Talking about God with Rob Bell, Part 2

This is the second part of my review, the first part is here.

The second section of What We Talk About When We Talk About God is the heart of Rob Bell’s message. Chapters 4-6 (with, for, and ahead) present his way of “talking about God.” While the first few chapters of What We Talk About is about the "talking" itself, these chapters focus on the content of what is being talked about. They address what we are or should be saying about God.

Chapter 4 is familiar to any Christian. This chapter discusses how God is “with” us. This of course is at the heart of the name Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” This chapter is a reminder that God is here with us. This also comes through in our everyday lives. We live with this feeling that there is so much more going on in this world. Most people sense that there is something deeper going on in our lives. God is present in all of our lives and we all live in this reality where God is working.

Chapter 5 discusses a God who is “for” us. Many times we think that God is vindictive and out to get us. God, however, is for us. He wants to see us succeed. God cares for us, loves us, and wants to help us. The prime example of this is the story of Easter. Jesus died for us. Yes we are sinners and we’re messed up, but God has come to fix that. Jesus died to save us from our sins. 

Finally, in chapter 6, Bell describes how God is “ahead” of us. Of the three, this is likely the least familiar to readers. It is not very often that someone uses the word “ahead” to describe God. What he means by this is that God is ahead of us in our thinking, that is he is more forward thinking than we are. His example for this is the idea of an eye for an eye that comes from the Old Testament law. We see this law as backward and built on revenge, but what we see in the O.T. is God establishing order in judicial system and ordering that the punishment fit the crime. If you kill someone’s ox, then you owe them an ox. You don’t owe them 3 oxen and you can’t just give them a chicken. Also, as a victim you cannot retaliate by killing 3 of his oxen. There is just payment, no more no less. This is a step forward in thinking, while to us it may seem like a step back. Bell argues that this is how God works. He is always moving us forward and progressing us in our thinking.

For the most part, I believe most Christians will agree with these statements. First of all, Christianity is built on the fact that God is with us. Jesus came lived with us and now the Holy Spirit dwells among us. God is in fact with us. Second, God is for his people. Jesus died for our sins. I’m not sure that you could make the argument that God is against us. Yes, he is against our sin, but has made a way for us to be freed from that sin. Lastly, I do believe that God is more forward thinking than we are. Look at the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus takes a few of the commandments a step farther and says it’s not just about murder, instead it’s about hate, or it’s not about adultery, it’s about lust. James says that true religion is displayed by taking care of orphans and widows. God is ahead of us pulling us forward.

I do, however, think that we need to be careful. While God is for us, we are for God as well. We need to be watchful that God being “for” us doesn’t turn into God wants me to be happy. Jesus died for our sins, but he also calls us to take up our cross to follow him. Scripture also tell us Christians will share in the sufferings of Jesus. If God being for us turns into wanting happiness, we can be tempted to do things that make us happy that aren’t good. Bell doesn’t advocate God wanting us to be happy, but he also doesn’t discuss that God being for us doesn’t mean that life will be easy.

My other concern is in the area of God being ahead of us. While I agree with his examples, I am also afraid of what someone could justify by claiming that God is ahead of us in our thinking. One that comes to mind would be in the area of universalism. Is God ahead of us and showing us that all religions are okay? There are some areas that we think God is ahead of us and in reality he is not. God is good and is ahead of us in goodness, but we need to be careful that we don’t step away from the hard truths claiming that God is ahead of us. There are places where God is pulling us, but he has also given us his scripture as his guide. We always need to be faithful to what he has already told us.

Read Part 3 here.

Talking about God with Rob Bell, Part 1

Rob Bell is at it again. Right around 2 years ago, Bell released his book Love Wins (which I reviewed here). This caused quite a stir in the evangelical Christian community. Now, Bell has written What We Talk About When We Talk About God (the video here sums most of it up). This book has not caused as much of a stir, but is certainly worth discussion. Once I was able to get my hands on the book, I read it and enjoyed it, and I’m going to give it a couple of posts here on the blog. There are essentially three parts of this book and to discuss them all would be too long for just one post. In this post, I'll looking at the first 3 chapters (hum, open, and both). The next posts will explore chapters 4-6 (with, for, and ahead) and then the last chapters (so and epilogue). In the last post, I’ll also give my general review.

His book opens with a comparison of our talk about God with an oldsmobile (see his book trailer for the story). This sets the stage for why Bell is writing. Oldsmobiles are outdated being left behind and God seems to be getting the same treatment. In our fast paced world, God, especially the God of the Bible, seems to be treated as old and no longer necessary. Bell’s experience, however, has been that people recognize in their lives that there is something beyond them and they can feel it (the hum) in their lives, but most religious discussion of God has turned them away. That’s why he’s writing this book. We need to change the way that we talk about God. He argues that we need to speak about God in a way that connects to people. God seems irrelevant, but Bell thinks that it doesn’t have to be that way.

