Very well said! This is important stuff. And it maps very closely with my experience/critique, though besides attending RTS, I haven’t been as deep in the Reformed world (Episcopalian) as you.
It was a few years ago now when I “deconstructed” my evangelical faith. I will save the moniker “exvangelical” to describe others but my dig was at least as deep and provided for a different destination. I am still a Christian, believing scripture is instructive and godly, though never signing on to the Reformed point of view. I continue to worship and serve in the church body which I was led to in 1975. I do however put some distance between me and what passes for the Church of Evangelicalism. There are too many things going which can be described as fleshly. I sit still and let others pursue them, hoping that my example will speak.
A rousing manifesto, one born from sustained experience and wrestling. Bravo, brother.
One way that psychoanalysis helps us think about this "implicit theology" by talking about our "unconscious fantasies." A fantasy is always implicit in a practice, because the underlying fantasy is what structures how we imagine ourselves. It's this way that we imagine ourselves which serves most fundamentally as our orientation, not particular beliefs or creeds.
Of course, there always multiple overlapping (and contradictory) fantasies which animate our entire life at any moment, but clarifying these and bringing them into confrontation through speech should be one of our primary pursuits in Christian discipleship.
These words could be my own. Such an introspective yet exposed feeling, reading a story so close to my own personal evolution of faith. Thank you for providing a unique opportunity to sort myself closer to God.
Mat 23:1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
Mat 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Mat 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Mat 23:5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
Mat 23:6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
Very well said! This is important stuff. And it maps very closely with my experience/critique, though besides attending RTS, I haven’t been as deep in the Reformed world (Episcopalian) as you.
It was a few years ago now when I “deconstructed” my evangelical faith. I will save the moniker “exvangelical” to describe others but my dig was at least as deep and provided for a different destination. I am still a Christian, believing scripture is instructive and godly, though never signing on to the Reformed point of view. I continue to worship and serve in the church body which I was led to in 1975. I do however put some distance between me and what passes for the Church of Evangelicalism. There are too many things going which can be described as fleshly. I sit still and let others pursue them, hoping that my example will speak.
A rousing manifesto, one born from sustained experience and wrestling. Bravo, brother.
One way that psychoanalysis helps us think about this "implicit theology" by talking about our "unconscious fantasies." A fantasy is always implicit in a practice, because the underlying fantasy is what structures how we imagine ourselves. It's this way that we imagine ourselves which serves most fundamentally as our orientation, not particular beliefs or creeds.
Of course, there always multiple overlapping (and contradictory) fantasies which animate our entire life at any moment, but clarifying these and bringing them into confrontation through speech should be one of our primary pursuits in Christian discipleship.
These words could be my own. Such an introspective yet exposed feeling, reading a story so close to my own personal evolution of faith. Thank you for providing a unique opportunity to sort myself closer to God.
Thank you, Greg! I was hoping this would map into other people’s experience.
Mat 23:1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
Mat 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Mat 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Mat 23:5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
Mat 23:6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,