Of measures & metres

A quick bit of whimsy ahead of a more substantial post.  I’ve been reading ‘Hard Times’ by Dickens which is something of a polemic against a school of thought that attempts to encompass and describe the whole of human existence in facts – measurements and observations without sentiment.  Of the main proponent in the novel, Dickens says this:

In gauging fathomless deeps with his little mean excise-rod, and in staggering over the universe with his rusty stiff-legged compass, he had meant to do great things. Within the limits of his short tether he had stumbled about, annihilating the flowers of existence with greater singleness of purpose than many of the blatant personages whose company he kept.

Dickens summarises:

It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do; but, not all the calculators of the National Debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice, or the reverse, at any single moment in the soul of one of these its quiet servants, with the composed faces and the regulated actions.

Which is why one of the characters in the books finds this approach so offensive:

Most o’ aw, rating [people] as so much Power, and reg’latin ’em as if they was figures in a soom, or machines!  wi’out loves and likens, wi’out memories and inclinations, wi’out souls to weary and souls to hope – when aw goes quiet, draggin’ on wi’ ’em as if they’d nowt o’ th’ kind, and when aw goes onquiet, reproaching ’em for their want o’ stitch humanly feelins in their dealins wi’ yo – this will never do ‘t, sir, till God’s work is onmade.

A few observations:

1 – A warning against trying to quantify, predict, and measure everything, especially human relationships, especially, above all else, especially God.  “For who has known the mind of the Lord,or vwho has been his counselor?” (Rom 11:34)

2 – A lot of people I suspect feel like the character of the 3rd quote – profoundly dehumanised by society. We have a gospel which speaks of broken sinners humanised, of rebirth and recreation, and adoption into God’s family, restored to bear God’s image by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. We can offer people a family, a home and a role in God’s kingdom. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (Rom 1:16)

3 – We must listen to people, both non-Christians and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, express their desires and frustrations, and counsel them accordingly, pointing them to our saviour Jesus, the answer, in various ways, to everything. “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Phil 3:8)

Social Action Vs. Evangelism?

I’ve been studying for an essay on the relationship between mission and evangelism.  It’s been particularly interesting getting stuck into some of this as Lausanne III has been going on down in Cape Town.  A lot of ink has been spilt this century on the debate between mission and evangelism and I certainly don’t expect to solve it with my essay!  A few observations:

1 – Almost all of the books and positions I have read so far have agreed that Christians should be involved in what Jonathan Edwards would call charity, or what Keller would call meaningful service to the poor.

2 – A lot of the opinions I have come across have stressed the primacy of evangelism in relation to social action, primarily because of the eternal perspective.

3 – A lot of people criticise other people’s opinions, despite them both agreeing on the 2 points above!

This leads me to think that there may be a problem with the way in which we discuss the issue in the first place.  In trying to answer how the two relate to each other, writers and theologians seem to talk past each other, tying themselves in knots as they try to define whether one is subordinate to the other, or a means to the other, or the fruit of the other, or independent of each other.  Each express this slightly differently and are therefore led into criticism of each other.

I think it may be more productive to see the relation between social action and evangelism as originating in the Christian themselves.  So rather than dealing with the two as independent aspects of Christianity (and therefore first getting into [unnecessary?] questions of primacy and centrality), the starting place should instead be the Christian as new creation, their identity in Christ, the obligations on them as a disciple of Jesus and the fruit of the Spirit that should flow from their faith union with Jesus.

The question could then be, what should followers of Jesus do, rather than how do these two aspects relate to each other?  Or if the latter is the question, then we could start by relating them both to the Christian, rather than each other.

Anyway, that’s my starting place for my essay I think.  Let me know if you have any thoughts.