Beeson Podcast, Episode 418
Dr. David Dockery
November 13, 2018

Announcer:          Welcome to the Beeson podcast coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Now your host, Timothy George.

Timothy George:     Welcome to today's Beeson podcast. Well, today we have the privilege of hearing a lecture presented by Dr. David S. Dockery, who is the president of Trinity International University. The occasion for this talk is the opening convocation of our school, which had took place on September the 4th, 2018. David brought a wonderful address titled Community and Belonging: The Church in a Time of Fragmentation. David is no stranger to our school. He's been here on numerous occasions, a wonderful educator, thinker, proclaimer of God's word. He currently serves as the President of the Evangelical Theological Society. He also served for 22 years as the President of Union University. Very active in the work of Christian higher education and challenging us all to think more deeply about the Christian faith and how it applies to our life in these fractious, fragile times. Let's go to Hodges Chapel now and listen to our good friend Dr. David S. Dockery as he speaks on Community and Belonging: The Church in a Time of Fragmentation.


David Dockery:      It is indeed a genuine joy to be with you on this special, convocation day on the campus of Beeson Divinity School. President Westmoreland, Dean George, thank you for your kind words and the opportunity you have extended to me for your perseverance and waiting for my arrival after failed attempts in recent years. We are so pleased for the privilege to join you on this day of celebration, the beginning of a new academic year here in this place. To board members, faculty, staff, students, guests, those who are gathered for this time, we look forward to what God has in store for the Beeson community in the 2018-2019 academic year.

David Dockery:      It is especially a warm hearted privilege for me to be here on this as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dr George's exemplary leadership here in this place. I'm grateful for my good friend and the opportunity to be with him today. I'm honored indeed to stand here in this place. I remember 30 years ago when this entity was launched, hidden away in a wing over aside Reed Chapel, just getting birthed with Dean George, a couple of faculty members, a double handful of students, and a wonderful beginning on that day, blessed by Charles Carter, defined by the presence of Carl FH Henry. Now look what God has done, bringing us together here in this place in St. Timothy's Chapel as it is affectionately known across the evangelical world for us to gather in worship this day.

David Dockery:      A convocation address is a bit different than expositional sermon. Today is an academic chapel. We are here in our medieval garb. We are here singing hymns, offering praise, reciting the creed. It is the full launch, as Dean George said, of a new academic year. Today, my words are in the form of an academic address with sermonic applications, of course, for this particular context. We trust that the Lord will indeed help us.

David Dockery:      I have five points I want us to think about. Five points because Dr. George is fine to of five points. I wanted us to think in those terms of a framework here today. Number one, the fragmentation of our culture. Number two, the need to interpret and clarify. Number three, the importance of distinguishing between preferences and truth claims. Number four, a call to authentic community. Number five, implications for the broader evangelical world. Now, given that I had two previous times that are in the bank here, I think I have about an hour and a half to unpack those five points, so if you'll be patient, I'll work my way through them carefully. Here we go.

David Dockery:      Something has gone wrong in our culture. On this much, people across this country who cannot seem to agree with much of anything tend to agree. The problem manifests itself in political polarization. I do not think the problem is entirely political. There's a broader fragmentation of our culture. What if the problem is one of the breakdown of community, the loss of meaning, the loss of purpose in life? We enjoy the convenience and accessibility of modern technology and improved economy and other markers of cultural progress. Yet loneliness and disfunctionality pose what the American Psychological Association claims is a growing public health threat. People are increasingly alienated from one another. Do we as a church, as Christ followers, have anything to bring to these issues at this time? Perhaps we have some way of speaking to what Yuval Levin calls our fractured republic. Maybe we have something to say about culture, community, meaning and purpose that seemed to be amidst among the fear, anger and indignation.

David Dockery:      Clay Routledge and his new work called Supernatural, a 2000 Oxford University Press Publication notes that fewer people in Europe and North America today than in past decades identify with a religion, attend church, engage in religious practices or view faith as an important part of their lives. Those who advocate for the secularization of society applaud such cultural change because they see it as evidence that people are turning away from all things supernatural. These trends, however, Routledge observes, may be more about our abandoning each other than anything else. He points his readers in a direction for us to consider this morning with these words. It isn't enough to make life longer, easier, or even more pleasurable. People need to feel that they matter, that they are members of a meaningful social world. Our society may not be becoming more truly secular, but more individualistic. As a result, more likely to suffer from an epidemic of meaninglessness. Indeed, as Nathan Schlueter, as noted in the book, The Human Vision of Wendell Berry, ours is a culture against culture, an anti-culture. The consequences have been a tragic disintegration and fragmentation of individuals and communities.

