Scot McKnight: July 2008 Archives

In the book The Consolations of Theology we are treated to a series of essays into various emotions and conditions, and Peter Bolt examines anxiety. Here's how he defines anxiety: "that feeling of apprehension and dread that comes with the perception that something bad might happen" (75).

How important is the concept of anxiety for your life and thinking and ministry? How do you deal with anxiety? How do we approach this issue -- through psychotherapy? through theology? through an attentive awareness of both?

Two points: first, I'm not so sure this is the best way to define anxiety for this definition of Bolt's is closer to worry than to panic (and this definition wavers over that line) but, second, this definition is so greatly expanded and adjusted in this chp that the definition simply serves to get us going. And get us going is what Bolt does.

He discusses the ages of anxiety, and just about loops all of history into an age of anxiety -- and by the end of the chp he has done just that. This is a big point in this chp: anxiety impacts the whole human condition. I think we have to be careful not to overdo it -- which is just what that introspective, melancholic Dane, Kierkegaard did. Before we get to him, though, Bolt guides us through a short study of "anxiety" in the NT. So we look at Matt 6:25-34 and some at 1 Cor 7:32-34. Then he shifts to good anxiety of Paul the apostle (2 Cor 11:28).

This leads to his discussion of Kierkegaard, who not only was personally swamped at times in existential anxiety, but wrote about it: The Concept of Anxiety is a famous book. And Bolt has a nice analysis of the themes:

1. Anxiety defined: it arises from the human act of becoming spirit (this is important to Bolt's description), the ultimate aim of all humans. Thus, anxiety arises from the very human experience of freedom -- hence, we are all in a condition of anxiety. The key to Kierkegaard is that so much is filtered through this term "anxiety" that it becomes code for a set of ideas surrounding what it means to be human, in this cracked world, as we live before God and with others.

2. Anxiety is connected to original sin: "Sin originates in a leap of freedom from innocence to guilt, under an awakened dread [=anxiety]" (91).

3. Objective anxiety: our mortal bodies, fear of death, a drive toward sin.

4. Subjective anxiety: "the dizziness of freedom."

5. But it is necessary in order to be human in this world as we live before God with others.

6. Anxiety is about evil and about good.

7. And anxiety prompts faith.

Bolt then turns to the consolation of anxiety:

1. This is the age of anxiety.
2. This is the age of the Messiah who guides us through anxiety into love of God and others.
3. This is the age of anxious longing for the redemption of our bodies.

Kris and I sat down the other night to watch Rob Bell's DVD called The Gods Aren't Angry. My question: What do you think of it? Did any of you see this live and have a response?

Here are some highlights for me: first, it's almost a history -- a brief one no doubt -- of the human attempt to appease the gods through sacrifice, bargaining, pleading, and manipulating. The big message is that God is satisfied with the sacrifice in Christ, a sacrifice that deconstructed all sacrifices. We can rest in the redemptive act of God in Jesus Christ. The 90 or so minute message ends with some excellent stories of how this pleading is present and can be resolved in our world.

The altar in the middle of the stage reminded me of the altars I've seen in Pompei and Ostia antica. I took long looks at those altars, working my imagination up to envision what it was like, but I also had to maintain distance from those who were listening to tour guides.

I saw the presentation as a kind of flip image of Yancey's stuff on God's grace. Instead of coming at this from the angle of God's goodness and grace, Rob Bell comes at it from the angle of the futility of human attempts to control the forces and gods out there.

Because of my own study of atonement, I kept waiting for Rob to come forth with a theory of atonement but he didn't, though I did hear at times a little Girard -- the ending of all violence against scapegoats -- and even Anselm, who famously emphasized the idea that God's justice and honor were satisfied by the death and resurrection of Christ, the God-Man.

Paul can say he saw a light flash from "heaven" in Acts 9:3, and probably just mean "up" or "in the skies." But, Peter's observations about his vision open up the heavens for us:

Acts 10:9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.”

Acts 11:9 But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 10 This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven.

First, heaven is surely "up" here and surely the dwelling place of God, but it is the place out of which revelations are made or from which revelations drop into this world.
Second, hence we are led to think of heaven as, in part, the place of mysteries -- where they are stored and from which place they are released for human gaze and back into which they are sent.
Third, the expansion of Israel to the Gentiles in mission seems to need special divine authorization to propel folks like Peter and others out.
Fourth, the expansion of Peter's diet -- kosher food laws -- also needed a revelation from on high.

So how does a biblical view of monotheism -- that YHWH is the one and only God -- and this God's mission to make himself known throughout the world, especially in Jesus Christ, lead to a missional understanding of the Bible? This is what Chris Wright discusses in the last part of 4 in his book The Mission of God. Or put a little more clearly: How is biblical monotheism missional? A good question for your cup of coffee or for a chat with a friend. So, put away the little thingies in your ears from your iPod and ponder this question with us.

The first thing to observe is that a biblical sense of mission is driven by God's will to be known; or put from the other angle, a biblical monotheism is one in which that God wants to be known throughout the world. Here is a principle text, Psalm 22:27-31:

All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn—
for he has done it.

Which means three things:

a. The good of creation depends on humanity knowing God.
b. The good of creation comes from humanity knowing the biblical God.
c. God's will to be known is the mainspring of our mission to make God known.

Second, biblical monotheism involves a constant christological struggle. The Bible reveals a battlefield. The claim that God reveals himself in Jesus continues the struggle we find in the Bible with other gods and it also reveals a God who is unique.

Third, biblical monotheism leads to praise and praise leads to mission. The Psalms are filled with the summons for others to worship the God of Israel, and to say that God reveals himself in Jesus is to say that this God of Israel is revealed in Jesus -- and that means worship of that God leads to worship through and of Jesus.

Biblical monotheism finds a beautiful expression in Psalm 96:

1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his [fn1] holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
12 let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
13 they will sing before the Lord, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his truth.

The good folks at One Village Coffee, ahem Mike Manney, sent me a package of one of my favorite coffees in the world -- and it is ecological, environmental and all that -- Colombia. Colombia has a wonderful crema, a nice aroma, and it is creamy smooth in drinking. I'm hoping that more and more stores in the Philly area are selling it, that some churches will partner with One Village, and that this coffee spreads its goodness. Grind some beans and tamp it down and your espresso machine will serve you up a fine cup of coffee.