Plundering the Mercenaries: On Knowing What Time It Is

By Jordan Steffaniak - Posted at The London Lyceum:

Published August 16, 2024

Do you “know what time it is”? The enlightened ones know. The rest don’t. Whatever time you think it is, it’s clear we are at a unique moment in our culture’s history. Whether you resonate with Aaron Renn’s theory of American secularization where we are in a “negative world” that disdains Christianity or not, it’s clear. Something is different.

But I contend that it’s not that different. As the Preacher said: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9). Whatever the time, we have an inheritance of moral reflection with trusted ways for stirring up ecclesial and societal virtue formation. While these methods do have contextual fluidity, their core remains the same across time and space. Even as the world is chaotic, we can be calm, friendly, and convictional in its midst. Therefore, instead of founding totally anew we must retrieve from the past because nothing new is under the sun—not even our ecclesial and cultural problems.

There is much to retrieve but, in this essay, I focus especially on moral courage, moral judgment, and the constellation of these two in the virtue of honesty. I argue that courage and judgment require an uncompromising commitment to honesty. There can be no room for deceit. But I do not merely stay in the theoretical abstract. I progress to concrete examples including Aristotle, Critical Race Theory, “Moscow,” and Shepherds for Sale to encourage deliberation on these vitally important topics. What I write here is surely not the final word, but I hope it serves the church well to carefully consider the nature of courage, judgment, and honesty in times of plenty and in times of famine. What I write is also lengthy for an essay of this sort. I believe the length in this case is necessary to form the ideas and arguments fully. While shorter essays are more popular there is value in extended deliberation that requires patient attention.1 Whenever one writes on topics as current and volatile as these it is imperative to labor to be clear about what one does mean and doesn’t mean, hence the long-form essay.

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HT: A Baptist Speaks Up | The Heidelblog