Sublime

the second distinct shape of Henry’s new mold of being pastor. If Edwards operated at the speed of learning and discipline, Henry downshifted completely, casting the pastor as no different—living at no different speed—from any other man or woman.

It is this voice and this truth that is the way that challenges ‘the present age’, Kierkegaard’s and our own – where being a Christian has at times come to mean little more than the common human (‘a good person’) – where Christianity is one of many ‘equally valid’ ways, universal common human values mixed with, at best, colourful and, at worst, vio

But this would avoid the source of the malaise, which is the opaqueness of divine action. We must speak of God’s being in and through God’s action in order to have something to talk about in a pastor’s identity and function in this age. People find it impractical to talk about God, but the only way to get to something practical is to talk about God

they’re signs that we’re following the risen Christ and not just treating our therapeutic needs.

The way to compensate for this unease and remain in the church is to become obsessed with the how, but in a very different way from Jonathan Edwards. Edwards was concerned with how you did your deeds because they revealed if your affections were holy. If your inner life was encountering the divine presence, then it would be clear in how you lived y