John Piper has posted on his blog a response to Ben Witherington’s post on this subject. Witherington posted some comments about a forthcoming book by Thomas Schreiner on New Testament Theology. According to Piper Witherington says Schreiner’s book “calls into question “God’s essential moral character.” He [Witherington] cites Schreiner’s point that the most basic theme of the New Testament is, “God magnifying himself through Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit.”
Witherington concludes his post with:
I suppose we should not be surprised that in a culture and age of narcissism, we would recreate God in our own self-centered image, but it is surprising when we find orthodox Christians, and even careful scholars doing this.
I read Witherington’s post and many of the comments and remain unpersuaded that Schreiner is creating God in our own self-centered image. Of course I have not read the new book yet, but I have read many Piper books on the subject and if Schreiner is following Piper, then I am unpersuaded. You can see Piper’s post here where you will also see a link to Witherington.
November 28, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I think maybe Witherington is misunderstanding that God acting for his glory and for the glory of his creation are one in the same, and that God’s mission in the world is to magnify his glory BY loving and redeeming all creation. That’s just my take…
November 28, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I suppose…
November 29, 2007 at 9:24 am
I think Dr. Schreiner is right on.