Religious tinkering: "the joining together of seemingly inconsistent, disparate components.... What first seems like straightforwardly orthodox belief, such as the view that the Bible is inerrant, turns out to be a jumble of orthodoxy and more relativistic assumptions about truth, salvation, and civility."
While God cares about our daily concerns, God's action in our lives is not as a butler or a problem solver. It is much more expansive than that. Indeed, at times we are called to activities that seem useless to us yet enter into the larger work of God's kingdom. Ironically, while many Christian leaders helps to cultivate the culture of religious tinkering because it seems relevant and applicable, it is also a significant cause of nominal Christianity. Self-centered faith quickly becomes small and dull, easy to jettison when another device for problem solving comes along. If we want to expand the context of our Christian life beyond a narrow preoccupation with our own problems, then we need to allow our own questions to be reframed in the light of the centrality of Jesus Christ and the triune God's work in our lives. And in order to do this, we need to take the teachings of the incarnation and the Trinity of the dusty shelf.
Trinity and Incarnation: Moving Shelf Doctrines to Daily Living, J. Todd Billings,
Modern Reformation, Vol. 19, No. 6, Nov/Dec 2010. (emphasis mine)
Very good quote and valid point. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteExcellent quote. We see the results of all the tinkering in the folks who come to us for help. Preoccupation with self has reached epidemic proportions within the church, and most don't even see the relevance of pure, unadulterated Biblical truth to their lives. Until they hear it, and read it; then they say, "why haven't we heard this before?"
ReplyDeleteWow. How true this is. So much of what passes itself off as Christianity is nothing more than a theology of self. May God have mercy on the Western church.
ReplyDeleteAnd, if I am honest Persis, I have to admit that I still see some residue of this in my own theology. By God's grace, may we take the "teachings of the incarnation and the Trinity off the dusty shelf" and wear these beautiful doctrines on our hearts.
Thank you for this quote.
Amen Persis! To so many Christ is nothing more than a Cosmic Bellhop.
ReplyDeleteModern Christianity has really promoted this self centered theolgy hasn't it?
Thanks for these words. Haven't heard of J.Todd Billings before.
ps. Love your new blog!!!