I just finished reading a book on theological anthropology (you can read my somewhat "scathing" review here). Theological anthroplogy is simply the study of human persons theologically. In other words, how, as Christians, do we talk about the central defining features of human existence - freedom, sexuality, identity, etc. In this particular book, the author sought to use ancient sources from the Church Fathers, Desert Fathers and Mothers, etc. to help us recover an ancient understanding of personhood. Despite what you might think after reading my review, I did think the book had some good emphases. Her focus was on the inherent value of human persons - each and every one - and how the modern conception of human "nature" as inherent bad has misaligned our understanding of personhood. Fair enough. But what I found disconcerting about the volume was that formation was couched simply as fortitude.
Friday, September 3
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Spiritual Theology
Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 11:59 am
Human Persons and Christian Formation
Posted by Kyle Strobel | Comments (0) |
Complete article
Complete article
Monday, August 9, 2010 at 10:56 am
Identity
Posted by Abbie Smith | Comments (0) |
Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!
D. Bonhoeffer
March 4,1946
Complete article
Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!
D. Bonhoeffer
March 4,1946
Complete article
Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 10:50 am
Dehumanization in the Church
Posted by Kyle Strobel | Comments (0) |
Dehumanization surrounds us in both obvious and subtle ways. The obvious ways - oppression, slavery, prostitution, and all forms of dehumanizing acts against individuals and people groups is the fruit of much more subtle seedlings of human relationality.
This week I've moved back to the States, and have been run through the ringer of a beaurocratic system that develops clean cut structures and systems which aim to categorize and label every living human being. What am I talking about? Customs. I shipped back a bunch of stuff from the UK - mostly just old clothes, books, a 10 year old laptop, etc. - but it is now being held by customs because of their inability to deal with humans rather than contrived categories. They are worried that I've bought things from other countries to sell in the states (even though the UK is more expensive and so my so-called grand scheme would be to pay double for items in the UK, spend a small fortune to ship it back, and then lose a fortune in selling it - brilliant). This may seem like a little thing - and it is - but it hints at something deeper. We run societies on the assumption that people can be easily categorized and labelled in a de-personalized way. Tax forms are probably the best example of this. Hundreds of entries attempting to tell the government something important - when in the end they fail to ask any important questions. Eugene Peterson tells a similar story about his passport, where the person behind the passport counter had known Eugene his entire life, but demanded the appropriate paperwork from hin to prove his identity. But, we probably shouldn't expect any more from the government - they do have to deal with millions of people.
Complete article
Dehumanization surrounds us in both obvious and subtle ways. The obvious ways - oppression, slavery, prostitution, and all forms of dehumanizing acts against individuals and people groups is the fruit of much more subtle seedlings of human relationality.
This week I've moved back to the States, and have been run through the ringer of a beaurocratic system that develops clean cut structures and systems which aim to categorize and label every living human being. What am I talking about? Customs. I shipped back a bunch of stuff from the UK - mostly just old clothes, books, a 10 year old laptop, etc. - but it is now being held by customs because of their inability to deal with humans rather than contrived categories. They are worried that I've bought things from other countries to sell in the states (even though the UK is more expensive and so my so-called grand scheme would be to pay double for items in the UK, spend a small fortune to ship it back, and then lose a fortune in selling it - brilliant). This may seem like a little thing - and it is - but it hints at something deeper. We run societies on the assumption that people can be easily categorized and labelled in a de-personalized way. Tax forms are probably the best example of this. Hundreds of entries attempting to tell the government something important - when in the end they fail to ask any important questions. Eugene Peterson tells a similar story about his passport, where the person behind the passport counter had known Eugene his entire life, but demanded the appropriate paperwork from hin to prove his identity. But, we probably shouldn't expect any more from the government - they do have to deal with millions of people.
