One of the issues in Christian education today is whether or not faith is "formed" in us. Here is a caricature, but it presents the pure positions available:
1) The premoderns saw discipleship as formation, with a disciple placing himself in a master's hands in order to be spiritually "shaped" to know God/truth/goodness etc. This is a very vulnerable spot, because it gives the one doing the discipling lots of power.
2) The modern notion of discipleship, because it is born of a period which is more skeptical and individualistic, emphasizes the disciple's choices, and his more active role in questioning.
3) The postmodern notion of discipleship, (if it even exists!) is even more focused on the disciple, who no longer questions (there aren't any answers) but rather stitches himself a quilt of ideas and practices which are personally meaningful (but not necessarily True...for after all, isn't truth relative?)
If what we are seeking is more of God in our daily lives, then which approach do you think is the one which works best? Which approach is most biblical? Are there other approaches?
4 comments:
wow beth you are so herher cool to have a blog! like, really! yayeah!
The postmodern view isn't at all in line with a Christian worldview; I don't think God would care what we all think is important to us individually, he knows best and we can't choose what's important/true/relevant.
It's helpful to have a mentor, someone who knows more about Christianity thatn you to teach you things, but I would say that's not a necessity. What is a necessity is questioning ideas and thinking about them for yourself. Otherwise, you'll end up following whatever your mentor believes, and probably aquiring that mentor by chance, and essentially taking away your spiritual free will! It's not as if you'll just *know* if your mentor is truly connected in the way he or she thinks she is to the ultimate truth; there are plenty of very smart, sincere, loving people in the world with all different kinds of worldviews.
Thanks Ginny! I appreciate your support. But I really really am worried about your lack of sleep. I hope you're able to catch up on weekends.
Hmm. (Sound of neurons firing. Thanks Collinator, for lighting the match!) You've given me something to chew on.
It seems to me that the God of Abraham, Isaac,Jacob and Jesus is a relational being to the core (why, He's a Trinity of persons!)unlike the God of the Koran or the Absolute of Hegel or Aristotle's Thought Thinking Itself or the One of the Eastern religions.
If our God WEREN'T relational, He WOULDN'T care about anything outside Himself. But he IS relational, so not only is he interested in all that he has created, he is particularly interested in that part of it which is meant to image his own mind and heart: human beings. And human beings exist only as persons, not as an abstract genus.
Thus it is terribly important to Him what each of us think and do. So important that he spoke directly to the Jews explaining to them what is True and Good, and then agonized over them when they rejected it.
So important that he sent His Son to redeem our sin-soaked hearts and minds, and who told us the story of a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to search out the one stray.
So important that he constantly is issuing personal invitations to believe in Him.
So, yes, absolutely, God knows best what's important and true and meaningful! But he doesn't want to keep it to Himself. He wants us to participate in it/Him.
Oops! : o Sorry this got so long. Thanks again Collinator for your stimulating perspective.
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