Dave Berlach :: Friends blog

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In order to really get to grips with the dynamics of these primal shifts (two posts ago) in community dynamics, I have found the anthropologist Victor Turner’s ideas of liminality and communitas particularly useful Victor Turner, The Ritual Process, Cornell University Press, 1969 ). Turner was an anthropologist who studied various rites of passage among African people-groups and came up with the term liminality to describe the transition process accompanying a fundamental change of state or social position. Situations of liminality in this context can be extreme, where the participant is cast out of the normal structures of life, is humbled, disoriented, and subjected to various rites of passage, which together constitute a form of test as to whether the participant will be allowed back into society and to transition to the next level in the prevailing social structure. Liminality therefore applies to that situation where people find themselves in an in-between, marginal state in relation to the surrounding society, a place that could involve significant danger and disorientation, but not necessarily so.

For example, in some tribes younger boys are kept under the care of the women until initiation age—around thirteen. At the appropriate time the men sneak into the female compound of the village at night and ‘kidnap’ the lads. The boys are blindfolded, then roughed up, and herded out of the village and taken into the bush. They are then circumcised then left to fend for themselves in the wild African bush for a period lasting up to six months. Once a month the elders of the tribe go to meet them to help debrief and mentor them. But on the whole they have to find both inner and outer resources to cope with the ordeal pretty much by themselves. During this time, the initiates move from being disoriented and individualistic to developing a bond of comradeship forged in the testing conditions of liminality. This sense of comradeship and communality that comes out of the shared ordeal Turner calls communitas. Communitas in his view happens in situations where individuals are driven to find each other through a common experience of ordeal, humbling, transition, and marginalization. It involves intense feelings of social togetherness and belonging brought about by having to rely on each other in order to survive. If the boys emerge from these experiences they are reintroduced into the tribe as men. They are thus accorded the full status of manhood—they are no longer considered boys.

So the related ideas of liminality and communitas describe the dynamics of the Christian community inspired to overcome their instincts to ‘huddle and cuddle’, and form themselves around a common mission that calls them onto a dangerous journey to unknown places. A mission which calls the church to shake off its collective securities and to plunge into the world of action where they will experience disorientation and marginalization but also where they encounter God and each other in a new way. Communitas is therefore always linked with the experience of liminality. It involves adventure and movement, and it describes that unique experience of togetherness that only really happens among a group of people inspired by the vision of a better world actually attempting to do something about it. (Remember the response to the tsunami.) And it is here where the safe, middle-class, consumerist, captivity of the church is so very problematic. And it is here where the adaptive challenge of the 21st Century could be God’s invitation to the church to rediscover itself as a missional communitas.

While some missiologists use this idea to describe the experience of transition the church in the West is currently experiencing in moving from one state (Christendom) or mode of church to another (missional), the emphasis has generally been on the new state of the church at the end of the process and so liminality and communitas are viewed as temporary experiences. From my perspective, significant manifestations of Apostolic Genius teach us that liminality and communitas are more the normative situation and condition of the pilgrim people of God. This is certainly the case for the phenomenal Jesus-movements in view; it is in the conditions of shared ordeal that these Jesus movements thrive and are driven to the activation of Apostolic Genius. What is clear is that both the Early Christian movements and the Chinese underground church experienced liminality through being outlawed and persecuted.

In this perspective, the phenomenal Jesus movements were/are expressions of communitas and not community as we normally conceive it. And as far as I can discern it is always a normative element of Apostolic Genius. The loss of communitas leads to a diminution of the total phenomenon of Apostolic Genius—the life force of the authentic Christian movement wherever it truly manifests.

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I have been reading a book by the brilliant Catholic theologian and ethicist George Weigel called Faith, Reason, And The War Against Jihadism: A Call To Action. It just so happens that I was reading it as the Mumbai terror attacks happened and so I post the headings of his insights here. His issue is not with Islam in general, but with the particularly dangerous brand called Jihadism, and I do find these insights very honest, insightful, and confronting. I am inclined to agree. What think ye?

• Lesson one: The great human questions, including the great questions of public life, are ultimately theological


• Lesson two: To speak of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the “three Abrahamic faiths,” the “three religions of the Book” or the “three monotheisms” obscures rather than illuminates. These familiar descriptions ought to be retired


• Lesson three: Jihadism is the enemy in the multi-front war that has been declared on us


• Lesson four: Jihadism has a complex intellectual history, the chief points of which must be grasped in order to understand the nature of the threat it poses to the west


• Lesson five: Jihadists read history and politics through the prism of distinctive theological convictions, not through the lens of western assumptions about the progress of dynamic of history


• Lesson six: It is not “Islamophobic” to note the historical connection between conquest and Muslim expansion, or between contemporary jihadism and terrorism. Truth-telling is the essential prerequisite to genuine interreligious dialogue, which can only be based on the claims of reason.


• Lesson seven: The war against jihadism is a contest for the human future that will endure for generations


• Lesson eight: Genuine realism in foreign policy takes wickedness seriously, yet avoids premature closure in it’s thinking about the possibilities of positive change in world politics


• Lesson nine: In the war against Jihadism, the political objective in the middle East and throughout the Islamic world is the evolution of responsible and responsive government, which will take different forms given different historical and cultural circumstances


• Lesson ten: in the war against global Jihadism, deterrence strategies unlikely to be effective, because it is almost impossible to deter those who are committed to their own martyrdom


• Lesson eleven: Cultural self-confidence is indispensable to victory in the long-term struggle against Jihadism


• Lesson twelve: Islamist salami tactics (also known as the salami-slice strategy, a divide and conquer process of threats and alliances used to overcome opposition) must be resisted, for small concessions in the name of a false idea of tolerance inevitably lead to further concessions, and into further erosions of liberty and security


• Lesson thirteen: We cannot, and will not, deserve victory (much less achieve it) if we continue to finance those who attack us, therefore, a program to defund jihadism by developing alternatives to petroleum based transportation fuels is a crucial component of the current struggle


• Lesson fourteen: Victory in the war against global jihadism requires a new domestic political coalition that is proof against the confusions caused by the Unhinged Left and the Unhinged Right


• Lesson fifteen: There is no escape from US leadership

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The explorations of communitas (the theme for the next series of posts around The Forgotten Ways) took on a very personal form in my own experience as leader of South Melbourne Restoration Community (now called RED), the church I had the privilege of leading for 15 years. When I look back to the early dynamics of that vibrant community, especially as it was still forming, we were functioning as missional church in a very naïve, pre-cognitive, and instinctual kind of way. All we did was set out to build a community that was radically open and engaged with all kinds of people on the edges and fringes of society. Things happened. It was exciting— the community was focused and sharpened by a sense of destiny and mission and as a result we grew in a strange and wonderful kind of way. We were missional, even though at the time this was as yet largely unarticulated, and as a result we experienced a remarkable form of community.

But something seemed to change as we grew and self-consciously became a more trendy, pomo, Gen-X church. For understandable reasons lots of grounded middleclass Christians from Melbourne’s Bible belt moved to the inner city to be part of what God was doing—and we welcomed the newfound stability in what was to that point a very chaotic experience of ecclesia. These were established Christians weren’t needy and that was a wonderful change for us and we basked in a period of sublime stability. But something shifted as we became more stable. And while we gained a lot from the participation of these wonderful people, nonetheless something significant was inadvertently lost as the church culture changed and became more middle-class and steady.

There is something about middle-class culture that seems to be contrary to authentic gospel values. And this is not a statement about middleclass people per se; I myself am from a very middleclass family, but rather to isolate some of the values and assumptions that that seem to just come along as part of the deal. In the chapter on discipleship we noted that much of what goes by the name middle class involves a preoccupation with safety and security developed mostly in pursuit of what seems to best for our children. And this is understandable as long as it does not become obsessive. But when these impulses of middle class culture fuse with consumerism, as they most often do, we can add the obsession with comfort and convenience to the list. And this is not a good mix. At least as far as the Gospel and missional church is concerned.

