The Gospel and the Enlightenment Paradigm
Many Christians today consider “the Gospel” as a set of facts/truth propositions regarding the life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return of Jesus of Nazareth that ought to be personally affirmed and communicated to others. In this framework, the Gospel is primarily viewed in terms of information which must be acquired and distributed. But does this framework well and fully capture what God intended with the Gospel? In what ways might this framework manifest failures of imagination and therefore neglect of important aspects of the way the Gospel is to be accepted, communicated, and experienced?
This framework has come down to us on account of two historical trends. The first featured the “dogmatization” of the faith in the shift in focus from the Gospel to the creeds: in this way the primacy of the Gospel as what God has accomplished in Christ and what we are to do about it was lost in favor of insisting upon dogmatic doctrinal formulations regarding the Gospel as propositions to argue and defend. Many years after this, the second trend manifested itself in what has become popularly known as “the Enlightenment” and the answers to the challenges and problems of life it would offer.
“The Enlightenment” is the term used to describe a constellation of philosophical, scientific, and technological developments, primarily in the eighteenth century, and the birth of a new approach to the world. While the Enlightenment featured a variety of philosophers and scientists with all sorts of different ideas about how things worked, a general theme emerged from all of their endeavors. They came to affirm the importance and power of reason over all else. In their perspective, the world had been subject to the “darkness” of ignorance and superstition since time immemorial; through the exercise of human reason in various metaphysical and physical exploits, humanity could come to a better understanding of how things worked, and thus disperse the “darkness” of ignorance and superstition with the “light” of reason and knowledge.
We can speak of a perspective highly informed by these values of the Enlightenment as the “Enlightenment paradigm.” In this paradigm, the real problem in the world is ignorance. The solution to the problem of ignorance is knowledge. When the “light” of knowledge comes forth, the “darkness” of ignorance and/or superstition will be exposed and will flee. Once a person develops a better understanding informed by the exercise of reason and logic, they will reform their behaviors accordingly.
We can see the Enlightenment paradigm at work in the world in phrases like “when we know better, we do better.” For those of us of a certain generation, the best example of the Enlightenment paradigm at work was the D.A.R.E. Program: Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Officials from the D.A.R.E. Program would come to schools to encourage resisting drug use and abuse by explaining to small children what drugs were and what drugs would do.
We should not be surprised to find the Enlightenment paradigm at work among Christians and within churches, especially within the Stone-Campbell or Restoration Movement. Many of the “Restorers” championed “common sense reasoning” as the ultimate standard for coming to a knowledge of the truth of God and being saved, very much in line with the overall Enlightenment program. Christians today tend to take literacy for granted, and presume a good and faithful Christian will be able to read the Scriptures, will read the Scriptures, and will study the Scriptures in a devoted manner, and expect this kind of behavior to define the Christian and the Christian life. In so doing, it can be easy to define and understand “the Gospel” primarily and principally in terms of the relevant texts read and studies. If a Christian is found in a moral lapse, or no longer associates with fellow Christians, the default assumption generally is how such a person “knows better.” Many a preacher and/or a self-appointed “watchman” of the brotherhood will immediately assume any deficiency in a Christian or a church can only be the result of insufficient teaching or exhortation.
Specifically in terms of the Gospel, the Enlightenment paradigm can be seen at work in reducing the Gospel to a set of truth propositions regarding Jesus to be acquired and distributed. As a result of this perspective, many deny the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian; if the Gospel is only a set of truth propositions, once the Spirit made known all which we now call the New Testament, His work was entirely finished. Furthermore, the study of the Scriptures and the Gospel therein is elevated as one of the ultimate ideal behaviors for the Christian. The presumption throughout has been according to the paradigm encouraged by the Enlightenment: once a person has come to know about Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return through reading the New Testament or hearing it preached, he or she will then naturally, according to their strength and reason, do all which God requires according to the Gospel. And, as noted, any failure to do so is understood as a deficiency in knowledge or understanding: they were clearly insufficiently taught, because if they had been taught properly, they would therefore act properly.
If there is anything truly astonishing about the Enlightenment paradigm, it is in how successful it has proven. Humans have come to understand many aspects of the creation in far better ways today than their ancestors could have even imagined. Literacy, especially in industrialized nations, has become the norm and not the exception.
