Day 11: The Biblical Character of the Work of Theology

If it acts in accordance with this given norm, the work of theology must demonstrate what can be described in the most general terms as a biblical character. That is to say, it must be characterized above all by a deference to the reality of the gospel that is announced in Holy Scripture. That deference is expressed in many ways: by refusal of speculation; by resistance to the pressure to soften the imperative force of sola scriptura or tota scriptura; by the transparency of the language and concepts of theology to the scriptural canon; and above all, by the persistence, joy and humility with which holy reason addresses itself to the task of reading Scripture, not as master but as pupil, and by a willingness to learn it its school.

John Webster, Holiness, 20

2010
02/27
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A Letter to My Wife on Her Birthday

Dear Melissa,

It is a sweet thing to grasp the sense of your utter dependence. The mirage of perceived autonomy vanishes at the reality of our creaturely status. We are derivative beings. Recipients. What do we have that was not given? We are products of God’s mercy. We are creatures of His grace.

And it is not enough that this reality is so. It must be recognized. How can we live in its freedom and move in its joy if we fail to acknowledge it? So how does that happen? Grace, of course. God gives us grace so that we would recognize His grace. And one means by which He does that is the richness of His goodness interwoven in the things most immediate to us (this is where you come in).

“An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.”
(Proverbs 31:10 )

You are my wife. We live together. We have two daughters. We sleep together at night. We wake up together in the morning. We eat together. Brave the winter together. Talk together. Pray together. And you are excellent.

You are more precious than a jewel tucked away in the depths of the ocean waiting to be discovered. People give their whole lives to that–the finding jewels. And today as you turn 24 it occurs quite dramatically to me that I have already found mine. Or more accurately, mine is already given to me. See, there is grace. Grace right in front of me that makes me recognize grace all the more.

Happy Birthday.

I love you,

Jonathan

2010
02/26
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Melissa Marilyn Parnell
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The Reason Why I Decided Not to Terminate my ‘Christian Blog’

I am broken either way, blog or no blog, and Jesus saved me.

The problem of distractions in prayer is the problem of my own sin. If it were not the blog then it would be something else. I’d be too much of an idealist to think that terminating my blog would then allow me to come to God in a way other than messed up.

The blog is not what makes by mind fragmented, affections askew, and my heart cold. That is my sin. That is why I need the cross. I do not, indeed, I cannot, come to God any other way. There I am, a mess with my heart laid out bare before Him. My mind chasing every little thought that comes by, a blog post or dinner that night or why the book of Leviticus is a lesser favorite than the Psalter…

And there I am, a sinner in need of salvation. A sinner who needs to get out of himself and look to the work of Jesus Christ. And look again. (That would make a good post.) Look again. And again. And again. (Post the ‘again and again’ part, too.) Look again. And come to write the post while looking again.

I pray broken and I write broken, and I pray and write as one saved only because of the work of Jesus Christ for me. Still looking, by His grace.

2010
02/25
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Reason #2 of Some Reasons Why I Hate My ‘Christian Blog’ and am Contemplating Its Termination

#2 I am really questioning the overall benefit of Christian media

I work for a resource ministry and absolutely love it. The global Church is in need of good resources. The Father has blessed the Church in America with great training for ministry and scrupulous theology. Spreading is good.

And on the other hand, there are some serious dangers. Doctrine III class was helpful last night in this discussion. We were talking over Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. Bonhoeffer’s description of the ‘ideal’ dream of Christian community versus the divine reality of Christian community is particularly illuminating (Go read the book, it’s short). He writes,

He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial (27).

Christian media lets people hear really good music by really gifted artists and hear really good sermons by really gifted preachers. That is all wonderful until the Christian individual imports these things as expectations on their local Church. Your pastor will not preach like John Piper, get over it. Your worship leader will not sing like Hillsong United, get over it. I fear that the asset of Christian media (though unintentional) has become an impetus for the individual Christian to complain. We should be grateful for our community that is “in and through Jesus Christ” and not frustrated about what it is not.

I’ve talked to people, one sweet lady in particular. She loves Jesus and has some solid theology. However, she is so affected by a fellow sister’s cell phone ringing in corporate worship that she is derailed with vexation. “There are no good churches around here.”