Operating under the influence of these ‘bugs’ in our middleclass software, our community became a marketer of particularly zesty religious goods and services vying for the attention of discerning spiritual consumers. Flattered by the numerical growth, and driven by our own middle-class agendas, we thoughtlessly followed the ‘gather and amuse’ impulse implicit in church growth theory and so we grew in numbers, but something primal and indispensable was lost in the bargain. We got more transfers from other churches, but the flow of conversion slowed down to a trickle and then ran completely dry. Paradoxically, we became busier than ever before, but with less and less real missional impact. We had moved from the missional idea of ‘me for the community and the community for the world’ to the more consumptive ‘the community for me’ and it just about destroyed us. We recovered only by recalibrating the community along fundamentally missional lines, and this was not achieved without pain and numerical loss. But in doing so, we moved from an experience of church as community to that of communitas.

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I am about to start blogging on the whole idea of communitas as one of the key elements of Apostolic Genius (the latent power inherent in God’s people).  But I can’t get beyond a few quotes which I put at the top of the chapter.  I love them…here they are.

“That which does not kill you will make you stronger”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

“The ship is safest when it is in port. But that’s not what ships were made for”

-  Paulo Coehlo

“It is the unknown that defines our existence.  We are constantly seeking, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions.  We are explorers…”

- Cmdr Ben Cisco, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

These seem to get at the heart of what this part of human experience is on about.  the whole idea of communitas focuses on putting the adventure back into the venture.

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OK, at last reJesus is now available in the US via Amazon, Christian Book Distributors, Barnes and Noble, etc.. I understand it will be available in non-US countries sometime in December-early January. Just thought I’d let you know. Its does feel like a birthing. I feel that this is a really radical book in the best sense of the word–it takes us back to our Radix/Root and connects us with our most primary impulses. Just don’t drop it–it explodes!!

BTW, you can download the introduction and the first chapter just under the icon on the right of this post >>>>

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Here is a review of Tim Keller’s book, The Reason for God, reviewed by my industrious friend David Mays…

Tim Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.  The church began in 1989, has 6000 regular attendees, and has spawned more than a dozen daughter churches.  See www.redeemer.com.  Tim’s book is a well reasoned apologetic that grants dignity and respect to all people, regardless of their theological, cultural, political and personal perspectives.  The first part of the book examines seven major objections to faith.  The second part describes evidence for God and Christianity.  This is an excellent book to give to thoughtful skeptics.

“The world is polarizing over religion.  It is getting both more religious and less religious at the same time.” (x)  “Both skeptics and believers feel their existence is threatened because both secular skepticism and religious faith are on the rise in significant, powerful ways.” (xiv)

People are opting for a nonreligious life, for a non-institutional, personally constructed spirituality, or for orthodox, high-commitment religious groups….  Therefore the population is paradoxically growing both more religious and less religious at once.” (xv)

“Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts–not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’.”  “Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive.” (xvii)

“Skeptics must learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning.  All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs.”  “The reason you doubt Christianity’s Belief A is because you hold unprovable Belief B.  Every doubt, therefore, is based on a leap of faith.” (xvii)

“My thesis is that if you come to recognize the beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based, and if you seek as much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians for theirs–you will discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared.” (xviii)

Part I.  The Leap of Doubt

1.  There can’t be just one true religion

Exclusivity is a big issue.  Believing one has the truth can easily lead to stereotyping, caricaturizing, and demonizing others which can spiral down to oppression, abuse or violence. (4)

“What is religion then?  It is a set of beliefs that explain what life is all about, who we are, and the most important things that human beings should spend their time doing.” (15)

“Broadly understood, faith in some view of the world and human nature informs everyone’s life.  Everyone lives and operates out of some narrative identity, whether it is thought out and reflected upon or not.” (15)

“It is common to say that ‘fundamentalism’ leads to violence, yet as we have seen, all of us have fundamental, unprovable faith-commitments that we think are superior to those of others.” (19)  “Which set of unavoidably exclusive beliefs will lead us to humble, peace-loving behavior?” (20)  Christians have within their belief system the strongest possible resource for practicing sacrificial service, generosity, and peace-making.  At the very heart of their view of reality is a man who died for his enemies, praying for their forgiveness.  Reflection on this can only lead to a radically different way of dealing with those who were different from them.” (20)

