Alasdair MacIntyre observes in Difficulties in Christian Belief that ... "Where the Christian community is incapable of producing lives such as those of the saints, the premises from which it argues will appear rootless and arbitrary." But a Christian community that produces love and beauty is a witness that cannot be denied ... We must first be people who live out the Gospel. [Stanley] Hauerwas writes, God's truth is credible to the world only when it sees a community shaped by the truth ... If the Gospel is to be heard, it must also be seen.The blogsphere continues to be filled with critique. It's difficult to read much of these and get a sense of "love and beauty". Rather the emphasis is on exposing error.
A friend of mine accused me of having a blog theme that was skewed toward the Kingdom of God. While I'd like to be balanced, if I had to have a "leaning", this is certainly the one I would choose. I'm saddened because many blogs have a leaning of exposing error and my perception is that these have the largest readership and are read in a very serious way.
I think confronting error has a place and that it would be wrong to omit it but I do not think that confronting error should be in our list of "acceptable themes". There - I've just done my confronting error piece. I hope my theme hasn't shifted.
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3 comments:
Rick, that's a good shout - certainly seems to be true from my limited experience of the Blogoshere. I hate to think what unsaved folks think looking in on this stuff.
So just for the record - I really appreciate you my brother, and while we may come from different church backgrounds - that doesn't change the fact we are brothers - and its great working with you to see the Kingdom of God breaking in more and more, into the lives around us - and our own of course.
i certainly agree as well. it bothers me that some of the most well known pastors/theologians are the largest offenders (is my saying that confronting error?). i have stopped reading a few because of this. it seems that they would want to use this very public platform to write something helpful for all readers seeking to live like Christ. i have read some posts that begin to pull me into the negative confrontation. i find myself saying - "yes, 'those' people really demons."
we are to confront error but is the blog the place where (as you have clearly seen in your post from a few days ago) this confrontation should happen in a non-confusing, non-threatening way?
Have you read Kierkegaard after MacIntyre?
Very interesting accounts of how Kierkegaard's Christianity can be applied to MacIntyre's philosophy. Of special note is MacIntyre's response
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