For the next six Sundays, I will do a series on chapters 10-13 from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. That sentence raises a question: Why pick out part of an epistle and study just that section?
Here’s my answer, to be developed in what follows — 2Cor 10-13 is a self-contained text that shows how Paul responds to Christian “ministry” which bears no resemblance to the way of Christ.
I first became aware of this portion of Scripture and its relevance to today’s church while I was studying at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, taking Pauline Theology from Dr. D.A. Carson. At the time, I was not only a student trying to master theology and Biblical studies, but also a young pastor, hungry to learn about the practice of ministry. And what I learned at TEDS was profound and encouraging.
I have often said that one thing seminary did for me was to introduce me to Paul the Pastor — to help me see and grasp what the Apostle said about being a minister of Christ. When thinking of Paul, many focus primarily on doctrine and think of him as the theologian, the thinker. Or, they mine his epistles for insights into “the Christian life.” They may approach Paul as missiologists and try to grasp his apostolic mission strategy. However, the passages that have meant the most to me over the years talk about how Paul the servant of Christ related to his neighbors and his brothers and sisters with pastoral concern and love.
My favorite text about ministry from Paul — 1Thessalonians 2:1-12 — summarizes his mindset and approach:
Paul, Rublev
You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully maltreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
You remember our labour and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was towards you believers. As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you should lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. (NRSV)
One sees that Paul approached the ministry at a supremely personal level. Entrusted with the Gospel by God, he related to others with integrity and genuine concern. He took great pains to guard against any suggestion that he was out to take advantage of his neighbors. And Paul worked small and quiet and face to face. He refused to take center stage under a spotlight, preferring to position himself in the wings alongside those he came to serve. You would not have seen Paul’s name displayed prominently in lights when he came to town — instead you would have had to search among the working class folks where he plied his trade quietly, with a kindness and friendliness that was contagious. As he says in verse 12, his focus was not on addressing crowds but on effectively encouraging “each one” around him as a father would his children.
As a minister, the Apostle Paul did not aim to impress but to simply practice Gospel-infused love.
Which brings us back to 2Cor 10-13. This portion of Paul’s letter identifies some so-called “apostles” who could not have been more different in their approach to ministry. In these chapters — which contrast so much from that which precedes them that they have been posited as parts of a separate letter which became connected to 2Corinthians — Paul confronts the Corinthian church for listening to “traveling Jewish Christian leaders who not only invaded his territory but also claimed credit for his work, stressed sensationalism and challenged his credentials and his ministry” (Beville, IVPNTC).
By far, the most thoughtful and thorough response to all the “sex” hubbub raised by the Driscolls and Youngs and their recent books and publicity stunts comes from Matthew Lee Anderson. I became aware of his analysis when I read the article, “The Trouble with Ed Young’s Rooftop Sexperiment,” at Christianity Today.
I encourage you to ponder the piece yourself, but I will summarize the main points of his critique here:
Showmanship over substance. “There’s no reason to be dour or straight faced when talking about sex, yet ploys of this sort invariably distract from the seriousness of the message. There’s an old rule in communication that suggests that if the audience is focused on your rhetoric, you’re doing it wrong. Yet in this case, the showmanship has clearly become the story, supplanting the substance.”
Deficient discipleship. “Such ‘over the top’ moments—and was there ever a more apt time for the description?—are troubling indicators of our woefully deficient discipleship patterns on matters of marriage and sexuality.”
Community concern. “In the New Testament, the family isn’t the foundation of the new society. The church is. And that makes sexual ethics a community concern…. In short, if there were more talk about sex elsewhere in the church, perhaps in the privacy of our communities and classrooms, we might get away with a good deal less of it from our pulpits and our publishing houses. Until then, the message will continue to get drowned out amidst the bombardment of infotainment that our evangelical world suffers from.”
Esteeming singleness. “Just as importantly, learning how sexuality is a community concern gives a voice to those who are frequently ignored when the topic arises: those who are single, and especially singles who may be called to that state…. When we push singleness to the background, or treat it simply as a holding tank for the not-yet-married, sex itself will become ever more important to a flourishing community life. Our talk about sex will inevitably become a sensational sales pitch for its ecstatic awesomeness. Meanwhile, single people won’t be shown a more excellent way than white-knuckling their abstinence until they make the marriage bed. They are never empowered to show a more excellent way of faithful Christianity without the marital delights. Just as single people need the image of Christ’s fidelity and love that the married give, so married people need single people to remind us that the ‘form of this world is passing away.'”
