CHAPTER 15:
SPIRIT, KINGDOM AND POSTMODERN CITY
The
In
this chapter, I propose a new evangelical understanding of the
I begin
with the relationship of the city and the Spirit to the final coming of the
Kingdom. I then explore the role of the Kingdom as one of the integrating
themes of the Scriptures. I look at the pneumatological nature of the Kingdom,
expand holistic Kingdom themes and the responses to the Kingdom (discipleship),
as they relate to conversation spaces identified in the study of postmodernism.
These cluster around the Kingdom as integrating centre, the revitalisation of
postmodern humanness, the morality of the physical world and the Kingdom and
the New World Order (diagrammed in Fig. 4
on page 2 and Fig. 5 on
page 2). I then demonstrate the missiological implications
by reflecting on conversations between the Kingdom and business in
Kingdom, City, Spirit
The ultimate reign of God is integrally connected with the
coming of the city of
I saw
the
This
bride, has been the hope of the saints, Abraham looked forward to “a city whose
builder and maker is God” (Heb 11:10), a city prepared for his faithful people
(11:16). “For here, we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the
city that is to come” (13:14). The church is the bride in preparation, the city
being built. The city is preceded in verse 1 with the broader context of the
universal Kingdom:
Then I
saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had
passed away and there was no longer any sea (Rev 21:2).
This quotation above by John, from Isaiah 65:17, is not of a
creation ex nihilo, but a
transformation. As in Genesis 1, so in this revelation of the eternal Kingdom,
environmental structure precedes life-forms. But it appears to be
metamorphosis, for he goes on, in verse 5, “Behold I make all things new.”
Paul, in Romans 8, tells us that “the whole creation groans, waiting our
adoption as sons”, thus this metamorphosis is integrally related to our
salvation. The Kingdom involves a renewal of creation, a transformation of
world and universal orders. In reference, perhaps, to the waters of primeval
chaos of Genesis 1, he then states, “there was no longer any sea,” and the
transformation of chaos is complete.
Then is voiced a grand climax, for the crowning of the creator, his taking up his reign on earth, his Kingship, has to do with his presence with the created social creature,
And I
heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with
humanity and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself
will be with them and be their God” (Rev 21:1-3).
“The dwelling of God, (or the tabernacle, or tent Gk: skene) is with humanity.” [1] This is an
allusion to the Hebrew shekinah,
God’s immanence both in the world and among people. It is an echo[2] of the new
covenantal promise of Ezek 37:27, “My dwelling place shall be with them; and I
will be their God and they shall be my people” (see Ezek 34:30; 36:28; Zech
2:11a; Lev 26:11-12). Paul links this dwelling of God among people to believers
being the temple of the living God, the temple of the Spirit of God.[3] The
linkage of people to city is perhaps a reflection on Ps 46:4, where the phrase
“city of God” parallels “dwelling place of the most high” (Aune, 1998:1122).
Kingdom as Centre of a Web of Belief
This framework of the
Up to this point, while the
The theme is evident in the Genesis accounts,[5] though the
terminology begins during the monarchy of
This theme, in contrast to the dispensationalism of fundamentalist groups (hence breaking its interpretative power), is developed in the belief that the Scriptures are a unity.[6] While there is differentiation as to God’s activity at different phases of redemption history or expressed in different narratives, this does not mean that God changes in personality, style or fundamentals. God’s interventions at every phase of redemption history are consistent. The discontinuities at the incarnation, the cross and the parousia, are subject to the continuities of his nature.
But a further step is needed beyond existing, culturally limited,[7] evangelical theologies of the Kingdom of God, such as by Bright (1953), Ladd (1959) or sociologist Kraybill’s more socially aware Anabaptist perspective (1978). We need to move to a more comprehensive biblical understanding of the nature of the Kingdom as involving the socio-economic, spiritual and political.
Charles Van Engen (1998), reflects on missions theologian emeritus, Glasser’s The Good News of the Kingdom (1993) (which in turn draws on Ladd (1959) and in turn Oscar Cullman’s “Kingdom present and not yet” (1962)). He indicates four things the theme of the Kingdom has done for evangelical missiology:
1.
The
2.
Glasser’s
Kingdom missiology breaks the impasse between evangelism and social action that
has plagued Evangelicals.
3.
Kingdom-of-God
missiology creates the possibility of new conversation among Evangelicals,
representatives of the conciliar movement, Roman Catholics, Orthodox,
Pentecostals and charismatic.
4.
Glasser’s
own personal pilgrimage made him deeply aware of the social and political
implications of the
Independently, Dyrness (1983/1991) working in Manila, and
Bellingham in Bangladesh and India (1987), have grappled with relating the
Kingdom to the social realities of poverty and oppression. The most lucid evangelical
statements I have read are in Howard Snyder’s A Kingdom Manifesto (1997). Two decades of theological conferencing
by Chris Sugden and Vinay Samuel and the Transformation network produced Mission as Transformation (1999), with
several chapters on the Kingdom. This and Glasser’s teaching at Fuller have
influenced the Latin American Theological Fraternity and Petersen in Latin
America (1996:209-224). Brian Hathaway developed a New Zealand church-based
missiology of the Kingdom (1990) reflecting these influences.
