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What is the Fear of the Lord?

At the risk of confusing the issue by modern use (or abuse) of theological terminology, the ‘fear of the Lord’ denotes piety in the most positive sense of the word, a spiritual disposition that may be described as a proper relationship to God and one’s neighbor. It is wisdom’s comprehensive term for religion.

-C. Hassell Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, p. 24

My Fall class on the Ketubim has begun; now comes the reading. I didn’t blog through my initial years of seminary, why not start with some now? It’s probably all I’m going to be reading anyway.

The idea of the ‘fear of the Lord’ is nebulous at best in our day. Over the years I’ve usually heard it put that wisdom begins with reverent awe for God. Not a bad place to start, but it doesn’t seem to make actual sense of Proverbs. The fear of the Lord in Proverbs is actually more of a set of presuppositions, perhaps a worldview. Bullock continues:

It would not be inaccurate to say that comprehensively the fear of the lord is a world view that attempts to synthesize the elements of human life and work. It is an ‘educational standard’ (compare our objective standard of research) that gives balance to the individual as he relates both to his world and God (p. 25).

As an educator, I demand that students writing research papers follow a certain standard of objectivity. As a Christian teacher and preacher, I demand that they follow a certain standard called the Word of God – that every thought be taken captive to Christ.

Wisdom begins with worldview. Wisdom begins with a set of religious presuppositions. That’s the idea.

Hearths Everywhere

…what Albert Borgmann calls focal practices-activities that center, balance, focus, and orient one’s life…

Focal living… helps us identify and perceive the ‘something more’ that people seek. When our existence seems shallow and unfulfilling, he commends focal concerns that ‘center and illuminate’ our lives. The word ‘focus’ comes from the Latin word for ‘hearth’-a woodstove or fireplace, an essential item for comfort and even survival in many climates. A hearth – as its name implies – is often at the ‘heart’ or center of a house. A lot of attention goes into maintaining a hearth, keeping it in good and safe working order, supplying it with fuel.

-Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus, pp. 10, 11, 13

He continues,

Though some have opted to live ‘off the grid’ and find the lifestyle rewarding, my point is not that we should abandon contemporary technology and naively take on previous hardships, and all become- using familiar biblical terminology- ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ (Josh 9:27). Nor do I believe we should pine after the ‘good old days.’ Rather, my hope is that we consider which hearths can hold us together, which wells can help us drink in abundant life (p. 16).

That raises the major question of the book so far: what are we going to place at the heart of our lives?

I titled this post “Hearths Everywhere” because the phrase has a possible double meaning. Modern people are trying to center their lives around everything that buzzes and glows. The problem with that is that it doesn’t allow for centrality – it tears our hearts in a multitude of different directions (we’re not only double-minded, we’re dozen-minded). If our hearts are given over to a thousand transient things, then we have no chance of retaining any sort of deep focus. But, on the contrary, if we can focus on a few ‘centering’ things, then we can find ourselves centered everywhere we go and in everything we do. Call it worldview integration if you like. Everything becomes related. We can find a hearth anywhere we go, because our ‘centeredness’ allows us to maintain our primary focus.

For a Christian this means at least that Colossians 1:18 has to be at the very heart of the hearth: “That in all things He [that is, Christ] might be preeminent.” With that unifying focus, we can see all focal activities, whether reading, or walking, or playing chess, or having conversations, as means of deepening our focus on the true hearth. We don’t have to simply ‘put off’ new things, we have to put on Christ. We have to find ways to allow new technologies and the like to serve the purpose of keeping us focused on the main things.

Worldly Orthodoxy (Personal Knowledge)

Polanyi on cultural systems:

Moreover, such sharing [of values] constitutes an orthodoxy upholding certain intellectual and artistic standards, and an undertaking to engage in the pursuits guided by them which amounts in effect to a recognition of cultural obligations…

…The framework of cultural and ritual fellowship reveals primordially the four coefficients of societal organization which jointly compose all specific systems of fixed social relations…the first is the sharing of convictions, the second the sharing of a fellowship. The third coefficient is co-operation; the fourth the exercise of authority or coercion.

-Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, p. 212

Polanyi points out that each culture has its own orthodoxy. It starts with doctrine, which leads to fellowship and cooperation, and anoints bishops to expose and excommunicate the heretics. It is not the church alone that attempts to hold up a standard of orthodoxy. And, when it comes to the world, the most fearful aspect of this system is that it has no greater authority over it than man. It begins with man and ends with man judging man.

People are sometimes fond of saying that they don’t believe in “organized religion.” The fact of the matter is that everyone is a part of organized religion whether they know it or not. The media and schools set the doctrine. Movie theaters, political rallies, social media, etc are after some sort of koinonia. And Hollywood stars, celebrities, and politicians can actually be little popes pronouncing their cultural anathemas. Behold the modern orthodoxy. Let us hope we are weighed in the balance and found wanting.

Stories are…Catechisms for Your Impulses

In a recent post of mine titled, Anthropomorphism, Unlikeness, and Reality in Fiction: Opening the Eyes of the Blind I write this:

I often reference C.S. Lewis’ statement to the effect that fantasy literature does not make children (and I would say adults as well, so long as they’re not prone to pure escapism) forget, or despise, the real world. He said basically that a child who reads of an enchanted forest does not thereby begin to hate real forests. Instead all forests take on some of this enchantment. For instance, I’ve never thought of forests in the same way since reading the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I’ve never looked at peaceful walks the same since I read the Princess and the Goblin (I’m always ready to sing a goblin song should the proper situation arise). I’ve never looked at lions the same since reading the Chronicles of Narnia. I could go on, but I won’t.

For the past month or so I have been immersed in N.D. Wilson’s 100 Cupboards trilogy. I posted my initial thoughts on the first book HERE. I have a lot more to add to that original post at this point, but I won’t – the whole point of my ‘recent reading’ series is to give initial impressions and applications. The series certainly gets more weighty as you go on and some of the philosophical (though I’m sure Wilson would call them Christian, not philosophical) undercurrents are emerging more clearly. But, actually, that’s beside the point.

I came across a YouTube video (watch it HERE) of an interview with N.D. Wilson a while back. I have now watched it twice in its entirety. He’s a pretty sharp guy and it is taking time to process some of the things he said. One of those things hit home yesterday in a conversation with my family about Wilson’s book Dandelion Fire. I won’t get into that now, but I want to record the relevant quote from the interview (transcript courtesy of WORLD):

Q: You’ve said you learned more philosophy, maybe even theology, from C.S. Lewis and Tolkien than from anything you studied in college. Is that one reason you write fiction rather than theological tomes?
A. Christians have sometimes been suspicious of stories, because they really can influence you. If you read the Twilight novels once a month for a year, I think you’d be a different human afterward—and not a sparkly one. Stories are like catechisms, but they’re catechisms for your impulses, they’re catechisms with flesh on.

This is precisely the point I was making (and I was only echoing C.S. Lewis) in my own post quoted above. Stories are catechisms for the impulses, fixing the questions and answers as to how you will view the world in which you live, how you will respond. To use the Lewis idea I often paraphrase (see above), the fairy story, or supernatural story, or whatever you want to call it, asks us, ‘Can our world be enchanted?’ And, if it’s a good one, we’re left saying, ‘Perhaps. Just maybe. Yes, actually, I think it is after all.’  And thus we act accordingly, however that may be.  Bad stories have an effect as well. But that’s a topic in itself. Let’s not go there presently.

I really just wanted to record that quote. It’s worth putting in the old computer, as they(or maybe just I) say. But let me also say, hats off to Mr. Wilson for coining (I assume) a phrase that I think will be quite helpful (he’s rather wordsmithy). Hats off to him for boggling my mind and forcing me to meditate hard and heavy on the concept of a word-made world (more on that to come, when I finish Dandelion Fire). I’m appreciating his work, consider checking him out if you haven’t.