 While preparing the Big Picture I did my best to keep things as accessible and brief as possible. Which means that if you’re a teacher or other leader, you probably have a few more questions. So here are the works I drew on while preparing our material. If you have any other questions, feel free to hit me up at www.inearthenvessels.com/contact.
+ WORKS THAT SHAPED THIS STUDY
+ THREE BIG QUESTIONS
+ A STORY WORTH SHARING
+ IN THE BEGINNING & THE IMAGE OF GOD
+ COVENANTS OF PROMISE & FOLLOW ME
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 + WATCH “The Gospel of the Kingdom” from the Bible Project + PRAY for open hearts and minds, especially yours. + READ Acts 1-2 (ESV) + REFLECT As we wrap up the Big Picture of the Bible, I don’t want you to think the story is over. You see, if you’re hearing this for the first time, your journey is just getting started. But before you head down that path, it’s important to know the answers to two big questions: (1) WHERE are you going? and (2) WHY are you going? The first question is pretty obvious. Just try to hit “GO” in Apple Maps without a destination and see what happens. But what about that second one; why is WHY important? Well, unless you’re the freest of spirits (or exceedingly bored), you probably don’t just jump in your car and head off into the unknown. There’s probably a reason you’ve selected your destination. You need the WHY for other reasons too, like, When do I need to be there? When do I need to leave? If it’s for an event (family, work, fun, etc.) the WHEN might already be set. But you probably don’t treat all those as equally important. The WHY might dictate you will be there, no matter what. So what is your WHERE and your WHY? For a Christian, the answer is simple: it all comes down to a WHOM: Jesus. To be a Christian means to be a disciple of Christ, walking in his footsteps, and obeying his every word in love. And that’s not an easy thing to do. Jesus says it best: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). You see, we can’t come to him on our own terms. We can’t decide WHAT’s really important or WHEN’s the right time, because we know the WHY and he is a WHOM. And because of that, we follow—no matter how we feel, no matter what we have to give up, no matter how many times we fall—we take his hand and follow him. Seven weeks to the day after Jesus rose from the dead, people from all over the world were gathered together in Jerusalem. Many of them had been there the day Jesus died, crying out, “Crucify him!” But when they heard what God had done for them through his own Son—by becoming human, dying for their sins, rising from the dead, and sitting at God’s right hand in heaven—there was really only one question that remained: “What shall we do!?” Peter doesn’t tell them to say a prayer, or to join the church of their choice. Listen to that first sermon: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” … So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:38-42) When you first come to Christ, it can be hard. You have so many questions. There seems to be so much to learn. Things just aren’t the same anymore. But don’t let that stop you. He is the one who created you. He is the one who died for you. He is the one calling you. He is the one that all history longs for. And he’s coming again. Be transformed. Be baptized. Give yourselves wholly to his church. Let us help you. And obey the voice of the one who calls, “Follow me.” + ASK Three Big Questions
+ DIG DEEPER with slides for group discussion. 
 A few weeks ago we took a look at Rod Dreher’s first book, Crunchy Cons, to better understand Dreher’s journey from a countercultural politics to a countercultural church, what he calls “The Benedict Option.” A much shorter version of this review appeared in the December 2017 issue of The Christian Chronicle. For more on The BenOp and what it means to be the church, check out our thread on The Body of Christ. Post-modernity. Post-Christianity. Post-truth. How should the church respond? That’s the question Rod Dreher explores in his latest book, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. Dreher is currently a senior editor and blogger for The American Conservative, and has been writing off and on about “The BenOp” for over a decade. His inspiration comes from the closing paragraph of Alasdair MacIntyre’s work, After Virtue. There, MacIntyre writes: It is always dangerous to draw too precise parallels between one historical period and another; and among the most misleading of such parallels are those which have been drawn between our own age in Europe and North America and the epoch in which the Roman empire declined into the Dark Ages. Nonetheless certain parallels there are. A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium. What they set themselves to achieve instead—often not recognizing fully what they were doing—was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct, we ought also to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point. What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us. And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. This time however the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament. We are waiting not for a Godot, but for another—doubtless very different—St. Benedict. (ch. 18; unless otherwise noted, all emphases added) In his first book, Crunchy Cons, Dreher discussed what he saw as the chief failure of modern conservatism: a consumerism that threatens our health, our homes, and our habitats. But as Dreher muses in his final chapter, maybe MacIntyre’s right. Maybe politics just