Contents
Trackless Wastes and
Stars to Steer By
Foreword
by William H. Willimon 11
Preface
and Acknowledgments 13
Introduction 17
CHAPTER 1: Our Homeless Age 24
The Homeless Age 25
The Homeless Age and the Mennonite
Experience
Secularization
Modern Transportation and Communication
Plurality and Pluralism
Relativism
Individualism
Loss of Authority
Two Attempts to Find a Home 35
Separatism
Translationism
Questions for Discussion and
Reflection 43
CHAPTER 2: The Bible and
Tradition: Three Approaches 44
A Clash of Paradigms 46
Precritical Understandings of the
Bible
Precritical Understandings of Tradition
Critical Understandings of the Bible
Critical Understandings of Tradition
Marrying Critic and Precritic 57
Direct Inspiration Mediated Through
Humans
Timeless Historicism
Semi-Open Universe
Simple Complexity
Rational Piety
Flexible Authority
Making the Marriage Work:
The Essential Role of Community
Questions for Discussion and
Reflection 65
CHAPTER 3: Taking the World
into the Bible 67
Plausibility Structures and
Individual Perspectives 68
Taking the World into the Bible:
The Theory 71
Taking the World into the Bible:
The Building Blocks 73
Biblical Orientation
Biblically Oriented Community
Results of Taking the World into
the Bible 83
Reversal
A Community of Outcasts
Biblical Politics
Questions for Discussion and
Reflection 87
CHAPTER 4: Connecting Bible and
World 89
Building a Critical and
Self-Conscious Foundation 89
Building Translationist Bridges
Between Bible and World 93
Systemic Thinking in Sociology and
Family Systems Theory
Bridging Bible and Experiential-Expressivism
Psychology as Source of Enlivening
Perspectives 97
Four Ills/Four Antidotes
The Limits of Psychology
Using Psychology to Recapture Biblical Truth
Questions for Discussion and
Reflection 113
CHAPTER 5: Joining Separatism
and Translationism: The Centered Congregation 115
Models of Congregational Structure:
Three Options 116
Separatism: Rigid Boundaries
Translationism: Few Boundaries
Separatism and Translationism Joined:
The Centered Model
Implications of the Centered Model
122
Conversion
Church Membership
Gentle Authority
Strengthening the Center
Homosexuality: A Case Study
Limits of the Centered Model
Questions for Discussion and
Reflection 136
CHAPTER 6: One Way and Many Ways 137
Intrafaith Interaction: Three Options
137
The Bounded Model
The Unbounded Model
The Centered/Contextual Model:
One Center, Many Expressions
Interfaith Interaction: Three Options
145
The Bounded Model
The Unbounded Model
The Centered Model
Questions for Discussion and Reflection
157
Epilogue: Trackless Wastes, Stars to
Steer by, and a Home for Homesick Souls 158
Questions for Discussion and Reflection
166
Notes 167
Bibliography 172
The
Author 179
Trackless Wastes and Stars
to Steer By orders:
|
