I came across some rather funny mock motivational posters dealing with the Emergent Church Conversation Discussion Monologue Amorphous Post-Modern Blob. Here are a few I liked.
and one of the funniest:
Find the full gallery here: http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/posters.htm
Imagine that a child must go to a school, and at this school the child would study the works of William Shakespeare. The child opens his book, and, per the instructions of the teacher, begins counting the number of words in Romeo and Juliet. The child then counts the syllables, and from this data learns the meter of the work. The child presents this information in the most original way possible, and the teacher, satisfied with the work, deems the child understands the piece and checks Romeo and Juliet off the list. Never did the child see the play performed; indeed the fact that it was a play did not weigh very heavily in the child’s analysis. Though the child knew the poetic rhythm of the piece, having never heard it performed, he was totally unaware of the aural quality of the work. Sadly, there is a direct parallel in Biblical Studies today. Secular Religion departments have sought to examine the Bible in every “scientific way†imaginable, and Seminaries, perhaps looking for validation, have duplicated their methods. Often, the meaning of the text specifically as Revelation to the Church is ignored. There is no room in a field dictated solely by reason for the Supernatural nature of the scriptures. As the child who studied Romeo and Juliet but never saw it performed, as it was intended, has ignored the fundamental purpose of the text, so do scholars who ignore the relationship of the scriptures to the Church ignore their fundamental purpose. A reasoned approach to the scriptures is not bad, but to the exclusion of the examination of the scriptures as God’s guiding revelation to the Church is to miss a level of meaning in the text. There is then, an inherent shallowness in purely scientific examinations of the text, and such shallowness can be avoided by treating the scriptures as more than a specimen, as the very Word of God for his people.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a teacher and theologian who fundamentally understood this problem at a young age, and sought to correct it. In 1925, he created a minor disruption at Berlin University by turning in a paper that seemed to decry the rationalist treatment of the Bible as something merely to be disassembled.[1] His mentor, Reinhold Seeberg, was displeased with the effort, as he saw the influence of Karl Barth’s theology. Barth spoke in detail about the “Problem of Religion†demanding that theology must work within the concrete relationship of the Church to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.[2] In 1925 Berlin, such ideas were viewed as un-academic. Bonhoeffer, however, did not seek to eradicate scientific modes of understanding the Bible, but rather sought balance between scientific and pastoral understandings of the Bible. It is easy for the work of the Holy Spirit to be overshadowed by scientific methods. It is not difficult to imagine an interpreter working away at a passage with historical criticism like a mechanic with a wrench. The passage is quickly stripped down into its many parts. Here we have an alternator (J), and here a spark plug (E), and here an oil filter (D). The engine, thus disassembled lacks the ability to create motion, and the text, thus dissected lacks the ability to instruct. The engine cannot run, and the Holy Spirit is ignored.
This work of the Holy Spirit is important because it is a work of guidance. The Scriptures tell us:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1Co 2:14-16 ESV)
The natural, that is unregenerate, man cannot understand the things of God, and we can only by our relationship to Christ and the access to the Holy Spirit granted to us by that relationship. This work of guidance is achieved through two modes: the general guidance of the Church and the specific guidance of individuals. The general guidance of the Church is rooted in the Lordship of Christ over his Body. In the gathering together of a variety of individuals and in the unification of the vagaries of human beings, the Holy Spirit works towards the ends of Christ for his Body. As Bonhoeffer puts it, “The Church of Christ is the presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit.â€[3] The Lordship of Christ over the Body is manifested through the power of the Holy Spirit, and by this power the Church becomes the representative of Christ. The elimination of the Holy Spirit from the examination of scripture can cause ignorance of God’s message for his Church. The specific guidance of individuals is rooted in meditation and prayer. As James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.â€[4] In prayer, we are able to receive wisdom for the understanding of scripture. In meditation, we may examine a text and through the Holy Spirit come to understand what God is speak to us as individuals. In Life Together Bonhoeffer explains:
In our meditation we ponder the chosen text on the strength of the promise that it has something utterly personal to say to us for this day and for our Christian life, that it is not only God’s Word for the Church, but also God’s word for us individually.[5]
The elimination of the Holy Spirit from the examination of scripture can cause ignorance of God’s message for us as individuals.
At the heart of this conflict is an intellectual tug of war. Must the Scriptures justify themselves in the court of reason? Or, must the spirit of this age justify itself before the testimony of the Scriptures. In a lecture given to preachers of the Confessing Church, Bonhoeffer notes that the root of Rationalism is the “emancipation of autonomous reason†and that any man who claims such autonomy and also claims Christ must “demand the justification of the Christian message before the forum of his autonomyâ€[6] Through reason man seeks to master the world, but such mastery when applied to the scriptures cannot work without the power of the Holy Spirit. To master the scriptures and comprehend them as Christ intended for his Church and intended for the reader, requires that the man first himself be mastered by the power of the Holy Spirit.