The success of the Enlightenment paradigm comes from its partial truth. Ignorance and superstition really are problems from which humanity suffers. The solution for humanity often does involve gaining knowledge. People often will learn something and then change their behavior because of what they have learned.
The partial truth of the Enlightenment paradigm provides continuing justification for those who rely on it in their faith. Hosea rightly denounced Israel as destroyed for lack of knowledge in Hosea 4:6. God desires for all to come to a knowledge of the truth in order to be saved according to 1 Timothy 2:4. It is good and profitable to know how to read, and to dedicate oneself to the reading and study of the Scriptures. The Gospel does encode important information regarding what God accomplished in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return; we need to acquire such knowledge if we would be saved, and also communicate and convey that knowledge to others to the same end (cf. Matthew 28:18-20, 2 Timothy 2:2). Sometimes people do sin in their ignorance; and many times people will stop participating in sinful practices, and will start living according to what God has made known in Jesus, once they have been made aware of what to do and what not to do (Ephesians 2:1-20).
Thus there can be found some justification for the Enlightenment paradigm. The problem, however, is the Enlightenment paradigm is insufficient in and of itself. Ignorance is a problem for humanity, and knowledge is a solution. But Scripture bears witness to challenges to humanity beyond ignorance; and knowledge does not only rarely prove sufficient in and of itself to motivate appropriate behavioral changes, but sometimes itself becomes the problem. Knowledge proves necessary but not sufficient for true reform and restoration.
The difficulties with the Enlightenment paradigm can be well exemplified by what Paul made known in Romans 7:7-25. In speaking of the Torah of Israel, Paul defended it as right, holy, and good, yet found himself condemned in and by it on account of sin. Paul even addressed how knowledge of the Law could lead to sin: he had not known what coveting was before he was told to not covet, and sin found its opportunity (cf. Romans 7:7-8). A great example of this, not my own, would be to imagine a young boy given a gift of a toy bow and arrow set. Before he goes out to merrily play with it, his mother warns him to not make fire arrows with it. While it might be possible such a child was already pyromanically inclined and would have thought of such a thing on his own, the vast majority of young boys would probably have not had such a thought immediately. But now that the mother mentioned the possibility, the young boy will be far more tempted to make fire arrows than he would have been otherwise.
Those of us with experience with the D.A.R.E. Program can provide a similar witness. The program was a success for many children: they learned about drugs and the things drugs could do to them, and they were “scared straight” into not using drugs. At the same time, the D.A.R.E. Program became a moment of awareness for many other children: they heard the same message, but were now very interested in using the drugs! This is the same reason why many are concerned about providing education about sexual practices in schools: they imagine children will take it as encouragement to go out and engage in sexual behaviors. Therefore, it does not automatically follow for a person to “do better” if they “know better.” Sometimes, in fact, people do worse because they have gained knowledge!
And so the Enlightenment paradigm cannot deliver on its promises. Humans have more problems than only ignorance and superstition; they are inclined toward sin and rebellion, and will often cast aspersions on what they should accept as true, and fail to use critical reasoning in terms of things they should reject. Knowledge can lead a person to understand better and behave better; knowledge can also lead a person to arrogance, presumption, and rebellious behaviors.
The challenges and limitations of the Enlightenment paradigm should be brought to bear in how Christians approach the Gospel, the Scriptures, and one another. We cannot have uncritical faith and confidence in the moral integrity of unaided human reason, for our ability to reason is limited by our creaturely finitude and our fallen nature as sinful humans (cf. Romans 3:23, 9:19-20). We cannot assume a person will do better just because they know better: Christians continue to struggle with the temptation to sin even once redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 John 1:8-10). We cannot reason and study ourselves out of every problem and challenge or into full understanding and practice of the faith of God in Christ: reason and study remain good tools, but as part of a larger endeavor in faith.
Exposing the limitations of the Enlightenment paradigm should hopefully help us better see how we have limited our understanding and practice of what God has accomplished in the life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return of Jesus and through His Spirit. Since we do not inherently do better because we know better, the Gospel should be much more than mere information to acquire and distribute. Since exhorting, learning, and knowing do not automatically lead to better doing, our experience of and in the Gospel should involve much more than knowledge acquisition and distribution.