The next two chapters, serve as an extension of the introduction. They prepare the way for Bell to talk about how God is with us, for us, and ahead of us. “Open” is a jump into science. Much of it is very similar to what he spoke about in his video “Everything is Spiritual.” The heart of this chapter is that the universe is not as definable as we think it is. While we are all taught Newtonian Physics, there are many things about the universe, particularly in the realm of quantum physics, that make the universe more open and unexplainable than we realize it actually is. Because of this, it is very sensible for us to talk about God. Bell writes, “When we talk about God, then, we're talking about something very real and yet beyond our conventional means of analysis and description.”

Chapter three, titled “Both,” is focused on the paradoxical nature of talking about God. One one side of the paradox is the fact that God is beyond us and beyond our understanding. We can know God, but we cannot fully know or understand him. Bell writes, “So when we talk about God we're using language, language that employs a vast array of words and phrases and forms to describe a reality that is fundamentally beyond words and phrases and forms.” On the other side of the paradox, we must talk about God. For us to know him, we have to talk about him.

When it comes to the first section of this book. I’m really pleased. The science section is kind of long, and some of it seems unnecessary, but ultimately I’m very pleased how he talks about theological discussion. Ultimately, talking about God is theology and I think more people need to hear what he says about how we discuss theology. We use words and phrases to describe the indescribable. There is humility needed when approaching theology. Many people think that they have solved the riddle of God or that they have theology down, when really they have barely scratched the surface. It reminds me of how Chesterton describes the difference between poets and logicians in his book Orthodoxy. “The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.” There is no way to reason all of God.

The part that I am cautious about is the discussion of updating the way talk about God. While I don’t disagree with Bell, if not careful this can lead anywhere. There are times when we need to change the way that we speak about God, but we need to be careful not to change the truth about God. This too requires humility. Sometimes we need to recognize that we speak incorrectly about God or in an unhelpful manner, and that does require change. On the other hand, we need to also be willing to stick to the truth when it is unpopular.

Part 2 of the review
Part 3 of the review

Brief Reflection on Maundy Thursday and Love

In light of my recent post on Christian leadership, I decided that today is an appropriate day to again reflect on the how the church behaves differently than the world. On the church's calendar, today is Maundy Thursday. This day derives its name from the Latin word that is the root of our word mandate. It's called this because of Jesus' words in John, "a new command I give to you" or a new "mandate." This mandate comes after his washing of the disciples feet. Jesus is displaying that his style of leadership is built on love and service, not on power. With this "new mandate," Jesus instructs his disciples to do the same to one another and then says that this is how the world will know that they are his disciples, by their love (John 13:34-35)

The love that Jesus speaks of here is not a feeling, but a lifestyle of putting others before yourself and treating others as you would want to be treated. This is love that Jesus shows us by laying down his life on the cross. This is love is more than just a singular action or a feeling, it is a virtue or a "a certain quality of character" as C.S. Lewis describes virtue in Mere Christianity. Our God is love, it is a part of his nature, and here Jesus commands us to make love apart of our character as well. So, while we typically spend this week think about what Jesus did for the world, today we are reminded of what He has asked us to do as well. We are to make love one of our defining characteristics like Christ did. As Paul wrote in Colossians 3, we are to clothe ourselves with love which binds all other virtues together in perfect unity.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." (John 15:9-13 NIV)

Thoughts on the new Pope and Christian Leadership

I'm not a Catholic, but like most have kept up with what's happening over in the Vatican. I watched as Benedict left for the last time as the Pope, and followed the announcement of the new Pope yesterday. In all of this, I have watched and shook my head as the American media has tried to understand what it means to be a leader in the church. They have talked about the power that the pope has in the world and speculated (quite a lot) about whether or not they would elect an American. Listening to the news, it all began to sound like election time in America. They were asking who was qualified, what kind of changes would this person make, and did they have the right leadership skills to be the Pope. It was all primarily about the power and position of the papacy.

Then yesterday, the church and the new pope did something that messed with the media's perception of "power" in the church. They elected someone that no one in the media considered and he choose a name that truly demonstrated what Christian leadership is all about. They elected man who has served the poor and chose to forgo some of the privileges that his previous role allowed him. They elected a man who is known for his act of washing the feet of 12 AIDS patients in 2001. Then they announced the name of the new pope. His name is Francis. He took the name of a very famous saint who is famously humble. Saint Francis chose a life of poverty and spent his life serving the poor and preaching the gospel. Of all the names he could have chosen, I think that this name is quite appropriate for someone who is supposed to lead the church. When it comes to being a leader in the church, it's not about power or wealth. It's not about having the most impressive resume or being the smartest guy around. It's not about being able to dominate the boardroom or be at the top of your field. It's about being like Christ.  Jesus Christ, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!" (Phil 2:6-8 NIV)

