{"id":546,"date":"2013-11-07T17:56:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T17:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=546"},"modified":"2014-08-13T21:32:52","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T21:32:52","slug":"the-ethics-of-evangelism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-ethics-of-evangelism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ethics of Evangelism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrick Nullens and Ronald T. Michener unpack the intersection of ethics and Christianity in their work The Matrix of Christian Ethics: Integrating Philosophy and Moral Theology in a Postmodern Context.<\/em>\u00a0 They begin with a definition of ethics as \u201cemphasizing the methodical thinking of morality rather than morality itself (9).\u201d\u00a0 As pertains to Christian ethics they offer the working definition of \u201cmethodological reflection on the values, norms, virtues, and purposes of human life in one\u2019s contemporary context, drawing on Scripture and the tradition of faith (12).\u201d\u00a0 Tracing philosophy\u2019s intersection with ethics, we find that ethics at its core is about helping people and society live a \u201cgood\u201d life.\u00a0 Ethics is essentially about how one ought to be, magnified to also how the world ought to be.\u00a0 In this sense, there is so much at stake both theologically and existentially at the intersection of Christianity and ethics.\u00a0 Christianity in itself is an ethical framework, a totality, of seeing and understanding ourselves and our place and purpose in the world.\u00a0 Proper Christian ethics allows Christians to show their moral authenticity to the world in their proper orientation to God, neighbor, and creation.\u00a0 Much is at stake.<\/p>\n

Postmodern Crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ethics of course need to be situated in the real and practical reality of our everyday culture.\u00a0 Currently much of Christianity in the west faces a crisis of how to implement an authentic Christian morality and way of life in the face of the postmodern turn.\u00a0 Holding to perceived traditional ethical stances is seen as regressive and dangerous.\u00a0 The concept of historical Christianity has been rejected by most.\u00a0 Absolute truth has become anachronistic.\u00a0 In our political climate of victimization, the idea of evangelization carries a stigma of one group imposing their dominant world view on others by force and manipulation. \u00a0Metanarratives are abusive, thus, \u201cby you explaining that my truth does not get to God, you are being abusive.\u201d\u00a0 The very essence of evangelism seems to scream \u201cexclusion\u201d to many people.<\/p>\n

The postmodern turn has even strongly influenced the way churches and individual Christians see evangelism.\u00a0 I would suggest in the Western church we may have a crisis of evangelism, as many no longer believe in the need for evangelism having bought \u00a0the postmodern assumption that evangelism is always a power play, colonialism in disguise.\u00a0 Still others are simply embarrassed by it, or don\u2019t know how to ethically navigate the call of the Great Commission in Western society.\u00a0 I have experienced my own crisis of evangelism many times, working in a cultural paradigm where even if there is a God, he is cruel and distant, thus evangelism is an evil manipulation.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, thinking about evangelism ethically can help solve this problem?<\/p>\n

Towards the Morality of Evangelism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christian theology, often against the broad sweep of ethics and philosophy, finds that humanity faces a major barrier in its quest to find shalom.\u00a0 That barrier is sin.\u00a0 Sin taints our world, and divides us from God, our neighbor, and the creation.\u00a0 As humans we yearn for a healing of sorts to bring all into a peaceful unity, however, this remains elusive at best.\u00a0 Jesus proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God, a time when all would be justice, peace, and harmony.\u00a0 Ultimately his call, and the message of Christianity is an ethical call to live out lives that are indicative of the Kingdom of God, while thus waiting its final consummation.\u00a0 In the already\/not yet tension of the resurrected Lord Jesus, as humans we can experience the reality of the goodness of the Kingdom now, while also yearning, believing, and working towards its very real coming.\u00a0 This is of course good news.<\/p>\n

The barrier of sin still exists to keep us from living out the ethical mandate of the Kingdom.\u00a0 This is where Nullens and Michener develop a strong framework for the importance of Christian ethics.\u00a0 It is through the Son, sent by the Father, that on the cross sin is conquered and humans are restored into Trinitarian relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.\u00a0 The ethical call of the Old Testament is then renewed in the New Testament as equipping all humanity for every good work, that is an ethical life that manifests the kingdom of God (2 Timothy 3:17). However, this ethical state can only come through Jesus, as through his death and resurrection we are free to enter into relationship with the Father liberated from sin, and empowered and transformed by the Holy Spirit. Thus, we are freed and empowered to live the ethic of Trinitarian love.<\/p>\n

What is more, the authors suggest that this new ethic of love written on our new hearts by the redemption of Christ and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, further allow us to live out the ultimate ethical life, by our broken relationships being radically healed.\u00a0 Sin has entered the world, and broken the relationships that exist between ourselves and God, neighbor, and creation.\u00a0 As Bob Dylan sang, \u201ceverything is broken.\u201d\u00a0 We are broken people and as such fully incapable of joining the Trinitarian love in its redemptive work. \u00a0\u00a0The forgiveness of sin and its banishment, allow for right loving and restored relationships, flowing in both directions, to exist.\u00a0 \u00a0I would add a fourth element to their three part ethical relational structure: God, neighbor, creation, and then self.\u00a0 The work of the cross also heals the broken relationship we have with ourselves (found in our anxieties, neurosis, psychological conflicts, etc.) further opening ourselves up to be a part of the loving mission of the Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Reclaiming Good News<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evangelism simply means good news.\u00a0 I would also suggest that in light of our current world situation, full of violence, exploitation, and ecological stress, that evangelism is much needed.\u00a0 It offers the starting point for all to enter into the true ethical life of Trinitarian love, and to begin to live orientated towards the eschatological desire.\u00a0 It offers personal healing, relationship with God, peace amongst all people, and the restoration of creation.\u00a0 Who wouldn\u2019t want to be a part of that?\u00a0 In fact, it is our best hope at addressing the ethical failings and conundrums of the world, because by entering into right relationship with God we are freed from the barriers of and our brokenness in sin to have our hearts transformed for love and thus act accordingly.<\/p>\n

Ethically and morally, if we care about our neighbor, should we evangelize them?<\/p>\n

Can we speak of and believe that evangelism may even be the source of solving such massive global issues like ecological collapse?<\/p>\n

Can Western Christians recapture a confidence in evangelism once again?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrick Nullens and Ronald T. Michener unpack the intersection of ethics and Christianity in their work The Matrix of Christian Ethics: Integrating Philosophy and Moral Theology in a Postmodern Context.\u00a0 They begin with a definition of ethics as \u201cemphasizing the methodical thinking of morality rather than morality itself (9).\u201d\u00a0 As pertains to Christian ethics they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,233,212],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-evangelism","tag-nullens","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1879,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions\/1879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}