I have a habit of forming opinions about books from reviews and never reading them, and of getting burnt up about the short quotes the reviewer offers. This actually kept me from reading NT Wright for a while, because I disagreed so much with the ways people used his writing that I didn’t want to read it for myself.
I have, however, read Doug Pagitt before, so I’m fairly confident that this quote is pretty representative, though I could be wrong. In any case, it’s a variation on a common argument about “modern” scriptural interpretation:
Today, he says, we’re still interpreting the story of Jesus through the lenses developed for a world dominated by Greek dualism and gods that needed to be appeased. Total depravity and substitutionary atonement are doctrinal byproducts of the combination of this ancient mentality mingled with the modern world of legal systems.
That was a paraphrase from a review at Progression of Faith, so I’ll say up front, that it may not be an exact quote from Pagitt. In any case, it’s all off in the wrong direction.
First, I’m going to assume he’s saying the Gospel was written “for a world dominated by Greek dualism and gods that needed to be appeased.” Do we not still live in that world? Among people with spiritual inclination, the spirit is pure and the body broken. The mindset of quite a few people, of whom I was one ten years ago, is that the ultimate goal of life is to “live well” so we can float off to heaven when we die, leaving our bodies behind.
And talk about gods to be appeased! While most people’s idols aren’t personified, they are worshiping at the altars of money, sex, self, ambition, anger, alcohol…
Total depravity and substitutionary atonement are the product of reading the words of the Bible clearly.
“There is no one righteous…no one who seeks God…no one who does good…” Romans 3
“Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.”Isaiah 53
I’d like to know more about Pagitt’s Christianity which is “worth believing”, so I can see if he has anything more to say. Even the sympathetic reviewer says he didn’t go very deep in defense of his position, and I’m afraid that he probably offered little in the way of constructive suggestions. We’ll see.
I’m also not a fan of people who don’t like some aspects of Christianity and change it until they are. Talking about a Christianity worth believing is like looking at a trait of God and saying, “I don’t/can’t/won’t believe in a God who…”
Sometimes we create boundaries where there are none, or freedoms where we they should not be. We downplay some sins (typically the ones we really enjoy and “aren’t hurting anyone”, or the ones we do in secret), and harp on others (usually the ones we aren’t tempted by…or the ones we do in secret). We brand people with their sin, rather than showing them that we’re all broken, and helping them through. But sometimes the things we don’t like about Christianity are the truth, and the problem is in us.
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