While I'm not a catholic, I am impressed with the new pope's choice of name and I hope that he lives up to it. I hope that he emulates the life of Francis and the life of Christ. I hope that he leads in humility and shows the world that Christian leadership is different from political leadership. He is a man with a lot of influence, and I pray that his influence spreads the gospel and shows the love of Christ to those in need.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27 NIV)

For more about on this subject please check out my friend David's post, "The new Pope and why Protestants should care."

fighting the idols in our lives

If I asked you which of the Ten Commandments gave you the most trouble, you probably would admit to the second commandment. In Exodus 20:4 God commands, "You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." I don't think that this is a common problem in America today. I very rarely, if ever, see actual idols that were made to worship. There is, however, still an idolatry problem in our world today. Kyle Idleman meets this problem head on in his new book gods at war. He argues that while we aren't setting up statues or other images and bowing down to them, we're elevating people, ideas, and objects in our lives to a place higher than God. Idleman writes, "Anything at all can become an idol once it becomes a substitute for God in our lives." Whenever we make a choice that goes against God or favors someone or something over God, we have become idolaters.

gods at war is broken down into four sections. The first section defines what he means by idolatry. Idleman describes how we are in a battle with the "gods" of this world. These gods are fighting for our attention and drawing us away from Christ. The idols are not the same anymore. Unlike the Israelites who were following after Baal, Ashteroth, and Molech, we worship the gods of pleasure, power, and love. Essentially, though, we are doing the exact same thing as the Israelites. Instead of following God and pursuing obedience to him, we give our obedience and worship to something other than god. Worshipping Baal has the same consequence as worshiping love. The last three sections explore the ways we worship in the "temples" of power, pleasure, and love. Idleman explores how we devote ourselves to gods like money, success, food, entertainment, romance, and even family. Each of chapter in these sections (except for the last one) ends with questions to help the reader identify the idols that may be in their life.

I really appreciate what Kyle Idleman has done in gods at war. When I wrote my thesis on faith, I came to the same basic conclusions about where we put our faith. Ultimately if we are not trusting and seeking after God with our lives, then we have given something that isn't God the position of God in our hearts. I think a lot of people need to hear this today. The subject matter, however, is very similar to Timothy Keller's book Counterfeit Gods. If you've read Keller's book, this book is not going to much different. One thing Idleman does different is his book does a great job of helping you reevaluate the values you are giving to different people and things in your life. The reflective questions that appear in the book help you take this step. I don't think most of us realize how we have let something that might be good turn into a false god and rule over our lives. It does not, however, explore in depth in any one of the false god's that it discusses. For that reason, I believe this book would be best used in a group study since it comes with questions already imbedded in the text. Going through this book with a small group would allow someone to analyze each "god"a little more in depth (there are also online resources at godsatwar.com).

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Zondervan as part of the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Dangerous Calling of Ministry

The call to full-time ministry is a dangerous call. For some it is dangerous in the sense of outward persecution, but for most who will read Paul David Tripp's book the danger is spiritual. Speaking from personal experience and from his experience counseling other pastors, Tripp describes the hazards encountered in full-time ministry. He shares how he has suffered and seen others suffer from the perils of personal sin, pride, burnout, and mediocrity. At the heart of all of it, however, is a failure by ministers to sit under their own teaching and to take to heart the scripture they spend so much time studying. We can become so good at studying and teaching about scripture and about spiritual disciplines, that we rarely spend time applying scripture to our lives and practicing Spiritual disciplines. There many points of application that readers can take away from Dangerous Calling, but  I believe this is one of the the most important points to remember. I don't think that most ministers would admit to thinking that they're above their own teaching, but it is very easy to live like it. I know personally I enjoy studying and reading about scripture and get so caught up in the act of studying and learning that I sometimes fail to worship the God I meet in scripture or practice what I learned.

Along with sitting under your own teaching, Tripp also reminds ministers to remember whose glory we are seeking in ministry. We are not seeking our own glory. Everyone in the church, ministers included, should be seeking the glory of God and avoiding self-glory. When we recognize that we are aiming to glorify God, we recognize that we are all sinners saved by grace, even seminary grads.  Last May, I graduated from Seminary and received my M.A. in Christian Education. I love my education and thankfully my professors seek teach more than knowledge. They taught us not only to study but to serve and worship God. I'm now pursing full-time ministry and am very thankful that I came across some recommendations for prospective ministers from bloggingtheologically.com. The first book was Dangerous Calling, and I'm glad I read it. It's a good reminder for someone like me who is going into ministry that even though I have received a seminary education I am not above it all.

If you're going into ministry, you should read this book. If you're in ministry, you should read this book. If you are close to someone in ministry who is having difficulties, you should read this book. If you're an elder at a church, you should read this book. This book doesn't cover every problem that a minster might have, but it serves as a good reminder for anyone connected to ministry or serving in ministry. It can be dangerous to be in ministry if you neglect yourself and forget whom you are serving.

I went to the library and got this book based on the recommendation from bloggingtheologically.com. I wasn't asked to write a review, but my wife says that I should write more book reviews. You should go to your library and get books, libraries are wonderful.

Exploring the Virtues in Tolkien and Lewis

Both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were godly men and their writing was informed by their faith. Although not always evident to everyone or plain in all of their stories, they crafted their characters and worlds to reveal the virtues of the Christian life. It is more obvious in the work of Lewis, whose fiction works clearly represent Biblical stories and virtues. Tolkien's work is more often praised for the depth of the fantasy world that he created. Unfortunately, many have chosen to obsess over the characters and the world itself and not examine the virtue, or lack thereof, built into his characters. In his book On the Shoulders of Hobbits, Louis Markos examines the virtues behind the stories and characters. He shows how the faith of Tolkien and Lewis undergird the stories of Middle-Earth and Narnia. Markos divides his book into four main sections with four chapters each. The four main sections are the Road, the Classical Virtues, the Theological Virtues, and Evil. In each chapter, he primarily discusses how The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Chronicles of Narnia portray the particular virtue or, in the case of evil, the lack of virtue.

Markos begins with the Road. While itself is not a virtue, this is an appropriate place to start when discussing the virtues in the world of story. All good stories begin with a hero being swept up into some sort of journey. This is especially true of Tolkien's works (he even wrote a poem about the Road). The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings begin with a hobbit (or hobbits) leaving their shire on a journey. Markos rightly explains that all of us are called to take to the road and live out some sort of journey. Although our journey may not be as life threatening as those the Lewis and Tolkien write about, we all have to answer the call to live out the journey set before us.

The heart and meat of this book is found in parts two, three, and four. In sections two and three, Markos expounds how the seven virtues, four cardinal and three theological, are found in the work of Tolkien and Lewis. In the cardinal virtues, Markos does a fantastic job of revealing the characteristics of various characters in Middle-Earth and Narnia and the virtues that they portray. I particularly enjoy his exploration of wisdom and how wisdom and knowledge are not one in the same. Markos shows the differences between the wisdom and discernment of Gandalf and Saruman's quest for knowledge and power. He explains that Saruman's quest for power gives him great knowledge of evil and he gains great power, but Saruman's quest is ultimately folly because he quest for power blinds him to the fact that he is merely a pawn of Sauron. Gandalf, however, understands the wisdom of destroying the ring and not trying to better understand it and wield its power. 

The next part focuses on the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Markos adds to this list friendship. This is, on one hand understandable, because of key role that friendship plays in Lord of the Rings and in many of the Narnia tales. On the other hand, it seems a bit odd that Markos seeks to add to the theological virtues. Looking at the table of contents, it appears that he was merely seeking for symmetry in his four sections to have four chapters. That being said, it is a well written chapter on the importance of friendship both in the lives of the authors and their works. Following friendship, he discusses faith, hope, and love. Compared to the section on the cardinal virtues, this is the weaker of the two discussions of the virtues. Primarily, I was disappointed with his section on faith. Instead of discussion the deep trust in faith that requires, primarily focuses on the meaning of the Greek word Kairos and how the council of Eldrond was a "Kairos" moment that called the characters to faith. 

Finally, Markos finishes with a discussion of evil, which might seem a little out of place, but fits in perfectly to round off this discussion. Not surprisingly, Lewis and Tolkien show a similar understanding of the nature of evil in the world. Neither of them consider evil or any evil power capable of creating anything. They are merely twisting and warping that which is good into evil. Markos explains that the "opposites" of the virtues, are not really opposites. Evil only has the power to steal, kill, and destroy what is good, it has no creative power. This is important in the real world because we need to see that God is the source of life and is more powerful that evil. It takes what God has created and twists, warps, and destroys. What may seem powerful to us, ultimately has no power over the Creator. The vices are not the opposite of the virtues, but merely a twisting of them.

Normally, I don't write reviews this long, but I am very pleased with this book and enjoy talking about this subject. Even though I have offered a few critiques, I believe that this is a fantastic book and a must read for anyone wanting to delve deeper into the writings of Tolkien and Lewis. I wish that Markos would have ventured more into The Silmarillion and into some of Lewis's other fiction works (primarily the Space Trilogy), but that would likely make this a much larger book. As it is now, it is very approachable for anyone who appreciates Lewis and Tolkien. For someone like me who wants more, Markos includes a list of books about Tolkien and books about Lewis for further study. If you like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, which most people do, read this book. It will help you appreciate their books and understand them as not just fantasy books, but as works of devout Christian men expressing their faith.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Moody Publishers as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”