The Supremacy of Christ and ....... [fill the blank]

A little while ago I was reading a book by John Piper and Justin Taylor The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World and posted on it. Well I've just come across the audio files of the conference that the book was based on. I haven't listened to them, but I'm sure they're good. It's good solid reformist theology type talk (if you like that stuff) as they look at Christ in our postmodern world.

Click here to follow through to them.

Philip

The Nature of Deconstruction (Part 3)

Well the book What Would Jesus Deconstruct? by John Caputo has been a good read. He plays off the popular phrase "What Would Jesus Do?" by stating the ambiguity generated in such a statement/question.

One of the many things I've taken away from the book is another tool to add to my hermeneutical repertoire - deconstruction. When reading about Jesus in the Gospel's it is good to keep in mind what it is the Jesus is deconstructing and responding to - for example, the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisee's. What is it about what the Pharisee's are saying or doing that he is deconstructing and responding to?

I have been asked a couple of time's something along the lines of 'Isn't that what liberals do?' I guess in a simplistic understanding it is - only because questioning tradition (and everything else) is in the nature of deconstruction. However I do not consider it to be aligned at any particular point across the spectrum from Conservative to Liberal. Think of it along the lines of 'critical analysis,' it questions 'why we do things the way we do', or 'why the way things are the way they are.' I would like to think this is something all people do rather than taking things for granted. I don't think it descends order into chaos, rather if done in the Spirit of love and justice, it has the ability to improve, move forward, and brings 'ways of doing things' into alignment with beliefs and values. I suggest that in order to change, we first deconstruct, and then construct. I thought to finish off I'd include Caputo's second to last paragraph of the book:

"But what, then, is the Kingdom of God? Where is it found? It is found every time an offense is forgiven, every time a stranger is made welcome, every time an enemy is embraced, every time the least among us is lifted up, every time the law is made to serve justice, every time a prophetic voice is raised against injustice, every time the law and the prophets are summed up by love." pg 138.




It's how I like to think I'm doing theology.
Photo from Lomography.com

Caputo, Barth and the Church (Part 1)

Well I've almost finished reading a book on Karl Barth, a theologian from last century, and started reading Jack (John) Caputo's, a contemporary philosopher, book What Would Jesus Deconstruct? I have found it interesting the correlation between the two, even though they come from different perspectives. I guess I'll start with Barth and allow the point of this blog to develop.
'In this way Barth [is] giving expression to the idea that Reformed theology is reforming theology. This committment, which arises from the Reformed concern for the ongoing reformation of the faith and practice of the church according to the Word of God in the context of everchanging circumstances and situations, is captured in the saying "The reformed church is always reforming according to the Word of God."...Reformed theology is always reforming according to the Word of God in order to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the context of an ever-changing world characterized be a variety of cultural settings.'

It seems that for Barth God was God, and as such was free to come and go as pleased (he is not suggesting a fickle God). Barth reacted to a God imprisoned within a mere human understanding. As the Word of Scripture is revelation from God himself the church is to continually be reformed by it throughout time. But whatever is understood, must be understood through the revelation of Jesus Christ. I guess what I'm trying to develop here is the notion of Reformed theology as reforming theology.
Introducing....Caputo:

'...the existence of the church is provisional - like a long-term substitute teacher - praying for the kingdom, whose coming Jesus announced and which everyone was expecting woud come sometime soon. But this coming was deferred, and the church occupies the space of the 'deferral,' of the distance or 'difference,' between two comings...in the meantime the church is supposed to do the best it can to bring that kingdom about in itself, here on earth, in a process of incessant self-renewal or auto-deconstruction, while not setting itself up as a bunch of kings and princes. That is why the church is 'deconstructible,' but the kingdom of God, if there is such a thing, is not. The church is a provisional construction, and whatever is constructed is deconstructible.' pg 35.

Here Caputo is calling for a right to deconstruct the church and reveal what lies beneath. As a provisional construction (the church) we are here to present the gospel and by participation in the Spirit enlargen the kingdom of God. And this is where I pick up on Barth. By deconstructing the church, and by subjecting ourselves to the reforming nature of the Word of God and Jesus Christ, we continue to move forward with the culture we are unavoidably a part of. We move forward with the rest of the world, and move forward with our own situations and circumstances and continue to show people the path to Christ. I suggest this as something to consider for anyone who has not considered this yet.

Thus I find myself at the end of the blog, I hope someone somewhere enjoyed this.

Stay Golden

Jimmy

Truth, Christ and the Postmodern World

Well I read Voddie Baucham Jr's paper on Truth and the Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World found in the book The Supremacy Of Christ in a Postmodern World (edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor) last night. Through the questions 1) Who am I? 2) Why am I here? 3) What is wrong with the world? and 4) How can what is wrong be made right? he juxtaposes Christian theism with postmodern secular humanism.
Baucham Jr based his Christian theistic answers from Colossians 1:12 - 21. He works consistently from a reformant styled theology and was a good read in that respect. For example 'Who am I? The crown and glory of the creation of God. What is wrong with the world? What is wrong is me.'
In regards to the postmodern worldview he makes some interesting points against the consumer styled society. For example;

'What if we saw our studies as stewardship? What if we raised our children not to go and do something just because it would make us proud but instead raised them so that they would discover the way that God has put them together?...What if we continually taught them to focus on the supremacy of Christ in truth and how he relates to our very purpose for existing?'

However, while making these points it seems his view on postmodernsim is pessimistic and possibly simplistic. He arrives at the conclusion that the postmodern worldview leaves humanity

'empty and hopeless; man is left worthless, and you are left to pursue your own satisfaction and never find it.'

However despite this feeling I enjoyed his analysis of postmodernism more than the Christian theistic break down.
In the end he arrives the anticipated place where Jesus is supreme and the basis for Christian truth. From him we derive our meaning, purpose and a directive. I didn't find much new in the Christian breakdown, but I enjoyed his analysis of the postmodern worldview, despite the pessismistic feeling.