Onetruegodblog

This afternoon I came across what promises to be an excellent blog that has just been launched: OneTrueGodBlog. Moderated by Hugh Hewitt, it features theological discussion between five Evangelical bloggers, including Dr Albert Mohler. Hewitt makes the following remarks regarding the why of starting this new blog:“The first question should be: Why? The answer is because theology matters. A lot. I have asked these five excellent minds to ponder occasional questions from a layman that the layman thinks would be of interest to many more layman. I have discovered after 15 years in broadcast journalism that such questions and the answers they elicit are of great interest to the general public.”

Check it out.

Ecclesiophilia Revisited

As a logophile [“one who loves to discover new words that capsulize powerful thoughts” (Haykin, A New Dictionary of Theological Terms—!)], what a delight to find this one by a brother and friend, Tom Ascol: Ecclesiophilia. A recent blog from him sets this out as “unreconstructed” love of the church (see “Ecclesiophilia”, Founders Blog, entry for Tuesday, September 13, 2005). And he even defines himself as “an unreconstructed ecclesiophile.” What a great love to have and what a privilege to be given such a love! Read the whole blog. He ends it this way—and I say Amen!

“How can those who love Christ not love what He loves? And if we love the church, should we not long to see local congregations flourishing in biblical vitality? Shouldn’t we grieve when we see churches floundering and even denying the clear commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ (church discipline)? Should we not commit ourselves to pray and labor for the biblical re-formation of local churches across our land and other lands?”

“Not in Painting but in Writing”: Wisdom from Theodulf of Orleans

The Libri Carolini was drawn up by Theodulf of Orléans (c.760-821)—one of the key theologians of the Carolingian church and the author of the well-known hymn “All glory, laud, and honour”—in 790-793 and then later revised by him with the help of, among others, Alcuin of York (c.732-804)—the private tutor to Charlemagne and the head of the palace school at Aachen. It was a well-argued response by the Latin-speaking Carolingian Church to the iconodulist decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea (787). In essence, the Libri Carolini sought to refute this council’s advocacy of the use of icons as vehicles of worship and argument that such icons deserved the identical adoration as due to God. In light of recent discussions about worship and the so-called contemporary inability to primarily use words—notably the sermon—as a vehicle for worship, it has some interesting observations to add to these discussions. Theodulf was a Visigothic churchman who was deeply influenced by the writings of Augustine, particularly the latter’s De doctrina christiana. This Augustinian work, which deals broadly with hermeneutics and was often treated as a manual for preachers in the early Middle Ages, provided Theodulf with the resources to argue that the Bible alone is “the material object to which the Christian can turn to gain knowledge of the spiritual realm, because it was granted by God for this purpose” [Celia Chazelle, “ ‘Not in Painting but in Writing’: Augustine and the Supremacy of the Word in the Libri Carolini” in Edward D. English, ed., Reading and Wisdom. The De Doctrina Christiana of Augustine in the Middle Ages (Notre Dame/London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), 7]. Augustine was fairly severe on artistic representation. He argued that it was a “useless institution” that the serious student of Scripture needed to avoid. Relying on this Augustinian work, Theodulf was thus convinced that the Greek Orthodox advocacy of icons was due to their poor understanding of the beauty and riches of Scripture. The latter has all that a believer needs.

Celia Chazelle, in the above-cited article, notes that Theodulf’s critique is also tied up with “the concept that writing in general has greater merit as an instrument of communication than does artistic depiction” (“Not in Painting but in Writing” in  English, ed., Reading and Wisdom, 7). A picture, since it is material, does not partake of the spiritual realm. By definition, it must resemble that to which it refers and thus it cannot really inform its viewers about the realm of the Spirit. Words, on the other hand, are not so limited, for words are signs that do not have to resemble their subjects. And going along with this powerful advocacy of the written word and the supremacy of Scripture was an attempt to make Caorlingian society an increasingly literate culture.

Summing up the thrust of the argument of the Libri Carolini and its similarity to Augustine’s De doctrina christiana, Chazelle states:

“Both treatises insist on the supremacy of words as signs over all other forms of communication accessible to humans; both stress the difficulty, subtlety, and richness of written language, especially Scripture, and both maintain that the Christian who does not investigate the Bible’s language carefully or with sufficient grasp of the rules governing written language runs the danger of misinterpreting Scripture’s message. Both treatises make it clear that interest in artistic representations is incompatible with study of the Bible…” (“Not in Painting but in Writing” in  English, ed., Reading and Wisdom, 12).

There is much wisdom here and again a good reminder that there is nothing new under the sun.

