Theological Statement

I. Prolegomenon

            My effort to offer a theology of ministry and work, namely, to understand God working in the world--is part of a persistent dialectical enterprise, grounded in a desire to participate in the ancient conversation between God, and the people of God, and to facilitate sharing among the People of God.  It is faith seeking understanding, which requires an intellectual appreciation of God, namely, reflective theology.  At the center of this activity is faith, which makes the enterprise possible.  The foundational element in this worldview is a transcendent God, the creator of heaven and earth.  The pursuit of this appreciation must involve a comprehensive view of reality.  It must concern itself with life before human existence, the interaction of the creations of God and ultimate heavenly union with God. 

            God has given the children of God appreceptive qualities so that we might come closer to the divine reality within our lives on the earth.  At the center of our gift is Jesus Christ, the insight of salvation.  Christ is the determinative norm for life.  Christ allows us to see the reality of self-giving or what Paul Achtemier has described this as the "self-limitation" of Christ that should be assumed by all of our Lord's disciples.  For Calvin, as well as Wesley, the created world is the theater of God's glory.  Christ's life is a historic fact, making us historic people.

            We understand this history via a number of means; the witness of scripture allows us to share in the insight of those assembled at the feet of Christ, as well as their spiritual patrimony. Theology enables a more thorough understanding of God in the here and now, as the attempt is made to connect theos and logos; history tells us of the provisional fulfillment of Christ in the Old Testament and the history of Christ itself in the New Testament, augmented by accounts of the saints who have kept the message alive for succeeding generations.  My pedagogical enterprise is an effort to understand God's self-gift, and it possesses personal and historic dimensions.  These characteristics of the divine imperative are most easily and completely accessible via Scripture and the teaching of the Church.  Any attempt to accurately portray the situation of the Church is exasperated when it is done only through the lens of contemporary culture, without an appreciation of the claims of classical Christianity, or what Thomas Oden describes as "postcritical orthodoxy."[1]

            At the center of my awareness of God is my agreement with Gregory of Nazianzen: "When I say God, I mean Father[2], Son and Holy Ghost."[3]  Such a formulation makes God knowable in as complete a form as possible.  The Trinitarian formula allows me to fully comprehend the presence of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit as coeternal and pre-existing as well as participating in creation.  Our history is the history of the activity of the Trinity. 

            Matthew 28:19 presents the most thoroughgoing depiction of the Trinity.  The early church understood the Trinitarian description to convey the completeness of God in the life of the Church and in history.  The Trinity encompasses the narrative of salvation, allowing for a comprehensive account of the origin, redemption and culmination of the people of God.  The movement can only fully be understood by this three-fold activity. 

            One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit functions as the Holy Trinity, but the name Trinity does not constitute a replacement for the naming of the elements.  This is a technical term.  Within the doctrine of the Trinity there is a unity of the Godhead with three manifestations.  Perichoresis, a mutual indwelling or mutual containing within the Trinity, exists and can be understood as communication within the Godhead.  As the assembled body of Christ we must emulate this sharing.  The foundations of Christian ministry--and our understanding of it--as well as the Christian life, must be founded upon this premise.

            My understanding becomes more complete when the explication is continued in the form of an elucidation of the defining qualities of God.  The initial understanding is God as Father, the Almighty.[4]  To begin with earthly fatherhood and project it on God is incorrect.  I refer to God as father because Jesus called God Abba, father.  The Father is the Father of the Son.  If Jesus had not used this term, it would not have become normative.  This does not suggest a paternalistic God, unsympathetic to the feminine aspects of the Godhead, but a means of incorporating the historic understanding of God.  Abba is used on several occasions, including in the garden.  Irenaeus suggested the use of Abba noted the Father as unique in the sense that it was intimate speech; The closeness of speech a young child would use when speaking to a parent.  And once God is understood as Father, Jesus must be perceived in correlative sense as the Son. 

            God looks at the earth in a commanding way.  God has power over all life, God is omnipotent.  God is not the heavenly force of the Platonic demiurge or Aristotle's "unmoved mover."  God rules all things visible and invisible.  The rule of God is not by divine fiat; on the contrary, it is premised upon a love for the children of God, His "emptying" for our salvation.  God encompasses the whole of our existence.  Through the resurrection the fullness of God's complete power can be appreciated.