2. How could a good God allow suffering?

Some say suffering proves there is no loving, all powerful God.  In other words, “If our minds can’t plumb the depths of the universe for good answers to suffering, well, then, there can’t be any!  This is blind faith of a high order.” (23)  “Many assume that if there were good reasons for the existence of evil, they would be accessible to our minds,…but why should that be the case? (24)

“With time and perspective most of us can see good reasons for at least some of the tragedy and pain that occurs in life.  Why couldn’t it be possible that, from God’s vantage point, there are good reasons for all of them?” (25)

“Lewis recognized that modern objections to God are based on a sense of fair play and justice.  People, we believe, ought not to suffer, be excluded, die of hunger or oppression.  But the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection depends on death, destruction, and violence of the strong against the weak–these things are all perfectly natural.  On what basis, then, does the atheist judge the natural world to be horribly wrong, unfair, and unjust?” (26)

“If we ask the question: ‘Why does God allow evil and suffering to continue?’ and we look at the cross of Jesus, we still do not know what the answer is.  However, we now know what the answer isn’t.  It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. …  God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself. [on the cross].”  (30)  “Embracing the Christian doctrines of the incarnation and Cross brings profound consolation in the face of suffering.” (33)

3.  Christianity is a straitjacket.

“Many say that all truth-claims are power plays.  When you claim to have the truth, you are trying to get power and control over other people.” (37)  “If you say all truth-claims are power plays, then so is your statement.” (38)  “All denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind…” (38, quoting G. K. Chesterton)

“In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions.”  “Instead of insisting on freedom to create spiritual reality, shouldn’t we be seeking to discover it and disciplining ourselves to live according to it? (46-7)

4. The Church is responsible for so much injustice.

There are three issues to consider: the behavior or character flaws of Christians, the issue of war and violence, and fanaticism. (52)

It is argued that religion tends to make cultural differences into a cosmic battle.  However, Communist, Russian, Chinese, and Cambodian regimes of the 20^th century rejected all organized religion yet produced massive violence against their own peoples.  When the idea of God is gone, a society will make something else the transcendent ideal.  (55)

“In Jesus’s and the prophets’ critique, self-righteous religion is always marked by insensitivity to issues of social justice, while true faith is marked by profound concern for the poor and marginalized.” (60)  “The shortcomings of the church can be understood historically as the imperfect adoption and practice of the principles of the Christian gospel.” (61)  “To give up Christian standard would be to leave us with no basis for the criticism.” (62)

5. How can a loving God send people to Hell?

“In our culture, divine judgment is one of Christianity’s most offensive doctrines.”  (69)  There are a number of hidden beliefs inside this critique.

“In ancient times it was understood that there was a transcendent moral order…built into the fabric of the universe.”  Violation of this order brought consequences.  One had to learn to live in conformity with this reality.  Modernity, presented the natural world as ultimate reality and we could mold it to fit our desires.  We now think we can control the spiritual world too.  It seems unfair that there should be a God who would punish us.  We believe in our personal rights!  “Not all of humanity has accepted modernity’s view of things.”  “Why should Western cultural sensibilities be the final court?”  (71-2)

“God’s wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer…which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being.” (73, quoting Becky Pippert)  “He is angry at evil and injustice because it is destroying its peace and integrity.” (73)

“The biblical picture is that sin separates us from the presence of God, which is the source of all joy and indeed of all love, wisdom, or good things of any sort.”  “if we were to lose his presence totally, that would be hell–the loss of our capability for giving or receiving love or joy.” (76) “Hell, then, is the trajectory of a soul, living a self-absorbed, self-centered life, going on and on forever.” (77)  “In short, hell is simply one’s freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity.”  (78)

“It is not a question of God ’sending us’ to hell.  In each of us there is something growing, which will BE Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.” (79, quoting C.S. Lewis)

6.  Science has disproved Christianity

“Must we choose between thinking scientifically and belief in God?” (850

“It is one thing to say that science is only equipped to test for natural causes and cannot speak to any others.  It is quite another to insist that science proves that no other causes could possibly exist.” (85)

In the statement, “miracles can’t happen,” there is a premise that “there can’t be a God who does miracles.” (86)

It is one thing to say that I will look for my car keys under the streetlamp because the light is better there.  It is another thing to say that the car keys cannot be elsewhere because I can’t see there!

