The Feasts of Repentance: From Luke-Acts to Systematic and Pastoral Theology by Michael J. Ovey

Author:Michael J. Ovey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: New Studies in Biblical Theology;NSBT;Biblical theology;theology;Bible;Scripture;Christian;Christian theology;silver;silver series;D.A. Carson;DA Carson;Luke;Luke Acts;Acts;Luke-Acts;repent;repentence;Levi;Jesus;Pharisees;Zaccheus;parable of the lost son;forgiveness
ISBN: 9780830850846
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2019-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Idolatry as identity

We need now to draw together some of the threads from this discussion of idolatry, relationship and world view.

Idolatry as false identity

To begin with there is the question of identity. If idolatry relates to the parodying of our fundamental relationship, and represents the grid or the spectacles through which we view the world, then idolatry becomes constitutive of our identity. One can see it as the story one tells, not necessarily consciously, to establish and buttress one’s place in the world, and so it becomes the identity one seeks, consciously or not, to establish for oneself.

The problem is, given that idols are false, then this identity is false too. It is an alienated self-consciousness, to borrow the Marxist rhetoric of an earlier generation. For as a creature, a human being has an identity, but one that the fictitious identity of idolatry obscures. Buber writes, ‘This selfhood . . . steps in between and shuts off from us the light of heaven.’60

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