Outstanding article on apologetics
Interestingly, in formulating my response to Dr. Sweet I spent some time at the Ooze and found this article:
http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=788
I highly recommend you read it. It is by John Morehead. He has some great insights into how we need to be culturally aware and in touch, but not cave to whatever new thing comes along. It was quite a pleasure to read an article on the Ooze that was demanding that Apologetics are increasingly important and relevant for today. What is so fascinating was that Dr. Sweet told me to check out the Ooze in response to me, I suppose,for defense of his position (I've read the Ooze quite a bit before). Now I am going to come back at him with this article from the Ooze to refute some of his false ideas. I just have a feeling that Dr. Sweet would deny the "importance" of apologetics as Morehead says, and would claim instead that people want to have experiences, or hear stories, or see moving visual images, etc. Not hear an intelligent defense of the faith.
Morehead counters and says that an intelligent defense of the faith is precisely what we need. We simply need, as all cultures do, to figure out the best methods and ways to connect that defense to this new culture. That is a challenge every Christian generation faces: to figure out, be in touch with, and have genuine understanding of the current culture of the day. For us, my friends, it is this new postmodern condition we must understand. But people like Sweet (and McLaren and others) want to change OUR message or change WHO we are as the Church and adapt to them, whereas we maintain (as does Morehead) that the Christian gospel transcends all cultures -- the question is how to get all these different cultures to understand the truth. For postmodern Christian scholars, they want to change or adapt the truth to fit the new culture. Certainly that would be easier. But it is not what Christ has called us to do. I believe that this basic debate between us and those within our ranks that wish to cave to postmodernism happens in every generation. Philosophically, before our time, it was the logical positivists. Christians had a choice to either stand by the truth (the very same truth we defend to postmodernism) and try to figure out a way to communicate that too the new cultural milieu they found themselves in -- OR they could cave to the logical positivists and agree that statements that weren't verifiable were meaningless, that the cannon was unreliable, that we needed to all go to higher criticism, etc. In essence, the liberal theology from Germany early this century. In other times it was other challenges. The point is every generation will present new cultural issues for that generation of Christians to have to tackle. Every single time it will be tempting to just bail on the truth of the Christian message in one way or another and change Christianity to this newest thing, and many will do just that. But every time there will be Christians that with a sharp mind seek to understand this newest culture situation so as NOT to fit Christianity to IT, but to understand how to communicate the truth to that culture and ultimately change the world to fit Christ.
Amen? I know which of those I am. It is encouraging to see folks like Morehead getting an article published on the Ooze who are in the same boat. One final thought, I think there are a handful of people who are on the fence of fitting Christianity to the world vs. being shapers of the world to Christ -- I don't think it is black and white for most (probably including us). And even postmodern Christians like McLaren or Sweet, for example, will from time to time sound like they are on our side of the fence. Well, amen when that happens. I am not trying to create divisions here, but help us see through the haze and midst of postmodernity and what's going on. As Christians we cannot be scared by the current times into thinking, "Crap! The world is changing! Quick we better change Christianity (or truth, or biblical scholarship, or whatever the current case may be) to fit this new world or we'll be left out in the cold!" No, Christianity is the truth, not the changing tides of culture. And we must stand on our truth with an eye for the changing waves and winds of the turbulent sea of human culture and figure out how best to steer the vessel through. But the vessel remains strong and in tact -- indeed it is far beyond us whether we stand upon it's deck or not. It will ride through this current storm and all little maelstroms until Christ returns. And this vessel of the truth of Christ that we stand upon today is the same one that Augustine stood upon as he rode through difficult cultural challenges in his day, the very same deck that Calvin and Luther navigated during cultural upheaval in their time, the very same ship that Boniface preached to the Germans in the face of heathenism, the very same ship that the fathers of the Evangelical movement rode early in this century in the face of cultural challenges of their day. Let us remember that the culture around us (postmodernity or whatever may come next) are the current waves in the sea. They are important, vital even, to understand and guide through. But let's not change the ship to fit the current storm. The storm will pass, a new one will come. And the truth will glide on. With this perspective in mind, I often want to ask folks like Sweet or McLaren what will they say after postmodernity is passe? After whatever comes along next will they stick to their guns and say the "true church" needs to stay to their postmodern system? Will they become just like the Christians today who scream trying to hold onto modernity -- foolishly thinking that somehow Christianity NEEDS modernity? Will they clutch their "new epistemology" and say that it is the right way? Let us rather be the Christians that ride above the storm (while fully engaged with it) and claim not to be "Modern" or "postModern" or "whatever comes along"... but Christian; Followers of the Truth. And the Truth's name is Jesus Christ.