7.  You can’t take the Bible literally

What people mean is that the Bible is not entirely trustworthy because some parts…are scientifically impossible, historically unreliable, and culturally regressive.” (99-100)

“I find more people now especially upset by what they call the outmoded and regressive teaching of the Bible.  It seems to support slavery and the subjugation of women.  These positions appear so outrageous to contemporary people that they have trouble accepting any other parts of the Bible’s message.”  (109)  “Many of the texts people find so offensive can be cleared up with a decent commentary that puts the issue into historical context.” (110)  “Some texts do not teach what they at first appear to teach.” (111)

For many, “their problem with some texts might be based on an unexamined belief in the superiority of their historical moment over all others.  We must not universalize our time any more than we should universalize our culture.”  “To reject the Bible as regressive is to assume that you have now arrived at the ultimate historic moment, from which all that is regressive and progressive can be discerned.  That belief is surely as narrow and exclusive as the view in the Bible you regard as offensive.” (111)

“To stay away from Christianity because part of the Bible’s teaching is offensive to you assumes that if there is a God he wouldn’t have any views that upset you.  Does that belief make sense?”  (112)

In addition, we should distinguish between the major themes and message of the Bible and its less primary teachings.  …consider the Bible’s teaching in their proper order.” (112)  “It is therefore important to consider the Bible’s core claims about who Jesus is and whether he rose from the dead before you reject it for its less central and more controversial teachings.” (113)

Intermission

“Underlying all doubts about Christianity are alternate beliefs, unprovable assumptions about the nature of things.” (115)

The second part of the book exercises a “critical rationality” that “assumes that there are some arguments that many or even most rational people will find convincing….  It assumes that some systems of belief are more reasonable than others….”  But, of course, these do not eliminate all counter arguments.  (120)

“When a Russian cosmonaut returned from space and reported that he had not found God,…this was like Hamlet going into the attic of his castle looking for Shakespeare.  If there is a God, he wouldn’t be another object in the universe that could be put in a lab and analyzed with empirical methods.  He would relate to us the way a playwright relates to the characters in his play.  We (characters) might be able to know quite a lot about the playwright, but only to the degree the author chooses to put information about himself in the play.” (122)

“In the Christian view, however, the ultimate evidence for the existence of God is Jesus Christ himself.”  ‘He wrote himself into the play as the main character in history….” (123)

Part 2.  The Reasons for Faith

8.  The Clues of God

There are no incontrovertible proofs for God.  But when we looked at them as clues, “cumulatively, the clues of God had a lot of force to them.”

The Big Bang is a clue.  That the cosmos is fine-tuned for life is a clue.  The regularity of nature is a clue.  Beauty is a clue.

“…the very fact that the universe had a beginning implies that someone was able to begin it.  And it seems to me that had to outside of nature.” (129, quoting Francis Collins, The Language of God.)

Richard Dawkins says there may be trillions of universes and some of them may be fine-tuned to sustain life.  “Although organic life could have just happened without a Creator, does it make sense to live as if that infinitely remote chance is true?” (132) [I don't think it is scientifically possible for life to have happened. dlm]

“Evolutionists say that if God makes sense to us, it is not because he is really there, it’s only because that belief helped us survive and so we are hardwired for it.  However, if we can’t trust our belief-forming faculties to tell us the truth about God, why should we trust them to tell us the truth about…evolutionary science?”  Or any scientific theory at all?  (138)

9. The knowledge of God

Keller demonstrates that deep within us we already know there is God.

“The secular, young adults I have known have a very finely honed sense of right and wrong.  There are many things happening in the world that evoke their moral outrage.”  (144)  “…but unlike people in other times and places, they don’t have any visible basis for why they find some things to be evil and other things good.  It’s almost like their moral intuitions are free-floating in midair….” (145)

“I think people in our culture know unavoidably that there is a God, but they are repressing what they know.” (146)

If there is no creator God then there is no sound rationale for moral obligation or human rights.  Who says so?  In fact, nature itself is terribly violent.