David Dockery:      We all know, however, that it's easier to critique than to construct, so over the next 20 minutes or so, I cautiously this morning, want to try to point us in a more constructive direction at this time. As we make these observations, we recognize that the Christian voice is being discharged from it's formerly privileged role in our Western society. During this time of transition, we are discovering how accommodated we have become to the assumptions of the culture all around us. If on the one hand we are jarred and shaken by the changes in the shifting social landscape, we're faced on the other hand with a rude awakening to the fact that many Christ followers are more and more like the culture we now inhabit.

David Dockery:      Donald Posterski notes that instead of being in the world but not of the world as Jesus highlights for his disciples, we had done the seemingly impossible. We have inverted Jesus dictum and become of the world, but not in the world. One of the roles that we can play is to help Christ followers in all spheres of life to understand the need to live always between Gospel and culture. In addition, we can seek to model and exemplify these gospel truths for the church, so that we can seek to reflect these values for the culture all around us. We must recognize that we must learn to listen to the gospel that calls us to know and value things in a very different way. One of the challenges for us is to maintain a distinctive Christian presence that stands without reservation on the uniqueness of the Gospel, in context with the Gospel is not well received.

David Dockery:      As Harold Netland has reminded us so well, we must not be forced into a false either or choice between a supposed intolerant particularism or supposed tolerant relativism. It is no longer culturally acceptable in some context to live out the worldview implications of the Gospel. We must maintain a commitment to Gospel particular ism while at the same time addressing the legitimate concerns for religious tolerance heard so loudly in today's culture.

David Dockery:      Christians are unfortunately described by the media and others as intolerant people or as a persecuting group or as a demeaning toward others. We can lead the way in simultaneously modeling a spirit of understanding that seeks reconciliation along with an unapologetic commitment to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the gospel message. In this way, the Beeson community has a unique opportunity to be a grace filled voice and and for a fragmented world to help us establish a credible Christian presence in places that are often hostile to the gospel.

David Dockery:      One of the most important things that takes place at Beeson Divinity School is faculty, each semester teaches hermeneutics class. There is a hermeneutical role, however, that involves not only guiding students in the interpretation of sacred texts, but also in serving as a hermeneutical guide for others by providing interpretation and clarification of the Gospel and its entailments for churches in society, for our friends and for culture at large.

David Dockery:      That being the case, what does all of this have to do with our responsibility to live between Gospel and culture? I say a great deal. People can't effectively respond to something they find hard to understand. It is difficult for them to do so. They often need guidance. One of our responsibilities in our educational role is to help these students that are here today and those with whom we partner in other contexts to provide helpful interpretation and clarification that will enable others to understand what Christianity teaches regarding the nature of the ultimate reality and fate of individuals that death. What is needed is to move the entire starting point back one step. In this sense, our initial efforts will involve the role of pre-evangelism, maintaining a credible Christian presence in the world. We can do this and remain committed to the legitimate concern that underlies the contemporary awareness of world religions.

David Dockery:      Christians can and should live together with others in our pluralistic world as agents of grace and ambassadors of reconciliation. It is critical for Christians to affirm that we stand against racism, against bigotry, against prejudice, against other forms of intolerance that deny people the right to freely make their own decisions regarding matters of faith. This may seem obvious, but once again, Harold Netland has reminded us that many people falsely assume that religious people, especially Christian particularist who maintain a belief in the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the Gospel do not believe in religious freedom. Yet pluralist need to recognize that it cannot be the case, that Jewish or Islamic monotheism and the polytheism of Hinduism and Neo Paganism are all at the same time correct. Thus, when dealing with the pluralist, it can be helpful to point out that most religions make both exclusive claims and diverse claims. It is not just Christians who are concerned about these vital matters. We can be champions of religious freedom and the rights of others while maintaining an unapologetic commitment to the exclusive claims of the gospel.

