May 12, 2006

Da Vinci Converation 2


To further my thoughts from below, and after reading more deeply what BM says about the Code here's some more rant on the Da Vinci Controversy in the church.

I believe it is possible that God is using the Code to bring to surface deeper problems in the church, and here are two we need to face.

The church often swings the pendelum of Christ's deification, either making him overly deity or overly human. Right now, I would say, that Piper is pop theology. Anything that man says is eaten up by many evangelicals (Not that Piper does not have good points or is a good pastor). But when you have this kind of theology, ie. that God does everything to glorify himself, the humanity of Jesus is lost. It becomes all about God's glory, other worldliness, transcendence, and Jesus is the ultimate communication of this otherness(and not made human).

Brown's novel may be revealing a deeper problem in that we've lost touch with the human side of Jesus. Pop theology depicts him in another light, and simply we must regain again what it meant for Jesus to be really human, a hungry, sexual, deficating man.

Also, especially in America, there is this political figure floating around. Some call him Jesus, but all I know is that he stands for war, oppression, hatred, fear, and anti-homosexuality. Dan Brown has crafted a good story that takes this figure Jesus and makes him stand for whatever he wants. But of course the church would never do that, make Jesus whatever they want for whatever they want, never.

May the incarnate God live true in these times against all false pictures painted of him, whether by Dan Brown, politicians, or the church.