Trevin Wax

In the Thrill of Orthodoxy, we are encouraged to be reawakened concerning the truths of the Christian faith, and its significance in the face of our culture and false teaching. We must guard ourselves against drifting from the truth and from temptations to alter it by holding to proper orthodoxy, and how and why we should do so. As stated in the forward, “What is ultimately at stake in preserving orthodoxy is the truth about God, the gospel, and ourselves. And what is thrilling about orthodoxy is the enduring relevance of its truth.”

My biggest takeaway reading this book is the importance of passing on the truths of orthodoxy as well as skills to discern truth in our current culture and whatever it may become; likewise, to also seek to inspire the younger generation to understand the importance of and desire orthodoxy not only in knowledge but in practice and with love.

There were many nuggets throughout each chapter of the book that I took in deeply and gleaned so much from. A few of these were:

“Nothing could be more important for confessing our faith in Jesus than a proper understanding of the One whose name we bear.”

“Christians care about getting the details right because we recognize the consequences of getting them wrong.”

“The beating heart of orthodoxy begins with the childlike wonder of conversion, and the heart of orthodoxy beats on as we celebrate and see the world through the conversion of others.”

For me, the book’s later chapters were mostly better than the earlier ones. While reading the first half I was ready to rate it 3 stars; however, later chapters led me to raise it to 3.5 stars. My favorite sections of the book were the discussions of the Church fathers and their working through doctrine (such as Augustine and Pelagius) as well as the chapter on heresy.

I received a review copy of this book for free from Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own.… (mehr)

First sentence from the foreword: Nothing thrills the disillusioned.

First sentence from chapter one: The church faces her biggest challenge not when new errors start to win but when old truths no longer wow. J.R.R. Tolkien once said that the most regrettable feature of human nature is how quickly we become unsatisfied with the good.

I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this thought-provoking read. This one celebrates creeds, confessions, and orthodoxy. (But not for the sake of being doctrinally correct.) Wax links orthodoxy with loving God, worshipping God, living for God, walking with God.

IN some ways, this one is about re-embracing the Christian basics and rekindling your awe for God.
IN some ways, this one is about living for Christ in a non-Christian [secular] world with opposing/contrasting values, ethics, and beliefs.

It does address contemporary issues facing individual christians and the church as a whole. It does a great job at redirecting the focus to the BIG picture. To keeping everything aligned and in check so that you don't lose perspective and forget what really matters.

In all honesty, I was slightly nervous about reading books from this publishing house. While they have published some genuinely AWESOME books in the past, they've also published some extremely liberal/progressive books through the years--particularly the last decade or so. But this one was so SOLID. It was genuinely biblical and trustworthy.

I mentioned this briefly in my opening paragraph, but I LOVED how thought-provoking it was. Very convicting in places. Definitely stayed with me in between reading sessions. This book lived with me for days. (Not all books do). Wish I owned it instead of it being a library book.

Quotes:

The adventure for life is a fight for astonishment, a determination to resist growing bored in a world of wonders.

Why do we so easily lose our wonder at truths that have informed and inspired Christians for generations? How is it we find ourselves no longer wowed by old truths? Why are we drawn toward theological error?

Before we recapture the thrill of orthodoxy--a renewed sense of awe and wonder at the glories of the gospel--we need to pay close attention to signs that the thrill of truth has faded. How can we know if we're drifting? How can we see if we're more susceptible to errors than we think?

Discovering truth is a little like dealing with the weather....You may have your preferences, but you don't say my weather and your weather, because you're not in control.

Christianity isn't just giving mental assent to a set of propositions. It's giving yourself to a Person. For that reason, the statements we make about the identity of God really matter.

True Christianity does not emphasize following Jesus by neglecting what we believe about him. Too many well-intentioned Christians pit deeds against creeds.

Carefulness regarding theology is an expression of love, not a distraction from it. Theology should be undertaken as an act of service to God and neighbor. Theology is healthiest within the context of mission, when the study of Scriptures helps us fulfill the command of Jesus to make disciples.

Theology and love connect because theology is about a Person. "This is who God is. This is how you respond to God." To put it another way, "This is God. Now, love him."

Theology defines and directs the mission.

The key phrase of the Christian is not "I create," but "I confess." What we believe matters. By confessing our faith, we are standing on something we know is true. In confessing our faith, we are saying not "I build a religion" but "I believe in revelation." Not "I invent," but "I receive." We do not have the authority to change doctrine to fit the times. That's not our purview.

Augustine was known for saying Christians are to stand "against" the world "for the good" of the world. Our opposition to sin is never a goal by itself, but always a means to a greater good. We dissent from some of the prevailing perspectives of our time, not because we find our identity in being naysayers, but because our no is in service to a greater yes.

Nothing removes the thrill of orthodoxy faster than nonchalance--the shrug of the shoulders toward doctrinal debates and creedal affirmations.

The problem with lowering the eternal stakes of Christianity and removing the eternal significance from our actions, our decisions, and our evangelism is that our quest for adventure will lead us to raise the stakes on lesser matters. We will find adventure. We will be on a quest. And if we don't accept the life-or-death urgency that Jesus and the apostles convey in their teaching, we will insert life-or-death urgency into other challenges, making earthly problems appear bigger than they are.… (mehr)

Summary: Spirited advocacy for orthodox belief as vibrant, broad, crucial in the battle before us, and for the renewal of God’s people.

