The neo-orthodox hermeneutic of the Bible requires that each person read the words for him or herself. There can be no replacement for personal submersion into the scriptures. It is only when an individual reads for him or herself that the scriptures become valid for that person. So, too is the spiritual life and the experiences of the people of faith throughout time. God is valid when we have experiences of God.
Karl Barth's humanism can easily be found in this week's Advent reading. The transcendent God speaking in 2 Samuel 7:5 "But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, "Go and tell my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord: Would you build a house for me to dwell in?" God speaks from beyond everything to Nathan to become known in the world. What is the house of the Lord, though?
Any definition of the house of the Lord is not necessarily going to be able to hold the entire concept of a deity. Usually people think of a church or of a temple. Because Jesus is incarnate, or at this point on the way, the Archangel Gabriel announces that Mary has been blessed to carry Jesus. Furthermore, the Archangel announces that God has done so. This is the humanistic workings of the Transcendent God found in neo-orthodoxy. In time, neo-orthodox theology gave birth to liberation theology and postliberalism. These social uses of the gospel find themselves to be an incomplete understanding and explanation of "housing" God.
While I was in graduate school the first time, my classmates as I would converse about what would be after the postmodern age. We decided that what would be next would be another Renaissance that a lot of us were already experiencing in our lives. As we tried to find a way to explain our thoughts, we turned to what we called "The Age of Love." After our jokes about the hippies and the Age of Aquarius were done, we decided that what the world and humanity really needed was a return to agape love. If we called it Christianity though, someone would control it.
What our minds and hearts decided, standing in front of Hudspeth Hall at UTEP, was that no tradition or explanation could really define God. We had found our attempt to find a new explanation in which to house what we were going to call the next age was really the beginning. What happened in the beginning? God.
God created the world and so loved it to save it. Some parts of Christianity argue that there is a messiah in every generation. We are to be little Christs. We are to rebuild and fulfill our mission. We make attempts at explaining our experiences in the hopes that there will be a new way to house God for us.
We cannot house the transcendent God of neo-orthodoxy. We cannot house the ideas that we have to explain what we believe. However, was the 19th century can give to us for the transcendent God is a place where conversation can begin to bring a humanistic social gospel that requires human action to further the mission can be discussed a lived. Yet, what is the message that houses a transcendent God?
The Archangel says it all, "You are blessed."
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