Well, I’ve had a chat with my literary critic with whom I had spoken about memoirs, and I wish to back down from my genre definition and say that, from what I understand of Frey’s memoir, he is too fancy-free with the facts to fit within the memoir category. I stand corrected and so I deleted the post. My friend tells me that memoirs do distinguish themselves from autobiography in the exploration of a coherent story, but not by fabricating... Read more
Matt 6:5-6 is the second example of the principle of “no footprints” found in 6:1. It concerns prayer and its central idea is simple and profound: let not our prayer lives be “conspicuous prayer.” We all know what “conspicuous consumerism” is: wear Nikes, wear Uggs, wear Tiger Wood golf hats … wear things that get you some notice. Prayer, Jesus says, is not to be like this. |inline Read more
Yesterday a blogger commented that Fitch got him to recall, in his chps 4-5, that IH Marshall had written an article back in 1985 that argued that the NT evidence does not suggest the Christians got together for “worship” (as we tend to define it) but to learn and to exhort and to fellowship. This is what Fitch’s book will do in every chapter: get you to wonder about your local church and its practices. The last chp of the... Read more
Let me risk venturing into the realm of politics. There has been a call for more Christians, especially those of us who are smitten with the idea of a generous orthodoxy, to engage in a “purple” politics — and by that is meant a politics that absorbs the good in “red” and “blue” so that it is not simply partisan politics. This is a noble venture and high calling, but lots of what I hear is mostly blue in the... Read more
The principle of 6:1 is now fleshed out for “almsgiving” — the Jewish practice of compassion on the poor and needy. After the Temple was destroyed, almsgiving was sometimes depicted as a replacement for sacrifices. The word for “almsgiving” in Hebrew is a near-equivalent to “righteousness”: the transition from 6:1 to 6:2 then is verbal as much as chronological. Jesus’ point: do not use acts of mercy to the needy as an opportunity to strengthen your reputation as pious. Our... Read more
The seventh chp in David Fitch’s The Great Giveaway concerns spiritual formation. The primary direction of the chp is to return counseling to the church and to get more church in the psychologist’s office. [Now he’s meddling with my wife’s vocation.] He challenges the authority inherent to Christian therapy and the narrative structure that many derive from therapists to explain their life. Do you think what we now call “Christian therapy” belongs in the local church or in a (parachurch)... Read more
Perhaps you are unaware, but The Wall Street Journal, in its Jan 8-9 weekend edition, had a story about Prof Joshua Hochschild, a philosophy professor at Wheaton who converted to Roman Catholicism and then was released by Wheaton because his theology was considered no longer sufficiently evangelical — in spite of his willingness to sign the doctrinal statement. What do you think? [I can’t find it online; Rob Merola got me the link.] |inline Read more
So far David Fitch, in his provocative book, The Great Giveaway, has taken on the pillars of evangelical church life: success, evangelism, leadership, experience, and preaching. He will also address spiritual formation and moral education. But, I’m particularly happy he has devoted a chapter to “justice” because most evangelical books about the Church simply don’t have such a category central enough to appear on the radar. That justice does not appear is a sure-sign that evangelical ecclesiology is not biblically-informed... Read more
Matthew 6:1 is the theme verse for Matthew 6:2-18. In fact, 6:1 is the principle and 6:2-18 contains three examples. What we find in 6:1 pertains to giving, to praying, and to fasting. The theme or the principle of 6:1 is simple, simple, simple: |inline Read more
Some of you may know that I wrote an introduction to a reader’s digest and friendly version of the four Gospels called The Story of the Christ. How would a 1st Century Roman reporter have described Jesus? The book could be useful for a college-age Bible study where students want to look at Jesus in new and fresh categories. I’m hoping that some emerging types will find a way to look at Jesus in a new way. Read more
Jesus Creed
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