Nevertheless, with the exception of the latter, the evangelical understandings lack the comprehensiveness of social gospel conceptualisations of the Kingdom by evangelists significant in the early World Council of Churches and liberal social gospel theology, such as Rauschenbusch (1907/1968); Kagawa of Japan in Christ and Japan, (1934); E. Stanley Jones in India with The Unshakeable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person (1972); or H. Richard Niebuhr of the US (1937/1988).
Continuity and Discontinuity of the Kingdom
OT Intervention; NT Invasion
In the Old Testament, the reign of God was acknowledged and frequently he intervened in situations, applying the social, economic and political principles of his Kingdom (first part of Fig. 1). Yet the presence of God was not with humankind, his Spirit did not dwell with men and women. Thus in the times of Samson and the judges, he exercised his rule as the Spirit came upon chosen individuals for the duration of each crisis.
Then Isaiah, in the Servant Psalms, prophesies of the
Servant of the Lord who would exercise his ministry through the eternal
anointing of the Spirit (Isa 42:1-14; 61:1-3). This is what differentiates the
New Testament from the Old — the small baby in a little manger in an
insignificant town, surrounded by a host of angels, shepherds and wise men. The
King has come! The
Fig. 1: The
Fig. 1
indicates eternal consistencies of the Kingdom (and the covenants) and its
social, spiritual and economic principles. These are contrasted with the
differences in the relationship of the
In the Old Testament, the King intervened in the life of
The Holy Spirit as First Fruits of a
Future Kingdom
These principles are manifested through the power of the Spirit in transformed believers. Stronstad (1984) indicates the centrality of the anointing of the Spirit on Christ, expanded into the outpouring of the Spirit on the charismatic first church, as the integrating centre of the Kingdom in the two volume Luke-Acts story.
But the Kingdom is also still to come. Half of the parables of the Kingdom are of a present Kingdom and half of a future Kingdom.[8] Jesus came the first time, humbly, quietly as foretold in the four Servant Psalms of Isaiah, not as judge but as servant. He brought his Kingdom into the world. One day he will return again, to break the Kingdoms of this world and establish the rule of his Kingdom forever ((Dan 2:31-35), third part of Fig. 1).
So we enjoy a taste of its blessings here. We “have tasted of the powers of the age to come” (Heb 6:5), through the Holy Spirit . That is a power and conflict-related experience:
‘But if
I cast out spirits by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God is come to
you’ (Luke
11:20).
At times, the Spirit restores our bodies through healings,
though usually we have to wait for his coming when we will receive new bodies
(I Cor 15:50). He gives us power over the evil one by his Spirit, but “Satan is
not yet cast into the place prepared for him.” At times we see clearly, as the
Spirit of Truth guides us, but mostly we “see in a mirror, darkly.” “On that
day we will see him as he is.” This imperfection means that much of what we do
is incomplete, a sign of the fullness
of the future Kingdom.[9]
Discipleship, Response to the Kingdom
Discipleship, our human response to the Kingdom, is a significant theme among Evangelicals, but has been disassociated from the Kingdom. It has become an extension of evangelistic motifs, popularised by the Navigators as methodologies for post-conversion sanctification, as they worked with Billy Graham in the 1950’s. Its reinterpretation, if we are to understand the fullness of the Kingdom, is one key to an evangelical theology of transformation. Fig. 2, in a new way, expands discipleship from classic evangelical holiness motifs to its fuller meaning spiritually, economically and socio-politically. Foundational aspects of each of these three arenas and their relationship to the work of the Spirit, are examined next.
The starting point is the common evangelical understanding of discipleship as the human “spiritual” response to acknowledge the King, to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ. Jesus left behind him the indwelling Holy Spirit in the believer, the incarnate presence of God as against his being wholly other. Indeed we cannot enter the Kingdom unless we are born again of the Spirit (John 3:1-16). Jesus did not leave us comfortless, but promised the Holy Spirit (John 14:1-7). The book of the Acts demonstrates the centrality of the work of the Holy Spirit in advancing the Kingdom.
But that hope is defined in Isaiah much more broadly than the simple indwelling of the Spirit as companion and comforter. The hope is defined as “justice for the nations,” established through the anointing of the Spirit (Isa 42:1-4).[10] Jesus tells us to seek his Kingdom and his justice above all else, as a first principle of discipleship.
Disciples, Kingdom people, as a result of the indwelling Spirit, are also expansively proclamative. Because the Word was God, the communication of his being in person, we become communicating people as we enter into his being — with both word and deed being part of that communication. Similarly, whenever the Holy Spirit falls on people, there is communication. Jesus, upon the anointing of the Spirit, came preaching, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).”