Complete article
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Evangelical Prayer versus Mystical Prayer
Posted by Kyle Strobel | Comments (1) |
I came across another quote as I was reading Donald Bloesch that I thought I would share. This time, he is addressing different views of prayer, focusing his attention specifically on what an evangelical depiction of prayer would look like. Let me know what you think:
Complete article
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Sunday, July 4, 2010 at 5:49 pm
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I came across another quote as I was reading Donald Bloesch that I thought I would share. This time, he is addressing different views of prayer, focusing his attention specifically on what an evangelical depiction of prayer would look like. Let me know what you think:
Complete article
Last commented:
Sunday, July 4, 2010 at 5:49 pm
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Monday, June 28, 2010 at 2:56 am
A "Catholic" Evangelical Theology
Posted by Kyle Strobel | Comments (0) |
I ran across a quote from Donald Bloesch on a "catholic" evangelical theology, where catholic is taken in its sense of "universal." What do you think about his thoughts?
"A catholic evangelical theology will seek to learn from all the great spiritual movements of the past, including medieval Catholicism, without succumbing to their pitfalls. There is even a place for the doctrine of the company of the saints, which is the church triumphant and militant, but of individual saints whose lives noticeably reflect and bear witness to the passion and victory of Christ. Such persons are not necessarily paradigms of virtue but public signs and witnesses of the One who alone is perfectly holy - namely, Jesus Christ. While they are not conscious of their holiness, they may well be poignantly aware that God is working in them and through them to bring others to Christ. They know in their hearts that ever again they fail to live up to God's expectations, but they also know that God will never fail them. They are potent testimonies to the reality of divine sanctification in the lives of his people. Their perfection is one of persevering faith in their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, manifested in a life of outgoing love to the poor and despised of this world. Such individuals can be held up in the church as models of holiness, though it must always be pointed out that their holiness is symbolic and derivative, that it has its source and goal in the perfect holiness of Jesus Christ that alone atones for sin."
Complete article
I ran across a quote from Donald Bloesch on a "catholic" evangelical theology, where catholic is taken in its sense of "universal." What do you think about his thoughts?
"A catholic evangelical theology will seek to learn from all the great spiritual movements of the past, including medieval Catholicism, without succumbing to their pitfalls. There is even a place for the doctrine of the company of the saints, which is the church triumphant and militant, but of individual saints whose lives noticeably reflect and bear witness to the passion and victory of Christ. Such persons are not necessarily paradigms of virtue but public signs and witnesses of the One who alone is perfectly holy - namely, Jesus Christ. While they are not conscious of their holiness, they may well be poignantly aware that God is working in them and through them to bring others to Christ. They know in their hearts that ever again they fail to live up to God's expectations, but they also know that God will never fail them. They are potent testimonies to the reality of divine sanctification in the lives of his people. Their perfection is one of persevering faith in their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, manifested in a life of outgoing love to the poor and despised of this world. Such individuals can be held up in the church as models of holiness, though it must always be pointed out that their holiness is symbolic and derivative, that it has its source and goal in the perfect holiness of Jesus Christ that alone atones for sin."
Complete article
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 4:48 am
What About Our Righteousness? Justification by Faith and Spiritual Formation
Posted by Kyle Strobel | Comments (0) |
I've been working on the topic of justification by faith alone lately, writing a chapter for a book coming out sometime (Lord willing) in 2011. The issue of justification has a lot to do with righteousness. We are saved, we affirm, not by our own righteousness, but by Christ's. Our sins are not imputed to us and Christ's righteousness, through his life, death and resurrection, are applied to our account. This, it would seem, is where most evangelicals part ways from the Reformed tradition. Many evangelicals will affirm the above wholeheartedly, but when it comes to sanctification, our righteousness after justification, we think our righteousness is in fact our righteousness. But this is not the case.
The tradition uses the terms "imputed" righteousness to talk about what is given us by Christ in justification and "inherent" righteousness, which is the righteousness applied to us in sanctification. But for the Reformed (rightfully so), our inherent righteousness is no more from us than our imputed righteousness is. Christ is, and will always be, our righteousness and our life. Faith and grace depict ways of relation with Christ himself, as the source of our righteousness and life, and not, as some would have it, that Christ's actions make our independent righteousness possible. The Spirit of God binds us to Christ, so that Christ is our life and works his own life into ours.
Complete article
I've been working on the topic of justification by faith alone lately, writing a chapter for a book coming out sometime (Lord willing) in 2011. The issue of justification has a lot to do with righteousness. We are saved, we affirm, not by our own righteousness, but by Christ's. Our sins are not imputed to us and Christ's righteousness, through his life, death and resurrection, are applied to our account. This, it would seem, is where most evangelicals part ways from the Reformed tradition. Many evangelicals will affirm the above wholeheartedly, but when it comes to sanctification, our righteousness after justification, we think our righteousness is in fact our righteousness. But this is not the case.
