Very good stuff Sir. Two of the big dangers that always frighten me are 1)When the system becomes bigger than the Scripture that made the system, or even the Scripture bigger than the God who inspired it. Our minds are so tuned for finding patterns in everything and then extending the pattern, often beyond where it is justified to do so, I think we have all seen experiments where people find patterns in random noise, a good example is reading where we often don't notice missing words because our mind has figured out what the word will be before we get to the point of reading it. As Chesterton said, the problem is not that reality is logical, nor that it is illogical, but that it often appears to be more logical than it is, it follows a pattern perfectly right up until it stops following the pattern completely. My other fear of systematics is that we use our rubric to 'water down' a place where the Scripture speaks clearly and strongly because we want to 'balance' it with Scriptures that say other things. My other fear is, of course, replacing the God of Scripture with the God of Philosophy, a God we imagine who is in accord with our own reasoning.
Quite a challenge to be as careful and faithful as Scribes and yet as bold as Sons, we are called to do more than duplicate the Prophets or Apostles but to be their younger brothers, even the younger brothers of Christ. To faithfully replicate those who have gone before and then to extend their work to our culture. How humbling that we are the successors and heirs of the Prophets and Apostles, even the finishers of what they have begun, but as Our Lord said we will do greater things than He did since He has ascended to the Father.
Very good stuff Sir. Two of the big dangers that always frighten me are 1)When the system becomes bigger than the Scripture that made the system, or even the Scripture bigger than the God who inspired it. Our minds are so tuned for finding patterns in everything and then extending the pattern, often beyond where it is justified to do so, I think we have all seen experiments where people find patterns in random noise, a good example is reading where we often don't notice missing words because our mind has figured out what the word will be before we get to the point of reading it. As Chesterton said, the problem is not that reality is logical, nor that it is illogical, but that it often appears to be more logical than it is, it follows a pattern perfectly right up until it stops following the pattern completely. My other fear of systematics is that we use our rubric to 'water down' a place where the Scripture speaks clearly and strongly because we want to 'balance' it with Scriptures that say other things. My other fear is, of course, replacing the God of Scripture with the God of Philosophy, a God we imagine who is in accord with our own reasoning.
Quite a challenge to be as careful and faithful as Scribes and yet as bold as Sons, we are called to do more than duplicate the Prophets or Apostles but to be their younger brothers, even the younger brothers of Christ. To faithfully replicate those who have gone before and then to extend their work to our culture. How humbling that we are the successors and heirs of the Prophets and Apostles, even the finishers of what they have begun, but as Our Lord said we will do greater things than He did since He has ascended to the Father.