Territorial Bloggings

Now that I’ve finally finished watching & taking notes on all 15 talks in the ALPHA DVD set, the next step is processing those notes into a more cogent & thoughtful format for your consumption. As I continue to do that, I thought I’d put a little teaser out, particularly after I listened to the first hour of Issues, Etc. on 9/11 (Listener Email & Issues, Etc. Comment Line)

Starting at 38:04, emailer Joshua from Tuscon, AZ brought up a great point, related to an earlier discussion about Gospel Reductionism, that dovetailed amazingly well with something that I observed in ALPHA. He posited that, in Evangelical circles, Gospel Reductionism takes the form of “Relational” or “Relationship” Theology.

“Jesus wants to have a relationship with you, and that relationship is the first and most important need in people.” “This is a potent form of Gospel Reductionism.”

(Paraphrasing…) Further, under a “Gospel of Relationships,” the need to differentiate from others (key to the Puritan heritage of Evangelicalism) manifests itself in lifestyle – i.e., the desire to look and act like a Christian, complete with all the markers brought down from Puritanism (no drinking, no questioning authority, no condemnation of non-sanctioned things, etc…) so as to be able to tell who’s in & who’s out.

Recently, however, among 2nd Generation, “Relational” Evangelicals (Rick Warren, the Emergent/Emerging crowd, etc…) there is a tendency to rail against legalism, such that judgments & strong statements/stances (against, say, homosexual marriage/clergy, etc…) are no longer held in as much favor as differentiating markers. (End Paraphrasing)

The linkage to ALPHA is this: This type of “Relational Theology” and “Gospel of Relationships” is very much in line with ALPHA and what it teaches. IOW, ALPHA is quite consistent, both in how it confesses the “Relationship Gospel”, and how it applies & espouses it throughout the whole course.

More details will, of course, be forthcoming, but I can (perhaps too) succinctly summarize ALPHA in the following PRO & CON statements…

PRO: It is internally consistent in hewing to it’s core principles throughout the course.

CON: It is of a different spirit/gospel than Sacramental, Christocentric, Christianity.

-ghp

Does anyone out there have any strong thoughts on ALPHA, from a Lutheran p.o.v.?

Any links to resources that break ALPHA down, and examine it by holding it up against orthodox Lutheranism?

Any ideas on why it’s so appealing to Lutherans?

Any thoughts on why CPH hasn’t developed a Lutheran alternative? (I have a question in to Paul McCain on this, but I have yet to hear anything back from him on this…)

I know that there’s been much discussion on/about ALPHA over at LQ, as well as over at BJS, and while those are/have been useful, they’ve also been somewhat highly charged (LQ more than BJS, to be fair) with more heat than light, and I’m looking in a slightly more objective direction at this point.

ALPHA concerns me greatly, in that I’m perplexed as to why orthodox, Confessional Lutherans would be tempted to use it, thinking that they could somehow follow the “eat the meat & spit out the bones” approach. It strikes me as a dangerous game. And I’m almost equally as perplexed that there hasn’t been an alternative developed, tested, vetted, and promoted so that good, Lutheran theology isn’t viewed as something that isn’t “friendly” to newbies. (by the same token, I should say that I do somewhat dispute the premise that doctrine must somehow be “watered down” in order to not “scare away” those newbies; this is a premise upon which ALPHA seems to be built…)

Any thoughts/ideas/tips that y’all might have will be gratefully received, discussed, etc…

-ghp