I spent this past Wednesday afternoon with my friend Jared Nelson. We had lunch and sat out in the beautiful weather to talk about theology, life, and ministry. Thanks for the good company and conversation Jared.
I recall mentioning something during our conversation that is, I think, fundamental to spiritual formation: heremeneutics. Hermeneutics is the study of the art of interpretation. Spiritual formation is, in large part, simply the process of learning to consistently interpret yourself and your world according to your God. This means interpreting everything in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ (i.e. the gospel).
All things ultimately find their telos, their "end or goal," in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and, therefore all must be interpreted through the gospel framework in order to be ultimately understood. This interpretive process is both linear and circular. It is linear in the sense that, by God's grace, we do progress in understanding. But it is also circular in that our understanding comes as we engage in a dialogue between our understanding of the gospel and our understanding of the other aspects of divine revelation, both special and general. Each should inform and reform without deforming the other. Spiritual formation occurs within a healthy interpretive dialogue.
I can think of no better example of this process than Jonathan Edwards's Typological Writings. The Typological Writings (Vol. 11 of Yale University's The Works of Jonathan Edwards) includes two of Edwards notebooks in which he entered semi-random thoughts: "Images of Divine Things" and "Types of the Messiah." In "Images of Divine Things" Edwards offers interpretations of the creation in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is one example:
And on a more positive note:
I recall mentioning something during our conversation that is, I think, fundamental to spiritual formation: heremeneutics. Hermeneutics is the study of the art of interpretation. Spiritual formation is, in large part, simply the process of learning to consistently interpret yourself and your world according to your God. This means interpreting everything in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ (i.e. the gospel).
All things ultimately find their telos, their "end or goal," in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and, therefore all must be interpreted through the gospel framework in order to be ultimately understood. This interpretive process is both linear and circular. It is linear in the sense that, by God's grace, we do progress in understanding. But it is also circular in that our understanding comes as we engage in a dialogue between our understanding of the gospel and our understanding of the other aspects of divine revelation, both special and general. Each should inform and reform without deforming the other. Spiritual formation occurs within a healthy interpretive dialogue.
I can think of no better example of this process than Jonathan Edwards's Typological Writings. The Typological Writings (Vol. 11 of Yale University's The Works of Jonathan Edwards) includes two of Edwards notebooks in which he entered semi-random thoughts: "Images of Divine Things" and "Types of the Messiah." In "Images of Divine Things" Edwards offers interpretations of the creation in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is one example:
181. Serpents gradually swallow many of those animals that are their prey. They are too big for them to swallow at once, but they draw them down, by little and little, till they are wholly swallowed and are past recovery. This represents the way in which Satan destroys multitudes of men that have had so good an education, or so much conviction and light and common grace, that they are too big to be swallowed at once. It also livelily [sic] represents his way of corrupting and prevailing against Christian countries and churches; and against even some of the saints, with respect to some particular errors and corruptions that he draws them into for a season.
And on a more positive note:
196. The meat and drink of mankind comes down from heaven in the rain, and even our clothing and habitations, and even the substance of our bodies, is mostly of the very substance of the rain; which very naturally leads us to the fountain of all our mercies, and teaches us that we are fed and maintained by those things that are wholly the fruits of God's bounty, and are universally and entirely dependent on him.
What could be more exciting and rewarding than engaging in the process of interpreting the world in which we live according to the gospel of Jesus Christ! May the triune God grant his church the desire and wisdom to responsibly engage in this dialogue until Jesus comes again.
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