Jesus preached through word, deed and power, ruling over creation, for as he preached he “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” This he did in the “power of the Spirit”(Luke 4:14,18). Mark 3:14 tells us quite simply that the twelve were “to be with him and to be sent out to preach, with power to cast out demons.
Along with communication of the gospel by speech is the communication of character. The fruit of the Spirit makes men and women agents of transformation by their very being. They have presence because of the presence of the Spirit. Historically, the presence and character development have been related to the exercise of spiritual disciplines in “discipleship”.
Discipleship as Methodology or the
Fruit of the Spirit?
The
Navigators developed from the American Evangelical centre represented by Billy
Graham. Their theology builds off biblical texts to develop discipleship themes
in individualistic terminology. As pietist descendants of Wesley, they have
defined discipleship as the centrality of Christ, disciplines of quiet time,
prayer, Bible Study, obedience and proclamation.
They
began as a highly influential university movement and grew rapidly in
As one indebted to this movement for the sustaining of these
disciplines over 40 years, I would affirm these as a powerful basis for
sustained spirituality. But they have limitations.
Holistic Discipleship
My first step to move beyond the rigidity of such disciplines to more comprehensive holistic discipleship was an understanding that Jesus defines the disciplines of the Christian life not by religious rituals, but as the character qualities in his manifesto in the Sermon in the Mount (meekness, poverty of spirit, purity of heart and so on) (Grigg, 1979; 1980). Paul, the apostle, devotes the majority of his teaching not to religious methods, but to character issues.
Fig.
2: Discipleship as Response
to a
Fig. 2 indicates three sets of relationships between King, people and created
order within the Genesis account. Obedient human response to the King is known
as discipleship. The first two relationships, God-human, God-human-land are
primarily those of authority. The human-human relationships are primarily of
equality.
These define the primary arenas of “spiritual” discipleship, economic
discipleship and socio-political discipleship. Holistic discipleship includes
all three arenas.
The second step, was an understanding that these are the
work of the Spirit. In the overwhelming presence of the Spirit in revival
contexts, these characteristics begin to manifest. Yet they require all the
above human disciplines to be sustained. However, the emphasis of the
Scriptures is on these being the fruit of the Spirit, rather than the fruit of
human endeavour.
Thirdly, in Luke 14:26-33, Jesus himself defines discipleship in economic (part 2 of Fig. 2) and social terms (part 3 of Fig. 2) (Scott, 1980). For discipleship, the response to the Kingdom, is not simply a spiritual relationship with God (part 1 of Fig. 2).
At a missiological level, the most powerful way I have found to move people to this understanding has been through action involving Kingdom incarnation. For Jesus’ first step of discipleship, his incarnation, is a historically central socio-economic-political subversive act, not simply a spiritual act. Luke 2, in its descriptions of the incarnation, reflects the Jewish understanding of the prophets in their denunciation of social sins. The Magnificat tells us how the incarnation places the locus of economic theory at the point of uplift of the poor. The incarnation was a profound social act, making the issue of identification or solidarity with the poor central to social action and defining the locus of Christian mission among the poor. The incarnation was a profound political act, defining the nature of godly politics as politics that serves the least important of society (Grigg, 1992a; Kraybill, 1978).
It is logical that any person filled with the Holy Spirit will tend to emulate these preferences in theologies of justice, incarnation and transformation. This supernaturally happens in revivals. Jonathan Edwards, the revivalist in his post-Great Awakening Religious Affections (Edwards, 1742/2005), asks the question, “Where does one look for true signs of revival?” His answer – “In those who seek to relieve the poor”. As indicated in the diachronic survey, historically this has subverted existent economic, social and power structures towards good.
Incarnation among the poor confronts the powers. The preached Word results in confrontation with the powers. These two elements of incarnational and confrontational discipleship become central to its expansion into socio-economic political dimensions.
Jesus not only preached the presence of the Kingdom, he demonstrated that Satan’s works were destroyed (Matt 12:28). When the disciples came back enthusiastic because even the demons were subject to them, he tells them “I saw Satan fall like lighting from Heaven” (Luke 10:18). Finally he “triumphed over Satan in death.” Satan was rendered inoperative (I Cor 15:26; Heb 2:14). Thus spiritual warfare themes are integrally related to our understanding of the nature of the Kingdom and the clash of this Kingdom with the Kingdoms of this world, their economics, societal issues and political issues.
Transformational
theology is thus an expansion of discipleship, Kingdom oriented, incarnational,
justice and character focused, proclamative in its central thrust and involves
ongoing power confrontation with the Kingdoms of this world (Samuel &
Sugden, 1999:xvi).
Discipleship as Communal
Discipleship is also communal, not simply individualistic. A significant theological shift occurs when Evangelicals grasp that Jesus’ commission was “to disciple the nations,” not just individuals, but to bring the nations (ta ethne = peoples) under his authority.