Our expectations are askew. We have done exactly what Bonhoeffer warns against. I forget that this was about why I hate my ‘Christian blog.’ I guess this Reason #2 matters only inasmuch as I see my blog contributing to this negative aspect. Only insofar as my blog is a child of that system. Hmm…

2010
02/24
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Reason #1 of Some Reasons Why I Hate My ‘Christian Blog’ and am Contemplating Its Termination

#1. It is intrusive to my life of prayer.

The irony here is that this particular post came to mind while in prayer. It happens too often. The quiet of the morning and the stillness of my home, I am praying to the Father, declaring the gospel of the Son, yearning to be filled with the Spirit and simultaneously fighting the all-too-easy ‘hey, that could be a blog post’ crap. This makes me very angry. All accusations are pointed at me in my sinfulness.

“I want to forget myself, be wise in nothing but the cross, live before and unto the LORD, careless towards the approval of man (oh, I should post this).”

There are a dozen comebacks. I hope that you are thinking of them now and confronting what I’ve said with “but…” and “what about…” Well done. Tell me, please. Comment. Challenge my thinking. I need it. Prayer is too important, bro. I am growing weary in fighting a battle that could be eliminated. I am sinful enough to let a web address rob my communion with God. That is painful enough to make me want to bash my MacBook and throw it in the cold Mississippi, or ball up like a baby and cry.

I hope you like my post, hope it gets lots of hits. Crap.

Jesus, please help me.

2010
02/24
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Day 10: Theology is Not Above Domestic Life

Though the institutional arrangements of theology in modernity have often made it hard for us to see this point, theology is not a transcendent moment, some activity of the mind standing above the merely domestic life of the Christian community and submitting it to an ironic, critical gaze. Holy reason is ecclesiastical science–a knowing and inquiring which takes place within ‘the commonwealth gathered, founded, and ordered by the Word of God’, and participating in the calling and promise which God issues to that commonwealth.

John Webster, Holiness, 26

2010
02/23
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Day 9: Authority and the Canon

“…because Holy Scripture is the authoritative canon, holy reason finds there its norm. To say that Holy Scripture is the authoritative canon is to say that this determinate collection of writings, received and read as a unified God-given prophetic and apostolic testimony, legitimately claims the acknowledgement, assent and obedience of the Church and its theology. The authority of Scripture for holy reason is Scripture’s Spirit-bestowed capacity to quicken theology to truthful thought and speech. Truthful thought and speech follow the given order of reality. … the authority of Scripture is a matter for the Churh’s acknowledgement, not its ascription. Authority cannot be conferred on Scripture by the Church or by its theology, but only greeted as that which legitimately commands the activity of reason. As such, Scripture’s authority is not at all abstract or merely formal; it is a servant of the living voice of God as truth that enables the Church to live from and in the truth.

John Webster, Holiness, 19ff.

2010
02/22
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Day 8: On Holy Reason

Reason is holy because God acts upon reason, arresting its plunge into error and freeing it from its bondage to our corrupt wills and our hostility to God. And to describe theological work as a work of holy reason is to say that, without talk of this God and his acts of judgment and renewal, we cannot depict what happens when we take it upon ourselves to venture the work of the theologian.

John Webster, Holiness, 25.

2010
02/18
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Day 7: The Holiness of Thinking About Holiness: By grace, by grace, by grace…

… it is imperative that we keep in mind two basic requirements for thinking Christainly about God’s holiness. The first is that we need to understand that theological thinking about holiness is itself an exercise of holiness. Theology is an aspect of the sanctification of reason, that is, of the process in which reason is put to death and made alive by the terrifying and merciful presence of the holy God.

John Webster, Holiness, 8

2010
02/17
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Day 6: Holiness is Not Metaphysics, Mysticism, or Moralism

A Christian dogmatics of holiness is not metaphysics, because the holy God, reaching out in the world in Son and Spirit, is the sanctifier; not is it mysticism (or moralism), because human reality is holy only in dependence upon the Spirit of the Son who makes holy. Thus, as Barth puts it, a trinitarian dogmatics of holiness ‘cannot seek to have merely one centre, one subject’ precisely because ‘its subject is God’–God known as holy in the incarnate Word and life-giving Spirit.

John Webster, Holiness, 7

2010
02/17
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