Poythress Redeeming Sociology

A God-Centered Approach
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4335-2132-4
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 352 Seiten

Interpersonal relationships are possible for humans because we are created in the image of a Trinitarian God. But if the Trinity is our model for relationships, why is the human condition rife with pain and evil? How are we to think correctly about fallen human relationships and our models for understanding them?  Redeeming Sociology advocates a biblically informed model for human relationships-relationships rooted in the Trinitarian character of God, his governance of the world, and his redemption accomplished in Christ. Poythress examines how the breaking of relationships through sin leads to strife, murder, and oppression among human beings and sets cultures against one another. And he shows how these broken relationships are restored through the outworking of redemption in Christ. Though typical sociological models for interpersonal relationships may offer some valuable insights, they are handicapped by a fundamental misunderstanding of humanity. The biblical model that Poythress presents correctly diagnoses the problem of human relationships, so it can likewise prescribe a biblical solution that infuses new meaning and power into how we relate to others made in the image of God.    

Vern S. Poythress (PhD, Harvard University; ThD, University of Stellenbosch) is Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Biblical Interpretation, and Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he has taught for four decades. In addition to earning six academic degrees, he is the author of numerous books and articles on biblical interpretation, language, and science.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Poythress, Vern S.

Leseproben

PREFACE

Why Relationships?

Why a book about social relationships? We can find books with advice about devotional life, marriage, friendships, romance, and child rearing. We can also find books about large-scale social issues such as poverty, economics, politics, and law. Some of these are solidly based on the Bible. Because the Bible is God’s own word, it provides us with guidance in all these areas. The advice from these books may be wise, but as some of the books would themselves admit, mere advice is not enough. We need God’s power, provided in Christ. We need fellowship with him. And we need a whole view of the world in which God is our God and is the most important and valued person in our life.

The Challenge of a Modern Worldview

A modern secular world presses in on us. If we listen to it and absorb too much of its message, we neglect to make God central. We think and act in relationships as if they were independent of God. Modern, secular thinking masters our minds instead of Christ being the Master in all areas of our life.

So we need to have a biblically based worldview that includes a sound view of our relationships. I want us to rethink the of our relationships, and not just to offer advice or a superficial tour of those relationships. God is the Creator of the whole world in all its dimensions. He has established his own wise order for our relationships. His order and his presence are essential to life and to relationships. We need to learn how to praise God for the world of relationships that he has given us.

Linguistic and Sociological Study of the Bible

I have a second reason for considering relationships. In the last few decades, academic study of the Bible has come to include a significant body of studies using linguistic and sociological approaches. The Society of Biblical Literature, a major academic society for studying the Bible, has several “Program Units” or sections devoted to linguistic and sociological studies. In fact, linguistics and sociology and social anthropology are beginning to influence biblical studies far more broadly than just in those studies that self-consciously adopt their techniques.

In principle, these studies could make a helpful contribution. The Bible is written in language, and so linguistics is pertinent. The Bible is written to people living in particular cultural settings, and so social and cultural thinking are pertinent.

But linguistic and sociological approaches inevitably come with assumptions. Often, these assumptions are influenced by a secular view of science. According to this view, the task of science is to observe and analyze phenomena “objectively,” without making religious assumptions. In the process, scientists begin to assume that God can be left out of their reckoning. If God is left out, sin is left out. And if God and sin are left out of the reckoning at the beginning, in the foundations of an academic discipline, they may be also left out at the end, in the theories and the conclusions. Or if God is not left out altogether, the god who gets brought in is not really the God described in the Bible, but a limited, tamed-down substitute.

How is God left out? Language is treated as purely human language, with God excluded from being an essential participant in the use of language. Society is treated as purely human society, with God as a person excluded from it. So sin and its effects have to be redefined, and then the remedy for sin has to be redefined.