Changing the Mindset of a Nation
Since
the 1980’s, Youth With a
The Kingdom and Postmodernism
Defining the Kingdom
As a simple definition of the
This is integrally connected to revival. God’s Spirit was the creative breath that formed the universe. The Spirit’s voice has not stopped speaking. The Spirit continues to create. The universe is thus infused with the voice and the breath and the being of a personal God. This view follows Philo and Augustine, in that God is not dependent on that universe, nor is the universe God, but matter is infused with his being, his personality, his breath.[12]
He does
not depend on the process of nature and history for his existence, but he does
have purposes that can only be realised in nature and history (Bennett, 1941:39).
The Personality of Matter
I suggest that economic discipleship, the Christian response to the fundamental postmodern questioning of rationalist materialism, beyond the transformation of Newtonian physics and the death of materialism into chaos theory or relativity, is based on an understanding of matter as infused with personality, the personality of the Spirit of God, spirit not of chaos, but of structured creativity - what the Scriptures call righteousness, wholeness, holiness. Matter is not only, as Einstein derived, energy. Personhood is the source of the energy. Matter has an infusive personality. The universe at its heart has a personality. Colossians 1:15-20, the grand song of the apostle about the great sovereignty of his Lord, speaks first of our Lord’s creation, then of an integrational role, then of his immanence, his infusion of all in all. That song is central to our conversations with the postmodern city and the star-trek generation.
And that central personality of the universe is community. Within that community, the source of power and authority is the Father; the exercise of power is by the Holy Spirit. This creates a conversational space connecting with the search for creative power so central to many postmodern media productions. Relationship to the Holy Spirit as the essential creative power of the universe is a central element of charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity. This could place Pentecostalism at the centre of postmodern conversation. But only if it extends the conversation into the fullness of a Christian ecology and environmentalism.
The breath of God is also by nature expansive, as science has discovered in its conclusions of an infinitely expanding universe. As described in Error! Reference source not found., it is the Spirit who is continually hovering over and creating cities, giving a basis for Christian involvement in all things related to construction of good cities and entrepreneurial business. These themes enable structural conversations with the post-star-trek generation that understands an expanding universe.
The Morality of the Physical World
To humanity is passed the responsibility to manage, husband, care, rule over this creation,[13] to guard over something so preciously created by God’s own breath. Our relationship to creation raises a major theological question. Since the creator is moral, his creation must also be moral. What is the moral nature of the material? Is the world good or evil, godly or demonic?
There are opposing scriptural streams that must be held in tension. On the one hand, the Scriptures are world-affirming. God made all things good. Very good! Even in humanity’s sin they remain good, though the land is cursed and work is hard. God not only created, he also loves the world and sent his Son into the world as an incarnate being in material form, affirming the importance of that material existence. These statements form the basis of conversation with society about good work, fruitful agriculture, expanding economies, etc.
On the other hand, the Scriptures are world-denying.[14] We are not “of” the world and are to separate from the world, the flesh and the devil. This fallen “world” (Gk: Aeon or present age) is the value system of society hostile against God. Rather than creation, the Scriptures are talking here of the derived sinful human culture of the world and demonic intrusions.
This tension is central to the metamorphosis of
Evangelicalism under consideration. In seeking as part of our discipleship to
“not love the world,” to “not be conformed to this present age,” Evangelicals
in the early part of last century concluded that they should not be involved in
the social issues, the political issues, the governmental issues of the world.
Don’t they hinder us in our primary focus on evangelism? Yet,
It is as if Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism were locked into a truncated spirituality. They have focussed on only the first two steps of Matthew Fox’s (1983) reiteration of paradigms of spirituality, the four paths of delight (via positiva), letting go (via negativa), creativity (via creativa), and compassion (i.e., celebration and peacemaking (via transformativa). But socio-economic discipleship in a postmodern city requires the release of creativity in the freedom and gifts of the Spirit (via creativa) and must move into this via transformativa. Socio-economic discipleship must engage the created world, enter into it after the manner of Christ, but separate from the values of the world of fallen human culture.
Beyond Inanimate Materialism
It is the empty modernist theory of inanimate materialism
that is dead — not God. The new physics has blown apart the centrality of
materialist doctrine. Relativity exposed the clockwork universe as shifting and
warping. Chaos theory has replaced
These changes in the underlying perception of matter mirror changes in production and the market economy. The physical materials in a silicon chip are negligible yet the information and creativity released are far more productive than the iron of steam engines that drove the industrial revolution. Human imagination and creativity has now become a major dimension of formerly mechanistic production in what is becoming known as knowledge economies.
That discovery opens up the possibility of conversation
between those who know him who is creator and the wisdom of the universe[15] and the
children of the
Economic Values: Human Dignity Against Technologically-Defined Non-Personhood
Again in the area of economics, one could ask, to what extent Evangelicals have enabled society to respect the dignity of the human being. Jane Kelsey, in Reclaiming the Future: New Zealand and the Global Economy (1999), has a well-documented analysis of the effects of overly rapid commitment to the positive benefits of free trade with concomitant loss of jobs in several sectors, including 21,000 in the textiles and clothing sector, the loss of sovereignty over many of our national assets leading to increasing foreign debt and increase in inequity and insecurity.
