Ask Ask Wednesday: Next Week

With no incoming questions for this week, Ask Anything Wednesday will return next week.

I look forward to it! And you don't have to wait--ask away. Just type your question in the comment section below. I'll be curious to see what comes in!

Book Review: The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment

Tim Challies, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2007), 206 pp.

I have been anxiously awaiting Tim Challies' new book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, for two reasons. First, the practice of spiritual discernment is near and dear to my heart. My entire ministry is essentially built upon the need for establishing and growing biblical discernment. Second, I have been a regular reader of Tim Challies' blog for several years now. Over this time, I have come to respect and trust him. God has truly blessed Challies and I placed an advance order for his book as soon as I could afford it. A couple of weeks ago, my wait finally ended. An autographed copy arrived at my door and I started reading it immediately.

Why was I so interested in getting started? Because I have rarely come across a book dedicated to spiritual discernment written for the average believer in the pew. Sure, as a seminary graduate I came across plenty of great works on hermeneutics, apologetics, and spiritual disciplines. But I generally could not see recommending them to fellow members of my local church. Challies book fills this unfortunate void.

His book is both incisive and readable. It covers everything from showing the need for spiritual discernment to assisting the reader in practicing discernment. But what exactly is spiritual discernment? Challies defines it this way:

Discernment is the skill of understanding and applying God's Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong (61).

Whether in how we live or what we believe, discernment is an essential aspect of every Christian's life. As the Apostle Paul instructs us, "test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22).

Thankfully, Challies book helps us to carry out Paul's directions. And while its pages are filled with insight, I especially appreciate two chapters. The first is on the dangers of discernment. He's right to say that many people who seek to be discerning wind up practicing a counterfeit shadow of true, biblical discernment. The ten dangers he provides are ones that I have all too often struggled with, and I applaud the author for warning against them.

I also found his step-by-step method in the final chapter incredibly valuable. Not content to stop short of providing a practical approach to begin practicing spiritual discernment, Challies lays out a helpful plan to follow. We have to move beyond simply giving lip service to the importance of discernment--we have to make the effort to actually do it. Following this method allows the reader to start.

It is hard for me to hide my enthusiasm for this book. I believe every Christian seeking to be faithful to our Savior will benefit from its contents. May His body grow in discernment, transforming ourselves more and more by the renewal of our minds.

Ask Anything Wednesday is Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will post the latest in our weekly series--Ask Anything Wednesday. Do you have any questions about the Africa Center for Apologetics Research? Do you have a question about witnessing to cult members? Do you want to know what I am reading right now? Anything is fair game!

Just ask and I'll try to answer it. The easiest way to ask a question for tomorrow is simply to post it as a comment below. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

The New Faces of Christianity 1: Shall the Fundamentalists Win?

Today begins the official launch of the ACFAR Network, a community of evangelical Christians that want to work together toward making a difference in Uganda and throughout the region. We will start by reading through The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South by Philip Jenkins. If you haven't bought the book or signed up yet, it is not too late to join! In any case, this week we are discussing chapter 1: "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?"

Summary

Playing off of American liberal Harry Emerson Fosdick’s sermon title, Jenkins concentrates on differentiating between the Christianity of the West and the Christianity of the Global South--between the Northern liberals and the Southern literalists. He states, "These controversies are grounded in attitudes to authority and, above all, to the position of the Bible as an inspired text" (1). Using the contemporary conflict in Anglicanism over homosexuality to illustrate his point, the author writes about the opposite directions that Christians in the North and South take on the authority of the Bible. While Northern liberals seek to interpret the Bible in light of today's world (thus homosexuality is acceptable), Southern literalists maintain the need for strict obedience to scriptural authority (hence homosexuality is sinful).

Jenkins goes on to summarize how the South's high view of the Bible impacts their beliefs. "We often encounter the same range of conservative themes in the religious thought of African and Asian Christians. These include a much greater respect for the authority of scripture, especially in matters of morality; a willingness to accept the Bible as an inspired text and a tendency to literalism; a special interest in supernatural elements of scripture, such as miracles, visions, and healings; a belief in the continuing power of prophecy; and a veneration for the Old Testament, which is considered as authoritative as the New" (4).

Next, the author shows through statistical and demographic research that Christianity worldwide is rapidly shifting from North America and Europe southward. He maintains, "By 2025, Africa and Latin America will vie for the title of the most Christian continent" (9). Due to this trend, we should see a global conservative shift in theology. No longer will western theology be labeled as "theology" whereas other theologies will be labeled "African Theology," "Asian Theology," etc. Rather, the Global South will play an increasingly central role in defining our faith.

With this in mind, traditional labels become irrelevant. Fundamentalism, liberalism, and conservatism developed as Western concepts and cannot be easily imposed on Christians in the South. We must seek to allow global Christianity to define itself.

