I’ve been tagged to produce this as part of a 123 meme. Here are the rules for this fun little bit of Internet foolishness:
- Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more (no cheating!)
- Find page 123
- Find the first five sentences
- Post the next three sentences
- Tag five people
So, the book that is nearest to me is “Christ and Culture” by H. Richard Neibuhr. It’s really a great book, and it’s taking me forever to get through it, mainly because it’s written by a former Yale theology professor. Big words, long sentences, great thoughts. Here’s the quote from the book, which is actually taken from Matthew 22:21 and Romans 13:1.
“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. … The authorities are ministers of God.”
Yes, it’s four sentences. Call the Meme Police on me if you want.
This is part of Niebuhr’s larger thought of Christ being above culture, of people trying to create a synthetic view between Christ and the culture around them. This synthetic view tries to take into account that while we are under Christ, we are part of our culture, and we must have complete “awareness of the dual nature of our law, our end, and our situation.”
Actually, this page contains my favorite sentence in the book so far.
The New Testament contains no document that clearly express the synthetic view; but there are many statements in gospels and epistles which sound the motif or which can be interpreted, without violence to the text, as containing this solution of the Christ-and-culture problem. (emphasis mine)
That’s great stuff. “Without violence to the text”. How many authors do commit violence against the text of Scripture in order to make a point?
Wow. I got sidetracked. Here are my tags. Angie, Amy, Chris, LaShawn, and Patti.
Add me to your reader!