It is apparent, in returning to
The reassertion of human
dignity against such policies, which are based on assumptions of man the
machine, woman the equal machine, is crucial for the sustaining of a just and
good society. While there is no evidence of Evangelicals bringing these
principles into the national legislative process, the stories basic to Error! Reference source not found.
each contain the application into the workplace of values of the worth, the creativity, the dignity of
each individual. However as the stories of managers, they show an emphasis
by Evangelicals on three of several major, economic themes of the Scriptures: work, production and creativity. These
are paralleled by ministries from many churches to sectors of poor in the
community, including almost every church in
The Biblical Critique of the Consumer Society
In a context of increasing differentials between rich and poor and expansion of indebtedness via credit card, postmodern discipleship cannot be less than economic, if it is to be true to Jesus’ words.
For example, following Jesus’ simple statement that, “the cares of the world, the delight in riches and the desire for other things enter in and choke the Word (Mark 4:19),” classic Christian discipleship has developed another principle in its rejection of greed, the accumulation of wealth and consumerism. The great transition away from this standard perhaps occurred with the failure of the puritans after Calvin, to keep regimentation on “profitable industry.” As Britain led the world into the new consumer and technological age, Bishop William Temple (1881-1942) (1942:29-34) indicates that the church for 150 years failed to sustain a consistent public critique of these sins. While Christian socialism and the social gospel, spoke to the issue of redistribution of wealth, they did not deal with the popular value systems of ordinary Christians with a call to the principles of co-operative economics and simplicity, without greed, in the midst of increasingly competitive systems.
This directly contrasts to earlier Calvinism, with its understanding of the just use of resources for the common good, frugality, diligence and their relationship to the emergence of capitalism.[17] While we are enjoying the expansion of wealth, the abolition of poverty and the freedom of the middle class, we pay a price in the violation of other biblical principles of stewardship, remaining debt-free and wealth for work (vs. creation of paper money). One of those costs is the increasing debt burden of New Zealanders. What is a Kingdom response?
One
model that breaks the power of debt in
A Kingdom of
Dignity
A second area of the Kingdom as response to postmodernity is in the redefinition of humanness. The Genesis account indicates that not only is the created world a reflection of a good creator, so too the creature is a reflection, a mirror of his goodness. Jesus discusses the infinite worth of a person when he queries the cost of a sparrow and the size of the hairs of our heads and tells us that our Heavenly Father cares for each of us more than these details.
Initially humanity was created in all the glory of God’s image. The image is replaced by a fallen and damaged image, like the grotesque shapes of the poverty-stricken faces of the slums. Yet humanness is restored to that image by the presence of his glory upon us. This comes from the transforming Holy Spirit (II Cor 3:18). This is the end goal of discipleship.
These Kingdom presuppositions are the basis of Christian engagement in the major debates of biotechnology and psychology. Let me relate two stories to illustrate this:
My
biochemist friend argues (while we watch our sons fight it out at soccer), that
based on modern project presuppositions after B. F. Skinner and Darwin,
humanity is simply a result of mechanistic process which include variations
because of probabilities. If so, then there is no justification for giving
people a sense of moral worth and dignity. There is no defence of innocent men
and women against those who would call for a higher purpose, a rabid
nationalism, a role for a super-race.
That
becomes the basis of a God-conversation with a psychologist at the other end of
the field — a simple query as to whether her search for understanding of
personality has led to the knowledge of the person behind the creatures.
No other philosophic or religious system beyond Christianity
has such a high view of man and woman, of the dignity and worth of man and
woman. They are defined not as an advanced evolutionary animal, but as created
(whether that be through intelligent intervention in an evolutionary process or
otherwise) by God, with a peculiar God-capacity. They are not simply an
extension of levels of life, but are vice-regents of the creator. A low view of
man or woman results in the hierarchical oppression and slavery in each of the
Hindu, Islamic or Buddhist societies with which I have dealt. While it is
difficult to indicate the relationship of ethical ideas and social changes
accurately, Mangalwadi has demonstrated in the Indian situation (1986; 1998;
1999) that where genuine Christianity
moves, the view of the dignity of man and woman results in a democratising of
social systems, in the uplift of women, in the abolition of oppression and
slavery.[18]
Without such a high view of humanness, there is no option for defence of the poor. Each one must look after himself, for survival of the fittest is survival of the human race. With such a high view of humanness, the affirming of the dignity of the poor and raising them from destitution becomes a source of our future and a centre of our purpose. This becomes the basis for social themes seeking to eliminate prostitution, slavery, workplace oppression, racial, sexual and political exploitation and affirm the dignity of committed marriage, democratic ideals and so on. Jesus tells us that all will know we are disciples because of our exercise of love.
