Modern evangelicalism has an eschatology, but it is functionally useless. This is a very static, conservative, unadventurous, and in my view complacent model of the place of theology in the life of the church. It is clear from the article that even when it wants to talk about vitality and vision, modern evangelicalism entirely lacks the theological resources to grasp this dimension of the church’s existence. All of this has disappeared through the gaping holes in the crude frame of Jefferson’s metanarrative. The story of a people is made up of historical events-exodus, war, exile, invasion, diaspora, the fall and rise of civilizations. The biblical story is the story of the fall and redemption-indeed, the repeated fall and redemption-not of individuals but of a people. On the other, there is no narrative of the church: Christianity is just a big playground where we run around-boys and girls, sons and daughters-happily experiencing the love of God until the end of time. On the one hand, there is no narrative of Israel in Jefferson’s account and therefore no historical or theological grounding for redemption. The “metanarrative” of creation, fall, redemption and new creation sounds cosmic in its reach, but in practice it is no more than the inflated container for the personal narrative of sin and redemption. In this schema we go from fall to final judgment, rather than from creation to new creation, but the fundamental problem is the same: the redemptive event is left stranded as a metaphysical abstraction somewhere between the “myth” of human beginnings and the “myth” of final judgment. These cosmetic improvements aside, what we have is the sort of theology represented by the old altarpieces, such as the Redemption Triptych of Vrancke van der Stockt, which I came across in the Prado recently. This strikes me as a classic statement of modern evangelical orthodoxy, revised only in two respects: the end point-the eschaton, the terminus ad quem-is not heaven but new creation and the fashionable “metanarrative” label has been slapped on the package. The framework for vision is provided by the “biblical metanarrative of creation, fall, redemption and new creation”, and the point is made that salvation is not just about forgiveness of sins and the hope of heaven but also about an “experience beginning now of entering into the life of the Triune God”.īecause of Jesus’ incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension to the right hand of the Father and sending of the Holy Spirit, we-as adopted sons and daughters in Christ-can begin to experience the love of Jesus’ Father for his beloved Son, in the communion of the Holy Spirit, looking forward to its culmination and never-ending deepening in the presence of God in a gloriously beautiful New Creation (Rev. Jefferson then goes on to suggest that a sound biblical theology “can provide vitality, vision and standards for assessment in the local congregation”. In the early church this was expressed through four functions: catechesis, or the teaching of basic Christian doctrine apologetics, the defence of the faith polemics, the suppression of heresy and homiletics-“assisting preachers and teachers in the exposition and teaching of Scripture”. In an article on the role of theology on the Gordon Conwell website John Jefferson argues that a sound biblical theology is like the backbone in the human body-it provides “support, shape and stability to the Body of Christ”. I came across this somewhat at random, but it illustrates a point.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |