Pastor John Wright

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December 21, 2005

After Finals -- Towards the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord

I got caught up with my grading today, and have all grades in except for my Christian Tradition class, that, as usual, seems to think due dates are human constructions, and not ontologically real. Imagine that.

I hope to get caught up in some blogging. Between my Society of Biblical Literature trip, the program on the Psalms by Luigi Giussani, finals, the beginning of Tasha's and Carl's high school soccer, time has been sparse. I hope to blog daily as we head into this weekend and throughout all twelve days of Christmas.

To renew I am reading Tracey Rowland's Culture and the Thomist Tradition After Vatican II in the Radical Orthodoxy series. Her work has an extreme analytic and constructive importance, not merely for Roman Catholics, but for both mainline and evangelical Protestants as well. I'd just like to leave you with a little quote that seems so important for congregations to embrace:

"The tendency to market Christianity by reference to its 'relevance' for the world, rather than explaining its role in the salvation of the soul, is ultimately counter-productive. The prophetic mission of the Church which includes its responsibility for the evangelisation of whole societies, becomes increasingly marginalised. No public relations campaign driven by spin-doctors is able to substitute for the witness of saints" (p. 32).

The reason this is so important is that as soon as one accepts the category of 'relevance' provided by the society rather than the justification and sanctification of sinners, the society ultimately assimilates the church into categories based on 'usefulness' rather than truthfulness. Relevance, even if it sounds 'prophetic' at the moment, leads to the absorption of a congregation into the society. As soon as the church is no longer 'useful' for the society and its members through the changes in the time, the church will then be shed by the society and even a congregation's own members like someone who suddenly realizes that his/her glasses frames are not fashionable, and thus run out to buy a new pair.

Posted by johnwright at December 21, 2005 8:12 PM

Comments

Wow. Are you suggesting that what's truthfull isn't always usefull? How Platonic of you! (Or, perhaps to get the geneology more corrent, how Augustinian of you)!

My only addition to this would be to make sure that we're clear on what the exact denotation of 'usefull' being used is. There is one thing that society/the market refers to as useful. And this certainly doesn't refer to the same thing as the truth. But there is also what 'useful' really refers to (I could bring in some Frege here, but will resist the urge). And I think that this does refer to what the truth is. What is truly useful to us is what is truly good for us, which is exactly what the process of salvation, justification and deification is aimed at. The Church, by it's very nature, will always be useful in this sense. But may the Churhc not be useful in the first sense of the word.

Posted by: Kevin Timpe at December 22, 2005 9:00 AM

Ah, Kevin. It does all depend on how one understands utility. But yes, given the fallenness of the world,truthfulness will not always appear useful -- after all, early Christians were accused of atheism and of being haters of humanity. But you are right, ultimately one can not separate truthfulness and goodness and beauty (and therefore, abstract usefulness away from the transcendentals), because they all are one in the simplicity of God.

Peace,
John

Posted by: John Wright at December 23, 2005 9:26 AM