Reading Response 3
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Reading Response 3 Globalization of the Christian faith seems like an evangelical dream. It is a part of Guinness’s three main factors that will shape our future world. To be exact, Guinness claims the first main factor, for the church, that will shape our future world is to understand that the world is truly global. Christians must understand and know how to react to the changing world around them. Globalization allows for many other cultures to see Jesus Christ as all our Messiah, but there are challenges that comes with globalization. This leads to Guinness’s second factor: the Christian church, must hold a high integrity, while demonstrating an effective faith by not being subjected to other cultures. The result of globalization has been to admire other cultures, but it has turned into uniformity and sameness across cultures. The result of globalization has thrown away Christian relativism. Guinness understands and sees the challenges the Christian church has and will face. He urges the Christian church to have the integrity to understand and accept the challenges with globalization. As well to be able to escape cultural captivity and prevail under the conditions of advance modernity. This means that Heaven is the one that rules. Guinness states the third factor is to know that God is and has been sovereign over the course of history and during the rise and fall of powers. The future does not lie with one man or nations, because we have seen many empires and cultures rise and fall. We do not know what the final factor is for the future, but we know the future “…lies in God’s good, strong hands.” (Guinness 2014).
The Church has shifted to represent the heart of the crisis of advance modernity through three key effects. This means, advance modernity has caused changes in the church, and these are the effects: One, the church shifted from an integrated faith to a fragmented faith. Second, the
church shifted from a stance under authority to a stance of preferences. Third, the church shifted
form a supernatural sense of reality to a purely secular perspective. A fragmented church was led
to many people believing and seeing base differences in the church. To where now, not only does a single person choose their denomination, as if there is a base difference in the religion, but
churches are adapting to preference. Who gave the church authority to choose what scripture to follow and what not to follow?
Guinness claims that the Christian faith is not necessary for building culture. There have been countless cultures who do not have faith in Jesus Christ to show that. However, does a culture need the Christian faith to be good? Some of the greatest cultures and civilizations did not express the Christian faith like Egyptian, Babylonian, Indian, Chinese, Mayan, Grecia, Roman, and Arabian. Guinness continues to explain and ask the question “Can someone be good
without God?” Most people can recognize that many people are good without God, similarly cultures and civilizations can be good without God. However, like every culture and civilization without God, including the western civilization, cultures will fall if they reject the Christian faith.
The Christian faith is a cornerstone for civilizations to become great. Guinness discusses how the west has ingrained the Christian trait of giving and caring into our culture that is unmatched in any other civilization in history. Even the Greeks and Romans do not offer what the West does. Guinness continues to explain that even universities, that represent one of the most powerful institutions today, have derived from Christianity with the cathedral schools in the
late medieval world. Christianity has also laid the foundation of modern science, which along with capitalism and technology, is revolutionizing the global world. Guinness explains that scholars like Alfred North Whitehead have argues that modern science was a fruit of the Reformation and its worldview. A fourth reason why the Christian faith is undeniably linked to
the making of a great civilization is Christianity is the “…pioneer and champion of human dignity, human rights and the entire human rights revolution…” (Guinness 2014) Human rights cannot be traced down to other religions, ideologies, or even the Enlightenment, but the Christian faith has provided all of these and have shined through many good civilizations.
God is the one who knows all and has created us in his image. We must understand that we are the “wisdom under the sun” and there are rules with that. The first piece of “wisdom under the sun” that Guinness describes is the ideas of leaders always surpass those of followers. It does not matter how one became a leader, but they are simply a leader because others follow them. However, the key principle is that the Holy Spirit is the true one that leads. The second piece is ideas are more powerful when told at the center of a society rather than told on the outside or to a small piece of a society. An example is a cultural center. A key principle that coincides with the second piece is that God works in surprising reversals. The third piece is ideas
spread best through networks than an individual or institutions. Examples are the twelve apostles, they Whitehouse, or any other network. We must understand that cultural change is a by-product of faithful Christian living.
Guinness describes the greatest enemies of the Western Church as not any state or ideology (atheism), but rather the world and the spirit of the age. The spirit of the age ideologies and beliefs that are practiced during a certain cultural moment that are used to interpret the word of God. The world changes every day, along with its new cultural traditions. This could be an issue because as we grow up in culture, it is important that we follow the life of Christ and not confuse it within culture. Connecting to culture, but not catering to culture, is important for Christians. Guinness claims, those who are faithful in each tradition are closer to be faithful in
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other traditions than to the liberal revisionists. This means, the closer we are to Jesus, the less significant the labels are that once divided us (Guinness 2014).
Going with liberal revisionist tendency will cause losses. The first loss is a loss of authority. The second loss is the loss of community and continuity. The Third loss is the loss of stability. Dean Inge’s apt phrase is an example of someone who marries the spirit of the age will become a widower. This means if someone adopts the values and practices of a given cultural moment and begin to identify Christian faith with it, they will lose touch with following generations values and practices. The Fourth loss is the loss of credibility, meaning there is nothing decisive about Christianity, but the skeptic makes faith what he wants. The fifth and final loss is the loss of identity, meaning faith defers from its course following Jesus. We should not lose our way of faith to cultural relevancy but rather remain thoughtful about how we can connect to culture. Otherwise, we are simply following Kierkegaard’s notion of “kissing Judases” by betraying Jesus with interpretations.
Guinness claims that privatizing faith causes faith to lose “integrity” and making it publicly “irrelevant”. He claims that using faith to express political points loses its independence.
How do we keep an independent and personal relationship with God and not keep faith private? As for politics, Guinness explains that evangelizing under politics does only bad and we should not indulge because our duty is not aligned with any party or ideology. Outside of politics, Guinness states that the publicity of our faith should extend through an invitation, with a basis of
“We speak only for ourselves, yet not only to ourselves.” Which Guinness urges Christians to consider that affirmation so we can invite all Christians, citizens, and people of other faiths into ours.