Last night faculty and friends of the Loma Linda University School of Religion discussed a book by one of its newest professors. Published by T &T Clark in its Library of New Testament Studies series in 2006, the revised St. Andrews University doctoral dissertation is titled "Saving God's Reputation: The Theological Function of Pisits Iesous in the Cosmic Narratives of Revelation." Sigve Tonstad, a physician and Biblical scholar from Norway, is its author.
As indicated by the Greek words in its title, Tonstad's book examines the meaning of the expression "faith of Jesus" as found in Revelation 14:12. Over the centuries, commentators have tried to clarify the meaning of these words in several ways. Tonstad makes an unusual case for understanding them to mean "the faithfulness of Jesus," and thereby God, to others rather than the other way around. I think that the phrase therefore becomes analogous to the exclamation of some Psalms that "God's steadfast love endures forever."
Because he cannot make it on linguistic grounds alone, Tonstad buttresses his case by providing a detailed study of the entire book of Revelation and this is where things get more interesting and controversial. Most commentaries these days on the last book of the New Testament make the conflict between the first Christians and the Roman empire its foreground and the cosmic conflict about the way God governs the universe its background. Reversing these, Tonstad holds that the imagery of cosmic conflict is primary.
In addition, even if it is qualified by some commentators, there is a widespread impression that in the Book of Revelation God conquers all foes by violently abolishing them. Tonstad reverses this as well. He holds that the book's imagery of the victory of the "slaughtered lamb" suggests that God prevails by using persuasive rather than coercive power.
Either one of these major revisions would have been provocative. Taken together they constitute a major challenge to most interpretations. Tonstad avers that his case is a "complementary and partly contrary" alternative. This puts it gently!
One might anticipate that responses to his book would probe both his emphasis upon the theme of "cosmic conflict" and his proposal that in the book of Revelation God wins by using persuasive power. These are exactly the directions last night's discussion headed with one addition. This is that we explored not merely what the ancient document says but what we should say today about its central question: If God is as good and powerful as so many say, why do we see so much evil around and within us?
This question always expresses the greatest possible objection to Biblical faith, whether Jewish, Christian or Islamic. It is the problem of theodicy, or the "justice of God." When it comes to monotheism, in the end it is the only question worth discussing. If we believers answer it in ways that are at least partially satisfactory, much falls into place. If we fail here, nothing else matters.
Although in this volume Tonstad does not engage his Biblical scholarship with contemporary philosophical theology, I hope that in time that he or others will bring them together in mutually fruitful ways. I believe that his emphasis upon God's persuasive rather than coercive power in the Book of Revelation should be interesting to process theologians and vice versa, for example.
It will be tempting for these to square off against each other as to whether this is how God chooses to act (Tonstad, I think) or is compelled by the inescapable nature of reality to do so (process theology). I hope that this does not happen because I think it more important for them to collaborate against other positions in providing an alternative to what Alfred North Whitehead called "the deeper idolatry."
This is the tendency of Christians and others to depict God as a capricious dictator rather than the loving parent for whom Jesus of Nazareth lived and taught. Because it is the case that in the long run we become like those we worship, the future of human civilization rests in part upon which form of power we most prize. We have magnified our reliance upon coercive power beyond measure and we can see the results. Perhaps it would be helpful to try another approach. It is difficult to imagine that the outcomes would be worse.
excellent picture of the kind of God that runs the uni-verse
Posted by: carl carnes | May 30, 2009 at 08:13 PM