Jesus in China

Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune ran a fascinating and extensive cover story on the rapid rise of evangelical Christianity in China and how it's reshaping the officially atheist nation. According to some estimates, the mostly underground church consists of approximately 70 million members. The article is a preview of a joint project of the Trib and PBS' FRONTLINE/World called "Jesus in China" which airs tomorrow night at 9 p.m. ET. The program is momentous in that it includes interviews with numerous church leaders and members publicly declaring their faith for the first time. In a related story, the LA Times reports on China's booming business of Bible production.

Understanding Scripture in Light of Christ

That's the theme of the most recent issue of Southern Seminary's magazine, The Tie. Articles and authors include:

• Scripture’s story centers on Christ
  Stephen J. Wellum
  

• Old Testament: Christ hidden
  Russell Fuller
  

• New Testament: Christ revealed
  James M. Hamilton Jr.
  

• Biblical counseling: Centering cure on Christ
  David Powlison
  

• Beyond a Veggie Tales gospel: Preaching Christ from every text
  Russell D. Moore
  

• Christ as Warrior-King: Preaching Christ from Judges
  David E. Prince
  

The complete issue is available for free here. (HT: Steve Weaver)

ESV Study Bible Preview

The introduction to Luke's gospel from the forthcoming ESV Study Bible is available online. Time's running out to pre-order the volume at a 35% discount. Tomorrow's the last day!

The Primary Emphasis When Interpreting Biblical Narratives

....biblical narratives are primarily about God and God's redemptive activity among humanity, and their authors' claim to reveal God truthfully. This may seem like a truism, but we often focus our attention on the ethical dimensions of narrative rather than on its theological dimension. In other words, it is too easy to ask the question of narratives, What should I be like? rather than, What is God like? or, What is God doing? The ethical question is not inappropriate. Yet, our primary interpretive emphasis should be theological. Our first question ought to be the "God question." As John Goldingay asserts, "The shaping of character is rarely the direct aim of biblical narrative; we are not told stories about Abraham, Moses, Jesus, or Paul chiefly in order that we might let our characters be shaped by theirs. The primary concern of biblical narrative is to expound the gospel, to talk about God and what God has done, rather than to talk about the human characters who appear in God's story." By centering our attention on the theological question, we will be in a better position to hear well the ethical stance of the text.


Our tendency to derive ethics apart from theology in the narratives of Scripture is nowhere more pervasive than in teaching the Bible to our children. We routinely teach Bible stories to children to make an ethical point: "Be like Samson, Ruth, and David. Be like Joseph and share with others just as he distributed food among the Egyptians." The latter point was expressly made in a curriculum I was to teach to the Sunday school class of my three-year-old daughter. What a marvelous lesson for self-centered three-year-olds: share! the problem, of course, is that Joseph also "shares" food with his long-lost family, while in the process not only hiding his identity from them, but also putting his own silver cup in their food bags, so that he can drag them back to Egypt and deceive them a bit longer (Gen. 44). This is not exactly the kind of sharing we want to inculcate in our children! In contrast, if we make our first question the theological question, not only will we teach that God is good even when human beings fail, but we will also provide the right point of view from which to evaluate the human characters of the Bible's narratives. 

               - Jeannine K. Brown, Scripture as Communication: Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics, pp. 162-163

Redeeming Conversation

Given the choice between a lectern (or even a really sturdy music stand) in a classroom and a pulpit in a sanctuary, I'll take the lectern every time. I'll also opt for the one-on-one ministry of the Word over sermonizing, too. I'm haunted by a comment made by one of my seminary professors years ago. "Consider," he counseled us, "where else during the week the people you're preaching to have had to sit for thirty minutes listening to someone talk." That was in the late '80's. Almost twenty years later, it's no more likely that those listening to sermons on Sunday morning are any more practiced to giving sustained attention to monologues throughout their week and attention spans certainly aren't any longer now than they were then.

