Saturday, February 10, 2018
New ideas
Acts 17:20,21
For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Philosophers get into new ideas. The new ideas of the age and time are their stock in trade. Either new ideas to answer old questions or to address the new questions of their time. Philosophy has many branches and different philosophers sometimes specialise in a particular branch of philosophy. The philosophers that Paul met on Mars Hill in the Areopagus seem to have been religious philosophers. Some may argue that at that time, all philosophy has to do with questions of religion.
First, we are told of this strange sounding group, the Epicureans, they believed that all things happened by chance, the gods didn’t care two hoots about us, pleasure was everything and death was the end of it all. Second, we are told of the Stoics, they believed life was one big cycle, everything that happened was the will of God and must be accepted and, most of all, they believed that everything was God, but the God in us went back to God when we died. Two opposite schools of thought on the issues of life and religion at the time.
So, given these philosophical and doctrinal positions, it is easy to understand why to them Paul seemed “to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.” Acts 17:18. We can also see why “when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” The Epicureans obviously think him crazy for this bizarre resurrection, life after death, story. The Stoics, who had some sense of the spirit going back to God may have been the ones who wanted to hear more.
This should bring us to the questions of our time. The contemporary philosophies (for those who are so inclined, this is a technical term) and dominant worldviews (another technical term) shape the response to the Gospel message from place to place, from culture to culture. We need to have a grasp then, of the dominant philosophical questions and answers of our time in order to understand our Gospel ministry and what we are up against.
Back then, the philosophers often gathered in places like Mars Hill and debated there. One could go there and engage, much like philosophers on university campuses today. The ideas conjured up, shared, debated, and sometimes decided, seeped into the society gradually over time and shaped people’s worldview.
But, as we have already observed, in recent times new ideas are generated by many more ‘philosophers’ than the formal few on the campuses. Today, the information and communications technologies that provide a backbone for new media, particularly social media, make the distribution of new ideas instant to a global audience. And, given the success this week of the Falcon Heavy, tested by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, we would, in the near future, be sharing our new ideas across galaxies instantly.
So, with philosophy being commonplace now, and no longer the purview of specially trained academics in universities and monasteries we need to figure out what are the real issues of our time that people around us, and youth especially, are confronting. What are the issues, questions and answers that are shaping their worldviews and influencing their response to the Gospel message? In other words, what are the new ideas that cause them to either “mock” us or be willing to “hear [us] again on this matter.”
We cannot answer any of those questions here in the space left, but we can certainly take the time to identify some of them. Please note that there is great philosophical debate among philosophers, about what are the key philosophical questions of our time. Here is my list and I am not a philosopher.
Issues of gender equality remain even after the women’s liberation movement has come and gone. Many responses to the Bible are impacted by the issues of patriarchy that many contemporary thinkers see there. This issue naturally opened up the matter of women’s reproductive rights – who’s body is it and what can be done with it.
Then there are issues of identity, gender and sexual orientation. There are many other complex issues being contemplated today but none is as familiar and as controversial as this issue of sexual orientation. Digressing, I listened to Piers Morgan on CNN telling Rick Warren that on the issue of gay rights “it’s time for an amendment to the bible.” These issues of identity and rights associated with identity have really reshaped today’s thinking at every level.
We also have the issues of race, ethnicity, migration and immigration. These issues are a challenge everywhere in the world, from sophisticated societies like the United State of America and Western Europe to unsophisticated societies like Somalia and Myanmar.
The biggest future challenges though seem to be those moral and ethical issues that are being driven by science and technology. These exist in many spheres, there is the matter of artificial intelligence (AI) and what challenges and threats “thinking machines” will pose to society and the world’s labour force. Work gives men dignity, much of which could be lost.
Then there are the medical science issues that allow us to grow organs, clone, go beyond the brain to the mind and affect thought and so on. Who or what is a person if we could design them physically and then control their minds. And, how would they respond to the Gospel message.
These are new things, strange things for many actually, and differently strange from the issues on Mars Hill in AD 55.
Think on these things:
- What big issues bother you these days?
- How do you respond to gender issues today in the light of the scripture?
- Do you think that changes around you are forcing you to rethink your faith?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would equip ourselves to think God’s thoughts after Him and be able to minister effectively to this and the next generation.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
