The Enlightenment as Christian Heresy

“One way of understanding [the Enlightenment] is to think of it as a Christian heresy. What Christian faith had offered was retained while the Source from which that offer had been made was rejected. The prerogatives that had belonged to God did not simply disappear; now they reappeared in human beings. The revelation he had given now reappeared in the form of natural reason, which would do what revelation had done but without the discomfort of requiring humanity to submit to God from whom the revelation had come; the idea of salvation was retained but transformed into the drive for human perfectibility, at first achieved by moral striving and then, as we know it today, by psychological technique; grace became effort; the life of faith became the hope of personal growth; and eschatology became progress (what Lord Acton called the religion of those who have none).”

~ David F. Wells, Above All Earthly Powers (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2005), 30.

The Biblical Story Encompasses All of Reality

“The biblical story encompasses all of reality – north, south, east, west, past, present, future. It begins with the creation of all things and ends with the renewal of all things. In between it offers an interpretation of the meaning of cosmic history. It, therefore, makes a comprehensive claim; our stories, our reality must find a place in this story.”

~ Michael Goheen, “Reading the Bible as One Story”

Consumerism, Contemplation & The Big Picture

“In a consumer society, in which contemplation is chased away by the urgency of the next purchase and the thrill of immediacy, it is hard to suppose that there is a metanarrative to life — a big-picture story of the history and future of the universe and our place in it.”

~ Nathan L. K. Bierma, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2005), 33.

“Down with Metanarratives!”

I found a selection of these humorous “motivational posters for the post-evangelical chaos” over at Pyromanics. Check them out, some are really quite funny.

From Primordial Past to Eschatological Future

“Perhaps the most fitting symbol of the development of creation from primordial past to the eschatological future is the fact that the Bible begins with a garden and ends with a city — a city filled with ‘the glory and the honor of the nations.’”

~ Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained  2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2005), 48.

On Meaning & Metanarrative

I’m not sure if William Kilpatrick is a Christian, but he does have an important  insight into the relationship between the meaning of life and the bigger picture of which we are a part. The lesson to draw is clear: our true identity is only discovered when we locate ourselves in God’s redemptive story through Jesus Christ.

The same impulse that makes us want our books to have a plot makes us want our lives to have a plot. We need to feel that we are getting somewhere, making progress. There is something in us that is not satisfied with a merely psychological explanation of our lives. It doesn’t do justice to our conviction that we are on some kind of journey or quest, that there must be some deeper meaning to our lives than whether we feel good about ourselves. Only people who have lost the sense of adventure, mystery, and romance worry about their self-esteem. And at that point what they need is not a good therapist but a good story. Or more precisely, the central question for us should not be, ‘What personality dynamics explain my behavior?’ but rather, ‘What sort of story am I in?’

~ Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong (New York, NY: Touchstone, 1992), 192.

 

The Worldliness of Our Time

“Modernity presents an interlocking system of values that has invaded and settled within the psyche of every person. Modernity is simply unprecedented in its power to remake human appetites, thinking processes, and values. It is, to put it in biblical terms, the worldliness of Our Time. For worldliness is that system of values and beliefs, behaviors and expectations, in any given culture that have at their center the fallen human being and that relegate to the periphery any thought about God. Worldliness is what makes sin look normal in any age and righteousness seem odd. Modernity is worldliness, and it has concealed its values so adroitly in the abundance, the comfort, and the wizardry of our age that even those who call themselves the people of God seldom recognize them for what they are.”

~ David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 1994), 29. 

Metanarrative Defined

Here’s a nice succinct definition of a metanarrative from Richard Baucham. This is exactly what the Bible claims to be — and, in fact, is.

A metanarrative is an attempt to grasp the meaning and destiny of human history as a whole by telling a single story about it; to encompass, as it were, all the immense diversity of human stories in a single, overall story which integrates them into a single meaning.”

- Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Academic, 2003), 4.

David Naugle on The Christian Worldview

David Naugle, professor of philosophy at Dallas Baptist University, wrote Worldview: The History of a Concept (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002) and provides some profound summary insights into the traditional creation, fall, redemption Christian worldview structure.

About creation, he writes on “issues of objectivity”:

‘Worldview’ in Christian perspective implies the objective existence of the trinitarian God whose essential character establishes the moral order of the universe and whose word, wisdom, and law define and govern all aspects of created existence.

He also writes on “issues of subjectivity” as it relates to the creation:

‘Worldview’ in Christian perspective implies that human beings as God’s image and likeness are anchored and integrated in the heart as the subjective sphere of consciousness which is decisive for shaping a vision of life and fulfilling the function typically ascribed to the notion of Weltanshauung.

Instead of speaking of the fall as one explanatory catagory, Naugle writes about “issues of sin and spiritual warfare”:

‘Worldview’ in Christian perspective implies the catastrophic effects of sin on the human heart and mind, resulting in the fabrication of idolatrous belief systems in place of God and the engagement of the human race in cosmic spiritual warfare in which the truth about reality and the meaning of life is at stake.

And, finally, he takes up “issues of grace and redemption”:

‘Worldview’ in Christian perspective implies the gracious inbreaking of the kingdom of God into human history in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who atones for sin, defeats the principalities and powers, and enables those who believe in him to obtain a knowledge of the true God and a proper understanding of the world as his creation.

Taken together, these statements concerning the basic elements of the Christian worldview help us to see how vast and comprehensive the whole canvas of redemptive-history really is. I think they stand as useful summaries of these important themes that unify and inform all of Scripture.