Reading the Spiritual Classics of Evangelicalism

Charles Dickens’ famous line in A Tale of Two Cities—“it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”—seems well suited to contemporary western Evangelicalism. On the one hand, the last few decades have seen much to praise God for and much to rejoice about. In his goodness and grace, for instance, he has restored Reformed truth once more to a position of influence. And yet, as an increasing number of Evangelical authors have noted, there are still many sectors of Evangelicalism that are characterized by great shallowness and a trivialization of the weighty things of God. So much of Evangelical worship seems barren. And when it comes to spirituality there is little evidence of the riches that should be there, only poverty. As it was at the time of the Reformation, when the watchword was ad fontes—“back to the sources”—so it is now: the way forward is backward. We need to go back to the spiritual classics of Evangelicalism to find the pathway forward. We cannot live in the past. To attempt to do so would be antiquarianism. But through their writings our Evangelical forebears in the faith can teach us much about Christianity, its doctrines, its passions, and its fruit.

And they can serve as role models for us. As R. C. Sproul has noted of such giants as Augustine and Martin Luther, John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards: “These men all were conquered, overwhelmed, and spiritually intoxicated by their vision of the holiness of God. Their minds and imaginations were captured by the majesty of God the Father. Each of them possessed a profound affection for the sweetness and excellence of Christ. There was in each of them a singular and unswerving loyalty to Christ that spoke of a citizenship in heaven that was always more precious to them than the applause of men” [“An Invaluable Heritage”, Tabletalk, 23, No.10 (October 1999), 5-6.].

To be sure, we would not dream of placing these men and their writings on a level with the Word of God. As John Jewel (1522-1571), the Anglican apologist, once stated: “What say we of the fathers, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Cyprian ? …They were learned men, and learned fathers; the instruments of the mercy of God, and vessels full of grace. We despise them not, we read them, we reverence them, and give thanks unto God for them. Yet …we may not make them the foundation and warrant of our conscience: we may not put our trust in them. Our trust is in the name of the Lord” [Cited Barrington R. White, “Why Bother with History?”, Baptist History and Heritage, 4, No.2 (July 1969), 85.].

When it comes to spiritual reading, the Bible occupies a unique and indispensable place. It is the fountainhead and source of the Christian faith. Anyone wishing to make progress as a disciple of Christ must be committed to regular reflection and meditation on the Scriptures. Blessed is the believer whose delight is in the Word of God, on which he or she “meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2).

And as we seek to read the Scriptures meditatively, so the reading of these spiritual classics of Evangelicalism should differ from other types of reading. Whereas one reads a newspaper, dictionary or textbook for factual information or immediate answers to queries, in spiritual reading one seeks to inflame the heart as well as inform the mind. Spiritual reading, as Eugene Peterson has noted, should therefore be “leisurely, repetitive, reflective reading.” It should not be hurried, for attention needs to be paid to what the Spirit of God is saying through the text. And texts rich in spiritual nourishment beg to be re-read again and again.

We are not the first to read the Scriptures nor the first to meditate extensively on them. Christians of previous days also found strength and nourishment by meditating on the Word. And they recorded their wisdom for those who came after them in what we are in the habit of calling spiritual classics. Such classics thus have a way of sending their readers back to the Bible with deeper insight into the nature of the Christian faith and a greater desire to seek after Christ’s glory and blessed presence.

George Swinnock on Printing Sermons

This past summer a friend of mine, Stephen Yuille, who is finishing a PhD thesis on the thought of the Puritan George Swinnock (1627-1673), introduced me to the work of this Puritan leader. I really knew little about Swinnock beyond the fact that he was an English Puritan. I relished the thought of learning more about Swinnock since I am always delighted to make the acquaintance of a fellow-traveler on the way to the heavenly kingdom. Of course, in Swinnock’s case he has already arrived! Swinnock’s piety and thinking is well encapsulated in one key thought: his passionate commitment to living life in the fear of God [Stephen Yuille, “The whole duty of man”: The fear of God in the spirituality of George Swinnock”, Eusebeia, 2 (Spring 2004), 43]. In Yuille’s thesis on Swinnock, I came across an intriguing text that fits well with the bookish theme of my last two posts. In his The Christian Man’s Calling [The Works of George Swinnock, M.A. (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1868), I, 57], Swinnock offers this fascinating observation about why “ministers are often more exact in their printing than in their preaching”:

“...men print, in a sense, for eternity. Sermons preached, or men’s words, pass away with many like wind—how soon are they buried in the grave of oblivion! but sermons printed are men’s works, live when they are dead, and become an image of eternity: ‘This shall be written for the generation to come.’ ”

Having just preached three times this Lord’s day I sense something of the truth of Swinnock’s observation.

