With the launch of a new initiative at Reformed Theological Seminary entitled The Institute of Theology and Public Life, I am noticing the ways in which public theology has been discussed in the past, sometimes in useful and sometimes in less than useful ways. John Stott seems to have spoken wisely on almost every topic, so I was not surprised to find this helpful quote in the first volume of his work Involvement, in chapter three entitled “Pluralism: Should We Impose Our Views?”:
Of course, the democratic political process is also “the art of the possible.” Because human beings are fallen, there is bound to be a gap between the divine ideal and the human reality, between what God has revealed and what man finds possible. Jesus himself recognized this distinction within the law of Moses. For Moses’ permission of divorce in the case of “indecency” or “immorality” was given because “your hearts were hard” (Mark 10 5). In other words, it was a concession to human weakness. But Jesus immediately added that “from the beginning it was not so,” reminding them of the divine ideal.
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