"Christians should be amateur theologians and Scripture specialists, but in the older meaning of the word. Amateurs are those who love something (hence the Latin ama at the beginning of the word) enough to study and practice it as thoroughly as possible, to become skilled in it, without the need to call it a profession or a specialized calling... Our vocational specialties, no matter how specifically useful and time consuming, are isolates when left to themselves. They do not find their fullest fruition before the Lord until they are surrendered over to the truth, as it teaches the continually developing mind. This does not mean, for example, that Christian musicians do only Christian music or Christian architects do only Christian architecture. But it does mean that each does music or architecture Christianly."- Harold Best, Unceasing Worship, p. 67

In too many churches and ministries, questions of ministry philosophy are answered in isolation from one another. What we do in worship becomes disconnected from what we’re doing in counseling; our efforts at cultural renewal don’t interface with our vision for preaching; our children’s ministry is disjointed from our community groups.But: if we answer all these questions starting from a correct, biblical anthropology, we will develop a holistic, gospel-driven ministry that is unified in its approach, thorough in its scope, and deeply transformative in its results.

To cannibalize Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith, humans are meaning-makers who live according to some “dominant narrative by which we make sense of our world and the purpose of our lives in it” (Smith, Moral Believing Animals, 64). I think it’s fair to say that every meta-narrative has a basic problem-solution orientation. And every problem-solution narrative assumes a particular anthropology (explicitly or implicitly).

A.W. Tozer observed:

Before the Christian Church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, “What is God like?” and goes on from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, her practical working creed has become false.

I think we may say with equal conviction: if the church gets a wrong answer to the question: “What is a human person?” her practical working creed will become false. She will misunderstand the essence of human personhood and will therefore become increasingly ineffective at helping human persons and glorifying the God who made them in His image.

In the last post I laid out a longing for a Unified Theory of Everything – a theological “big picture” that makes sense of the parts. I would like to suggest that we find the starting point for this unified field theory in philosophical anthropology. Or, in case you don’t like big words: in the question of human personhood. What does it mean to be human?

I grew up in American evangelical Christianity, with all of its strengths and attendant weaknesses. One of those weaknesses was (and continues to be) a piecemeal approach to theology. Evangelicals rightly hold to the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. But they have traditionally failed to read Scripture as a unified, cohesive story. To use seminarian terms, they have exalted systematic theology over biblical theology. By asking “What does the Bible say about X?” regarding a thousand different “X’s,” evangelical theology often resembles a patchwork quilt rather than a seamless garment... What we need is a “unified field theory” that fuses together the varied aspects of ministry under a common theme, a common vision, a common theological framework.

To those taking stock of their own soul, it might be more helpful to ask not just “Have I been born again?” but “Have I been converted?” Have I experienced the wholesale turning-from-sin-to-Christ that the Bible calls conversion? If you have been born again, you’ll be able to tell not by peering into the recesses of your heart or parsing the nuances of your past experience, but by looking for the broader evidences of salvation: justifying faith in Christ, a confidence in God’s electing love, an appetite for the glory of God’s heavenly kingdom.