WHy is it that we always assume that whatever is new is better? THis is something common in the culture in which we live. But as I live in a life of Christian ministry, I find that we so easily get sucked into the same mentality in the church, at the great expence. We are called to right living and cultural relevance, but the newness of the latest and greatest often begins to erode away our conviction and solidarity on Othrodoxy more than we realize.
It happens all to often, that someone will come up with a new idea (which in itself may not be new, simply a repackaged one), and claim that they have finally found "the way", "this must be it!", they shout, and then we must to start a revolution in order to change things. "Throw it all out, start again" they say. The truth is often, that they simply do not know their history and do not understand scripture. Solomon very clearly says, " there is nothing new under the sun." But Further, since when has the Biblical concept of redemption involved through out the old and starting again? That was never God's plan. His plan has always been working for the inside to change, to redeem, life for his people. This is why Jesus came and was incarnate. He did not one day say, "oh Shoot, everyone is horribly sinful, hey Dad lets just start again." He came to earth, drew us, sinful people, to himself and transformed us, through his spirit and his grace.
My point, I suppose, is simply to say, there is nothing new in the realm of Christian thought and practice, just repackaging (this does have value, but more about that later). Be very sceptical of anyone who tells you that everything that came before is crap, and we have to start over because they have finally got it!
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Dear WAYward one,
It's simultaneously fascinating & frightening to wake up and find ourselves so far downstream in the "American Experiment". If I'm following your line of thinking...allow me to provide a very cursory analysis.
Our Republic was embryonic at a point in the stream of philosophic history when questions about truth and God and, thus, human nature were being answered with a confidence derived from a new authority: namely human reason. Prior to this point in history, authority came from elsewhere. The Enlightenment asserted that human reason possessed the ability to comprehend answers to great questions (pertaining to truth, God and man)beginning from particulars and first principles. Human reason has been seated in the throne of Authority ever since.
So, for example, if we want to understand something universally true about, say, squirrels then we study many, many particular squirrels to determine the essence of squirrelness...fuzzy tails, nests, diet, etc. Enlightenment thinkers reasoned that a similar sort of method could apply to truth, God and man.
America was founded with a spirit and confidence that the New World civilization would begin anew on original principles dictated by the new occupant on the throne of Authority, human reason. Old World ways and institutions were to be re-built or, in some cases, disposed.
Our American fascination with novelty and ingenuity began even when our Puritan forefather John Winthrop anticipated that they were establishing "a city on a hill". He believed that the eyes of the world were watching to see if the New Jerusalem could indeed succeed. If they failed, he was convinced they would have failed God. It was "An Errand into the Wilderness" and the second and third generation Puritans felt the failure once they began to encounter the same problems they thought had been left behind in the Old World.
Later Christians maintained similar millenial hopes. Some historians of the period have commented that the Enlightenment thinkers wanted to salvage the hope for a "New Order" from the failure of the Calvinists. They tended to see the failure in the Calvinist view of "total depravity"; man steeped in original sin and in need of a Savior. So did other Christians.
These secular Hopefuls turned inward; inward into the nature of Man to find the answer. The religious camp similarly directed their hope inward under the auspices of "revival". Revival camps sprung up by the thousands across the new American wilderness, primarily in Kentucky and the south. The transition could be literally seen to move from the preaching of the Word of God in the pulpit to the spontaneous impulses of the camp meeting crowd. The circuit preacher was notorious for working crowds into a frenzy. This sentiment is still with us today in many circles.
Not only had the American Revolution granted individual man political liberty from the tyranny of monarchs but now man was free to to be guided by "revival"; to be moved directly by the "Holy Spirit" apart from the official approval of the Church. It was a new kind of religious liberty and it took off like wildfire.
Well, that wasn't such a short analysis but all one has to do is see that "The Conversation" within the Christian community is being driven by publishing houses. Zondervan simply looks for new material that can be marketed to a historically- and theologically-illiterate consumer.
Oh, throwing out the past and turning our hope to the innovative spirit of the New World helped to create this illiteracy. History and theology were not as valuable as long as we had our intrinsic human reason and human innocence.
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