{"id":4684,"date":"2017-09-11T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4684"},"modified":"2017-09-08T11:41:33","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T19:41:33","slug":"to-change-the-world-week-twelve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2017\/09\/11\/to-change-the-world-week-twelve","title":{"rendered":"To Change The World, Week Twelve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"To
To Change The World<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through To Change The World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty in the Late Mod\u00adern World by James Davi\u00adson Hunter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ading-project-2017<\/a>. The read\u00ading sched\u00adule is online at https:\/\/xastanford.org\/summer-reading<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019re almost done. One more week of read\u00ading and we fin\u00adish out the book. Wow.<\/p>\n

So now we come to chap\u00adter 4: Toward A The\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy of Faith\u00adful Pres\u00adence<\/div>\n
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The first few pages amused me, most\u00adly because it sound\u00aded like some\u00adthing I would hear from a word-faith preach\u00ader. The word-faith move\u00adment (also known as the pos\u00adi\u00adtive con\u00adfes\u00adsion move\u00adment or the word of faith move\u00adment) is a charis\u00admat\u00adic move\u00adment that empha\u00adsizes the pow\u00ader of our words as expres\u00adsions of our faith. Hunter has got noth\u00ading to do with them and may not even be aware that they exist, which I found tremen\u00addous\u00adly enter\u00adtain\u00ading.<\/div>\n
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And now Hunter comes to the main the\u00adsis of the entire book: the best response to the chal\u00adlenges of our world is faith\u00adful pres\u00adence. As a reminder, Hunter thinks the two chief chal\u00adlenges we face are dis\u00adso\u00adlu\u00adtion (per\u00adva\u00adsive uncer\u00adtain\u00adty) and dif\u00adfer\u00adence (plu\u00adral\u00adism). See my notes on week ten<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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\n
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This, in short, is the foun\u00adda\u00adtion of a the\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy of faith\u00adful pres\u00adence. It can be sum\u00adma\u00adrized in two essen\u00adtial lessons for our time. The first is that incar\u00adna\u00adtion is the only ade\u00adquate reply to the chal\u00adlenges of dis\u00adso\u00adlu\u00adtion; the ero\u00adsion of trust between word and world and the prob\u00adlems that attend it<\/i>. From this fol\u00adlows the sec\u00adond: it is the way the Word became incar\u00adnate in Jesus Christ and the pur\u00adpos\u00ades to which the incar\u00adna\u00adtion was direct\u00aded that are the only ade\u00adquate reply to chal\u00adlenge of dif\u00adfer\u00adence<\/i>.  page 241, empha\u00adsis in orig\u00adi\u00adnal<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n
In the rest of the chap\u00adter, Hunter advances his own the\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy of faith\u00adful pres\u00adence while cri\u00adtiquing oth\u00ader the\u00adolo\u00adgies of work and voca\u00adtion.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
One com\u00admon view Hunter rejects is that our work is only use\u00adful inso\u00adfar as it direct\u00adly advances the gospel:<\/div>\n
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\n

To the extent that work had \u201cking\u00addom sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcance,\u201d it was as a plat\u00adform for evan\u00adge\u00adlism. The mark of true piety for a com\u00admit\u00adted believ\u00ader whether in skilled or man\u00adu\u00adal labor or in the realms of busi\u00adness, law, edu\u00adca\u00adtion, pub\u00adlic pol\u00adi\u00adcy, and social wel\u00adfare, was to lead a Bible study and evan\u00adge\u00adlize their asso\u00adciates in their place of work. In this par\u00ada\u00addigm, work was instrumentalized\u2014it was regard\u00aded as sim\u00adply a means to spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal ends.  page 249<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n
Instead, Hunter con\u00adtends that work (indeed, any task) can be done in a way that glo\u00adri\u00adfies God:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u201cWhat\u00adev\u00ader you do, work at it with all your heart, as work\u00ading for the Lord, not for men\u201d (Col. 3:22\u201324). What we do cer\u00adtain\u00adly would include our jobs, but the real\u00adi\u00adty is that our tasks are many, and they range far beyond paid labor. They involve our work as par\u00adents, stu\u00addents, vol\u00adun\u00adteers, cit\u00adi\u00adzens, and the like. But in the many capac\u00adi\u00adties in which we oper\u00adate, St. Paul\u2019s instruc\u00adtion is that we pur\u00adsue our tasks with all of our hearts. This not only sug\u00adgests that we give our full atten\u00adtion to those tasks but that we pur\u00adsue excel\u00adlence in them.  page 246<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And he gives a few exam\u00adples of the way our work can express our devo\u00adtion to God:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
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To man\u00adage a busi\u00adness in a way that grows out of a bib\u00adli\u00adcal view of (p.254) rela\u00adtion\u00adships, com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty, and human dig\u00adni\u00adty before God has divine sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcance, irre\u00adspec\u00adtive of what else might be done from this plat\u00adform. Pol\u00adi\u00adcy pur\u00adsued and law prac\u00adticed in light of the jus\u00adtice of God is a wit\u00adness to the right order\u00ading of human affairs. Inquiry, schol\u00adar\u00adship, and learn\u00ading with an aware\u00adness of the good\u00adness of God\u2019s cre\u00adat\u00aded order is a dis\u00adcov\u00adery of what is tru\u00adly high\u00ader in high\u00ader edu\u00adca\u00adtion. And, not least, reflect\u00ading the beau\u00adty of God\u2019s cre\u00adation in art or music is noth\u00ading less than an act of wor\u00adship. (page 253\u2013254)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
So what\u00adev\u00ader your major, work at with all your heart!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Next week we fin\u00adish up the book.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through To Change The World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty in the Late Mod\u00adern World by James Davi\u00adson Hunter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cTo Change The World, Week Twelve\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[209,210],"class_list":["post-4684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-summer-reading-project-2017","tag-to-change-the-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1dy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4684"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4686,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4684\/revisions\/4686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}