Category Archives: Hermeneutics

Our Postmodern Moment: “Truth Is Stranger than It Used to Be” 28 Years Later

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Over the past decade, a number of people have commented that the book Brian Walsh and I wrote addressing the postmodern situation, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age (IVP, 1995), seemed to be written for our twenty-first century context since it spoke directly to issues current in Western (and especially, North American) culture. (As a person from the Majority World, I would say that these issues are actually global.)

One of the comments about the book’s relevance came from Chris Stratton, the editor of an online journal for United Methodist pastors and theological students called Catalyst. Chris had recently reread the book and wondered if I would write an online article reflecting on the analysis from nearly thirty years ago, exploring its significance for our contemporary situation of tribalism and toxic polarization. He suggested the title “Our Postmodern Moment.”

Chris originally asked me in 2021, but I was too busy with other writing projects and deferred the article until Spring 2023. I say “article,” but it turned out that I needed to write three articles! Or, more accurately, a three-part article.

I retained Chris’s suggestion of “Our Postmodern Moment” as the overall title and gave the three parts descriptive subtitles. PDFs of each part may be downloaded below (the original links to Catalyst are no longer active).

1. Our Postmodern Moment, Part 1: Diagnosing the Problem

Part 1 revisits the analysis of the postmodern condition that Brian Walsh and I proposed, while fleshing it out in line with how I have been teaching these matters over the years (as part of graduate and undergraduate courses on a Christian worldview).

2. Our Postmodern Moment, Part 2: The Biblical Metanarrative

Part 2 explores some of the resources of Scripture for our current context in terms of how God relates to human subjectivity, agency, and disorientation (drawing on cues I have noticed in the biblical narrative through from my research and teaching over the years).

3. Our Postmodern Moment, Part 3: Christian Discipleship in a Polarized World

Part 3 was the most difficult to write, since I wanted to give practical guidance on how to live out the Christian faith in a toxic culture, which has often infiltrated the church. It is especially addressed to pastors and other church leaders.

Three Umpires

In Part 1 of the article I retell the story (quoted in Truth Is Stranger than It Used to Be) about three umpires explaining how they judge baseball games.

Three umpires were having a beer after a baseball game. One said: “There’s balls and there’s strikes and I call ’em the way they are.” The next umpire replied: “There’s balls and there’s strikes and I call ’em the way I see ’em.” The third umpire said: “There’s balls and there’s strikes and they ain’t nothin’ until I call ’em.”

This story, originally meant to be a joke, quite seriously illustrates different approaches to “truth” in our world today; it is particularly relevant to our so-called “post-truth” culture.

Parts 2 and 3 of the article return to this story to clarify the paradox of how Christians can legitimately claim a normative position (the truth is out there), while recognizing our ineradicably subjectivity (we only approach the truth through our perspectives). This paradox has implications both for how we read the Bible and for we relate to our neighbors with whom we may disagree radically.

I would be very interested in hearing responses from readers.

A Conversation on Biblical Eschatology with J. Richard Middleton (Interview with Seminary Now)

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Seminary Now recently released my Biblical Eschatology course, where I look at how the Bible’s vision for the end connects with the entire biblical story.

In connection with the course, Seminary Now posted this blog interview in which they asked me various questions about my journey to eschatology, my understanding of creation to the end times, and the role of the pastor as it relates to teaching churches about eschatology.

How did you become interested in eschatology?

I was a 20-year old undergraduate theology student trying to understand God’s purposes for the world beyond the church. Since I wasn’t planning on going into pastoral or church “ministry,” I wondered about how—and to what extent—God cared about life in the ordinary, so-called “secular” world. I guess I was wondering if I could serve God if I wasn’t doing something intrinsically “spiritual” like pastoring.

This led me to study the theme of the kingdom of God throughout the Bible, both where it was explicit—as in the teaching of Jesus—and where it was implicit. I traced the kingdom theme from God as ruler of creation to the consummation of God’s purposes in the new heaven and new earth, when the kingdom fully comes and God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. 

So, I found biblical eschatology to be very helpful for understanding where history is going and how much God values (and wants to save) this created world. Ultimately, I came to understand that earth is meant to be the sacred realm in which we serve God and that all sorts of ordinary human activities are equally “spiritual.”

