From Death

Ben Myers talking about:

William Stringfellow’s theological writing is pervaded by the conviction that the resurrection of Jesus frees us from the dominion of death. The world is ruled by principalities – by suprahuman, suprapersonal institutional powers which bind human life to the service of death. But the gospel sets us free to live and work within these institutions as servants of Christ; we are freed from the dominion of the principalities, since the resurrection of Christ frees us from the fear of death. Since death is the only power with which the principalities can threaten us, we have nothing whatsoever to fear! This, for Stringfellow, is the gospel; this is the Christian life.

I haven’t gotten so far yet to be able to do pure theology like this. I’m forced by method to start with the history. And looking at the history I see it perfectly valid that Jesus’ actions fall directly into this category. When he is healing this is what he is doing. When he is feeding, this is what he is doing. When he is dying on the cross this is what he is doing. It brings the resurrection to the forefront, the ultimate vindication of Jesus’ message. Without resurrection, Jesus is another failed prophet, as Schweitzer would say.

This idea explains why the Gospel message is subversive to the politics in the first century. It explains, in the realm of inaugurated eschatology, why a community would form around this resurrection. It explains the actions of such a community like the early Church in the world around them, well into the second and third centuries.

History is the study of how things came to be. There is no doubt that events led down a certain path. History, with the appropriate method and hermaneutic can show us how things went down that path. Theology is something else. Theology is derived from action, from words, and from God.