Revealing the City of God
I was invited to by The American Reformer to publish a more fulsome critique of Paul Kingsnorth's criticisms of the idea of Christian civilization. That piece is now up on their website.
When I say “fulsome critique,” I was not kidding. It runs almost 10,000 words. But, it develops a lot of important theological themes like the nature of the fall, the archetypal memory of mankind which drives him today, the teleological nature of time, the heavenly city as the goal of salvation, what it means to be “in Christ” and how that affects our life today, the importance of the role of prophet, priest and king in the life of the community, and why we don’t do church discipline today much, if at all. I also look at the weaknesses and strengths in Kingsnorth’s argument. I hope in the end it is fair and informative. I am thinking that once it has had a little play over at American Reformer, I will do an audio recording to post here for my listeners. Do go give it a read over at American Reformer. Bookmark their site because they publish a lot of really thoughtful pieces working through our present moment theologically.
Link: Revealing the City of God
Boy am I looking forward to this. PK is a wonderful speaker and thoughtful source of values and context in contemporary times. I welcome your thoughts Kruptos. Two men communicating and offering views that build on theories of original text is a fine thing. I hope this leads to more discussion and content. 🙏🏼
I was struck by this insightful take from your Am. Ref. essay:
"He draws a contrast between the idyllic Garden of Eden and the subsequent world of sin and then asserts that all the artifacts of human activity after the fall are the result of sin. This here, it seems to me, is his key error."
This is spot on. I think Kingsnorth exhibits a kind of Rousseau-ian reflex in the way he reasons about civilization, and technology as well for that matter. (I previously unpacked some of my own thoughts about his take on technology - link below.) His activist sensibilities sometimes overwhelm his writing - i.e. he tends to get a little carried away by his outrage and "outruns his punt coverage" as they say.
I'm rooting for Kingsnorth and his newly discovered faith. He's a gifted writer and has a lot to offer. But he might have been better served had some of these Christian publications waited a bit longer - for his understanding to mature - before offering him a platform.
https://www.keithlowery.com/p/catastrophizing-ai