Whyfour?

Why do you suppose we have four gospels? More specifically, why do we have three “synoptic” gospels?  But this question really applies to all four.

Believing that God inspired the Scriptures what was his purpose in four canonical gospels?  Why not just give us the one definitive one?  Why not add the stories of Jesus’ birth and Mary’s Magnificat from Luke, the prodigal son, the boy with a demon in Mark 9, etc. to Matthew’s gospel and just have one?  Why give us varying accounts of the same events?  Why not give us one “God’s eye” view of the whole of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry?  Why give us accounts that need to be “reconciled?”

These questions are why I cannot subscribe to some sort of “dictation” theory of the Bible’s inspiration.  It makes God look a little schizophrenic.  Or at least like he might have MPD.  It is much easier to account for the differences when we maintain the human nature of the documents alongside their Divine inspiration.  Men wrote with particular (and different) perspectives and agendas.

But why should God inspire four of them?  Why not inspire one of them and make it the “definitive” one? Read more

Being With

I love theology and philosphy. I love to think and stretch my mind. It is one of the reasons I love to read so much. I once took a sort-of “spiritual gifts inventory” that gagued how we primarily relate to important things in our lives - specifically how we primarily find meaning in our faith. Some are primarily guided and energized by doing. Others are primarily energized by how they feel about God and their faith. Others, like me, find joy and fulfillment in thinking. It’s no wonder that one of the largest sections in my library is theology. While many pastors stock their shelves with books on leadership, method and/or devotion, those sections are small for me compared to theology and commentary.

It would be very easy for me to promote the idea that a significant part of our faith entails “right” theology. I believe theology is important and that there are some aspects of it that are vital, essential to the Christian faith.

But as I read the gospels I’m struck by how little those first disciples had right, doctrinally. Read more

Back In The Saddle

Ah…a week away on a mission trip and another of vacation and I’m finally back in the office. This week our church is having VBS, but I ended up withdrawing from the class I was planning to take at Northern Seminary. My intent was to audit the class. One, it was much cheaper to audit, and two, there was a lot of weekly work to do, plus I was only taking it because of an interest in the subject, not the grade.

Nevertheless, I got the required reading and have actually finished one of the books - The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology, edited by Kevin Vanhoozer. Reading that one got me interested all over again in a book I’ve had on my reading list for a while, but have never gotten around to: Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context, by John Franke and Stanley Grenz, so I’m one chapter into that one now. I suspect what I’ve read so far will generate a few posts over the summer. In addition, I have The Postmodern God: A Theological Reader which is edited by Graham Ward and I’ve gotten through one chapter of Stanley Hauerwas’ book A Better Hope: Resources for a Church Confronting Capitalism, Democracy, and Postmodernity.

While all of that should provide some food for fodder, I’ll try not to get too technical in the discussion of them. It’s pretty heavy philosophy/theology and while I enjoy that sort of thing, I’m aware that many don’t. Hopefully there will be some practical things that come to the front that can be discussed here without us all feeling like we’re in a college class room.

Here are some things that are on my mind right now, some related to my current reading and some not: Read more

Bring Me To Life

Blog Lite

Things have been sparse around here lately, I know. This is just a note to let you know that things may not change much on that front. This summer is going to be a busy one (which one isn’t, especially in church life?). Just to let you know what’s going on this summer:

Next week I’m going with our youth to Austin, Texas to evangelize the pagan Longhorns work in a soup kitchen and sing in some churches. It also sounds like the roofing experience of last week may get put to use again. I can’t imagine standing on a roof in Austin, Texas in June, but that may well be what we find ourselves doing. The following week I will be off on our summer vacation to the Branson, MO area where we’ll take it easy, relax and fish for a week.

Then we’ll be starting Vacation Bible School here at church and as soon as we’re done with that I will begin a summer online course through Northern Seminary on Readings in Postmodern Theology. That will go through the end of August. I’ll probably put up some photos every now and then and I may have a thing or two to share about my class or something else, but expect summer postings to be slow. Have yourself a great summer!