Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World

381 Pages·2008·1.09 MB·English

by  Jr. John G. Stackhouse

M A K I N G
T H E B E S T
O F I T
This page intentionally left blank
M A K I N G
T H E B E S T
O F I T
following christ
in the real world
O
john g. stackhouse, jr.
1
2008
3
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
Oxford University’s objective of excellence
in research, scholarship, and education.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offi ces in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2008 by John G. Stackhouse Jr.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stackhouse, John Gordon.
Making the best of it: following Christ in the real world
/ John G. Stackhouse.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-517358-1
1. Christianity and culture. I. Title.
BR115.C8S7185 2008
261—dc22
2007034724
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To the memory of
my beloved father
and best man,
John G. Stackhouse
(1935–2006),
whoalways
made the best of it
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Who Are We, for Jesus Christ, Today? 3
part i
THE CLASSIC TYPOLOGY
O
one Reappropriating H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and
Culture 13
Defi nitions
Reappropriating the Typology of Christ and Culture
part ii
SOME RESOURCES FOR THE RECOVERY
OF CHRISTIAN REALISM
O
two C. S. Lewis: The Christian Individual 45
The Christian Story
The Elements and Shape of the Story
Themes in a Theology of Culture
Conclusion: C. S. Lewis’s “Parables”
three Reinhold Niebuhr: Prophet of Christian Realism 81
Is Christianity Realistic?
What Is Christian Realism?
Implications of Christian Realism
Conclusion: Niebuhr’s Legacy
viii Contents
four Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Christian and the Church in and for
the World 115
The Heart of Bonhoeffer’s Theology
Themes in a Theology of Culture
Conclusion: Stations on the Way to Freedom
part iii
MAKING THE BEST OF IT
O
fi ve Method in Ethics: A Sketch 165
Attending to Jesus
A (Protestant) Christian Tetralectic
The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Receptivity
six The Story and the Mission 181
The Christian Story—and Us Within It
Mission: The Four Commandments
seven Vocation 221
Human
Christian
Time
Conclusion: Mission and Vocation
eight Principles of a New Realism 261
A Mixed Field, Mixed Motives, and Mixed Results
The Normal . . . and Beyond
Faith and Faithfulness
Liberty and Cooperation
Conclusion: Making the Best of It 309
The Shape of Our Lives
Behaving in Public
Governing Motifs
Index 357
Index of Scriptural References 369
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Even though this is a big, academic book, it is also in the nature of the case a
highly individual one. For on this largest of all topics, Christian discipleship in
the world, one can hope only to offer an individual vision—as informed and as
careful a vision as possible, of course, but still necessarily individual.
Yet many people have contributed to the outlook expressed in this book. I am
grateful for the Christians of Bethel Gospel Chapel in North Bay, Ontario, as
I am for the Christian Brethren movement in Canada, of which it was a part.
They provided a church family for me throughout my youth that manifested a
serious, sectarian discipleship that marks me still.
I am grateful for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which brought me
out of my denominational enclave and into my fi rst ecumenical contacts in high
school and university. Its fi ne press likewise brought me Francis Schaeffer and
others who introduced me to the bracing “world-transformative Christianity” of
the Reformed tradition. Years at Wheaton College and Northwestern College
deepened my acquaintance and regard for this vision, as did reading and contrib-
uting to the late, lamented Reformed Journal—with the voices of Rich Mouw and
Nick Wolterstorff probably the most impressive to my ears on these matters.
Finally, I am glad that one of those Wheaton College/Reformed Journal stal-
warts, a young professor named Mark Noll, mildly suggested in my graduate-
student days that the Lutheran tradition, strange as it was to us, might have some
important things to say that neither the sectarian sort nor the Reformed sort of
evangelicalism was saying. From his tutelage, then, I went on to study under
a couple of Lutherans: Jerald Brauer and Martin Marty. And Marty’s infl uence
upon my thinking in this sphere is best described as simply fundamental. I won’t
quote him much on the pages that follow, but the thousands of pages of his writ-
ing I have read and the hundreds of hours I have spent in his company have
formed my outlook more than has any other source.
David Martin, however, has also shaped my thinking deeply on these mat-
ters. And I am grateful to David for his generous encouragement of several of