Reviving the Corpse: Revitalisation of Postmodern Humanness
New understandings in a postmodern context, of the morality of creation, are determinative also of new understandings of the created being. Humanity has always been defined by its relationship to the creation that it is commanded to husband — “from dust we came, to dust we return” (Ecc 3:20). Discipleship can never be pursued independent of its economic dimensions.
While
God is our final environment, we can only know him in the spatial and temporal
forms of his creation (Dyrness, 1991(83):24).
The turning away from God by unemployed workers, dispossessed Maori tribes and affluent middle class Kiwis may all be seen as related to their alienation from their environment.[19]
Creating a new cultural value system involves the necessity for repeated restatement of the Kingdom values of humanity with soul, identity, meaning, accountability and an eternal future beyond being part of an evolutionary biology. In Paul Tournier’s phrase (1957), there needs to be a continuing public statement of the Meaning of Persons.
As described in the previous chapter, fundamental in the progression from collapsing modernism into postmodernism, is the anthropological redefinition, the remaking of modern technological machine person in a clockwork universe into postmodern being. The machine-mindedness of the modern industrial period has led to demoralisation and depersonalisation. In this vacuum of definition, Christians now have a season in which to redefine humankind beyond modernism’s machine.
Some say humanity died when its soul died, when God (Western
Christendom’s God?) died at the birth of the modern rationalist period. Nuttall
places God’s death between VE night and VJ night, between the dropping of the
bomb on
Values Renewal and Redefinition of Humanness
To what extent do the fruits of the
However, as indicated earlier, the significant dependence on the controls of the new experts, in the migration to Pentecostalism — those gifted with powerful sign gifts and the technique of success and the subsequent church growth institutionalisation — foreshadows a decrease in meaning. Narrow bibliolatry or fanaticism, rote liturgies of popular songs and sign-generating preachers served up in the weekly shows eventually result in disenfranchised believers without meaning.
The failure of Pentecostalism to develop a full-orbed biblical teaching on the nature of humanness can only lead to the death of being and meaning. In the failure of the movement to expand its life into culture transformation, eventually one sees the death of culture – unless the synergy of revival from other movements continues to renew. Pentecostal rejection of intellectual pursuit needs changing into an affirmation of Spirit-directed academic discipline. If not, Pentecostalism may be expected to have little long-term conversation about meaning in an increasingly meaningless, bored, suicidal city. The alternative, a more academic approach to postmodern emergent churches, is seen by some to provide an alternative model that has intellectual validity, as well as postmodern cultural relevance (Taylor, 2004; 2005).
On the other hand, beyond modern man and woman is another
dimension, postmodern cyborg. Rats with long ears and similar genetic selective
breeding experiments are now common in the
Frankl (1978) reflects on the uniqueness of humanity, which demands that life has meaning and purpose in an age of despair. The good news of a Kingdom of new humanity, in all its biblical comprehensiveness, provides that meaning.
The redefinition of personhood needs also be related to work and rest, for in the definition of the God-human axis, we are made in the image of the Worker who rested on the Sabbath. It has importance in the regaining of the meaning of “good work,” to use Schumacher’s phrase (1979). Without this teaching, life in an ambitious culture ceases to have meaning — except in production and consumption of goods. With this teaching, life is filled with the creativity, the artistry, the hospitality, the grandeur of the cultures of mankind. God, the worker in the creation story, becomes the worker reflected in our story.
This element of discipleship is the work of the Spirit.
Volf, disciple of Moltmann in his Work in
the Spirit (1991:113-122), suggests a pneumatological understanding of
work. In the Old Testament, the Spirit inspired craftsmen and gave
The
Kingdom of
Hope
and the New World Order
Discipleship also involves us in inverse politics. The
One is a Kingdom of this world, symbolised through the
Scriptures and in their great climax, as
The other is a Kingdom of the Spirit…
For the
Moltmann (1998) defines theology as Kingdom-of-God theology
and as Kingdom of God theology it has to be public theology. Rauschenbusch, in
his simple yet masterful analysis of Jesus’ understanding of the Kingdom,
relates it to social structure:
The
phrase, then, embodies the social ideal of the finest religious minds of a
unique people. The essential thing in it, is the projection into the future of
the demand for a just social order. The prophets looked to a direct miraculous
act of God to realise their vision, but they were in close touch with the facts
of political life and always demanded social action on the human side (Rauschenbusch,
1916: 57).
Yet he refuses to limit the Kingdom to social structure,
measuring the structures against the Kingdom not vice-versa. Along with a call
to fully evangelise the world and bring the peoples into the Kingdom, he
poetically called the educated of his day to full involvement in bringing existing
structures into line with the righteousness of the Kingdom:
A
collective moral ideal is a necessity for the individual and the race. Every
man must have a conscious determination to help in his own place to work out a
righteous social order for and with God…We must relate (our particular job) to
the supreme common task at which God and all good men are working (1916:77).