David Dockery:      These efforts, one of our tasks calls for us to help people distinguish between those issues that are matters of personal preference and those things best understood as truth claims. Many of us seem to get these categories confused or intermingled on a somewhat regular basis, such is the case with many important religious claims as well. One way that we can help people is to assist them in sorting out the difference in categories. For example, as Dr. George said, to suggest that crimson is my favorite color, not necessarily the Harvard Crimson of his rope, but crimson of [inaudible 00:15:46] on Saturday afternoon when people are chanting things like, "Roll Tide, Roll." For some of you, your favorite colors are blue and orange. Athletic director, Morton Newton, who is here this morning, might say his favorite colors are red and blue. Indeed all of these things are merely a matter of preference, as hard as it is for some of us to admit.

David Dockery:      On the other hand, to suggest that Jesus was executed on a cross, that he rose from the dead, that he appeared to more than 500 witnesses is first and foremost a truth claim. It is helpful for us in our educational role to help our students and others as well understand the differences between preferences and matters of truth. Much of the misunderstanding, contentiousness and polarization our culture often results from our inability to distinguish these things. The communication or lack thereof on social media only compounds the problem.

David Dockery:      In light of the conflicting truth claims often put forward in a pluralistic context, it does not make sense to believe that all truth claims are equally valid. Although we live in an age where many people think that no rational person could possibly think, could possibly believe that one religion alone is true while so many other religions exist and thrive. This is no cause for us to immediately jump ship from the historical claims of the Christian faith. At this point, it may be helpful to be reminded of John Searle's observations in his book, The Construction of Social Reality, in which he notes that although social reality is ontologically subjective, it is epistemically object, yet social reality and the perception of that reality is constituted by a collective intentionality.

David Dockery:      Yet just because humans make social reality does not mean that any one single individual can autonomously define his or her own social reality. It is here that the Christian vision for community, for the communion of saints provides a much better option than the radical autonomy proposed by our culture. We must address important matters of anthropology, including not only the question of what it means to be human, but what it means to be human in relationship to others.

David Dockery:      Colgate university professor, Barry Alan Shain, in highly esteemed work, The Myth of American Individualism, claims that society has seemingly lost a sense of propriety under a misguided understanding of freedom and individualism. Moreover, he contends that freedom depends on a sense of accountability established by community parameters that we must reclaim this sense of community. Creating such an environment has its ideal, the goal of connecting the large unevangelized world eventually with the god of the Bible. Perhaps it would be helpful to think of our role, not so much that as a flood light that is shining into our eyes, as that of lighting a candle. Someone is sitting in a dark room. You come in and flip a switch that floods the room with lights like those that are shining in my eyes this morning. The person in the room may wince and turn away from the source of life. Their eyes shut tightly. On the other hand, if you walk into a dark room with a candle, the person will be attracted to and drawn to that light.

David Dockery:      The way to provide a distinctive Christian presence for our broader culture in both our intercultural and global context is the lighting of a candle in a dark world. As the Apostle Paul instructed the Philippians, let us shine like stars in the midst of a fallen world. In the passage that was read for us earlier this morning, Jesus instructed his followers with these words. You are the light of the world. We understand from the Apostle John, that God is light and that in Him, there is no darkness at all. Yet at the same time, we recognize and understand that the world is separated from God and that people are in darkness. Our role then is to build ongoing relationships given time and opportunity to help guide others to the truth claims of the gospel. Hopefully such opportunities will dispel misconceptions and break down barriers to the gospel message. For this kind of interaction to take place, we must model authentic community even as we seek opportunities not only to speak, but also to listen to others. Listening is an art. Before we can articulate the truth claims of God's kingdom, it is important that we learn to listen. As someone has well said, "How will they hear unless we learn to listen?"

David Dockery:      Where does this leave us? With God's help, we need to engage in the serious work that puts education, evangelism, social ministry, and missions together as partners rather than as competitors. Let us encourage our students as well as one another to wrestle with these shared issues. Should we fail to do so, we will not be faithful in preparing responsible, Christ centered men and women for leadership and service in the 21st century. The good news, however, is that students like those who are here today, more easily than many of us who serve in faculty, staff and administrative roles, accept the idea that Christians are to be doers of the word and not hearers only. They understand that they are to serve others while simultaneously taking the good news of the Gospel to our fragmented and polarized world.

David Dockery:      We now live in a diverse and fragmented global world. The diversity now found in urban settings for shadows the coming reality to the majority of North America where heterogeneity will be the new norm. We must recognize that the things that bring us together are not our homogenous characteristics, but our deep love for Jesus Christ who has given us new life and has reconciled us to God. Our lives then become an offering of thanksgiving to Jesus Christ, faithfully expressed in lifestyles of compassion to the least of these in the world. For we have been called to be agents of grace and ambassadors of reconciliation, winsomely presenting the good news to a culture that carries little Christian memory. Our guide is scripture itself, inspired an illumined by God's spirit. We should assume a humble posture of listening to and learning from one another. All of us bring strengths and weaknesses to our shared work.

