by Stephen Shields
A faithmap
highlights known reference points on the terrain,
does not detail every particular, and
is designed to be used while going somewhere.
Theology is too often collapsed down to mere information. The faithmap metaphor makes three statements about Christian theology and praxis.
1 - A faithmap does not detail every particular.
"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to investigate a matter."
Proverbs 25:2 (all Scripture references are to the Christian Standard Bible unless otherwise indicated). "The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law." Deuteronomy 29:29 The modern program is that man can discern everything and is the arbiter of truth. This suggests that we can answer every question about God and to believe that our theological formulations are exhaustive. A map cannot possibly detail every aspect of the land to which it refers. A faithmap does not presume to completely plumb the depths of the knowledge of God. It leaves room for mystery and exploration.
2 - "A faithmap highlights known reference points on the terrain."
Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who lives in us, that good thing entrusted to you.
2 Timothy 1:13, 14
So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or what we wrote.
2 Thessalonians 2:15
Nevertheless, just because the boundaries of language limit what we know, the inability to know exhaustively should not be confused with the inability to know reliably. God has given us language and has revealed information about Himself. This information is reliable and certain. It is certain not because of the omnicompetence of our minds but because of God's ability and character. To understate: He is a reliable source of information. Similarly on a map there are known reference points that help the traveler make her way. A faithmap marks for us known reference points - markers we can know and rely upon.
3 - "a faithmap is designed to be used while going somewhere."
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
Ephesians. 2:8-10
When someone asked Jesus, "which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" He replied
"`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.'
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV)
Note Jesus' last comment.
"The Law and the Prophets" was a technical term Jesus used to represent the Bible as it existed in His day, what today Christians call the Old Testament. Jesus affirms that the very foundation of the Scriptures was to love God with everything within and to love one's neighbor as oneself. All the information we can garner about God from the Scriptures is for the purpose of loving God and others. And if our accumulation of knowledge does not result in these activities then we are wasting our time and not using the Scriptures as they were designed to be used. A map is used for going somewhere. A faithmap is used to guide us as we travel from one instantiation of love to another.
So a faithmap marks certain things we know, leaves much for future exploration, and is used for traveling.
One does not study a map just to have a better understanding of a map. In the same way a faithmap is useless if it's not teleological.
Copyright Stephen Shields 2024. All rights reserved.
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