Booknotes: A Little Book for New Theologians

Kelly M. Kapic, 2012. A Little Book for New Theologians. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press

What I am advocating here is what I have elsewhere called an anthroposensitive theology, by which I mean a refusal to divorce theological considerations from practical human application, since theological reflections are always interwoven with anthropological concerns. This combination of "anthropo-" ("human"; "relating to human beings"; from Greek anthropos) and "sensitive" is an attempt to avoid an overly simplistic classification of theology as either theocentric (God-centered) or anthropocentric (human-centred).

Clearly our theology must be God-centered, but this language can mask the reality that our theology is at the same time, concerned with our relation to this God. While other terms such as "pastoral" or "experiential” could be used, these terms often carry either unnecessarily negative connotations or represent a notion of what is done only after theological reflection, as though we work to get our theology correct and then move on to practical concerns. Yet in the complex relationship between life and theology, we should admit that for good or ill our experience and practice not only grow out of theology but also inform it. With this in mind, we turn our attention to characteristics that we must cultivate as the appropriate context for our theological activity:

• faithful reason

• prayer and study

• humility and repentance

• suffering, justice and knowing God

• tradition and community

• love of Scripture (47,48)

For if you do not come, you do not see;

if you do not see, neither do you believe;

if you do not believe, you are still standing far off.

But if you believe, you come near,

and if you believe, you see.

Augustine, "Exposition of the Psalms"

We are all called theologians,

just as [we are] all [called] Christians.

Martin Luther, "Sermon on Psalm 5:17"

Let me seek you in longing,

and long for you in seeking.

Let me find you in love,

and love you in finding.

Anselm (c. 1033-1109), Proslogion

The proper end of the drama of doctrine is wisdom: lived knowledge, a performance of the truth.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine

Whether eating, drinking, laughing or working, all that we do is done before the face of God. This is what undergirded the Reformation slogan coram Deo-living before God in all areas of life. This especially applies to our theological studies. Here we are on holy ground, and thus our attitude must be an attitude of prayer. If we are to be faithful, we must always be aware of his presence. (67)

Love theology, of course: but love the-

ology for no other reason than it is

THEOLOGY—the knowledge of God-

and because it is your meat and drink

to know God, to know him truly, and

as far as it is given to mortals, to know

him whole.

B. B. Warfield, "Spiritual Culture in the Theological Seminary"

Second, I am a child of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation movement, which distinctly unpacked such slogans as sola fide ("by faith alone"), sola gratia ("by grace alone"), sola Scriptura ("Scripture alone

solus Christus ("Christ alone") and soli deo Gloria ("glory to God alone"). Of the branches that grew in the soil of the Reformation, I locate myself particularly with the Reformed tradition, originally shaped by the likes of Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499-1562) and the more well-known John Calvin (1509-1564). This movement, sometimes unfortunately restricted by the name Calvinism, has developed in a variety of ways and locations since that time. I am shaped by this tradition untold ways, and I am thankful for it. (99)

In this way we recognize both the distinctions and the unbreakable links between the incarnate Word, to written Word and our reception of that Word. Thormas Oden argues that we can think of it this way: Christ is the “revealed Word," while Scripture is the "written Word”. Scriptures serve as our primary source to know the Word, with all other "sources," including tradition ("remembered word"),  experience  ("personally experienced word") and reason (which helps us make sense of the word) serving as secondary sources without the same authority as Scripture. (112)

Thomas C. Oden, The Living God: Systematic Theology, 3 vols (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1987)

Who is a Soul Friend?

Soul Friend

1. A person possessed by the Spirit
2. A person characterised by holiness of life and closeness to God
3. A person of experience-in prayer and life
4. A person of learning – particularly in the scriptures and the patristic writings
5. A person of discernment who can read the signs of the times and the writing on the wall of the soul 
6. A person who gives way to the Holy Spirit

Booknotes on The Contemplative Pastor

Eugene H. Peterson, 1989, The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the art of spiritual direction, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

This book should be read concurrently with his memoirs, The Pastor (2011). Peterson’s thesis that pastoral work is spiritual direction is like a breath of fresh air in the numerous books on spiritual direction which focus on techniques and processes. Here, Petersen defines pastoral work as spiritual direction which is also known as soul care. Throughout the centuries of Christian history, he argues that

