Wow, so between support raising for the first three months of the year and moving back into full-time ministry in April, I've fallen behind on my reading schedule for the year. I finished reading Generous Justice last month, but am just finding a chance to post my review of it now.
My original desire to read Generous Justice came out of my personal study on the Emergent Church. One thing that I enjoyed about the EC is that they are very intentional about meeting the physical needs of others, both believers and non-believers; however, to their detriment, I found them lining their theology up with that of the Social Gospel movement and liberation theology in too broad of strokes. I desired to read a book that established the necessity to work for the poor and oppressed, the weak and over-looked, without giving up sound doctrine. In essence, I wanted a case for justice orthopraxy flowing from evangelical orthodoxy.
Timothy Keller's volume provided me just that. I greatly appreciated reading Keller's arguments for social justice through the lens of Scripture. He aptly shows the necessity in the modern age for believers to look after orphans and widows, much to Paul's pleading throughout his epistles. This book was challenging, upfront, honest, and a breath of fresh air in comparison to the theological stances on justice I found in my emergent church readings.
Favorite Quotes/Passages:
- (in direct opposition to the social gospel/liberation movements) "Doing justice can indeed lead people to give the message of the gospel grace a hearing, but to consider deeds of mercy an justice to be identical to gospel proclamation is a fatal confusion."
- (favorite challenging quote) "If you are a Christian, and you refrain from committing adultery or using profanity or missing church, but you don't do the hard work of thinking through how to do justice in every area of life - you are failing to live justly and righteously."
- Keller also challenged the modern role of deacons within the church. Originally "deacons" were established for leading the ministry of "daily distribution of food and other resources to poor widows who were fully supported by the church." The Greek term, diakonia "came to mean 'humble service to practical needs.'" Keller posits that this vision and mission of the deacon has been lost in our century.
Personal Take-aways:
- Emily and I have been challenged lately in how we treat the poor and down-trodden. A combination of moving to a poorer side of town along with the fact that both our ministries focus directly on meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of our clients/students means that we've been re-thinking how we view and treat those in need. We haven't fully reached any conclusions as of yet, but this book helped fuel much of our dialogue and desire to reach out to others - whether they will take advantage of us or not.
- Psalms 68:4-5 establishes God as "a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows." Much of my work is with teenage boys who have no father, either through death, divorce, or abandonment. Reading Keller's section on the importance of ministry to orphans and widows in their distress spoke directly to me, because abandonment and lack of a male father-figure are themes that frequently come up in my mentoring/discipling of students. Am I showing God as that Father figure to these teens?
- Lastly, Keller included a section of objections many people give for not helping those in need. The one that stuck out most to me was people getting upset if the people they help abuse the generosity of others. Keller responds to this attitude saying, "Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet; that most would despise it; that many would make it an excuse for sinning more; yet he gave his own blood! If you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and the poor, the thankless and the undeserving."
My fear should not be that I will be taken advantage of, it is that I will fail to be Jesus in every aspect of life.
Josh Elliott
No comments:
Post a Comment