For the last fourteen years I've served in an associate pastor role that has allowed me to concentrate on teaching in the contexts of adult education and one on one discipleship with minimal responsibilities in the area of preaching. I don't mean to disparage preaching at all. I recognize its importance and am grateful for those who devote themselves to it. In fact, I'm an auditory learner who enjoys listening to sermons and lectures. It's just that when I'm on the giving end, I prefer the dialogical nature of teaching. I like being able to stop and ask "Am I making sense?" or having someone stop me to ask a question. I realize that in part my reservations about preaching are due to my own shortcomings such as my prideful worry that I'm boring my hearers and my unbelief that the Holy Spirit will use the words he inspired (despite my inadequacies) to accomplish his gracious purposes through biblically-grounded preaching. Nevertheless, the fact remains that I still prefer speaking with people as opposed to merely speaking to them.

In his A Christian Directory, Richard Baxter includes a section on the importance of what he called "Christian conference, exhortation, and reproof." Essentially, it's about the necessity and benefit of believers conversing with each other about biblical truth. One of the advantages of such discourse, he says, is that it supplements the ministry of public preaching:

Your fruitful conference is a needful help to the ministerial work. When the preacher hath publicly delivered the word of God to the assembly, if you would so far second him, as in your daily converse to set it home on the hearts of those that you have opportunity to discourse with, how great an assistance would it be to his success! Though he must teach them publicly, and from house to house, Acts xx.20, yet it is not possible for him to be so frequent and familiar in daily conference with all the ignorant of the place, as those that are still with them may be. You are many, and he is but one, and can be but in one place at once. Your business bringeth you into their company, when he cannot be there. O happy is that minister who hath such a people, who will daily preach over the matter of his public sermons in their private conference with one another! (Part IV, Chapter XVI, Motive X).

Later, Baxter enumerates more advantages of spiritual conversation including the following which is the best articulation of why I prefer teaching that I've come across:

5. Interlocutory conference keepeth your auditors attentive, and carrieth them on along with you as you go. And it maketh the application much more easy, by their nearness and the familiarity of the discourse; when sermons are usually heard but as an insignificant sound, or words of course. 6. You may at your pleasure go back and repeat those things which the hearer doth not understand, or doth forget; which a preacher in the pulpit cannot do without the censure of the more curious auditors. 7. You may perceive by the answers of them whom you speak to, what particulars you need most to insist on, and what objections you should most carefully resolve; and when you have satisfied them, and may proceed. All which it is hard for a minister to do in public preaching; and is it not a great sin to neglect such an advantageous duty? (Part IV, Chapter XVI, Motive XII).

When I came across these thoughts from Baxter, I was reminded of an article by David Powlison called "What is Ministry of the Word?" (Journal of Biblical Counseling, Winter 2003, pp. 2-6) in which he distinguishes among three mutually supportive aspects of the communication of biblical truth. The first two, the public and private ministry of the Word, are those with which we are probably most familiar. The former refers to the proclamation, exposition, and application of Scripture that good sermons consist of. The latter refers to personal study of and meditation on Scripture in private devotions or "quiet times." While acknowledging the necessity of both for cultivating spiritual maturity, Powlison rejects the idea that they are sufficient:

Perhaps you've heard it said, "If people would only sit under good preaching and meet God regularly in private devotions, they wouldn't need counseling." That statement is well intended. It's even partly true. Lots of personal problems are transformed by public ministry of the Word and by private ministry of the Word. But the statement is completely untrue in its premises and its conclusions. A central purpose of good preaching and private devotions is to create mutual counseling and wise counselors! When any personal problem is in fact truly transformed, then a wise counselor of others has been produced. Fruitful interpersonal ministry of the Word is the main proof that sermons and devotions are worth the time and effort.

This calls to mind Paul's exhortation that we "Let the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom..." (Col. 3:16). In today's church there is certainly a great deal of emphasis on preaching and devotions but are we neglecting the importance and necessity of believers learning how to skillfully bring biblical truth to bear on each other's lives?

