Review of Know Your God: The Doctrine of God in the Pentateuch by Linleigh J. Roberts (original) (raw)
THE CONCEPT OF GOD AND THE DEMISE OF MAINLINE PROTESTANTISM
Kerygma und Dogma , 2018
Among the survival strategies of religious communities currently living in the postsecular West have been attempts to redefine the doctrine of God so that it would be easier to accept by modern people. So far, these attempts have failed to prevent these communities from shrinking. I argue that cognitive science of religion can help us to understand some aspects of this failure. To have a sustained and large religious community, one needs to have a doctrine of God that is fairly traditional, since modern revisionary models of God are typically such that they are very hard for us adhere to cognitively.
2021
The Doctrine of God is an introductory textbook aiming to provide a clear and concise introduction to the doctrine of God by addressing some big questions concerning divine attributes and the God-world relationship in mainly recent Christian theology. More precisely the book provides an issue-focused presentation on selected contemporary perspectives. The book in its coverage is however not limited only to recent Christian debates, but frequently features also philosophical and historical voices which complement the debates. The book is therefore not a book in historical theology, or philosophical theology, but rather a book in systematic theology proper covering the contemporary debates relating to major questions surrounding the doctrine of God. Since the book is framed as an introductory textbook its readership is assumed to be mostly students of theology. Given the level of the presented material, its dense and detailed nature will primary be most beneficial to graduate level (p...
Where Are We Today? One of the most significant influences upon the vision of God commonly held among Churches of Christ, perhaps the single most influential factor, has been the secularization of our culture. By secularization I mean the desacralization of institutions, the transposition of religious functions into the secular domain and the differentiation of sacred and secular so that sacred loses its overarching claim. ii This secularization entails the loss of transcendence in practical religion where a pragmatic or dogmatic emphasis on rule-keeping takes precedence. It also entails the reduction of Christianity to religious institutions where Christianity is equated with ecclesiology and its institutions. Further, it entails a loss of divine immanence within the cosmos so that nature functions with a chaotic arbitrariness determined by the naturalistic regularity of physical laws. Consequently, words like "accident" and "luck" are more a part of our vocabulary than the biblical phrase "Lord willing." In other words, with secularization, the transcendence of God is experienced in personal conversion according to formulae so that practical religion reduces transcendence to techniques of conversion. The dynamic character of the Christian movement is reduced to the institutionalism of its forms and rules. The activity of God within the cosmos is restricted to the function of maintaining the regularity of nature. Secularized religion, as an ideological perspective, characterized the Churches of Christ of the mid-twentieth century though, of course, we were by no means unique in this regard. However, secularization took a particular form in our movement. It focused conversion in a formula, reduced piety to the forms and structures of the true church and relegated God to the fringes of human experience. In other words, the emphasis was on baptism, the one true church, and the absolute freedom of the human individual apart from divine influence other than the epistemological function of Scripture and the function of natural law. God had done his part in both creation and redemption, and now we must do ours. In general, this reductionistic view of God led to secularized forms of conversion, the church and providence. However, this is not our heritage. The Stone background of our movement had a dynamic view of the conversion and transformation of human lives. God was not on the fringes of his world but deeply involved through spiritual (as at Cane Ridge) and providential activity. One would only need to remember the views of James A. Harding to note the powerful influence of the Stonite perspective on spiritual dynamics and providence. Further, David Lipscomb, whose Stonite roots are well-known, believed God "tolerat[ed] and ordain[ed]" the evil of slavery in order to punish the South through "God's battle-axe," the Northern army. iii Lipscomb believed God had a dynamic rather than static relationship with his world, including the divine ordering of civil war within a nation. The Campbell background of our heritage was rooted in a solidly Reformed perspective on providence and God's involvement in the world. iv While rarely discussed, Campbell had a dynamic view of God's activity in the world. His own movement, he believed, was a work of
The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fifth Year by B. H. Roberts
this course as indicative of reverence-this plea in bar of effort-"thus far and no farther." "There is often a great deal of intellectual sin concealed under this old aphorism," remarks Henry Drummond. "When men do not really wish to go farther they find it an honorable convenience sometimes to sit down on the outmost edge of the 'holy ground' on the pretext of taking off their shoes." "Yet," he continues, "we must be certain that, making a virtue of reverence, we are not merely excusing ignorance; or under the plea of 'mystery' evading a truth which has been stated in the New Testament a hundred times, in the most literal form, and with all but monotonous repetition." (Spiritual Law, pp. 89, 90.) This sort of "reverence" is easily simulated, and is of such flattering unction, and so pleasant to follow-"soul take thine ease"-that without question it is very often simulated; and falls into the same category as the simulated humility couched in "I don't know," which so often really means "I don't care, and do not intend to trouble myself to find out." V. THE PRAISE OF SIMPLE FAITH. I maintain that "simple faith"-which is so often ignorant and simpering acquiescence, and not faith at all-but simple faith taken at its highest value, which is faith without understanding of the thing believed, is not equal to intelligent faith, the faith that is the gift of God, supplemented by earnest endeavor to find through prayerful thought and research a rational ground for