Is a World of ‘Cool’ Killing Christ?

Spirituality Column #199
August 31, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Is a World of ‘Cool’ Killing Christ?
By Bob Walters

“World” in the Biblical sense can mean very good, godly things, or very bad, evil things.

For example, in John 3:16 we are assured God will save our world and us with it because He created it, He loves us, and in faith we are worth saving.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son … ”

Great! The world is good.

But then, “In this world you will have trouble.”

John 16:33 presents the world as a catch-all name for the bad stuff. Only God, in the person of Jesus Christ, can “overcome the world.”

Uh oh! The world is sin.

The Bible plainly credits God with all Creation, and at the same time lays the root and blame of all sin on “the world.” Any wonder why the Christian church has a hard time trying to figure out where it fits into the modern world?

The accomplished young magazine writer Brett McCracken (Christianity Today), has taken a thought-provoking and entertaining stab at sorting out the modern church world of fads and fashions in his first book, Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide.

The title, he writes, is a “nod to Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. McCracken recently finished writing Hipster at the Kilns, Lewis’s home near Oxford, England. The book was published this month.

Thankfully, the book is not about how to be a Christian hipster. It is a look at the history, pros, and cons of Christians trying to improve on the look and work of Jesus Christ through the lens of “cool.”

Ah yes. “Cool.” McCracken provides an intelligent conversation on how Christians try to synergize their faith with the world of intellectual fashion, cultural trends, technology, and marketing. All quantified with modern metrics, and a steaming café au lait on the side.

The history of the church has been riddled with heresies which were an expression of contemporary “cool.” Today, hipsters young and old walk out of churches, never to return. The church, you see, is too much like the world.

And eventually, the world will do something God won’t … go away.

Serious Christians will appreciate the depth and direction of McCracken’s conversation, and I pray hipsters will learn that Jesus Christ plays “cool” at a level unique in the history of mankind.

The world of Christ is a world worth seeing. Worldly cool won’t cut it.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) learned of this book in an Aug. 13, 2010 Wall Street Journal article, written by the author.

Strong Enough to be Weak

Spirituality Column #198
August 24, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Strong Enough to be Weak
By Bob Walters

There is a weekly CBS TV drama called “The Good Wife” where a female lawyer more or less “stands by her man.”

The adulterous husband is a formerly high-powered public official convicted in a complex political scandal. He lives in 24-7 ankle-bracelet home detention at their trendy downtown apartment.

It’s mainly a lawyer and law-firm show, but the disgraced husband – philandering, yes, but is he wrongly convicted? – provides an interesting layer of moral dilemma.

I tend to watch cable news, history and movies, not “TV shows.” My wife … a good wife … DVRs programs to “watch” while she is sewing or scrapbooking since we rarely have the time or the inclination to watch weeknight TV dramas.

My attention was grabbed by a DVR’ed rerun of “The Good Wife” when it introduced a Christian spin in the “bad husband’s” rehabilitation.

In a nutshell, the bad husband, Peter, has a loyal private investigator / public image consultant named Eli Gold who advises him to start going to church as a public relations tactic.

Gold picks out a nearby urban evangelical church pastored by a very devout and savvy black preacher who tells Peter – who is white and grew up Episcopalian – to get out of his church. He felt Gold and Peter were using him and mocking Christ, which of course, they were.

But Peter is struck by the preacher’s sincerity and directness, tells Gold to leave, and Peter accepts Christ. Peter wants to change, confesses his sin, wades into Bible study and prayer, and the preacher begins mentoring Peter in twice-weekly home visits.

Neither “The Good Wife” nor Gold can understand Peter’s conversion, much less take it seriously. There is much eye-rolling, sarcasm, and skepticism. Peter’s mother, a formidable, smart, matriarchal, old-money type, insists Peter see the family’s long-time Episcopal priest to “put his (Peter’s) religion in perspective.”

Her final decree against Peter’s deepening faith in Christ, belief in salvation, understanding of his sin and desire for change is – irony of scriptural ironies – “I will not allow my son to be made weak.”

Weak? In Christ?

I don’t know a single Christian who believes Christ makes them weak. Christ is about humility and strength; He is man and God. But we all know, sadly, that much of the world seeks power anywhere but in Christ.

The TV show got that right.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) hasn’t regularly watched a network TV show since “The West Wing.”

Being Definite about the Infinite

Spirituality Column #197
August 17, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Being Definite about the Infinite
By Bob Walters

Logic and infinity have a tough time with each other because logic demands definition, and infinity cannot be defined.

So it is with faith and relationships. Our human logical minds wish to define every human or divine encounter, and yet there sits our Father God up in heaven, utterly infinite, utterly safe, utterly good, utterly unique, utterly holy.

Utterly real, yet utterly indefinable.

And because of that indefinablilty, many humans refuse to accept the God-inspired yearning of our hearts and minds to seek God, praise God, love God, and love others.

Funny … it’s His infinite indefinability that makes God worth worshipping.

Our culture has developed a love affair with practicality, both inside and outside the church. Don’t we individually insist on seeing the evidence? Don’t we say, “Show me the money”? Don’t we insist on a logical definition for … an infinite God?

Infinity seems like it should be a quantitative thing, a great big number or a great big space. But God’s infinity makes more sense as a qualitative thing, more like beauty or love or faith or relationships.

