{"id":405,"date":"2005-06-12T07:32:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-12T12:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/12\/holiness-tradition-and-covenant-path-marking\/"},"modified":"2005-06-12T07:32:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-12T12:32:00","slug":"holiness-tradition-and-covenant-path-marking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2005\/06\/12\/holiness-tradition-and-covenant-path-marking\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiness Tradition and Covenant Path Marking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Just in case you didn\u2019t read this brief introduction yesterday, here it is again:<\/p>\n

No one has summarized the \u201ctheories\u201d of the Christian life any more succinctly than Richard Foster, in his textbook quality Streams of Living Water<\/span><\/a>. He charts out six traditions, and I will look at each and how covenant path marking (aka, legalism) finds its way into each.<\/p>\n

My prefatory<\/span> remark for all of this: each of these traditions is valuable (I believe in each one) and each of them is good for us, and in saying that each can develop covenant path markers does not mean that they are to be de-valued. Nothing is further from the truth. What needs to be said, though, is this: the purpose of each is to lead us into union with God, communion with others, for the good of the world, and when that is not happening, the traditions are being misused or abused. <\/span>Ultimately, this is an issue of \u201cwhere our heart is\u201d and our heart cannot be easily discerned or easily assigned. We need Spirit-led discernment to know.<\/p>\n

The holiness tradition focuses on the less-than-well known but deserving-to-be-better-known Phoebe Palmer (her biography<\/a> is nearly impossible to find and prohibitively expensive), James brother of Jesus, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer<\/a> (whom I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d place in this category). Foster sees the following characteristics of the holiness tradition: not rules and regs but sustained attention to the heart, not otherworldliness but world-affirming, not consuming asceticism but bodily spirituality, not works oriented but a striving, not perfectionism but progress in purity and sanctity, not absorption into God but loving unity with God. This is worth the price of the book.<\/p>\n

Strengths: deeper formation of the inner personality, intentional focus on the heart, hope for genuine progress, tough-minded down-to-earth practice. Potential perils: legalism, Pelagianism (mixing grace and works), perfectionism. We can train, we can invite others into the journey, and we can stumble and get up again.<\/p>\n

The holiness tradition leads to covenant path marking<\/span> whenever we use the practices of holiness \u2014 Bible reading, church attendance, separation from specific sins, rigorous attention to specific acts and attitudes, intentional emphasis upon personal sanctity or growth in holiness, questioning social justice commitments or any other side of \u201cworldly calling\u201d \u2014 to judge ourselves or others as \u201cfit\u201d or \u201cspiritually mature.\u201d These things, regardless of how important you wish to make them, are not the real thing \u2014 which is union with God and communion with others for the good of the world, and dare not be confused with the real thing.<\/p>\n

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Just in case you didn\u2019t read this brief introduction yesterday, here it is again: No one has summarized the \u201ctheories\u201d of the Christian life any more succinctly than Richard Foster, in his textbook quality Streams of Living Water. 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