Some of you have expressed interest in reading the paper I presented recently at the Mid-America Popular Culture Conference in Columbus, OH (which is kind of a cool town, actually). Here it is. Dr. Who Paper
Caveats:
1. This is written for an academic, not necessarily a religious, audience.
2. This was written to be read, so it is more causal than many academic papers.
In the last few weeks I have had to read several articles from “Christian” bloggers that were just plain stupid badly argued. Is logic and argumentation not taught anymore? (That sentence makes me feel like an old curmudgeon.) I would love to expound upon all the logical fallacies in these article (which shall remain unnamed to protect the guilty), but it would take far too long. Take a class, read a book, review your notes from your beginning English and Public Speaking courses . . .
I would like to take this opportunity to point out one facet of argumentation within a Christian sphere that is pretty crucial. Here it is — A bad argument does not negate a right conclusion. In other words, it doesn’t matter how many idiotic arguments are offered up for something True, the Truth remains. Let me give a silly example. I can argue that gravity exists because we all have magnetic feet and that the earth is a giant magnet to which we all stick. This is patently false. No matter how hardily I argue my theory of magnetic feet, no matter how many people I convert to my cause, the Truth of gravity remains unchanged, because gravity is a Truth that exists independently of me (and you). This seems basic, but it is an absolutely vital place to start theologically. If we believe in Truth (as opposed to truth) than the Truth exist to be known apart from all human interference and logic. (This is not at all to negate the wonder of logic. I believe logic is a gift from God to help us understand the world around us. But like most good things it is all too easily corrupted.)
Here’s the practical upshot. How many arguments for all kinds of changes in the church are based on the logic that because the former generation(s) gave horrible arguments for implementation, support, or continuation of “x” we should abandon, denounce, curtail, modify our use, support, or belief in “x”? Congratulations you have discovered that just like this current generation of Christians the former generations of Christians didn’t always give very well reasoned arguments for why they did what they did. But this is ALL you have done – nothing more. You have not impeached the validity of their conclusion one iota. That is an entirely different process and one that can only be done through careful, considered application of the entirety of the Word of God (not just those five favorite verses that you think prove you can do anything you want).
Coming down off that soapbox! Thanks for listening to me rant.
There is some song that comes on the radio in the store every now and then. I don’t endorse the song or the musical style, but the lyrics get stuck in my head because they are repeated ad nauseum: “I am a material girl and I live in a material world.” When it comes on I get all over metaphysical angst, because–well, yes–I am material being in a material world; but I’m not. Or, as C. S. Lewis put it, “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”
Frankly, living like a material girl (or guy) in a material world is much easier than living as a Spiritual being in a Spiritual reality while existing as a material entity in a material universe. Our materiality is as easy as breathing (literally!), as easy as walking barefoot on the carpet, drinking coffee, stubbing your toe. Our materiality is not a bad thing. Our materiality (both our physical selves and the world) are God-given — even God celebrated!
“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” Psalm 139:14
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Psalm 19:1-4
But our fallen materiality makes Spiritual living really tricky! Our material existence is immediate. It is impressed upon us every second of everyday. But it takes an act of the Holy Spirit and a dedication to meditating on the Word to live with Spiritual values in mind and to interpret the material world in a Spiritual light.
I think this is why I love Ecclesiastes so much. There is a lot going on in the book, but in amongst it all is this struggle between appreciating the wonderful material universe provided to us by a loving heavenly Father and the dangers that materiality can pose to us due to our fallen nature. Ecclesiastes offers a really “simple” breakdown of the whole problem:
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” Ecc. 12:13-14
I am always surprised by this conclusion. I want it to be more complex. God knew I couldn’t handle more complex. The bottom line is that until heaven, until our glorified bodies, the inherent tension of our dual existence is here to stay, and that’s the way God planned it. His plans are always perfect.
This is a little scattered, but as always thanks for listening.
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” ― C.S. Lewis
In the most reductive terms (this is not to imply that being reductive is of necessity bad any more than a sketch is less valuable/correct than a realistic, colored painting) materialism is the belief that the world is comprised solely of material, tangible, quantifiable components;
OR, from Google, because the internet knows everything (Just kidding! But in this case the internet is fairly enlightening):
MATERIALISM (noun) A tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values. The doctrine that nothing exists except matter and its movements and modifications.
