Pensées

9. I was discussing the Reformation briefly with a professor, who suggested that one way to understand that moment was as the triumph of plain speech over analogy. Generally, this is a true statement, but it can be misleading. In doing away with some of the excess analogies of the Catholic church, reformers hoped to highlight the central analogy of Scripture to which all other ideas must submit. That analogy is that God, throughout history, has been restoring humanity to personal fellowship with himself. Christ sealed this in his atonement, and it is applied to believers through the workings and intercession of the Holy Spirit. We understand this because of the Church, over which Christ reigns as the true head of the church. To suggest that a man is the head of the Church is to take a step in the wrong direction. If we're going to return to the usefulness of analogy in understanding Christianity, it's got to start there.

Pensées

8. You've got to hand it to the emergent church. They've managed to hook people in with the idea that they're "emerging" from the ruins of modernist Christianity, when instead they're staying in those exact same ruins. This isn't surprising, because it's exactly what postmodernism did to modernism in general. Consider:

It is ironic that postmodernists, who distinguish themselves by a refusal of high theory and grand narrative, have to jimmy modernity into an epochal straightjacket in order to claim to have moved beyond it.

- Frederick Cooper, Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History, 19.

What the emergent church has performed is the illusion of a major shift; in reality they've changed the packaging of the message, but hardly any of the meaningful content. Where the modern church aesthetic consisted of corportate colors, straight lines and right angles, and sports arena-style sanctuaries, the postmodern church aesthetic consists of hip, alternative colors, crooked lines and varied angles, and meeting areas that resemble your local coffee shop. But the differences end at the aesthetic level. You'll still find the quasi-worship that dumbs the mind and numbs the heart; you'll still hear sermons that will claim to fix some aspect of your life but really won't, and you'll still find the same disregard for covenant, baptism, and Eucharist as in modernist churches. My friend Steven sent me a video in which a pastor and a member figured they should do communion, and wondered what that might look like.

The emergent church is right about the need to embrace postmodernism, but they get the point wrong. N.T. Wright hits the nail on the head when he says that a grasp of postmodernism is needed to cleanse the church of corrupting modern influences. The point of such baptisms is neither to continue being baptised or return to uncleanliness, but to embrace and dwell in union with Christ. That is the real way to get out of this mess.

Pensées - Legalism and Rules of the Camp

7. Many people seem to have the idea that camp rules are legalistic, particularly for camp counselors and other staff members. All sorts of behaviors and dress styles are prohibited, and behaviors must be assumed on entering camp grounds. These rules are generally much more stringent than the rules outside the camp, and so they seem to be legalistic. Whatever legalism might be as defined by Scripture I'm not for certain, but I think the common use of the term means an overemphasis on the law that approaches the notion of salvation by personal works. The people who accuse others of legalism have at the center of their statement a love for the gospel. Yet this gospel is only a fairy tale unless it spurs us on to good deeds towards other human beings, and so in defending the gospel against legalism some people forget that Paul mentions the heart's response with good works to the Gospel. Yes, Paul does mention works and grace in the same literary breath. I think camp rules can be strict, and yet be focused on encouraging loving, Gospel-centered relationships. This might be pietism, but I don't think I would use the L-bomb.

Thoughts and Quotations

I'm not sure if Stephen and Ben have felt similarly, but I've wanted to post some thoughts, or perhaps quotations, but they weren't developed into an essay, much like our traditional posts have been. I'll wager they have, though, and I'll start the trend. In true Pensées style, I'll even number them.

1. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most important categories for understanding how human beings should relate. Our Triune God exists as one fully unified entity, yet existing in three eternal and distinct, operating in perfect harmony. If we adopted this platform as the basis for our human interactions, we would guard against both evils hyper-individualism and extreme collectivism. Much like splitting the atom, erring in either direction would release two mushrooms in the styles of polytheism or Mormonesque monotheism.

2. I do not know whether the doctrine of the Trinity is more important than the Gospel for relating to others, but I am inclined to that belief, because the Trinity is the source of the Gospel itself. I don't think many would argue that the Gospel created the Trinity.

3. "It is not possible to collapse tastes or time schedules onto one curve and call it consumer preference. Why? Because economic value is subjective to the individual." - Lew Rockwell, in "Why Austrian Economics Matters".

4. "Grant that somehow the government can spot a market failure, the burden of proof is still on the government to demostrate that it can perform the task more efficiently than the market. Austrians [meaning, the economic perspective] would refocus the energy that goes into finding market failures to understanding more about government failures." - ibid.

5. "Far from increasing total welfare, redistributionism diminshes it. By making property and its value less secure, income transfers lessen the benefits of ownership and production, and thus lower the incentives to both." - ibid.

6. "Austrians would eliminate deposit insurance, and not only allow bank runs to occur, but appreciate their potential as a necessary check. There would be no lender of last resort that is, the taxpayer in an Austrian monetary regrime, to bail out bankrupt and illiquid institutions." - ibid.