The tradition uses the terms "imputed" righteousness to talk about what is given us by Christ in justification and "inherent" righteousness, which is the righteousness applied to us in sanctification. But for the Reformed (rightfully so), our inherent righteousness is no more from us than our imputed righteousness is. Christ is, and will always be, our righteousness and our life. Faith and grace depict ways of relation with Christ himself, as the source of our righteousness and life, and not, as some would have it, that Christ's actions make our independent righteousness possible. The Spirit of God binds us to Christ, so that Christ is our life and works his own life into ours.
Complete article
Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 4:46 am
Spiritual Formation and Protestant Distinctives: Soli Deo Gloria
Posted by Kyle Strobel | Comments (1) |
We come now to our last Protestant distinctive, with a focus here on a specifically Reformed distinctive. Soli Deo Gloria means to God alone be the glory. Each of the five "solas" we have looked at offer helpful correctives to the spiritual formation conversation. Sola scriptura orients us around our authoritative source of revelation, sola fide focuses our attention on the only means by which we can come before God - not of ourselves - but only through faith, faith which is offered as a gift from God. Sola fide is a natural corollary to sola gratia, in that we come before God by grace alone, and both follow the contours of our belief in solus Christus. God is the actor of our salvation, which includes our sanctification and future glorification, and we are the receivers of that activity. God is the alpha and omega in the affair of redemption, Jonathan Edwards loved to say, and therefore to God alone be the glory.
Complete article
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Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 11:01 pm
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We come now to our last Protestant distinctive, with a focus here on a specifically Reformed distinctive. Soli Deo Gloria means to God alone be the glory. Each of the five "solas" we have looked at offer helpful correctives to the spiritual formation conversation. Sola scriptura orients us around our authoritative source of revelation, sola fide focuses our attention on the only means by which we can come before God - not of ourselves - but only through faith, faith which is offered as a gift from God. Sola fide is a natural corollary to sola gratia, in that we come before God by grace alone, and both follow the contours of our belief in solus Christus. God is the actor of our salvation, which includes our sanctification and future glorification, and we are the receivers of that activity. God is the alpha and omega in the affair of redemption, Jonathan Edwards loved to say, and therefore to God alone be the glory.
Complete article
Last commented:
Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 11:01 pm
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Friday, May 28, 2010 at 3:54 am
Spiritual Formation and Protestant Distinctives: Sola Gratia
Posted by Kyle Strobel | Comments (0) |
This is our fourth installment in the spiritual formation and Protestant distinctives series, this time on grace alone. We have looked at sola scriptura (scripture alone),solus Christus (Christ alone) and sola fide (faith alone). This, perhaps more so than the rest (not neglecting the importance of the others) is central to a proper understanding of spiritual formation, and, importantly, the Gospel itself. Sola gratia highlights our standing before God, and that standing is guilty. We have, as it were, no ground to stand upon, and no traction from which to gain a God-ward momentum. God's movement to us, whether it be in justification (through the remission of our sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness), or in sanctification, whereby God sanctifies us for himself - is always by grace alone.
Complete article
This is our fourth installment in the spiritual formation and Protestant distinctives series, this time on grace alone. We have looked at sola scriptura (scripture alone),solus Christus (Christ alone) and sola fide (faith alone). This, perhaps more so than the rest (not neglecting the importance of the others) is central to a proper understanding of spiritual formation, and, importantly, the Gospel itself. Sola gratia highlights our standing before God, and that standing is guilty. We have, as it were, no ground to stand upon, and no traction from which to gain a God-ward momentum. God's movement to us, whether it be in justification (through the remission of our sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness), or in sanctification, whereby God sanctifies us for himself - is always by grace alone.
