God Uses Places to Shape His People
Lessons from Scripture, Calvin, and Augustine
Hey, I know you! You are part of that elite group of people known as 'People Who Actually Open Newsletters'! Thanks for joining us in this (5-minute!) further discussion of space and place. In this issue, we’re learning from the Bible and church history.
In the pursuit of faithful ministry, Christians must balance
adherence to eternal, unchanging truths (space) with
their application in time-bound, shifting local contexts (place).
This balance involves navigating the dual aspects of space and place—universal principles and specific, contextual applications.
God Uses Places to Shape His People
Consider the ways that God uses place in the Scriptures. Christians know God uses everything in our lives to shape us into his image. We know he uses trials and temptations, friendships and failures for his glory in making us like his Son. But we tend to underestimate the role that location plays in that great work.
Scripture is filled with examples of how God uses location to form the character of his people.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they had to leave the place of the garden. Their character and their location were profoundly related.
When God called Abram to follow him, God called him to leave Ur and travel to a new land. For Abraham and his immediate descendants, God used that sojourn, that traveling to shape their character.
When God wanted to teach the nation of Israel about himself, he brought them into the wilderness. God used the wilderness location to profoundly shape the character of his people.
Later, God used the promised land to shape the character of His people until their unfaithfulness disqualified them from the land, then God used an exile to a foreign place to shape their character.
Christians can be tempted to see New Testament passages like John 4 as a loosening of this principle, when Jesus says that proper worship isn’t relegated to a particular location, but “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
However, Jesus was not de-emphasizing the importance of place as much as he emphasized the centrality of His own person and work for proper worship. In the Old Testament, the temple was the only meeting place of God and man, and the singular place where sins are forgiven. In the New Testament, this reality pointed not to some new location, but to Jesus Christ. He is the only meeting place between God and man, the singular place where sins are forgiven.
Location continues to play a profound role for New Testament believers. As the church is scattered in the Book of Acts, each city challenges the faithfulness of the believers in new and unique ways.
God calls Phillip to minister faithfully in Samaria. (Acts 8)
God calls the Peter to witness to Jewish leaders in the Sanhedrin and in synagogues across the Roman world. (Galatians 2:8)
God calls Paul to witness in pagan marketplaces and before Gentile judges and courts. (e.g., Acts 13:44–49)
God uses each of these locations to shape the faith of believers as they faithfully minister for Him.
Historical Discussions: Calvin and Augustine
Historically, Reformation discussions about corporate worship blurred the distinction between space and place. And it is easy to see why. After centuries of heretical malformations and cultural encrustations, the reformers were eager to return to the scriptural roots of biblical worship and to toss the superstitious popular piety of the medieval church in the dustbin.
For example, in Calvin’s teaching about corporate worship, he emphasizes biblical imperatives.
There are, of course, issues in gathering Christians for worship each week that the Bible does not address.
What time should Christians gather for worship?
How large should the building be?
Should they sit or stand in pews or chairs?
Should they face east or north?
Calvin was eager for these questions not to divide churches unnecessarily. There was already enough division between the different branches of the Reformation, and Calvin was eager to highlight their shared commitment to scripture.
And so, Calvin emphasized the universal values and practices which Scripture commanded (“essentials”) and considered issues of local practice as unimportant. His term for varieties of local application of these universal values and principles was ‘adiaphora’—indifferent things (3.19.7–13).
While Calvin is brilliant and will always be a hero, I am convinced we find a better example in the 4th century with Augustine, who provided two terms for consideration in worship services—universaliter and partiliter.[1]
Here’s the story: A man named Januarius sent Augustine a letter asking about the variation of liturgical practices throughout the Christian Church. Some churches observed fasts on particular days while others observed fasts on other days. Januarius wrote to Augustine and asked which practice was proper.
Augustine answered that two types of practices were done in churches:
the first are practices that are done in every Christian Church throughout time and space; these practices he called universaliter.
The second were practices that were done by local churches in their local context; he called these practices partiliter.
He gave an example of a question his mother, Monica, asked him about fasting when visiting a church. He asked his mentor, Ambrose, who told him that Christians ought to observe the practice of the local churches they are visiting rather than trying to maintain the practice of their home church.[2] This is an example of partiliter worship practices.
I find Augustine’s distinctions quite helpful. Universaliter is the way that we can discuss “space” in Christian worship practices that are not determined or influenced by any particular location, and Augustine’s term of partiliter can help us discuss wisely issues of “place” in Christian worship practices that are profoundly shaped by the local context where God has called His people to serve Him. Local worship decisions are not unimportant or indifferent (adiaphora).
When Christians do not have direct scriptural commands, they must cultivate scriptural wisdom in order to carefully consider and wisely navigate these issues.
[1] An article by Pier Fraco Beatrice sent me down this rabbit hole (“Christian Worship” in Augustine through the Ages: an Encyclopedia, trans. Matthew O’Connell, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans], 160). Augustine, “Letter 55: To Januarius,” in St Augustine Letters (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1951) 1:288–289
[2] epp. 36.14.32; 54.2.3.
Si hoy. Oh