Books & Resources
Bedrock for a Church on the Move
Dr. Merwyn S. Johnson
This book addresses the current turmoil in American Christianity and culture. The Church is at a crossroads, often trapped by its own message. Only Jesus Christ can provide bedrock for such a time as this.
American Christianity has boxed itself in at two crucial points. (1) The message of salvation, including the afterlife, typically focuses on Jesus dwelling in our hearts to make us good, make society good, and through us make others good. This message raises tough questions from within. If we do not feel Jesus in our hearts, is God still there? Are we still saved? Is it finally up to us to make ourselves good? Where, then, does God fit in? (2) Many American Christians set up a distinction between the Church as the place where God dwells and the World as a secular place without God. Does our World now confidently embrace secularism? If so, how do Christians–and the Church–fit into such a World? On both fronts, the Church now faces a crisis of authenticity, relevance, and community.
The true Christian bedrock, Jesus Christ, offers new directions for moving forward. When the message shifts from claiming that Christ is in us to affirming that we are in Christ, the emphasis changes from embodying God in ourselves to participating in what God is doing all around us. The mantra, where the Church is, there is Christ, gives way to where Christ is, there is the Church. God’s gracious presence brings out joy in every moment, and in Christ we experience a vigorous fellowship with God and others in all of life.
Bedrock draws on the Bible and Christian theology to reflect on Jesus Christ as bedrock for a Church on the move.
From Then To Now: Calvin’s Hermeneutical Bridge
Dr. Merwyn S. Johnson
John Calvin’s use of the Bible was so powerful in sermons, commentaries, and theology because of the necessary step he takes to bridge the time gap from the ancient Scriptures to his audience in 16th Century Geneva. When the interpreter takes this step, the words of the Bible convey the Word of God authentically to contemporary people. For Calvin the hermeneutical bridge is historical typology, identifiable in his sermons, commentaries, and theology (Institutes of the Christian Religion).
In the larger context of Biblical interpretation (the hermeneutical circle), historical typology distinguishes Calvin from seven other distinct approaches to the Bible. In the context of Church history, Calvin differs from his predecessors who approached the Bible looking for timeless truth concepts. He also refuses to separate the literal from the spiritual/figurative sense of Scripture, as his forebears had done. In the context of modern Calvin scholarship, this book helps us consider our own assumptions about the Bible which can keep Calvin from speaking with his own voice.
Calvin’s hermeneutical bridge was crucial to his role in reforming Church and culture during the Protestant Reformation. He is helpful today, too, because we are in the midst of an epochal paradigm shift as he was, and Christians face the same issues in the 21st Century that he faced in the 16th Century.
