Bridging the Divide: The timeless God and the contextual human By Isaac Megbolugbe

Biography serves as a bridge between the Timeless God and the Contextual Human in several ways:

1. *Humanizing the Divine*: Biography makes God’s interactions with individuals more relatable and accessible by highlighting human encounters with the Divine.

 

2. *Contextualizing the Eternal*: By placing God’s workings within the context of human experiences, biography illustrates how the Eternal God engages with people in specific times and circumstances.

 

3. *Illustrating Divine Consistency*: Biographies demonstrate how God’s character, promises, and purposes remain consistent across different human experiences and time periods.

 

4. *Highlighting Human Agency*: Biographies show how humans, within their contextual limitations, respond to and interact with the Timeless God, emphasizing human agency and responsibility.

 

5. *Revealing Redemptive Patterns*: Through biographies, we see how God’s redemptive work weaves throughout human history, revealing patterns and themes that transcend time and context.

 

6. *Facilitating Empathy and Understanding*: Biographies allow readers to empathize with individuals from different times and contexts, fostering understanding and connection between humans and between humans and God.

 

7. *Providing a Window into God’s Sovereignty*: Biographies offer a glimpse into God’s sovereign work in human lives, demonstrating how He orchestrates circumstances and events to achieve His purposes.

By bridging the divide between the Timeless God and the Contextual Human, biography provides a unique lens through which to understand God’s eternal nature, human experiences, and the intersections between the two.

The Nature of the Divide

The dichotomy between God’s eternal nature and humanity’s contextual existence is a fascinating aspect of Christian theology. Presentism, which describes God’s timeless and unchanging essence, stands in stark contrast to contextualism, which defines humanity’s experience as shaped by time, place, and circumstance.

God’s presentism means He exists beyond the bounds of time, unshackled by the constraints of human experience. His eternality and immutability ensure that He remains constant, unchanging, and always present. This attribute has significant implications for our understanding of God’s character, sovereignty, and relationship with humanity.

God’s eternality means He has no beginning or end, existing beyond the limitations of time. Immutability, or the inability to change, further solidifies God’s constancy, ensuring that His character, purposes, and promises remain steadfast and unwavering.

God’s presentism reveals a God who is:

– Unwavering in His promises

– Constant in His love

– Immutable in His justice

God’s presentism also underscores His sovereignty, demonstrating that:

– He is not bound by human constraints

– He is the Author of time

– He is the Lord of history

God’s presentism has profound implications for our relationship with Him:

– Hope in His constancy

– Perspective in trials

– Intimacy in prayer

In conclusion, God’s presentism is a powerful reminder of His eternality, immutability, and sovereignty. As we grasp the implications of this divine attribute, we find a God who is constant, unchanging, and always present – a God who invites us into a deeper understanding of Himself and our place within His timeless narrative.

The Contextual Human

Humanity is deeply rooted in context, with experiences, perspectives, and understanding shaped by the complexities of time, place, and circumstance. Biography is inextricably linked to context, making each individual’s story unique and influenced by their historical, cultural, and social surroundings.

The interplay between God’s presentism and humanity’s contextualism has far-reaching implications for:

1.  Theology: Seeking timeless truths in a changing world

 

2. Ministry: Encouraging empathy, compassion, and sensitivity towards others’ experiences

 

3. Personal growth: Fostering trust, hope, and dependence on God’s unchanging character

 

4. Scriptural interpretation and ministry: Highlighting the value of historical and cultural awareness

 

5. Balancing eternal principles and temporal applications: Navigating the tension between God’s consistency and humanity’s variability

 

The contrast between God’s presentism and humanity’s contextualism invites us to:

– Embrace the beauty of our differences

– Seek common ground

– Deepen our understanding of God’s nature, humanity’s experience, and their intricate relationships

By acknowledging and appreciating these correlates, we can enrich our understanding of the divine and human dynamics, leading to a more nuanced and empathetic approach to theology, ministry, and personal growth.

Implications of the Divide for Biographers

The contrast between God’s presentism and humanity’s contextualism presents a challenge for biographers to integrate these perspectives into their work. To address this, biographers can employ the following strategies:

1. Timeless themes: Identify eternal principles and themes in the subject’s life, highlighting connections to timeless truths.

 

2. Contextual understanding: Provide historical, cultural, and social context to facilitate reader understanding of the subject’s experiences and decisions.

 

3. Nuanced portrayals: Present multi-dimensional, nuanced portrayals of the subject, acknowledging contradictions and complexities.

 

4. God’s sovereignty: Explore the intersection of God’s sovereignty and presentism with the subject’s life, revealing His guidance and providence.

 

5. Human frailty: Honestly depict human frailty and contextual influences, avoiding hagiography and recognizing the subject’s limitations.

 

6. Dynamic tension: Illustrate the dynamic tension between timeless principles and temporal circumstances, showing how the subject navigated this interplay.

 

7. Empathy and perspective: Encourage empathy and perspective-taking, helping readers understand the subject’s context and experiences.

