Why Celebrate?

My third post on Lent is up on InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Blog.  See it here.

Here's an excerpt:
"...That’s 'exodus.'  Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus about his exodus.  In the Jewish world of the first century, under the oppressive rule of Tiberius Caesar, 'exodus' was charged to the point of buzzing.  Especially in conversations with Moses.  Jesus was headed to Jerusalem to bring the exodus to fulfillment.  To drive the point further, in 9:51 Luke tells us, 'When the time had fully come for his ascension, Jesus firmly set his countenance toward entering Jerusalem.'"

Series on Spiritual Formation and Lent

Over at InterVarsity's "Emerging Scholars Blog" I'm writing a series on Lent and spiritual formation.  My introductory post is here and the first post on Ash Wednesday, here.  I'm writing an article every week, publishing on Wednesday mornings.  Here's the first paragraph from the Ash Wednesday post:

Lent is Church language.  For countless jaded Christians the word implies little more than hypocrisy and self-righteousness.  For others it’s that time of year to give up coffee or baked goods for a few weeks.  When some think of it, this might pop into their heads: “It seems like I remember my sin enough without smudging it on my face and going without my favorite drink for a month and a half.”  I invited a friend to the Ash Wednesday service with a local Catholic congregation and this was his response: “Nah man.  I like my coffee.”  And then he added, chuckling, “When I hear ‘Lent’ I think of my Catholic friends giving up some piddly thing and making a big deal about it on Facebook.”  He has a legitimate critique.  There are, in my experience, a precious few who really get the point of dabbing a bit of ash on their foreheads.  And that is, in part, why I’m writing this series.

All Things Came To Be Through Him

A friend asked me about the Greek verb egeneto (ἐγένετο) in the prologue of the Gospel of John (vv. 1-18).  It is a form of the verb ginomai (γίνομαι), and its presence--it occurs 9 times in the first 18 verses--is obvious and intentional.  Usually translated, "come to be," implying existence and creation, it is the same word used in Genesis 1 in the Septuagint (the Ancient Greek Old Testament) for: "And God said, 'Let there be light.'  And there was light."  More accurately: "And God said, 'Let light come to be,' and light came to be."  An experienced reader, Jew or Greek, wouldn't have missed John's point.

It's the verb of creation, and John's Gospel sings out the proclamation that YHWH's creation is Jesus' creation and YHWH is still in the business of making new things.

Furthermore, forms of that same verb, ginomai, are usually employed in prophetic books when the author says, "And the word of YHWH came to me."  Ezekiel 38:1 is an excellent example of this.  If it isn't stretching the notion too far, when the author tells us that the word of YWHW has arrived, it implies a creative arrival, a new word picture is about to be painted, a new vision cast.

Another intriguing parallel needs to be added here.  John's Gospel begins like this: "In the beginning was the word"  (en arche ein ho logos).  It's the same word that came to the prophets, and the same word that spoke creation into being.  The creative word of YHWH, that which breathed life into the cosmos and appeared with prophetic visions of hope -- that word (logos) was Jesus.

People often say that John was written primarily for the Greeks, because he was drawing on the Pre-Socratic and Platonic idea of the "underlying logos" of all things.  But it seems to me that he was singing polyphonically, in one octave to the Jews and another to the Greeks.  The Jews were not strangers to YHWH's logos ("word"), nor were they strangers to the idea of egeneto ("came to be")-- the coming into being of the cosmos in the case of Genesis and prophesy and vision through God's logos in the case of the prophets.

John is introducing the Creator of the world once again.  He's saying, "Look, Jesus created the stars and the earth and it was Jesus who separated the land from the seas!  And now he's here, setting up, creating again!"

One last thought.  The same verb is used in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."  A new creation has already happened if you're a believer.  And since the Greek verb is in the present tense here, it implies a process of creation.  God isn't done with us.

Augustine on Religion and Philosophy.

Augustine of Hippo once said that Christians, "believe and teach that, as for salvation, there is not one thing called philosophy, that is, the search for wisdom, and another thing called religion" (de vera religione 5.8; Tr. William Harmless, S.J.).

I tend to agree.

I want you to tell me what's real.

I want to ask a question, and I do want to know what you think.  Please comment.

What is real?  And, if you're feeling extra ambitious, what is required to prove to you that something is real?

I realize that this is a rather ethereal question, but I think having an answer--or at least recognizing it as a question to be worked out--is pretty important.  Today's common unconscious answer seems to be anything which is or can be proven by science.  Since most of us are not scientists, this sort of answer -- Never mind.  I want to hear your thoughts in the comment thread.

A Brilliant Manual of Evil Operations; A Review of Andrew Farley's Operation Screwtape

In my last post I mentioned that I'll be writing reviews of N.T. Wright's series, "Christian Origins and the Question of God," culminating with a collection of reviews and thoughts on the forthcoming Volume IV, Paul and the Faithfulness of God.  I'll also be reviewing several other forthcoming books, beginning now with Andrew Farley's Operation Screwtape: The Art of Spiritual War, by Baker Publishing Group (from whom I received this review copy).