isn’t what we’ve made it. Maybe we’ve been asking the wrong questions. Maybe it’s not enough to change Washington. So while Crunchy Cons moves steadily from politics to culture to religion, The Benedict Option moves in the opposite direction, from religion to culture to politics. Instead of explaining why society needs Christianity (apologia) or proclaiming the truth of Christianity (kerygma), Dreher shows what classic Christianity looks like when lived confidently (ekklesia). He continues: I have written The Benedict Option to wake up the church and to encourage it to act to strengthen itself, while there is still time. If we want to survive, we have to return to the roots of our faith, both in thought and in practice. We are going to have to learn habits of the heart forgotten by believers in the West. We are going to have to change our lives, and our approach to life, in radical ways. In short, we are going to have to be the church, without compromise, no matter what it costs. (Introduction, emphasis in original) The good news is that we’ve been here before. Joseph saw it, as did Daniel, Esther, and Peter. And as Dreher points out, so did Benedict. After Rome fell in the fifth century, Benedict of Nursia renounced the pride of politics for the beauty of holiness. He recognized he couldn’t save the city from within its ruined walls, so he headed for the hills. And remarkably—and in hindsight—that’s when things started to look up: Benedict’s example gives us hope today, because it reveals what a small cohort of believers who respond creatively to the challenges of their own time and place can accomplish by channeling the grace that flows through them from their radical openness to God, and embodying that grace in a distinct way of life. … This is not just about our own survival. If we are going to be for the world as Christ meant for us to be, we are going to have to spend more time away from the world, in deep prayer and substantial spiritual training—just as Jesus retreated to the desert to pray before ministering to the people. We cannot give the world what we do not have. (ch. 1) So what does the BenOp actually look like? Although The Benedict Option provides several good examples, its core principles are best stated in the afterword to the paperback edition of Crunchy Cons. There Dreher outlines what he calls “a Benedictine-inspired rule adapted for modern countercultural living.” Here it is in full: We are a school for the service of God. Everything we do, alone or together, can only be done through him and for him. Our purpose is to help each other live out the virtues in a community bound by faith in God, love of neighbor, and commitment to the principles in this Rule.
The hardest part of this modern BenOp is that these changes have to start with us. Some might not seem that radical, but others strike closer to our modern roots, presenting challenges even for the faithful. In short, if we are to point others to the Truth, we can’t merely talk about it, we have to show them the Way, show them the Life—and that means walking it ourselves (John 14:1-6). Dreher again: Put more plainly, unbelievers today who cannot make sense of the Gospel’s propositions may yet have a life-changing wordless encounter with the Gospel through Christian art or works of Christian love that pull them outside themselves and confront them with the reality of Christ. The same is true for the church today. There are parts of the BenOp that I still can’t endorse and many others that I’m still working on, but Dreher’s chief point remains: We are going to have to be the body of Christ, embodying His grace in a distinct way of life, confronting others with His own divine reality. Or in Dreher's own words, “If you ask me, it’s time that we became our own Benedicts” (Crunchy Cons, ch. 8).
Benedict is a good model, but in Christ we have an even better one; because this is what Jesus did (John 1:14, 17), and this is what He calls us to do. As John wrote, “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17 ESV). The world comes to see the resurrected and ascended Christ only in Christ’s own confident and loving people, the church. But to be for the world, we cannot be of the world. We have to be the church; we have to be more like Christ.  T.S. Eliot & the Wonder of Christmas Trees
Casey N. Cep, Paris Review Jesus is the Reason for Every Season Wes McAdams, Radically Christian Keep Happy in the Holidays Scott McCown, The Morning Drive The Scandal of the Incarnation Andreas Kostenberger & Alexander Stewart, Crossway Christmas in a World Upside-Down George Weigel, First Things How December 25 Became Christmas Andrew McGowan, Biblical Archaeology Society Jesus Was Not Born in a Stable Ian Paul, Psephizo Xmas Does Mean Christmas Matthew Schmitz, First Things  October 31, 2017 marked the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing (or mailing) his 95 Theses, and launching what came to be the Protestant Reformation. Since then believers have divided over Scripture, the sacraments (two, four, seven?), and much less serious issues. So what does this mean, and why should we care? The links below (mostly from First Things) hopefully help you answer some of those questions. For my some of own thoughts on unity in truth, please also see what I believe. And continue to pray and into the unity for which Christ died. Holy Father, sanctify us in the truth of your word. Grant us faith in your wisdom and not our own, that we may all be one, just as you are in Christ and Christ in you, that we also may be in you—one body. Help us, Lord, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, that the world may believe that you have sent your Son and loved us even as you loved him. Keep before us, O God, our hope in Christ alone, that we may be with him where he is—with you—to enjoy the glory and love that is yours from before the foundation of the world. Wash us in one baptism, feed us from one loaf, refresh us in one cup, that we may praise you with one voice, from one heart, one soul, and one mind. Amen. Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