 

8. Historical accuracy: Prioritize historical accuracy, ensuring reliable and trustworthy contextual details.

 

9. Theological reflection: Offer theological reflection and analysis, exploring the implications of presentism and contextualism on the subject’s life and faith.

 

10. Balanced narrative: Strike a balance between presenting the subject’s accomplishments and struggles, revealing a realistic and relatable portrait.

 

By incorporating these strategies, biographers can craft a rich, nuanced, and thought-provoking narrative that honors both the timeless and contextual aspects of the subject’s life.

Why Bother, In Any Case?

Presentism is God’s standard of judgment because He is an eternally existent being who never changes. His ways are righteous, and goodness embodies His essence. In our relationship with Him, the standards of holiness remain constant. However, due to God’s grace and mercies, we are not consumed. Humanity uniquely has access to grace, repentance, and forgiveness.

When judging the affairs of men across generations, we must consider changes in dispensation that define normality and abnormality within each era. For instance, African societies have diverse notions of their deities and societal norms. European colonization imposed new standards, denouncing and delegitimizing traditional ways of life. This historical sweep must be articulated to establish the context surrounding the subject’s life.

A good biography is a well-contextualized biography, like a well-made hamburger. Precursory, subsequential, and contemporary dispensations require a robust accounting, like well-baked buns for the biography’s “meat.” Producing a contextualized biography demands a thoughtful research design considering historical complexities, cultural nuances, and the subject’s life experiences.

The rest of this article outlines the nature, rationale, and research design for a contextualized biography that embodies the essence of a teaching biography.

Nature and Rationale:

A contextualized biography acknowledges the dynamic interplay between the subject’s life and their historical, cultural, and social contexts. This approach recognizes that:

1. God’s standards of judgment remain constant, while human experiences and societal norms change across dispensations.

 

2. Historical events, cultural traditions, and social structures influence individual lives and worldviews.

 

3. A biography must account for precursory, subsequential, and contemporary dispensations to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject’s life.

 

Research Design:

To produce a robust contextualized biography, the research design should encompass:

1. Precursory Dispensations:

– Historical context: Pre-colonial African societies, European colonization, and its impact on traditional ways of life.

– Cultural context: Notions of deities, societal structures, and norms in African cultures.

2. Subsequential Dispensations:

– Post-colonialism, independence struggles, and neocolonialism in Africa.

– The influence of European standards on African societies and the responses of African cultures.

3. Contemporary Dispensations:

– The life and times of the biography subject, including experiences, relationships, and contributions.

– The intersection of his life with historical events, cultural traditions, and social structures.

4. Contextual Analysis:

– Examine the interplay between the subject’s life and precursory, subsequential, and contemporary dispensations.

– Identify key themes, motifs, and patterns emerging from the contextual analysis.

5. Biographical Narrative:

– Craft a compelling narrative weaving together contextual analysis and biographical data.

– Ensure the biography is well-structured, with precursory and subsequential dispensations providing a robust accounting for the subject’s life.

A contextualized biography requires a thoughtful research design considering historical complexities, cultural nuances, and the subject’s life experiences. By embracing this vision and structure, a genuinely contextualized biography that constitutes the epitome of a teaching biography can be produced.

The Power of Contextualization in Biography: Understanding a Lived Life

A biography is more than a chronological account of a person’s life; it’s a rich tapestry of experiences, relationships, and events deeply rooted in the context of time, people, and place. To truly understand a lived life, it’s essential to locate a biography within the triumvirate of historical, geographical, and demographic contextualization.

Historical Contextualization:

Historical contextualization provides the timeline of a person’s life, situating their experiences within the broader narrative of historical events, cultural movements, and social trends. This context helps us understand the challenges, opportunities, and influences that shaped their life.

Geographical Contextualization:

Geographical contextualization grounds a person’s life in a specific place or region, revealing how their surroundings shaped their experiences, relationships, and worldview. This context considers the physical environment, climate, and spatial relationships that influenced their daily life, social interactions, and cultural practices.

Demographic Contextualization:

Demographic contextualization examines the social, cultural, and economic characteristics of the population within which a person lived. This context includes factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, occupation, and socioeconomic status, which all contributed to their unique experiences and perspectives.

The Triumvirate of Contextualization:

When combined, historical, geographical, and demographic contextualization provide a comprehensive framework for understanding a lived life. This triumvirate enables us to:

1. Situate a person’s life within the broader narrative of history.
2. Understand the ways in which place and space shaped their experiences.
3. Appreciate the social, cultural, and economic factors that influenced their life.

By embracing this contextual approach, biographers can craft a rich and nuanced portrait of a person’s life, revealing the complex interplay between individual agency and contextual factors. Ultimately, this approach allows us to gain a deeper understanding of human experience and the ways in which lives are shaped by the world around us.

Isaac Megbolugbe, former Practice Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Retired Professor at Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University, Fellow at Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Resident in the United States of America