My Christmas reading was almost entirely given to Voltaire’s Candide. At the books end, after enduring many of life’s evils, Candide and the book’s supporting cast of characters end up working on a small farm that Candide was able to purchase. The story is saturated with philosophical concepts, and in one of the last scenes one of the characters asks which fate is worse, the one they have all previously experienced, including rape, being brutally beat, enduring execution attempts, etc. or being board by the mundane activities of their new found life.
I find this question strange when juxtaposed to the attitude that often characterizes the attitude of us (the human race) as we near the end of a vacation, much like the Christmas one a good deal of us just came off of. Most of us can’t wait to get back to the routine of life. We want to get back to our homes, and into the routine of work, supper and our evening ritual.
I think this is right. I think God designed the unfolding of earth and our participation in it exactly like it should be. Work is a good thing. The routine of life is a good thing. Let me give you an example of an extraordinary day in the midst of ordinary life.
Yesterday Lindsay and I went to a church we love, and saw the people we love. Afterwards, we went to Rosa’s with Craig and Jen and the twins. Then home to finish painting Roy’s room. At four Potter picked me up to go to church football only to find out that no one else came. This happened to be ok though because I was pretty sore and Potter and I were able to have the kind of conversation that I tend to treasure. At about 5:00 Lindsay and I left to go to Wal-Mart to pick up some gifts that people had sent to the store from our shower in Tomahawk. Afterwards we went to the Outback Steakhouse and were able to buy two nice dinners for about $20, which was paid for by a gift card that the Seelig’s gave us a while back. And to cap off the evening, we went to the Dugan’s to eat our luscious meal and watch Desperate Housewives, an all-new episode, with our friends the Dugan’s.
I don’t know how a day could get much better than that. It was the type of day that Disney Land couldn’t compete with. And that’s our life.
3 comments:
I'm jealous Josh. My life the last couple of weeks has been spent sitting at my desk, pouring over material again and again, preparing myself for paper after paper, none of which are written yet...and the first of which is due in two short days. To have the day you had would be miraculous.
By the way, I'm writing a paper on our boy Greggy. Its dealing specifically with Christus Victor, and I'm challenging his notion that it is the most appropriate atonement theory. It seems to me he doesn't have much of a theory, but my main argument will be that what he really proposes is an ontology of love into which atonement and Jesus need to fit, rather than allowing the self-revelation of God to ground our ontology. His six theses are provocative, but they determine way too much, it seems to me.
Erik,
I'm sure that your paper will be intersting. I agree that Greg's system isn't perfect, but then again neither is Luther, Calvin, Barth's etc.
I kind of stand by something I read Pinnock say a while back about atonement. In a conversation with Michael Horton he suggested that all the theories reveal something helpful in the way of understanding atonement, and they need not be mutually exclusive. I'd be interested in your response to that given your last semester in Atonement class.
Josh,
I think that's exactly right, but I don't think it means that one does not deserve priority over another. This is Greg's contention, too, by the way. It is not as if one theory gets it all right and the others simply are false. The question is which one can make the most sense of all the others. Greg thinks it's Christus Victor, or at least his construal (which is the best of them, I think), while I think a substitutionary atonement theory makes more sense of things. There is something central about the wrath of God that I think Christus Victor misses. There are many good insights, though, especially his emphasis on self-sacrificial love as a practical implication of atonement, I just think a more radical foundation for such love is not a defeat of the devil foremost, but a God who loves humanity so much that he determines to take into his very life the consequences of our sin, God-abandonment, and bear the full weight of his wrath for his gracious and loving purposes. Sin and sinners are not simply overcome and defeated, but eradicated and negated in the name of love. That is even more radical, it seems to me.
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