Comments on: Book Review: Myth of a Christian Nation – Greg Boyd http://aworthydiscussion.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/myth-of-a-christian-nation/ Where faith, real life, and theology intersect Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:11:21 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: aworthydiscussion http://aworthydiscussion.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/myth-of-a-christian-nation/#comment-112 aworthydiscussion Sun, 17 Aug 2008 22:49:09 +0000 http://aworthydiscussion.wordpress.com/?p=112#comment-112 Hey, thanks for the comments. My point with the "what would Jesus do" theology is that it is very shallow and I have not found it to be any help. Jesus fed 5000, so I should I? Jesus raised people from the dead, so should I? Clearly the theology has problems with it. Do we simply turn the power of the gospel into a set of morals and behaviours? From my experience this has lead people to do that. My reason for speaking against Dr Boyds pacifistic stance is that Jesus never spoke against civil action, nor did he promote it. We do not do justice to the issues if we simply whitewash them with a WWJD theology. Hey, thanks for the comments. My point with the “what would Jesus do” theology is that it is very shallow and I have not found it to be any help. Jesus fed 5000, so I should I? Jesus raised people from the dead, so should I?
Clearly the theology has problems with it. Do we simply turn the power of the gospel into a set of morals and behaviours? From my experience this has lead people to do that.

My reason for speaking against Dr Boyds pacifistic stance is that Jesus never spoke against civil action, nor did he promote it. We do not do justice to the issues if we simply whitewash them with a WWJD theology.

]]> By: m slater http://aworthydiscussion.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/myth-of-a-christian-nation/#comment-111 m slater Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:09:05 +0000 http://aworthydiscussion.wordpress.com/?p=112#comment-111 Grant, Thanks for your review of “Myth of a Christian Nation” I thought it looked interesting as well, but perhaps I will find another book to explore those issues. Disappointed to hear that it did not live up to its potential. I do think that especially we evangelicals need to start realizing how much we have allowed fealty to certain political movements and an almost religious patriotism to co-opt our idea of being faithful to Christianity and the values of God’s kingdom. “Dr Boyd is also a proponent of open theism” Yes, and that would be an issue for me in reading him, I have a rather hard time taking open theism seriously. Not that I disagree with all of it, for example I agree that the level of influence Greek philosophy has had on how we view and speak of God is not helpful. Not all the ‘attributes of God’ listed in traditional accounts are all that easy to find in the Bible. However, having read a few books on both sides I find their overall position to be lacking. “Towards the end of the book Dr Boyd attempts to answer some “objections” and “questions” such as “Should Christians serve in the military?” or “Should Christians serve in their countries wars?”. He gave some pretty pacifistic answers with very little support apart from that ”We should look to the example of Jesus.” That amounts to a theology of “what would Jesus do?”.” Is a ‘what would Jesus do’ theology such a bad thing? I mean phrasing it that way it sounds rather shallow, but it does not have to be, just look at the ana-baptist tradition. I think the reason these arguments don’t always resonate is because we are not that used to going to the Gospels to build our theology as opposed to heading right for Paul. Right or wrong, there is nevertheless a pretty convincing case to be made for Jesus teaching a non-violent faith and it seems that for the first 300 years of the faith pretty much everyone saw it that way. Only when we were put in a position of power did we start thinking it might be ok to use to tools of the nations to advance what we think is right. Grant,
Thanks for your review of “Myth of a Christian Nation” I thought it looked interesting as well, but perhaps I will find another book to explore those issues. Disappointed to hear that it did not live up to its potential.
I do think that especially we evangelicals need to start realizing how much we have allowed fealty to certain political movements and an almost religious patriotism to co-opt our idea of being faithful to Christianity and the values of God’s kingdom.

“Dr Boyd is also a proponent of open theism”

Yes, and that would be an issue for me in reading him, I have a rather hard time taking open theism seriously. Not that I disagree with all of it, for example I agree that the level of influence Greek philosophy has had on how we view and speak of God is not helpful. Not all the ‘attributes of God’ listed in traditional accounts are all that easy to find in the Bible. However, having read a few books on both sides I find their overall position to be lacking.

“Towards the end of the book Dr Boyd attempts to answer some “objections” and “questions” such as “Should Christians serve in the military?” or “Should Christians serve in their countries wars?”. He gave some pretty pacifistic answers with very little support apart from that ”We should look to the example of Jesus.” That amounts to a theology of “what would Jesus do?”.”

Is a ‘what would Jesus do’ theology such a bad thing? I mean phrasing it that way it sounds rather shallow, but it does not have to be, just look at the ana-baptist tradition. I think the reason these arguments don’t always resonate is because we are not that used to going to the Gospels to build our theology as opposed to heading right for Paul. Right or wrong, there is nevertheless a pretty convincing case to be made for Jesus teaching a non-violent faith and it seems that for the first 300 years of the faith pretty much everyone saw it that way. Only when we were put in a position of power did we start thinking it might be ok to use to tools of the nations to advance what we think is right.

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