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{"id":5256,"date":"2013-05-24T09:12:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T14:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=5256"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:29:51","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:29:51","slug":"you-cant-think-your-way-to-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2013\/05\/24\/you-cant-think-your-way-to-god\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can’t Think Your Way To God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Christianity Today\u00a0<\/em>has published an interview<\/a> with my friend James K.A. Smith, the philosopher, editor of Comment<\/a><\/em>, and writer of many books, including two that I use in my classes:\u00a0Desiring the Kingdom\u00a0<\/em>and Who\u2019s Afraid of Postmodernism<\/em>?<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The title \u2014 and Jamie\u2019s argument \u2014 is that you can\u2019t think your way to God. The embodied liturgies and rituals of the Christian life \u201cteach\u201d us in ways that are different from, say, a sermon or lecture.<\/p>\n

I understand that evangelicals tend to see ritual as self-management and exertion\u2014as \u201cworks.\u201d If that\u2019s all that ritual is, then we should be critical of it. But don\u2019t think of ritual and disciplines as expressions of the self. Think of them as what Craig Dykstra calls \u201chabitations of the Spirit.\u201d Spiritual disciplines aren\u2019t about showing that we\u2019re trying to pursue God. These are gifts that the Spirit inhabits. They are rituals that God invites us into to live into the power of the Spirit. They are the way that you put on Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n

We evangelicals tend to think of worship as only an expressive activity. Because of that, we\u2019ve lost the downward, God-initiated, formative aspect of worship. Whereas if you recover the sense that God\u2019s initiative is at work, then the rituals and the disciplines are invitations to live into God\u2019s power, not ways for us to spiritually show off.<\/em><\/p>\n

Definitely read the whole thing<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s his thesis from\u00a0Desiring the Kingdom\u00a0<\/em>and its follow-up,\u00a0the recently published\u00a0Imagining the Kingdom<\/em>, in a nutshell. Surprising and thought-provoking.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"