Lutheran World Federation & the Catholic Church A Catholic View on the Reformations George Wiegel, First Things Lutheranism Turns 500 Matthew Block, First Things From Henry VIII to Henry Ford Carl Trueman, First Things On Mere Protestantism Dale M. Coulter, First Things The Unity That Might Have Been Peter J. Leithart, First Things Why We Should Care About Martin Luther Frank Bellizzi, The Christian Chronicle In the summer of 2015 we ran a series of posts on American religion by the numbers, how we as Christians should be preparing for exile in the post-Christian age, and Rod Dreher's idea of The Benedict Option. Later on, we addressed what this means for the church and for Christian civics. This week, we pick up where we left off, with several reviews of Rod Dreher's new book, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (2017). I've also created a new category so you can follow our discussion of the Body of Christ in one thread.  The Benedict Option's Vision for a Christian Village
Rod Dreher, Christianity Today Becoming Redemptive Change Agents Robert Osburn, Wilberforce Academy The Centurion Option: Not Retreat, but Engagement James Mikolajczyk, Christian Origins, Modern Faith Living Comunally in God’s Good Creation David T. Koyzis, First Things Thinking Locally & Historically Alan Jacobs, First Things Tough Questions, Tougher Answers Rowan Williams, The New Statesmen Demonstrating the Beauty of The BenOp Rod Dreher, The American Conservative  Over the past few weeks I’ve shared a bit about my favorite books, what reading has taught me, and a short-list of truly “great” writers. But as I mentioned a few weeks ago, these are all merely glimpses of what is truly good in our world and beyond. So this week I want to share with you some of my own areas of interest and how I plan to delve deeper into them.
You can organize my interests (very loosely!) under three headings: Ethics, Epics, and the Ekklésia (or Church). In fleshing out how I wanted to approach these subjects, some of these books simply fell into my lap, either as gifts from family and friends, or as free or discounted eBooks available from their publishers. But most of the fifty-two works below were pointed out to me by a handful of books I read the last few years (or even months!): ~ After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre ~ Common Prayer by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove & Enuma Okoro ~ The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher ~ Early Christians Speak, Vol. 1 by Everett Ferguson ~ The Language of God by Francis Collins After Virtue is preeminent on the list for three reasons. First, reading it last year, MacIntyre reminded me just how much I still have to learn; so many of the works listed under ethics are due to his influence. But he is also one of the reasons why I want to immerse myself in epic poetry. Much like Kirk, MacIntyre points out how ancient epics informed the virtues of heroic societies, the subject and title of his tenth chapter. So while many of the epics I’ve chosen were influenced by Lewis (That Hideous Strength) and Tolkien (The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún, The Fall of Arthur, and The Story of Kullervo), MacIntyre has given me new reasons to read in that direction. Finally, MacIntyre is also the inspiration for Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option, which means that there’s not really an area I’m interested in that he hasn’t already thought and written about extensively. The next two on the list really go hand-in-hand. I used Common Prayer for my daily devotionals in 2016, and I read though The Benedict Option this year in the first week after its release. Both demonstrate the need for the modern church to reclaim something she has lost through the ages in order to transcend our politics of lust and greed. But there are also several differences between the two perspectives, CP approaching things from the Left and The BenOp from the Right (see here and here). And yet there were four books recommended by both CP and The BenOp, which seem to merit my attention: The Rule of St. Benedict; Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon; and Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community by Wendell Berry. But if I had to sum up the problems with both CP and The BenOp, it would be that they assume the wrong frame of reference for their diagnosis and prescriptions. Both try to recover the wisdom of the early church, but neither of them goes far enough back (only the fifth or sixth century). And that’s where Everett Ferguson comes in with Early Christians Speak. Ferguson combines representative quotes from the first three centuries of the church, organizes them by topic, and then discusses what this teaches us about being the church then and now. So far I’ve read about half of his monographs, and am hoping they eventually digitize his several edited works. He has also pointed me back to many other Restoration Movement writers, many of which are seen below. Of these five works, though, the one that surprises me the most is still The Language