Enlightenment – Dancing In The Kingdom

Mystery of wisdom

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 13 – Distinctives within the body of Christ

Mystery of wisdom

[Bible references: Exodus 28:3; Deuteronomy 34:9; 1 Kins 3-4; 11:11-16; Psalm 49:3; 90:12; 111:10; Proverbs 1-4; 8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Colossians 2:1-5; 3:15-17; James 1; 3:13-18]

The limits of reason

It is not just that the world is immensely complex, but it seems to contain unexplainable attributes like Beauty and Truth – and something about us seems designed to need to find a reason for our being and a sense of morality. The tools of philosophy and science have been very helpful in understanding our world – but those tools are limited. Philosophers are constrained by our limits to comprehend our world through using reason alone.

After surveying the significant problems we confront in trying to make sense of this world, [John] Lock remarked: “From all which it is easy to perceive what a darkness we are involved in, how little it is of Being, and the things that are, that we are capable to know.” … [Alexander] Pope concedes that this universe appears to be incoherent and ambiguous. Yet Pope insists that we have to acknowledge the frailty and fallibility of human moral and intellectual capacities in reaching this judgement. … [John Banville] . “I saw a certain kind of pathetic beauty in the obsessive search for a way to be in the world, in the existentialist search for something that would be authentic.” … was forced to deal with the irreducible fragility and provisionality of human knowledge. … The hope of finding the Enlightenment’s Holy Grail, the crystalline clarity of rationalist certainties, gradually gave way to a reluctant realisation of the irreducible complexity of the world, which simply could not be expressed in terms of the clear and necessary ideas that the Enlightenment expected and demanded.[1]

Scientists are equally constrained by our limits to comprehend our world through measurement and experiment alone.

Those who invoke the political nostrum “follow the science” need reminding it is an activity that’s never free of value judgement … scientific findings are empirically-based descriptions of the patterns and regularities that we find in the world around us. They are not the be all and end all of explanation. . They are local explanations of aspects of the world around us, that are provisional in nature…. Science does not say anything about the ‘meaning of life’, the nature of causation, the origins of the universe, whether there is ‘free will’, etc., until its findings are combined with additional premises in an argument. Arguments, being made as they are in human language, are strictly speaking, philosophical in nature … Scientific reasoning can never prove the truth or falsity of its own assumptions (which are values), nor can it have much to say at all about normative questions, only indirectly. A scientific argument can be used to support a premise used in a philosophical argument about some conclusion, but it cannot constitute the argument.[2]

When we look to find meanings in the context of Biblical cultures, we find differences between the Hebrew and Greek cultures. While each culture has its strengths, as we talked about in “Limits of theology” (p.161), the different languages can shape our thinking by focusing on different priorities. The following table presents some of those different focus points.

Hebrew culture	Greek culture
nephesh refers to whole being (soul and body are integrated	not just a soul that exists apart from the body,
shema = listen and obey	Akouo – listen, hear
objects described in terms of function	Objects describe in terms of physical description
supernatural and natural worlds are integrated	supernatural and natural worlds are separate
historical narrative is about meaning	historical narrative is about chronological sequences
material goods measure God’s blessings	material goods measure personal achievement
value is on what we do	value is on what we think
knowledge is about ethics and moral practices	knowledge is about intellectual categories
worship was a function of service, what we do in the body	worship was a function of service what we think

The Hebrew language has fewer words and focuses on creating stories and not creating descriptions. The fewer words that are used can have a wider range of meanings which the Hebrew writers of scripture use to create stories with intentional ambiguities and is sparse in details and descriptions. The Hebrew worldview assumes a world where the natural and supernatural are intertwined and there is an actively involved God. Hebrew ethics are focused on what is done than what is thought.

The Greek language is amenable to creating complex words and is amenable to developing philosophical and scientific thought. Greek story telling is full of details and descriptions and exact definitions. The Greek worldview separates the spiritual world and the physical world, where the spiritual world is considered the most important and that the activity of the gods does not necessarily affect events in the physical realm. Greek ethics are focused more on what is thought than what is done.