While Evangelicals are too rooted in an understanding of the
nature of sin to accept either Rauschenbusch’s (or Moltmann’s) hope-filled
progressive evolutionary view of the growth of the Kingdom and its transforming
of the societal structures of the earth,[21]
our role and call should not be dissimilar to that which he states — we are to
live as people of hope,[22]
which involves a discipling of the structures relating them to the demands of
the King. We should work with all our energy to see, “Thy kingdom come! Thy
will be done on earth as in heaven!” as much as is presently possible. This
should not only be in individual lives but in the social order of our nation
and globe. This is the content of preparation for the second coming, for this
gospel of the Kingdom must be preached to every people, not just as simple
“Four Spiritual Laws,”[23] and a
sinner’s prayer, but as the gospel of the King who fills all in all and is all
in all.
Rauschenbusch and the liberal social gospel may be considered as one of the final attempts to rejuvenate Western Christendom. However, postmodernism has moved into multi-religious cities and multi-ethnicity. Thus such an integrative vision as the Kingdom must grapple with its association with alternative visions within pluralistic urbanism (Mouw & Griffioen, 1993: 110-129). I suggest that the freedom and openness of the Kingdom along with Kingdom themes of reconciliation and servanthood, provide the widest metanarrative for moral dialogue and affirmation of commonalities. Humanism and rationalism pale into insignificance beside the grandeur and fullness of such themes and are unable at the end of debate to define common morality, for they lack the sacrificial motivation to service that is inherent in the cross.
Paul Hiebert, one of the world’s leading missionary
anthropologists, with years of interfacing Hindu and Christian worldviews, once
commented to me that in his studies on the options for approaching pluralism, a
Christian context of tolerance and freedom created a better environment for
harmony than the other major religious worldviews. Madood, a Muslim scholar,
also concludes that an established religion in Anglicanism in the
This appears also true when considering Hindu affirmation of plurality and its pain in caste differentials or Islamic demands for submission to Islamic law or secular frameworks within which it is difficult to deal well with differences in morality, ethics or religious values.
In general, within such a framework of Christian tolerance, clarity of our own beliefs makes dialogue easier. I conclude that the most loving option is to call the society to be faithful to the living God, while working hard to build public space for dialogue between ethnic-religious communities within a Christian framework of freedom and tolerance.[25]
From Fractured Stories to Kingdom Theologies
The above are complex theological reflections. As an
illustration of the use of the Kingdom at a grassroots level, I will now
consider the Kingdom as a theme to serve the business leaders in their
conversation about transforming
As I analyzed their stories it became apparent that little
forward development towards a collectively owned indigenous business theology
could occur without an acceptable theme. Fig. 3
shows the key themes of their grassroots conversations and biblical source. The
final column indicates ways these could be integrated within a Kingdom
framework. Such a framework provides the possibility of passing business values
by story from generation to generation of business leaders. Discussions with
several of the leaders at the time, received very positive responses as to this
being a way forward.
Fig.
3:
|
Business Conversation Themes |
The Businesspeople’s Biblical Conversation
Themes |
Their Biblical Sources |
|
|
Creativity |
Releasing full potential, human dignity |
Gen 1 |
Kingdom and humanness Kingdom and mustard seed and yeast (Matt 13:31-34) |
|
Productivity |
God made it
fruitful |
Gen 1; John 15:7,16 |
Kingdom economic principles (Matt 18:23-35: 20:1-16; 21:28-31; 21:33-44) Parable of the sower of the seed of the Kingdom (Matt 13:1-23) Parable of sheep and goats - caring for poor (Matt 25:31-46) Rich man and the Kingdom (Matt 19:23-26) |
|
People-centred management |
Loving relationships |
I Cor 13, I John 4:7-21 I John 1:-10 |
Kingdom social principles Love as great commandment (Matt 22:32-40) Kingdom theology of work |
|
Ethics in business |
Integrity,
financial honesty |
|
The King as supreme sustainer Kingdom & faithfulness (Matt 25:1-13; 25:14-30) Kingdom and social order (Matt 22:2-14) |
|
Struggle against business ups and downs |
Spiritual
warfare |
Eph 6:10-20 |
Kingdoms in conflict (Matt 16:19) Kingdom and mustard seed and yeast (Matt 13:31-34) |
|
Handling power plays |
Sovereignty of
God |
Psalms |
Kingdom leadership (Matt18:1-4: 20:1-16, 21; 23:1-14) |
|
Positive mental attitude |
Problems as
opportunities for faith and prayer |
I Cor 1:20-25 |
Kingdom and mustard seed and yeast (Matt 13:31-34) The Spirit and the Kingdom |
|
Career commitment |
Business as a vocation |
|
Kingdom and hiring workers (Matt 20: 1-16) |
|
Mentoring |
Discipleship |
II Tim 2:2-6 |
Discipleship as response to King |
|
Responsible economic policy and structures |
Prophetic voice to the economic powers |
Eph 6:10-20 |
|
Fig. 3 shows a correlation between the ad hoc business theologies of Chapter 14, their sources and the theme of the Kingdom. This shows both the spread of theologies involved (from only a sample of 11 businesspeople) and demonstrates the comprehensives of the Kingdom as an integrating and interpretive framework.
