Chilling in culture's living room

Coffee shops function as the pop culture living room. And often, especially in urban areas, these living rooms attract a large diversity of people.

In his 2010 book, The Diversity Culture, author Matthew Raley, senior pastor of the Orland Evangelical Free Church in northern California, uses the word “diversity” in two different ways: diversity referencing the multitude of backgrounds and perspectives of people in the coffee shop, and the diversity of influences shaping the perspectives of those in the cultural living room.

Raley’s thesis is that too often Christians tie themselves down to textbook-type conceptions of unbelievers and their beliefs and thus fail to acknowledge that complex factor that shape most people’s beliefs.

He points to the fact that most of the people labeled with a postmodern worldview rarely, if ever, interact with such postmodern thinkers as Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. Rather, their thoughts and attitudes toward politics, religion and ethics come from a cultural attitude formed from the diversity of voices in society.

“In trying to deal with the most significant cultural shift of our time, therefore, evangelicals are not sure what they face. They aren’t sure how the shift affects the individuals they talk to. Nor are they sure what their role should be in relation to those individuals,” Raley writes. Should they educate them about postmodernity? (Probably not a wise posture.) Should they try to accommodate their views? (Definitely not wise.) The sheer diversity of attitudes on the street is daunting. ”

He teases out the tensions accompanying this daunting diversity in his book’s three self-explanatory sections: “Understand the tension,” “Formulate the message” and “Apply the model.” Raley calls his readers to faithfully communicate the good news to those who need it.

“There is always pressure to redefine the faith so that it fits ungodly prejudices betters. For instance, some are experimenting again with the notion that people of other faiths will be saved as long as they are sincere. Some others want to blur the biblical standards on sexuality so that we seem less prudish,” he writes. “None of these faux-biblical positions will lead people to Jesus.”

In his conclusion, Raley tells the story of being in college and realizing that his cookie cutter perceptions about people and their beliefs hindered his communication of the gospel.

“My gospel was self-indulgent too. It consisted of the points I wanted to make rather than the truths people needed to hear. I wanted to say that there were moral absolutes, and I wanted to pile up the evidence. I wanted to prove the inerrancy of Scripture. I wanted to expound the doctrines of total depravity and election,” he writes. “All of the things I wanted to say are true. But most of my peers were trying to figure out if their parents loved them. They needed to truth of the gospel applied to them specifically. (Abstract coherence is one of the most insidious forms of self-indulgence I have. It allows me to ignore the hot problems around me in favor of cool formulas.)”

This others-conscience focus drives the gospel-formulations in The Diversity Culture.

The Diversity Culture: Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between (Kregel 2010, $12.99), Matthew Raley

COEXIST

It’s fairly common to see one of those “COEXIST” bumper stickers. One odd thing about them is that they decorate several different kinds of cars. So it seems that people from many walks of life – or at least car styles – want seven of the world’s religions to coexist. But the most intriguing thing about the commonplace decal is its ambiguity. Does it mean “Don’t kill everyone from other religions – exist together?” If so, it’s a needless car decoration, because the world’s religions are coexisting. Look around, indeed many different religions exist, often even in the same place.

If the bumper sticker aims at something less than Zen Buddhists killing Muslims, then most likely those who brandish the always-faded blue sticker suggest that all of the represented religions are equally valid. Considering such things brings with it the obvious question, “Are all these different beliefs the same?”

In his new book, A God of Many Understandings?, Todd L. Miles, assistant professor of theology and hermeneutics at Western Seminary and a graduate of Southern Seminary, attempts to provide his readers with a theology of world religions – how Christians should think about religions in relation to the Gospel.

“A theology of religions seeks, in a coherent and consistent manner, to answer questions concerning the relationships among world religions, special revelation, general revelation, and salvation,” Miles writes in his first chapter. “Of primary consequence, a Christian theology of religions seeks to answer these questions: Is there salvation outside conscious faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ? If so, how is it appropriated? Why are people incurably religious, and where do their religious impulses and convictions arise? … How are Christians to relate to religious others as they bring the Gospel of truth to them?”

In answering these questions, Miles walks his readers through the Scriptures, summarizing the biblical teachings concerning such topics as monotheism, God’s uniqueness and the missionary works of the early church. He then builds a case against the increasingly popular teachings of universalism.

“Universalism is currently growing in popularity due to the deadly combination of teaching by some high-profile individuals who have professed Christ, a church that is biblically illiterate, and a postmodern ethos where unanchored and incoherent sentimentalities trump the biblical presentation of God and His Christ,” Miles claims, emphasizing the urgency of the issue.

After briefly addressing the shortcomings of pluralistic worldviews, Miles turns his attention to the idea that the all religions somehow offer the merits of Christ to their adherents, even those with no conscious knowledge of him. He offers two chapters about this inclusivism, the first descriptive and the second critiquing inclusivist ideas within evangelicalism. These evangelical formulations claim that the Spirit works, in some salvific manner, in multiple religions around the world. Clearly sensing the importance of this issue, Miles writes follow-up chapters in which he argues that the Bible does not allow for a theological method that begins with the Spirit, especially as isolated from the Son. He then concludes his study investigating the relationship between the Son and Spirit, an investigation “built upon the foundation of a canonical biblical theology that is consciously christocentric.”

“If one understands the essence of Christianity to be facts about God, cultivation of personal devotion, advocacy of social justice, or the development of the nuclear family, the other religions may bring their own set of credentials to the discussion. But Christianity, at its core, is not any of these things,” Miles concludes. “A Christian is one who trusts the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is thereby justified by God, reconciled to God, indwelt by God’s Spirit, and is being progressively transformed into the image of Christ in anticipation of Christ’s return to consummate His Kingdom.

“Sympathetic attempts to seek salvific potential in non-Christian knowledge of God are misguided because other religions are not centered around the saving work of Jesus Christ.”

A God of Many Understandings? The Gospel and a Theology of Religions (B&H 2010, $29.99), Todd L Miles

Wisdom Christology

I'm super excited about this forthcoming book:

Wisdom Christology: How Jesus becomes God's wisdom for us (P&R 2011), Daniel J. Ebert