Old political allegiances and loudly-thumped theological maxims are being shaken to their core as younger Christians imagine an embodied politic rooted in a missional theology of hope. Rhodes muses that the “post-Republican” winds whirling through American evangelicalism has a lot to do with cultural forces, but also explores the theological underpinnings of that transformation. Near the heart of the matter is an understanding of the gospel message shifting from “how to go to heaven after you die” toward “how to bring heaven to earth today.” There are many beautiful ways to live that gospel out; he concludes with an exhortation to embody a Kingdom politic before (and for) the watching, wailing world.
Volume 3, No. 2: Summer 2007
Neighbors in Racial Reconciliation: The Contribution of a Trinitarian Theological Anthropology
Progress in racial reconciliation among evangelical Christians, especially at the attitudinal level, has been documented and acknowledged. Yet there is the recognition that injustice along racial lines has persisted to a significant degree. It has been suggested by Emerson and Smith in their book Divided by Faith that such persistence is related, at least in part, to certain theological roots of Evangelical belief. This essay explores those roots and shows that a fully Trinitarian theological anthropology addresses and calls them into question and recommends a more faithfully Christian and so Evangelical foundation. More particularly the love for the neighbor embodied in the Person and Work of Christ and rooted in the Trinitarian life revisions both the nature of the problems of racism and racialization and also shows the way forward towards true reconciliation through participation in the accomplished renewal of humanity as neighbors one to another in Jesus Christ.
The Ethics of Jesus or, Why Christian Values are a Bad Idea
In an effort to show the continuing relevance of Christian ethical ideals to contemporary culture, Christians have commonly attempted to commend the gospel in the language of values. I argue that this is a mistake. The reduction of the gospel to a set of values constitutes a betrayal of the gospel itself and contributes to rather than counters the perceived irrelevance of Christian faith. I develop, by contrast, an account of Christian ethics that is grounded in and inseparable from faith in the risen Christ, and trace, by way of example, the implications of such an ethics within the context of global error.
High Pressure Zone Spirituality
The double entendre of pneuma in John 3, as both wind and Spirit, is extended to a broader analogy of Christian spirituality. The expansive love of God’s Spirit in and through Christians stirs them, in response, to express that love to those around them. This exchange is compared to an atmospheric high pressure zone that spreads as wind into nearby low pressure zones. Those who experience God’s love as a dynamic reality become spontaneous agents of transformation, stirring both Christians and non-Christians: hearts moved move other hearts. This imagery offers a more theocentric and holistic understanding of faith and ministry, so that the proper motivation for Christian conduct is described as a response to Trinitarian relationality—of God as love—than as the more common stoic and programmatic motivations of duty and discipline.
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