This week I began teaching a new quarter class at Fuller Seminary in systematic theology. Over the next 10 weeks we will be looking at the various issues related to Christology and Pneumatology (the person and work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit respectively). I have a large group of students from every walk of life and Christian background. My opening lecture focused upon the centrality of Jesus Christ and how we speak of God, the church and the world...the fact of the matter is that when we as Christians speak of God we have no other option then to speak of God as God is known in Jesus Christ. I remain amazed that in many of the contexts in which I find myself as a pastor and theologian much of what passes for Christian faith and practice has very little connection to Jesus Christ, explicitly or implicitly. Perhaps Michael Horton was right when he said that much of Christianity today is nothing other than "CHRISTLESS CHRISIANITY".
The early church understood THE CENTRALITY OF JESUS CHRIST in that they were often threatened by persecution, intellectual assimilation, and fragmentation through theological incoherence (see Alister McGrath's HERESY: A HISTORY OF DEFENDING THE TRUTH). The current situation in the Western Church is that while we are not threatened by persecution per-se, we are in deep danger of being assimilated culturally and intellectually by our culture and increasingly challenged by theological incoherence and fragmentation. I believe one of the great issues for the church today is accepted reality of theological incoherence and fragmentation and the danger it poses to the worship, ministry and mission of the church. This reality will lead the church to a cultural and intellectual assimilation that will threaten the future of the church in ways not seen since the 1930's and the challenge/opportunity of the Confessing Church during the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. What we believe about Jesus Christ becomes central to how we will worship God, minister to one another and engage missionally/culturally with the world. For me, my greatest concern as a pastor/theologian is how the church has become encultured to the predominant cultural ethos and become fragmented in ways that encourage the compartmentalization of Christian faith. How much of our understanding and practice of the Christian faith is more determined by our culture than the Gospel of Jesus Christ? How much of our understanding and practice of the Christian faith is fragmented/compartmentalized between personal and public/individual and community in ways that keep us from living authentically as follows of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God? There is the deepest need in the Church of Jesus Christ to ask "How does what I believe about Jesus Christ relate to how I live my every day life as a Christian?" The three fundamental questions for God's people today are: 1) Who is Jesus Christ for me today? 2.) Who is Jesus Christ for the people of God today? 3.) Who is Jesus Christ for the world today? These were the question Dietrich Bonhoeffer thought were most important in his day. These were the questions John Wesley thought were the most important questions for his day. What would happen if the church today thought that these were the most important questions for our day?
I like the three questions, although I might be inclined to want to ask question 2 before question 1 as the question of who is Jesus Christ for the people of God today has enormous significance for who Jesus Christ is for me today.
The key word for me in the questions is 'is.' Far too many want to read these questions subjectively and reject the 'is' for some personal feeling.
Posted by: neil | January 08, 2010 at 08:46 AM