Forget those other “discernment” websites, always looking for groundless and specious accusations against popular teachers.
Here, Kevin DeYoung carefully articulates and then deconstructs an argument made by Miroslav Volf based on a section of writing by Augustine. He begins with this “Never forget this: sometimes even very smart people make very bad arguments.” Indeed.
“Clearly,” Volf maintains, “Augustine believed, it is worse for concrete deeds toward neighbor to be misaligned with the character of God than for thoughts about God to be misaligned with the character of God” (147). Actually, though, the line from Augustine never prioritized deeds over thoughts. In the quote he simply states that right thoughts, devoid of the right deeds, are not pleasing to God.
Volf goes on to use this bad argument to make an even worse argument: “If Augustine is correct in his assessment, the consequence for Christians’ relation to non-Christians are astounding: non-believers or adherents of another religion, if they love, can be closer to God than Christians notwithstanding Christians’ formally correct beliefs about God or even explicit, outward faith in Jesus Christ! The elevation of deeds above beliefs is the consequence of the claim that God is love” (147). The path from Augustine’s homily on 1 John 4:7 to Volf’s logic is far from obvious. Augustine said faith without works is dead; Volf concludes that works without faith is a sign of spiritual life. The one does not imply the other.
What’s more, the real Augustine clearly disagrees with Volf’s version of Augustine. In Homily 10 the Bishop of Hippo argues that works apart from belief, though “they seemed good, were nothing worth.” When the non-Christian does good deeds it is like running, but not in the right direction. “[B]y running aside from the way thou wentest astray instead of coming to the goal…He that runs aside from the way, runs to no purpose, or rather runs but to toil.” And “What is the way by which we run?” Augustine asks. “Christ hath told us, ‘I am the Way.’” In other words, the only deeds that please God are the ones done through faith in Christ. Deeds apart from creeds are nothing and worse than nothing. For, “He goes the more astray, the more he runs aside from the way [Christ].”
It’s well worth your time to read the entire flow of DeYoung’s deconstruction here.
Also from the “very smart people who sometimes make very bad arguments” files, I heard similar reasoning from Brian McLaren at a conference I attended a few years back at which he said, referring to a young Muslim who also spoke at the conference:
And I think that Fatmire [Muslim peace activist] working for peace, is an agent for peace, and I’d much rather her be working for peace being who she is than… becoming a person in a church worrying about the list over there on that wall.
You can read the full text (and hear the audio) of that post here.
Discuss?
My take on the Rob Bell controversy over at my other blog. Here’s an excerpt:
Tony Jones Finds Audience, Loses “Religion”
Since blog posts questioning gender roles and the doctrine of original sin have been so popular, Jones has decided it’s time to “question everything.”
“The change in the demographic of my audience has allowed me to explore just how deep the rabbit hole goes,” Jones said this morning when interviewed on the front steps of Solomon’s Porch, the “church” whose “pastor” is Doug Pagitt, a co-Emergent and close friend of Jones. Pagitt’s take on Jones’ plan was predictably affirmative: “Listen, all Tony and I are trying to do is show people what A Christianity Worth Believing looks like.”
Jones, a pioneer and central figure in what is known as the “Emerging Church” movement, stepped down as National Coordinator of Emergent Village late last year amid fears that one person coordinating a national organization might lead to too much organization – a predicament those in the Emerging Church movement are keen on avoiding.
“Mark Driscoll can have the New York Times and Nightline – I’ll take Beliefnet over those shows any day!” Jones added with some swagger, making reference to former Emerging Church kingpin Mark Driscoll, who has made two high-profile appearances in the national media in the last month.
(FYI – this is a satirical examination of events, some of which are fictional…)