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Beliefs, Practices, History
- The Bible (28) : Defense, Criticism & Interpretation
- The Church (30) : Praise, Explanation & Criticism
- Gospel & Theology (42) : Story, Message, Doctrine
- Spirituality (19) : Experience, Worship & the Spirit
The Ragamuffin Gospel (Questar Publishers, 1993).
Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the
countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front
of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands
(Revelation 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in
Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me she could find no other
employment to support her two-year-old son. I shall see the woman who
had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best
she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged
with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions;
the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged
his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the
sexually-abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on
the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last "trick" whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in
Sunday school; the death-bed convert who for decades had his cake and
ate it, broke every law of God and man, wallowed in lust and raped the
earth. "But how?" we ask. Then the voice says, "They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." There
they are. There we are — the multitude who so wanted to be faithful,
who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials,
wearing the bloodied garments of life's tribulations, but through it
all clung to the faith.
The Ragamuffin Gospel (Questar Publishers, 1993), 27.
Any church that will not accept that it consists of sinful men and
women, and exists for them, implicitly rejects the gospel of grace. As
Hans Kung say, "it deserves neither God's mercy nor men's trust.
The church must constantly be aware that its faith is weak, its
knowledge dim, its profession of faith halting, that there is not a
single sin or failing which it has not in one way or another been
guilty of. And though it is true that the church must always
disassociate itself from sin, it can never have any excuse for keeping
any sinners at a distance. If the church remains self-righteously aloof
from failures, irreligious and immoral people, it cannot enter
justified into God's kingdom. But if it is constantly aware of its
guilt and sin, it can live in joyous awareness of forgiveness. The
promise has been given to it that anyone who humbles himself will be
exalted."
The Ragamuffin Gospel (Questar Publishers, 1993), 25.
And Grace calls out: you are not just a disillusioned old man who may
die soon, a middle-aged woman stuck in a job and desperately wanting to
get out, a young person feeling the fire in the belly begin to grow
cold. You may be insecure, inadequate, mistaken, or potbellied. Death,
panic, depression, and disillusionment may be near you. But you are not
just that. You are accepted. Never confuse your perception of yourself
with the mystery that you really are accepted.
The Ragamuffin Gospel (Questar Publishers, 1993), 21.
The Good News means we can stop lying to ourselves. The sweet sound of
amazing grace saves us from the necessity of self-deception. It keeps
us from denying that though Christ was victorious, the battle with
lust, greed, and pride still rages within us. As a sinner who has been
redeemed, I can acknowledge that I am often unloving, irritable, angry,
and resentful with those closest to me. When I go to church I can leave
my white hat at home and admit I have failed. God not only loves me as
I am, but also knows me as I am. Because of this I don't need to
apply spiritual cosmetics to make myself presentable to him. I can
accept ownership of my poverty and powerlessness and neediness.
Brennan Manning on God's Love said...
The Ragamuffin Gospel (Questar Publishers, 1993), 18.
Justification by grace through faith is the theologian's learned phrase for what Chesterton once called "the furious love of God." He is not moody or capricious; he knows no seasons of change. He has a single relentless stance toward us: he loves us. He is the only God man has ever heard of who loves sinners. False gods — the gods of human manufacturing — despise sinners, but the Father of Jesus loves all, no matter what they do. But of course this is almost too incredible for us to accept. Nevertheless, the central affirmation of the Reformation stands: through no merit of ours, but by his mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of his beloved Son. This is the Good News, the gospel of grace.
Marlene Winell on Original Sin said...
Leaving the Fold (Oakland, CA: New Harbinger, 1993), p. 1.
In conservative Christianity you are told you are unacceptable. You are
judged with regard to your relationship to God. Thus you can only be
loved positionally, not essentially. And, contrary to any assumed ideal
of Christian love, you cannot love others for their essence either.
This is the horrible cost of the doctrine of original sin.
Brennan Manning on Grace said...
The Ragamuffin Gospel, (Questar Publishers, 1993) 77.
The gospel of grace calls us to sing of the everyday mystery of intimacy with God instead of always seeking for miracles or visions. It calls us to sing of the spiritual roots of such commonplace experiences as a class, forgiving each other after we have hurt each other, standing together in the bad weather of life, of surprise and sexuality, and the radiance of existence. Of such is the kingdom of heaven, and of such homely mysteries is genuine religion made. The conversion from mistrust to trust is a confident quest seeking the spiritual meaning of human existence. Grace abounds and walks around the edges of our everyday experience.
The Ragamuffin Gospel, (Questar Publishers, 1993), 72.
Simple, my dear fellow! Your trouble is you have your halo on too
tight. All we need to do is to loosen it a bit. The trouble with our
ideals is that if we live up to all of them, we become impossible to
live with. The tilted halo of the saved sinner is worn loosely and with
easy grace. We have discovered that the cross accomplished far more
than revealing the love of God.
