James K A Smith's Refreshing Vision of Reformed Theology

Just this morning, I happened to pick up Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition by James K A Smith, Christian philosopher and aesthete extraordinaire. Having only invested a half hour or so reading through the pleasingly brisk content of his letters, I have already been struck by Smith’s refreshing take on Reformed theology. Nothing new, per se; simply a reemphasis on what lies at the very heart of the Reformed tradition. Smith has already written a bevy of books I am keen to read. His latest published work, Thinking in Tongues, explores the constructive dimensions of Pentecostal theology. In the youtube clip above Smith touches on this briefly, examining aspects of Reformed thinking through the lens of Pentecostal theology. His argues that Pentecostalism can restore a holism to contemporary Reformed tradition that is largely lacking. Food for thought. Smith is as stimulating as ever. Below are two segments from Letters to a Young Calvinist, short pithy paragraphs I thought well worth reproducing.

“Finally, while these letters are written as an invitation to the Reformed tradition, such an invitation can only be instrumental, a way station of sorts. For the fount and end of the Reformed tradition is God himself as revealed to us in Jesus Christ and present with us in the person of the Holy Spirit. In other words, these letters are an invitation into the life of God. In his fifth century manual for preachers, Teaching Christian Doctrine (De doctrina Christiana), Augustine notes how strange it would be if a traveller to a distant country became so enamoured with his means of conveyance that he never got out of the boat, even though the whole purpose of the ship was to convey him to another shore. The Reformed tradition is a way, not a destination; it is a means; not an end; it is a way onto the Way that is the road to and with Jesus. It is a ship that conveys us to the shore of the kingdom of God and propels us to an encounter with the Word become flesh. These letters are just little brochures spreading the news about the journey” (from the Introduction, p.XV)

“That’s a tall order: to sum up Reformed faith in one word! I suspect that you’re trying to bait me, expecting my answer to be a strange one: TULIP – that felicitous turn of phrase…I know you’ve already heard it put that way, but I would answer your challenge a little differently. In a word, Reformed theology is fundamentally about grace. Let me explain.

At its heart, Calvinism is simply a lens that magnifies a persistent theme in the narrative of God’s self-revelation: that everything depends on God. Everything is a gift. This doesn’t just apply to salvation – it’s true of creation itself. God created the world out of – and for – his pleasure, as an act of love. There’s no hint of necessity or requirement here: God could not have created the world. The world exists (and is sustained) only because of God’s sovereign action; and creation is still radically dependant on God’s gift of existence (Col. 1.16-17). So we might say that grace goes “all the way down.” To merely exist as a creature is to be dependant on the gift of existence granted by a gracious God: to be is to be graced. “In him we live and move and have our being,” as Paul put it (Acts 17.28 – quoting a philosopher, by the way).

This theology of radical grace is captured in one of Augustine’s favourite verses, 1 Corinthians 4:7: “What do you have that you did not receive?” The answer, of course, is nothing; or, stated positively, everything we have is something we have received as a gift. So we have no reason to “boast,” Paul says, as if anything was “ours” in the first place” (Letter IV, Grace All the Way Down, p.14-15)