The DEMANDING Word of God

The Word of God will not be content to be just one word among many. "So says the Lord...," must the only word, the defining word, the word which clarifies the world to us and us to ourselves.

Erich Auerbach writes thusly:

The world of the Scripture stories is not satisfied with claiming to be a historically true reality--it insists that it is the only real world.... Al other scenes, issues, and ordinances have nor right to appear independently of it, and it is promised that all of them, the history of all mankind, will be given their due place within its frame, will be subordinated to it. The Scripture stories do not, like Homer's court our favor, they do not flatter us that they may please us and enchant us--they seek to subject us, and if we refuse to be subjected we are rebels.

Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature

Erich Auerbach

Princeton University Press; 50 Anv edition (April 7, 2003)

http://www.amazon.com/Mimesis-Representation-Reality-Western-Literature/dp/069111336X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

"No such thing as Christian Ethics!"

So says Dietrich Bonhoeffer according to Thomas Pearson.

who posts a well argued and researched paper on the subject at the

Journal of Lutheran Ethics.

"Bonhoeffer and the End of Christian Ethics"

Especially apropos to our current situation in the ELCA is the following paragraph found near the end which turns the ELCA's current fascination with being "communities of moral deliberation" into further evidence that it is becoming less and less a church called into existence by the Word of God and more and more a social club with illusions of holiness sustained by its own busy-ness.

24] And Bonhoeffer would be likely bemused to hear a proposal that the Church should be "a community of moral deliberation." There are many venues in the secular world that might well serve as centers for moral deliberation - institutions, professions, community organizations, among others. But why the Church? Given Bonhoeffer's singular vision of the Christian Church as stripped of any pretense to ethical or religious expertise - or expertise of any kind - it would seem that the Church might be the last place to look for moral deliberation. Like the stricken hearers of Peter's speech in Acts 2, however, the Church seems forever obsessed with finding something productive to do. Ethics is a serious subject in our culture, even if more often observed in the breach. So the Church is regularly tempted to deflect its gaze from the center of its life, and to take up those matters which will keep it busy, including moral deliberation. In so doing, we squander our freedom. Bonhoeffer would have none of it. Bonhoeffer's last months at Tegel were not filled with ethical fulminations against an oppressive political regime that had abandoned all pretense of seeking justice. There is very little indication in his final letters that he was engaged in standard moral deliberation, of discerning causes or proposing solutions. Instead, he engaged in praying, preaching and pastoral ministry, those actions of ultimate significance for the Church, carried out in the midst of an extreme attenuation of the penultimate: a manifestation of his Christian freedom. Bonhoeffer was by that time quite starkly beyond good and evil, beyond "religion," where the cross of Christ was the only living icon for those who must surely die. In our day, as the Church faces its peculiar trials in a world pious but no longer religious, it is likely he would encourage us to do the same.

Question on Performative Language

Tim. Thanks for your excellent comments. For some reason I cannot post on my site, so I am responding here.

The question I have relates to the distinction between the being of the Word, the knowing of the Word, and what the Word does. What exactly is this relationship? Does what the Word does determine the being of the Word, or simply our knowing of it?

Even if we know the answer to this, however, we are still faced with the question of the identity conditions of what the Word does. How exactly do we know that life is communicated by the Word, (in spite of the fact of death), when we cannot know what would count as the ontological contour of such life? What does it mean exactly for the Word to do?

Sometimes things are very obvious until we start to think about them really hard. If I cannot specify the precise conditions under which life and forgiveness are decidedly not communicated, how can I know for sure when they are? This is a general problem for all who want to think deeply about the hidden nature of faith and salvation.

Dennis

Thanks for your excellent post!

The Contender

The funeral sermon preached for Charles Aasen who contended for the joys of married, family, and civic identity but could not contend for victory over the devil, the world and our sinful selves. Against that triumvirate of evil Christ is the ONLY contender and he has already won the victory! March 18, 2010 in Trinity Lutheran Church of Alexander, North Dakota

The text of this sermon can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=376997949705

Signum Philosophicum

I am seeking to understand more clearly the common claim that theological language must be understood primarily donationally, a view espoused paradigmatically by Ebeling and adopted in the tradition of hermeneutical theology. In the following post I am responding specifically to Bayer who connects the claim to Austin's use of a performative utterance. See here. I am, as always, deeply interested in theological conversation.

A Tale of Two Siblings

A profligate father, two greedy sons, an unmentioned community, one preacher, and a sacramental fatted calf comprise this parable's cast. The world with all its prodigal younger sons; the world with all its begrudging elder sons; the world with all its skeptical and necessarily protective communities will be reconciled to the Father by the sacrifice of Christ. Delivered at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, El Paso, TX on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 by the Reverend Timothy J. Swenson.

The text for this sermon can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=355589409705

Salvation Insurance? No, Thank You!

The Third Sunday of Lent C March 7, 2010 Wilmington & Trinity Lutheran Churches Arnegard & Alexander, North Dakota The fig tree (and those Pharisees and Sadducees) die particularly from being unfruitful, unproductive. Makes you want to get out your yield calculator, doesnt it? Figure out your fruit per hour, see how that measures up? Has your life yielded enough fruit to make it on your own, or will you have to file for salvation insurance? Sadly enough, thats the way a goodly number of those who call themselves Christian treat our Lord Jesus Christ: salvation insurance. Isaiah 55:1-9 Psalm 63:1-8 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Luke 13:1-13

The Sermon Text can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=347404189705