Defining our relationships with God and each other are not things that lead easily to pat answers and rote definitions. Define your family: that’s my wife, those are my sons, there’s our dog. Define God: there’s my church, there’s the Bible, Jesus is my Lord and Savior, Amen.

But does any of that truly describe a relationship? Does it consider the infinity of possibilities, the infinity of freedom, the infinity of love, the infinity of the throne of God?

As Christians we desperately want to define God in ways that help our logical minds resist all challenges to our faith. And perhaps even more desperately, we want to share our faith – to express our relationship with God – in ways that persuade a non-believer’s logical mind.

The fully man, fully divine person of Jesus Christ is the bridge between logical man and the infinite God. Notice though that Jesus is not a bridge of how far or how much, He is a bridge of relationship; a bridge of faith, hope and love.

Most of us learn to love our families without a lot of specifics, and Jesus commands us to love others … also without a lot of specifics.

Don’t wait for the specifics to love God. Let God’s infinity draw you in, not push you away.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) knows “we are weak but He is strong.” Yes, Jesus loves me.

Storming the Intellectual Ramparts, Part 4

Spirituality Column #196
August 10, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Storming the Intellectual Ramparts, Part 4
By Bob Walters
Last in a series

Author Mark Noll graciously replied to an email I sent after I finished reading his “Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.”

I wondered, now 16 years after Christianity Today named “Scandal” its 1994 Book of the Year, if he thought Evangelicals were gaining ground intellectually. I asked if there was a follow-up book in the works.

He responded that as it happens, he has just recently finished a manuscript that Eerdman’s in Grand Rapids will publish next year, titled “Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind.” Noll said that the book “tried to make a positive statement concerning how traditional Christian belief can support strong intellectual life.”

He also referred to a postscript he wrote for the new book that is a revision and expansion of an article he wrote for First Things journal, Oct. 2004, “The Evangelical Mind Today.” He lists 10 areas where positive impact is being made. I’m looking forward to the release of the book.

Noll points to a couple of glaring intellectual weaknesses in modern evangelicalism. One is the nearly total absence of serious consideration for tradition and the 1800 years of Christian thought that preceded the great evangelical revivals.

Missing from evangelicalism are the likes of Augustine, Aquinas, Galileo, Luther, and Calvin. Similarly Jonathan Edwards, C.S. Lewis, even Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, are immense Christian intellects given less stature in the evangelical community than a Sunday preacher.

Sorry … not to harangue any specific preacher, but to put a point on it – deep feelings do not equate to deep theology, or bedrock, true, biblical understanding.

We cannot study great music without studying great musicians. How could we possibly study great theology without studying great theologians?

Quoting Galileo, “It is most pious to say and most prudent to take for granted that the Holy Scripture can never lie, as long as its true meaning has been grasped.”

A second glaring weakness is evangelical separatism, a resistance to engaging the Christian mind and energy in the whole spectrum of modern learning, from political science to economics to linguistics, history, science and literary criticism.

Says Noll, “Personal faith in Christ is a necessary condition for Christian intellectual life, for only a living thing can develop.” Evangelicals definitely have the heart, soul and strength of personal faith … Noll insists we plug in our minds.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) figures this is a good stepping off point as school begins. Take Christ along, in your heart and mind.

Storming the Intellectual Ramparts, Part 3

Spirituality Column #195
August 3, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Storming the Intellectual Ramparts, Part 3
By Bob Walters

American Christian historian Mark Noll wrote about the limitations of Evangelical intellectual development in "The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind."

But I hope no one thinks he’s saying Christians, or Evangelicals, are stupid.

He’s saying that since God created everything and gave us freedom, every Christian ought to have the courage to study everything.

Right on. Noll’s thoughts are critical to reclaiming intellectual life for Christ.

Noll writes from the refreshing, academic viewpoint of the reality of God. The absence of that reality is one of the most distressing omissions from modern education at every level. Schools – except for religious ones - are not only afraid to admit God exists, they are afraid to mention His name. Satan must love that.

Noll, if I’m reading him right, is calling it a “Scandal” that believers too often and for too long have retreated from the big, messy, public, social, scientific square of academic knowledge and cultural opinion that conflicts with biblical comfort zones.

We Bible Christians are likely to say: "Here’s the Bible, I believe it, end of discussion." Well, it’s not the end of the discussion. Consider Galileo, who suggested that the earth revolved around the sun. He was a heretic! No, wait, he was right.

The only unchanging truth is Jesus Christ. As for physical science, our global knowledge of that changes all the time.

I think it’s a mistake to limit one’s understanding of Jesus Christ to one’s understanding of the Bible. Start with the Bible, sure. Read it. Study it. Know it. Repeat.

But don’t worship it. Worship Christ.

Believe the Bible, of course. But it’s more important to believe Christ.

Think through and with the Bible, but develop a mind for Christ.

The Apostolic Christians who actually knew Jesus, then those who came after the Apostles, then those who formed early doctrine and battled early heresies, didn’t have a Bible to study. But they knew and worshipped Christ.

If our heart, soul and strength are in our faith in God, we still come up short if we don’t accept the importance of the full engagement of our mind. God loved the world and made the world. We better be enthusiastic about studying the world.

Scripture encourages us to “have the mind of a child” (Matthew 11:25, 18:3).

Right. I think that means, “Be curious and grow.” That’s what freedom is for.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) contacted Noll for an update on what the Evangelical mind looks like in 2010. That’s next week.