Technorati Tags: Bible, Christianity, preaching, teaching, Richard Baxter, David Powlison, biblical counseling

Marketing the Good Book

Joanne Kaufman of the Wall Street Journal writes about the measures to which Bible publishers go to connect with consumers. Fortunately, not all proposed versions, like the "alarmist Bible" pitched to Thomas Nelson, are approved:

The offering featured headlines that had been snipped from the front pages of USA Today, then pasted below select New Testament verses. Also included was some newspaper boldface about the collapse of the Jessica Simpson-Nick Lachey marriage accompanied by relevant text from Scripture, presumably not Genesis' 2:24 dictum: "a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife."

Some interesting excerpts:

Thomas Nelson produces 150 different editions of the Bible each year.

Christian bookstores had a 25% increase in sales of Scriptures from 2003 to 2005

...Bibles are becoming as much personal statements as fashion statements. "What people are saying is 'I want to find a Bible that is really me,'" noted Rodney Hatfield, a vice president of marketing at Thomas Nelson. "It's no different than with anything else in our culture."

Fortunately for Bible publishers, consumers seem to think that if one copy of the Good Book is good, two or more are even better. "Forty percent of my customers own three to 10 Bibles," said Mr. Hastings. "It's sort of like me and golf. I have Tiger Woods's book and Ernie Els's book. I want all those different approaches to how to play golf. It's the same with Bibles."

A Few Quick Links

Westminster Bookstore has resumed its faculty recommendations page. Westminster Theological Seminary professors respond to the question of what books in their disciplines belong on every pastor's shelf.


Mars Hill Audio is podcasting.

Gareth Russel gives an extensive review of the new ESV Journaling Bible. I got one myself and I like it, but the small print has made Psalm 119:18 take on a whole new meaning. (HT: John Schroeder) If you'd like to get your own, Gregory Pittman (who agrees with me about the tiny print) informs us that Monergism Books is selling them for $17.99 (normally $30) through the end of this month. Be sure to check out Gregory's advice about what to do with your savings.

"A Recipe for Religious Intolerance"

That's what Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith, calls the Bible in this interview with Salon. (HT: The Revealer)

Characters in Search of an Author

"In the redemptive-historical interpretive tradition of the Reformed churches, Scripture is a cumulative, God-directed narrative. Its successive acts (creation, fall, redemption and future hope) comprise a cosmic drama in which all persons, whether consciously or not, are players...

"...seeing Scripture as a redemptive-historical drama implies...that all persons are 'characters in search of an author,' that is, fundamentally worshiping beings who, if not committed to the one true God, will inevitably end up revering some substitute within God's creation--material goods, social status, political power, personal pleasure, or even art and scholarship."  --Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. "Five Uneasy Questions, or: Will Success Spoil Christian Psychologists?" Journal of Psychology and Christianity 15 (1996): 150-160.

Out of the Fishbowl, Into the Ocean

"For a variety of reasons - perhaps a bits-and-pieces mentality, or an inability to make the theological connection between the Old and New Testaments, or a pernicious dualism that divides life into the airtight compartments of the sacred and secular - contemporary biblical understanding among average, everyday Christians is subject to extreme forms of reductionism. A comprehension of the overall biblical story and its constituent components is lost upon the minds of far too many evangelical believers. There is precious little understanding of the broader horizons of the Scriptures. For example, creation is merely a doctrine to be defended against evolution, sin only affects people, and redemption has exclusive application to the human soul. When it comes to the faith, many well-intended saints understand it in limited terms as a church view, or a Bible view, or a doctrine view, or a ministry view, or a spirituality view, or a religious view, or a God view, but not as a comprehensive, all-embracing, wholistic world and live view.

"But the notion of a worldview has a mysterious way of opening up the parameters of the Bible so that believers might be delivered from a fishbowl-sized Christianity into an oceanic perspective on the faith."   - David Naugle, Worldview: The History of a Concept (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 341-342.

Move Over, Seventeen. Here Comes the New Testament!

