I love that despite our often theologically high views of God's products of Bible and Church (="Christianity") and, even, Christ, God demonstrably works and has worked to present and preserve his products by means of humanity. I love this and I fear it, respectfully, simultaneously.

I recently came upon the following passage in Brennan Manning's The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus (Revell, 2004), p. 85:

"The awareness of our innate poverty, that we were created from the clay of the earth and the kiss of God's mouth, that we came from dust and shall return to dust, pulls away the mask of prestige, of knowledge, of social class or of strength - whatever it is we use to command attention and respect....Poverty of spirit breaks through our human pretenses and frees us from the shabby sense of spiritual superiority and the need to stand well with persons of importance. Poverty brings us to the awareness of the sovereignty of God and our absolute insufficiency. We simply cannot do anything alone. Any growth or progress in the spiritual life cannot be traced to our paltry efforts. All is the work of grace. We cannot even acknowledge that Jesus is Lord except through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Life is lagniappe. We are faced with the possibility of genuine humility. I am convinced that without a gut-level experience of our profound spiritual emptiness, it is not possible to encounter the living God."

This passage describes the ground from which I reflect upon God's products and call them wholesomely "dirty".

Introducing Dirty Christian

The title Dirty Christian locates Christianity's roots in the dirt. According to the Bible, humans are stuff of the earth: compared with God, we're common, weak, and fragile. But we're common, weak, and fragile stuff to, in, and through whom God reveals godself (2 Cor 4.7). From this theological consideration, we can recognize that it was through what was common, weak, and fragile - through humanity - that God originated and preserved what came to be known as "Christianity".

This blog gives space to reflect theologically on the human origins of Christianity and one of its chief artefacts: the New Testament.

I originally developed the title and my initial reflections in a series of lectures I presented at a camp and some local churches. (I'm available to present on this and other subjects. Contact me at jmartini@horizon.edu.)

The lectures fell into six parts, and I'll probably develop each of those in my reflections on this blog. The parts are:

1.  Dirty Christian - it's ok to be human, and just what does it mean to be human in biblical (and extrabiblical, when relevant and interesting) material?
2. Dirty Bible - looking at the human processes involved in the composition, preservation and canonization of Scripture. A de-mystifying (though not de-mythologizing) appreciation of the human involvement in these processes.
3. Dirty Disciples - who were the first humans that followed Jesus? What does the NT (and sources beyond the NT, when available) tell us about these "saints" and their humanity?
4. Dirty Jesus - what does the NT say about Jesus the human? How does this inform and challenge theological constructs of Jesus and his work (e.g., the atonement)?
5. Dirty Church - without fear of lightening, I'm comfortable to affirm that there has never been "one holy, catholic, and apostolic church." What varieties of ecclesial gatherings does the NT reveal?
6. Dirty Hope - contrary to popular notions that upon death we shoot off to heaven, disembodied, the NT emphasizes redeemed bodies and a re-ordered cosmos.

I'm sure more topics will crop up as I go, but these are what inspired me to start this blog and I'll start with them. I think.