Isn't Feeling More Spiritual Than Reason?

Right now I'm reading After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, a book on Christian purpose and ethics by N. T. Wright. In it he stresses over and over again the need for Christians to think out what it means to be "in Christ." The following quote displays one of the central arguments of the book, and one that should be taken seriously by all of us--we who stumble along through this lovely life claiming Jesus as Lord.

"Part of the problem in contemporary Christianity, I believe, is that talk about freedom of the Spirit, about the grace which sweeps us off our feet and heals and transforms our lives, has been taken over surreptitiously by a kind of low-grade romanticism, colluding with an anti-intellectual streak in our culture, generating the assumption that the more spiritual you are, the less you need to think.

"I cannot stress too strongly that this is a mistake. The more genuinely spiritual you are, according to Romans 12 and Philippians 1, the more clearly and accurately and carefully you will think, particularly about what the completed goal of your Christian journey will be and hence what steps you should be taking, what habits you should be acquiring, as part of the journey toward that goal, right now. Thinking clearly and Christianly is thus both a key element within the total rehumanizing process (you won't be fully human if you leave your thinking and reasoning behind) and a vital part of the motor which drives the rest of that process."

A Letter To Phil Robertson: On Gentleness and Wisdom

Mr. Robertson,

One part of me wants to encourage you for your boldness in the face of a cultural war, speaking out on an issue that's important to you.  Going against the grain, if you will.  One part of me wants to say, "Yeah!  You should be able to say whatever you want to say about whoever, whenever!  This is the United States of America and you've got the right to free speech!"  And I think, in one sense, this is true.

Consider this, if you will:  "Existing power structures would have loved to silence Nelson Mandela (and Martin Luther King while we're at it) because of his views. I don't think anyone can propose media restriction while discussing huge ideas... What if someone deemed this conversation "lacking in character" or "dangerous" and deleted it?" That's a quote from a Facebook conversation with a friend of mine earlier this month--he makes a great point, doesn't he? The Germans and Russians who opposed their power structures were deemed dangerous and silenced. And things escalated quickly from there.

Another point to consider, however, is this:  A&E, the television business that suspended you, is just that--a business. And just like you have the freedom to say what you want, they have the freedom to present their own views with their own business.  (But then I wonder, can someone legally be suspended from their job for talking about their religious convictions?)

But Phil, if you don't care about anything I've said thus far, please do consider this final point:

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Eyewitness Accounts in the New Testament?

I came across a gem of a post on the blog of historian Larry Hurtado. He quotes Richard Bauckham commenting on a new book he's working on.  Bauckham has written some incredibly influential books (here and here) on the history of the first century Greco-Roman and Jewish world, and his comment on Hurtado's blog makes me wonder in anticipation what this new project might add to Bauckham's influence on the understanding of the New Testament.  Here's the comment:

“I guess I ought to clarify my position on eyewitness testimony in the Gospels, since it has been raised and you, Larry, say: ‘As I understand him, he doesn’t mean that the Gospels are “eyewitness testimony” such as a court transcript would provide, but that the Gospels draw on “eyewitness testimony” as it circulated in early Christian circles.’ Well, no, certainly nothing like a court transcript, more like “oral history.” But my point was that the Gospels are CLOSE to the eyewitnesses’ own testimony, not removed from them by decades of oral tradition. I think there is a very good case for Papias’s claim that Mark got his much of his material directly from Peter (and I will substantiate this further with quite new evidence in the sequel to [my book] Jesus and the Eyewitnesses that I’m now writing). I think that the ‘Beloved Disciple’ himself wrote the Gospel of John as we have it, and that he was a disciple of Jesus and thus an eyewitness himself, as he claims, though not John the son of Zebedee. Of course, his Gospel is the product of his life-long reflection on what he had witnessed, the most interpretative of the Gospels, but still the only one actually written by an eyewitness, who, precisely because he was close to Jesus, felt entitled to interpret quite extensively. Luke, as well as incorporating written material (Mark’s Gospel, which he knew as substantially Peter’s version of the Gospel story, and probably some of the “Q” material was in written form), also, I think, did what ancient historians did: he took every opportunity to meet eyewitnesses and interviewed them. He has probably collected material from a number of minor eyewitnesses from whom he got individual stories or sayings. Matthew is the Gospel I understand least! But whatever accounts for Matthew it is not the form-critical picture of anonymous community traditions, which we really must now abandon!”

Here's the link to Hurtado's post: 

http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/bauckham-on-eyewitnesses-and-the-gospels/

And here's another little treat.  Bauckham explaining Jesus and the Eyewitnesses:

A Universal Letter to Fathers And Sons: Parenting Christian Children.

"Spiritual Warfare" by Ron DiCianni

Fathers, 

if you don’t like the way your son walks, do not say to him, “Walk like a man.” 

Instead, learn to hear his heart.  Learn who he is.  What makes him tick?  What saddens him, and why?  What is it for him to be who he was created to be?

The Father in heaven and our King, Jesus, have shown us the way of raising successful men—men who die having really lived.  Men who die having loved honorably, spoken truthfully; men who die having cared for the wounded and the needy and the heartbroken and the sick and the dying and the orphaned; men who die having lived as Jesus lived.  Men who don’t stop living even when they die.  

We’re raising up immortals.  Heroes. 

Sons of God.

Do not say to him, “Walk like a man.”  Tell him that he is a man.  Tell him what the goodness of God looks like and find it in him.  Pray for him. 

Let him catch you with your hands raised on the crest of a mountain, enjoying the presence of the Living God. 

Teach him like Jesus teaches his own—graciously, wisely, thoughtfully and spiritually.  

Love him like God loves his own, in order that one day God might love the world through him. 

When you fail him, ask him for his forgiveness and tell him that you’re learning too.

Tell him what makes you tick.  Tell him about your dad.  What was it like for you to be a son?  What is it like now, being a son of The Father?

Tell him that you love him and that you trust him.  Let him know you. 

And when discipline comes, he’ll trust you through it.

While doing these things, you’ll notice his gate improving.  Confidence will fall into his steps.  You’ll begin to enjoy the way that he walks.  He’ll start walking like his King.  He’ll walk like a man.

This is how my Father in Heaven loves me.

"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Pappa! Father!'"  Romans 8:15