I thought this was an intriguing and insightful reflection on the gap between how different people live out a common faith, one in a much “enchanted” way than the other:
Loved this! I was an OG Dreher subscriber as well, and I relate to everything you wrote. My life has been a flock of black swans. Math is hard, but I can crunch those numbers.
Yes! The sovereignty of God is definitely a good way to discuss the Gospel. To witness to the fact that God is orchestrating everything and that if we ask, God lets us see it sometimes because we take the focus off ourselves and put it on Him.
Tonight I teach on Romans 8:28, "God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love him and are called according to His purpose."
This is enchantment in motion but takes a bit of perspective on your life to see it, and like enchantment will easily fade into the mist if we are not intent to see it playing out. We must be looking for it in order to see it, otherwise it slips us by all too easily.
My teaching style is to question and tonight's 2 questions are; What examples of this do you see in the life of Paul? and. How about you?
Of course we also must address the word good and Who get's to determine what is good for us.
I was one of those people who initially found you via Dreher.
I mentioned starting seminary in a previous post on vocations and in one of the classes I just took over the winter interterm, the prof did a session on enchantment after discussing the Charles Taylor Secular Age book. He's apparently trying to finish up some studies interviewing a bunch of Protestants about whether they had experienced the supernatural, either as general feelings, answered prayers, or some other experience. His research indicates that almost everyone he talked to has, when you got to having private conversations. But none of the mainline people had ever told anyone, and standard evangelicals were only marginally better. He remarked that one reason the Pentecostal churches may be doing better is simply they remember the words "testimony" and "testify" better than the rest of Protestantism and practice it. Anyway, it was an interesting discussion.
At one time in my life, I had a strange and awful encounter that I always suspected probably involved a demonic force. No mind-altering substances were involved. But it sounds a little crazy, and who knows for sure -- perhaps my mind was just playing tricks. I'm also generally sober and rational in my attitudes and demeanor. So I speak of it almost never, other than including a request for my family's protection in my nightly prayers.
I've never really even offered my wife the details. I never wanted her or anyone else to dwell on those details.
Unfortunately I don't have an equivalently strong positive supernatural experience, but perhaps one day!
The word "supernatural" is a strange one. I believe Lewis's "Studies in Words" has a chapter devoted to it. We often assume that things are either "natural" or "supernatural", and that for something to be a miracle or work of God it must be "supernatural" and therefore cannot come about by "natural" causes. Yet Nature itself was made by God, and thus has a supernatural origin.
I’ve been reading quite a bit of Karl Barth lately, and reenchantment is exactly what he prescribed. If the Church gets too rational, it no longer differs from the physical world and its rules.
Versus Roman Catholicism (with its relics, pilgrimages, etc.), we would broadly consider Protestantism to be the less enchanted tradition. It turns out that during the Reformation, there was a heresy (known on the continent as Socinianism) that took an even more rationalist position than the mainstream reformers and denied the Trinity. So you had the people smashing statues and altars on the other hand defending the mysterious nature of Christ's divinity. A friend has written an account of this in 17th c England, where the heresy found a fair number of adherents, and some of their leaders were jailed by Cromwell's government: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mystery-unveiled-9780195339468?cc=us&lang=en&
I’m reading Carlos Eire’s book “Reformations” and it that explains the history behind why Protestant reformers and their followers in Germany and Switzerland started destroying religious art.
To this day, Protestants are allergic to religious art, which deprives many of access to some basic level of artistic enchantment.
I started reading you at Issue 17 at the recommendation of Rod Dreher. I was 21, single, and totally clueless about women.
Wild to think it's been 6 years since I first subscribed. It's been a fun ride, and you'll be happy to know your newsletters on dating made a big impact and played a major role in helping me secure my current relationship.
Shameless plug: you can find a more enchanted, sacramental, incarnational Christian experience without abandoning the Solas of the Reformation. Confessional Lutheranism may be what you're looking for.