            The awareness of God comes primarily from knowing God as and via Jesus Christ.  Christians naturally look to Jesus.  While one may be uncomfortable with what is sometimes described as Barth's "Christomonism," the centrality of Christ, it serves as an important reminder of the person and work of God in Christ as an active testimony to Christians today.  We know about sin only because it was overcome in Christ.  Christ serves as the revealer of the Father (Galatians 1:16); Christ expresses the image of the Father's Glory (Hebrews 1:3); and Christ shows the image of God with humankind (Romans 5:12-21).  We are now able to see God more completely, and to comprehend the self-giving of God even more thoroughly. 

            When we talk about God we are also talking about the Holy Spirit.  We discuss God in the order we know God, and while the third person has always been divine, the Church did not give a full account of the Holy Spirit until the Fourth Century.  The Holy Spirit comes upon Christ and Christ in turn sends the Holy Spirit, as John promises.  Paul clearly has the notion that in the internal life of God the Holy Spirit is distinguishable.  The Spirit is distinct and has been revealed to us.  The Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit is God.  With the Holy Spirit, we grasp Jesus Christ, and in comprehending of Jesus, we know the Father. 

b) Some Spiritual Mentors Who Can Assist Such An Understanding

            Such an understanding of God has persisted against self-imposed obstacles.  As a student of social and political thought, the I was forced to return to God as I attempted to study the role revelation assumed in political theory.  In a sense, these figures allowed for an extraction and rearticulation of an orthodox Reformation account of God.  The first periagoge or turn came with Moses, who in the midst of a transition, proved that movement in one's life was an essential part of the theological enterprise.

            It is Moses in his transition who connects the relatively compact world of Memphite theology to Christianity.  This new differentiated field of experience is the most important break with the older order, but the role of Moses is even more epochal:

The unique position of Moses has resisted classification by type concepts, as well as articulation through the symbols of the Biblical tradition. He moves in a peculiar empty space between the old Pharonic and the new collective sons of God, between the Egyptian empire and the Israelite theopolity.  On the obscurities surrounding the position of Moses now falls a flood rather than a ray of light, if we recognize in him the man who, in the order of revelation, prefigured,but did not figurate himself, the Son of God.[5]

This symbolization could be understood as an effort to "overcome" the compactness of the Egyptian order  and the movement towards the more highly developed Christian period.  Through Moses and the messianic symbolism attached to him, we have the beginning of the "divine order" that results in Jesus.  Moses embodies the characteristics of the "Son of God," although he is reluctant to accept the challenge of the charge.  The "Son of God" is more than the figure of Moses, it must include the movement from Egypt, which Moses leads.  Moses must also organize and guide a group of people who have refrained from making the necessary sacrifices and commitments for the sojourn out of Egypt.  At one juncture his followers accuse Moses of attempting to kill them on the journey and ask him to return to Egypt.[6]  Moses perseveres and regains his control of a skeptical lot.  So we find in Moses, the teacher and seeker of order, the basis for a transformation of a clan of Hebrews into the divinely-inspired nation.  Moses can undertake such a mission precisely because he experienced the theophanic reality, and Israel as the "Son of God" could have never existed had it not been for Moses.  The creation of Israel is the experience of Moses's "leap in being," his extraordinary advancement in perception that he shares with the Israelites.  This presence allowed the people of Israel to understand the human condition much more thoroughly than any previous civilization had been able to understand it; in this sense, Moses presents, translates, and fulfills the requirement placed upon him by the God that remains valid for Christian ministry--present God's message accurately and as completely as one possibly can to the people of God.[7]  The demand on the disciple remains intact, regardless of circumstances.  David Steinmetz has described Carl Michalson's translation of this idea for a Christian cleric: "...preach the faith of the Church even if they could not claim the whole of that faith for themselves.  The Church, he said, lives from the word of God; it cannot live from heresy."[8]

            The expatriation of the Israelites marks the decline of the Pharaonic order.  Egypt is no longer the most favored empire and it must surrender its status in the world.  Yahweh forces the Pharaoh to relinquish his title of the "Son of God" and it is assumed by Israel; therefore, it is no longer bestowed on a single individual.  Egypt can never again exert the control it possessed in the past; the Pharaoh, in an effort to save his kingdom, appeals to Moses and Aaron to depart quickly and promises not to attempt to follow the emigres.[9]   The post-exodus Egypt will not be the same as before, for now a greater power than the Pharaonic will have been recognized and it is Moses as teacher who presents this community and message to the world.

