Reflections

Resources on the Life, Writings and Legacy of John Calvin

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:52:12 +0000

The 500th Anniversary of John Calvin's birth (2009) has given rise to a flood of new books on the life, thought and legacy of the reformer. Below is a list of some suggested reading – some new works, and some of enduring value. More introductory-level suggestions are at the top, followed by some more advanced suggestions for those already familiar with Calvin and the Reformed Tradition.

Building Neighborhood Relationships: Lent in the Living Room

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:41:02 +0000

One of the greatest needs of the church in North America is to develop deeper relationships with our neighbors -- in the usual sense of "neighbors," as in those who live near to us. We often live private lives and don't even know that the other Christians in our neighborhood are Christians, since denominationalism has resulted in two Christian families next door to each other worshiping and fellowshiping with different congregations. So, it's tough to build Christian fellowship that will impact one another -- and impact those who are not yet believers -- right where we live.

In an age when the "unchurched" are less and less likely to "go to church" looking for spiritual nourishment, it's important that we be pro-active and bring it to them where they live. To that end, one idea some churches are exploring is called "Lent in the Living Room." It's a special initiative, for a special time of the "church year," to encourage the members of our congregation to host small groups in their homes. Hopefully, this will catalyze the development of new and deeper relationships that will continue well beyond the season of Lent.

If you're interested, check out how my own congregation, Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, TX, is exploring this way of building "neighborhood relationships" this year. It may give you some ideas for what could work in your own congregation, too.

A Faith's Dwindling Following

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:52:05 +0000

George Will had a nice piece in the Washington Post today about mainline denominations, the Episcopal Church's experience in particular: "A Faith's Dwindling Following." I take that back. It wasn't 'nice.' But it was honest. The last paragraph captures the bottom line quite well:

"The Episcopal Church once was America's upper crust at prayer. Today it is 'progressive' politics cloaked -- very thinly -- in piety. Episcopalians' discontents tell a cautionary tale for political as well as religious associations. As the church's doctrines have become more elastic, the church has contracted. It celebrates an 'inclusiveness' that includes fewer and fewer members."

Is the Financial Crisis of the U.S. Divine Retribution?: Providence in a Global Economy

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:49:45 +0000

In the U.S., investors are panicking, polls say the average working person believes we may be headed for another Great Depression, and those close to or in retirement are scrambling to stabilize the future of their fixed income in order to continue making ends meet. Yet the woes of the U.S. economy appear to be good news to some of the "enemies" of the U.S. In the Middle East, many appear to view the troubles of the U.S. economy as the latest in a series of events they describe as divine retribution. According to the Financial Times, "Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, an influential hardline figure in Iran, has described the crisis as a punishment. 'As Americans are happy to see problems in Iran we are happy to see the US economy disturbed and problems extended to Europe,' he said recently. 'They see the results of their vicious acts and God is punishing them.'"

What Way Ahead? Part Two: Initiating the Case for Realignment

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:39:17 +0000

In the first article of this series I outlined three options that traditional Christians have taken and might take now as we face the challenges of life today in the Presbyterian Church (USA). The three options were the long-term approach of renewalists, to “defect in place,” or to leave the denomination. I suggested none of the three options presented a hopeful future for the unity and witness of the PC(USA), nor would they help unify evangelicals, nor do they anticipate the impending challenge of relations with the Ecumenical Church. In this piece, I will outline the basics of a fourth option, which has been dubbed a “reshaping” of the PC(USA) or a “realignment” within the denomination. It is this fourth option that holds the most promise for responsibly facing the theological and institutional challenges before us.

As a reminder, the approach I am taking in this series may strike some as backwards: outlining practical approaches first, followed by more in depth engagement of theological and historical rationales. This approach is by design and request. To begin outlining the nature of and need for a realignment within the PC(USA), I will begin looking at some of the deeper issues involved below.

Christians and Cremation

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:52:12 +0000

Richard Mouw offered some brief and helpful thoughts on cremation on his blog, and it's resurrected some of my own recent wrestlings with this issue.

I think there are good “arguments” for and against the practice of cremation from a Christian perspective. I worry less about whether cremation poses any obstacles for God’s power to resurrect the dead, and more about how the practice can impact our attitude toward the physicality of life in the present. We do tend to treat our bodies as objects apart from ourselves, rather than part of our-selves. Pressing issues in bioethics offer plenty of good examples, and in the evangelical community it tends to be part and parcel of the larger world-denying rather than world-engaging spirituality. If ultimately, God's plan is to redeem our bodies and indeed all creation, how should that impact the way we treat our own bodies and the creation now? (Gilbert Meilaender has an interesting article on this issue, and he touches on cremation, in the February 2007 issue of Touchstone, called “Broken Bodies Redeemed.”)

