Students, Parents, and Spiritual Formation

Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean

Dr. Dean, who teaches at Princton Seminary and delivered this lecture at Truett Seminary (part of Baylor University), makes the point that students often receive their faith from their parents.  Furthermore, she argues that the most common faith experience among American youth is “moralistic therapeutic deism.”  Basically, this outlook is that God set the world in motion, wants us to be good people, which in turn will make us happy people.  This approach to life is all about me and what God can do for me.  It has little to do with God and what God is at work doing.  For me, countering this approach to faith with what Scripture actually says about Jesus and his call on our lives is central to ministry itself.

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N.T. Wright on Genesis

So, what does it mean to take Genesis literally?

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Essential Books – Part 4

One of my favorite books of all time, written by one of my favorite authors, is The Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight.  McKnight is a professor of religious studies at North Park University and has written extensively on the New Testament and the life and mission of Jesus.  In Jesus Creed, he argues that the heart of Jesus’ teaching is found in Mark 12: 29-31, in which Jesus quotes the OT shema and then adds a quotation from Leviticus when he is asked which is the most important commandment: “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (NIV)

The remainder of the book is the outworking of this command.  If the chief responsibility of the follower of Jesus is to love God and love others, we need to think through what that means.  McKnight does that better than anyone else.  Using biblical stories and excellent illustration throughout the book, he guides the reader through how the Jesus Creed affects spiritual formation, personal life, and society, and McKnight does this in engaging way.

I have worked through this book with both groups and individuals, and I have found that most Christians find it extremely insightful and helpful.  If you are attempting to deepen your understanding of  what the Christian life should be like, this is a excellent resource.

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“Masculine” Christianity

Lots of blog space has recently been devoted to John Piper’s comments the nature of Christianity.  You can read his words firsthand here.  He attempts to make the case that since God is spoken of as masculine, since the priesthood included only males, since Jesus was a male, and since the apostles were males, Christianity must be primarily masculine in nature. His expands on this premise in the following paragraph:

“Theology and church and mission are marked by overarching godly male leadership in the spirit of Christ, with an ethos of tender-hearted strength, and contrite courage, and risk-taking decisiveness, and readiness to sacrifice for the sake of leading, protecting, and providing for the community—all of which is possible only through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s the feel of a great, majestic God, who by his redeeming work in Jesus Christ, inclines men to take humble, Christ-exalting initiative, and inclines women to come alongside the men with joyful support, intelligent helpfulness, and fruitful partnership in the work.”

Wow!  I see that as a most unfortunate paragraph.  First, Piper ignores all of the women who appear throughout the Bible in his arguments  leading to this conclusion.  In cultures in which women were often ignored and subjugated, it is remarkable that the Bible includes so many women as heroes.  One needs to look no further than two women who have books named for them: Ruth and Esther.  But the list does go on: Sarah, Hannah, Deborah, Jael, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Priscilla, Lois, Eunice, Philip’s daughters, Junia, and many others.  It seems very difficult for me to say that Christianity has an exclusively masculine or feminine nature or even that one strongly outweighs the other.

Second, the conclusion once again identifies the roles for women as supporting male ministry roles.  When can the church move past this?  Women can minister effectively in vitally important roles to the church.  They need not always “support” men.  Why can men never “support” women in their roles?

The case can certainly be made that certain leadership roles were filled by men in the New Testament.  That is not my concern here.  I am more bothered by the fact that the church can’t see the value of having the female voice present.  It need not be muffled by men who demand that the women support them in what they do.

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Essential Books – Part 3

I bought a copy of Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words last year to supplement my Vine’s Dictionary which I have been using for nearly 20 years.  The basic purpose for a volume like this is to provide English definitions for Greek and Hebrew words used in Scripture.  Since it is a single volume, it is not comprehensive, but it provides just enough information to give most students of the Bible a basic understanding of the words included.  Mounce’s is filled with biblical references which help delineate between the various meanings of the original Greek and Hebrew.

Vine’s has been the standard for many years, but Mounce’s improves on the classic in two important ways.  First, the scholarship is updated.  Mounce uses all of the latest tools to help provide the clearest meaning in current English usage.  Second, the words are organized with both Old and New Testament uses together.  Vine’s had an OT section and a NT section.  I was constantly flipping back and forth to see how word meanings grew and changed between the two.  Mounce’s convenient arrangement ends all of that.

This is a great volume to have next to your Bible.

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Christianity Today’s Movie Awards

Christianity Today publishes two lists of movie awards.  I’m most interested in their Critic’s Choice Awards, which looks fairly interesting.  We only watch movies when they are released on DVD, partly because we’re cheap and partly because we have a three-year-old.  So, I’ve only seen Moneyball.  I read the book several years ago and thought it was very insightful.  When I heard that it was being made into a movie, I wondered how it could possibly be done.  They did it, and it was interesting, but it stretched out a but in the middle.  Lots of scenes of Brad Pitt riding around industrial sections of Oakland.

Any way, what do you think of the rest of these movies?  I’m looking forward to The Way, which will be released this month because I’m a Martin Sheen fan (mainly because of The West Wing) and because it seems to explore some interesting religious themes.

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Essential Books – Part 2

In this series of posts, I’m recommending the books that I think are the most important for Christians to have on their shelves.  Last week, I began with the first book I would buy if had was starting from scratch: the NIV Study Bible.

If that book is on your shelf already, your second purchase should be the two volume set IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament and IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament.  With these two volumes, the Bible student has commentary on the entire Bible in an affordable and compact format.  Some of the most frequently asked questions among people studying Scripture are related to background issues: cultural practices, government, family issues, religious practices, etc.  While these commentaries are not designed to answer technical language, interpretation, or theological problems, they do a better-than-adequate job of dealing with the background questions.

I continue to consult these commentaries first in my teaching and preaching preparation because they tend to answer the most obvious questions which come to mind when I read through a passage the first time in my preparation.  I go on to other resources, but this continues to be the best starting point for me, and they would be a great addition to any library.

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