Within the materialistic worldview any kind of spirituality is at best a delusion or perhaps only the misfiring of an under-evolved brain. The church has too long attempted to inoculate its constituents to the work of materialism by attacking the most obvious flaws of the system with truisms like: “Don’t live for things”; “Don’t let money rule your life”; or “Be heavenly minded.” (All good ideas based in Scripture, so please don’t read this as a dismissal of the value of these truths.) However, these fail to address the complexity of the dangers of materialism. They only address the most obvious danger. The more alarming danger of/from materialism comes when the church, either individual or corporate, lives as if responding to the material world like the unsaved were normal. When we as a church act like the unsaved world’s normal (which in our current cultural climate is almost completely materialistic) is normal, we are in trouble.
INDIVIDUAL MATERIALISM–
When it becomes normal for church members to live like everyone else–in comparative ease, pursuing activities for personal gain/enjoyment, assuming having a career/home/healthy family/money/anything is to be expected–we have become Practical Materialists because, frankly, this kind of lifestyle is found nowhere in the Bible.
Consider Hebrews 11:
The point of all this is that these people chose to live in the realization that the material world around them was insignificant in comparison to the Spiritual world to which they were called. And you don’t have to take my word for it:
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)
And if you don’t favor OT examples (shame on you) consider:
I don’t know what living above/beyond/without consideration for the material immediacies of life means for you. I’ve read about it and felt like a worm in comparison: Hudson Taylor, George Mueller (and his wife, who is seldom mentioned, but I bet she was incredible), Mary Slessor, etc. I’ve seen it on occasion and it’s breathtaking. A missionary who took a trip to Albania and stayed because God called him there. Friends who sold their beautiful home so that they would be free to follow God’s call more easily. But it’s so rare, which is heartbreaking.
To conclude this part let me just put out a general reminder to myself most of all:
Normal people, people who live giving too much value to material concerns, don’t tend to fare well in Scripture: Jonah, Ananias and Sapphira, Lot, Samson, Cain, etc.
More to come, but, as always, thanks for listening.
I am currently working through Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. The title alone is a pretty clear indication of the slant of the book. (As an added disclaimer: I can’t particularly recommend the book. Besides the author’s self-professed atheistic, secular, evolutionary bias, there are a great many less than appropriate examples throughout.) You will probably hear more about this book as I continue reading, but for now just a quick thought on one particular quote.
In talking about the “universal grammar” which is storytelling, Gottschall makes the following point.
“Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction is adamant on the point: ‘Conflict is the fundamental element of fiction. . . . In life, conflict often carries a negative connotation, yet in fiction, be it comic or tragic, dramatic conflict is fundamental because in literature only trouble is interesting. Only trouble is interesting. This is not so in life.’ As Charles Baxter puts it in another book about fiction, ‘Hell is story-friendly'”(52).
Sorry about the lengthy quote, but I wanted to give you some context for the part I want to discuss. Specifically, what do we make of the claim that “Hell is story-friendly?” Gottschall makes this claim based mostly on an equation of conflict equals hell; and since conflict is the absolute basis of plot, stories are therefore fundamentally hell-scapes. If Gottschall is correct, then Christian Storytellers (and that’s most of us, I hope) have a problem. Is the craft of storytelling a celebration of something hell-ish? My response, maybe yours too, is something along the lines of, “don’t be ridiculous!” Everything in mind/body and soul/spirit (to include all you bipartite and tripartite theologians) revolts against the idea. However, it might be worthwhile to develop some kind of theology to ground this initial, and somewhat emotional, response.
I think there are two points to consider. First, man is a creature surrounded by and inclined toward trouble.
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5:7)
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
Sin causes trouble. And because we are sinners we will always be in trouble. But, and this is the second consideration, trouble is not without Divine purpose. Consider these examples from David, a man who knew all about sin, both his own and others’, causing trouble.
Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. (Psalm 32:7)
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. (Psalm 50:15)
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. (Psalm 77:2)
Trouble reminds us that we are utterly insufficient in and of ourselves. It drives us back to God as the only remedy for and refuge from trouble. So while Hell may have intended trouble for destruction, isn’t it glorious that God can repurpose trouble for redemptive ends?