Modesty of the mouth. “…speaking about sex in the community of the church means remembering that modesty is more than a manner of clothing, but a way of life that transforms our speech…. For Christians, modesty isn’t grounded in fear or shame: it is a positive good, aimed at increasing the beauty of the person and appropriately recognizing the dignity of what’s covered…. “as a movement, we should consider carefully what our stunts and our salacious sermon series say about us.”
You can also read Matthew Lee Anderson’s review of the Driscolls’ Real Marriage at his blog, Mere Orthodoxy.
Here is a great, insightful paragraph from part 2: “The Driscolls are surprisingly unconcerned with the pornification of the marriage bed, and don’t quite seem to realize that the questions themselves [in the infamous “Can we _______” chapter] might be coming from a people whose imaginations have been stunted. It’s occasionally worth challenging the premise of questions in order to reach beneath the surface and understand the problematic forces at work in our evangelical culture of sexuality. That the Driscolls do not is nothing if not a missed opportunity.”
• • •
Finally, two books on matters of sex and marriage that I recommend instead of the two that have received so much publicity lately are:
Sexual Character: Beyond Technique to Intimacy, by Marva Dawn. This is a thoughtful presentation of distinctly “old-fashioned” character and virtue when it comes to marital and sexual matters. Marva Dawn is one of the church’s best teachers because she speaks out of personal weakness, suffering, and maturity as well as intellectual depth. Her own physical handicaps and limitations, an extended period of life in which she was single and serving God, and the delightful friendship, partnership, and romance she shares with her husband give her profound credibility when addressing the subject. One big idea which permeates the book is that the health and holiness of our “genital sexuality” is dependent on the strength of our “social sexuality.” That is, the relational supports we have in our life apart from sex must be strong in order for us to keep sexual intimacy in proper perspective — “…we need complete support of our personal identities. Without affection, approval, and the knowledge that one belongs in some sort of community, a person might become desperate and falsely assume that what is need is genital sexual expression rather than social affection.” Part of the problem in our society is that families and churches are not forming communities wherein such support is strong.
Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity, by Lauren Winner. One of our finest young authors resurrects the old word “chastity” and recommends it as the framework of her frank discussion of contemporary sexuality from a Christian perspective. “I don’t offer instructions or hard-and-fast-rules. Instead, I offer a flawed example, a few suggestions, some thoughts about what works and what doesn’t work, and the occasional reminder of why, as Christians, we should care about chastity in the first place,” she writes. Like Marva Dawn, Lauren Winner insists that individual sexual behavior is and should be a matter of community concern, and that in Christ, we have a loving duty to both encourage and admonish one another on the subject. She suggests that not only our culture, but also the Christian community tells lies about sexuality, and she calls the church to remember our theological tradition, which assigns three purposes to the sexual relationship: unitive, sacramental, and procreative. The final section of her book deals pointedly with the actual practice of chastity. I appreciate that Winner does so within and not apart from the broader context of spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines, and solid theological perspectives about such matters as vocation, community, and confession.
Happy day after Friday the 13th! Did you make it through ok? No broken mirrors, no black cats crossing your path? There is a story behind why Friday the 13th has become an evil omen, but I forget it now. I’m sure Martha O’Ireland will remember it for us! (That’s your cue, Martha! Oh, and your next assignment: Christian Superstitions.) Now that we’ve dealt with a little housekeeping, how ’bout joining me for a little light housecleaning we like to call Saturday Ramblings …
First of all, we all here at the iMonastery want to thank you for your incredibly generous donations to keep us up and running. And while a few have been able to give several hundred dollars at a time, most have donated five, ten, or twenty dollars. Whatever you were able to give, we know it came from a heart of kindness and love, and we are very humbled. Our needs are going to be the same again this year: We need close to $200/month to keep the gates oiled and opened for you. Whatever you are able to give, we thank you. The easiest way to do so is by using the PayPal button on the right side of this page. Thank you very, very much.
iMonk Adam Palmer and clan are getting ready to go on a great adventure. You can read about it on his own blog. Feel free to donate to his cause as well if you can.
