Blog - Page 67 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Tragic Sense of Life

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 15th, 2013|Categories: Biblical Theology, Divine Providence, Reason, Science, Spirituality, The Church, Uncategorized|

I remember when I first heard the Spaniard’s name – Miguel de Unamuno. I was driving my car to speak in Iowa in the summer of about 1998 and the esteemed founding president of Regent College (Vancouver), James Houston, mentioned the importance of this Spanish philosopher for deeper insight into the faith. The course was one on spiritual formation. It seemed odd to me that Houston would mention a philosopher who more than dabbled in some ideologies that would trouble most American conservatives. (They trouble me too.) Little did I know what treasures awaited me in discovering the work of this early twentieth century thinker. But I am ahead of myself. Who was Miguel de Unamuno?

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (1864 – 1936) was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher. His best known, and most important, philosophical essay was The Tragic Sense of Life (1913). His most famous novel was Abel Sanchez: The History of a Passion (1917), a modern exploration of the Cain and Abel story. For Unamuno, art was a way […]

Why I Celebrate Lent

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 14th, 2013|Categories: Church Tradition, Forgiveness, Gospel/Good News, Liturgy, Personal, Renewal, Spirituality, The Church|

For those readers who do not practice Lent, and I am sure there are a few, bear with me while I tell you why I do.

First, what is Lent?

The word “Lent” means “spring” and comes from the Middle English lente, meaning “lengthen.” It signifies the “lengthening” of the days after long winter nights. The cold and darkness of winter is beginning to pass and spring is not too far behind. New life is near and the season reminds us of renewed spiritual life and growth.

When did the church begin to observe Lent?

As early as the second century, making it a much older Christian tradition than the celebration of Advent and Christmas. Irenaeus (130–202) wrote about Lent “going back to the time of our forefathers.” That’s pretty impressive in terms of its origins. It stands to reason that the early church observed this time because new converts were prepared for baptism and entry into the church at Easter and this time was a part of the process. It was also a time for those already baptized […]

The Church As God's Social Strategy (3)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 13th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Church Tradition, Civil Rights, Culture, Lordship of Christ, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Politics, Race and Racism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

The second form of the church – political/social – is called the conversionist church. This form argues that no amount of tinkering with the structures of society or state will adequately counter the effects of human sin. What is needed is the conversion of individuals. The promises of secular optimism are false because they too quickly bypass the biblical call to personal repentance and faith, a repentance and faith that lead us to reconciliation with God and our neighbors. “The sphere of political action is shifted by the conversionist church from without to within, from society to the individual soul” (Resident Aliens, 45). Since the conversionist church works almost exclusively for inward change it can really offer no alternative social ethic of community to the world. The exception, at least for many within this particular model in America, has been to embrace a pro-life position in the political world. Generally speaking conversionist churches abandon all other “life” and “moral” issues, leaving them to the state alone. In this way they very often opt for a […]

The Church As God's Social Strategy (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:53-05:00February 12th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Creeds, Culture, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Uncategorized, Unity of the Church|

Yesterday, I introduced you to “The Barmen Declaration.” I did this in the light of my consideration of what social strategy the church ought to take in the public square of modern America. In this amazingly simple, but deeply profound, statement we see that these Christians in Nazi Germany refused to call for a sectarian division in the visible church. They did not attack the visible church but called it to repentance. These were not sectarian voices, voices we hear regularly in our American context.

“The Barmen Declaration” ends with these words:

8.22 – 5. “Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:17.)
Scripture tells us that, in the as yet unredeemed world in which the Church also exists, the State has by divine appointment the task of providing for justice and peace. [It fulfills this task] by means of the threat and exercise of force, according to the measure of human judgment and human ability. The Church acknowledges the benefit of this divine appointment in gratitude and reverence before him. It calls to mind the Kingdom […]

The Church as God's Social Strategy (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:54-05:00February 11th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, Current Affairs, Missional Church, Politics, The Church, The Persecuted Church|

The much reviewed and debated book, Resident Aliens (Abingdon, 1989), which I wrote a great deal about last week, prompted deep emotional reaction in me when I first read it back in 1990. Now, twenty-two years later, I have re-read the book with new eyes. These new eyes are the result of my missional-ecumenism, grounded in a deep theology of unity that says Christ’s mission is carried out by the whole people of God working together in deep relational love [Your Church Is Too Small, John H. Armstrong (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010)].

One of the core arguments the authors of Resident Aliens make is that “the church doesn’t have a social strategy [because] the church is a social strategy” (43). It is this idea that I want to explore with you for the next several blogs.