Now we can turn our attention back to storytelling. While Gottschall claims that stories are hell-scapes, I would like to propose that this is looking at the issue on its head. Stories are hero-scapes. It is engrained into the very fiber of our beings to expect a hero, messiah, rescuer to save the object of the story from trouble. We have one of the darkest, most emotionally-rich words in our language to denote when the trouble is not averted, when the hero fails — tragedy. (And in this way, I suppose, tragedy does leave with us a bitter reminder of hell. Hell is the end of trouble without the intervention of the rescuer.)
We wait with the remnant in the keep at Helm’s Deep, surrounded by the forces of evil–innumerable, merciless, intent on our complete destruction. We wait with them; the words of Gandalf in our hearts: “Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east.” And we know in the face of impossible odds that he will come and he will rescue. We know because this plotline has been drilled into us since the beginning of time. Literally since the first promise in Genesis 3, since the first lamb was slain as an atonement for sin, we were taught to look for a rescuer. (Of course we have great theological terms for this: Messiah, Redeemer, Author of Eternal Salvation, Captain of Salvation, etc.)
Stories don’t really revolve around trouble. Trouble is merely the means to a glorious end. The rescuer comes and we are saved. Pretty fantastic, huh?
See? It really is all theology.
Thanks for listening.
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. (Titus 2:13-15)
This is just a quick thought. This March I had the opportunity to spend a week in London. I could ramble on, quite extensively, about Aida at Royal Albert Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum right across the street from my hotel, my lunch at Gordon Ramsay’s Petrus, or hearing Big Ben strike six directly above me. However, I will refrain and focus instead on forty-five minutes of that week. Forty-five minutes spent in Westminster Cathedral.
Let me pause to say here to say that the following is not meant to be in support of Anglicanism, the Church of England, or any particular religious organization or form.
Okay, that being said, Westminster Cathedral is breathtaking. It is the only building that has moved me to tears. And it’s not just the architecture, which is, admittedly, grandiose (almost to the point of the obscene), it’s the history. The cathedral vibrates with British-ness, and history, and religion — it’s astounding. But, frankly, this is all unimportant.
I attended Evensong at Westminster. It was forty-five of the most Spiritually glorious minutes of my life. Scripture was sung, prayed, and read. Just Scripture. Only Scripture. No interpretation – except perhaps ninety seconds or so in the closing prayer. Let me reiterate, for effect, it was forty-five minutes of the words of the Bible being sung, prayed, and read aloud without commentary.
It made me think. When was the last time that your church, my church, got together and just enjoyed/celebrated/ingested Scripture? I’m not suggesting that preaching and teaching are not important. Clearly they are. Read any, or (even better) all, of Paul’s epistles. I guess my question/thought/comment now is, well, do we trust the Word of God, the Bible, to preach and teach without our help enough to shut-up and listen? Or do we feel, are somehow convinced although we would never verbalize our conviction, that Scripture needs our continual interpretation/interference? (Why do pastors seem to feel guilty if they read more than ten or fifteen verses during their sermons? )
With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. Psalm 119: 10-16
So, “It’s all Theology” was actually a quip I used to end a conversation/discussion with a professor. At the time, I have to admit, it was more for effect than intentionally substantive. However, I think I shocked myself with the statement much more than I did my professor (who thinks of me as a religious eccentric at best). The thought that everything (and I mean everything) was related to theology made the world go right again. Let me explain.
Starting my doctoral work at BGSU was one of the more disorienting experiences of my life. It was like walking into a world where all the rules were changed and none of the words meant quite the same thing. It took a three semesters to find a footing in the mess. (And it is a mess. The world post poststructuralism, post postmodernism, and now into what? We aren’t sure, but it looks like the rise of posthumanism, whether of the cyborg or animal variety.) Frankly, I’m ashamed it took so long. However, the Lord used the months of uncertainty to teach me a great deal (of which you shall doubtless hear more).