I thought this was an intriguing and insightful reflection on the gap between how different people live out a common faith, one in a much “enchanted” way than the other:
https://www.latitudeevangelicals.com/post/different-kinds-of-faith
Loved this! I was an OG Dreher subscriber as well, and I relate to everything you wrote. My life has been a flock of black swans. Math is hard, but I can crunch those numbers.
Yes! The sovereignty of God is definitely a good way to discuss the Gospel. To witness to the fact that God is orchestrating everything and that if we ask, God lets us see it sometimes because we take the focus off ourselves and put it on Him.
Tonight I teach on Romans 8:28, "God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love him and are called according to His purpose."
This is enchantment in motion but takes a bit of perspective on your life to see it, and like enchantment will easily fade into the mist if we are not intent to see it playing out. We must be looking for it in order to see it, otherwise it slips us by all too easily.
My teaching style is to question and tonight's 2 questions are; What examples of this do you see in the life of Paul? and. How about you?
Of course we also must address the word good and Who get's to determine what is good for us.
I was one of those people who initially found you via Dreher.
I mentioned starting seminary in a previous post on vocations and in one of the classes I just took over the winter interterm, the prof did a session on enchantment after discussing the Charles Taylor Secular Age book. He's apparently trying to finish up some studies interviewing a bunch of Protestants about whether they had experienced the supernatural, either as general feelings, answered prayers, or some other experience. His research indicates that almost everyone he talked to has, when you got to having private conversations. But none of the mainline people had ever told anyone, and standard evangelicals were only marginally better. He remarked that one reason the Pentecostal churches may be doing better is simply they remember the words "testimony" and "testify" better than the rest of Protestantism and practice it. Anyway, it was an interesting discussion.
This is interesting.
At one time in my life, I had a strange and awful encounter that I always suspected probably involved a demonic force. No mind-altering substances were involved. But it sounds a little crazy, and who knows for sure -- perhaps my mind was just playing tricks. I'm also generally sober and rational in my attitudes and demeanor. So I speak of it almost never, other than including a request for my family's protection in my nightly prayers.
I've never really even offered my wife the details. I never wanted her or anyone else to dwell on those details.
Unfortunately I don't have an equivalently strong positive supernatural experience, but perhaps one day!
The word "supernatural" is a strange one. I believe Lewis's "Studies in Words" has a chapter devoted to it. We often assume that things are either "natural" or "supernatural", and that for something to be a miracle or work of God it must be "supernatural" and therefore cannot come about by "natural" causes. Yet Nature itself was made by God, and thus has a supernatural origin.
I’ve been reading quite a bit of Karl Barth lately, and reenchantment is exactly what he prescribed. If the Church gets too rational, it no longer differs from the physical world and its rules.
Versus Roman Catholicism (with its relics, pilgrimages, etc.), we would broadly consider Protestantism to be the less enchanted tradition. It turns out that during the Reformation, there was a heresy (known on the continent as Socinianism) that took an even more rationalist position than the mainstream reformers and denied the Trinity. So you had the people smashing statues and altars on the other hand defending the mysterious nature of Christ's divinity. A friend has written an account of this in 17th c England, where the heresy found a fair number of adherents, and some of their leaders were jailed by Cromwell's government: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mystery-unveiled-9780195339468?cc=us&lang=en&
Hey Henry, great points!
I’m reading Carlos Eire’s book “Reformations” and it that explains the history behind why Protestant reformers and their followers in Germany and Switzerland started destroying religious art.
To this day, Protestants are allergic to religious art, which deprives many of access to some basic level of artistic enchantment.
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300240030/reformations/
Great book, highly recommended!
I started reading you at Issue 17 at the recommendation of Rod Dreher. I was 21, single, and totally clueless about women.
Wild to think it's been 6 years since I first subscribed. It's been a fun ride, and you'll be happy to know your newsletters on dating made a big impact and played a major role in helping me secure my current relationship.
Keep up the good work Aaron!
Thanks!
Shameless plug: you can find a more enchanted, sacramental, incarnational Christian experience without abandoning the Solas of the Reformation. Confessional Lutheranism may be what you're looking for.