He wonders whether this cultural moment is an unveiling-a God-ordained apocalypse sent to chastise the church, fostering an earnest and godly repentance. In episode five, Cosper ponders this very question. Indeed, something is causing the recent spate of books against complementarianism, just as something is causing the wider flood of toxic leadership exposés. The answer will be more complex than a ‘1 Timothy 2 caused complementarianism.’īut it’s also true that something is causing this podcast.
The answer will be more complex than a “1 Timothy 2 caused complementarianism.” Did the Cold War have something to do with it? John Wayne? The events of September 11, 2001? They are all questions worth asking. Similarly, then, it’s also completely valid to ask what cultural and political forces might have shaped evangelical complementarianism in the 1990s to 2010s. Without these, it is unlikely the reformation would have happened. It can be unsettling to learn that there were other causes at work too: Technology (via the invention of the printing press) politics (changes in Northern European feudalism) intellectual fashions (such as the emerging humanism). It can be disconcerting for this reason-because it shows that things we thought we believed for simple reasons are actually complex in origin.įor example, what caused the reformation? We’d like to think it was a rediscovery of justification by faith-a doctrine hidden in plain sight in Romans, waiting for Luther to unearth it. It postulates causation and then argues the case. Part of the thesis so far is that Driscoll’s leadership posture-his reformed theology and his complementarianism-wasn’t simply caused by a plain reading of the Bible, but by a complex web of 1980s to early 2000s cultural forces, filtered through some personal psychology. TRFMH is about what caused the rise and fall of Mars Hill. Part of the thesis is that Driscoll’s leadership posture was caused by a complex web of 1980s to early 2000s cultural forces. Good history is about establishing causation. TRFMH is a journalistic history of Mars Hill Church: not just an account of “what happened” it wants to explore the reasons for what happened. For anyone in my theological neck of the woods (reformed, evangelical, complementarian) it’s compelling stuff. In case you missed the memo, TRFMH is a Christianity Today podcast in which the absurdly talented Mike Cosper takes us through the story of the spectacular growth and stunning implosion of Mars Hill Church, Seattle, and its senior pastor Mark Driscoll. The first: what is it doing? The second: what am I doing? I hope they are helpful. The first is historiographical, the second spiritual. For what it’s worth, here are some notes around two questions I had. I don’t know about you, but I’ve found processing the whole thing complex and difficult. For many of us, refreshing our podcast feed to see if the latest episode of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill has dropped is an exciting, if bracing, weekly ritual.
0 kommentar(er)
