This week the famous South by Southwest Music and Media Conference & Festival has been unleashed on Austin, yet again. The festival is spread out all over the city, venues to be found everywhere–parks, coffeeshops, clubs, etc. Music and media take over the city. As I write, I am at Progress Coffee listening to Martin Crane of Brazos.
It’s just downright cool. Wish you were here.
The critical movement has seen the dissolution of the monolithic understanding of Scripture, a unity imposed we might say ‘from above’, from unquestionable divine and ecclesiastical authority. It has established beyond question the diversity and humanity of the writings. Attempts like those of the ‘Biblical Theology’ movement, to see a simple ‘biblical’ view of things are now generally supposed to have failed.
~ Colin Gunton, Enlightenment & Alienation: An Essay toward a Trinitarian Theology
In the most recent issue of Outreach magazine, Austin pastor of Gateway Church, John Burke, facilitates a conversation with six unchurched folks who range from nominal Denmark Lutheran to American Eclectic Wicca (Jennifer). The roundtable discussion takes place in a Starbucks (which Gateway has on campus), simulating what should be happening between pastors and people on a regular basis all over their cities. Read the whole thing here.
John asks some great questions, moving from “Tell us a little bit about your faith background” to “Now tell me your thoughts on Jesus. What do you think about Him?” Although its kind of wierd to obtain biographical and spiritual info on unchurched from a magazine (unless you live in Austin but even then its still wierd) instead of personally engaging in these conversations, the whole thing is rather insightful.
Jennifer’s remarks about praying to Jesus for help as a public school teacher are quite interesting, given the fact that she doesn’t believe Jesus to be God. Check it out and give me your feedback.
As the title of my blog denotes, I am a fan of creation, even moreso a participant in the creation project (see article on creation here). However, I do not make the mistake of confusing creation with the creature or Creator. Much of environmentalism lacks a sound theological base from which to interpret and engage the world(s). Though I have much to learn in many of the debates such as population control, global warming and ecology, I will refuse to surrender the revealed, benevolent purpose and place of man, God and the world.
Scripture makes it clear that both creation and man exist for God’s glory. Both are inherently meaningful. Both will be redeemed. Both will be purified. Both will last forever. However, both do not carry the same ontological value. Though creation reflects God’s glory, it is not made in God’s image. Genesis one provides an anchor for engaging environmentalism. To be made in God’s image is to be a ruler over God’s creation. The implications of this nuance are deep and wide, but one important implication is that humanity is to be a good steward of the earth, not the the earth as good stewards of humanity.
Commenting on population control issues, Chuck Colson cut through some of the fog in environmentalist presuppositions in his recent article “For the Sake of the Planet?” He writes: In contrast to the Christian idea of stewardship, which “wishes to conserve and protect the natural resources of the planet for the sake of future generations,” this viewpoint “wishes to eliminate future generations for the sake of the planet.”
