Monday, July 20, 2009

definitions get bigger

In my transition/journey from a very conservative fundamental background to where I am today. Which is actually kind of hard to explain but a lot of fun to experience. One of the consistencies I'm finding in my life is this.

The definitions for words are getting more complicated/bigger.

This is true for me because I am aware of and embrace the postmodern mindset of allowing words and their meaning to have movement.I know that concept is very hard for a modern epistemology to understand. But it is far more honest to admit words change meaning, or continue to grow in meaning as our world/experiences also grow.
the word" gospel" is one was severely limited to one specific verse, or a series of verses found pretty much in the book of Romans. This "gospel" was to be shared everywhere and if rejected then we could happily go on understanding that we did all that God required of us in the sharing of the Gospel.
Now the Gospel has gotten a little bigger. Sharing the Gospel involve sharing God's love which is far more complicated and intricate than one key verse or several verses from a particular book. The gospel now involves kindness, relationships, sharing, hospitality, encouragement, words of wisdom, counseling, healing, visiting, and telling people about what Christ did on the cross.

I do understand that many in the modern world wanted to boil every word down to its lowest common denominator, that is what many modern people spend their lives attempt. It was the unity through common facts concept. I know that many people that are from a modern philosophy say that these new young people all want to get along, They want everyone to agree, They will work with any one know matter what church or denomination there from.
The truth is the modern world was seeking the same thing only they wanted to do it through undeniable basic facts and definitions. They wanted to lay a foundation in which everyone would agree. And then we can all work together. The unity of God would be seen by the world.

Well that didn't work out so well, we divided over facts and definition.

My definitions keep getting more complicated my conversations keep getting longer and new relationships are harder and harder to find time to develop because of the old ones require my time and effort to be maintained at a level at which I have the opportunity to dialogue over things that really matter. I think dialoguing over things like definitions that are complicated is a good way to bring unity, at least I know it can't get any worse than it did trying to make everyone agree on a definition that was boiled down to such a low common denominator that everyone disagreed.

I imagine half the words I used in this blog now need new definitions, or maybe more complicated ones.

No comments:

Post a Comment