Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This episode is the fourth of a four-part series where Gregg reads excerpts from—and comments on—an excellent conversation that took place in the Untangling Christianity Facebook group. All comments and names are used with permission of the authors.
In this podcast Gregg engages with Amy’s comments about “preaching the Word of God” and “sensing the the Holy Spirit’s movement.” He notes that the “typical” evangelical response is one that focuses almost entirely on trust and belief. Yet Gregg explains that belief and trust are not “biblical principles” in that neither one of them “stands alone” but, instead, each in fact represents one “pole” of a complimentary opposition (or a mutually-informing tension).
So in order best to engage with Amy’s comments he takes the approach of decreasing trust and belief and increasing suspicion and scepticism. For example, Gregg is skeptical—that is, he doubts or finds it rather questionable or simply does not believe—that most Christians without exegetical training (and likely without a commentary in hand, in the pew) would know if a verse is being taken “in context” or not. Similarly, Gregg is suspicious—that is, wary of false orientations and hidden motivations—about how Christians view humility. Specifically, evangelical culture tends to value certain virtues (such as humility) more than other virtues (such as confidence). Yet in my experience it is just as easy to hide unvirtuous motivations behind a veneer of humility as it is to misrepresent a confident person as “proud.” Further, humility also is not a “Biblical principle” but, instead, confidence and humility are two poles within a “productive opposition” (or a necessary tension). So both are equally valuable.