The church has been affected by the Greek way of thinking.[3] One idea, called Gnosticism, held that salvation could be obtained through secret knowledge; leading to the development of “secret” societies like the Rosicrucian’s where only those within the society have that knowledge. Another idea was dualism, where spiritual things are considered to be good and material things are considered to be bad. The consequences of that thinking have led to heretical teachings about the nature of Jesus, severe asceticism, unhealthy thinking about sexuality, neglecting our stewardship of creation, rejection of the arts, etc.

One reaction in the church against the Greek philosophies led to a type of anti-intellectualism called fideism,[4] which intended to focus exclusively on a type of faith that ignored the use of reason

The ideas of the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, would resurface later during the Renaissance led to the development of modern science. However, the church hindered the development of astronomy for a while when it stubbornly clung to Aristotle’s geocentric view of the universe.

The limits of enlightenment[5]

[Bible references: Ps 111:10; Proverbs 2; 11:2; 1 Cor 1:18-31; James 3:13-18]

The church was involved various attempts to reclaim the glories of the past and to elevate the human condition in what used to be called the dark ages.[6] The discovery and rediscovery of the writings of Greek, Latin and Muslim philosophers and scholars enriched the thinking within the Roman empire. The sum of all these eventually led to the period of “Enlightenment.”

9^th Century Renaissance.[7] Monasteries were involved in the laborious process of preserving manuscripts by hand-copying them. However, for many years, some of the Latin and Greek classic writers were neglected in favor of Christian works. Charlemagne, the king of the Holy Roman Empire, was interested in giving everyone an education that included the Roman and Greek classic writings (such as the writings of Plato and Cicero). The main impact of this renaissance was on the development of literature.
12^th Century Renaissance.[8] Christians escaping the spread the Muslim empire brought new Greek and Arabic writings to the West. These included the writings of Aristotle about logic and Arabic writings about natural philosophy and Latin works about law. This renaissance led to advances in social organization, the law, technology, intellectual pursuits and attempts to make Christianity more human which led a general spirit of optimism and desires for a more personal and intense religious experience.
14^th century Renaissance.[9] The continued introduction of Greek texts from Christians fleeing the Ottoman Empire combined with the advent of the printing press made possible the wide publication of Greek ideas, particularly from Plato, whose ideas that some thought were more compatible with Christianity. These discoveries combined with discontent with the church led to the development of humanism, which elevated the capacity of humans. At first, humanism was very much a Christian topic but over time, humanism became an antithesis to Christianity.
18^th century Enlightenment.[10] The invention of the printing press in AD 1439 further supported the spread of science as well as humanism and would also be central to the Protestant revolution in the 1500s. During the same period, developments in shipbuilding and technology enabled the development of European empire building and the success of that contributed to the age of Enlightenment (AD 1714-1789) with the emphasis on liberty, progress and reason having priority over theology. The Enlightenment version of humanism, (different than the Christian version of humanism) stated that people are essentially good and do not need God to progressively improve over time. This version impacts even our modern-day culture and sometimes the culture within the church.

Advances in knowledge is a good thing, but knowledge constrained by human pride does not lead to wisdom. The “Enlightenment” was the name given by people who were proud of the age where God was cast off and where human knowledge replaced the wisdom of God.

Accepting paradox[11]

[Bible references: Matthew 5:6; 7:14; 11:29-30; Luke 17:10; John 6:35; Romans 3:28; Galatians 5:1; Ephesians 2:10; James 2:24]

Paradox: A seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which, when investigated, may prove to be well founded or true. (The Oxford Dictionary). A situation or statement that seems impossible or is difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics: (Cambridge Dictionary)

Religious truth often pivots on paradox … full truth about Jesus outruns the ability of human reason … all of the core truths of Christianity are twin realities, delicate paradoxes …it is dangerous to insist on flat yes-or-no answers to the big and perennial questions of life … we live in a fast-moving and rootless time when numerous theologians are trying to restate the Christian faith in relative and fluid terms that reflect the mood of our times more than biblical foundations (Callen, Barry L. Caught between Truths: The Central Paradoxes of Christian Faith, Emeth Press, 2007)

Embodying the gospel is … more than individualism. God is a social reality (trinity), faith should be a social reality, the best way to witness on behalf of the church is to be the church … More than rationalism. We are more than rational animals; rationality has its place but there is mystery that only faith can approach. Spiritual experience and interpretive concepts are reciprocally related. Doctrine is important but primacy is given to the transforming personal and community encounter with God in Jesus Christ … More than dualism. We are whole persons. Sin is both personal and systemic … More than knowledge. Knowledge, even biblical knowledge is not good in and of itself. Orthodoxy includes orthopraxy (Callen, Barry L. Caught between Truths: The Central Paradoxes of Christian Faith, Emeth Press, 2007)

The Bible is not written as a textbook that presents a list of topics and propositions. The views and values of the Bible are presented in the context of a story – a story of God and his image-bearers. The Bible’s focus is on relationships, and its views and values are found in the context of the stories of those relationships. Those stories sometimes reveal paradoxes.