The Ragamuffin Gospel (Questar Publishers, 1993), 27.
Often hobbling through our church doors on Sunday morning comes grace
on crutches — sinners still unable to throw away their false
supports and stand upright in the freedom of the children of God. Yet,
their mere presence in the church on Sunday morning is a flickering
candle representing a desire to maintain contact with God. To douse the
flame is to plunge them into a world of spiritual darkness.
Back to Virtue (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992), pp. 83,86.
What's missing here? Simply the essence of Christianity, which is not
the Sermon on the Mount. When Christianity was proclaimed throughout
the world, the proclamation was not "Love your enemies?" but "Christ is
risen!" This was not a new ideal but a new event, that God became man,
died, and rose for our salvation. Christianity is first of all not
ideal but real, and event, news, the gospel, the "good news." The
essence of Christianity is not Christianity; the essence of
Christianity is Christ... The Sermon on the Mount not only comes from
Jesus but also leads us to Jesus. It does not divert us from Jesus to a
set of abstract ideals, but its ideals lead us to Jesus. who alone can
fulfill them in us, if we let him. The sermon is an arrow and Jesus is
the bull's eye, not vice versa.
Lesslie Newbigin (Eerdmans: Dec 1989), 255 pages.
How does the gospel relate to a pluralist society? What is the Christian message in a society marked by religious pluralism, ethnic diversity, and cultural relativism? Should Christians encountering today’s pluralist society concentrate on evangelism or on dialogue? How does the prevailing climate of opinion affect, perhaps infect, Christians’ faith? These kinds of questions are addressed in this noteworthy book by Lesslie Newbigin. A highly respected Christian leader and ecumenical figure, Newbigin provides a brilliant analysis of contemporary (secular, humanist, pluralist) culture and suggests how Christians can more confidently affirm their faith in such a context. While drawing from scholars such as Michael Polanyi, Alasdair MacIntyre, Hendrikus Berkhof, Walter Wink, and Robert Wuthnow, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society is suited not only to an academic readership. This heartfelt work by a missionary pastor and preacher also offers to Christian leaders and laypeople some thoughtful, helpful, and provocative reflections.
F. F. Bruce (IVP Academic: Oct 31, 1988), 349 pages.
Winner of two 1990 Christianity Today Awards: Readers' Choice (1st place; theology & doctrine) and Critics' Choice (1st place; theology & doctrine). A 1989 ECPA Gold Medallion Award winner! How did the books of the Bible come to be recognized as Holy Scripture? Who decided what shape the canon should take? What criteria influenced these decisions? After nearly nineteen centuries the canon of Scripture still remains an issue of debate. Protestants, Catholics and the Orthodox all have slightly differing collections of documents in their Bibles. Martin Luther, one of the early leaders of the Reformation, questioned the inclusion of the book of James in the canon. And many Christians today, while confessing the authority of all of Scripture, tend to rely on only a few books and particular themes while ignoring the rest. Scholars have raised many other questions as well. Research into second-century Gnostic texts have led some to argue that politics played a significant role in the formation of the Christian canon. Assessing the influence of ancient communities and a variety of disputes on the final shaping of the canon call for ongoing study. In this significant historical study, F. F. Bruce brings the wisdom of a lifetime of reflection and biblical interpretation to bear in answering the questions and clearing away the confusion surrounding the Christian canon of Scripture. Adept in both Old and New Testament studies, he brings a rare comprehensive perspective to his task. Though some issues have shifted since the original publication of this book, it still remains a significant landmark and touchstone for further studies. ~ Book Description
J.P. Moreland in Trinity Journal NS (1986) pp. 75-86.
In recent years, scholars arguing against a conservative understanding
of biblical inerrancy have appealed to a wide range of issues. It has
been argued, for example, that belief in inerrancy should be abandoned
or redefined because inerrancy is not taught by the Bible and it was
not the view of many leaders in the history of the church. Others argue
that the concept of inerrancy is not adequate to capture the nature of
the Bible as revelation. As important as these and related issues are, one suspects that Donald
Dayton put his finger on the central reason why some scholars feel a
need to abandon or redefine inerrancy: "For many, the old intellectual
paradigms [including inerrancy] are dead, and the search is on in
neglected traditions and new sources for more adequate models of
biblical authority." Simply put, many no longer think that it is
rational to believe that inerrancy is true. What are we to make of this objection?
"A Debate on the Existence of God" (1948) in Bertrand Russell on God and Religion (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1986), p. 208.