of God. Francis Collins served previously as Director of the Human Genome Project and is currently the Director of the National Institutes of Health. He’s also a committed believer who has tried for over a decade to reduce the friction between the fields of religion and science. The connection between him and some of the works below is probably fairly obvious, like the last three under ethics (although ethics is actually where I disagree with him most). But Collins also draws extensively on Lewis (whom he calls his “familiar Oxford adviser”), as well as Augustine, both of whom appear below. To illustrate how you can weave the Great Books and other good books into a course of reading, I’ve once again numbered the authors recommended in Mortimer Adler’s classic, How to Read a Book. Although each list is roughly chronological, I don’t necessarily plan on reading them that way. Books I plan on re-reading along the way have been marked with an asterisk (*). ETHICS 10. The Republic of Plato, trans and ed. Allan Bloom Plato’s Theory of Education by R.C. Lodge 11. Metaphysics, Rhetoric*, Poetics*, The Constitution of Athens, and Fragments, all attributed to Aristotle Augustine on the Christian Life by Gerald Bray 32. City of God by Augustine The Allegory of Love, Mere Christianity*, The Four Loves*, The Discarded Image, The Weight of Glory, Christian Reflections, Poems, and Present Concerns by C.S. Lewis Dependent Rational Animals by Alasdair MacIntyre Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community by Wendell Berry Embracing Creation by John Mark Hicks, Bobby Valentine & Mark Wilson The Faithful Creator by Ron Highfield Reconciling the Bible and Science by Kirk Blackard & Lynn Mitchell EPICS Beowulf*, trans. Seamus Heaney (alongside Tolkien’s commentary) 33. The Song of Roland 35. The Story of Burnt Njal The Saga of the Volsungs The Prose (or Elder) Edda The Poetic Edda The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún* by J.R.R. Tolkien The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth Kalevala, ed. Elias Lönnrot Early Irish Myths and Sagas by Jeffrey Gantz The Mabinogion Beren and Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien (ed. Christopher Tolkien, forthcoming June 2017) The Lord of the Rings* by J.R.R. Tolkien EKKLÉSIA The Backgrounds of Early Christianity, Inheriting Wisdom, The Early Church and Today (Vol. 2), The Early Church at Work and Worship (Vols. 2 & 3), and Gregory of Nyssa: The Life of Moses by Everett Ferguson The Rule of St. Benedict Life Together and Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas & William Willimon Reviving the Ancient Faith and Reclaiming a Heritage by Richard T. Hughes The Cruciform Church by C. Leonard Allen The Crux of the Matter and Will the Cycle Be Unbroken, by Douglas A. Foster et al. Why They Left by Flavil R. Yeakley Why We Stayed, ed. Benjamin J. Williams  How Ancient Heresy Explains our Culture's Decay
Valerie Schmalz, ChurchPOP Survey Finds Most American Believers are Actually Heretics G. Shane Morris, The Federalist The State of Theology in the United States Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research Infant Baptism: Answering Their Four Best Arguments Wes McAdams, Radically Christian Six Steps for Teaching Better Bible Classes Wes McAdams, Radically Christian How to Be a More Effective Bible Teacher Bailey McBride, The Christian Chronicle Is Wayne Grudem Right About the Trinity? Carl Trueman, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals Whose Position on the Trinity is Really New? Wayne Grudem, The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood  Christianity Without Denominationalism
House to House, Heart to Heart Dollars and Souls: Funding Stateside Mission Work Jay Repecko, The Christian Chronicle House Church: Faith Beyond the Brick and Mortar Katie Jones, The Christian Chronicle Imagine What Could Be Jeremy Houck, Wineskins Leaving a Street Gang for Christ Jovan Paynes, Gospel Advocate Not Just a Fad: Faithful Presence, Gracious Hospitality Gailyn Van Rheenen, Missio Dei Journal The Very Best Way to Tell if a Church is of Christ Wes McAdams, Radically Christian In a series of Gleanings posts last summer, we took a look at American religion by the numbers, how we as Christians should be preparing for exile in the post-Christian age, and Rod Dreher's idea of The Benedict Option, and later addressed what this means for the church. This week's Gleanings looks again to the BenOp and its call to rethink Christian civics, as well as learning from some who have gone before us.  The Benedict Option: Regrouping & Rethinking
John Burger, Aleteia Eating Locusts Will be (Benedict) Optional Carl R. Trueman, First Things The BenOp as Culture War: A Response to Trueman Greg Forster, First Things Politics of Resentment?: A Response to Forster Carl R. Truman, First Things The Virtues of Alasdair MacIntyre Stanley Hauerwas, First Things Why Philosophy Still Matters in a Scientific Age Olivia Goldhill, Quartz Mercersburg Theology, Eucharistic Union & Civil Society James R. Rogers, First Things  The Apocalypse is Not Just About the Future
Charles E. Hill, Crossway Apocalypse Now: Picturing the End of the World Natasha O'Hear, CNN Carrying Our Crosses Daily Peter J. Leithart, First Things Canadian Churches Embrace Syrian Refugees Bobby Ross Jr., The Christian Chronicle ISIS, Genocide, and Us George Weigel, First Things Reading Revelation to the End Peter J. Leithart, First Things Silence of the Churches Nina Shea, First Things Why We Have to Call it Genocide Mark Movsesian, First Things  What is the Primary Goal of Evangelism?