This is strictly for HUG. You’ve been talking about this for sometime. Now we see the evidence. The end truly is near.
Peter
“The Rock” was executed around AD64 during the persecutions of Emperor Nero, or later in AD67. Apparently he was crucified, head-down, at his own request.
James
During the persecutions of Herod Agrippa I, King of the Jews, in c AD44, the apostle James was beheaded – ‘put to the sword’ (Acts 12:1-2 ff).
John
John was banished to the nearby island of Patmos, now one of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. He was subsequently freed and died a natural death at Ephesus c AD100.
Phillip
Philip preached the Gospel in Phrygia (west central Turkey) before dying or being martyred there at Hieropolis.
Nathanael (Bartholomew)
Traditionally he met his death by being flayed or skinned alive, and then beheaded. Derbent, north of present day Baku on the Caspian Sea may have been his place of martyrdom. Alternatively he may have suffered this cruel fate in what is now India.
Thomas
The “doubting disciple” took the Gospel to India, where he was speared to death near Madras on the east coast.
Matthew (Levi)
After preaching in Judea, different traditions place his missionary work and possible martyrdom in Ethiopia or Persia.
Jude (Thaddeus)
He may have preached in Assyria (eastern Iraq) and Persia (Iran), before joining with Simon the Zealot and being killed with him in Persia.
Simon the Zealot
One tradition is that he first preached in Egypt, before joining Jude and travelling to Persia, where both were martyred. Simon may have been crucified or hacked to death.
Matthias
He may have preached and been martyred in Ethiopia, Other traditions place him in Judea, and later Cappadocia (eastern Turkey) and the Caspian Sea area.
Paul
Tradition says he was beheaded at a place now called Tre Fontane in Rome.
Other “winners” on God’s team…
2 Corinthians 11:23-30 — (Paul’s record before his martyrdom)
I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
Hebrews 11:35-39 —
There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised…
Luke 6:20-26 —
“God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh.
What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. When that happens, be happy! Yes, leap for joy! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, their ancestors treated the ancient prophets that same way.
“What sorrow awaits you who are rich, for you have your only happiness now. What sorrow awaits you who are fat and prosperous now, for a time of awful hunger awaits you. What sorrow awaits you who laugh now, for your laughing will turn to mourning and sorrow. What sorrow awaits you who are praised by the crowds, for their ancestors also praised false prophets.
Classic iMonk Post by Michael Spencer From January 2007
I’ve been involved in some good discussions recently on the role of subjective, personal spiritual experiences. How should we deal with personal experiences of God “speaking” or otherwise relating to Christians on the subjective levels of feeling and sensing? Because there is such abuse and misuse in this area, it’s very easy to create a kind of “classroom” Christianity, where everyone is a theologian and a note-taker, but those who have experiences with God are viewed as off the rails and abandoning the Bible.
Jonathan Edwards can write about overwhelming sensations of God’s presence, but such talk today will get you looked at as one of those touchy-feely contemplative types.
Is subjective Christian experience one of those areas we have to throw away in order to hold on to Biblical authority and reasonable, non-fanatical balance in the Christian life? Or is there a way to look at subjective experiences that is positive, balanced and healthy enough to honor the Biblical material, the reality of the Spirit and our own humanness?
Here are some of the main points in these recent discussions, followed by a case study. Your comments are welcome.
We were having a good discussion about churches the other day over lunch at work. Not Church’s Chicken, though that would have been appropriate. No, churches, which we have in abundance here in Tulsa. (There is one stretch of road about 3/4 of a mile long with four churches lining the street. Four in less than a mile. But that is a story for another day … ) The conversation took a turn toward music in church, what kind each person liked and didn’t like. And then my friend Trish made this observation:
I think some music is good for fellowship, but not for worship.
Wow. That stayed with me the rest of the day as I helped guests find things in my electronics department at the local Target. It stayed with me all that evening, and the next day, and the next. Now, two weeks later, I am still trying to get my arms around that. “Some music is good for fellowship, but not for worship.”