            The new "Son of God" is a coherent social movement, but the group is again unable to provide the necessary leadership to make the departure from Egypt.  It is at this point we notice a more differentiated symbolism making its appearance: the revelation to Moses in Exodus 2 and 3.  In Exodus 2:15-25 the Pharaoh dies and people of Israel remain in bondage and continue to pray for deliverance.  Moses has fled Egypt and is in the land of Midian.  In Midian the God of the Fathers reveals himself and tells Moses he will serve as the leader for the removal of the people of Israel from Egypt.  In verse 25 the condition of the people of Israel is acknowledged by God as a reaffirmation of the Mosaic call.  Eric Voegelin argues Yahweh was already a recognized deity, thereby affirming a procession of symbols that were in the process of change.[10]  Yahweh's entrusting of the fate of Israel to Moses indicates the importance of the revelation.  The procession of tension through Exodus 2 marks the awakening of Moses to his competition with the Egyptian regime.  He has no alternative except to assume the mantel of leadership and suffer the consequences of his decision.  God expresses himself through his actions and these events are evidenced by the instances where we are told "God knew" of the situation of the Israelites.  God is presented as always participating in human history and maintaining a desire to improve the lot of humanity, albeit he does not always take an active role in these activities.

            Above all, a certain sense of balance prevails and the continuity advances our understanding of the figure of Moses and God.  The new order is of the people of God and the revelatory act involving Moses is now shared with his people.  Moses struggles are the struggles of the people of Israel.  The more multi-faceted the conflicts Moses has to encounter, the more multi-faceted the existence of chosen people become.  The Sitz in Leben of the leader translates into the actual setting of his people.  Moses is the man who has freed Israel from the polytheism and superstition and brought it into the presence of the one God.  The function of his prophetic successors is less clear."[11]

            Moses is not the historian of Deuteronomy, but he is a spiritual teacher.  Most profoundly, Moses serves as the nabi, the man in whose heart and mind the "leap of being" occurs.  With Moses the theophanic reality of God in the midst of the people of God becomes more integrated.  Our appreciation of God develops even more thoroughly with the St. Paul, especially the Letter to the Romans.

            The letters and ministry of Paul represent one of the most accessible accounts of the Christian as rearticulator of the faith as it is related to the historical and spiritual tension in early Christianity.  No where are these tensions more obvious than in the Letter to the Romans.  In the letter Paul addresses his flock in Rome in the following fashion: "To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."[12]  We understand Paul's impetus for writing at this point, at least on a superficial level, as being motivated by his love for his fellow communicants.  The letter, now canonized as the sixth book of the New Testament, is the longest letter written by Paul; it contains the most elaborated discussions of the Christian "life" to be found in the Pauline letters.[13]  The letter to the Romans is, therefore, one of the most important documents of the Christian faith--it has been called "the theological epistle par excellence..."[14] 

            Paul's message was to raise the reality of life with God and to preach a message of righteousness.  For Paul the "vision of the Resurrected" was more than a manifestation of the divinity, it was the reformulation of the absolute transcendent.  And as a more practical concern, Paul is simply fulfilling the requirements of this by preaching and proclaiming a regime more strict than the law of the Jews.  Paul was preaching an austere and demanding message, while much of the old world was falling into disorder.  This worldview does not have to be read as a gnostic or utopian exertion, it may have been the work of a man that was given a proclamation, the greatest ever pronounced, and recognized it demanded articulation. 

            Lastly, my own tradition of Reformation Christianity--especially Calvin and Wesley have aided my appreciation of the historic faith of the Church--as well as equiping this servant for facing some of the challenges of contemporary life.  Calvin's idea of just polity, based on notion of moderation and the control of our natural appetites (of which the desire for unlimited personal freedom is our greatest weakness), encouraged my continued study of Christian political thought as an academic pursuit, as well as instilling a notion of restraint as an essential part of my Christian worldview.  Calvin presents his understanding of the need for restraint as a form of personal and societal discipline:

And, I freely admit that no kind of government is more happy than one where freedom is regulated with becoming moderation and is properly established on a durable basis, so also I reckon most happy those permitted to enjoy this state;[15]

The inability of governments to follow God's plan, augmented by the weaknesses of the human conscience to follow the requirements of the Christian life, necessitated the use of earthly vicars to provide for civil rule.  As William Stevenson has argued, Calvin's depiction of the Christian conscious as a negative check, as compared to Aquinas's "incitement," or natural movement towards the good, serves as a reflective tool.[16]  Calvin's conscious is a source for relaying the human separation from the divine, a line of demarcation of sorts for discerning the gap between our perverted souls and the pure divinity of God.[17]