Imagine that you have a room in your home with a spectacular view. You so want all your guests to take in this marvelous sight that you come up with the ingenious idea of replacing the picture window you now have with a mosaic stained glass window (with a few clear pieces scattered throughout). The stained glass window will catch people's attention, you reason to yourself, luring them to it, at which time they'll peer through one of the transparent pieces and take in the breathtaking scenery. The problem with such a scheme, no matter how well-intended it might be, is obvious. That which you really want people to see is obscured by your attempt to highlight it.


That illustration came to mind after reading a thoughtful (not to mention cleverly-titled) article by Samantha at Intellectuelle called "The Church's One 'Foundation'?". It's about a New Testament version called Revolve, whose target audience is teenage girls. The book, published by Thomas Nelson, is designed to look like a glossy girls' magazine inside and out. According to a beliefnet.com article which Samantha quotes:

Looking nothing like the Good Book, Revolve was designed to spare teen girls Bible embarrassment should they want to bring scripture with them to school, to the mall or to their next basketball game. Aside from the words "The Complete New Testament" slicing across the cover, one might never suspect that the glossy magazine, teeming with photos of preternaturally happy, attractive gals, was anything more than a new entry into the already crowded teen 'zine market.
And that's what Revolve's creators want. "Teens were saying that they found the Bible to be too freaky, too big, too intimidating," says Laurie Whaley, Brand Manager for the New Century Version at Thomas Nelson, one of America's major Bible publishers and part of the Revolve team. "Revolve shows girls that reading the New Testament is just as easy as reading an issue of Seventeen or Vogue."

The desire to get teenagers to read the Bible is, without question, a good thing. But adopting a "whatever it takes" methodology is to set aside the very thing we're seeking to promote -- the Word of God. Samantha's is a necessary reminder that we must give serious thought not only to the content of the message we're trying to communicate, but also to the vehicles we use to convey it. She writes:

...filling the scriptures with sidebars full of "Beautiful People" and references to popular culture is a distraction from the Word of God, and could easily cause girls who are not attractive, or who have had sad or difficult lives, to equate beauty and happiness with godliness. The Bible speaks harshly against vanity, and this time of life is one in which the desire to preen and beautify oneself can become an obsession. I'm sure the publishers of this thing would insist that they are speaking *against* such outward focus, but by presenting the Scriptures in this way they are in fact promoting these glamour values. It has been said that the medium is the message, and in this case that seems to be true.

Read the whole thing and let her know what you think.

No Books but THE Book?

I've long been curious about why some Christians are more suspicious of extrabiblical literature than they are of extrabiblical oral communication. It's as though there's something about committing Bible teaching to the printed page that makes it more deserving of scrutiny. A comment I read recently resurrected my curiosity about this matter.

For a number of reasons, one of which is to insure consistency in what is taught, our church uses prepared curricula (either Bible study guides or complete books) for most of our adult education classes. At the end of each quarter we ask participants to fill out evaluation forms that ask how, if at all, the class has assisted their spiritual maturity. For those classes in which a workbook or text was used, one question asks how well it helped the student to understand and apply the subject. In response to this question an anonymous party replied "Better steer clear of books and study with the Book and let the Spirit do the speaking." This same sentiment lies behind aversion to the use of biblical commentaries. However, I have yet to meet anyone who consistently applies the mistrust of written materials to other forms of Christian teaching about the content of the Bible.

I've asked other Christians who've voiced this view whether they attend a church. When they replied affirmatively I asked whether their pastor uses the sermon time to simply read extended portions of Scripture without making any explanatory comments about a text's meaning and application or using illustrative material that doesn't come directly from the Bible. Of course, the answer is no, yet this doesn't seem to bother those suspicious of books. But it should if, in fact, the only words the Spirit uses to teach are those of Scripture. What is it that makes oral explanation of the Bible's message acceptable and written teaching suspect? Would a transcript of a biblically faithful message suddenly become unspiritual simply because it is now in print? A related question is how are we to understand the nature and purpose of the spiritual gift of teaching if we are restricted to using only the words of Scripture? 