The Ages of Faith, which are praised by our neo-scholastics, were the
time when the clergy had things all their own way. Daily life was full
of miracles wrought by saints and wizardry perpetrated by devils and
necromancers. Many thousands of witches were burnt at the stake. Men's
sins were punished by pestilence and famine, by earthquake, flood, and
fire. And yet, strange to say, they were even more sinful than they are
now-a-days.
Lesslie Newbigin (Eerdmans: Apr 1986), 156 pages.
How can biblical authority be a reality for those shaped by the modern world? This book treats the First World as a mission field, offering a unique perspective on the relationship between the gospel and current society by presenting an outsider's view of contemporary Western culture. "This is an extraordianry book on contemporary missiology. Writing from four decades of experience in Christian mission, Lesslie Newbigin applies the same discernment inolved in contextualizing the gospel in another culture to the issues involved in contextualizing the gospel in our Western culture. He lays bare the pervasive and sublte synegism that alters the gospel, and he call us to a thorough critique of our culture and of the way in which we unerstand or misunderstand the gospel of Christ and his good news of the kingdom of God." ~ Mission Focus
William P. Alston, Faith and Philosophy (1985, 2:1) 5-20.
William Alston brings a philosopher's perspective to prayer, the somewhat audacious belief that humans can speak with God. Alston considers in particular the yet more remarkable belief that God responds to our petitions. A 2005 Rasmussen poll found that 47% of Americans pray daily or nearly every day. But however common, prayer rarely benefits from this kind of philosophical reflection. Alston addresses the issue of God's foreknowledge and omniscience and how these comport with the notion that God's action in the world can be moved by prayer. In particular, he considers objections to the idea that a "timeless" God can engage in dialogue with creatures who are in time. He concludes: "God is essentially timeless in the sense that, apart from His free
choice to the contrary, none of His actions or states would be datable
nor would He live through temporal succession. But God has the capacity
to freely choose to render His activity, or portions thereof,
temporally ordered. And this permits Him to enter into genuine
interaction, conversational and otherwise, with temporal creatures." ~ Afterall
R.C. Sproul, John Gerstner, and Arthur Lindsley in Classical Apologetics (Zondervan: 1984), p. 4.
The church is safe from vicious persecution at the hand of the
secularist, as educated people have finished with stake-burning
circuses and torture racks. No martyr's blood is shed in the secular
west. So long as the church knows her place and remains quietly at
peace on her modern reservation. Let the babes pray and sin and read
their Bibles, continuing steadfastly in their intellectual retardation;
the church's extinction will not come by sword or pillory, but by the
quiet death of irrelevance. But let the church step off the
reservation, let her penetrate once more the culture of the day and
the... face of secularism will change from a benign smile to a savage
snarl.
~ by David Basinger, in Sophia: A Journal for Discussion in Philosophical Theology. (1983, vol. 22, no2, pp. 15-22)
Basinger responds to Anthony Flew's contention that: "the historian must maintain with respect to any alleged miracle that the event did not in fact occur as reported". Basinger concedes that Flew's argument has merit, but argues that it ultimately fails. And by the way, to save a trip to dictionary.com, "nomology" is the science of laws. Basinger concludes: "The fact that
an alleged occurrence is incompatible with current nomologicals must
indeed be seriously considered when the historian rules on its
historicity. However, Flew has failed to demonstrate that a seeming
counterinstance must be shown to be consistent with current
nomologicals before the historian can justifiably rule that it can be
known to have occurred. Alleged 'miracles' cannot be dismissed this
easily."
Strength to Love (Fortress Press: 1982), p. 153.
More than ever before I am convinced of the reality of a personal God. True, I have always believed in the personality of God. But in the past the idea of a personal God was little more than a metaphysical category that I found theologically and philosophically satisfying. Now it is a living reality that has been validated in the experiences of everyday life. God has been profoundly real to me in recent years. In the midst of outer dangers I have felt an inner calm. In the midst of lonely days and dreary nights I have heard an inner voice saying, "Lo, I will be with you." When the chains of fear and the manacles of frustration have all but stymied my efforts, I have felt the power of God transforming the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope. I am convinced that the universe is under the control of a loving purpose, and that in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship. Behind the harsh appearances of the world there is a benign power.
"The Death of Christ" in An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism (ed. Gordon Stein, Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1980), p. 217.
If it were desirable upon the part of God to send his son to save the
world from eternal perdition, why was it that, when he did arrive, so
many nations were kept in ignorance of his mission? Even the Jews,
God's chosen people, had no knowledge than an incarnate deity was to
expire on the Cross. If the regeneration of the world had been the
object of Christ, would it not have been better, instead of ascending
to heaven, for him to have remained on earth, teaching practical
truths, and showing by his own personal example how the world could be
rescued from that moral and intellectual darkness and despair to which
it had been reduced by the influence of a degrading theology?