What does preaching on eschatology look like from the pulpit? How and why is introducing the church to the concept important for redeeming each day and God’s work in it?

Preaching on eschatology rarely has to be explicit. Mostly it is about communicating a strong sense that God cares about earthly life and wants to redeem us in the fullness of our humanity. 

The point is that eschatology (like every other theme and topic in the Bible) isn’t there for our intellectual curiosity. Rather, the entire Bible is meant to empower us to live more faithfully as disciples of Jesus. 

But this requires that we frame our lives by the wonderful biblical story of God’s desire to redeem the world he made, centered in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Given that our lives are typically framed by the idolatrous narratives of our culture (which we are socialized into and come to believe at an implicit level), good preaching is meant to ground us in the alternative narrative the Bible tells, while challenging us to let go of those attitudes and practices that are not congruent with this narrative. 

So the primary duty of preaching is to reshape the imaginations of God’s people to take this story and its goal (the new creation) so seriously that it transforms how we live in the present. As I write in my book, “Ethics is lived eschatology.”

Many of us find it hard to understand the connection between heaven and earth. What is that connection and why does it matter?

The place to start is Genesis 1:1, which says that in the beginning God created heaven and earth. Heaven and earth in the Bible are the two primary aspects of the created order. 

According to Psalm 115:16, “The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, / but the earth he has given to human beings.” Earth is our realm; heaven is not. Heaven is the realm beyond the earth; it is thus “transcendent,” which simply means “beyond.” The Bible claims that heaven is where God has set up his throne (Pss. 2:4; 11:4; 103:19; Isa. 66:1; Amos 9:6; Matt. 5:34; 23:22). Yet heaven is also the realm of the sun, moon, and stars—along with the angelic host (Ps. 148:2–3). 

This doesn’t mean that God literally lives “up there” among the stars or out beyond Saturn or Alpha Centauri. Instead, God’s throne in heaven, from which he rules the earth, is a way of speaking of God’s transcendence. Yet, paradoxically, because heaven is part of the created order (in the Bible), God’s throne in heaven also speaks of God’s immanence. Having created the world, God took up residence in part of it. But the earth currently lacks the fullness of God’s presence. The Bible anticipates that God will bring history to its goal at Christ’s return, when God will make all things new. 

At that time, God’s throne will shift from heaven to earth (Rev. 21:3, 5; 22:1, 3) and God’s glory will so fill the earth that the earth will finally be conformed to heaven. 

How has your own view of God and creation been changed as a result of your study of eschatology?

My study of eschatology was the beginning of a trajectory that led to me becoming a biblical scholar and teacher of the Bible. Biblical eschatology was the starting point for me coming to a more holistic vision of God’s purposes for this world. This vision has inspired and energized me to live towards the vision of God’s kingdom in my personal life and to communicate this amazing vision of God’s unfailing love for his creation (both human and nonhuman) to others. 

My study of eschatology led to a more profound understanding of—and love for—God. And it generated in me a passionate desire to share what I have learned with Christ’s church. 

So many of us have been confused about eschatology, and I don’t mean just about the crazy predictions of the future that Christians have tried to get from the Bible. More importantly, we’re confused about God’s purposes for earthly life. But it’s really pretty simple. It’s summed up in Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you? / To act justly and to love mercy / and to walk humbly with your God.” Biblical eschatology is focused on helping us to live according to God’s righteous intentions for human, earthly life.

The Genius of Bob Marley’s “One Love / People Get Ready”

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Bob Marley’s “One Love / People Get Ready” transforms Curtis Mayfield’s original song in the direction of mercy and grace for “hopeless sinners.”

“One Love” was clearly influenced by the Curtis Mayfield song “People Get Ready” (recorded with the Impressions in 1965). The way Marley quotes (and changes) the lyrics of the Mayfield song amounts to a critique of the self-righteousness of many in the church (and in the wider society).

Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready“

Mayfield’s song is about the salvation train and what it takes to get on board. The second verse says:

Open the doors and board ’em
There’s hope for all
Among those loved the most

But the next verse goes on to say:

There ain’t no room for the hopeless sinner
Who would hurt all mankind just to save his own (believe me now)
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
For there is no hiding place against the Kingdom’s Throne

“People Get Ready” is a wonderful song that functioned as an anthem in the American civil rights movement. And I have no intention of denigrating the song or the way it functioned.

Mayfield’s song makes a clear distinction between “those loved the most,” who have a place on the salvation train, and “hopeless sinners.” It claims that there’s no room for these sinners on the salvation train; they are “hopeless.”

While the song goes on to say that we should have pity on these sinners, the reason is that they will inevitably experience judgment (with “no hiding place”).

Now, I don’t deny that there is a real distinction to be made between someone who seeks love and justice and the person “who would hurt all mankind just to save his own.” Nor would Bob Marley.

The question is whether we can decide who fits into which category and so who is excluded from the salvation train. Who do we think are the “hopeless sinners”? This is especially important in our time of toxic polarization and identity politics in American society.

Marley himself had to address this sort of polarization in Jamaica, given the tradition of warring gangs, each of which was aligned with one of the two main political parties.

Bob Marley’s “One Love”

So Marley uses these key lines from “People Get Ready” in “One Love,” while changing “against the Kingdom’s Throne” to “from the Father of Creation.” Whereas “Kingdom’s Throne” suggests judgment, “the Father of Creation” suggests one who loves us.

That is why Marley prefaces these lines with his desire that the sinners be saved (“there will be no, no doom”).

In the quote below, “Armagiddyon” is Marley’s phonetic spelling of Armageddon, the symbolic place of the final battle between good and evil. Marley suggests that we should be fighting this battle now; and we should be fighting against evil (not against the sinners).

Let’s get together to fight
this Holy Armagiddyon (One Love!)
So when the Man comes
there will be no, no doom (One Song!)
Have pity on those
whose chances grows thinner
There ain’t no hiding place
from the Father of Creation

But perhaps the most profound lines of all in the song come in the first verse, where Marley challenges those who are scandalized by the radical forgiveness the gospel offers to sinners (that’s why they and “pass all their dirty remarks”).

Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One Love!)
There is one question I’d really love to ask (One Heart!)
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind
just to save his own?
Believe me: One Love . . . .

Note that Marley rephrases the statement in Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” that there is no room for these “hopeless sinners” into a question, raising the possibility of their redemption.

You can download the entire lyrics to “One Love / People Get Ready” here.

Both in his music and in his life, Marley actively sought to turn even “hopeless sinners” from their ways so they could be reconciled to God and to others.

The 1978 Peace Concert

A famous example is the 1978 Peace Concert in Kingston, Jamaica, in which Marley got Michael Manley and Edward Seaga, the leaders of the two opposing political parties in Jamaica, to join hands on stage as he prayed a blessing over them.

You can read an account of the events that led up to the concert in this 2022 article in the Jamaica Observer.

This documentary about the concert also explains the situation that led up to the concert (and the temporary reconciliation between rival political gangs; sadly, it did not last).

The actual concert footage is quite long. If you want to see the section where Bob calls up the leaders of the two political parties and pronounces a blessing on them, go to the 1-hour and 17-minute mark (this section is about four minutes long). Bob’s antics on stage remind me of a Pentecostal preacher calling down the power of the Spirit.

In my next post, I’ll recommend some writings that analyze the lyrics of Marley’s songs:

Kwame Dawes, Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius

Dean MacNeil, The Bible and Bob Marley: Half the Story Has Never Been Told 

Hugh Hodges,  Soon Come: Jamaican Spirituality, Jamaican Poetics, chap. 7: “Walk Good: Bob Marley and the Oratorical Tradition”

The Subversive Spirituality of Reggae

On February 17, 2023 I gave a presentation called “The Subversive Spirituality of Reggae: ‘Resisting against the System’ in the Music of Bob Marley & the Wailers,” in Rochester, NY. It was held at the Joy Gallery. Thanks to artist and RIT professor, Luvon Sheppard, for hosting us. The presentation was sponsored by the Rochester Jamaican Organization in celebration of Reggae Month.