So I want to open this up for discussion. Are there some songs that you deem wrong for worship, but ok if you and some friends are talking and sharing and have music on in the background? Are there styles of songs that should never be used in a worship setting, but are ok for casual listening? Or do you believe worshipping the Lord should encompass all songs and all styles? Is it ok if Church A selects songs of this style, and Church B selects songs of that style? We all know that next to programs for children the music style of a church is what attracts and retains people. Should churches take this into account in deciding what style of music they will be performing in their services?
Enough questions. Now it’s your turn. Play nice, now.
The Denver Broncos, who finished the season a mediocre 8-8 (which calls to mind one of my favorite poems: “There’s a 50 percent chance of rain today/Now that really tells me a lot/It means it might rain/And it might not”), were playing the once-mighty Pittsburgh Steelers in an NFL playoff game. The Broncos were playing at home, yet they were considered the underdogs. Most every betting tout in America had the Steelers as overwhelming favorites.
Yet here we were, in overtime with the score tied at 23. Denver won the coin flip and started at their own twenty yard line. In the first overtime play on Sunday, Broncos’ quarterback Tim Tebow found a wide-open Demaryious Thomas in the middle of the field with a laser-like pass. Thomas then stiff-armed the closest Steeler defender and raced to the endzone to cap an incredible victory for Denver.
But was it a miracle?
Football commentators were quick to point out that Denver had 22 first-down plays prior to overtime, and in 21 of those plays, they ran the ball rather than passed. Pittsburgh was expecting the run, and thus they had their defense set to stop whoever Tebow handed the ball off to. There were no safeties downfield to prevent Thomas from scoring once he caught the ball. It could all be explained with Xs and Os.
Yet pastors and religious commentators chalked this up to one more miracle for the Chosen One, Tim Tebow. God is blessing him because he is open about his faith, so they say. God is causing Tebow and the Broncos to win so Tebow can have a wider platform to tell others about Jesus. (For the sports-challenged readers among us, read this primer on who Tim Tebow is.)
Besides, they say, look at the evidence. Tebow, who (in)famously wore eye black patches under his eyes while playing college football in Florida reading “John” and “3:16,” threw for 316 yards Sunday against the Steelers. And he set an NFL playoff record with 31.6 yards per completion. It was a very-well watched game, with the TV audience spiking at—you got it—31.6 percent.
How can all that be just a coincidence? they say. Doesn’t that show clearly that God is on Tim Tebow’s side?
Or are we reading something that isn’t really on the page?
I asked Lee if we could share his articles here on IM, and he graciously agreed. We will run one each Tuesday afternoon for the next few weeks.
Thanks, Lee!
• • •
Part One: Ministry as a “Career” vs. a “Calling” by Lee Adams
The time is ripe for looking back over the day, the week, the year, and trying to figure out where we have come from and where we are going to, for sifting through the things we have done and the things we have left undone for a clue to who we are and who, for better or worse, we are becoming.”
• Frederick Buechner
I spend a good deal of time thinking about the church and faith on various levels. I love church history, and looking at trends, practices, and the evolution of what we call Christianity. It’s impossible for me to remove my own personal experience from that equation, as a guy who grew up in a liturgical, United Methodist tradition; who viewed the rise of the religious right in the 1980′s and 1990′s; who was a part of the seeker-friendly, post-modern mega church movement in the early days of my own ministry; who experienced being a part of church plants and splits (better spoken, I was a part of a church split that called themselves a plant…I didn’t realize this until I had been on staff for quite a while); who had great moments of triumph and equally emotional moments of defeat as a pastor; who ran from post-modernism to historical Christianity; and who eventually wound up right where I started…In the little United Methodist Church in which I grew up.
All of those things combined together make quite of pot of hash. If you don’t know what hash is, just imagine taking all the meat you currently have in your freezer, throw in a hogs head, onions, tomatoes, and whole lot of spices, and let the mix simmer in a black cast-iron pot over an open fire until it tastes good.
That being said, I’m going to do the best I can to describe what the hash is going to taste like once you get a spoon in your hand. The aforementioned faith ingredients are all mixed up, and I wanted to take a few moments over the days to come to make my best attempt to tell you what I believe the flavor of Christianity is going to be over the next few years.