When we confess how we do not automatically do better because we know better on account of sin, we can see how we have diminished the role and work of the Holy Spirit. Our ancestors maintained a diminished perspective on the world and regarding the Gospel by imagining the only work in which the Spirit would be involved centered on information distribution. The Spirit absolutely is at work in how the truth of God in Christ has been made known in the messages found in the Old and New Testaments. Yet Paul expected the Thessalonian Christians to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit in 2 Thessalonians 2:13; the Spirit remains actively at work in making Christians holy through His intercessions and promptings. The unity of Christians was established in the Spirit, and Christians are called upon to display the fruit of the Spirit in their lives (Galatians 5:22-24, Ephesians 4:1-4). Not for nothing did Paul speak of the Christian life as “walking by the Spirit” in Romans 8:1-11: never in terms contrary to that which has been made known in Scripture, but expecting far more than merely reading the Bible and then doing everything it says using only one’s unaided powers of reason and ability.
For that matter, we can also come to understand how we have limited our understanding of “knowledge.” By reducing the Gospel to a series of truth propositions regarding what God accomplished in Jesus, we could deceive ourselves into thinking we could come to a full understanding of those truth propositions by our powers of reasoning and understanding, possess them fully, and impressively argue against all who would resist them to whatever degree, and thus find ourselves justified. Yet note well that for which Jesus prayed: for believers to become relationally one with God and one another as God maintained relational unity (John 17:20-23). He could speak of having made known the Father and His name to the disciples, and the disciples came to know the Father and the Son (John 17:24-26). Such knowledge was not mere facts about who God is and what He was about; it was relational knowledge, borne not merely from hearing the words of Jesus but by seeing His deeds and sharing in both of them. True knowledge of God in Christ is experiential, not merely through hearing and accepting factual truth, but also by doing the will of God and thus becoming conformed to the image of the Son (cf. Romans 8:29, James 1:22-25). Experience should never be used as a witness in contradiction to anything revealed in the Scriptures; nevertheless, the truth of the Gospel is shorn of its activity and integrity if and when we deny the importance of experiencing the truth of God through a life of faith in Christ empowered by the Spirit.
In a similar vein, we do well to gently ask ourselves if we have made more of personal reading and study in Christian faith and practice than is truly appropriate according to what has been made known by God in Christ through the Spirit. At no point do the Scriptures ever bear witness of God requiring believers to be literate in order to come to a knowledge of the Gospel and be saved. On the contrary: based on what we can know from history, we should fully expect to find in the resurrection far more believers in Christ who never learned how to read and therefore never spent a moment studying the Bible than those who were literate and engaged in such study! We should therefore not be surprised to discover the Scriptures never command the Christian to study them; the predominant metaphor is not “read and study” but “hear and understand” (e.g. Romans 10:8-17). This is why Paul put strong emphasis on giving attention to the public reading of Scripture in 1 Timothy 4:13: those who could not read would have no other means by which to come to an understanding of the Gospel or the Scriptures save by public reading, and would therefore not be aware of any discrepancies between what was written and what was spoken.
This is not a rejection of studying the Scripture or a call to encourage ignorance of what God has made known in Christ. Instead, it is an exhortation to make sure we do not spend so much time with our faces down in the Book that we rarely look up to God and get up and do His bidding. It is a reminder that mastering Bible trivia is not equivalent to growing in holiness and righteousness, and to know Scripture does not automatically mean one has come to know its Author. It is also an encouragement to dispel any delusion vainly imagining more reading and study will necessarily lead one to become a better Christian; we can read and study and yet come no closer to coming to the relational knowledge necessary to grow further in God in Christ and with one another. Some of those who have acquired the most facts about the Scriptures have proven the least Christlike of all; some people who never read a page of the Scriptures in their lives nevertheless heard the Scriptures spoken, committed the message to their hearts and minds, and well grew in relational knowledge of God in Christ.
The Gospel as the good news of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, lordship, and imminent return therefore involves a lot more than a series of facts or truth propositions to acquire and to distribute to others, although it certainly is not less. The Gospel bears witness to what God has done and invites those who hear it to jointly participate in that work God is accomplishing in Christ and through the Spirit. Transformation through walking according to the Spirit flows from the Gospel and can only truly take place by means of that Spirit and within the community formed and shaped by the Gospel. May we turn aside from the failures of imagination we have inherited on account of the Enlightenment paradigm, and well and properly walk in the Spirit and make known what God has accomplished in Christ in our words and deeds!
Ethan R. Longhenry
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