One dimension of those paradoxes is revealed in how the values of the Bible are upside down compared to the views of the surrounding cultures. For instance, the Bible presents one God instead of many. The Bible presents a world of order which has a particular end in mind instead of repeated cycles of disorder with no end point in view.

Another dimension of those paradoxes are statements in the Bible which seem to contradict one another. Some examples are:[12]

• “We are worthless servants.” (Luke 17:10) “We are his workmanship.” (Ephesians 2:10)

• “Blessed are those who hunger.” (Matthew 5:6) “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry.” (John 6:35)

• “Take up my yoke and learn from me.” (Matthew 11:29) “Don’t submit again to a yoke.” (Galatians 5:1)

• “A person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:28) “A person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24)

• “My yoke is easy.” (Matthew 11:30) “How difficult the road that leads to life.” (Matthew 7:14)

Presenting values by means of paradoxes forces one to more completely understand those values by exploring them in different dimensions.

[1] McGrath, Alister. “On Truth, Mystery and the Limits of Human Understanding” Religion and Ethics www.abc.net.au/religion/on-truth-mystery-and-the-limits-of-human-understanding/10096364

[2] Copeland, Peter. “Knowing the Limits of Science” Convivium www.convivium.ca/articles/knowing-the-limits-of-science

[3] Got Questions “What is Hellenism, and how did it influence the early church?” Got Questions www.gotquestions.org/Hellenism.html

[4] Got Questions “What is Fideism?” Got Questions www.gotquestions.org/fideism.html

[5] Dartmouth. “Medieval Book Production and Monastic Life” Dartmouth sites.dartmouth.edu/ancientbooks/2016/05/24/medieval-book-production-and-monastic-life/; Kreis, Stephen. “Lecture 26 – The 12th Century Renaissance” Mr Mccubbins Classroom folder mccubbin.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/1/5/23153786/lecture_26__the_12th_century_renaissance.pdf

[6] Hughes, Tristan. “Why Was 900 Years of European History Called ‘the Dark Ages’?” Historyhit www.historyhit.com/why-were-the-early-middle-ages-called-the-dark-ages/

[7] Kulik, Rebecca M. Carolingian Renaissance Britannica www.britannica.com/topic/Carolingian-Renaissance

[8] Reeves, Andrew. “The twelfth-century renaissance” LibreTexts, humanities human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/History/World_History/Book%3A_World_History_-_Cultures_States_and_Societies_to_1500_(Berger_et_al.)/12%3A_Western_Europe_and_Byzantium_circa_1000-1500_CE/12.15%3A_The_Twelfth-Century_Renaissance

[9] Cartwright, Mark. “Renaissance Humanism” World History www.worldhistory.org/Renaissance_Humanism/

[10] Encyclopedia.com “The Renaissance and Enlightenment” Encyclopedia.com www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/renaissance-and-enlightenment

[11] Moen, Skip. “Paradox” Skipmoen Hebrew Word Study skipmoen.com/2020/10/paradox/

^[12] Wilson, Aaron. Lifeway Research research.lifeway.com/2019/03/19/14-biblical-paradoxes-every-christian-should-know/

Reflect

Does a person need great knowledge to be wise?

Observe

Read 1 Kings 3:1-28 and 1 Kings 11:1-13. How does someone with Solomon’s wisdom make the kind of failure he did concerning women?

Historical issues affecting the church

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 13 – Distinctives within the body of Christ

Historical issues affecting the church

[Bible references: Matthew 5:14-16; 13; 24; 26:6-13; John 15; 17; Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; 3-7; Ephesians 6:10-20; Colossians 2; 1 John 4]

Overcurrents – Historical issues outside the church that impact the development of the church.

