Against Context-Less Theology

Captain James T Daniel Kirk has been boldly going across the whole Universe recently. I'm not sure where he's going to wind up with the series, but several parts of his 5th post (on Jesus as Man) had me cheering, and today's post about Israel's Story is what sparked this response.

I can tell you I've never spent five minutes in my entire life caring what the Westminster Confession said about Israel, although I admit Daniel gave me some good reasons to think about why it might matter a lot. And I sure got no special beef with Presbyterians. I just want to quote the following snippets because they also fit well, IMHO, to describe how all kinds of protestants too often treat the New Testament.

...in the scholastic Reformed Tradition, what is "real" is not what happens in history, but the transhistorical entities that hover beyond space and time--abstract concepts of works and grace. In such a world, there is no inherent value in the story of Israel...

See what that's saying: the story of Israel is merely a container for what's really important: the increasing revelation of the knowledge of transhistorical truths about God...

...[to them,] the story isn't the thing, the revelation of the propositional truths about who God is, that's the thing.

Thank you Daniel, for putting it so bluntly. That approach bothers me so much, I would now like to hock a big, transhistorical loogey upon it.

Snrgkkkkk... Fphoooey!

Ah. That feels better. :-)