Fact and Feeling According to Bright and Bell
April 22, 2010 1 Comment
Bill Bright and Rob Bell essentially agree on their definitions of Fact and Feeling.
But on the role of Fact and Feeling, they differ dramatically.
Bill Bright:
Fact = God and His Word
Feeling = the result of our faith and obedience
The promise of God’s Word, the Bible—not our feelings—is our authority. The Christian lives by faith (trust) in the trustworthiness of God Himself and His Word. This train diagram illustrates the relationship among fact (God and His Word), faith (our trust in God and His Word), and feeling (the result of our faith and obedience).
The train will run with or without the caboose. However, it would be useless to attempt to pull the train by the caboose. In the same way, as Christians we do not depend on feelings or emotions, but we place our faith (trust) in the trustworthiness of God and the promises of His Word.
— Bill Bright, Campus Crusade for Christ
Feeling = our experience of jumping; living “the way”
Fact = “the doctrines of the Christian faith”; “springs”
This is where the springs on the trampoline come in. When we jump, we begin to see the need for springs. The springs help make sense of the deeper realities that drive how we live every day. The springs aren’t God. The springs aren’t Jesus. The springs are statements and beliefs about our faith that help give words to the depth that we are experiencing in our jumping. I would call these springs the doctrines of the Christian faith. They aren’t the point.
You don’t have to know anything about the springs to pursue living “the way”.
— Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, p.22, 34
This is an interesting contrast of culturally Modern versus culturally post-Modern versions Christianity. Modernity is characterized by facts and rational thinking, post-Modernity by experience. I question both cultural forms of Christianity – shouldn’t the engine be Christ, the living God/human? Why do facts and/or feelings take precedence over Jesus himself? (Sorry, just another rant!)