Sharing journey's rather than ideas?
I’m reading Brian McLaren’s 'The Secret Message of Jesus' and I am finding it really difficult to connect with his writing. The only other book of his that I’ve read is 'A New Kind of Christian' which I connected with much more. I’ve been trying to identify why I don’t connect with this more recent book, and I think the thing for me is where the latter book described a journey the former discusses ideas.
More and more, I’m starting to realize that I’m less interested in reading about someone’s ideas than connecting with their journey. My head is full of ideas, but I want to know how those ideas have panned out in practice. What did they look like and feel like when you made them a reality in your own life? How did you experience them? For me there has been a major shift from cognitively engaging concepts to actually experiencing them.
I had thought that this shift from the cognitive to the experiential was a part of the emergent paradigm. And sometimes one sees moments of this in emergent language and emergent writing and speaking. And then at other times it feels like the whole emergent movement is just another exercise in philosophizing about something on an intellectual and academic level.
Not that McLaren’s book is not practically, living-out orientated. But somehow, rather than him describing what the Kingdom of God might look like theoretically, what if he had described real life examples of where it is happening? And what that looks like in practical reality? And what challenges have been found to living it out in real life ‘today’ communities?
Does anyone share my feeling here? Does anyone else feel they’d love to read more books written in the first person, or that actually describe engagement with real people in real communities today rather than engagement with thoughts and theories? I’d love to read more about how people relate to and experience God than read long discussions about whether one particular passage in the Bible was meant to mean this or that. I’d love to read about how people feel about and experience their various communities in terms of kingdom thinking than have long debates about the Bible’s stand on issues such as homosexuality, divorce, salvation etc etc. A lot of those debates and discussions would take on a new relevance if placed into real life, experienced contexts. Suddenly, the theories we’ve developed (often based on picking apart one Bible verse here and another there) start to become a little messy in the practice. I want to talk missional living, not missional theory.
Anyone with me?
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Sharing journeys...
Cori,
I enjoy reading both: people's ideas and people's journeys. I try to give both on my blog. I do agree that there are more books and blogs and articles about ideas than there are about journeys. I think that's because most people still associate following Christ with what we believe and think, instead of associating following Christ with how and why we live our lives a certain way. I could be wrong though.
-Alan
Are Christians the worst at this?
At the risk of a gross generalisation, I've been wondering if perhaps Christians aren't the worst at this.
Is anyone else frequently surprised by how cold and harsh Christians can be, particularly when they come from inerrantist backgrounds?
Why is this?
Because we've been told that we must make our decisions based on what the Bible says - so when we say: homosexuality is wrong, we jump straight to the Bible verse and miss the person standing in front of us?
Or is this because we have the Bible as an excuse; after all, it's not what we think, it's what God says?
Or is it because we let the Bible do our thinking for us and feel like it's unfaithful to question it, even though we can often only truly understand how something is true when we have examined the ways in which it is not true?
Perhaps this is why so much of the great contemplative writings are by Catholics, who do not see the Bible as the sole authority, rather than by the fundamentalists, who do?
But then again, here I am doing exactly what you're complaining about, being hypothetical rather than just admitting that I'm frustrated with inerrantists and telling you the long and detailed story of why. Here I am phrasing everything as questions rather than simply saying what I think, in the hopes that it might make people more gracious in how they deal with me. Here I am replying to you rather than to some of the other posts, because it wouldn't be an entirely good idea for me to be honest about how some of the comments on this site make me feel on an emotional level...
So maybe it's more than that: maybe it's also about the fact that to be personal requires that we be vulnerable, or the fact that we've been trained since birth that it's more important to say the right thing than what we feel. Its amazing the way whenever I think anything that isn't orthodox, I still here the little fundamentalist voice in my head telling me that I shouldn't be thinking that and I definitely shouldn't be sharing it and making my issues other peoples.
Sorry for the ramble. But yes, I'm all for skipping the theology for a while, and talking about how people are trying to live out being emergent in South Africa right now?
How did people celebrate Easter?
Where are people going to church and how are they finding it?
