It's finally happening. Protestants are beginning to acknowledge that the "either/or" thinking of the solas is insufficient for faithfully following Jesus Christ. I encountered it again today, reading Scot McKnight's review of Anthony Thisleton's The Hermeneutics of Doctrine:
This dense summary of Thiselton's argument implies that both Paul and James got it right, and that confessing a creed is an affirmation that we not only speak, but one we perform. Thus, belief in evangelical statements of faith today involves our entire being as we join others to look after not only what we confess, but also how we perform our confession. In fact, one of the more fascinating elements of seeing belief as disposition is that the one who believes is also one who defends a doctrine when denied. A disposition of belief involves defending one's beliefs. Some don't need to be told this today; many do. Belief involves "taking a stand" for someone and something and doing so with others as we, the people of God, take a stand for the gospel in a world that doesn't embrace that gospel. But our defense is not just words; it is dispositional in that it too is performed.
Louis Bouyer was affirming this over fifty years ago...and Thomas Aquinas was affirming it nearly a thousand years ago, and before them, Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Intellectual virtue without moral virtue is lame;
moral virtue without intellectual virtue is blind.
Today, "Emergents" are on to something big. If only they would realize that they don't have to reinvent the wheel! Intellectual virtue, the foundation for both-and thinking, depends on hitting the mean between the extremes of ratio and intellectus. As I have written before, modernists idolize ratio; postmodernists idolize intellectus. By claiming their intellectual and moral heritage, emergents have a chance to save time and energy, and display a disposition for authentic moral and intellectual humility. Will they do so? Or will they become so preoccupied with their journeys that they forget there is a Jerusalem?
This dense summary of Thiselton's argument implies that both Paul and James got it right, and that confessing a creed is an affirmation that we not only speak, but one we perform. Thus, belief in evangelical statements of faith today involves our entire being as we join others to look after not only what we confess, but also how we perform our confession. In fact, one of the more fascinating elements of seeing belief as disposition is that the one who believes is also one who defends a doctrine when denied. A disposition of belief involves defending one's beliefs. Some don't need to be told this today; many do. Belief involves "taking a stand" for someone and something and doing so with others as we, the people of God, take a stand for the gospel in a world that doesn't embrace that gospel. But our defense is not just words; it is dispositional in that it too is performed.
Louis Bouyer was affirming this over fifty years ago...and Thomas Aquinas was affirming it nearly a thousand years ago, and before them, Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Intellectual virtue without moral virtue is lame;
moral virtue without intellectual virtue is blind.
Today, "Emergents" are on to something big. If only they would realize that they don't have to reinvent the wheel! Intellectual virtue, the foundation for both-and thinking, depends on hitting the mean between the extremes of ratio and intellectus. As I have written before, modernists idolize ratio; postmodernists idolize intellectus. By claiming their intellectual and moral heritage, emergents have a chance to save time and energy, and display a disposition for authentic moral and intellectual humility. Will they do so? Or will they become so preoccupied with their journeys that they forget there is a Jerusalem?
Simone Weil put it succinctly:
"To always be relevant, you must say things that are eternal."
And not just say them. We must be and do them.
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