The development of the church doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it happens in the midst of governments rising and falling, conflicts within and between nations, in the culture of the people around the church influencing the culture within the church, in the plagues and catastrophes and other events that happen to society. Within those events, sometimes it’s the world that impacts the church and sometimes it is the church that impacts the culture around it.

The church initially developed during the time of Pax Romana in which a stable empire and its infrastructure enabled the missionary efforts of the apostles and others. That same empire was also responsible for various persecutions of the church. However, the response of the church to those persecutions sometimes profoundly impacted not only by those who became witnesses of God’s glory displayed by the courage of the martyrs, but also the courage of those who risked their own health and well-being to give aid to the helpless and sick.

Those persecutions unfortunately created tension within the church as it had to deal with those who succumbed to the pressure of the persecution and denied Christ (a problem that would occur in future persecutions in other places and times). Some persecutions almost totally eradicated Christian populations. This happened with the Church of the East which almost entirely disappeared in the 14^th century. This happened even though the church, which was established in Persia in AD 410, grew to be the largest denomination in the world and whose influence extended to the east coast of China.

In the age of our hyper-individualism, it seems strange for us to imagine that it has been common throughout history for communities to identify themselves with a single religious identity. In the time of the early church, Christianity did not conform to the Roman religion which was cause for the persecution of the church. However, when Constantine became emperor of Rome (AD 306-337) and identified himself with Christianity, the church now found itself tied to the secular power of the government which changed dynamics within the church, with people now seeking identity with the church as a way of seeking power. Later on, as kings broke away from the empire and nation-states began to form (beginning in AD 1848), the religious ties to the state were often hijacked in order to accomplish the goals of the individual secular governments.

As the church spread, the different cultural environments and different languages spoken within the church created problems. Prominently, the Latin language and culture caused different developments than within the Greek language and culture. Emperor Constantine’s decision to create a separate capitol in Constantinople (AD 324) laid the groundwork for the creation of a bifurcated (Eastern and Western) Roman Empire. The Latin/Greek language problem worsened when the Western Roman Empire was overtaken by invaders from the north (AD 410), creating further isolation between East and West, and would eventually result in the formal East/West Schism in AD 1054.

Larger cultural events impacted the church as well. The contributions of Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle impacted the development of science and philosophy for many years. The contributions of Greece and Rome would be redeveloped during the Middle Ages in the development of sciences, although the church’s attachment to Aristotle’s geocentrism would hinder the development of astronomy for a while.

The invention of the printing press in 1439 supported the spread of ideas in science and humanism and would also be central to the Protestant revolution in the 1500s. During the same period, developments in shipbuilding and technology enabled the development of European empire and contributed to the age of Enlightenment (1714-1789) with the emphasis on reason having priority over theology, liberty, and progress^[1].

Undercurrents – Issues within the church that have had a wide impact throughout the church

Christianity introduced new ways of thinking of the world, but those ideas did not change all patterns of thinking all at once. They needed a chance to develop and mature and then over time would challenge the older ways of thinking as the new patterns were gradually absorbed. In our current post-Christian era, new ways of thinking are developing, but the pattern continues. The now older Christian ideas are providing some of the framework for the current post-Christian ideas to build on, although the Christian contributions may not be recognized.

In that regard, as we examine the patterns of thought in Christian history, we find that there are various classic Greek ideas which have influenced the church. One of the classic Greek contributions, Platonism, developed into what has been termed Gnosticism. Within Gnosticism, one idea was that salvation is obtained through secret knowledge; this has led to the development of “secret” societies like the Freemason’s where only those within the society have that knowledge. Another gnostic idea is known as dualism, where spiritual things are considered to be good and material things are considered to be bad. The consequences of that thinking have led to heretical teachings about the nature of Jesus, severe asceticism, unhealthy thinking about sexuality, neglecting our stewardship of creation, rejection of the arts, etc.

Many disagreements have occurred through the years about the role of faith in respect to reason and revelation. When trying to balance these ideas with one another, some espoused fideism (in which faith is independent of and hostile to reason), some espoused special revelation (i.e., prophecies) over rationalism, and some espoused rationalism over faith or prophecies. These imbalances eventually fed into the conflict of faith vs. science in the 1800s highlighted by Darwin’s contribution to the evolution of species.[2]

There have been various moments in church life where there seems to have been a loss of focus on how Christianity is supposed to be lived out in our daily lives. When religious practices were perceived to be over-intellectualized, various pietistic movements were started where attention was paid to the spiritual aspects of the faith and on the transformation of our daily lives.