faith-for acceptance of truth; and hence the duty of striving for a rational faith in which the intellect as well as the heart-the feeling-has a place and is a factor. But, to resume: This plea in bar of effort to find out the things that are, is as convenient for the priest as it is for the people. The people of "simple faith," who never question, are so much easier led, and so much more pleasant every way-they give their teachers so little trouble. People who question because they want to know, and who ask adult questions that call for adult answers, disturb the ease of the priests. The people who question are usually the people who think-barring chronic questioners and cranks, of courseand thinkers are troublesome, unless the instructors who lead them are thinkers also; and thought, eternal, restless thought, that keeps out upon the frontiers of discovery, is as much a weariness to the slothful, as it is a joy to the alert and active and noble minded. Therefore one must not be surprised if now and again he finds those among religious teachers who give encouragement to mental laziness under the pretense of "reverence;" praise "simple faith" because they themselves, forsooth, would avoid the stress of thought and investigation that would be necessary in order to hold their place as leaders of a thinking people. VI. THE INCENTIVES TO, AND THE GLORY OF, KNOWLEDGE IN THE NEW DISPENSATION. Against all the shams of simulated humility and false reverence which are but pleas to promote and justify mental laziness, I launch the mighty exhortations and rebukes of the New Dispensations of the Gospel of the Christ-the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times, in which God has promised "to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him." They are as follows: "The glory of God is Intelligence." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 93.) "It is impossible for a man to be saved in Ignorance." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 131.) "Whatever principles of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 130.) "If a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 130.) "A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity by some evil power in the other world, as evil spirits will have more knowledge, and consequently more power, than many men who are on the earth."
Religious Studies Review, 2010
This collection of fifteen previously published essays testifies to the fecundity, exceptional creativity, and independence of this well-known American philosopher. In addition to five essays on politics and five essays on human nature, there are five strong essays on religion. Although Nagel is an atheist, he is highly critical of popular critiques of theism (as found in works by R. Dawkins, D. Dennett, B. Rundle), and he openly regrets that there is not yet a sound, plausible nontheistic account of the cosmos that is personally significant and satisfying. There is an excellent, balanced assessment of the intelligent design movement, its distinction from biblically based creationism, and its possible place (or not) in public education. These essays are all written in Nagel's clear and familiar style; they combine substantial arguments and insights with the charms of a friendly conversation partner. Highly recommended to those interested in theism versus atheism and the current science-religion debate.
The Seventy's Course in Theology, Third Year by B. H. Roberts
books with them with which they are familiar through frequent handling and reading. Some Standard Dictionary of the English Language, such as is used in high schools and academies, where unabridged Standard Dictionaries cannot be obtained. A Dictionary of the Bible. (Dr. Wm. Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," the four-volume edition by Prof. H. B. Hackett, contains, it is said, "the fruit of the ripest biblical scholarship of England"). Smith's Smaller Dictionary of the Bible (one volume) is the same work condensed. In somewhat the same line, owing to its very valuable introductory articles (thirty in number, one of which, "Belief in God," we were permitted by the publishers to reproduce in the January and February numbers of the Era) is Dummelow's "One-Volume Bible Commentary," published by the MacMillan Company, New York. Some Standard Ecclesiastical or Church History, such as Mosheim's or Dr. Neander's. The former can be had both in one or three volumes. The latter is in six volumes. In this line, and in preference to any other Church histories-after Mosheim's and Neander's-that have fallen under my notice, I recommend for the period it covers-the first ten centuries-Dr. Philip Smith's "History of the Christian Church," two volumes. The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, covering the first three and one half-nearly-Christian centuries; and the Early Christian Literature Primers, four books, covering the first seven and a half centuries. The History of Christianity. This is a collection from the writings of Gibbon, chiefly selected chapters from the author's celebrated "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," edited and annotated by Peter Eckler. It is published in one volume, and as a history of Christianity's struggle with Pagan philosophy, and of the paganization of Christianity in the Early Christian Centuries, it is a valuable work. "A History of Christian Doctrine," by Wm. G. T. Shedd (two volumes), is a valuable work. Written from a sympathetic viewpoint of orthodox Christianity, but valuable for its history of the development of the orthodox doctrine. The Nicene Creed, by J. J. Lias, gives detailed analysis of that somewhat famous "symbol of the Christian faith," as it is sometimes called (one volume). "Story of the World's Worship," by Frank S. Dobbins-1901-(one volume). "Ten Great Religions," by James Freeman Clarke (two volumes). This work on the general subject, Conceptions of God, would be the best here enumerated. Hebrews; namely, the Chaldeans, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians and Egyptians. (See the Seventy's First Year Book, note 2 pp. 24, 25. [4]) 6. How True Traditions Degenerated Into Mythology: Traces of that tradition, (of the existence of God) and of these patriarchs connected with it, may be found in nearly all, and so far as I know, in all the mythologies of the world, as well in ancient as in modern times; as well in the mythology of the civilized Greeks and Romans, as in that of India, China, Egypt, and that of the American Indians. The tradition has evidently been corrupted, added to and twisted into fantastic shapes by the