Wes McAdams, Radically Christian Don't be Missional: Make Disciples Mike Breen, Verge Network God is Not Safe, But He is Good Steve Higginbotham, Southeast Institute of Biblical Studies Living an Others-Oriented Life Mark Dever, Crossway Make Disciples, Not Converts Frank Powell Speaking the Truth in a Skeptical Age Samuel G. Freedman, The New York Times In a series of Gleanings posts last summer, we took a look at American religion by the numbers, how we as Christians should be preparing for exile in the post-Christian age, and what this means for the relationship between Christ and culture, particularly Rod Dreher's idea of The Benedict Option. This week's Gleanings brings us up-to-date on further developments in that conversation.  A Benedict Option FAQ
Rod Dreher, The American Conservative A Q&A for People who Hate the Benedict Option Matthew Loftus, First Things Benedict & Nothing: A Response to Loftus Rod Dreher, The American Conservative The BenOp & New Monasticism (Part 1 & Part 2) Rod Dreher & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Red Letter Christians The Ecclesiastical Failure of Christian America James R. Rogers, First Things What Does Evangelical Even Mean? Jonathan Merritt, The Atlantic The Need for Epiphanic Evangelicalism James R. Rogers, First Things  The Benedict Option
Rod Dreher, The American Conservative The Dominican Option C.C. Pecknold, First Things A Franciscan Moment Timothy George, Patheos The Calvary Option? Carl R. Trueman, First Things Sojourners & Strangers Russell Moore, Patheos Seeking Shalom in our Cities Matthew H. West, First Things SERMON: Embodying the Love of Christ Jon Burnett, Waldorf Church of Christ  Agape Wins
Molly Oshatz, First Things Christ is Still King Dominic Bouck, First Things The Courage to Be on the Wrong Side of History Ryan Shinkel, Public Discourse Gay Marriage: WWJD? Jacob Rutledge, Start2Finish Loving Service: The Only Path to Societal Renewal Dan McConchie, The Gospel Coalition Pray, Listen, Remember, Prepare, Persevere Brian Orme, faithit Witnessing with Conviction & Kindness Russell Moore, The Washington Post  Want to Destroy the Church? Ignore the Bible
David French, National Review Online Want Christianity to Die? Encourage Shallow Faith Matt Walsh, The Blaze Want to Reach Millennials? Stop Faking It Wes McAdams, Radically Christian Want to Reach Nones? Practice Deep Discipleship Dominic Douck, First Things Want to Be a Christian? Follow Jesus Kevin Rhodes, Hopkins Publishing  America's Changing Religious Landscape
The Pew Research Center The Churches of Christ in 2015 The Pew Research Center Factoring in Conversions & Birth Rates Leah Libresco, FiveThirtyEight The Real But Overstated Decline of American Christianity Ross Douthat, The New York Times The Religious States of America in 22 Maps Niraj Chokshi, The Washington Post  The last few months have been exciting for our congregation: five people have been immersed into Christ (see Rom 6:3)! Though baptism is not a subject most people get excited about, the Bible’s discussion of immersion is truly joyful!
Consider the example of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). Not only did he find baptism essential for his response to the “good news about Jesus” (v. 35) but when the Spirit whisked Philip away to another work, the eunuch “went on his way rejoicing” (v. 39 ESV). He understood the importance of what had just happened and rejoiced in the blessings he now had in Christ. Look briefly at what the New Testament says we are doing in baptism:
Baptism, though, is not primarily about what we do. As the above passages imply, it is about trusting in what God has done and will do for each of us through his Son. It is about believing and accepting his will for our lives, which he has revealed to us through the good news of his written word. Note what the Bible says God does through baptism:
Biblical baptism is neither “salvation by works” nor “baptismal regeneration.” It’s not about what you are doing and it’s not about the water; it’s about Jesus Christ and the death he died for you. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9). The question now is whether you have allowed the Lord to do for you what he can, or whether you’ve denied the very means by which he does it. I rejoice for all my new brothers and sisters in Christ, knowing the joy and love they feel for the Lord who saves us, but I also mourn for those who are yet to make this same step in obedient faith. Friends, remember the example of our Lord and follow him. “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb 5:8-9). |
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