Sin laces language with deceit and laces society with oppression and suffering. If God is not the remedy, what is? People have tried all kinds of alternatives. One possible alternative says that rather than sin being the problem, some structure in language or society or both imprisons us and keeps us from authentic living. And there is a grain of truth in what they say, since language and society, and not merely individuals, show effects from sin. These effects of sin bring untold suffering and damage, and press the lives of human beings more deeply into misery and sin.

Even our about society becomes distorted when we lose God’s illumination about our plight. For example, people may say that we cannot escape from language in order to think and see and talk about the world outside of the limitations and social effects of a language that we have inherited from our forebears. Neither can we escape from society and culture in order to think and see the world of human beings from outside the prejudices that culture has transmitted to us. In both language and culture we are trapped by the limits of our humanity. In this view, the basic problem is no longer sin but being finite (being human). And indeed being finite a problem, but only when you are alienated from God who is infinite.

When people apply this view to studying the Bible, they may easily conclude that the Bible is imprisoned by the languages and cultures of its origin. Some

people may still want to say that God speaks in the Bible in some sense. But they would claim that God limits himself, and his speech never rises above the prison of the cultures in which it originated. People who think in this way radically restrict the Bible’s power to speak in criticism of our lives and our cultures.

How do we deal with possible biases introduced from linguistics and sociology? The task is not easy. In the end, we have to rethink all of linguistics and all of sociology, because foundational assumptions about the nature of the world and the nature of humanity and the causes of human disorders affect the disciplines as a whole. Because linguistics and sociology and our modern world are heavily influenced by natural sciences, the same concerns arise with respect to natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, and biology.

My Role

How do I fit in with these concerns? I have spent most of my career teaching New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. I have had the privilege of studying the Bible intensely. But now I find that such study can be disrupted and distorted by assumptions that are alien to the character of the Bible and to the God who inspired its writing. These alien assumptions sometimes come from natural science, linguistics, or sociology. To have a healthy study of the Bible, we need also a healthy understanding in other areas affecting the study of the Bible. But to have a healthy view of any area of our lives, we need to receive the healthy instruction of the Bible and apply it to that area.

And so I have looked to the instruction in the Bible and thought about its implications for various areas of life. I have then found myself writing books that venture out into these areas in the modern world, and especially into areas that today affect the study of the Bible directly or indirectly. I write in order to stimulate the reconfiguration and transformation of our worldview.

The Bible gives us instruction and power that enable us to undertake this transformation. The Bible transforms the way we ought to think about and conduct natural sciences, as I have tried to show in (2006). It transforms the way we think about language, as I have tried to show in the book (2009). It transforms the way we think about society, culture, and relationships, as I try to show in this present book. This book is therefore a sister to the book on language (). It is more like a daughter or a niece to the one about science, since social sciences and natural sciences confront somewhat different challenges.

Abraham Kuyper’s Vision

The Bible’s instruction has a unique role, because it is the word of God. But I have also been encouraged by a secondary source, namely Abraham Kuyper’s book .1 Abraham Kuyper observed that according to the Bible Jesus Christ is Lord—Ruler and King of the entire universe (Eph. 1:20–22; Phil. 2:9–11). His lordship and authority extend to every sphere of life. In his book Kuyper accordingly devoted a chapter each to religion, politics, science, and art. Christ, he claimed, is Lord over all these areas.

Kuyper also believed that the fall into sin made a difference. Ever since the fall, our lives and our thinking have been in disorder and rebellion. This rebellion works its way not only into religion, but also into politics, science, art, and other spheres. The Christian, who has been redeemed by Christ and has committed himself to be a follower of Christ, must loyally follow Christ in every sphere of life: religion and politics and science and art alike. Thinking in these spheres has been corrupted by sin and accordingly must be transformed. Kuyper thought that such transformation had not yet been adequately done.

In the generations after Kuyper a number of people took up Kuyper’s challenge. They worked at transformation of thought. Advances took place. But along with the advances came some misjudgments, in my opinion. So work still needs to be done. And that is why I am writing. Reflection needs to continue in the natural sciences and in linguistics ...