idle fancies of corrupt minds, but despite all the changes made in it, traces of this tradition are discoverable in the mythology of all lands. I believe, too, with Crabb, "That the fictions of mythology were not invented, (always) in ignorance of divine truth, but with a wilful intention to pervert it; not made only by men of profligate lives and daring impiety, who preferred darkness to light, because their deeds were evil, but by men of refinement and cultivation, from the opposition of science, falsely so-called; not made, as some are pleased to think, by priests only, for interested purposes, but by poets and philosophers among the laity, who, careless of truth of falsehood, were pleased with nothing but their own corrupt imaginations and vain conceits." Thus the tradition of the patriarchs was, in time, degraded, by some branches of their posterity, to mythology-a muddy, troubled pool, which like a mirror shattered into a thousand fragments, reflects while it distorts into fantastic shapes the objects on its banks. Still, under all the rubbish of human invention may be found the leading idea-God's existence; and that fact alone, however misshapen it may be, proves how firmly fixed in the human mind is the tradition of the fathers; while the universality of that marvelous works of nature to strengthen and confirm, almost to a certainty, the truth of that tradition. Man is conscious of his own existence, and that existence is a stupendous miracle of itself; he is conscious, too, of other facts. He looks out into space in the stillness of night, and sees the deep vault of heaven inlaid with suns, the centers, doubtless of planetary systems, all moving in exact order and harmony, in such regularity that he cannot doubt that Intelligence brought them into being, and now sustains and directs the forces that preserve them. Thus the heavens declare the existence of God as well as His glory. This thought is in harmony with the tradition of his fathers, and he recognizes the identity between the Intelligence that he knows must control the universe, and the God of whom his fathers testify. Nor is this all: but in the mysterious changes which take place on our own planet, in the gentle Spring, luxuriant Summer, fruitful Autumn and nature-resting Winter, with its storms and frosts-the "mysterious round" which brings us our seed time and harvest, and clothes the earth with vegetation and flowers, perpetuating that wonderful power we call life,the strangest fact in all the works of nature-in these mighty changes so essential and beneficent, man recognizes the wisdom and power of God of whom his fathers bear record. As the heavens declare God's existence and glory, so, likewise, do these changes and a thousand other things, connected without earth, until lost in wonder and admiration, one exclaims with Paul, "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead." (Rom. 1:20.) Or else He calls to mind another Scripture, still more sublime-"The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of the power of God. * * * Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the least of these, hath seen God moving in his majesty and power." (Doc. & Cov. Sec. 88.) "But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze, Man marks not thee; marks not The Mighty hand, That, ever busy, wheels the silent speres!"-Thompson. This much we may say, in conclusion, tradition confirmed by the works of creation, lays a broad foundation for an intelligent belief in God's existence, intelligence, power, and glory. 2. The Law of Substance and the Universe. "Through all eternity the infinite universe has been, and is, subject to the law of substance: * * * * * 1. "The extent of the universe is infinite and unbounded; it is empty in no part, but everywhere filled with substance." 2. "The Duration of the world (i. e. universe) is equally infinite and unbounded; it has no beginning and no end; it is eternity." 3. "Substance is everywhere and always in uninterrupted movement and transformation; nowhere is there perfect repose and rigidity; yet the infinite quantity of matter and of eternally changing force remains constant." ("Riddle of the Universe." Ernest Haeckel p. 242. Harper & Brothers, 1900. See his whole chapter xii, on the "Law of Substance." Also Seventy's Second Year Book, Lesson V.) 2. Extent and Greatness of the Universe-The Solar System: The heavenly bodies belong to two classes, the one comprising a vast multitude of stars, which always preserved their relative positions, as if they were set in a sphere of crystal, while the others moved, each in its own orbit, according to laws which have been described. We now know that these moving bodies, or planets, form a sort of family by themselves, known as the Solar System. This system consists of the sun as its center, with a number of primary planets revolving around it, and satellites, or secondary planets, revolving around them. Before the invention of the telescope but six primary planets were known, including the earth, and one satellite, the moon. By the aid of that instrument, two great primary planets, outside the orbit of Saturn, and an immense swarm of smaller ones between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, have been discovered; while the four outer planets-Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune-are each the center of motion of one or more satellites. The sun is distinguished from the planets, not only by his immense mass, which is several hundred times that of all the other bodies of his system combined, but by the fact that he shines by his own light, while the planets and satellites are dark bodies, shining only by reflecting the light of the sun. "A remarkable symmetry of structure is seen in this system, in that all the large planets and all the satellites revolve in orbits which are nearly circular, and, the satellites of the two outer planets excepted, nearly in the same plane. This family of planets are all bound together, and kept each in its respective orbit, by the law of gravitation, the action of which is of such a nature that each planet may make countless revolutions without the structure of the system undergoing any change." (Newcomb's Popular Astronomy, School Edition, pp. 103-4. Part III of Newcomb's work which deals at length with the Solar System could also be considered with profit.) 3. Number and Distances of the Fixed Stars: "Turning our attention from this system to the thousands of fixed stars which stud the heavens, the first thing to be considered is their enormous distance asunder, compared with the dimensions of the Solar System,...