John Dickson

Professor, Wheaton College (IL). PhD, Ancient History. Presenter Undeceptions & First Hymn. Far from home. 🇦🇺 All my links:

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

I teach a class here at @WheatonCollege on the history of Christianity, focused on the first thousand years. One thought haunts me. We are right to look with shock and disappointment at the way medieval Christians accepted violence as a norm. 1/

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

The Christian catacombs of third- and fourth-century Rome show that ancient Christians came from all walks of life: artisans, civic officials, silk weavers, barbers, horse-groomers, and – my favourite – a professional comedian named Vitalis.

His epitaph, found at the Saint Sebastian Catacomb, boasts: “From jokes I gained a large house and wealth.”
Then he addresses Death itself: “O Death, you do not know joy (laetitia); you do not know how to love jokes.”
The final line is difficult to decipher, but it may express the hope that Vitalis himself – unlike Death – now knows joy (laetitia).

Source: Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores 5:133, no. 13655.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@AlistairRobert7 @peaceinthegreen @Pastor_Gabe I know this lovely woman. I know this conversation would be soul-crushing. There was nothing inflammatory here.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@peaceinthegreen @AlistairRobert7 @Pastor_Gabe Bless you.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@peaceinthegreen @AlistairRobert7 @Pastor_Gabe Look away. This stuff won’t be good for your soul.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@SPolender @Thatbrian @lancepeeler No, Scott. That wasn’t directed at you. Thats the problem of multiple people in a thread.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

Why some of us can rejoice in women “pastors” even if we pretty much disagree with the idea.

First, take a less fraught example: baptism. Suppose you’re 80% convinced the Bible endorses only believer’s baptism, not infant baptism. That still means you think there’s a half-decent chance you could be wrong. Since this is a matter of church order rather than morality, perhaps that possibility should be enough to let you attend the baptism of your friends’ infant child and even find some joy in it. After all, there’s a meaningful chance this practice is biblical, as many thoughtful, biblically serious Christians believe.

Likewise, suppose you’re 80% convinced the Bible restricts women from doing pastor-like things. That still means you think there’s a half-decent chance you could be wrong. Since this too is a matter of church order rather than morality, perhaps that possibility should be enough to let you sit under the preaching and ministry of a gifted woman and maybe even find some blessing in it. After all, there’s a meaningful chance this too is biblical, as many thoughtful, biblically serious Christians believe.

At least, that’s how I’ve come to think about it.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@Thatbrian @lancepeeler @SPolender I think my work here is done. Without intending to, you have shown how worldly conservatism on gender can drive orthodox theology into a ditch.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

Let’s play this game:
Jesus was Jewish;
Jesus is God;
Therefore God is Jewish??
Or
Jesus was a human;
Jesus is God;
Therefore God is a human???
We could run all night into the abyss of your confusions about the weighty matters of Christ’s two natures, divine persons, and divine essence. Flee from this folly? I fear your culture war has mortally wounded your theology.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@Thatbrian @lancepeeler @SPolender If your argument is that because Jesus is male, God is male, wouldn’t that make you the Unitarian? Please consider your statements carefully; your worldly conservatism might be trumping your Christianity!

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@SPolender @Thatbrian @lancepeeler “Women ought not have authority over a man.” Per se? In all things—politics, business, military? Are you guys *that* kind of “conservative”?

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@Thatbrian @lancepeeler @SPolender Oh dear! These are the contortions involved. Earlier you said God is male because he said he is Father. Now you say Jesus was male and that settles it. Are you conflating Jesus and the Father. That’s another famous heresy. Flee!

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@aaronlage @coconservative7 It could be semantics. Perhaps we should start with what you feel ‘office’ means.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@AlistairRobert7 @Pastor_Gabe Amazing. Thanks.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@Thatbrian @lancepeeler @SPolender Ahh. What a reveal.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@Thatbrian @lancepeeler @SPolender I hope you didn’t miss this one, @Thatbrian — evangelicals need to think more carefully about this stuff, lest they fall into their own logical trap.

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

Conservatives need to be careful in their insistence that God is male, lest we undermine the very basis on which we distinguish the human sexes.

There’s only one irrefutable, fact-based way to argue for the human sex binary: males are humans whose bodies are organised toward the production of small gametes and females are humans whose bodies are organised toward the production of large gametes.

God, of course, cannot be male in this sense.

Designating God a “man” (rather than a “woman”) on the grounds that He (a) has some traditionally masculine traits, or (b) asks us to call him “He” and “Father,” risks undermining the very grounding conservatives need to preserve the human sex binary. After all, what are we going to say to the trans man who has some traditionally masculine traits and asks us to call her “him”?

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@Thatbrian @lancepeeler @SPolender Sure, it can be. Remember, there are folks out there who say letting a woman sing solo in church or read the Bible or give a missionary report “is not conservative”! (Actually, perhaps that’s you, as well).

[John Dickson @johnpauldickson]

@Thatbrian @lancepeeler @SPolender A good scholar can call an idea “fruitful” without accepting it. Please don’t spread untruths. As for God transcending sex/gender, that’s just orthodoxy. God asks us to call him “Father” but surely you don’t think that makes him male!