http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=788
I highly recommend you read it. It is by John Morehead. He has some great insights into how we need to be culturally aware and in touch, but not cave to whatever new thing comes along. It was quite a pleasure to read an article on the Ooze that was demanding that Apologetics are increasingly important and relevant for today. What is so fascinating was that Dr. Sweet told me to check out the Ooze in response to me, I suppose,for defense of his position (I've read the Ooze quite a bit before). Now I am going to come back at him with this article from the Ooze to refute some of his false ideas. I just have a feeling that Dr. Sweet would deny the "importance" of apologetics as Morehead says, and would claim instead that people want to have experiences, or hear stories, or see moving visual images, etc. Not hear an intelligent defense of the faith.
Morehead counters and says that an intelligent defense of the faith is precisely what we need. We simply need, as all cultures do, to figure out the best methods and ways to connect that defense to this new culture. That is a challenge every Christian generation faces: to figure out, be in touch with, and have genuine understanding of the current culture of the day. For us, my friends, it is this new postmodern condition we must understand. But people like Sweet (and McLaren and others) want to change OUR message or change WHO we are as the Church and adapt to them, whereas we maintain (as does Morehead) that the Christian gospel transcends all cultures -- the question is how to get all these different cultures to understand the truth. For postmodern Christian scholars, they want to change or adapt the truth to fit the new culture. Certainly that would be easier. But it is not what Christ has called us to do. I believe that this basic debate between us and those within our ranks that wish to cave to postmodernism happens in every generation. Philosophically, before our time, it was the logical positivists. Christians had a choice to either stand by the truth (the very same truth we defend to postmodernism) and try to figure out a way to communicate that too the new cultural milieu they found themselves in -- OR they could cave to the logical positivists and agree that statements that weren't verifiable were meaningless, that the cannon was unreliable, that we needed to all go to higher criticism, etc. In essence, the liberal theology from Germany early this century. In other times it was other challenges. The point is every generation will present new cultural issues for that generation of Christians to have to tackle. Every single time it will be tempting to just bail on the truth of the Christian message in one way or another and change Christianity to this newest thing, and many will do just that. But every time there will be Christians that with a sharp mind seek to understand this newest culture situation so as NOT to fit Christianity to IT, but to understand how to communicate the truth to that culture and ultimately change the world to fit Christ.
Amen? I know which of those I am. It is encouraging to see folks like Morehead getting an article published on the Ooze who are in the same boat. One final thought, I think there are a handful of people who are on the fence of fitting Christianity to the world vs. being shapers of the world to Christ -- I don't think it is black and white for most (probably including us). And even postmodern Christians like McLaren or Sweet, for example, will from time to time sound like they are on our side of the fence. Well, amen when that happens. I am not trying to create divisions here, but help us see through the haze and midst of postmodernity and what's going on. As Christians we cannot be scared by the current times into thinking, "Crap! The world is changing! Quick we better change Christianity (or truth, or biblical scholarship, or whatever the current case may be) to fit this new world or we'll be left out in the cold!" No, Christianity is the truth, not the changing tides of culture. And we must stand on our truth with an eye for the changing waves and winds of the turbulent sea of human culture and figure out how best to steer the vessel through. But the vessel remains strong and in tact -- indeed it is far beyond us whether we stand upon it's deck or not. It will ride through this current storm and all little maelstroms until Christ returns. And this vessel of the truth of Christ that we stand upon today is the same one that Augustine stood upon as he rode through difficult cultural challenges in his day, the very same deck that Calvin and Luther navigated during cultural upheaval in their time, the very same ship that Boniface preached to the Germans in the face of heathenism, the very same ship that the fathers of the Evangelical movement rode early in this century in the face of cultural challenges of their day. Let us remember that the culture around us (postmodernity or whatever may come next) are the current waves in the sea. They are important, vital even, to understand and guide through. But let's not change the ship to fit the current storm. The storm will pass, a new one will come. And the truth will glide on. With this perspective in mind, I often want to ask folks like Sweet or McLaren what will they say after postmodernity is passe? After whatever comes along next will they stick to their guns and say the "true church" needs to stay to their postmodern system? Will they become just like the Christians today who scream trying to hold onto modernity -- foolishly thinking that somehow Christianity NEEDS modernity? Will they clutch their "new epistemology" and say that it is the right way? Let us rather be the Christians that ride above the storm (while fully engaged with it) and claim not to be "Modern" or "postModern" or "whatever comes along"... but Christian; Followers of the Truth. And the Truth's name is Jesus Christ.
posted by BJS at
8:52:00 AM
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