I think a lot of people are really grappling with the kinds of issues that open source theology raises. The question for me is, can we really pin point where and how Platonic and Aristotelian thought warped our view of the scriptures? I know it has done great damage, in a lot of ways, but I am probably not the theologian to figure it out. That is because I am not a theologian.
However, one thing that is close to my heart is that we don’t do the same nonsense all over again. We caved into the rational humanism of the Renaissance and then the Enlightenment. If we are not careful we will cave again to the self centered humanism of postmodernity. Postmodernity, at its core, thinks that individuals can choose their own truth. I think postmodernity has a lot of good healthy questions to ask of our current rationalistic humanism/Christian syncretism. But, in the long run, postmodernity will not lead us to God because it is still at its heart a worship of self; every bit as much as the Modern age was.
We need an expression of Christianity that expresses itself in language our postmodern friends can understand (postmodern sensitive Christianity) but not a Christianity that has caved as badly as the Church did to Platonism and the Enlightenment. Such a Christianity is merely Christianity warped by postmodernity. Postmodernism should, for Christians living in the postmodern age, be forced though the lens of God’s reveled truth. God’s reveled truth should not be forced through the lens of postmodern humanism. We don’t get to decide what we like about what God says and what we don’t. God just tells us what he is like, and what reality is. Understanding that, of course, is another thing.
We need God’s perspective not our incredibly limited human perspective. We need to struggle, as much as possible, to seek God’s view of things, not ours. We need to ask the Spirit to lead us unto all the truth, at least as much as he wants to reveal to us. And then be content in our ever increasing relationship with God; which is what God is after.
One of my struggles with the blogs I have seen on open source theology, and I’ve seen a few, is that it is mostly a philosophical/theological debate with various sides trying to reason out the truth; as if we humans are capable of determining what is true from God’s perspective. We are right back to humanism. Real truth, God’s truth, is revealed, and that revelation needs the involvement of God’s Spirit not just humans grappling with the scriptures using their minds.
Ross
Re: Let's Not Make The Same Error Again
How would this blog look differently if God’s Spirit was involved?
Re: Let's Not Make The Same Error Again
I agree that the problems raised here are ones that are important and that a lot of people are asking about. But I also think (really quite strongly) that part of our problem in dealing with these questions is that we are too quick to throw away anything that sounds strange to our ears as ‘philosophical’ or ‘theological’.
After all, Christ saves all aspects of our humanity - its not like our mind is evil so that when we are in Christ we do not need to think, so that the redeemed man is brainless! Rather, it is that Christ saves our mind, just as he saves our body, so that our mind too is transformed in the image of Christ (so that we have the mind of Christ).
But this transformation of our mind is not just our coming to possess the ‘right answers’; it is also about us learning to think in a holy way. Since Jesus Christ is the truth, this means learning to think and to go about the activity of reasoning truly, in accordance with the Truth. And since Jesus Christ is the life, our thinking must also come to be life in us. And since Jesus Christ is the way, to think in accordance with Christ is one aspect of our way to the Father.
Moreover, since it is through the Spirit that we are in Christ, this thinking is not something that is in any way remote or removed from the Spirit. For we cannot be in Christ without the Holy Spirit.
And thinking well - in a Christ-like way - is, I think, something that we learn to do (just as learning to play a musical instrument in a Christ-like way is something we learn to do). And, I think, that is what we are trying to do in a discussion forum like this one.
But when we do try to think things (‘out loud’, as it were) we are seeking God’s understanding of things. (BTW, I don’t think God has a perspective, since he sees things as they really are, and not from an ‘angle’.)
And I think that doing this honestly, and in prayer, is an expression of worship, just like playing a guitar in Church is an expression of worship. We are trying to make speech worthy of God, just as in another context we try to make music worthy of God. And, of course, we do not presume to succeed - but we hope that what we do do is pleasing to our God.
In ICXC
M
Multifaceted
Strangely, I agree with both of you.
Live to serve : Serve to live