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed reading about fellow believers in the Global South having a steadfast commitment to the Bible. At the same time, their commitment must be combined with the dedicated practice of biblical discernment. What good is devotion to the Word of God when Christians may embrace whatever someone claims the Bible says? The shift in Christianity demonstrates the essential need of developing discernment and the defense of our faith in the Global South. If we see the importance of apologetics in America and the West, then how much more important is it in the rapidly growing South?

Additionally, one statement in this chapter has given me a lot to think about: "Global South Christians, in contrast, do not live in an age of doubt, but must instead deal with competing claims to faith" (5). So much of our defense of the faith in the West is tied to questions of doubt: "How can God exist with so much evil in the world?", "How can you believe in God when science has shown that He is unnecessary?", etc. But if Jenkins is correct in this difference, then the most pressing issues in the Global South are not dealing with doubt but with religious pluralism. How would apologetics change in this context?

Your Turn

What do you think? Your thoughts do not have to be profound or anything. Please feel free to contribute to the discussion!

Weekly Round-Up: Church History, Christian Science, the American Dollar, and the Camel

I know I have been away from blogging, but I am now officially back! Today we return to my weekly round-up of important and/or interesting articles that I find around the web. All of these have been posted since the beginning of the year:

1) Darrell L. Bock, "Roots Matter: Defending the faith in today's cultural climate means not only knowing our Bible but also knowing our history" in Christian History, Fall 2007. Bock writes about an important but often neglected aspect of apologetics--church history. I could not agree more!

2) Malita Wamala, "Mastering the art of Christian Science" in the Weekly Observer newspaper (Uganda). Did you know that Christian Science has a presence in East Africa? It does, and here is an Ugandan commending the principles of Mary Baker Eddy.

3) Dustin Benge, "The Weak Dollar Undercuts Missionaries" on the Pastor and People blog. American news has been filled with the depreciation of the dollar around the world. This economic shift is really starting to hurt missionaries and agencies. Check out this brief post to learn more.

4) Daniel Akin, David Nelson, and Bruce Ashford, "An Assessment of The Camel" (a paper available online in PDF format). The Camel is a popular but controversial approach to bring the gospel to people in Islamic cultures. This short paper is a balanced treatment and assessment of this method.

Book Review: Religious Ethics in Africa

Peter Kasenene, Religious Ethics in Africa (Kampala, Uganda: Fountain Publishers, 1998), 110 pp.

One of several books that I picked up while in Uganda last year was Religious Ethics in Africa by Peter Kasenene. Since I am always interested in reading Africans themselves when learning more about a subject of importance on their continent, I was intrigued by this brief work on morality and ethics.

The author himself explains why he wrote this book:

The book discusses the teachings of the major religions in Africa, namely African traditional religions, Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith on each of the selected moral issues. Although the different religions have been put side by side giving them equal treatment, the basic position is that, with relevant adjustments to changing situations and circumstances in Africa, the traditional ethic should be recaptured and used as a basis for moral reasoning and decision-making (iii).

An expansion of the author's university lectures, his work covers a diverse range of ethical issues: ethical theory; religion, ethics, and morality; preservation and promotion of one's life; respect for other people's lives; sex outside marriage; marriage; and family life.

I found this book a helpful and informative descriptive tool. What do some of the main religions in Africa teach regarding various ethical questions? Kasenene provides concise and useful answers. From alcoholic drinking to polygamy, from abortion to bride-gift exchanges, he provides us with informative comparisons of religious morality.

However, he moves from describing what religions teach about morals to prescribing how Africans should live ethically virtuous lives. In doing so, he never grounds his "shoulds" of behavior with reasons. As a matter of fact, he removes any objective criteria for morality when he says:

In the end, everone is morally responsible for his or her actions. People are not machines and so they have to decide personally on what to do, irrespective of what theories, custom, law or even religions prescribe. A person's religion guides him or her on how to behave, but the choice remains his or hers because religious guidance is not infallible (101).

In attempting to insure human responsibility, he undermines it by ultimately leaving ethics up to one's own conscience.

Additionally, throughout this book Kasenene gives his own evaluation of ethical behavior, sometimes disagreeing with all of the surveyed religious views including African traditional religions. His concluding comments on each ethical issue often sound more like a liberal Western scholar's opinion than the views of one who wants to recapture traditional African morality in reasoning and decision-making.

As a result, Kasenene's book is of limited usefulness. A reader can consult it to gain an understanding of different religious views on ethics in Africa. At the same time, he or she should beware of the attempts to move toward an African ethic by the author.

There's Still Time to Join

Starting next Monday, the ACFAR network will begin reading through and interacting with Philip Jenkins' book The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. Would you like to know more about Christianity in East Africa and the rest of the Global South? How about discovering some of the unique challenges and opportunities that are taking place among Christians outside of the Western world? Here is your opportunity!

Why not join in? Simply buy a copy of the book (it should be available online or at most bookstores) and add your name to the list.

Next week we will tackle the first chapter. Our time together will last through February and should cover around 20 pages a week. I'm excited about working toward making a difference in Uganda and throughout the region!