I understand and share the concern that we recognize the Bible as our ultimate authority but the use of books, like sermons, does not necessarily undermine that conviction. No books but the Book? No. All books judged by the Book? Most definitely.

Whose Story Are We In?

Jeff at Texas Theologue asks that question and notes how the over-arching narrative of Scripture should alter how we think about relevance:

Too often, evangelical Christians make our own personal story primary. We begin to think that it's all about me - about me being happy, successful, peaceful, healthy. It's all about my problems, my marriage, my finances, my job, my kids, my anxiety, my lack of self-discipline, etc. So we think, "The sermon that the pastor preaches this morning had better be relevant to my life." The preacher tries to oblige this hypothetical listener. So, he preaches "how to" sermons to "felt needs." He decides to preach on 10 steps to a better marriage, 10 steps to financial freedom, 10 steps to raising Christian children, 10 steps to freedom from anxiety, 10 steps to more self-discipline, etc.. Then he searches the Scriptures for passages that he can use for these messages. He will find some Bible passages to address these concerns. But the preacher will also be disappointed, because he will not find as much as he hoped for. The Bible was not written to address the stories of autonomous, individualistic, self-absorbed 21st century Americans. When preaching focuses on our stories it ends up taking passages out of context and missing the main point of what the Bible is all about. Some Scripture passages are preached on hundreds of times while other passages are totally ignored because they don't seem relevant to today's listeners. That is what happens when we try to make the Bible relevant to our
lives.
Instead, we should concentrate on trying to figure out if our lives could be relevant to the story of God. The Bible tells a story about a holy and loving God who is working for the salvation of His people through His Son, establishing and expanding His Kingdom on earth, working in all things for His glory and our good, and commissioning and sending out His people to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to all peoples on earth. The story is even broader and bigger than this brief summary. The greatest adventure in all of life consists in learning about this story and then following Jesus' radical call to be a part of this story. Truly relevant preaching must call people to leave their small, self-absorbed story behind and to figure out how they can play a role in this much larger and grander story. If we can get people to adopt this perspective, suddenly the whole Bible becomes alive and exciting, not just the few prooftexts that talk about marriage, finances, child-raising, or anxiety.

Our stories are subplots in a narrative whose main character (and author) is the triune God. In a previous post I sought to show how the recognition of this humbling fact should play out in our thinking about counseling, a topic I intend to deal with more in the near future.

The (Fragmentary) Christian Mind

Mike at Eternal Perspectives commented: "BTW, great quote in your masthead." Since Francis Schaeffer has played such an influential role in my Christian life, I'm particularly appreciative of the quote displayed in the masthead of Mike's blog. It's from Schaeffer's The God Who Is There:

True education means thinking by associating across the various disciplines, and not just being highly qualified in one field, as a technician might be. I suppose no discipline has tended to think more in fragmented fashion than the orthodox or evangelical theology of today.

Schaeffer was concerned that increased specialization tended to emphasize the parts at the expense of the whole. One of the potential dangers of focusing intently in one area of study is that that area's relationship to other subjects can be overlooked if not forgotten. Think of each discipline as one of the over 3 million dots of color in Georges Seurat's familiar painting "A Sunday in the Park on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (above). How foolish (not to mention unsatisfying) would it be for art students to set out to become experts in one point of paint? Standing with their noses pressed against the canvas, scrutinizing their particular dot, they would miss the grandeur and beauty of the entire piece.

The "today" Schaeffer was referring to was almost forty years ago. The information explosion presents even more obstacles to the kind of cross-disciplinary thinking he was advocating. Millard Erickson, in Christian Theology, describes the impact on theological scholarship:

Theology is now being done in a period characterized by, among other things, a "knowledge explosion." The amount of information is growing so rapidly that mastery of a large area of thought is becoming increasingly difficult. While this is especially true in technological areas, biblical and theological knowledge is also much broader than it once was. The result has been a much greater degree of specialization than was previously the case. In biblical studies, for example, New Testament scholars tend to specialize in the Gospels or in the Pauline writings. Church historians tend to specialize in one period, such as the Reformation. Consequently, research and publication are often in narrower areas and in greater depth.