As the church grew it was natural that different personalities combined with different languages and cultures would result in differing ideas the nature of God and practice of Christianity. After all the apostles had died, the church had to learn how to determine which differences were acceptable and which differences were not. When someone’s practices seemed inappropriate the council would generate rules to address those practices. When ideas were taught that seemed to conflict with core beliefs of the church, the council created creedal statements, such as the Apostle’s Creed or Nicene Creed. The Creeds[3] were not designed to be all-inclusive statements of belief but were rather designed to address the emerging heresies of the moment.

Church developments outside the bounds of the Roman Empire, and eventually the fracturing of the Roman Empire itself, led to the fracturing of the church as well. The difficulty and sometimes outright inability of the church to hold a single large ecumenical council representing the whole church has contributed to the many branches of the church that can be seen today.

During the era of Enlightenment, reasoning and rationality were emphasized while the supernatural was rejected. In regard to the Bible, this meant that any miraculous events described in the Bible including miracles, healings, divine revelation, or God being active in any way in the world were rejected.

There was a view which postulated that God had created the world but then let it run according to natural laws without any further interference. This same viewpoint along with the acceptance of evolution, led to an evolutionary perception of historical and social development that led to the rejection of the traditional viewpoint of biblical development. One idea that became very popular in the 1800s (and is still popular today) was the idea that the Bible was created by piecing together various texts during Israel’s time of exile.[4]

Steering Currents

We should not assume that the church is dragged helplessly by overcurrents and undercurrents. Through all those influences, the Spirit of God is at work in the church. If the church sometimes behaves badly, it is a reminder that it is not the church that is the Savior of the world, that distinction belongs to God alone. Occasionally, even the church forgets that she is in daily need of a Savior as she brings the gospel to the world. Christ is the faithful one, not the church.

Those of us who are members of the visible church don’t even know with certainty which members of the visible church truly belong to Christ and who does not. Only God knows that. Only God knows whether we have the right balance of beliefs and practices,[5] and we most likely don’t. God’s ways are higher than the ways of those who are in the church as well as outside the church. This should call us to humility. But it should also call us to assurance that God is working His plan and His church even if we are broken and sometimes failing. The hope that we bring to the world is that God still works within us despite our weakness and failures.

In our unfaithfulness, we need to remember the words of Jeremiah. After many chapters of God accusing his chosen people, Israel, of prostituting herself to the love of other gods, at the end, God said, “Return, O virgin Israel …” Again, it is our faithful Yahweh who persists in seeking and holding onto us, despite our unfaithfulness – and yet He will cleanse us and put our unfaithful ways behind us. This is the good news that the church can receive and pass on to those not yet in the church. Our faithful Yahweh has not left us or abandoned us but leads us, able to redeem us even in our rebellion.

God loves His church, and He will restore us. We are therefore in no position to not love the church that God loves. He has not abandoned us but calls us by His Spirit. I have often said, “It is a miracle that the gospel has survived the church.” It is a miracle, and the miracle continues as it already has through the centuries. God will use the church and guide the church, despite herself. And there is the promise from Jesus to His followers, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

^[1] Martin, Bruce. “Science and Faith: The Enlightenment;” Encyclopedia.com “Enlightenment and Empire” Explorations in Life, Theology, and Creation rossway.net/science-and-faith-the-enlightenment

[2] Darwin, Charles. “On the Origin of Species” John Murray 1859

[3] See Appendix I – Creeds of the Church

[4] Graf-Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis University of Maryland Department of Computer Science www.cs.umd.edu/~mvz/bible/doc-hyp.pdf

[5] orthodoxy and orthopraxy Learn Religion www.learnreligions.com/orthopraxy-vs-orthodoxy-95857

Observe

Read John 17:13-25. In His love towards us, God has created many things in the world for us to enjoy. However, the world’s hatred of the things of God is sometimes masked by the sweet enticements that lure us away the love of God towards the love of those things. How do we discern when we are being lured away from God?