Back to the Beginning
By Brian on Jan 31, 2006
If we insist on going back to something in the past, perhaps we should go back to the beginning, rather than getting off conveniently at some 18th-century plateau (or 16th or even 12th).
From Our Daily Blog
Source: The Emerging Church by Osborne & Larson
i haven’t read the quoted book, but i wonder what they mean by beginning. the garden of eden? the acts church? when constatine performed his mighty co-op?
the jews have often been called the “people of the book,” which for am ethnic group known for their perpetual exilic state, is vital to their remaining grounded as it were even while always on the move.
of course, when speaking of the jews, the book refers to the torah and, to some extent the ark of the covenant, which as we know “had wheels” until the time of david, when he consolidated the tribes in jerusalem.
structures come and go, as do ideas and intrepretations. but i really do believe there is something unique about the bible that’s akin to the ark of the covenant. christians really should be a people of the book (without of course worshiping the bible).
but is this the case? and if not, why not?
has post-enlightenment rationalism and history’s subsequent attempts to defend the bible’s validity, etc. burdened the scriptures with too much reason, thereby quenching the wonder of God’s mysterious and mezmerizing relationship with us?
can christians carry the bible (i.e. fully experience God through his message to us) from camp to camp, from old structures to new, from age to age, on into the unknown future?
that to me might be a question worth asking when it comes to talk of ecclesiology and missionality in the coming decades.
cmar | Jan 31, 2006 | Reply