David Dockery:      As Colin Hanson has reminded us, we all have blind spots. Recognizing these realities is the first step in the right direction. In this sense, we must think about our role not only for a rapidly changing global context, but also for an intercultural one. The major cities of the United States look as if the world has come to our doorsteps. Our cities or multiethnic and intercultural. As Peter Chai has noted, we must expand our calling to include not only an international component, but an increased intercultural one as well. Thus, we must grapple with our own isolation as we seek to address the loneliness and meaninglessness felt by others. It will require greater intentionality to exemplify in model what is distinctive about a Christ centered vision for genuine community.

David Dockery:      The missional and educational tasks than of Beeson Divinity School is to develop faithful, global Christians who exemplify intercultural competence, women and men deeply committed to Jesus Christ and the good news of the gospel. We need to ask for fresh eyes to see the potential role that Beeson Divinity School has as the means for establishing a Christian presence in the world.

David Dockery:      Unfortunately, the churches and the larger evangelical world today reflect much of the fragmentation of our culture. This evangelical movement of which Beeson has been and continues to be such a vital part since Carl Henry placed his stamp on this place 30 years ago with the inauguration of Dean George is anything but a unified, flourishing movement in North America. In fact, this movement, without the presence and influence of Billy Graham who passed away earlier this year, is one who's unity and health are in serious jeopardy. We need new commitments to prioritize the gospel, the scriptures, and the best of the Christian tradition as our guide.

David Dockery:      For many of us who understandably want to avoid becoming or being perceived as becoming the Republican party at prayer, need not, however, rush in a reactionary manner into the waiting arms of a revisionist progressivism. On the other hand, those of us with concerns about the platform of the Democratic Party should avoid steering toward a reductionistic fundamentalism. Neither a new form of liberalism nor reactionary fundamentalism are wise options at this time.

David Dockery:      What is needed is a biblical orthodoxy, a historic, apostolic and Catholic Christianity of faithful, intercultural, transcontinental, interdenominational, and intergenerational evangelicalism. Such a proposal, however, will need prayerful wisdom on our part to avoid unintentionally moving in the direction of an unhealthy inclusivism or heterodoxical universalism. Let us all work to bring together Christian worldview thinking with faithful worldview living as we invasion the priority of evangelism along side the need of social justice, a vision for global missions and intercultural Service, an unhindered gospel presentation together within formed contextualization, careful biblical interpretation coupled with spirit enabled proclamation, serious theological reflection combined with the humble cultural engagement and renewed rigorous scholarship that is not disconnected from faithful churchmanship, characterized by proclamation, worship, a sense of community, prayer and service. May God help us to model authentic humility, kindness, compassion, gentleness, patience, forbearance, accompanied by a diligence to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

David Dockery:      All of these characteristics help to shape a commitment to civility in the public square. Civility rightly understood is not merely a diplomatic posture or code of conduct, but a virtue. Christian civility then is a Christian virtue that calls for convictional civility that does not fail to hold fast to that which is good, while faithfully holding forth the word of life. Living with a commitment to convictional civility to convictional kindness is the marketplace application for those who are committed to a gospel centered life in ministry. Thus, we need both conviction and boundaries for the sake of theological integrity. We also need a spirit of cooperative collaboration to build bridges to and from this campus.

David Dockery:      We ask God to bring a fresh wind of His spirit to all aspects of the Beeson community, as you began this new academic year together, in order to bring renewal to your theological convictions into your shared educational work. I pray that you will relate to one another in love and mutual respect. Thereby, inspiring a true sense of belonging and genuine community on this campus and beyond. We pray that these efforts will bear fruit for God's kingdom as you seek to work faithfully to prepare this current generation of students to advance the gospel, bringing renewal to Beeson, to the larger evangelical community, and to the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ around the globe. May God's blessings indeed be yours.

Announcer:          You've been listening to the Beeson podcast with host Timothy George. You can subscribe to the Beeson podcast at our website, BeesonDivinity.com. Beeson Divinity School is an interdenominational, evangelical divinity school training men and women in the service of Jesus Christ. We pray that this podcast will aid and encourage your work. We hope you will listen to each upcoming edition of the Beeson podcast.