Toward the Good!

William Cavanaugh, author of Being Consumed, has pointed out that for Augustine freedom did not depend on whether the will is autonomous, but on whether the will was moved toward the Good.   

Free?

Augustine said something like the more we are wrapped up in God's will, the more free we are. Nietzsche said something like we cannot be free unless God is dead. 

Stem Cell Me-search

I was recently listening to Science Friday on NPR, where the host was moderating a discussion between two scientists on the same side of the stem cell research issue. They both concurred that we finally had a president who made decisions based on reason and science and not ideology. It seems scientific objectivity is alive and well on NPR's "We've-got-the corner-on-science-Friday." 

It is very discouraging to hear smart people unable to critique their own position or give any credence or respect to their opponents. It seems to me that Christians have a great opportunity to be salt and light here. Let us rise to the occasion by raising the questions in all humility and confidence in the Truth.

Being Sure of Assurance

I've been read Peter Leithart's The Baptized Body and have found his discussion of assurance quite assuring. He takes to task that part of the Reformed tradition that seeks assurance by examining the quality of faith.

Following the Canons of Dort, Turretin attempts to explain the differences between temporary and true, saving faith.... "True faith is deep, most internal, vital, friendly and efficacious," while temporary faith "sticks to the uppermost surface of the soul (to wit, in the intellect); it does not penetrate to the heart, nor does it have true trust in Christ." Elsewhere, he says that temporary faith has only "superficial and theoretical knowledge, and that its assent is "weak and slippery, connected with perpetual hesitation and wavering."... Temporary faith resides in the "mouth" and never in the heart, and if it goes to the soul at all "it is rather in the intellect through knowledge than in the will through love." Turretin admits that temporary faith might go to the heart, but it never gets to the whole heart: "it never delivers itself wholly to God," never "gives itself absolutely and unlimitedly without any restriction."

How can I read that without concluding that I've only got temporary faith? Is my faith firm, whole, absolute, unlimited, unreserved? All the time? Doesn't true faith waver? Don't believers pray, "Help my unbelief"?

Trying to solve the problem of assurance by examining the quality of faith, hope, and love invariably leads to an abyss. And the same thing can happen with some accounts of the "testimony of the Spirit." ... How can we distinguish the witness of the spirit from the self-deception of our own hearts? ... How can I know that the Spirit is speaking to me?

Easy: I heard him.

God addressed this promise to me in my baptism; He addresses this promise to me every week when I hear a minister pronounce the absolution of sins; He renews this promise to me, out loud, every time I hear a sermon; He addresses this promise to me every week when I come to His table to eat and drink in His presence. Through these the Spirit woos me, hugs me, encourages me, kisses me feeds me, visits me, clothes me, challenges me, rebukes me, convicts me, changes me. When I hear the Spirit speak, I'm being called to believe Him.... In absolution, God says, "Your sins are forgiven." I believe that, and when my conscience strikes me, I remind myself of what God said, the God who is greater than my heart....

Apostasy doesn't sneak up on people who are keeping faith.... If we are doing all the things that Jesus means by "abiding" in Him, we can be sure that we will be in the Vine to the end. Faithful believers will not discover on the day of judgment that they were reprobate after all. Happy marriages do not end in divorce. God doesn't spring divorce on a faithful bride....

Too often the Reformed tradition has degenerated into a morbid form of self-analysis that is actually much closer to medieval piety than to the first Reformers. We are trained to stand outside ourselves and adopt a stance of objectivity in order to examine our performance, the strength of our faith, the consistency of our obedience.... "Knowing that we know" (1 John 2:3) means experiencing the assurance that we are in a relationship of love--a "knowing" relationship--with God in Christ through the Spirit. We come to this experience of assurance in the midst of our abiding in Christ, not by standing outside our relationship with Christ and evaluating it as outsiders. We come to that experience as we trustingly, believingly, remember and improve or baptisms, hear the Word of our beloved Husband, and feast as His Bride at His table.

On of my fellows said recently: "Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. I'm not sure that the examined life is much better." Luther tried to save us from medieval navel-gazing, and we have thanked him by spiritualizing our belly-button lint. "Look what I dug up everybody!"

The Bad and the Good of It All!

I just finished The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton. It was wild, wooly, and wonderful. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life reading and rereading Chesterton.

"Then, and again and always," went on Syme like a man talking to himself, "that has been for me the mystery of Sunday, and it is also the mystery of the world. When I see the horrible back, I am sure the noble face is but a mask. When I see the face but for an instant, I know the back is only a jest. Bad is so bad that we cannot but think good an accident; good is so good that we feel certain that evil could be explained.... 

"Listen to me," cried Syme with extraordinary emphasis. "Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind, and it looks brutal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding a face? If we could only get round in front--"

When God is hidden behind the mask of a contrary appearance, faith is tested. One day we shall see face to face, and faith shall have its reward.