The mass of theological data is too great for any one person or group of persons to master. I'm not so naive as to question that. What I do question is where the integrative task is being done. Where and how does theological Humpty Dumpty get put together again once we've analyzed his yolk, white, and shell? Are our seminaries aiding future pastors to become truly educated as Schaeffer defined true education? Are we training leaders who will be capable of teaching others to make the connection between their respective vocations and biblical faith?
In a previous post I quoted from the preface of Craig Bartholomew's and Michael Goheen's book The Drama of Scripture in which they warn of the consequences of approaching the Bible atomistically. Assuming that there's at least one person who hasn't gone back in this blog's archives, I'll post it again. It's that important:

Many of us have read the Bible as if it were merely a mosaic of little bits - theological bits, moral bits, historical-critical bits, sermon bits, devotional bits. But when we read the Bible in such a fragmented way, we ignore its divine author's intention to shape our lives through its story. All human communities
live out of some story that provides a context for understanding the meaning of history and gives shape and direction to their lives. If we allow the Bible to become fragmented, it is in danger of being absorbed into whatever other story is shaping our culture, and it will thus cease to shape our lives as it should. Idolatry has twisted the dominant cultural story of the secular Western world. If as believers we allow this story (rather than the Bible) to become the foundation of our thought and action, then our lives will manifest not the truths of Scripture, but the lies of an idolatrous culture. Hence, the unity of Scripture is no minor matter; a fragmented Bible may actually produce theologically orthodox, morally upright, warmly pious idol worshippers.

Baby Got Book

My friend PT sent me this video, a Christian parody of Sir Mix-A-Lot's rap hit "Baby Got Back." I think it's hilarious if only a spoof but sad if an attempt to get young people into the Bible.

Mother's Day Reading & Other Thoughts on Literature for Christian Women

In yesterday's mail I received a sample of a gift book designed for distribution on Mother's Day. It's called God's Tender Promises for Mothers. According to the promotional flier that accompanied it: "This is the perfect gift to honor mothers for their godly work and remind them of one of God's important promises to them." If you're thinking, "I didn't know there were that many promises in the Bible addressed specifically to mothers," that's what I thought too. As it turns out, each page of the small paperback contains an inspirational thought of one or two sentences followed by a biblical verse that may or may not relate to it. Here's an example:

Mother always said that the

largest room in the world

is the room for improvement.

......~......

And that you, always having all sufficiency

in all things, may have an abundance

for every good work

2 Corinthians 9:8

Little promise books like this along with verse-a-day devotionals dissect the Bible into isolated bits and lend to the dangerous practice of divorcing small units of Scripture from their literary, historical, and canonical contexts. The result is that believers do not grow in their understanding of how the parts relate to the whole. Such a fragmentary approach impedes the formation of a coherent, comprehensive biblical outlook contributing to what Francis Schaeffer identified as the basic problem of American Christianity, the tendency to see things in "bits and pieces instead of totals."

Why is the market proliferated with such biblically and theologically light fare for women? Author and counselor Elyse Fitzpatrick offered a number of reasons in an article she contributed to the Spring '03 issue of the Journal of Biblical Counseling (""What is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?": Publications for Christian Women"). She writes:

I’ve heard numerous women say, “I’m so sick of fluff books.” So why does it seem that so many women read fluff? Because that’s the majority of what’s being written by women! Why are women writing fluff? In part, because that’s all that they can get published! The publishers who know that there is a market for deeply theological books generally don’t publish scholarly or theologically practical women. Other publishers who appreciate the women’s market generally don’t think that we have a taste for much of anything besides cotton candy, a cup of tea, and a cupcake with Bible-verse sprinkles.

