Winning the World

Session 7 Summary The Importance of Complimentary Concepts in Urban Church Planting Movements

The Problem with Categories

No category gives us a kind of metaphysically ultimate analysis of the world. Nothing will change the fact that we are creatures with limited knowledge and with a variety of possible perspectives. In speaking of a category or theme, I have in mind not only biblical themes such as “covenant,” “revelation,” “prophet,” “king,” and “priest” but also terminology coming from other sources, such as the normative, situational, and personal perspectives on ethics, or philosophical terminology such as “being,” “infinite,” “necessary,” “logical,” “reason,” “existence,” and “mind.” I claim that no single category, theme, or concept and no system of categories can furnish us with an infinitely deep analysis of the world. No category gives an analysis that is innately more pene trating than any other could be. Moreover, no category is capable of being formed that allows human beings to separate the world or any aspect of the world neatly into two parts, leaving no residue or disagreement about possible intermediate cases. No category, whether from philosophy, theology, natural science, or any other discipline, gives us the essence of a particular group of things.

~ Vern Sheridan Poythress. Symphonic Theology: The Validity of Multiple Perspectives in Theology . Grand Rapids: Academie Books, 1987. p. 82.

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I. The Idea of Complimentary Concepts in Missional/Theological Reflection

People are not all alike. They do not always notice the same thing even when they are looking at the same object. This commonplace observation has some profound implications for the way in which we do theology. ~ Symphonic Theology . p. 9.

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