immediately answers his opponent with abuse or something worse.”
--Dostoyevsky

“The saint needed by each culture is the one who contradicts it the most.”
--G.K. Chesterton

1.
The Matrix of Liberalism

     All of us, whether we are consciously aware of it or not, think from a core of philosophic principles. It is from these seed thoughts, principles or ideas, that the fruit of various and varied ethical positions are taken. We live in a period of time in which many ethical positions are embraced, contested and questioned in our culture wars. Many is the hot button issue that, when articulated and argued in the public places, creates many a reaction. Ethical tribes and clans (and chieftains aplenty) have emerged to beat the drums for ethical positions on the political right, sensible centre and political left.

The Prophetic Culture of the Kingdom (pt. 4) by Eric H. Janzen

Chapter Four

Transcending Culture

 I have attempted to show that kingdom culture is a spiritual culture revealed by God.  This culture comes out of his character, which is unchanging.  The spiritual culture of the kingdom is unchanging as well.  How the people of God are to live is a constant that does not change from era to era.  This characteristic of kingdom culture is markedly different from world culture, which is always in flux, changing and evolving.  This is important to understand for the community of Christ by the way it lives life fulfills its prophetic role in the world to reveal who God is.  Christians ought to be those who understand what God is truly like in character.  They ought to be those who not only know about God, but who know him relationally.  All the theology in the world does us no good if we do not know him.  At the heart of kingdom culture is this spiritual reality: we can be reconciled to God through Jesus and truly know him.  The Christian style of life revolves around this reality.  God has made it possible for us to have a genuine and real relationship with him.  

"The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil" and "Exiles from Nowhere" - Reviews by Brad Jersak

Book Reviews by Brad Jersak 

    E. Jane Doering and Eric O. Springsted, The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil (Notre Dame: UND Press, 2004.

     Alan Mendelson, Exiles from Nowhere: The Jews and the Canadian Elite (Montreal: Robin Brass Studio, 2008). 

In reviewing these two scholarly gems, I read them from a particular perspective. I am at the fledgling stage of George P. Grant research, with a special interest in enucleating the animating core of his life as a contemplative theologian and Canadian ‘prophet.’ One cannot hope to understand Grant’s work as a philosopher, political scientist and activist apart from the context of his Weilian Christian Platonism, for in his spiritual journey out of the dark cave of modernity (think Plato), Simone Weil was truly his ‘Diotima.’[1] Further, Grant’s emergence as one of Canada’s preeminent thinkers must be understood in light of his progressivist liberal pedigree. From that point of view, a book of essays on Weil’s Christian Platonism and a history that situates him among Canada’s intellectual elite are must-reads.

The Prophetic Culture of the Kingdom (pt. 3) by Eric H. Janzen

Chapter Three

Divided Loyalties

The Church has been facing a crisis for some time now, a crisis surrounding the question of relevance.  Its critics claim that the Church and the Gospel have ceased being relevant and meaningful.  Many have sought to answer this crisis by searching for ways to connect with the culture outside the Church, a challenge to say the least.  Some programs and plans may have limited success in drawing some into the Church, but the question regarding the crisis needs some kind of answer: why has the Church and the Gospel lost its relevance in a world so desperately in need of both Christ’s community and message?  Part of the answer, though it is surely a complicated one, lies in understanding that Christians are called to a way of life.  Their style of living is to be culturally distinct from the world they find themselves in.  It is this way of life that makes the Church the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  The Church needs to recall its spiritual culture and live according to it in order to be relevant, which will give the treasure of the gospel which they hold real meaning in today’s world.

Discernment: Testing My Own Voice by Brad Jersak

DISCERNMENT: TESTING MY OWN VOICE

In recent days I have been thinking about our dialogues with God and how we weigh them. I started noticing that when the prayer conversation alternates: God, then Brad, then God, then Brad, and son on, I was diligent to test what God is allegedly saying. I test to see whether the voice of God is really God or not God. I check that voice according to the three-legged stool of the Word, the Body and the Spirit, as recommended in Can You Hear Me? Tuning in to the God who Speaks.

But I neglected to test MY voice. And why should I? After all, it’s my own voice, isn’t it? Or is it? But when I began to categorize the themes that came under the umbrella of ‘my voice,’ I noticed something. On the one hand, there was the voice that agrees with and responds to God in faith. We could call that the voice of my ‘true heart,’ or the voice of the ‘new creation,’ or the ‘new me.’

On the other hand, there are these other voices that I assumed were my own as well: The voice of condemnation (beating myself up) that would then trigger the voice of self-pity (feeling sorry for myself), and the voices of shame, self-hatred, fear, worry, anger, and so on. In my head, I would hear and say, ‘I am afraid; I am angry; I don’t like myself; I’m not worthy,’ etc. Perhaps you know those voices as well.

Erasmus, the Great Tradition and the Eastern Fathers by Ron Dart

  The name of Erasmus will never perish
John Colet (1516)

Erasmus has published volumes more full of wisdom
than any which Europe has seen for ages.
Thomas More

The chief aim of Erasmus in his life’s work as a humanist scholar was to restore theology. In his times this meant to replace the theology then being taught and practiced as a professional science by a more adequate study of Holy Scripture and the Fathers of the early Church.

