In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then
he created a theologian. God listened to what the theologian was thinking
and saying. God thought, "Me have mercy! The things that
theologian is thinking about me! I won't have it." So God
created another theologian, and then walked away.
Welcome back. I hope your holiday
was as refreshing as mine. I want to share a little about my personal
journey as a God person. Please allow me
to introduce you to my favorite teacher.
Dr. Weisbaker told that theologian joke
above during one of his Interpretations
of Religious Man lectures. I imagine it was a joke that coursed
around many a religion department throughout the country, at least those Dr.
Weisbaker attended.
Dr. Weisbaker graduated from Princeton,
where he received his graduate degree, whereupon he subsequently attended the
University of Chicago and earned his PHD. He was the most fascinating
lecturer and one of the kindest men I ever knew in my life.
He was a first rate nerd. I mean
that as the highest compliment. Whenever my students call me Mr. Heard
the Nerd, I always thank them profusely. Incidentally, Dr. Weisbaker, the
nerd, spent his spare time backpacking or snow skiing. The man loved
nature. His was not the strength of the ox pulling a plow, but of the
camel traversing a wilderness.
Dr. Weisbaker wore spectacles. His
intellect was imposing. He rarely smiled in class. If a student
said something laughable, he had a slight way of smirking that halted the mind
in its wayward tracks. He modeled a brilliant Socratic debating style
during discussions.
Dr. Weisbaker’s personality remained ever professorial and aloof,
yet he loved to visit with students in a pub for hours and hours in order to
discuss the world, the meaning of life, and God...in his professorial manner,
of course.
Step away from that scene for a moment and observe. See the professor from the North drinking
wine with Southern Baptist students drinking beer. The students are twanging questions, musing
aloud, and transforming themselves into better God thinkers as they discuss “What
is the Good?” and “How do we know it is the Good?” and “What is moral?” and “How
do we know it is moral?”
The outpourings of other minds, men and women, past and present, sat
with us at that table, and we knew we would never be fundamentalists anymore.
I came away from those sessions with mixed feelings of
astonishment and disappointment. The disappointment I felt because those
sessions always seemed to end too soon.
I also came away distressed. My
world interior world had collapsed. It
had to be rebuilt.
Of course, I went to God and complained. Again, I heard the huge silence. I returned to the writings of Christian
writers I had read in the past, except now, I possessed a more critical eye. I had studied logic and new ways of thinking
about God. Francis Schaeffer, Josh McDowell,
and C.S. Lewis turned out to be seriously flawed once I had a little more
information.
For example, C.S. Lewis’ argument that Jesus claimed to be
God. So either the claim was false
because he lied or it was false because he was a lunatic or the claim is
true. Lord/Liar/Lunatic.
The first time I read that I thought, “Wow! This is a done deal. Jesus is Lord.” But Lewis, who should have known better,
committed the false choice fallacy. He
was setting up his argument to force you to arrive to the conclusion he wanted
you to believe. Lewis was a professor at
Cambridge. He should have known better.
Incidentally, being dishonest in debate seems to happen a lot
among evangelicals. I don’t like it, but
I understand why many do it.
Lewis neglected to mention the possibility that Jesus was legendary. Some have even suggested Jesus was a little
mad if he did in fact claim to be a being who created all these gazillion stars,
galaxies, and vast universe with the particles of the micro-world as his
building material.
Thank you for your visit. My
next post will continue my reflection on how the lives that we know and know us
influence who we are.
I hope to see you here.
Blessings…
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