[T]he [pastoral] work was the same: discovering the meaning of Scripture, developing a life of prayer, guiding growth into maturity. This is the pastoral work that is historically termed the cure of souls. The primary sense of cura in Latin is "care," with undertones of "cure." The soul is the essence of the human personality. The cure of souls, then, is the Scripture-directed, prayer-shaped care that is devoted to persons singly or in groups, in settings sacred and profane. It is a determination work at the center, to concentrate on the essential. (p.57)

I find this refreshing. Spiritual direction (soul care) is helping people to pray, to understand the bible and grow spiritually. A simple and precise definition. Peterson underscores the way we are running the church as compared to spiritual direction (soul care)

In running the church, I seize the initiative- I take charge. I take responsibility for motivate and recruitment, for showing the way, for getting things started. If I don't, things drift. I am aware of the tendency to apathy, the human susceptibility to indolence, and I use my leadership position to counter it.

By contrast, the cure of souls is a cultivated awareness that God has already seized the initiative. The traditional doctrine defining this truth is provenience: God everywhere and always seizing the initiative. He gets things going. He had and continues to have the first word. Prevenience is the conviction that God has been working diligently, redemptively, and strategically before I appeared on the scene, before I was aware there was something here for me to do.

The cure of souls is not indifferent to the realities of human lethargy, naive about congregational recalcitrance, or inattentive to neurotic cussedness. But there is a disciplined, determined conviction that everything (and I mean, precisely, everything) we do is a response to God's first work, his initiating act. We learn to be attentive to the divine action already in process so that the previously unheard word of God is heard, the previously unattended act of God is noticed (p.60-61).

He rewords it so that the contrast is obvious:

Running-the-church questions are: What do we do? How can we get things going again?

Cure-of-souls questions are: What has God been doing here? What traces of grace can I discern in this life? What history of love can I read in this group? What has God set in motion that I can get in on? (p.61)

This gives a new perspective on spiritual direction (soul care) and on the contrast between competitive and contemplative pastoral care. God has already taken the initiative and is active in the world. Our job as spiritual directors are to discern what God is doing in our lives and that of our directees and get on bound. It is a job of grace discernment and appropriation.

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Booknotes on Keller's Counterfeit Gods

 

Keller, Timothy. 2009. Counterfeit gods: When the empty promises of love, money and power let you down. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.

 

Things that dishonor God are also called “counterfeit Gods” or idolatry. Pastor Tim Keeler of Redeemer  offer offers a brief list of idol categories:

Theological idols - Doctrinal errors that produce such distorted views of God that we end up worshipping a false god.

Sexual idols – addictions such as pornography and fetishisms that promise but don’t deliver a sense of intimacy and acceptance; ideals of physical beauty in yourself and/or your partner; romantic idealism

Magic/ritual idols – Witchcraft and the occult. All idolatry is in the end a form of magic that seeks to rebel against the order of transcendent reality rather than submitting to it in love and wisdom.

Political/economic idols – Ideologies of the left, right, and libertarian that absolutize some aspect of political order and make it the solution. Deifying or demonizing free markets, for example.

Racial/national idols – Racism, militarism, nationalism, or ethnic pride that turns bitter or oppressive.

Relational idols – Dysfunctional family systems of codependency: “fatal attractions”; living your life through your children.

Religious idols – Moralism and legalism; idolatry of success and gifts; religion as a pretext for abuse of power.

Philosophical idols – Systems of thought that make some created thing the problem wit life (instead of sin) and some human product or enterprise the solution to our problems (instead of God’s grace).

Cultural idols – Radical individualism, as in the West, that makes an idol out of individual happiness at the expense of the community; shame cultures that make an idol out of family and clan at the expense of individual rights.

Deep idols – Motivational drives and temperaments made into absolutes: a. Power idolatry: “Life has meaning/ I only have worth if - I have power and influence over others.” b. Approval idolatry: “Life has meaning/ I only have worth if - I am loved and respected by ____________.” c. Comfort idolatry: “Life has meaning/ I only have worth if - I have this kind of pleasure experience, a particular quality of life.” d. Control idolatry: “Life has meaning/ I only have worth – if I am able to gain mastery over my life in the area of ____________.” (p.204, n.119)

“The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one. The living God, who revealed himself both at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you find him, can truly fulfill you, and, if you fail him, can truly forgive you” (xxiv).