- Perhaps in some teleological sense, but surely not experientially.
- I am not, of course, suggesting here that the message of the Old Testament is antithetical to faith - only that the rabbinical interpretation of the Old Testament message had become distorted. That’s incontrovertible. Nor am I suggesting that all Jews embraced the distortions taught by the rabbis.
- There are many other examples that could be cited; but one other that leaps to mind is found in the first several chapters of the Book of Romans - and once again its focus is the First Century Jewish mind-set - and the hindrance it poses to faith.
- Not all cultural attitudes are harmful and insidious; indeed, though some Christians may find it surprising, occasionally a specific cultural mind-set can actually facilitate the dissemination of scriptural truth. A classic example is the very effective role Greek philosophical categories played in combating many of the heresies which characterized the first several centuries of the church’s history. Greek philosophical categories were of inestimable value in elucidating the subtle but all important nuances of (1) the Trinity and (2) the two natures and one person of Christ.
- Riesman, David The Lonely Crowd. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1963 (first published 1950)
- Reisman’s summary description of DeToqueville’s study.
- Lasch, Christopher The Culture of Narcissism. New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, first published in 1979; but republished in 1991 as a Norton paperback.
- The “amens” were, however, somewhat belated. Initially, psychologists and psychiatrists tended to miss the point Lasch was trying to make. Consequently, his study was at first dismissed as merely a commentary on the “Me Generation” of the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s. It took several years before his study was taken seriously and his insights appreciated.
- The task of fabricating a new American personality was perhaps not as difficult as might first be surmised. After all, Tocqueville had already taken note, a century earlier, of a personality structure not at all dissimilar to Riesman’s observations in 1950. It’s possible, therefore, that Madison Avenue was merely pressing to the fore what was already there.
- A wonderful German word - so marvelously descriptive. It means “spirit of the age.” Jacob Burckhardt, a towering intellect of the 19th Century, borrowed the term from Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of History - and, subsequently, transformed it into a mode of historical research. He used it as the basis for his monumental study, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy.
- Though, tragically, this isn’t always true - especially concerning “tithing.”
- "Sola Scriptura" was the battle cry of the Protestant Reformation. It's a Latin phrase - and it means "The Scriptures Only." The Reformers refused to honor the pronouncements of the Pope - and balked at ascribing to Roman Catholic tradition the same level of sanctity it reserved for the Bible
- C.f., Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. C.f., also Dilthey, Burckhardt, Troeltsch, and Cassirer - especially Cassirer’s The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy. But perhaps the best study is J. Huizinga’s The Waning of the Middle Ages.
- Burckhardt puts it well: “Man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation - only through some general category.” (Italics mine.) Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Penguin Classics, published by Penguin Books, 1990, p. 98.
- It’s in this sense that the “Social Contract Theorists” must be read. Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, and, of course, that enigmatic and transitional figure, Jean Jacque Rouseeau - all draw upon the perspective first brought to light by Martin Luther. For the first time in the history of mankind, a theory of government was being propounded which rested ultimately upon the primacy of the individual. And Luther’s finger prints were everywhere. Imagine! Government is based upon individual men and women consenting to a social contract. Unthought of! Unheard of!
- All Protestant churches rest upon forms of government and organizational principles which presuppose the primacy of personal choice. Church government is wholly inorganic, not at all the organic forms of the Roman Catholic tradition.