Many are the voices echoing Bishop John Shelby Spong advocating “Christianity must change or die.” Orthodoxy is portrayed as dead, sterile, narrow, confining, and irrelevant. In an era of politicized Christianity, culture wars and accommodations, and moral scandals that have left many deconstructing their faith, the temptation is to associate dogma with dogmatism–the sooner abandoned the better.

Trevin Wax would contend just the opposite. Writing in the tradition of figures like G.K. Chesterton and Dorothy L. Sayers, he would advocate that the way forward for both personal and communal renewal in the church is to return to the central creeds of the church, those that have defined the “communion of the saints” across the millenia and around the world. He offers the following picture to articulate his vision of the “thrill” of orthodoxy:

“Orthodoxy is an ancient castle with spacious rooms and vaulted ceilings and mysterious corridors, a vast expanse of practical wisdom handed down from our forefathers and mothers in the faith. Some inhabit the castle but fail to sift through its treasures. Others believe the castle stands in the way of progress and should be torn down. A few believe the castle’s outer shell can remain for aesthetic purposes, so long as the interior is gutted. But in every generation, God raises up those who see the value in the treasure, men and women who maintain a deep and abiding commitment to recognize and accentuate the unique beauty of Christian truth so that future generations can be ushered into its splendor” (p. 9).

Wax defines orthodoxy as “the foundational truths, consistent with the Scriptures, upon which Christians through the ages have demonstrated agreement.”

He follows this introduction with a discussion of the ways we drift from orthodoxy, usually without intent. but rather with the complacent “of course.” Some drift into a place of affirming the faith to accepting a lifeless Christianity, distant from God. Some drift into a pragmatic, “whatever works” where action becomes detached from conviction and degenerates into niceness. Yet others downplay uncomfortable beliefs that they would jettison, and perhaps do. Finally, some become more enamored with the good the church can do rather than the transforming good the gospel can do. For each, the problem is gradual drift and the antidote is the thrill of orthodoxy.

Wax argues the adventure begins with discovering who God is and what God has done. While acknowledging mystery, he contends that it is not all mystery but that God has revealed himself and calls us to the encounter of a person: who do you say that I am? We discover that certain boundaries lead to freedom and that humility rather than arrogance is essential to the understanding of truth.

He contends against those who argue that we shouldn’t fuss with the details that details matter. He proposes, for example, that the belief in original sin leaves no room for any form of moral or class superiority–we are all tainted by sin and all need salvation without exception. Even a single letter matters, such as the difference between homoousios (that the Father and Son are of the same substance) and homoiousios (that the Father and Son are of similar substance). As Karl Barth noted, his theology could be summed up with the children’s song, “Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.” The volumes of Barth’s theology flow from this simple statement.

One of the most striking chapters for me was that in which Wax contends that far from representing a broadening, heresy represents a narrowing. It ends up pitting one truth against another in attempt to make Christianity simpler. But to do so is always to make it smaller, less inclusive than the both-and of orthodoxy. He goes on to advocate for a humble but confident orthodoxy that neither accommodates itself to the world nor retreats from it but rather is “against the world for the world.” It is against self-help for salvation, against naturalism for a world of wonders, against sin for sanctification, and against wealth for true riches. Do you notice that, in all of these, orthodoxy wages battles against falsehoods for the love of the world and its people? When we lower the eternal stakes connected with orthodoxy, we raise the earthly stakes of other things–whether nationalism, racial purity, social justice as salvation, or whatever.

Orthodoxy beckons us to a quest of moral excellence and radical generosity that is always on the penitential path, becoming ever more aware of how far we have to go, and the grace that has been given us that calls us on. He argues that the beating heart of orthodoxy is not adaptation but application, where we take old truths and apply them to new situations, becoming a church that is always re-forming. He reminds us of the journey of Thomas Oden, who cycled through every new theological fad until challenged to go back to the Church Fathers (by a Jewish rabbi no less!) and found himself in a new place of freedom that spanned time and cultures. Orthodoxy is the eternal song of the church, reminding us both where we have come from and of our eternal destiny as the people of a holy, creating and redeeming God of wonders.

Reading Wax is like a plunge into cold, clear, sparkling waters, awakening us from the dull, the tarnished, the clouded indifference of drifting from orthodoxy. It can be both intensely uncomfortable and utterly invigorating. Wax may make you angry or lead you into the delights of the splendor of God. What he won’t do is leave you nicely indifferent. He challenges our creeping universalism, our pragmatic activism divorced from its theological roots, and our accommodations to our culture’s sexual ethics. Yet I find nothing censorious in his tone but rather, as he puts it, a stance against the world for the world–that is out of deep love for what truly contributes to the flourishing of humans created in the image of God. This book is like the fire alarm that cuts through our dreaming slumbers allowing us to find our way to safety and freedom. It is also like the call of Gandalf to home-loving hobbits to glorious and risky adventures–except that the call to us is not a fiction but to an undying future hope.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.… (mehr)