left behind
I revisisted my copy of A New Kind Of Christian this weekend. Reading the reviews that amazon displays is fascinating, let alone reading the book itself. Really I filtered out the tiresome fictional dialogue and hunted for burried treasure in the mind of McClaren. Some new insights were born - my mind and heart were stirred. I told my wife about it like this: "It's like before when we first read this thing it was like wow! There is another world that we always dreamed about! It was like we were being ushered in for the very first time to something brand new and exciting." Then I went on about my latest venture back into the book, "But now I am realizing, it's like what the hell? How do I actually live in this new place? Because there is no going back with a thing like this." Anyway...I am just stuck once again by the imensity of this change we are going through (flight from modernity to...). It has such far reaching consequences for our how we live out and understand our faith.

Here is one example that is killing me. Much of the N.T. is filled with the writings of Paul. And it's like the evangelical/modern (my) world has used him and his theology to construct their grid upon which "true" Christian faith is organized/finds its meaning. He has been overinterpreted to the nth degree. We have read into him - his understanding of Christ/revelation our worldview and interpreted it likewise. But Paul if he could be transported to the 21st century would be totally lost. He had such limited knowledge. His world was radically different than ours. It is way worse than we might be "slightly off" when we try and say today what his words meant back then. Who can know?

As the grid begins to dissolve how does one find meaning/make sense of the mess that is left behind? And then how does one resist the urge/pressure to ressurrect the old grid and it's dependance? That's where I am at.

Moving closer and closer to points of total dependance upon Jesus to hold not only the universe together but the very fabric of my fragile faith together. And he is doing it. I am not losing it.
- posted by Jacob B. @ 4:03 PM