            Both Calvin and Wesley have allowed me to understand the "...the importance of as close a marriage as possible between faith and learning."[18]  Ted Campbell has detailed the relationship between Wesley's affinity for the "manners of Ancient Christians" as a means of understanding and defending the Christian tradition.[19]  Through his rearticulation of holiness, Calvin and Wesley are challenging the social contractarian view of religious life; he also raises the possibility that theological atomism could prevail if such a departure from normative ethos was implanted.  Humankind for these reformers was a social and political existence connected to community and if the connectiveness of the community was disrupted, the social order that had prevailed could falter. 

II.  Confronting the Problem: The Human Factor

            At the core of my faith is a view of humanity and the human need for grace, which comes from our understanding of God the Father, Christ and the Holy Spirit, with an appreciation of the centrality of creation as an ongoing Christian concern.  God created humankind in the likeness of God; however, fallen humankind has throughout the centuries attempted to recreate God in their own image; although when we are at our best as children of God, we are serving our divine purpose.  When such allegiance is perpetuate as creations of God, we can be "received with blessings" (I Timothy 4:3-5), as we have attempted to return to communion with God.[20]

            By examining the image of God, Imago Dei, and our genesis in this image, we can overcome such limitations and actually reverse such distractions and return to a fuller knowledge and love of God and a deeper appreciation of ourselves as children of God. 

            Wesley suggested that if you want to know humankind in the image of God, one first had to see the renewal of humankind in Jesus Christ.  Christ becomes the last Adam.  He provides for a revolutionary reversal of humankind in the image of God.  We now read the Hebrew Bible with an enlightened understanding of the continued theophanic reality of God.  We can know sin in all its destructiveness because of how it was overcome in Christ.  The person of Christ provides the basis for this breakthrough. 

            Among the contributors to this appreciation are the image of God at the end of the first chapter of Genesis; the witness of the New Testament; and Christ as image of God from the side of humankind and from the side of God.  Christ reveals the Father to us and serves as the mediatory cause by presenting the image of God from humankind and allowing the acknowledgment of humankind in the likeness of God (Romans 5:12-21).  Christ, then, is the newer and greater Adam.

            As one who was created in the image of God, we can know God.  As Geoffrey Wainwright suggests, the relationship is not "symmetrical."[21]  We are connected to God, and without this connectiveness we would not exist.  To understand this conjunction we must see the characteristics of the bond; and we begin such a process by understanding the three central manifestations: communion with God, the human vocation on earth, and humans as social beings. 

            Being created in the image of God means we are formed to be in communion with God, or friendship with God.  God wants us to enjoy fellowship.  One of the most important signs of this is language.  God claims us and asks us to respond.  This is the dialogical constitution of human existence.  In Christ, we can know our role in such communion.  We are weak, but God is strong and our strength comes from allowing God's plan to be our plan.  Being in communion with God also means we are free in the sense our Creator is free.  This gives us the freedom to be as utterly human as God is utterly God.  Such a notion can be dangerous given the fact that the freedom of modern liberal democracy--the earthly freedom we know--is actually bondage to a substantial degree.  Freedom with God has special meaning.  The second collect of the Book of Common Prayer declares this freedom in God:

O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom: Defend us, thy humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.[22]

            The freedom God offers makes us most free when we are most thoroughly God's!  Augustine's admonition to love God and do as you will is a reminder of this in our lives. It is a reminder of the need for complete devotion to God. 

            The second part of being in communion with God is our role as stewards of the earth, God's created order. We are given this control not as destroyers of the creation, but as servants who seek to represent God in such a way as to exalt God's holy name.  The material elements used in the sacraments of the Church present a model for the use of the divine elements in the relation between God and humanity.  We share in the fullness of God's love by participation in the care of God's creations.

            Lastly, as creatures created in the image of God we are social beings.  At the creation of humankind in Genesis 1:26 a social model is proposed: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."  The relationship of divine love for us and our love of God has always been understood as a love for each other.  The Trinity reflects this love and helps us develop the Christian social constitution that makes the life in God possible.  In the sacrament of baptism we join the community of faith and we join the family of God.  To refuse to love your brothers and sisters in the faith is a refusal to love God.  The Eucharist symbolizes our continuing love for God and our sharing in the Image of God.  It is a meal we share together with God.  Participation in the Eucharist requires the proper use of God's creations for all of God's children.