Perhaps these are more helpful conversations than me listing each and every single one of the numerous horrible things God does in the Bible to the next person who simply says: the Bible says God is holy and wrathful, so he is.
Emotional Response
Kevin try and imagine this person: Imagine a person who works in 'fundamentalist inerrantist' circles, who is himself a 'fundamentalist inerrantist'.
This person knows hundreds of 'fundamentalist inerrantists' who simply don't fit your generalizations about them - he knows people who are kind and caring, wanting to teach the scriptures as the inerrant Word of God - yes - but to real people, with real feelings and real issues in the real world. This person knows hundreds of people who right now are sacrificing their entire lives on a daily basis simply to love people as Jesus did.
Yes, this person realizes that there are a lot of people in his circles that don't tow the line, that are cold, and use the Bible as a manipulative weapon. But this person sees those people, or people with similar hang ups existing in all sectors of the church - even the catholic sector and he laments over all of them deeply - especially in light of the sacrifical life of Jesus which they should be representing.
This person reads this blog and sees himself being the subject of "gross generalisation".
Now we can talk about emotional response. I think we can begin to imagine how some of the posts on this blog make this person feel on an emotional level.
Empathy and sympathy is something that we need to work hard at - I know I'm terribly guilty of this, and I lament my own failings in this area, I lament everytime I feel like I've let my emotions get the better of me in posting a reply. Let's work at it. Let's be personal - but then also be prepared to be challenged on a personal level. It's not important to say the right thing - it's important to live the right thing - in a perfect world those two things should dove tail each other, when they don't we need to work hard it sorting it out with great humility.
I think we're obligated to explore both and to try and reach as faithful a conclusion as we can - sometimes that means simply saying 'I don't know', sometimes it means giving an answer - it's a tension that's always existed and will continue to exist until we meet our maker.
It's alright to be emotional, these are emotional things we're discussing, they're intimately wrapped up with how we live, but let's be sympathetic and empathetic emotional people trying to serve and follow Jesus with all we have.
Agreed
Cory
Seems like I hijacked your post. Sorry.
Stephen
Thanks for the reply. After re-reading my post, I can see how you could have taken offense, and I suppose I did let some of my frustrations and ungrace shine through. Apologies. I'll post more on my passover blog so as not to hijack Cory's post any further.
I liked the book
I liked Mclarens the Secret Message of Jesus, though I would not have used the word secret. I would have used the word neglected. Which is why we may have a problem with having an example of the journey instead of just an idea of it. There are just not very many examples, and the examples that are there tend to be people on the bottom. Lets face it you cannot sell a book by talking about people on the bottom and how they are living.
Narrative theology
I think some people call it narrative theology, but I find it difficult to discuss theology without talking about my own and other peoples' experiences. And that, after all is the purpose of hagiography -- the lives of the saints.
It was with the rise of modernity and under the influence of the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment that the idea arose that truth was primarily propositional, and something to be argued about and proved or disproved. One of the things about postmodernity is seeing that that is a very onedimensional view, and people are beoming aware of the need to restore some of the missing dimensions.
Of course the paragraph above is very propositional, but now that I've reached my anecdotage, don't get me started!
Empathy
I really like what Stephen wrote about empathy and sympathy - even, or especially, for so-called fundamentalists. It's amazing how every group of people seems to define themselves by putting down another group of people and 'fundamentalists' or 'inneratists' seem to indeed have become the target of some so-called emergents. The danger of more personal, emotional responses is that they become personal and emotional! And sometimes nasty. So I really like Stephen's thought that personal,emotional responses must be sympathetic and empathetic responses too. Thanks for that, Stephen!
head and heart
yes and no..
sometimes I need to get my head around and idea about God (call it theology or whatever..) before it sits solid in my heart.. as often if I have grabbed a thing with my heart first it sometimes falls apart it doesn't make sense in my head.. am i making sense?? like: God is good.. taken to my heart falls right through when christians suffer.. so I need to understand free will, Jesus' revealing of God etc etc etc before... now i can really say. God is good, with my head and my heart.
anyway..
p
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