- Our Evangelicalism, i.e., the Evangelicalism that arose following the liberal realignment of the Presbyterian Church and the tragic collapse of Princeton Seminary. Princeton Seminary had been the fountainhead of conservative Protestant theology here in America during the 19th Century. Charles Hodge (1797-1878) and Benjamin Warfield (1851-1921) were its preeminent representatives. In 1921, Warfield died, and the mantle of leadership fell upon John Gresham Machen (1881-1937). But eight years later, in 1929, Machen resigned - because the seminary’s board of directors refused any longer to endorse the fundamental tenets of conservative theology. That same year, Machen helped to found Westminister Theological Seminary. Finally, in 1935, the rift was made irremediable: the Presbyterian Church USA found him guilty of insubordination and forbade him to engage in ministry. Princeton had been the last remaining bastion of an older network of theological seminaries - including Yale, Harvard, etc. Its collapse marked the end of an era. A whole new network of seminaries arose to take its place - dedicated to continuing and reaffirming conservative Protestant theology - with one important difference: the new network was composed of scholars who, for the most part, were premillennialists - and, unlike scholars of the older network, believed that eschatology was a vital topic of study. C.f. David Rausch
- e.g., 1 Corinthians 12:12-20
- I’m aware of only two Evangelicals who have managed to put together a somewhat adequate ecclesiology: Michael Griffiths and Watchman Nee. In the case of Michael Griffiths, his book, Cinderella with Amnesia, has aroused some interest, but has provoked almost no change at all - either here in America or in England. And in the case of Watchman Nee, his many books and tracts have all been tainted by their association with Witness Lee’s “Local Church Movement.”
- Sociologists have coined various terms to depict the difference between the type of human collectives represented by a family and the type represented by a bureaucracy: Henry Maine, “status” and “contract;” Ferdinand Tonnies, “gemeinschaft” and “gesellschaft;” Max Weber, “communal” and “associative;” and so on. But the essential distinction is always the same: kinship and affection mark out one type; and objective, quantifiable goals and a rational calculation of means mark out the other. The one is personal; the other is intentionally depersonalized.
- Itself merely a necessary by-product of industrialization
- Perry, John A. and Perry, Erna K., Contemporary Society. Cambridge, Philadelphia, San Francisco, etc.: Harper and Row, Publishers, Third Edition, p. 357
- Hodges, William Interventions for Children of Divorce. New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto, and Singapore: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., published in 1991
- Charles Odier, a disciple of Jean Piaget, comments, “Nothing is more capable of suddenly throwing children into a state of mystery, worry and insecurity than dissension between the parents, especially if the child believes himself to be the cause or the object of these quarrels. It is as if the child’s naive belief in an absolute love is broken once and forever.” Odier, Charles, M.D. Anxiety and Magic Thinking. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1956; p. 102
- Piaget insists that a child’s comprehension of authority - his basic response to it - is formed from out of a primitive sense of “respect.” And that respect is essentially a product of both fear and affection. Fear alone cannot engender the kind of respect that eventually leads to a sound and wholesome perception of authority. The kind of perception fear alone eventually generates is based upon a sense of cruel exploitation. Piaget, Jean. Six Psychological Studies, New York: Random House, 1967, p. 36 (Translated from the French by Anita Tenzer.)
- The point here is not that motivation is wrong. That’s a very flawed conclusion. Motivation linked to authority - pressed into the service of authority - is not wrong at all. But leadership based exclusively upon motivation is wrong.
- One exception is Watchman Nee’s Spiritual Authority. But, again, it is tainted by Nee’s association with Witness Lee. A second exception might be Gene Edward’s A Tale of Three Kings. But Gene too has been closely associated with Witness Lee.
- This dynamic has been spelled out by numerous child psychologists - beginning with Jean Piaget. The “genetic school of psychology,” founded by Piaget, has proven clinically that adults raised in unhappy and insecure homes often find it extremely difficult to (1) distinguish between the “self” and the “nonself,” (2) authentically adopt the perspective of others, and (3) ascribe even the possibility of legitimacy to that perspective if grasped at all. In short, their intellectual and emotional development has been cut short. They remain essentially children - unable to adapt themselves within almost any social setting. “Others” are merely means to an end - and are quite often invested with either totally good or totally evil intention.
- Odier is adamant: “(Adult neurotics suffer from a) tendency to divide reality summarily into the two categories of benevolent and malevolent elements. In the ‘neurosis of abandonment,’ this double investment focuses upon the authority object.” (italics mine); ibid., p. 195.
- Sigmund Freud, in his brilliant exposé of Twentieth Century culture, Civilization and Its Discontents, pointed out that all persons, when plagued by unrelenting anxiety and stress, are subject to the siren call of this dynamic, not just persons whose emotional and intellectual development has been arrested because of abandonment, abuse, or neglect.
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