            While we are created in the image of God, we remain sinful creatures.  God gives us communion, but we all too often create our own idols.  The human heart, as Calvin suggested, is a factory of idols.   We are sinful creatures and the doctrine of sin, according to William Temple, is one doctrine for which we have empirical proof.  The role of peccatum originale originatum, the condition we find ourselves in after Adam, helps us redefine our relationship to God.  The fall of Adam is humanity's fall.  We must have the grace of God if we are to be redeemed and reconciled.

            While the characteristics of our tradition's concept of divine grace are multifaceted, the position of grace as the genuine and essential act of God's perfect love for humankind can inform our inquiry.  Humans are in a rather hopeless situation, removed from an intimate relation with God due to human sin.  As we begin to acknowledge the limitations of our condition, usually at a point where we are experiencing "...the sleep of death, the weights of...a burden (sin) too heavy to be borne," we can appreciate the inner working of God's grace.[23]    The normative concept of grace requires a response that is antithetical to "indolent inactivity."[24]  In God's grace we find the hope that brings order to our lives.  Without such a concept of grace, "...the cosmos itself would fly into disarray and chaos."[25]  This grace can operate in a variety of forms, but it always assumes the sign of God's love of humanity.  Such a full appreciation of divine grace is essential to the life of the believer.  Grace is at the core of my theological enterprise and my recognition of the sacraments.  By naming these essential habits in such a way, I have sided with the general trend of the Reformation to avoid describing the elements as "marks."  The "means" are to serve as an external sign of an interior grace and assume either an instituted or prudential form.  Among the instituted means, prayer assumes the pre-eminent position, described as the "chief" source.[26]  We must thank God for the grace of God and seek to conform to it.  Divine grace offers us the opportunity to restore our relationship and a rememoration of our creation in the image of God.

III. Christ as Fatum

            Luther responded to the second article of the Nicene Creed, "And in one Lord Jesus Christ," by summarizing it anew: "I believe that Jesus Christ, true God born of the Father in eternity, and also true man born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord...."[27]  Christ is given the title at the decisive event in the history of creation, the Resurrection, and we have hints of this connection throughout the New Testament.  We find examples of Jesus as Lord in I Corinthians 6:14, when we are told God "raised the Lord Jesus" and in Romans 10:9: "...because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."  In addition to the confessions, Acts 2:36 mentions the exaltation of Jesus as Lord and God. 

            Throughout the centuries the Church has affirmed that Jesus Christ is Kyrios.  The depiction of Lordship was certainly part of the earliest Christian confessions.  Jesus made it clear that the Messiah was not only David's son, but David's Lord; Jesus was Lord (Mark 12:37).[28] This is a remembering of what Christ has done and what shall take place in the future. 

            The Creed gives us the story of the one Lord, and tells us Christ will return.  We confess Christ as Lord at our Baptism, and we invoke Christ as Lord when we pray.  We make this confession because Christ is our Lord, the one who lived, died and was resurrected.  The one who, according to Wesley's Twenty Five Articles of Methodism, was: "...two whole and perfect natures--that is to say, the Godhead and manhood--were joined together in one person...one Christ, very God and very man."[29]  But Jesus was with the Father before the Creation and is now at the right hand of the Father serving as our intercessor.  Christ as Lord serves not as an oppressive tyrant, but as the model of Christian virtue.  The royal office of Christ is the royal office of the Father. 

            Lochman correctly asserts there are several major functions of this Lordship.[30]  The offering of Kyrios comes at the Resurrection, as we have noted, and this directs attention to a specific act.  We recapitulate the Easter event with Jesus the crucified as both  Lord and God.  We call upon our Lord because we can witness to the power of the resurrection.  As a second consideration, Kyrios refers to the children of God in the present.  To share in the classic response of Thomas, we see our Lord and our God when we see Jesus (John 20:28).  Christ was the Lord before creation, he remains Lord today, and shall return as Lord to redeem the people of God.  The term points us to the past and the future.  In the Lordship of Christ contemporary Christians are presented with hope amidst the turmoil they must encounter vis a vis the various powers and principalities of the world.  Christ brings a message of liberation, while representing the whole work of God, and atoning for the sins of humankind.  As a third aspect of the Lordship of Christ, we must realize it is of cosmic dimensions.  With Paul we may confess that the Lordship of Christ has power in heaven and on earth and has the authority over all earthly and heavenly power. This affirmation should comfort us in the present, while providing the incentive for our supplication in the immediate, and augmented by our labors on behalf of our Lord.  With Christ as our Lord, we must follow Him. 

