#385 Theologians Against Apologetics

This will be a collecting post for all "against apologetics" quotes I come across in chronological order.

Ignatius of Antioch:

"The greatness of Christianity lies in its being hated by the world, not in its being convincing to it."  -- The Letter of Ignatius to the Romans

Thomas Aquinas:

"For the will of God cannot be investigated by reason...  But the divine will can be manifested by revelation, on which faith rests.  And it is useful to consider this, lest anyone, presuming to demonstrate what is of faith, should bring forward reasons that are not cogent, so as to give occasion to unbelievers to laugh, thinking that on such grounds we believe things that are of faith." -- Summa Theologica

Peter Abelard:

"Assiduous and frequent questioning is indeed the first key to wisdom. Aristotle, that most perspicacious of all philosophers, exhorted the studious to practice it eagerly, saying, 'Perhaps it is difficult to express oneself with confidence on such matters if they have not been much discussed. To entertain doubts on particular points will not be unprofitable.' For by doubting we come to inquiry; through inquiring we perceive the truth, according to the Truth Himself. 'Seek and you shall find,' He says, 'Knock and it shall be opened to you.' In order to teach us by His example He chose to be found when He was about twelve years old sitting in the midst of the doctors and questioning them, presenting the appearance of a disciple by questioning rather than of a master by teaching, although there was in Him the complete and perfect wisdom of God." -- Sic et Non

Karl Barth:

“Anxiety concerning the victory of the Gospel – that is, Christian Apologetics – is meaningless, because the Gospel is the victory by which the world is overcome… God does not need us.” -- The Epistle to the Romans

Hans Urs von Balthasar:

"But the essence of the matter is faith, not a (neutral) looking on or a desire to experience something (for oneself).  One who snatches at psychological experiences (presumably perhaps "in the Holy Spirit") will reach into a void.  And one who gropes for the flame will get burned by it.  Faith is reverent; it allows the light space in which to burn.  Still more: it receives from the light the eyes with which it sees the light.  Si comprehendis, non est Deus*: and if you think to have grasped it, you are not one whom God has grasped...

Jesus has no need of apologetics: he shines through.  He shines upon everyone who comes into the world (John 1:9) and does not deliberately look away (John 1:12).  The Church should not pursue any apologetics for herself, but should instead endeavor to make her Lord visible." -- Does Jesus Shine Through?

William Platcher quoting Hans Frei:

"'The most fateful issue for Christian self-description,' [Hans] Frei wrote…, 'is that of regaining its autonomous vocation as a religion, after its defeat in its secondary vocation of providing ideological coherence, foundation, and stability to Western culture.' We no longer live in what Kierkegaard called Christendom. But old habits die hard, and Christian theologians had fallen into the habit of trying to delineate the religious dimension of our general culture. Some seem not to notice that our culture, by and large, isn’t much interested. Some grow angry at the lack of interest. Some try all the more desperately to make the appropriate connections.

In a post-Christian age, however, Christianity might instead try to regain 'its autonomous vocation as a religion.' We Christians still have stories to tell—distinctive stories. Stories about how God worked in the life of Israel, and God’s self-revelation in the life of Jesus Christ. Stories that define a community different from the world around us because of the way these stories shape our self-understanding, a community that may sometimes be wildly radical politically and on other issues seem conservative... Hans Frei called us to be tellers of such tales." -- Hans Frei and the Meaning of Biblical Narrative

Michael Spencer (some of the last words he ever wrote):

"There is little good news in 'My argument scored more points than you argument.' But the news that 'Christ is risen!' really is Good News for one kind of person: The person who is dying.  If Christianity is not a dying word to dying men, it is not the message of the Bible that gives hope now.  What is your apologetic? Make it the full and complete announcement of the Life Giving news about Jesus." -- Internet Monk blog

John Hobbins:

"No reasonable person with a brain attached to their body is going to experience zero cognitive dissonance in their lives. The control beliefs we have, if they have any substance at all, are going to clash, often or occasionally, with facts on the ground. It may even be an index of the truth of those beliefs if they do. If we are intellectually and spiritually alive, meta-narratives at odds with our own will garner our attention and call the viewpoint we have adopted into question. Traditional apologists too often paper over such conflicts, offer answers where instead we should hold on to questions, and shut off inquiry rather than encourage it.  Or I should say pseudo-traditional apologists, since the Bible itself and great authors like Augustine, Maimonides and Aquinas do not sweep the substantive issues under the rug, but face them head on." -- Ancient Hebrew Poetry blog

#384 Post-Liberals Against Apologetics

"'The most fateful issue for Christian self-description,' [Hans] Frei wrote…, 'is that of regaining its autonomous vocation as a religion, after its defeat in its secondary vocation of providing ideological coherence, foundation, and stability to Western culture.' We no longer live in what Kierkegaard called Christendom. But old habits die hard, and Christian theologians had fallen into the habit of trying to delineate the religious dimension of our general culture. Some seem not to notice that our culture, by and large, isn’t much interested. Some grow angry at the lack of interest. Some try all the more desperately to make the appropriate connections.

In a post-Christian age, however, Christianity might instead try to regain 'its autonomous vocation as a religion.' We Christians still have stories to tell—distinctive stories. Stories about how God worked in the life of Israel, and God’s self-revelation in the life of Jesus Christ. Stories that define a community different from the world around us because of the way these stories shape our self-understanding, a community that may sometimes be wildly radical politically and on other issues seem conservative... Hans Frei called us to be tellers of such tales."