Conclusion: Hope Beyond Postmodernity’s Fractures
In this chapter, I have completed the transformational
conversation concerning goals of
transformative revival, glimpsing the hopes of a cultural revitalisation in
response to the presence of the Spirit in the city. The holistic Kingdom
provides a framework for goals that will reintegrate city culture beyond the
fracturing of postmodernism. In responding to the loss of the metanarratives of
modernism, it provides a powerful metanarrative around which
Transformative revival and the material (Fig. 4:I): The personality of God, as both independent creator of the material world and one whose life is all in all, is the basis for understanding the moral nature of the universe, in contrast to postmodern death of inanimate, mechanistic materialism. The nature of the trinity as source of productivity enjoins cooperative economics, while his creativity is the basis of entrepreneurial expansion and technological innovation. The elements of rejection of materialism and greed, choices for simplicity and redistribution, delimit the acquisitive possibilities of such creative productivity.
Kingdom and our humanity (Fig. 4:II): The nature of our humanity as reflective of his image leads to dignity and worth in the context of loss of meaning in a DNA-defined evolutionary environment of cyborgs and mechanistic McDonaldisation. It becomes the basis of community and of defence of the poor and marginalised against the survival of the fittest.
Kingdom and the social order (Fig. 4:III): The nature of the Kingdom as source of social order contrasts with the spirit of the emergent New World Order of oppression, exploitation and global domination of indigenous cultures. It creates space for pluralism with morality in the public domain, defending marginalised and oppressed cultures. It is a movement of people separated from greed, immorality, the passion for power and resistant to governmental intrusion and abuse.
Kingdom and coherence (Fig. 4: IV): The Kingdom integrates, bringing coherence, meaning, hope and an understanding of truth.
I have anchored this discussion showing the relationship of Kingdom themes to the issues of the business sector of the city, demonstrating the nature of the Kingdom as an integrating theme that enables transferral of business cultural values from generation to generation.
From Revival to Hope
This culminates the discussion of Part 3, in its search for end goals of transformative revival in the postmodern city. As those touched by the Spirit in revival (phases 1-3), engage the culture in multiple sectors (Phase 4) in transformative revival, conversing about a Kingdom and City of God that transform economics, politics and social life, a cultural revitalisation may be triggered (Phase 5) and the city rapidly respond so that the hovering Spirit of God has freedom to create a good city.
In Part 3, in an interplay between cultural studies and
theology, some underlying ideals for
Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 summarize the main themes, some of the modern/ postmodern characteristics they converse with from previous chapters and the necessary Kingdom lifestyle needed to engage these issues. The diagram illustrates elements of postmodernism. I could describe these more exactly, but these figures are intended to replace a few thousand words. The objective has been to define the framework rather than all its details.
Addenda: Missiological Action Steps
But some would wish for specific action steps as well. This study has included strategic proposals throughout, particularly in Error! Reference source not found.. Some major steps implied in this study include:
1. Extensive training of Pentecostal and Evangelical leadership in theology and practice of transformative revival. The genesis of a new prayer movement nationally is crucial for this.
2. Popular dissemination of the theology of the socio-economic-political Kingdom and how it engages the culture.
3. The multiplication of forums, think tanks and publications that enable discussion between the experts in each sector of society with theological perspectives. Eventually these to become a network of graduate level institutes, based on storytelling, with ongoing missiological dynamics.
4. These need to identify and build alliances within Catholicism and at times with other faiths and among wise secularists in societal leadership.
5. I would suggest the following priorities might be considered:
a. The analysis of postmodernism indicates media as the new institutional carriers of postmodern culture. Evangelicals have already significantly penetrated the music industry, but such leaders need training in Kingdom perspectives.
b. Expanding training and placement of Christians in TV and print media is a high priority. This is particularly true to effect a change in disinformation about relevance of Christianity and the importance of marital faithfulness.
c. A critical issue that needs public confrontation is the abuse of power by the recent governments seen in failures to listen to the voice of the people on moral issues, the imposition of a moral agenda that violates historic cultural norms, Christian morals and the mores of migrants from traditional societies.
d. I have indicated a number of economic areas, where several larger Pentecostal churches have moved away from Kingdom understandings. Rethinking economics from classical church teaching on equity, wealth creation (vs the myth of wealth creation = wealth concentration), dealing with ecology, the domination of technology on personhood, rest and work, greed in societal structures, etc. and then working with Catholic and mainline Protestant thinkers to bring these biblical principles into the cultural mindset and government is a crucial agenda.
e. Recreating a national core for new waves of revival across the denominations: among Pentecostals in defusing centralisation of pastoral power, confronting the prosperity gospel and expanding understanding of transformative revival; in the declining Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican denominations at a level of reinventing the training of pastors and lay leadership; and among Baptists and other Evangelicals in a return to a confessional small group movement.
