History, Humanities & the Gospel

A little while ago I heard someone recount the story of the president of a rather prestigious New England university who approached his humanities department, trying to see how he could be helpful in leading them towards progress in their particular field. And so he asked them, “What problems are you making progress with in your various fields of study?” The faculty all looked rather bewildered. He repeated the question once more, “What are the latest problems you are solving in the field of humanities?” Finally, one of the faculty members spoke up and said: “Sir, we are the humanities department. We don’t ‘solve problems’; we cherish them.” The room broke out in a chuckle.

The idea of human progress, a notion that we have inherited from the Enlightenment, leads us to assume that the latest idea is always the greatest idea—to move forward we have to throw off the past. Unfortunately, Christianity dies a thousand deaths on the altar of this Enlightenment deity. Christianity is an historical religion. It is first about what God has done in Christ for us—about how He has acted in history—and not about what we are doing to “make progress”. Listen to Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to His Son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today.

This statement is edgy but profoundly true. Our hubris in thinking that we can always be hip and hot is actually just another burden for our souls—another thing that is counterproductive to genuine growth in holiness. The Christian always moves forward by first going backwards—backwards to cherish the cross, the place where God acted and solved our greatest problem—sin.

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective”.

Listen, O my people, to my instruction;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
We will not conceal them from their children,
But tell to the generation to come
the praises of the LORD,
And His strength and His wondrous works
that He has done.
For He established a testimony in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach them to their children,
That the generation to come might know,
even the children yet to be born,
That they may arise and tell them to their children,
That they should put their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments

~Psalm 78:1-7 NASB