“It is time, I believe, to recognize not only who Jesus was in his own day, despite his contemporaries’ failure to recognize him, but also who he is, and will be, for our own.”
N.T. Wright has given us a riveting vision of who Jesus is and what he came to do in his recent book, Simply Jesus. Along with Scot McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel (heavily influenced by Wright’s studies), this book has invigorated and expanded my understanding of the Gospel in the context of the Biblical Story and the culture in which Jesus lived.
In the preface, Wright shares that his personal interest in Jesus grows out of both his Christian faith and his vocation as a historian. The result is his attempt to write about Jesus and be faithful to the complexity of the historical data while at the same time speaking “simply” in a way that will make a real difference in the lives of those who are seeking to follow him.
Simply Jesus is written in three parts.
In Part One, Wright introduces us to the major questions about Jesus that we must answer.
In Part Two, he tries to explain as simply as possible what Jesus’ public career was all about, what he was trying to accomplish, and how he went about it. Key to this section is Wright’s attempt to help readers see things from a first-century Jewish point of view.
Part Three, one long chapter, seeks to answer, “What does this all mean for us now?”
Through it all, Wright’s passion comes through:
“Perhaps even ‘his own people’ — this time not the Jewish people of the first century, but the would-be Christian people of the Western world — have not been ready to recognize Jesus himself. We want a ‘religious’ leader, not a king! We want someone to save our souls, not rule our world! Or, if we want a king, someone to take charge of our world, what we want is someone to implement the policies we already embrace, just as Jesus contemporaries did. But if Christians don’t get Jesus right, what chance is there that other people will bother much with him?”
NOTE FROM CM: Here is another email I received in response to the Driscoll post. This one is personal, poignant — a real challenge to the church. Having two sons in their 20’s, I often wonder how to help them deal with the kinds of issues today’s author brings to us.
The author of this post, Donny B, is a minor league baseball and hockey broadcaster who lives in Central California. He reports that, while only in his late 20s, he has been in churches since he was 5 years old, and has seen both the miraculous and the ugly (and most everything in between).
• • •
Quiet Desperation by Donny B
In recent years, the Irish have finally begun to address one of their country’s lesser yet age-old problems: How do they keep hundreds of young rural farmers from hanging themselves?
It’s a dilemma that stretches back for centuries. Starved of any kind of companionship, surrounded by nothing but sheep and potatoes and the pointlessly green beauty of the rolling Eire countryside, without a wife or the meaningful prospects of ever finding one because of their perpetual isolation (the farm and its crops can’t be abandoned, and what town girl wants to move to the back country to live with a bucktoothed hick anyway?), many decide that ending things is preferable to living extended, miserable lives of crushing isolation.
By contrast, today’s young, lonely, suburban American men generally don’t commit suicide; they just surf the internet, play video games, and watch movies. You could call them lazy, and some of them are, but that’s often unfair. They’re simply stuck in an early-life dead end and aren’t sure how they’re supposed to get out. Henry David Thoreau’s famous observation that “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” is usually applied to middle-aged fathers of three who have an insatiable mortgage, a nagging and aging-around-the-edges wife, and a soul-numbing white-collar job. But it could increasingly be applied, with greater accuracy, to those of a younger generation who would kill to have such problems.
So what is the church going to do about their single, insecure, internally desperate twenty-somethings who are now graduating from school only to find an economic climate that makes it incredibly difficult to earn any kind of decent living for many years? The old Christian paradigm of marrying young is increasingly unrealistic for many. And most Christian adults over forty don’t seem to understand this. They attack today’s male semi-youth as being slow, unmotivated, and stereotypically rooted to his parents’ basement. They make condescending, unhelpful statements about “lack of biblical initiative” and “faith in God’s provision.” I wonder, though, how they would have fared if they had come out of college in this environment? I suspect they wouldn’t be quite so glib.