-- William Platcher quoting Hans Frei in Hans Frei and the Meaning of Biblical Narrative

I post this quote to explicitly contrast coherent apologetics to the telling of what Chesterton might call the strangest tale ever told.  Jesus was most certainly a teller of tales, strange tales, rather than an apologist.  The martyr Steven's last act before being rushed and stoned, as a man named Saul gathered the coats of onlookers, was to simply repeat Israel's story one last time.

As Andrew Perriman has pointed out, religion is a poor choice of words for Frei.  But I know exactly what Frei is getting at and can look past that.  His idea that Christianity has been defeated at its secondary vocation echoes Alisdair MacIntyre's famous quote at the end of After Virtue about the Benedictines turning aside from the task of "shoring up the Roman imperium."

#383 Steno Quote

"Fair is what we see, Fairer what we have perceived, Fairest what is still in veil."

-- Nicolas Steno, in a quote that sounds as if it were taken right from Chesterton were it not written centuries earlier.

#382 Occupy vs. Inhabit

News events can crisscross in our minds in funny ways.  Somewhere between watching the Occupy movement unfold and subsequently fold again all over America and the wax and subsequent wane of focus on the plight of North Korea in the wake the Dear Leader's death, I began to think about what it might mean to incarnate rather than invade a place, about the two alternative courses of action I might take after crossing the border of North Korea for the first time: Occupy or Inhabit.

Occupy invades.  Inhabit incarnates.

Occupy goes against.  Inhabit comes alongside.
Occupy takes over.  Inhabit believes the victory is already won.
Occupy starts a revolution.  Inhabit seeks to be radical, that is to go to the root.
Occupy becomes a rebel.  Inhabit becomes a citizen.
Occupy forces the hand of change.  Inhabit recognizes that we have been and will be changed.
Occupy imposes its will.  Inhabit is open to being imposed upon.
Occupy demands justice.  Inhabit bears injustice.
Occupy asks "Why are we suffering wrong? Why are we being cheated?" Inhabit asks, "Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?"
Occupy sets up an outpost.  Inhabit is a signpost.

Occupy strikes out of place.  Inhabit lives life in place.

#381 Lectio Divina

During adolescence, my faith was very emotional, hot.  Over the past 10 years or so it has become academic and cold.  Both represent extremes but both, in their seasons, were integral to what I've become.  Last year I began to feel an increasing urge to go back towards that intuitive, wide-eyed passion I had as a child, but not all the way away from the calculating, open-eyed faith of my later years.  So it is that with a new year comes new resolve.  I resolve to swing that pendulum of my faith back towards, without over-shooting, that middle ground.  And what better way to center myself than in prayer.


So I found something called Lectio Divina, which is Latin for Divine Reading.  It is the reading of scripture in prayer.  It is the reading of scripture as prayer.  It is reading scripture as if God were real. Though I've never doubted God's reality, the faith of my more mature years was more concerned with God-the-concept than the God-as-person that my youthful self was so in tune with.  Lectio Divina is an attempt to marry the two:  A relationship centered in scripture.

The method consists most traditionally of four steps: 1) read, 2) meditate, 3) pray, 4) contemplate.  You start by reading a passage of scripture which can be as short or as long as you like and can be done repeatedly or just once.  This is followed by meditation on the passage.  This is not an academic analysis but a pondering, a consideration with the mind open for the Holy Spirit.  Then comes prayer which may be inspired by the reading and meditation.  Finally, contemplation.  Perhaps a better word for this step is listening.  This is, for me, a complete silencing of the heart and mind before God as one who can speak.  The whole process is an act of faith.  But for me, this last part is especially.


I have been at it for three days now, each day of the new year.  My choice for the reading step has been to read one Psalm four times.  First in NASB, then in KJV, then NASB again, then KJV again.  These are the only two versions I own.  The whole process takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes for me.  I have yet to hear from God, but I believe he rewards persistence, particularly the desperate kind, and I'll report if I hear anything.  Before this past year I wouldn't have thought this kind of commitment possible.  Over the last year, I've realized it's not just possible but necessary.  And now I find it simple enough, once I've finished with the usual nightly routine of coming home from work, playing with the kids, putting them in bed, and fulfilling any other immediate obligations, to go into my room, sit at my empty desk with no electronics or other paperwork and divinely read, meditate, pray, and listen.  Lectio, meditatio, oratio, audite.

#380 Books of 2011

Here is a list of all the books I read this year ranked from favorite to least favorite. Another busy year with very few books read.  I purchased three of these and was given eight for a low total of 11.

I - Recommended Reading

1. The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Ed Smith, 8 out of 10
2. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 7 out of 10

II - Middling

3. Moby Dick by Herman Melville, 6 out of 10
4. Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin, 6 out of 10
5. Antiquities by Josephus, 6 out of 10
6. Romans Commentary by Ambrosiaster, 6 out of 10
7. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, 6 out of 10
8. Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Freedman, 6 out of 10
9. The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton, 5 out of 10
10. Rabbit, Run by John Updike, 5 out of 10
 
III - Not worth the your time or effort

11. New Elucidations by Hans Urs von Balthasar, 3 out of 10