I’m a Christian school kid. I’m a super-Christian school kid — I even grew up on the campus of a Christian school! And I went to a wonderful Christian university (Bob Jones University) were the professor really did do their best to try to teach me how to think. However, there seems to be a natural delay when switching from training mode to solo-flight. This lag time can be disconcerting. I’m afraid too many people interpret this natural process as something inherently bad – a weakness, a flaw, a setback. I’m not convinced it is.
My Christian teachers and my alma mater did everything possible to give me, and my classmates, a taste of the best possible Christian experience — the wonder of true Christian fellowship, the ability to listen quietly to the Spirit, a feast of Bible meat. The goal was to get our souls addicted to this type of living — a healthy addiction — I hope you agree! But it is the transition period, the time when the enriching environment is first gone, that demands you learn to provide these things for yourself which is some of the hardest work in the world. (Although, really you can’t do it yourself — it takes a church and a very patient God. More on this another time.)
For me the first few months away from my support structure felt like a cross between starving and dehydrating — not a fun experience. But I learned to appreciate the Psalms. (O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.) I learned to trust that God is good even when I can’t feel it. (Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!) I learned to trust that God can protect me from myself. (Commit your works to the Lord, And your thoughts will be established.) Of all of these I should more accurately say, “I am learning . . .”
Anyway, the solid ground, the only solid ground, is the Bible. I know our teachers always told us this and we always nodded and “amen-ed” our agreement, but it won’t really be true for you, it wasn’t for me, until you’ve had your spiritual legs swept out from under you. Until you’ve had to fight to find your footing. Of course, at that point you may also realize, as I am realizing more and more each day, that I didn’t need to fight. I needed to rest. (Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!)
It is out of this moment of discovery — that the Bible really is the answer to ALL of life’s questions whether they be social, spiritual, cultural, or academic — that this blog is born. And the Bible isn’t just the answer, it’s the explanation. The Bible makes sense of the world (even when the world seems pretty senseless).
Well, this post has been slightly less than completely coherent. I apologize. Still . . .
Thanks for listening,
Sarah
Well, to start, I think blogs are a little ridiculous. What good can possibly come of sending one more voice into the cyber-universe already teaming with too many voices? So why I am I here . . . now . . . blogging? Here stands living proof that “hope springs eternal.” There are conversations that I would love to have. This forum acts as an invitation for all two people (I love you Mom and Dad!) who may read these posts to join in these conversations.
What conversations you ask? Hopefully, the name of this blog says it all: It’s ALL Theology. What do I mean by “It’s all theology”? Just that. Everything I see, experience, say, think, or do reflects the character of God or reflects my relationship with God. This means it’s all important — everything. But the scope of this blog won’t, I don’t think, be quite that broad. My interests include theology (specifically how theology works in the world), story (what stories are told, the impact of stories, and why stories matter), performance (and if you buy certain schools of performance studies this could encompass everything from tooth-brushing to theatre), and church life (most specifically, right now, what makes a good church member).
Expectations:
1. Ideas expressed here are developing — except those which have been tried and proved with Scripture. My mother’s life motto has been “If you can prove it from Scripture, I’ll do it.” I hope and pray this mentality for this blog as well. (And I hope you will hold me to it!)
2. I’m eager to expand my theological library. I’ve just completed the third year of a Ph. D. in Theatre. I enjoy the scholarship, but I miss intricate theological discussions. So bring on the theology. What works inspire, inform, and influence your thinking on Biblical issues? Let me add this caveat. There’s plenty of “bad” theology out there. (By which I mean theology that is Biblical in name only.) Theology needs to, as accurately as is humanly possible, reflect the mind of God on any given issue. This means consulting the whole of Scripture without ignoring inconvenient or uncomfortable bits, and without being pressured by cultural, societal, or church norms.
Things that will never happen:
1. This will not be a DIY blog. I have no desire to bore you with another blog about how to clean your house (anyone who has seen mine will laugh that idea to scorn), raise your children (I haven’t any), or be nice to your spouse (haven’t got any of those either).
2. There will never be a regular schedule for blog posts. Life is too chaotic! And sometimes there is nothing to say. If I don’t have anything to say, I will try not to say it!
That’s all for now. I imagine I’ll think of other important definitional points as we go, but I think this covers the basics.
Thanks for listening.
-Sarah
It's All Theology 