Unlike non-Christians, single believers can’t cheat (theoretically, at least). They have no sexual outlet. No, it’s not death. Sex isn’t an absolute basic requirement. But it is an undeniable, powerful drive, and a growing number of Christian guys are finding themselves without the ability to support a spouse and family at the most basic level. Furthermore, they’re facing an uphill battle to attain even those modest means within the foreseeable future. If they were good boys and went to college like everyone told them to, they’re likely loaded down with debt, and that degree is looking like a fairly worthless (and expensive) scrap of paper that doesn’t do much to land them a job. If they didn’t go to school, they’re fighting tooth and nail for the unskilled retail and service gigs that everyone (including the ones with college degrees) are desperately flocking to. It’s an economic catch-22, and it’s creating a whole new generation of financial and relational non-starters.
For some, this will be an excuse to gently push aside biblical restraints on premarital sex as outdated or simply unbearable. Frankly, these will make up the majority (just as, statistically, they already do). For the conscientious minority, however, a different (and, arguably, even more dangerous) problem is on the horizon: they are going to find themselves part of a swelling tsunami of single, sexually frustrated male adults in an institution that has, historically and in contemporary times, had no idea what to do with them.
Add the potentially crushing weight of a lack of institutional understanding and support to the already difficult loneliness and physical frustration of extended Christian singleness, and you have a recipe for volatility. All those pent-up desires and dreams can create a toxic internal stew of anger if they’re allowed to bubble unattended. And, unfortunately, many young Christian men’s emotions will be left to do exactly that. They’ll be told (either through implication or overt command) to just smile and praise God’s perfect timing…in public. Then, they’ll go home to their small, lonely apartment and wonder just how long they’re supposed to keep on smiling and pretending they’re fine. Some will be able to keep up the charade for years. Others won’t. Eventually, they’ll crack…and the resulting explosion could be devastating, even deadly.
Unfortunately, many church leaders remain blissfully ignorant to this issue. It’s understandable; they always have a thousand other pressing issues that demand their attention, and other constituencies that are much more vocal. But they would do well to see this growing cultural trend and have some honest discussions about how they’re going to support their ominously growing subculture of young (but not for long) singles.
The revolution is coming, whether we want it or not. And lame chastity pledges aren’t going to cut it this time.
, by Marva Dawn. This is a thoughtful presentation of distinctly “old-fashioned” character and virtue when it comes to marital and sexual matters. Marva Dawn is one of the church’s best teachers because she speaks out of personal weakness, suffering, and maturity as well as intellectual depth. Her own physical handicaps and limitations, an extended period of life in which she was single and serving God, and the delightful friendship, partnership, and romance she shares with her husband give her profound credibility when addressing the subject. One big idea which permeates the book is that the health and holiness of our “genital sexuality” is dependent on the strength of our “social sexuality.” That is, the relational supports we have in our life apart from sex must be strong in order for us to keep sexual intimacy in proper perspective — “…we need complete support of our personal identities. Without affection, approval, and the knowledge that one belongs in some sort of community, a person might become desperate and falsely assume that what is need is genital sexual expression rather than social affection.” Part of the problem in our society is that families and churches are not forming communities wherein such support is strong.
, by Lauren Winner. One of our finest young authors resurrects the old word “chastity” and recommends it as the framework of her frank discussion of contemporary sexuality from a Christian perspective. “I don’t offer instructions or hard-and-fast-rules. Instead, I offer a flawed example, a few suggestions, some thoughts about what works and what doesn’t work, and the occasional reminder of why, as Christians, we should care about chastity in the first place,” she writes. Like Marva Dawn, Lauren Winner insists that individual sexual behavior is and should be a matter of community concern, and that in Christ, we have a loving duty to both encourage and admonish one another on the subject. She suggests that not only our culture, but also the Christian community tells lies about sexuality, and she calls the church to remember our theological tradition, which assigns three purposes to the sexual relationship: unitive, sacramental, and procreative. The final section of her book deals pointedly with the actual practice of chastity. I appreciate that Winner does so within and not apart from the broader context of spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines, and solid theological perspectives about such matters as vocation, community, and confession.
JESUS’ TEAM OF “WINNERS”
(heavily influenced by Wright’s studies), this book has invigorated and expanded my understanding of the Gospel in the context of the Biblical Story and the culture in which Jesus lived.
The Internet Monk Archives 