Benedict XVI: Christian faith is personal encounter, not moralism

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:16:42 +0000

In an address to a group at the Vatican yesterday, Benedict XVI, while reflecting on Paul's conversion, noted that Christianity "is not a new philosophy or a new form of morality. We are only Christians if we encounter Christ, even if He does not reveal Himself to us as clearly and irresistibly as he did to Paul in making him the Apostle of the Gentiles. We can also encounter Christ in reading Holy Scripture, in prayer, and in the liturgical life of the Church - touch Christ's heart and feel that Christ touches ours. And it is only in this personal relationship with Christ, in this meeting with the Risen One, that we are truly Christian."

Though in some ways this is an unremarkable statement of mere Christianity, I think this succinct statement is a nice contradiction of the impression one can get of the Pope from American media. The composite picture of the Pope gleaned from mainstream media can make it seem as though he thinks of Christianity first and foremost as a set of moral restrictions.

There are a few reasons why the media focuses on the Pope's comments on the conflict between mainstream Christian ethics and western libertarian morals. Obviously such comments seem newsworthy because they speak into the "culture war." And the continuity of basic Christian ethics across the Protestant-Catholic divide has, of course, been one basis for recent rapproachment between evangelical Protestants and Catholics. On that score, see the nice editorial from Richard Mouw in the New York Times, written during the Pope's visit to the U.S. last Spring.

The audio of the Pope's brief comments yesterday can be heard here.

What Way Ahead? Part One: Three Options

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:00:00 +0000

For conservative Christians in the PC(USA), facing major challenges is nothing new. But the challenges we are accustomed to facing took on new proportions at the 218th General Assembly.

Though the technical implications of the Assembly’s decisions on sexuality remain unclear, the number and consistent character of those decisions speak with a clear voice. When the misguided statement on interfaith relations is added to the mix, not to mention the embarrassing lack of attention to Christian faith exhibited in the discussions leading up to these decisions, this GA has successfully pulled back the veil, so to speak, enabling us to see more clearly the situation we’ve been facing for quite some time.

Life for Christians in Pakistan After Musharraf

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:07:54 +0000

Just beneath the surface of recent events in Pakistan (namely the resignation of Musharraf in the face of imminent impeachment) lies the uncertainty about what the coming changes in governance will mean for the minority of Pakistani Christians. The following are a couple of news stories related to the developments in Pakistan:

http://www.mnnonline.org/article/11572

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/pakistans.christians.face.uncertain.future.after.musharraf.resignation/21252.htm

His Greatness is Unsearchable

michaelryanwalker@gmail.com (Michael R. Walker) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:56:51 +0000

Today's "morning Psalm" is a justly famous one, sometimes called "The Praise of David," for it exalts God with some of the most memorable phrases in the Psalms, such as "The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."

Prayer is an exercise in humility and surrender before the face of God, and to praise God is to exalt him with a bit of imagination, or beyond what we could imagine, as the Psalm opens by confessing "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable" (v. 3). Any exaltation of God worthy of the name rises above the limited categories our minds possess. We cannot possess the greatness of God; we exalt God in his greatness. As Calvin puts it, David "intimates that we only praise God aright when we are filled and overwhelmed with an ecstatic admiration of the immensity of his power. This admiration will form the fountain from which our just praises of him will proceed, according the measure of our capacity."

Yet our praise is not an abstract exercise, the praise of an idea or animated by some unknowable characteristic of God. The praise of God's greatness is also specific, concrete, real to our experience: "on your wondrous works, I will meditate. The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed" (v. 5-6). God is exalted in his immeasurable greatness by giving thanks for our experience of all of God's particular blessings. Calvin: "the greatness of God is not that which lies concealed in his mysterious essence, and in subtle disputation upon which, to the neglect of his works, many have been chargeable with mere trifling, for true religion demands practical not speculative knowledge."

Such praise should be echoed in our hearts beyond those times of abundance, when our hearts are naturally moved to spontaneously exalt the goodness of God. Praising God for his greatness seen in his wondrous works shapes our experience of life as much as it is a response to that experience. The "abundant goodness" of God (v. 7) is never separated from particular times and events of God's activity, but it does transcend them, as we are reminded: "One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts" (v. 4). The chorus of the faithful throughout the ages raises our vision above our particular context and beyond our particular time, sending us back into the present moment with eyes ready to interpret our reality differently.

Calvin: "Having said that he would speak of, or meditate upon God’s works, (for the Hebrew word, אשיחה, asichah, as we have elsewhere seen, may be rendered either way,) he transfers his discourse to others, intimating, that there will always be some in the world to declare the righteousness, goodness, and wisdom of God, and that his divine excellencies are worthy of being sounded, with universal consent, by every tongue."