“If a premise (’There is no God’) leads to a conclusion you know isn’t true (’Napalming babies is culturally relative’) then why not change the premise?”

10. The problem of sin

“Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God.  Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from him.” (162) The primary way to define sin is “the making of good things into ultimate things.  It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God.” (162)

“Every person is desperately seeking…’cosmic significance.’”  “Our need for worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and value on we essentially ‘deify.’  We will look to it with all the passion and intensity of worship and devotion, even if we think of ourselves as highly irreligious.”  (163, citing Ernest Becker)

“…sin destroys us personally.  Identity apart from God is inherently unstable.  Without God, our sense of worth may seem solid on the surface, but it never is–it can desert you in a moment.” (164)  “There is no way to avoid this insecurity outside of God.”  “An identity not based on God also leads inevitably to deep forms of addiction.”

“Building our lives on something besides God not only hurts us if we don’t get the desires of our hearts, but also if we do.” (166)  “…if you don’t live for Jesus you will live for something else.” (172)

11.  Religion and the Gospel

12.  The (True) Story of the Cross

“Why would Jesus have to die?” is a very frequent question. (187)  If someone damages you, you can get revenge–which goes on and on–or you can forgive.  But someone pays for the damage.  To forgive is a form of suffering.  You have both the damage and you forgo revenge.  It hurts.  Someone pays.

“Forgiveness means bearing the cost instead of making the wrongdoer do it, so you can reach out in love to seek your enemy’s renewal and change.  Forgiveness means absorbing the debt of the sin yourself.  Everyone who forgives great evil goes through a death into resurrection, and experiences nails, blood, sweat, and tears.”  “Everyone who forgives someone bears the other’s sins.”

God himself absorbed the pain.  “This is a God who becomes human and offers his own lifeblood in order to honor moral justice and merciful love so that someday he can destroy all evil without destroying us.” (192)  “There was a debt to be paid–God himself paid it.  There was a penalty to be born–God himself bore it.  Forgiveness is always a form of costly suffering.” (193)

13.  The reality of the resurrection

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?  The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.” (202)

“The only way anyone embraced the resurrection back then was by letting the evidence challenge and change their worldview, their view of what was possible.  They had just as much trouble with the claims of the resurrection as you, yet the evidence–both of the eyewitness accounts and the changed lives of Christ’s followers–was overwhelming.” (211)

14. The dance of God

“I have been arguing that the Christian understanding of where we came from, what’s wrong with us, and how it can be fixed has greater power to explain what we see and experience than does any other competing account.” (213)

“If God is triune, then loving relationships in community are the ‘great fountain…at the center of reality.’” (216)

God calls us to glorify, praise, and serve him.  “And the only way we, who have been created in his image, can have this same joy, is if we center our entire lives around him instead of ourselves.” (218)

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A cartoon by Thom Tapp in these hard economic times….HT

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/454321145/

Hey e-fam, sorry that I have not been blogging regularly.  As I mentioned earlier, I am visiting family and friends in Australia.  I have to say that it feels a little like a two week long Christmas Day!! Its pretty intense!  I might be able to get to it sometime soon.  I come back to the US this week but only get home by next Friday/Saturday.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/448415048/

The god of whom no dogmas are believed is a mere shadow.  He will not produce that fear of the Lord in which wisdom begins and therefore will not produce that love in which it is consumated….There is in the minimal religion nothing that can convince, convert, or (in the higher sense) console; nothing therefore which can restore vitality to our civilisation.  It is not costly enough.  It can never be a controller or even a rival to our natural sloth and greed.

- C.S.Lewis

In light of the various posts done recently on the limitations of our rationality and of positive theology (here and here), I thought I should put a balancer into the equation.  I have always been deeply suspicious of the more liberal theological approach that gives away the family treasures.  However limited our capacity to ‘capture’ God in theologial statements, the oppostite error is doubly as dangerous.  We end up with something other than Christianity and something deeply deceptive, dishonest, and a ‘faith’ which certainly cannot save.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheForgottenWays/~3/445108271/

The mercurial JR Woodward has written a comprehensive primer on missional church here. Thanks JR.