Jesus Cropped from the Picture

Jesus Cropped from the Picture

Moralism, Factualism, Particularism Robert Webber argued that what I call the SLIMming Effect comes from three sources: moralism, factualism, and failure to see things holistically (particularism). 65 Moralism Believers are taught to understand the Bible by searching for moral examples. For instance, when children are taught the story of Abraham, his faith in God is highlighted as he offered to sacrifice Isaac, or his moral failure is pointed out when he fathered Ishmael with Hagar. Either principle provides a practical application to daily living. There is little attention paid to Abraham as an object in the overall Story of God’s redemption, because the plot of the Story does not provide a useful moral for the individual Christian to apply. Michael Horton said, “How often have we heard the Old Testament interpreted as a collection of pious stories that we can use for our daily life? From Genesis we might have any number of heroes to imitate and villains to shun. I never knew growing up in evangelicalism that the Old Testament was about Christ. I thought it was about Bible heroes whose character I was to emulate.... Given the moralistic expectations often assumed it is no wonder that people find the Old Testament boring and much of the New Testament incomprehensible.” 66 Factualism Rationalism prizes the accumulation of facts over wisdom . As a result, Christians are taught to store up information, and construct doctrinal systems where that information can be housed. This is why some

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