When one compares, for instance, the printed corpus that we have of the sermons of George Whitefield (1714-1770)—pitifully few compared to the stream of preached speech that poured forth from his anointed lips—with that of the New England preacher Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)—a truly massive amount of sermonic text—one can but confess the rectitude of Swinnock’s remarks.

On Tertius

“I would rather be a scribe in the house of the Lord than...” Only about 10-12% of pagan society in the Roman Empire was literate and could read and write. The percentage would have been slightly higher in the Jewish world due to the necessity of knowing the law. Not everyone who could read could write. And those who could write in the neat book hand used for public reading were even fewer.

There is clear evidence that the Apostle Paul was included in the small group of those who could both read and write—see Galatians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 16:21; Colossians 4:18; Philemon 19; 2 Thessalonians 3:17.A quick perusal of these verses indicate that the letter preceding these verses was written by what is called an amanuensis, a secretary. The verse from Galatians may well indicate something about the poor quality of Paul’s handwriting. This may well be why he employed an amanuensis. In only one of the Pauline letters do we learn the name of the Christian who penned Paul’s spoken word, and that is in Romans 16:22, Tertius.

In the book business of the ancient world, professional scribes operated at different levels. As Harry Y. Gamble notes in his authoritative work, Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1995): “Some were calligraphers capable of writing a fine bookhand, others…were engaged mainly in documentary work, yet others were skilled at shorthand” (90).

Tertius was definitely a calligrapher. He may also have been gifted in shorthand, for Paul would probably have dictated the letter to Tertius who would have copied it down first in shorthand and then written it out in a fine bookhand. Finally, Paul would have checked it over before mailing it (Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church, 95-96). So Tertius was a professional.

The importance of Tertius’ role looms even larger when we recognize how important were Paul’s letters to his mission. The Pauline mission was deeply tied to his letters. The letters were a means by which he could be present with the congregations he had founded—cp. 2 Corinthians 10:9-11.In this Paul went against much of the ancient world’s wisdom about the value of the written word. For Greek thinkers like Socrates and Plato, the spoken word was far greater in value than the written word, for the former was deemed a living word. The word on papyrus or parchment, on the other hand, was a dead word, lifeless, unable to respond to questions, capable of misinterpretation. But this was not Paul’s view. For him, the written word was “living and active,” as the writer to the Hebrews says.

And Tertius got to put these life-giving words on papyrus! These words that converted the North African Augustine and later transformed him into the Doctor of Sovereign Grace. These words that wrought the Reformation in the conversion of the German biblical scholar Martin Luther. These words that flamed in the heart of English minister John Wesley and brought him to the new birth.

No, Tertius did not speak them. But he did the “lowly” task of putting them into the print-form of his day. And better to have been Paul’s amanuensis, inscribing text in the house of the Lord, than the Emperor ruling in the city which first heard the words Tertius wrote.

A Lover of Words

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1); “The word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8); “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The true and living God loves words. As the Genesis text affirms: the universe—all that we can see and feel and hear and know and much more besides—came to be through his words. Not by silent fiat did he create. But by him speaking, all of it came into existence. And not like human words are these words of his. We humans speak, the air moves, and sometimes lives and history change, but these words are the product of time and eventually their impact will fade. But his words “will stand forever.”

No wonder he has his servant John call his dear Son, Jesus Christ, “the Word.” This One, the Word, is eternal, expresses all that is in the heart and mind of God and what he wishes to communicate with his rational creation. And it is this divine Word who brings new life and what he has accomplished through his words will stand forever.

And we who are believers in him are called to speak—not to keep silence, but to speak the “oracles of God” (1 Peter 4:11) that are encapsulated in the written revelation of the Scriptures. Calling on all and sundry, in the words of Augustine of Hippo (354-430), tolle lege, “pick up and read.”

Long before I became a Christian I loved words. Their sound and timbre, their mystery and allusions, their look on a page delighted me. I confess it: I am a logophile from way back! Becoming a Christian not only gave eternal meaning to this love but showed me why I loved words. God first loved words and I was a mere imitator.

And loving words I loved their print container—books. There is no doubt in this regard that I am a product of the Gutenberg world. Then came word processing. No problem here for a Gutenberg man, since I regularly convert processed word into hard copy, and now have mounds of it waiting to be filed!

But then came the blog and blogging. Though the words which describe these activities intrigued me, the prospect of having my words primarily on the screen and not in hand dismayed me. A day or so ago, Hugh Hewitt’s Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation that’s Changing Your World (Thomas Nelson, 2005), recommended by a good friend, Clint Humfrey, convinced me otherwise.

May I blog for the glory of the Triune God and for the sake of his Word.