His basic premise seems to be belief in universal salvation. I personally have not spent much time evaluating the merits of the this theological position but Campolo makes a few strong arguments.
At the outset Campolo reveals a dynamic I have been noticing in youth culture. The fear of Hell is not a motivating factor in helping people to follow Christ. In fact he suggests and I would agree that in many ways we negate the ‘hell’ that people go through right here and now by how we have come to understand the concept of hell especially in our Evangelical contexts.
He moves to presenting four basic options on what reasonable spiritual possibilities exist. Listen:
Later on in the article he says,” Please, don’t get me wrong. I am well aware that I don’t get to decide who God is. What I do get to decide, however, is to whom I pledge my allegiance. I am a free agent, after all, and I have standards for my God, the first of which is this: I will not worship any God who is not at least as compassionate as I am.”
This is where the hinge pin of Campolo’s thinking lies in his belief in universal salvation. You would think that someone who believes in universal salvation would be have a weak impetus for evangelism. I find Campolo quite the opposite. Listen to this:
I think the place where I wrestle with Campolo’s ideas is the perspective from which he comes. That being: that recognizing our own subjective perspective on live and truth we have some authority to decide the nature of who God is. I think that logically I have a problem with a concept of God that has the potential to be that inconsistent – from one person to another.
I have to say this article and well the whole issue has really challenged my thinking I would strongly recommend you pick up a copy.
4 comments:
Wow i really like the new look Dale, did you have to pay for this one...i have never seen these before...
thanks Paul
this one was free
I did a bit of modifying but in the end I liked additional script that makes the menu bars move
Sorry, I haven't been 'around' much lately. It's been a busy season. Spent some time scanning posts today and admit I havn't had the time to delve into them adequately. This one caught my attention because Campolo's comments sounded a lot like comments I heard on TV a while back. It's big of Campolo to acknowledge that he can't decide who God is. It seems, however, that in his quest to understand who God is, he is filtering the data through his perception of what sort of God he is willing to pledge his allegiance to.
I might suggest that he take a semester or two of studying logic as well. To hold that a God who would permit individuals to go without salvation is less compassionate than he may well be a logical fallacy. Is Campolo suggesting that he would send his only son to die to provide the means of salvation for a people who would reject that salvation? It's plausible to consider that one would be willing to sacrifice one's child for the salvation of all humanity (especially with the foreknowledge that your son would rise again). It is considerably less plausible to consider the same sacrifice with full knowledge that the majority of humanity would scorn the offer.
My contention is that God's compassion is expressed precisely through the magnitude of His offer with full knowledge that most will reject the offer.
good point clinton
i saw that deficiency as well in campolo's logic. If God is to be God at all he must somehow be bigger than the parameters of my subjective perceptions or desires. And certainly the sacrificial atonement provided by Christ indicates that we need(ed) to be atoned FROM something which would not be the case if we universally granted immunity from the consequence of rejecting God's offer.
I do think that Campolo does push us/me to consider how quickly we move to a perception of God as judge in our efforts to populate hell with people who don't agree with us. And effortlessly this transforms faith into religiousity that is shallow in prescriptive ritual. Christian propaganda machine is tireless in the way it boosts the fear factor of hell and evil. i think the most telltale sign of this is how shallow our view heaven is. Frankly, the common Christian understanding of heaven is very weak and dull. But why should we focus our energy on heaven when our fearful imaginations can run wild with Hell and who gets to go there...
Post a Comment