Today is Halloween...or as we call it around here, Reformation Day. The day Luther played a nasty trick on the Roman Catholic Church. He knocked on the door...and left them 95 Theses. This morning a student put up his 30 Theses directed against Dordt College, but more specifically the Theology Dept. And I quote: "Members of the Dordt College Theology Dept. Advocate doctrines that are borderline heretical" Borderline? Hmmmm..... Then this one..."Members of the Dordt College Theology Dept. Advocate doctrines that are heretical" What? Which is it? This next one is ironic..."The Dordt College Theology dept. contradicts itself" There are more...but that's good for now...
So what is a heretic anyway? Is it true to say that history is written by the "winners"? Roman Catholics call us heretics...we return the favor. The Eastern Orthodox tell us we are welcome back to the Church anytime. Even within Reformed circles we can't quite agree on who's in and who's out. So who is right? How do we determine who's right? Do we have to be right? (Heresy! Heresy!)
Today in Theology 101 I gave a presentation on the gospel of Mark. I told the students that Mark is calling us to "see" who Jesus is...and if we "see" him...to follow Him along the way. Who is Jesus for Mark? Jesus is the Son of God... the King...but He is a suffering King, the suffering servant of Isaiah. The crucified Christ...who calls those who "see" him rightly to take up their cross and follow him. In other words we are called to enter into the suffering of Christ...by entering into the suffering of others. The church for the world...
Some want to erect fences - doctrinal fences that declare who is in and who's out. Separating the sheep from the goats, as if that were our job. Doctrine becomes a rigid tool for beating others over the head...beating them either into submission or destroying them. Fences into which the Biblical narrative, and the revelation God has given us, is forced. So that God becomes, as Luther would say, the "god who is not God" - a god after our own image. That is the danger of doctrinalism.
I'm not opposed to doctrine...we all have doctrinal beliefs - and these beliefs are important. But from where do these beliefs spring? Do the confessions and creeds flow out of scripture? Or do we conform our understanding of scripture to the confessions and creeds?
Today is Halloween...or Reformation day as we call it. Tonight I will be taking my kids "trick or treating"...I guess that makes me a heretic.
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2 comments:
here! Here!
You know you sound like ab Rob Bell/Donald Miller when you talk like that. ;)
I think we get it wrong when we nuance things to death. I had to read a book by an old Calvin Seminary Professor called "Created in God's Image." He goes through 5 different REFORMED perspectives on "the image of God." Barth, Bavink, Berkhof, Brunner, Calvin (stated in alphabetical order--apparently we only got to "C" :) and he tweaks each one! Do we have to screw down our definitions as tightly as that? Seriously. We're not going to give ourselves any air holes. Call me an ecumenical, but I'm curious to see what Catholics have to say (Brennan Manning, Mother Teresa, Henri Nouwen--it seems there's something wrong with Protestant soil that doesn't allow us to produce figures like these). Anyway, that to say we're missing out. Without unity, we lose the richness of diversity....and turn ourselves into the ultimate authority.
An orthodox man once said to me, "You protestants get worked up about authority centered on the Catholic Pope, but you give the authority to the individual: you turn yourselves into your own pope.
at least you're a good heretic who makes people laugh...think instead of just feeding us lines and expecting us to accept whatever you say.
that seems worse to me than forcing college students to think. i'm just saying...
i think the thing i get most frustrated at in terms of reformed christianity is that we want to be this exclusive club - we completely take grace out of the picture.
this is a really long comment - so i'm going to stop. i'll just keep whispering in class :-)
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