C.S Lewis 'Till We Have Faces

'Till We Have Faces is a book a read a couple of years ago because it was recommended by a good friend. I found it profound and deeply moving. It is a retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, which had haunted Lewis all his life. It is daring, experimental, and unlike anything before or after it in his published work. The setting for the book is in an unnamed time, in a mythical land of Glome. I assume it is set in the distant past. The leader of Glome (King Trom) has daughters: Orual and Psyche.

Psyche, the younger of the sisters, is beautiful both of face and spirit and beloved by all. She is sent as a sacrifice to the gods when trouble invades the township. Orual is ugly (in her own words) and as an adult, does not show her face in public. After her father's death, she is crowned queen, and finds that her life experiences have made her a wise and fair ruler.

The story centers on the love between the two sisters (Orual and Psyche). But the love Orual has for her sister is exposed incrementally as you see her self-hatred, her jealousy of Psyche and the questioning of whether the gods are good.

'Till We Have Faces examines how the heart loves – and that it can destroy a relationship when insecurity and ego poison the purity of love. It examines self-perceived truth that can become cloaked in jealousy and protectiveness. It examines spirituality, not the traditional relationship with God, but rather the internal peace and sanctity that every person must find to discover who they really are. It is a powerful, moving story that causes the reader to evaluate and think through their personal love, truth and spirituality, and the driving force behind each one. Identity is at the core of the mythic drama throughout the book. Loved it.

http://www.amazon.com/Till-We-Have-Faces-Retold/dp/0156904365

Thoughts on Justice from Tim Kellar

Christians can understand more deeply why they should help the poor when they see themselves spiritually in those that lack materially, said Pastor Tim Keller pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Often people look at a poor person and ask, “Why didn’t you pull yourself up by your bootstraps?” But if God asks that same question to humans then everyone would be spiritually dead, said Keller. And if Christians question whether the poor person will abuse their charity and grace, then they should remember that they have also “trampled” on God’s charity and grace by not living the life they should. “The more you see yourself as spiritually poor and the recipient of God’s overflowing love the more your heart is going to go out to the poor,” said Keller. “When you look at the materially poor you know that in a sense you are looking in a mirror.”

David Fitch on the Neo-Reformed Attractional Church

This article is interesting in light of how Axiom is attempting to plant a church throughout Syracuse through the development of missional communities in homes with a central resourcing structure.

http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/the-attractional-basis-of-neo-reformed-church-plants-yes-or-no/

Missional/Incarnational

Top Books I Read in 2010

I read a lot of books last year some great some really cruddy. I thought I’d list a few of the best books I read from the year 2010. I won't list the books on my "cruddy" list.


1. Creation Untamed by Terence Fretheim – What is God's role in natural disasters and human suffering ? He shows the God of the Bible to be a compassionate, suffering, relational God, one we can turn to in prayer in times of disaster.

2. From Eternity to Here by Frank Viola - an intriguing walk through the scriptures in a three part story showing God’s passion to secure a bride.

3. The Emotionally Healthy Church by Peter Scazzero – I read this book a few years ago but the second time around its just as good. An emphasis on discipleship that is about emotional maturity.

4. Get Wisdom Get Insight by Katharine Dell – a fascinating introduction into Israel’s wisdom literature in the Old Testament. An exploration on how wisdom was handled versus prophecy.

5. Jesus the Final Days by Craig Evans and NT Wright – a collection of essays that examine the historitcal perspective of what happened at the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

6. More Ready Than You Realize by Brian Mclaren – a very practical discussion on how to do evangelism to the postmodern mindset. This is like a postmodern sequel to C.S Lewis Mere Christianity.

7. The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen – a classic about solitude, silence and prayer in the spirit of the 4th and 5th century Desert Christians.

8. Thrones of Blood edited by William Whiston – the writings of Josephus capturing the world between 37 B.C to 70 A.D. Great exploration into the Jewish War, Herod the Great, the Roman empire and the city of Jerusalem.

9. Mentor Like Jesus by Regi Campbell and Andy Stanley - More time, spent with fewer people, equals greater kingdom impact. To further an all important message you need to invest in fewer people and commission them to multiply themselves, echoing the model set by Jesus.

10. The Passage by Justin Cronin – A trippy novel about the details of a post-apocalyptic world that is overrun by vampire-like beings that are infected by a highly contagious virus. What begins as a project to develop a new immunity-boosting drug based on a virus carried by an unnamed species of bat in South America eventually becomes the virus that transforms the world.

11. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 25 - This extensive volume covers the final fifteen years of Jonathan Edwards’s preaching and includes some of his greatest sermons, among them the Farewell Sermon to his Northampton congregation.

12. One.Life by Scot Mcknight - An invitation to discover what Jesus literally meant when He spoke.

13. Making Vision Stick by Andy Stanley - a short read on vision casting essentials. Make sure that the big picture stays clear.

A Brief History of Rightness

I like to be right, we all like to be right. There's something that strokes our ego and our identity when we feel like we are right. The obsession of being on the right side of an issue, of a debate, or of a group might seem like an honorable pursuit. Power, logical certainty and holding the theological high ground are attractive and intoxicating within the evangelical church. This “glory of knowing” seems on the surface an honorable and noble thing to apprehend; but the throne of knowledge and logical certainty that we think is attainable is proof of the cultural waters we swim in.

Our History of rightness
In the 13th century Thomas Aquinas (an immensely influential theologian and philosopher) carefully laid out a logical defense of the tenants and proofs of Christianity; and for the next couple of centuries, other thinkers pursued these goals to "shore up" every aspect of faith with logic. Aquinas fixed the relationship of theology to the science of logic. He believed reasoning would define who God is. Theological understanding at this time was marked by an emphasis on the absoluteness of truth and its knowability. A period of time called the Enlightenment was being birthed from the works of such scholars and the result was the absoluteness of rationalism. The unintended consequence over time was and is that it replaced the value of community, mystery, relationship and conversation. The fruits of the Enlightenment are less a period of time and more a way of processing and defining black and white. Out of the Enlightenment came the period of time called Modernity (1400's - 1970's) that promised to free humanity of irrational and relative thinking.

This force called Modernity ended up going on the offense against Christianity in the 18th and 19th century. Modernity served up major challenges to traditional Christian teachings on several fronts. The work of Charles Darwin and his colleagues established a theory that human species emerged through a process of evolution, rather than by a divine creator. Social scientists began demanding answers to Christian issues; the deity of Jesus, the existence of God, the notion of prayer, and the value of faith. The development of “Fundamentalism” around 1920 was Christianity’s response to this changing landscape. Christianity was brought into the boxing ring on Modernism's terms. Christian Fundamentalism went to work in arming itself with new weapons and fortresses. Christianity began defending the authority of its Scriptures, assembling its arguments against other world religions and philosophies, isolating itself from culture to remain untainted and granting itself moral judge of society’s problems. This spirit became synonymous more and more with being a Christian in the U.S in modern times. Mistakenly it’s often thought that isolation from the world, the constant defense of the Bible and zealous aggression over correct doctrine was the way of the early church as well as part of Paul’s ecclesiology. Here in the West this picture and prescription of doing church seems ingrained in our thinking. And hence we read the New Testament with this lens. But this emphasis is more indicative of cultures influence on us, the church, than it is coming from Jesus or Paul.