Complete article
Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 1:59 am
Spiritual Formation and Protestant Distinctives: Sola Fide
Posted by Kyle Strobel | Comments (0) |
Our third look at Protestant distinctives in spiritual formation is a look at sola fide or faith alone. Christ alone, as we looked at last time, demands, in some sense, these next two - faith alone and grace alone. It could be, for spiritual formation folks, that faith alone will be our most helpful corrective. There are certainly some necessary proding from sola scriptura and solus Christus, as highlighted above, but when a conversation so heavily stresses sanctification and the working of grace, sola fide is the necessary admonishment.
It is not that we are simply saved by faith and then leave faith behind. We are on a pilgrim journey for the entirety of the Christian life this side of glory. Our faith remains until it collapses into sight - where we will, as Paul states, "see him as he is." Faith undermines the notion that we are somehow on a path of perfection or that our disciplines, efforts and plans allow us a clear sight - we behold in a mirror darkly - and no effort on our part can clean it. Solus Christus demands sola fide because it is in Christ alone that our hope is found, and it is only in faith that we grasp ahold of his love which he lavishes upon his people. We are not saved in one way and then sanctified in another - justification and sanctification are inter-connected gifts given at the declaration of our righteousness by the God who speaks reality into being - therefore we continue on the pilgrims' path of faith understanding that it is by faith alone that we relate with our God, and through faith alone that he sanctifies us.
Complete article
Our third look at Protestant distinctives in spiritual formation is a look at sola fide or faith alone. Christ alone, as we looked at last time, demands, in some sense, these next two - faith alone and grace alone. It could be, for spiritual formation folks, that faith alone will be our most helpful corrective. There are certainly some necessary proding from sola scriptura and solus Christus, as highlighted above, but when a conversation so heavily stresses sanctification and the working of grace, sola fide is the necessary admonishment.
It is not that we are simply saved by faith and then leave faith behind. We are on a pilgrim journey for the entirety of the Christian life this side of glory. Our faith remains until it collapses into sight - where we will, as Paul states, "see him as he is." Faith undermines the notion that we are somehow on a path of perfection or that our disciplines, efforts and plans allow us a clear sight - we behold in a mirror darkly - and no effort on our part can clean it. Solus Christus demands sola fide because it is in Christ alone that our hope is found, and it is only in faith that we grasp ahold of his love which he lavishes upon his people. We are not saved in one way and then sanctified in another - justification and sanctification are inter-connected gifts given at the declaration of our righteousness by the God who speaks reality into being - therefore we continue on the pilgrims' path of faith understanding that it is by faith alone that we relate with our God, and through faith alone that he sanctifies us.
Complete article
Monday, May 10, 2010 at 7:49 am
Spiritual Formation and Protestant Distinctives: Solus Christus
Posted by Kyle Strobel | Comments (0) |
The next Protestant distinctive in spiritual formation I want to discuss is solus Christus - Christ alone. This phrase is used to re-orient our entire idea of salvation, religion and God on God's own act to reveal himself in His Son - the image of the invisible God - and the only true mediator between God and humanity. Jonathan Edwards puts it this way:
"[I]nasmuch as he was a divine person, he brought down divinity with him to us. So he brought God down to man, and then he ascended to God. Inasmuch as he was in the human nature, he carried up humanity with him to God."
Therefore, it is in Christ alone that we can come to know God, because only in Christ does God truly reveal himself. Likewise, it is only in Christ where our hope is found (as the song says so well), because the hope for humanity resides in the humanity taken up by God in Christ. Christ is our true and only mediator, and, through His Spirit, we are united to him in faith, and receive His benefits through his grace alone.
Complete article
The next Protestant distinctive in spiritual formation I want to discuss is solus Christus - Christ alone. This phrase is used to re-orient our entire idea of salvation, religion and God on God's own act to reveal himself in His Son - the image of the invisible God - and the only true mediator between God and humanity. Jonathan Edwards puts it this way:
"[I]nasmuch as he was a divine person, he brought down divinity with him to us. So he brought God down to man, and then he ascended to God. Inasmuch as he was in the human nature, he carried up humanity with him to God."
Therefore, it is in Christ alone that we can come to know God, because only in Christ does God truly reveal himself. Likewise, it is only in Christ where our hope is found (as the song says so well), because the hope for humanity resides in the humanity taken up by God in Christ. Christ is our true and only mediator, and, through His Spirit, we are united to him in faith, and receive His benefits through his grace alone.