Jonathan Edwards Institute 4 Steve Garber: "I Believe in MarxFreudandDarwin: The Challenge of a Trinitarian Gospel in a Pluralising World."

Steve Garber is Scholar in Residence for the Everymay Project in Washington, DC.  He is also a Senior Fellow of the C. S. Lewis Institute and the Clapham Institute.   He is also the author of The Fabric of Faithfulness, which some at the conference were saying is one of the most important books they had ever read.  Byron Borger, from Hearts and Minds Booksellers gave a little promo on the book and said that Steve wrote it after interviewing a number of people who had made it to midlife with their faith intact.  He sought to analyze what it was that enabled them to keep their faith intact and this book is the fruit of that research.  I read it about 6 or 7 years ago and remember it being very good, so I guess I'll have to re-read it.  And, if you want to buy it, don't call Amazon, call Byron or Beth Borger at Hearts and Minds.

Steve's topic for this talk was "I Believe in MarxFreudandDarwin: The Challenge of a Trinitarian Gospel in a Pluralising World."  He is speaking on the topic of the cultural meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity. 

I. Ideas have legs

Question asked of a colleague in the fight against human sex trafficking - "who are we to say that they are wrong?" She said that she wished she could find a young person who believed in basic right and wrong.

A. The Bible's basic teaching

B. True across the spectrum of centuries and cultures, across ideas and issues in every time and place, every human heart.

Our task here, taking the richness of the reality that God is Triune, Father, Son, and Spirit, and asking together, "So what? What does it mean then for our life in the world?"

II. A Birds Eye View

History repeats itself. Has to. Nobody listens.                -- Steve Turner

A. Athanasius on The Incarnation

Written as a letter to a young friend to encourage him to understand what is happening in the culture and to show how the Incarnation and the trinity impact these things.  He wrestled with the Epicureans, "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

He says that the incarnation, the doctrine of the trinity is the answer to the questions of the Epicureans.

B. Augustine's Enchiridion

Written as a response to a letter from a layperson asking "what do we believe as a Christian that makes sense of a time like this?"  This was during the time the Roman Empire was crumbling.

He said we believe in the Apostles Creed, the trinity.  We believe in the Lord's Prayer.  We believe in faith, hope and love. Augustine saw his own life and times and beliefs in terms of the trinity.

C. St. Patrick's Breastplate

St. Patrick's ministry was guided by his belief in the threeness of God.

D. Bach's Mass in B Minor

We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee. We give thanks to thee for thy great glory. O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty, O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Most High, O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.

I believe in one God, The Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things, visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God . . . And I believe in the Holy Spirit, Lord and giver of life . . .

"Clearly the symmetrical design reflects the doctrinal function of the Credo as the cornerstone of the Christian faith."   Academy of Ancient Music

E. Calvin

"his deep religious interest in making the triune God of Scripture the starting point of all his theology" Cornelius Van Til

F. Edwards

"God has appeared glorious to me, on account of the Trinity.  It has made me have exalting thoughts of God that he subsists in three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." -- Personal Narrative

G. The Recovery of Trinitarian theology in our day.  We believe this, rather than that.

III. The World in Which We Live and Move and Have Our Being

A. What is the that?

See Marxfreudanddarwin as pointers to reality, to meaning, to truth, to the universe that is really there, a Trinitarian universe in which a true knowledge of God and ourselves gives us the grist to understand the vocations that Marx, Freud and Darwin distorted in their idolatrous imaginations.

Marx skewed the economic dimension of life.  Marx and Dickens wrote in the same generation in the same city and about the same problems.  Ebenezer Scrooge exemplified the hard hearted capitalist.   Tiny Tim represents someone who has fallen through the cracks of the social structures.  Marx and Dickens saw the same alienation.  Marx's philosophy was his answer to this alienation.

Freud skewed the sexual dimension of responsibility.  The Scriptures are very sexually alive.  In this world where God make sex as a good gift, it is easily distorted in every time.  Freud understood the importance of the sexual dimension of life, but with his own idolatrous heart, he then misunderstood it.

Darwin skews the historical dimension of human activity.

Tom Wolfe's book I Am Charlotte Simmons gives one of the best pictures of the worldviews of Freud, Darwin and Marx. 
I Am Charlotte Simmons is a novel/exposition of two essays he wrote -  "Hooking Up," and "Sorry but You're Soul Just Died," which are in the book Hooking Up.   

B. Exegesis of Creed

IV. On Response and Responsibility

A. "I believe . . . "

"The secret of man is the secret of his responsibility."  Vaclev Havel

B. Kuyper on "Hallowed be Thy Name" from To Be Near Unto God, and the long tradition of the Church's teaching, catechesis, the Lord's Prayer.

The main question is not whether we can distinguish the work of the Father from that of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but whether we have experienced their gracious operations.  The root of the matter, not the name, decides.  Must we then slightly value a clear understanding  of sacred things? Shall we deem it superfluous and call its great matters hair-splitting questions?  By no means.  The human mind searches every department of life.  Scientists deem it an honor to spend their lives in analyzing the minutest plants and insects, describing every particular, naming every member of the dissected organism. Their work is never "hair-splittings," but is distinguished as "scientific research."  And rightly so, for without differentiation there can be no insight, and without insight, there can be no thorough acquaintance with the subject.  Why, then, call this same desire unprofitable when it directs the attention not to the creature, but to the Lord God our Creator?

C. Music of U2, e.g. "Grace" and "40" and "Yahweh."

"When you look at the world, the way that it is, it is hard to believe.  And yet, I do believe."  Bono

D. Augustine's insight, viz. difference between "what do you believe" and "what do you love?"  At the very core, we are homo adoramus.

A better question than "what do you believe?" is "what do you love?" In Kuyper's words, "Have we experienced their gracious operations?" Or as C. S. Lewis puts it: "You may ask, 'If we can't imagine a three-personal Being, what is the good of talking about Him?'  Well, there isn't any good in talking about Him.  The thing that matters is being actually drawn into that three-personal life, and that may begin any time - tonight, if you like."  Mere Christianity, "The Three-Personal God."