IV.  The Living Breath: Holy Spirit as Comforter

            The Holy Spirit is God, the third Person of the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit was active before and during Creation, in the revelation of God, as our Lord promised, now serves as the Comforter.  Our appreciation of the person and work of the Holy Spirit presumes some distinctiveness from the first and second Persons of the Trinity.  We also acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is more than an impersonal power; on the contrary, it allows us to realign our realities of life and reorient them towards God in the present; the Holy Spirt is part of God's giving to humankind.  We must also affirm, with Augustine and the tradition of the Church that "God does not give a Gift inferior to Himself,"[31] therefore, the full divinity of the Holy Spirit is assumed. 

            Our knowledge of the faith, our awareness of the Father and the Son, comes from the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit serves as a source of inspiration and enlightenment.  The Spirit constantly directs the communicant towards the truth of Christ, a revelation that allows us to see beyond the decadence of this world. 

            The Spirit is holy because it is God. All holiness comes from God and any holiness is a derivative from God.  In fact, we define holiness in relation to God.  In his Orations, Gregory of Nazianzen appropriately summarized the Holy Spirit of God:

            always existed, and exists, and always will exist

            who neither had a beginning, nor will have an end...

            ever being partaken, but not partaking;

            perfecting, not being perfected;

            sanctifying, not being sanctified;

            deifying, not being deified...

            Life and Lifegiver;

            Light and Lightgiver;

            absolute Good, and Spring of Goodness...

            by Whom the Father is known and the Son is glorified....Why make a long discourse of it?  All that the Father has the Son has also, except the being Unbegotten; and all that the Son has the Spirit has also, except the Generation.[32]

The Holy Spirit is then part of the abundant life God offers us.  It proceeds from the Father, receiving from the Son.  The Holy Spirit is represented as Lord and Giver of Life.  This, as we have noted, is a title ascribed to both Christ and the Holy Spirit.  The Sovereignty of God is singular, but exercised by three Persons.

            The  Holy Spirit serves the individual, the community of faith and the Church by giving life.  At Pentecost, work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church is affirmed, but the Holy Spirit is an eternal participant in the Godhead.  It has been present from the beginning and continues to give life to humanity.

            The Holy Spirit also makes effective the systematic ordering of God's work of salvation towards humankind.  God has made the divine intentions known and they receive rearticulation in Scripture.  The Holy Spirit serves the believer and the community of faith by providing reassurance; the Holy Spirit offers the administration of redemption, Oikonomia, of the beginning and the end, providing nurture to those in covenant with God.  The writer of Hebrews notes that the Holy Spirit assesses the thinking and attitudes of the heart, suggesting the Holy Spirit is even aware of our most clandestine activities. The is the discernment that convicts us of sin.  Through the Spirit's work in prevenient grace we are afforded the opportunity to confront our sin and the redemptive power of God can then act, allowing for our New Birth.  This is the hallmark of the Christian life and allows for a greater understanding of God that transforms our existence.

            The Holy Spirit builds the upon conversion by showing the way of personal, communal and societal holiness.  We are to become more like the Spirit--more like God--as we progress towards the Holiness of God.  The Spirit empowers the Church and shows it the light of God amidst the darkness of the world.  The Holy Spirit follows the New Birth with the giving of spiritual gifts so that the believer might glorify God, and the Spirit controls these gifts so that the gifts can only be used for the edification of God and the uplifting of God's Church.

V. My Understanding of the Nature and Value of a Liberal Arts Education

            A liberal education helps order the soul.  In a democratic society with a Christian heritage, the perpetuation of the social and political order depends on an educated populace.  If a society is to prevail, it must preserve and transmit the spiritual and cultural patrimony that gives it coherence and wholeness. 

            Unfortunately, the older foundational elements of what is commonly referred to as Western civilization have lost much influence.  Edmund Burke's "bank and capital of the ages," the norms and traditions kept alive by families, churches, universities, among other groups, is in some disrepute.  At the heart of the problem lies an inability on the part of the West to realize the limits of its elevation of reason--in a thoroughly modern sense--and the ensuing decline of personal freedom. 

