A Statement of Faith is an example of this systematic approach. Statements of Faith are attempts at a brief systematic theology (systematitis) by breaking the Story into fragmented parts that are held up as “final” beliefs to which one is to ascribe, believing that it has captured all knowable truth on the subject visited. However, I believe that Story is the beginning of belief not the conclusion of belief. The church needs to have restored to her a sense of the “whole” that emphasizes history and story as God’s method of revealing himself to her. Could it be that even the early “creeds” like the Apostle’s Creed was a shorthand Story beginning with God the creator of the universe and ending with everlasting life and not really a “statement of faith” in the sense of what “statements of faith” have become today?
While at odds with each other, those following the legacy of Schleiermacher and those following the legacy of Hodge have one thing in common: they seek to maintain the credibility of Christianity within a culture that glorifies reason and deifies science.[ref]Stanley J. Grenz and John R. Franke. Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context. 37).[/ref]
Could it be that the foundation of nonfoundationalism is to believe that there is no foundation? What then of a possible solution? Scripture appears to speak of an objectivity of a future eschatological world that is God’s determined will for his creation. How do we proceed toward this eschatological world? According to Grenz and Frank, we have a mandate that says that we are to be participants in God’s work of constructing a new world that reflects God’s own will for his creation, a world which finds its connectedness with Jesus Christ. Where do we find this mandate? We discover it through the Spirit’s primary tool: narrative/story. In God’s Story the Spirit’s goal is to bring us to view all reality in accordance with God’s program for recreation.[ref]Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context. 53-54).[/ref] The redemptive event in which Christians have participated makes each a Story liver and Storyteller as she or he lives as a newly created being for the sake of the world while telling others the Story by deed and word. Will we know or discover absolute truth? Only in the eschaton will we know truth in its absolute fullness. Until then we read the Story/stories and live the Story/stories to our fullest capacity with the empowerment of the Spirit.
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