On Telos

Chris: I was thinking, ‘Gus.

‘Gus: No you weren’t, you were reading.

Chris: Well, yeah, I was re-reading After Virtue.

‘Gus: No you weren’t, you were reading Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World.

Chris: Well, yeah, as I initially said, I was thinking… and there is a hole in our thinking about those 21 questions.

‘Gus: Oh?

Chris: Yeah. Alasdair MacIntyre thinks that all modern moral reasoning is flawed because it ignores the question of telos the aim the objective of the thing… He thinks moderns ask “Where are we at, what do we need to do to get there” and forget the most crucial step, where are we going?

‘Gus: And?

Chris: We’re doing the same thing!

‘Gus: Ha! You’re learning on your own!

Chris: Yup… So… we have:

An analysis of where we are, the 3d’s.

And 7 habits to get us where we are going.

But, we have no Telos, no idea where we are going… what the idea end is.

‘Gus: You don’t know what the goal is, what the chief end of the Christian faith is?

Chris: Well, as a Lutheran we’re a little more ambiguous than some, right. Luther wasn’t a systematic thinker, so we don’t have an answer like the Presbyterians, “Q. What is the chief end of man? A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

‘Gus: I'm not Lutheran... but... sure you do.

Chris: No, Luther has a whole bunch of Solas—Grace, Faith, Scripture.

‘Gus: You might not be systematic, but Luther does better than you are letting on, look back to the Catechism.

Chris: Okay, well, the goal of Lutheranism is to help people have awe, love, and trust toward God above all others.

‘Gus: There you go.

Chris: So… that means… the context of our 21 questions is this:

1. Our world is Decentralized, Disestablished, and changing Demographically.

2. We seek to help people be awe-filled, love, and trust God above all things.

3. We do this through the 7 central things of the liturgy both inside and outside the church.

‘Gus: That’s right on. Break it down even more simply.

Chris:

3D’sà7CenteralThingsàAwe,Love,Trust.

Meaning all 21 questions ought to be phrased slightly differently. For example, “How do we gather without the explicit approval of our society, so that people might fear, love, and trust God?"

‘Gus: I think you’re now asking the right question.