Where do we locate authority? In Scripture, the Spirit, a brand name product, how much stuff we own, a sports celebrity, Jesus? And what happens when we locate authority in Scripture? Do we marginalize those who can’t reason their way through Scripture the way we do? Do we end up minimizing the visual Arts, as many Word-focused iconoclasts did in the Reformation period? If we locate authority in the Spirit, does that mean anything goes? If we make room for blogging like we did the printing press, theology will be accessible to more and more people. Once again, does that mean anything goes? Even so, who blogs? Those who can pay to have a voice, who have the luxury of time to write? Does blogging, or your theology for that matter, provide a platform and a microphone for the voiceless to speak? If the medium is the message, how does the medium shape us? These are the types of issues that I hope you will grapple with, as you read this issue of Cultural Encounters.
John Franke’s essay explores the relationship of the Word and the Spirit, and the ways in which we approach Scripture. Franke investigates the locus of authority in the church’s life, and explores the import of his assertion that the Spirit speaks through culture today for the church and theology. Franke argues that “the Spirit always speaks through culture and that what we have in the texts of Scripture constitutes a particular instantiation of the speaking of the Spirit that is deemed normative in the life of the church by virtue of the particular act of the Spirit in inspiring these texts,” yet without the process resulting in the “divinization” of the words of Scripture. Albert Baylis and Brad Harper offer responses to Franke’s essay, affirming such features as his call for theological discourse that is culturally and ethnically sensitive and the emphasis on the importance of theological humility. They also raise questions over authority, calling attention to the need for appropriate safeguards against “anything-goes relativism” (Baylis) and suggesting that the Triune God is a culture and that the inspired Bible “is never only a construct of human culture, but is directly related to the unchanging universal ‘culture’ that is the Trinitarian God,” whom we engage dialectically in culture (Harper). In his rejoinder, Franke addresses the subject of how to reconstitute interpretation and authority to create space for other voices, and not totalizing the majority culture’s claims; otherwise, a certain cultural reading of Scripture will (continue to) marginalize other approaches.
Ben Myers’ essay affirms the role of blogging in theology, celebrating the way(s) in which it fosters community and opens the door for those outside the scholarly guild to participate. Certainly, blogging opens the door to theological discourse for those Franke is most concerned about: those embracing minority perspectives against the backdrop of a theological-cultural hegemony. While affirming blogging’s ability to create a friendlier environment for theological discourse, Robb Redman speaks of the need for an ecclesial context for blogging in his response, arguing that theology is first and foremost the domain of the church. This ecclesial dimension must also be accompanied by the personal renewal or transformation of theologians themselves.
Dan Siedell and Martin French speak of the significance of the Arts for human life, the artist’s quest, knowledge, and our relationship with God. French calls for the liberation of the church from its bondage to the mediocre, predictable, and half-hearted. The church does not have to reclaim the Arts, for creativity is deeply Christian. In keeping with Siedell’s claims, we need to participate in God’s creative venture in the fullness of the Spirit in view of the Logos who reveals himself in the logos of art. For Siedell, “Nicene Christianity is not confined to the religion room. It is the foundation of the cosmos. It is the building that houses the rooms of ‘art,’ ‘religion,’ and countless other cultural practices. And it also provides the hallway that connects them.” The theological engagement of culture that occurs in the hallways and byways is never fixed and static, but is ever in process, dynamic, and occurs through dialogue and conversation.
A thread that unites the various essays and responses to this point is the necessary role of dialogue and conversation in the contemporary theological enterprise. If we are truly to be open and inviting and guarding against quenching the Spirit, we will engage in theological discourse relationally and dynamically, where all ecclesial communities have the opportunity to be heard, as theologians are renewed by the Spirit, centered in Christ and grounded in Scripture in the ongoing pursuit of the Trinitarian God’s vision for the true, the good, and the beautiful.
The unholy Trinity of consumerism—commodification, alienation and branding, which Skye Jethani discusses, is often neglected by church leaders, and to the detriment of authentic Christian community. In our day, people often find their identity in the consumption of stuff, attaching themselves to a market brand, replacing one thing with a coveted other, rejecting the sacred in favor of the profane, and reducing human value to its perceived benefit to the market and the law of consumer preference. Jethani in his article on consumerism and Rick McKinley in his interview with Braxton Alsop and Richard Fox on the Advent Conspiracy explore how the consumption of stuff may indeed consume our souls and destroy relational presence and meaning in life. Providentially, Jethani and McKinley are being joined by an increasing number of other Christian voices who realize that our gospel witness should not focus on the sensational or be reduced to sound bites. Together they realize that we must speak and live more holistically. Otherwise, we will find that we no longer speak with authority—at Christmas and throughout the year.
A faulty sense of authority leads a sports celebrity to force his faith on others in a public arena; those gathered are a captive audience and not necessarily a receptive one. USA Today writer and public discourse expert Tom Krattenmaker explores how Christian athletes can speak more authoritatively by speaking less forcefully and more holistically. Though Krattenmaker and I inhabit different worldviews in terms of doctrine, I find him to be one of my most thoughtful dialogue partners, opening my imagination to ways in which the eternal Logos who became flesh as Jesus Christ manifests himself today.
The best public discourse will most often take place as we meet in hallways, on blogs, listening to minority or marginalized voices rather than drowning them out with our sound bites and covering them over with our bumper stickers and Jesus decals. We conservative Christians will gain respect and speak with authority when we practice what we preach, not forcing others across the cultural spectrum to listen to us, but gaining the right to be heard as we listen to our enemies and lay our lives down for them—becoming miniature words enfleshed.
—Paul Louis Metzger, Editor