These reviews will be guided by the purposes of this blog--reviews "of an eternal student bent on encountering the real Jesus, finding true religion and discerning pure philosophy."

Andrew Farley is the author of The Naked Gospel: The Truth You May Never Hear in Church (Zondervan 2009) and God without Religion: Can It Really Be This Simple? (Baker 2011)

Operation Screwtape is a re-presentation of C.S. Lewis' much loved Screwtape Letters. The book opens with the voice of a narrator who tells us that he's come across a foreign electronic document, a manual of spiritual war.  The premise is that Christians can be subtly deceived through a multitude of misguided ideas, self-condemnation and pride, and Operation Screwtape is the fictitious--though not inaccurate--manual for the encouragement and provocation of these subtle deceptions.

As in Lewis' Screwtape Letters, the document is written by a sort of "director" or "general," but this one, unlike Lewis' "Screwtape," goes unnamed, and we're presented with one grand training document as opposed to several letters.  It is broken up into three chapters--Steal, Kill and Destroy--each with several sub-chapters emphasizing specific stratagems (e.g. Steal Confidence, Kill Life, Destroy Enthusiasm).

Farley does fantastic work in employing Lewis' concept as an outline and, more than fifty years after the original Letters, filling it up with the issues that face the church of this generation.  His wit in the presentation of these issues from the perspective of a dark power is, I dare say, on par with that of Lewis himself.  Here's an example from "Steal Influence":

Now, concerning evangelism, some of their own do the work for us as they fixate on obtaining a nearly instantaneous decision from unsuspecting victims of their assault.  The overt pressure applied by their "boldest" evangelists seems to yield few real converts, and many of their targets resist because they find the whole ordeal repulsive.  Some even find themselves angered by the brash, impersonal measures designed to manipulate them into response.  Of course, this translates into benefit for us as those same targets are only more difficult to reach upon their next attempt. [...] 

Additionally, if everything is going well, these pressure tactics are then portrayed to the masses as the only proper form of evangelism.  The majority of them will quietly loose heart as they naturally lack the brash personality needed to go confidently storming in.  At this point, we inflict significant wounds through accusation.  We simply exploit their feelings of fear and inferiority, such that they file themselves away as second-class citizens in the kingdom.  We present them with the nearly undeniable fact that they are either unwilling or unable to "count the cost" and "pay the price," as their own teachers like to put it.  Like clockwork, their self-evaluation is always followed by their self-condemnation.  This always brings a smile to our faces.

No matter what your theological/philosophical leanings, there are countless convicting passages in Operation Screwtape.  Readers will undoubtedly push back against some of Farley's perspectives with debate and disregard, but this short work, if read with honesty and humility, will have a tremendous impact on the way the reader thinks about his or her faith and his or her God.  Five Stars.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.

N.T. Wright and the "Christian Origins and the Question of God" Series. Reviews Forthcoming.

I just received review copies of Volumes I and II of Tom Wright's widely heralded historical-theological series, Christian Origins and the Question of God.  I'm midway through Volume III, The Resurrection of the Son of God, and am learning a great deal about the development of the world in which that momentous event (so Wright argues) was set.  Over the next several months expect to see reviews and musings on the first three volumes.  One potentially problematic aspect of this series is its density.  These books are just plain long and tough to get through  In my coming reviews I'll do my best to re-dress Wright's central concepts for those who aren't riveted with anticipation at the thought of bearing through 750 pages of stark textbook.

Volume IV, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, is to be released sometime this year and, if it's reception is anything like the first three, it will bring with it a delightful storm of new theological inquiries and debates.  Here's Wright on the contents of the forthcoming Volume IV (from the Center of Theological Inquiry):

Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Volume IV of Christian Origins and the Question of God) combines history and theology (exegesis being a branch of both), using the worldview-analysis outlined earlier. I shall examine (i) Paul’s characteristic praxis, stories and symbols, and his answers to the key worldview questions; (ii) his theology in terms of the revision, by means of Christ and the Spirit, of the central Jewish topics of monotheism, election and eschatology. At each point we see Paul in implicit dialogue and/or confrontation both with other Jewish readings of scripture and with hellenistic and Roman ideologies. His central aim was to found and maintain united and holy Christ-communities as a sign of new humanity to the wider world.  

Theologically, this demonstrates a deep inner coherence throughout Paul’s theology, reconciling otherwise puzzling topics (e.g. the classic stand-off between ‘justification’ and ‘being in Christ’), and reframing ‘ethics’ and ‘ecclesiology’ in a more central and positive role than usual. Historically, I shall reconstruct Paul’s worldview and mindset in terms of a complex but coherent relationship (part derivation, part confrontation, part creative engagement) with the multiple worlds of C1 Judaism, Hellenism and Roman imperialism.

I look forward to this project.  Stay tuned for thoughts and reviews.