John Olin

 Those who have dipped into the life and prolific writings of Erasmus (1466-1536) might be aware of the importance and significance of the Praise of Folly. Others know Erasmus well because of his Adages and Colloquies. The voluminous correspondence of Erasmus holds the attention of others. The clash between Luther and Erasmus is part of Reformation lore and legend.

The fact that Erasmus was put on the Index makes him an activist and writer of some interest. The peace theology of Erasmus makes him an anomaly of sorts in the war stricken 16th century. Many 1st generation Anabaptists cut their peace tradition teeth by sitting at the feet of Erasmus in Basel. Erasmus was front and centre in heralding and doing new translations of the Bible. But, Erasmus was deeply committed as a Christian humanist and renaissance scholar in bringing to the fore the Fathers of the Church.

"Called out of darkness" - by Brad Jersak

My friend, Kevin Miller, spoke at church last Sunday. He shared about some of the joys and sorrows of being a movie screenwriter. I laughed as I heard about his encounters with some famous characters: shaking Chuck Norris' hand, getting eye-contact with the pope, duking it out with Ben Stein, and getting sued by Yoko Ono. But when he shared from the heart about how a series of deep disappointments can lead to a sense of broken trust with God, I sobered up quickly. He was preaching right to my sadness.

In my disappointment, I know that I lost confidence in God's way of running this buggered up world and at times, took it upon myself to take his place--with disastrous effects. I have seen my capacity to fail others miserably and know the hellish pride of self-loathing. It's easy for me to get stuck there, because that place opposes the very core of God's message. Kev related how our old friend, Tyler, had challenged him to stop and to just spend time "soaking" in worship and just listening to God. Sounds simple, but the resistance to engage that way was itself instructive. He recommended sitting quietly and listening to Kim Walker's "Oh How He Loves Us" ... repeatedly, until a message came through.

Bob Ekblad's 'A New Christian Manifesto' - Review by Brad Jersak

Bob Ekblad, A New Christian Manifesto: Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008.

Review by Brad Jersak

After my first encounters with the theo-praxis of Bob Ekblad, recounted so vividly in his previous work, Reading the Bible with the Damned, I could only wait impatiently for the arrival of his New Christian Manifesto. I was not disappointed.

In this work, Ekblad demonstrates his acumen as a master bridge-builder and integrator. Specifically, he bridges the best of world-class biblical theology and front line pastoral practice. He integrates the social prophetic world of liberation theology with the charismatic prophetic world of the modern renewal movement. Text meets testimony, mind meets heart and authentic prayer finds its way into the world of the poor, the immigrant, the gangster and the prisoner. In short, Bob brings the good news of the Kingdom of God, preaching a decentering word to the powers (a la Brueggemann), and inviting those on the margins to the banqueting table of God.

Beyond Cynicism: the Renewal of Prophetic Purity - by Brad Jersak and Peter Helms

Intro:

As the apostolic / prophetic movement has become increasingly bizarre, many who were told to simply bless everything are now deeply disillusioned. In these days when renewal meetings, alleged outpourings and flamboyant leaders have reached a point of crisis, it is tempting to throw up our hands, become cynical and opt to retreat to a safer, saner spirituality. And yet we know in our hearts that we can't go back to a Christian faith without the presence, power and voice of God. Neither dead orthodoxy nor practical deism can provide a harbour for us. Some are simply walking away from the faith altogether. Is that really our only option? How do we stay open to the Spirit? How do we restore prophetic purity? How can we continue to engage in authentic experiences with God without becoming wacky? What if we were to recalibrate our faith practice and renew prophetic purity?

A Kingdom Stance -- by Ward Draper

I have been thinking alot about the Cross lately and the excessive and immeasurable lessons it holds. That such a violent device could hold so much knowledge, wisdom, life, and more importantly love, it is astounding. 

As I have been thinking about this grotesque and beautiful gift five characteristics stand out in my mind. Five attributes which transfer well into a Kingdom life. In the Cross I see immovability, its drastic nature, its gruesomeness, its stark raw disposition, and its eternal embrace. It is these five keys, if you will, which may assist us to secure our life as disciples. To offer some assistance in our journey to the Heavenly Kingdom.

2:1 [the Cross] by Al Sergel

*artwork by: Barna da Siena, 1330-1350

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” - The words of Jesus

“What Jesus calls us to in the Kingdom of God is not a religiously modified version of the self-preservation and self-promotion value systems which govern the empires of men.”  - The words of Brian Zahnd

Brian Zahnd sealed the deal for me in one minute of his fourth sermon on the subject of forgiveness.  It was one of those moments when you stop whatever you are doing – in this case, running on the treadmill - and try to find the closest item to either write with or record with.  Time will tell, but Zahnd’s words were like the brush stroke that only the artist would know is necessary to bring depth and dimension to a working canvas.