Interview with Eugene Peterson

This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"

From Christianity Today's Books and Culture:

The deeper problem, Peterson said, is that two things that are basic to the Christian life run counter to the American ethos. First, the Christian life is not about us, but about God. It is not like giving ourselves a makeover. "We're in on it, but we're not the subject or the action," Peterson said. Ever notice how in the Bible, we always come in after a preposition? God with us, in us, for us. In an individualistic, commercial culture, where the self is the center of everything, an autonomous agent of transformation, we have lost this grammar of shalom

Comments

[Dave]

Thought provoking sentiments - "prepositional participation" is not just a cute expression. It really does shape one's world view. If even our faith and repentance are "from" and "for" God, then our lives in Christ are filled with greater gratitude and devotion. And with the pandemic of the American born philosophy of pragmatism, self-denial and renunciation becomes most radically counter-culture.