            When the influence of the older, humane approach to liberal learning, which appreciated the need for personal liberty to be connected with the social order began to dissipate, a new approach took shape.  In the eighteenth century "enlightened" thinkers propagated a new view of history and humankind that disputed the claims of classical and Christian insights into education.  The Enlightenment solution was to separate the individual from the species, and this view has greatly influenced education in America. 

            Contrary to the praise for an education of malcontent and obscurity, the ends of a liberal education must be ethical.  At the minimum, liberal education depends upon the attempt to transmit the salient aspects of the older tradition to the rising generation.  The imparting of the proper tools, the instruments of learning, can guide a student through his or her life; such an education nurtures the intellect, spiritual well-being and the moral imagination of the student.

VI. Articulating a Distinctively Christian Perspective in the Social Sciences

            My faith in the Triune God allows me to appreciate the limits of the social sciences.  The quest for increased freedom--both personal and societal--has been a major concern among students of society and politics for many years; however, the temptation to recreate human existence as a means of explaining the modern philosophical project as an progressive, liberating enterprise has recently come under increased scrutiny.  The inability of the human reason, removed from the limitations of the older, classical and Christian traditions, to provide for Bacon's "relief of man's state," while demonstrating the tremendous destructive powers of modernity, force a reassessment of foundational concerns.  As a Christian my faith grounds me in these essential spiritual, philosophical and historical issues. 

            The intensity of such a re-evaluation has been aided by the decline and in some cases destruction of the major ideological movements that have dominated life in this century.  Most attempts at overcoming these obstacles are doomed to fail.  Postmodernism's depiction of life at the end of modernity omits an appreciation of the many elements of society that are actually pre-modern and the usefulness of modernity as a mode of discourse.[33]  Amidst the chaos, one can find those whose are more than willing to extend the modern project, albeit with some reluctance.[34]  In contradistinction to the efforts directed towards reviving modernity, my faith encourages me to recover the older understanding of a common moral order, grounded in a disciplined habit of mind.  Such a pursuit requires a return to the roots of our understanding of political order and the Christian portrayal of the proper relationship between the citizen and civil society contributes heavily to this older understanding.[35]  In other words, as a Christian political scientist, I am able to articulate that a comprehensive theory of social and political life is impossible without the incorporation of God working in the world and throughout history.

            As a Christian and a social scientist, I believe I can best serve God and humankind within a Christian academic environment.  As one who cannot separate his faith from a deep attachment to social justice, being part of such a community would allow me to continue to work as part of a fallen humanity to make the campus and the world a better place to live.  Teaching and serving as an administrator allows me to more fully accept my role as a steward of God's creation and my calling to perpetuate such devotion and action in the effort to improve the quality of life for all people.  At the center of such concern, is the Christian community.  You can anticipate my fostering a sense of community and discipleship, with an openness to the need to share the Good News to others, in an effort to bring dignity and hope to all of God's children.

 Bibliography

General

Andelson, Robert.  Imputed Rights: An Essay in Christian Social Theory.  Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1971.

Babbitt, Irving.  Democracy and Leadership.  Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1979.

Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline.  New York: Harper and Row, 1959.

Bartlett, David L. Paul's Vision for the Teaching Church.  Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Judson Press, 1977.

Bauman, Zygmunt.  Freedom.  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988.

Eno, Robert.  Teaching Authority in the Early Church.  Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, 1984.

Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man.  New York: The Free Press, 1992.

Hallowell, John H.  The Moral Foundation of Democracy.  Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1953.

MacIntyre, Alasdair.  After Virtue, Second Edition.  Notre Dame, Indiana: Notre Dame University Press, 1984.

Nisbet, Robert. "Rousseau and Totalitarianism." Journal of Politics, Volume 5, Number 2 (May 1943).

Oden, Thomas C.  After Modernity...What? Agenda For Theology.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990.

Plato, The Republic.  New York: Penguin Books, 1986.

Rousseau. Jean Jacques.  The Government of Poland.   Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1985.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques.  The Basic Political Writings.  Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1988.

Sabine, George.  A History of Political Theory.  New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1937

Steinmetz, David.  Memory and Mission.  Nashville: Abington Press, 1988.

Calvin

Allen, J. W. A History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century.  London: Meuthen University Paperbacks, 1960..

Calvin, John. Institutes of Christian Religion.  ed. by John T. McNeill, tran. by Ford Lewis Battles. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960.

