"Rumours of Another World" Notes: "Stereoscopic Vision"

Guess how many chapters are in Rumours of Another World? Fourteen. And guess which chapter I'm posting notes on today? That's right, # F-O-U-R-T-E-E-N! Which means...guess what? This is my last Rumours post, and therefore I have actually finished a (non-knitting-related) project I started within the past 12 months! Hallelujah!

"We Now Interrupt This Program"

In “Stereoscopic Vision,” Yancey ends his book on a global note. Having spent the previous 13 chapters elaborating on the basic principles of the “sacramental”/“two-worlds” view, as well as its applications in various specific areas of life (e.g., sexuality, sin, guilt, etc.), he offers several examples of “saints” who applied the “two-worlds” view to all areas of their lives. Christians today, he suggests, should make every effort to emulate these “torchbearers” by “tuning in” to the “signals” transmitted from the “city of God.” He even offers a parting shot from each of the three worldviews we’ve come to know and love so well.

• The schizophrenic world view rejects the idea of a “city of God” altogether, believing instead that humans are biologically destined to behave like animals, fighting each other tooth and nail so that the “fittest” survive to partake of every sexual and violent pleasure they can imagine. In terms of the adage Yancey quotes on page 227, those who subscribe to this view are “so earthly minded as to be of no heavenly good.”
• The schizophrenic church view agrees with the two-worlds principle, but tends to vacillate between the extremes of hypocrisy on the one hand (pretending to believe in both worlds, but ignoring God’s commands and the “signals” from His “city” just as badly as any subscriber to the “schizophrenic world” view) and the spiritual “survival of the fittest” mentality on the other – in terms of the previous comparison, Christians on this side of the equation tend to be “so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good.”
• The sacramental view walks the delicate line between extremes. Its subscribers make deliberate and conscientious efforts to live in both worlds; they use the foundations of the city of God to try and make the city of this world a better place.

Based on the above definitions, how would you answer the following questions?

• Where do you see examples of each worldview in the world around you?
• Consider Yancey’s descriptions of Clarence Jordan and Fannie Lou Hamer, the “saints” whose stories appear on pp. 231-237, and his conclusions on p. 238 that they and others like them are “torchbearers who cast a different light on familiar surroundings” who “refuse to breathe the air, to accept the lie without protest.” How exactly did their actions demonstrate their “two-worlds-mindedness”? How can each of us emulate them, given our personal talents and circumstances?
• Let’s take the logic of the above point further. How can we emulate our “torchbearing” forebears without falling into the “schizophrenic church” trap and being so “heavenly minded” that we withdraw from the world due to our disdain for its evils? How can using everyday acts of obedience help to balance out that tendency? How about serving God wherever He leads us, even within “worldly” professions (business, law, etc.)?
• Read the quote by Clarence Jordan on pp. 235-236. Is widespread application of the “schizophrenic church” view within Christianity one of the reasons why, as Jordan so sadly observed, society’s laws were doing a better job of implementing Christian principles within the secular world than the churches were doing within Christianity itself? Do you believe that Jordan’s observation is still true of America, even the world in general, 50 years later? Why or why not?