Tools for Monday: What’s Your Stance? (Part 3)
In our recent blog series, we reflected on biblically-based Christian “stances.” A stance refers to the ways in which a believer puts serious theological and doctrinal reflection into action. The fancy term to describe a stance is praxis, or the way practical application intermingles with belief and knowledge. We have thus far described four primary biblical stances: Synergy, Integrity, Realism, and Liberation. Perhaps the most widely used stances today, especially among Protestant Christians, are either “Integrity” or “Realism” (or a hybrid of both). Let’s take a deeper dive into studying these two stances in our next few articles. You may be practicing one of these stances and not be aware of it. Specifically, let’s look at some ways these particular stances may help us, but we should also engage some of the hindrances at work, beginning with realism.
I must admit outright my bias for the realism stance. In fact, I even wrote a book about it called Rediscovering Christian Realism! Describing the stance of realism in a short article is a rather daunting task, but we’ll do our best to keep the description between the ditches.
In a nutshell, Christian realism is about living in tension. Realism recognizes that life is filled with tensions that have tremendous impacts on both our decision-making and relationships. The primary tension that realism recognizes is the one between idealism and pessimism. On the one hand, we have a tendency to be extremely idealistic about our lives and imagine a world totally given over the Kingdom of God operating on earth exactly as it is in heaven. Yet, due to fact that all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God, realism tempers our imaginations. A famous advocate for Christian realism, Reinhold Niebuhr, said that Jesus’ radical teachings are an “impossible possibility.” That phrase may sound like theological gobbledygook, but it refers to the fact that we will not reach full perfection in our obedience to Christ this side of heaven. But that shouldn’t keep us from obeying the Lord! Walking as Jesus walked is possible through the Holy Spirit, but we will always be struggling with the flesh.
On the other hand, we have a tendency to be extremely pessimistic about life. There was a group of heretical, pessimistic believers in Paul’s day called “Libertines.” They thought that God’s grace and salvation gave them license to live however they pleased since, in their thinking, the human body was worthless, and the soul only mattered. This type of pessimistic hedonism still obviously exists today. Yet, Christian realism points to the biblical notion that human beings are fully connected and ought to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. True worship involves sacrificing the entire self to God (Romans 12:1-2). Even though we are sinners, God’s grace can lead us out of a gloomy pessimism to notice the possibilities of joining God in his redemptive work around us.
Christian Realism essentially began with a great pastor in the Fourth Century AD named Augustine. He was primarily the first to notice the tension between idealism and pessimism. Augustine’s work was reinvigorated in the 1800s by Soren Kierkegaard. He proposed that the primary tension of life goes even further than that of idealism and pessimism. Kierkegaard said that the infinite and the finite lay at the root of life’s tensions. In other words, human beings—since we have souls—can think infinite thoughts. God has created us with greater intelligences than other animal life. We’re not just children of nature but more than that. Yet, at the same time, we are finite beings. Even though we can think higher level thoughts, we’re tied to our finite, mistake-prone selves. The tension between these two parts of humanity can lead to tremendous despair. Thus, Kierkegaard advocated for us to take a leap of faith towards Christ. A leap of faith is the only way to make sense of the tension. But why? Our infinite side points to the fact that we are capable of great things. Meanwhile, our finite side means that there must be Someone greater than us who created us. The tension only makes sense when we put our faith in the Lord to save us from the pretensions of our infinite side and the horrid depression of our finite side. It is only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ that we can be saved, lest anyone of us should boast.
Let’s talk more next time about some limitations to realism and how to practice the stance effectively.