We do not believe because we have been baptized in water, but we are baptized in water because we first believe. So David says: “I have believed, therefore I have spoken,” Ps. 116:10; Matt. 16:16; Acts 8:30. So every Christian speaks equally: “I have believed, therefore I have publicly confessed that Jesus is Christ, Son of the living God, and have thereafter had myself baptized according to the order of Christ, the high priest who lives in eternity.” - Excerpt Balthasar Hübmaier: A Form for Christ’s Supper
Posts Tagged ‘Anabaptism’
Balthasar Hübmaier: A Form for Christ’s Supper
Our Christian Discipleship as Political Responsibility
I’m fascinated and thrilled by John Howard Yoder’s position re: the relationship between Christian discipleship and the state as articulated in Discipleship as Political Responsibility. Discipleship is, of course, a major conviction - if not [T]he distinguishing characteristic - of the Anabaptist expression of faith.
Christianity (and Anabaptism) is an invitation to authentic personal liberation and spiritual discipline. In other words, we are simultaneously transformed by Christ’s work (Atonement) and we are called and equipped to follow him daily. The historic influence upon this discipleship wielded by Emperor Constantine and Augustine of Hippo is contemporarily obvious, but many are beginning to question (once again) the historicity of these influences and pre-Constantinian and Augustinian connections - if any - to the New Testament and/or early expressions of followership by the Christian Church. It is good to question these things. The Constantinian shift did not occur without great affect. It changed much. It’s also good to hold up the New Testament as the authority (especially if one is Christian!). Christians should be asking, “What does the Bible teach?” But we should not stop there! We should go one important step further and ask, “How do we apply the teachings of Scripture in our day?” Read More
A Request in the Form of a Note to Friends
If I am ever somehow seduced by what I will gently call “a thin, plastic, flashy, over-produced, over-marketed, theology lite, sales-pitchy form of Christianity,” someone please hit me straight upside my head with a righteous spade shovel. I’m serious. I thank God for serious Anabaptism and the Emerging/Missional Church. The combination of the two results in a Christian expression far removed from the aforementioned characterizations, but deeply planted in cultural relevancy. Amen. \0/
Do Not Drape Flags Over Jesus of Nazareth!
So, the other day I posted an article re: our country’s need for immigration reform, and even more importantly than that, the need for Christians to treat poor and needy people as they themselves would like to be treated if they were poor and needy. I’m not sure where I got that crazy idea from; I think Jesus said something to the effect in the Gospels. Somehow, however, our American nationalism always seems to find a way to be superimposed over authentic Christian living and honest discipleship. I have a serious news flash for folks who enjoy this sort of superimposition: the Gospel trumps your nationalistic sensibilities, and it will not be draped by anyone’s flag. Sorry. Read More
The Gospel is not Accidentally Narrative
If you have not put The Peaceable Kingdom on your bookshelf yet then you need to stop reading this post immediately and go to Amazon and order it (or your book seller of preference, of course). It is a must read for all Christians, especially those interested in Christian living and ethics. Read More
Abstracting Postmodernism, Pluralism, and Ethics
I’m chasing an interesting and abstract thought re: the philosophical relationship between postmodernism, liberal religious pluralism, and ethics. I’ll begin with a fantastic quote by Stanley Hauerwas. The following excerpt is from The Peaceable Kingdom:
“All ethical reflection occurs relative to a particular time and place. Not only do ethical problems change from one time to the next, but the very nature and structure of ethics is determined by the particularities of a community’s history and convictions. From this perspective the notion of ‘ethics’ is misleading, since it seems to suggest that ‘ethics’ is an identifiable discipline that is constant across history. In fact, much of the burden of this book will be to suggest that ethics always requires an adjective of qualifier - such as, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Existentialist, Pragmatic, Utilitarian, Humanist, Medieval, Modern - in order to denote the social and historical character of ethics as a discipline. This is not to suggest that ethics does not address an identifiable set of relatively constant questions - the nature of good or right, freedom and the nature of human behavior, the place and status of rules and virtues - but any response to these questions necessarily draws on the particular convictions of historic communities to whom such questions may have significantly different meanings.” Read More
A Stanley Hauerwas Weekend Reader
Having completed the majority of assigned historical readings in my independent study of Anabaptist Theology, my wise theology professor saw fit to expose me to Stanley Hauerwas works.
Stanley Hauerwas is United Methodist theologian, Christian Ethicist, and Professor of Law. Hauerwas’s work is characterized by a dedication to non-violence, anti-nationalism, and a serious disregard for Biblical interpretations and/or the hermeneutic methodologies of the liberal left and fundamentalist right. He’s all about the Gospel. It is a dedication that resonates. His mentor was Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder; thus his Anabaptist tendencies in the UMC setting. So, this weekend, I’m reading Unleashing the Scripture: Freeing the Bible from Captivity to America, and The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics. I’m a little shy of halfway through each, at this point. So far, I’m saying a lot of “Hallelujahs!” Hauerwas hits the mark often, and sometimes pretty bluntly too (his thoughts on ethics are really making me think). The following are a few excerpted examples of his accuracy in the aforementioned texts: Read More
The Anabaptist Approach and Expressed Uniqueness
The Anabaptist approach to the Bible is historically Christocentric, and staunchly so. Christocentrism is still the hermeneutic of choice. I believe this dedication to Christocentrism has everything to do with the expression’s uniqueness. Anabaptism is different from Catholicism and most Protestant expressions. Too, Anabaptism seems to me to be a much “fuller” expression of that toward which contemporary Evangelicalism merely points, especially in this present USAmerican context of very, very tired red & blue religious discussion(s). There is an alternative! Anabaptism! Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, Brethren in Christ (my pond), and Hutterites carry on the historical tradition of trekking toward something, or someplace, well beyond Christendom, and for good reason too. There is something incredibly sacred there … Read More
Christus Victor in Anabaptist Christology
Personal Notes & thoughts on Christology (re: how Jesus saves), taken while reading p.329-365 Thomas N. Finger’s “A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology” (Thomas N. Finger, A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology: Biblical, Historical, Constructive. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004).
On Formal Christology: Formal Christology often distinguishes Jesus’ person from his work. Formal Christology usually begins with the person of Christ and a focus upon his divinity and then moves toward his divinity’s connection to/with humanity. This approach to Christology only moves toward the examination of soteriology - or what Jesus did to usher in salvation (i.e., his life/work) - after the person of Christ and his divinity is established. This approach to Christology actually mirrors that of systematic theology, generally speaking. Systematic theology, in other words, begins with God and then moves toward what God actually means for humanity. Read More
Self-Willed Disobedience and Alienation from God
My readings in Classic Anabaptist theology have led me to the following articulate statement re: Christian Soteriology offered by C. Arnold Snyder in a work titled Following in the Footsteps of Christ: The Anabaptist Tradition. It says, simply: Read More