Wayne Park on Reforming “Reformed”

Wayne Park, a church planter in Bellingham, Washington, offered this post entitled “On Being Reformed”

What he says strikes a chord that resonates with me. Even as I am working on a graduate thesis to finish my degree at a seminary that has “Reformed” in its name, I can relate. Wayne’s right – the word “Reformed” means very little to folks outside seminaries or ecclesial insiders. A “Reformed Christian” could be something like a reformed shoplifter, some might suppose.

Some people, particularly younger guys who have recently come to Calvinistic convictions, use the word as a semantic bludgeon with which they beat others who lack their theological sophistication and precision. These are the ones who really like to use the word “Reformed” and make the rest of us cringe – for them theology is primarily a polemical activity, and they think the whole object of theology is showing how your theology is superior and other approaches are deficient. I write as a convinced Calvinist, but how it is that Calvinism brings out this will to argue and fight in people is a mystery to me.

Wayne’s suggested remedy is to quit using the buzzword (and the word missional as well), but I think this is no remedy. Simply to stop using a term is one thing — what should we use in its place. If we don’t want to use the words “Reformed” or “Calvinism” to avoid being identified with our pugnacious brothers (who hopefully will outgrow their pugnacity), what sort of language ought we to use to describe the wonderful and terrible truths of God’s sovereignty and all that entails?

I suggested to Wayne that astronomy might be helpful. Just before the Reformation, a Polish church canon named Copernicus caused a revolution in astronomy by a fairly simple exercise: he moved the camera. Previously astronomy was done from below, and all of the predications of the earth-centric Ptolemaic system were based on the motions of the planets when observed from this perspective. Copernicus’s breakthrough was perspectival: he imagined what it might look like if one “moved the camera” to a viewpoint far away, looking down on the sun, the earth, the moon and the planets. From this perspective, a much simpler and elegant model with greater explanatory power emerged.

I’ve heard it said that liberal theology is “theology from below.” Isn’t “theology from above” one good way of describing what our community calls the doctrines of grace? How about another term as well, one that may resonate better with today’s vernacular, though there’s nothing new here: let’s let God be God, over everything including redemption. Every Christian is comfortable with that sort of language. We’re generally fine with God being in charge of cosmic redemption and the redemption of mankind, but a little more reluctant to let God be God too in the case of individual redemption.

I’m sure there are some who can suggest other semantic approaches that can fill the gap while we attempt to redeem the word “Reformed” from our bomb-throwing brethren, both those who use the word with pride, and those who use it with scorn.

The larger issue is one that relates directly with the previous posts on relevance, and I think Tim Keller of Redeemer Church in Manhattan has a good approach. A theology professor himself, Keller says he tries to avoid using theological jargon in church, setting before himself the challenge of explaining theological concepts using everyday language. This simple yet subtle exercise ought to be the desire of every pastor. If we take Keller’s example, then I think we can avoid the problems Wayne Park so cogently raises, and get on with the business of simply being the church.

Thanks for raising the point, Wayne, and all the very best to you in your efforts in Bellingham.