Repenting of Religion , livre ebook

Repenting of Religion
Turning from Judgment to the Love of God
Gregory A. Boyd
© 2004 by Gregory A. Boyd
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
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Ebook corrections 3.21.2012
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To Gina and Richard Patton
You rekindled my love for Bonhoeffer and helped me see the profound antithesis between love and judgment.
Jesus calls men, not to a new religion, but to life.
D IETRICH B ONHOEFFER
Contents
Preface
Introduction: Waking Up to Judgment
Part 1 The Trinity and the Goal of Creation
1. Dancing with the Triune God
2. Life “in Christ”
3. The Center Is Love
Part 2 The Forbidden Tree
4. Becoming the Center
5. Love and Religion
6. Love and Judgment
Part 3 The Lie and the Curse
7. The Lie about God
8. The Lie about Us
9. The Curse
Part 4 Living in Love
10. Reversing the Curse
11. Confronting Pharisees
12. Love, Confession, and Accountability
Epilogue: Repenting of Religion
Notes
Preface
Very rarely is a connection made between love on the one hand and judgment on the other. In this work I argue that they are as inseparably connected as up and down and good and evil. We love only insofar as we abstain from judgment.
Love is the central command in Scripture and judgment the central prohibition. Indeed, judgment is the “original sin” in Scripture. This is why the forbidden tree in the center of the garden the prohibition around which life in the garden revolved was called the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”
In my opinion no topic could be more foundational or more important than this one. It addresses the central purpose for which God created humans (to share in his perfect love) and the central obstacle to fulfilling that purpose (our judgment). Yet the connection between these two rarely has been explored. Partly because of this the body of Christ does not consistently love as Christ loves. Indeed, large segments of the body of Christ mistake their judgment their eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to be love! Tragically, they promote the essence of the fall as though it were salvation.
The primary focus of this work is practical. Several thinkers, the most notable being Dietrich Bonhoeffer, have discussed the all-important antithetical relationship between love and the knowledge of good and evil. But the insight has not to date been discussed on a layperson’s level with the goal of helping people apply it to their lives. My earnest hope and prayer is that the Spirit of God will use this work to help us acquire a vision for the church as a nonreligious community of outrageous love. I pray that God will use this work to help us free ourselves from our addiction to judgment, experience the unsurpassable love of God, and reflect this Calvary-like love toward all people.
As the numerous quotes and endnotes throughout this work will make clear, my thesis has been greatly inspired by my reading of Bonhoeffer. Indeed, this work can be understood as a consistent interaction with his thought. Bonhoeffer’s reflections on love and judgment are highly nuanced, profound, but also difficult for nonacademics to grasp. In this work I try to make the core of his insight accessible to lay readers and academics alike. Toward this end, I have placed much of the more difficult Bonhoeffer material in the endnotes. Lay readers not inclined to wrestle with this material may bypass it and lose nothing of the substance of this work.
At the same time, it needs to be made clear at the start that this work is not intended to be a popularization of Bonhoeffer’s theology. Much of what I have to say was never addressed by Bonhoeffer. Much of what Bonhoeffer has to say, even fascinating aspects of his reflections on the knowledge of good and evil, I do not address. Some of what I have to say takes his thought in new directions that I’m sure he did not anticipate and that may not have met with his approval. And despite the profound respect I have for this hero of the faith, some of what I have to say flatly disagrees with what he said. Acknowledging all of this up front hopefully will prevent students of Bonhoeffer from being disappointed and others who have no interest in Bonhoeffer from being put off.
I am indebted to many aside from Dietrich Bonhoeffer for helping bring this work into being. My thanks to Ed Silvoso, who preached a sermon in 1996 at Woodland Hills Church that first opened my eyes to the antithetical connection between love and judgment. I also must express deep appreciation to Woodland Hills Church in Maplewood, Minnesota, for its loyalty in hearing and living out the innumerable messages on “Love and Judgment” that I have given over the last few years. Most of the ideas articulated in this work were first preached to this vibrant congregation, sometimes numerous times. Thanks for your patience!
My covenant brother Dr. Paul Eddy has offered, as usual, outstanding feedback on early drafts of this work. My dear friends Tyler and Chelsea DeArmond selflessly have given much time to reviewing this work, as they did with several previous works of mine. Most of what I have learned about sharing life in community I have learned from my small group of ten years, Greg and Marsha Erickson, Dave and Terri Churchill, and Julie and Alex Ross. I had no idea how profound and beneficial intimate fellowship could be prior to my relationship with these wonderful friends and colleagues in the battle.
As is the case with all my writings and indeed my entire ministry, this work would not have been possible without the constant love and support of my precious wife, Shelley, as well as my three delightful children, Denay, Alisha, and Nathan. Finally, while I had read Bonhoeffer in years past, the profundity of his reflections on the nature of “the knowledge of good and evil” largely escaped me until I met Gina and Richard Patton. They not only reintroduced me to Bonhoeffer but also inspired many of the reflections I offer in this book. The book as a whole has benefited greatly from the many dialogues and debates we have enjoyed on this and related issues over the last several years. It is thus with profound gratitude that I dedicate this work to them.
Introduction Waking Up to Judgment
And the L ORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Genesis 2:16
The knowledge of good and evil seems to be the aim of all ethical reflection. The first task of Christian ethics is to invalidate this knowledge.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
An Experience of Love
I am sitting in a mall on a Saturday afternoon. As I sip my Coke and relax, I study people. I notice some are pretty and some are not. Some are slender; some are obese. On the basis of what they wear, their facial expressions, the way they relate to their spouses, friends, or kids, I conclude some are “godly” while others are “ungodly.” Some give me a warm feeling as I watch their tenderness toward their children. Others make me angry or disgusted.
Then suddenly I notice I’m noticing all this . Believing as I do that every activity we engage in, including our thinking, is for a purpose, I begin to wonder what purpose this silent commentary about other people is serving. After a moment’s introspection I realize it is on some level making me feel good. It is in a sense feeding me. It’s satisfying some need I have to stand in judgment over people. Deep down, I enjoy being the one who at least before the tribunal of my own mind gets to pronounce the verdict: Pretty. Ugly. Good figure. Fat. Godly. Ungodly. Disgusting. Cute. And so on.
With this insight came another, this one, I am sure, prompted by the Holy Spirit. I recalled that Jesus taught wherever we go, our first responsibility is to bless people (Luke 10:5). I recalled Scripture teaches us to think and speak evil of no one (Titus 3:2; James 4:11). Instantly I was convicted by how many nonblessing thoughts indeed, how many cursing thoughts I had been entertaining without even being aware of it.
So I stopped. I determined to have one thought, and one thought only, about every person I saw in the mall on that afternoon: it was to love them and bless them as people uniquely created by God who have infinite worth because Jesus died for them. Whatever they looked like, however they were behaving, whatever their demeanor, I simply agreed with God that each of them has infinite worth. I just loved them. I began randomly selecting people in the crowd to love and bless.
As I replaced judgmental thoughts with loving thoughts and prayers of blessing, something extraordinary began to happen. I began to see the worth I was ascribing to people, and I began to feel the love I was giving to them. As I ascribed worth to people, not allowing any other thought, opinion, or f