Collins, Ross William.  Calvin and the Libertines of Geneva.  Toronto: Clarke, Irwin and Company Limited,1968.

Cooper, John.  The Theology of Freedom. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1985.

du Plessis, L. M.  "Calvin in State and Politics According to the Institutes."  In John Calvin's Institutes: His Opus Magnum, ed. B. J. Van der Walt. Potchefstroom, South Africa: Potchefstroom University, 1986.

Graham, W. Fred.  "Calvin and the Political Order." In Calviniana: Ideas and Influence of Jean Calvin, ed. Robert Schnucker, Volume 10, Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies. Kirksville, Missouri: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1988.

Hancock, Ralph.  Calvin and the Foundations of Modern Politics.  Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989. 

Heideman, Eugene.  "Theocracy in the Reformation."  Reformed Review, Volume 34, Number 9 (Winter 1981), pp. 81-88.

Höpfl, Harro.  The Christian Polity of John Calvin.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Hudson, Winthrop.  "Democratic Freedom and Religious Faith in the Reformed Tradition."  Church History, Volume 15, Number 3 (September 1946), pp. 177-194.

Hunt, George L, editor. Calvin and the Political Order.  Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965.

Hunt, R. N. C.  "Calvin's Theory of the State."  The Church Quarterly Review, Volume 108 (1929), pp. 56-71.

Keddie, Gordon J.  'Calvin on Civil Government."  The Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology, Volume 3, Number 1 (Spring 1985), pp. 23-34.

Kingdon, R. M.  "Calvin and the Government of Geneva." In Calvinus Ecclesiae Genevensis Custos.  Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 1984.

Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Erik von.  Leftism. New Rochelle: Arlington House Publishers, 1974.

Kuyper, Abraham.  Lectures on Calvinism.  Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1961.

Mueller, William A.  Church and State in Luther and Calvin.  Nashville: Broadman Press, 1954.

Murray, R. H.  The Political Consequences of the Reformation.  Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1926.

Stevenson, William R. "Anticipation or Antidote to Modernity?"  Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, 1991.

Templin, J. Alton.  "The Individual and Society in the Thought of Calvin."  Calvin Theological Journal, Volume 23, Number 2 (November 1988).

VanderMolen, Ronald.  "Political Calvinism."  Journal of Church and State, Volume 11, Number 3 (Autumn 1969), pp. 457-463.

Verhey, Allen.  "Calvin's Treatise 'Againt the Libertines."  Calvin Theological Journal, Volume 15, Number 2 (November 1980), pp. 190-219.

Walsh, David. After Ideology.  San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990.

Walzer, Michael.  The Revolution of the Saints: A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics.  London, 1966.

Williamson, Rene de Visme.  Independence and Involvement: A Christian Reorientation in Political Science.  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964.

Wesley

The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 1992. Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1992.

Borgen, Ole E.  John Wesley on the Sacraments. Grand Rapids,           Michigan: Francis Asbury Press, 1985.

Dieter, Melvin E. and Daniel N. Berg. The Church.  Anderson, Indiana: Warner Press, 1984.

Carter, Charles.  A Contemporary Wesleyan Theology. Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press, 1983. 

Collins, Kenneth J.  Wesley on Salvation: A Study in the Standard         Sermons.  Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press, 1989.

Hinson, William H. The Power of Holy Habits: A Discipline for Faithful Discipleship. Nashville: Abingdon, 1991.

Kinghorn, Kenneth Cain. The Gospel of Grace: The Way of Salvation   in the Wesleyan Tradition. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992.

Lawson, John.  The Wesley Hymns.  Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury      Press, 1987.

Lindstrom, Harold. Wesley and Sanctification.  Grand Rapids:   Francis Asbury Press, 1980.

Marquardt, Manfred.  John Wesley's Social Ethic: Praxis and    Principles.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992.

Oden, Thomas C.  Doctrinal Standards in the Wesleyan Tradition          Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press, 1988.

--------------.  The Living God: Systematic Theology, Volume One.San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987.

Outler, Albert C.  The Works of John Wesley, Volumes One to Four:   Sermons.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1985.

Rattenbury, J. Earnest.  The Eucharistic Hymns of John and Charles      Wesley. Cleveland: Order of Saint Luke Publications, 1990.

Sugden, Edward. Editor. John Wesley's Fifty-Three Sermons.   Nashville: Abingdon, 1983.