The nub of this argument is that the church has never really found it difficult to be in the world. The real problem has come when the church did not understand how to be in the world. I have come to embrace […]

Is There a Bias From the Bottom?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:54-05:00February 8th, 2013|Categories: Culture, Hermeneutics, Jesus, Politics, Poverty, The Church|

The words of Fr. Richard Rohr have very often been used by the Holy Spirit to work deep grace and peace into my soul. Rohr is clearly not everyone’s cup of tea, that much I can tell you with real assurance. I would not have personally been interested in his writing as recently as ten years ago. There are a number of reasons for this but most of them have more to do with my small mindedness than with Richard Rohr’s profoundly rich and helpful ideas. (Rohr will most likely offend very conservative Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, so be forewarned. Some suggest that he is not orthodox but the evidence for such a dire response has never been very convincing to me.) I plan to attend a retreat/conference with Fr. Rohr in late April in New Mexico, where his Center for Action and Contemplation is located. I am looking forward to hearing him in person and meeting him face-to-face.

My dear friend James P. Danaher, professor of philosophy at Nyack College in New York, helped me to […]

Why Politics Matters and How We Got the Wrong End of the Stick (4)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:54-05:00February 7th, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Books, Culture, Current Affairs, Freedom, Ideology, Kingdom of God, Lordship of Christ, Missional Church, Politics, The Church, The Future|

Readers of James Davison Hunter’s magnificent critique of how Christians have sought to transform culture in America will know that he critiques Stanley Hauerwas and Jim Wallis unfavorably, just as he does conservative icons Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus. Hunter argues for what he calls, in a memorable phrase, “faithful presence” – which he defines as an ideal of Christian practice that is both individual and institutional; a model that plays out not only in all our relationships but in our work and the various spheres of our social (shared) common life.

I generally follow Hunter’s arguments but I believe his emphasis upon “how” culture is impacted, and made from the top down, is not altogether right. I believe his big picture solution, that of “faithful presence,” is quite right but I also believe that Christians should act as salt and light in the daily hubbub of life by being there and being faithful to their calling. Colson is not altogether wrong about the impact of the “little platoons” (a term he popularized in his […]

Why Politics Matters and How We Got the Wrong End of the Stick (3)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:54-05:00February 6th, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Books, Culture, Discipleship, Ethics, Ideology, Missional Church, Politics, The Church, The Future|

The liberal church’s response, against the backdrop of the social presumptions that I discussed in yesterday’s blog, has very often been a weak-kneed call for “peace with justice.” Hauerwas and Willimon (photo at left) put it this way: “Most of our social activism is formed on the presumption that God is superfluous to the formation of a world of peace with justice. Fortunately, we are powerful people who, because we live in a democracy, are free to use out power. It is all up to us” (Resident Aliens, 36).

The problem with this liberal response is that it is formed on the general presumption that we are not actually active participants in God’s continuing history of creation and redemption. Does the Bible teach that war and injustice arise because we have taken matters into our own hands? So what is wrong with the thinking of the National Council of Churches when it responds to peace and justice issues in a way that has become so common that it is entirely predictable?

Why can’t the National Council […]

Why Politics Matters and How We Got the Wrong End of the Stick (2)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:54-05:00February 5th, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Discipleship, Ethics, Ideology, Kingdom of God, Lordship of Christ, Missional Church, The Church, The Future|

It has become our unquestioned assumption, in the modern American context, that we have the “right’ to develop our potential to the fullest extent possible. This assumption is constantly fed by pop-psychology and a goodly number of new unexamined religious ideas. We are a culture in love with power and the power we love is our own to be very precise. The only ultimate check on this personal “right” is the “rights of others.” We live, after all, in a democracy. Whether we are politically liberal, conservative or moderate (all slippery and notoriously difficult terms to define in our present context) we generally believe that it is our God-given right to change the leadership of our nation, state or local community. We then translate this idea of political rights into our everyday lives. Because we deeply cherish, without questioning why this is so, our personal freedom to have and use power we then assume that all good communities, including religious communities, should be built on the assumption that a good society, or a good church, encourages us to express our views and seek to make changes […]

Why Politics Matters and How We Got the Wrong End of the Stick (1)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:54-05:00February 4th, 2013|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Emergent Church, Freedom, Ideology, Missional Church, Politics, Religion, Separation of Church & State, The Church, The Future|

Two weeks ago I sought to show how the church in America has become subject to a condition of moral, cultural and spiritual exile. Like Israel of old, we are now living away from our true home, separated from our real calling–to live out the life of Christ with one another (cf. John 13:34–35). We have forgotten who we really are, through the cozy relationship that we enjoyed between culture and church, and now we have collectively lost our distinctively Christian way. Because of this loss I suggested that we are now living in a time I referred to as the “Babylonian Captivity of the Church.”

Last week I wrote about our “alien” status and what this means for us in 2013. Fundamentally, living as “aliens” in the world means that we have been called to a new way of living, not simply to a new way of thinking and understanding. Most of Christianity is content to live the Christ-life in the mind, in the area of a few beliefs. We can accomplish this with no […]