Carolyn Custis James is another Christian woman eager to see women delve into the riches of the Word. If you're going to get Mom anything to read for Mother's Day I recommend her book, When Life and Beliefs Collide: How Knowing God Makes a Difference. She describes it as "a long overdue call for Christian women to reclaim their theological heritage." In the concluding paragraph of a chapter called "The Dreaded T-Word [theology] and Why Women Avoid It" she writes

The value of theology for women is growing clearer all the time. Women are tired of "stumbling and blundering" and riding an emotional roller coaster. We want to know the one who made us, who defines who we are and how we should live, and who hold our lives in the palms of his hands. We are ready to lift our arms, put on our theology, and wear it into the trenches where we need it most - where tight schedules, traffic congestion, runny noses and dirty knees, difficult relationships, bad news, discouragement, fatigue, and sagging red chairs throw us off balance and expose our need for God. Our goal is to bring knowing God out of the ivory tower and into the ordinary moments of our lives.

The cover of James's book is nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing as the floral design on God's Tender Promises for Mothers and therefore it may not be the best choice for a coffee table book. However, if you're looking to get Mom something that will aid her in better knowing and loving God, it's the better choice.

The Whole Story: Biblical Narrative & Counseling

In their book The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story, Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen note the piecemeal fashion in which we're prone to read the Bible along with its detrimental results:

Many of us have read the Bible as if it were merely a mosaic of little bits - theological bits, moral bits, historical-critical bits, sermon bits, devotional bits. But when we read the Bible in such a fragmented way, we ignore its divine author's intention to shape our lives through its story. All human communities live out of some story that provides a context for understanding the meaning of history and gives shape and direction to their lives. If we allow the Bible to become fragmented, it is in danger of being absorbed into whatever other story is shaping our culture, and it will thus cease to shape our lives as it should. Idolatry has twisted the dominant cultural story of the secular Western world. If as believers we allow this story (rather than the Bible) to become the foundation of our thought and action, then our lives will manifest not the truths of Scripture, but the lies of an idolatrous culture. Hence, the unity of Scripture is no minor matter; a fragmented Bible may actually produce theologically orthodox, morally upright, warmly pious idol worshippers.

Among the "stories" that exercise great formative power in our culture are those told by the psychotherapeutic communities. These stories are practically inescapable. We hear them not only in professional counseling offices but on television, the radio and in casual conversations. When we see ourselves as characters in these stories instead of the biblical narrative of creation, corruption, redemption and consummation, phrases like self-esteem, self-love, needs, and codependence ring loudly in our ears, drowning out biblical themes like idolatry, self-denial, faith, and transforming grace. We may not completely abandon the Bible's story but we don't really expect it to speak as meaningfully about our problems as do the therapeutic tales.

In his unfortunately out-of-print book, Taking the Word to Heart: Self & Others in an Age of Therapies, Robert C. Roberts writes: "the kind of persons we become (the kind of character we develop) is a function of how we think about ourselves." This is just another way of making the same point as Bartholomew and Goheen. Whatever story functions authoritatively in our lives will shape us and our interpretation of ourselves. Roberts refers to the various schools of therapy as "alternative spiritualities" and offers the following warning:

The danger is that these psychologies may to one degree or another replace Christianity without most people even noticing that any substitution has taken place. In some instances the influence of the therapies -even from within the church - may be so strong that our character and relationships are no longer Christian but are now Rogerian, or family-systemic, or Jungian, or rational-emotive...In short, under the influence of these psychologies, our souls may turn out Therapeutic rather than Christian.

Too often believers regard the cultivation of the intellectual life as an abstract, impractical pursuit but it need not be. We should seek to think well so we can love (both God and neighbor) well. I'm grateful for the efforts of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation towardhelping the church to think well about how each of our stories is a subplot in the grand narrative whose central figure is Jesus Christ. David Powlison is one of those at the forefront of this work. Yesterday, Justin Taylor provided an informative introduction to Powlison along with a bibliography of his writing at Between Two Worlds. That entry prompted this one.