Comparing Two Kingdoms – Ken

I’ve received an advance copy of Chuck Colson’s The Faith from Zondervan to review. I’ll give a more thorough review later, but right now want to mention one interesting contrast.

In crediting his influences, Colson identifies himself as an evangelical and Calvinist with Dutch Reformed influences. That’s where I stand as well. However, my biggest criticism for the book is that, after explaining the faith handed down once and for all, he appears to want to use it as a means to preserve and renew Western culture. His underlying concern, then, appears to be the preservation of Western society against militant Islam, intellectual Atheism made popular through recent books, and the loss of truth from postmodern relativism. While I agree with our need and duty to engage in apologetics, I argue that our reason for doing so is not to preserve our society or expand the boundaries of our culture. Rather, it’s to engage the world, in both the local and global scene, with the Gospel and Apostolic tradition.

So, while I am more aligned theologically with Colson, I find myself agreeing with Gregory Boyd on The Myth of a Christian Nation. The church is part of the eternal kingdom of God, rather than a temporal, earthly kingdom. A recent program on Michael Horton’s “The White Horse Inn”, Political Temptation, dated 1/27/08, (available as a podcaset on iTunes) promotes an understanding of the church as a separate entity from the state – whose job it is to proclaim the Gospel and administer the sacraments – that would be, surprisingly, more akin to Boyd (an Open Theist) than to Colson, a fellow Calvinist.

Rambo the Messiah – Ken

We’re moved into our new location, so I’m now back on Codexegesis.

When I saw the trailer for Rambo (IV) about a month ago, I wondered if Sly Stallone would try to use the church marketing he had for Rocky Balboa. In case you didn’t know, Sly wanted churches to employ some of the marketing tactics that worked so well with The Passion of the Christ. Pastors could show clips from the movie as sermon illustrations! I wondered if that would happen here with Rambo as well. First, it would continue the trajectory: Passion: the hero is beaten, tortured and killed for our sins; Rocky Balboa: the hero now beats another man in the name of that first hero, for whom he has reverence; Rambo: the hero now kills in the name of and to rescue the servants of the Passion hero (Rambo rescues Christian missionaries). I’m glad that the church marketing hasn’t been used for this film.

But the trailer does portray Rambo as the reluctant Messiah. One of the first shots shows a cross held in his fingers. This Crusader then enters the war zone of Burma to rescue captured missionaries. That country gets portrayed not just as the land of oppression under the military Junta, but also as the dominion of the snake, as the trailer shows the seedy night life having a snake market with cobras dancing or fighting (but reviews of the movie say that Rambo catches snakes for a market in Malaysia – here I’m following the narrative flow of the trailer). So a Rambo pumped up on steroids (the kind that Stallone found out are illegal in Australia) – so that 60 year old Sly now looks like Ang Lee’s hulk – enters the realm of the snake to bring back the servants of the Lord. (Very archetypal.)

I mention the movie and its trailer here because I’m blogging a bit about Boyd’s The Myth of a Christian Nation. Rambo offers an example of the cross being joined with the sword, which here takes the form of a hunting knife, fists, bow and arrow, and lots of guns. This is a movie, then, that can appeal to both our spiritual sense with a picture of Jesus, the Christus Victor who entered to the realm of the serpent to defeat that dragon and rescue humanity, while at the same time appealing to our baser desire for blood, guts, and revenge.

Notice, too, that Rambo’s enemies are not politically volatile ones, i.e. Islamic Terrorists. Burma is a place that’s been in the news (somewhat) for its recent crackdowns. So Americans of all stripes, minus pacifists, should be able to enjoy this movie.

Dave, since you haven’t written in response to my posts about Gregory Boyd, I will assume that you view his book and this movie the same way I do.

The Dissipation of History – Dave

It’s interesting to contrast the trust that people like Luke and Theophilus put into historical research to students in the post-modern world. The former found history credible, but why? Did they believe, like St. Augustine, that history actually existed in the memory of God, or were they simply more simple folk than we have become?

In my limited teaching experience in the American university system, most students seem to view the credibility of universal statements on a continuum, with religion being the most subjective, and mathematics being the least subjective. (Except for things we Know are wrong, like slavery or rape, of course.) Luke almost seems simplistic in his introduction, first by expecting Theophilus to trust him a person objective in his research, but secondly, and more important, that there was one true history to be discovered, not to write itself like the “texts” of Derrida.

Are we intellectual dinosaurs to believe, with Luke and Theophilus, that there is One history to be discovered? That wherever our historical narrative departs from this Actual History, it is not an interpretation, but wrong?

It is getting increasingly difficult to convince students that things like whether Caesar actually crossed the Rubicon matter for our lives – even, or primarily, our civilization – today. We aren’t simply people of the book, but of books, of history, of tradition. As Burke said, and Kirk echoed, it is the accumulated wisdom of the ages that allows us to survive and thrive as a civilization. Once we abandon that – characterized it one way, at least, but the dissipation of history into subjectivism – we can’t be sure of our own existence, let alone the survival of the West.

So Luke it is!

Hi Dave,

I’d love to study Luke with you, and then bring in or compare with Matthew (and the other two Gospels) as appropriate and timely. I’ve put a couple of links to Bible translations at the right. I like the ESV, as it has a closer feel to the original texts. But I’ve also put the NIV there as well.

Here’s a prayer to start our study:

Lord God, Almighty Heavenly Father,

You’ve given us your written word as a testimony to your greatness, your kindness, your love, and your plan for this world. We ask you to be present in our efforts: give us understanding by your Holy Spirit; give us a shared desire to know you, love you, and serve you more in this life, so that we may be prepared for the life to come.

In the name of your Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, Amen.