Inner Change or Faithful Effort?

By Jannie Malan

A retired professor of Biblical Studies shares his duly researched insight into Jesus’ core message:
Not the acceptance of statements to be believed and the duty to constantly observe divine instructions, but just one experience of an inner transformation of thinking and living (metanoia) by which the rest of one’s life is changed.
In a reader-friendly way the author shows how the early Church Fathers constructed a dogmatic system that was on a different wavelength than Jesus’ non-doctrinal message, and how in the 16th century the Reformers stopped short before taking metanoia seriously.
He indicates how metanoia radically differs from effort ethics and content faith, but realises how these well-intentioned traditions have become deeply entrenched. To tradition-bound Christians he therefore suggests a contextually reinterpreted allegiance to the convictions that are compatible with Jesus’ essential message.
But to all Christians he convincedly propagates Jesus’ call to experience inner change of mind, and its spontaneous outcome of radiant living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jannie Malan
• Release date: Aug 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005645472

Book preview

INNER CHANGE OR FAITHFUL EFFORT?

Inner change or faithful effort?

Will Christianity ever become liberated from well-intended traditions that side-line metanoia?

To my family, friends and ex-students

Jannie Malan

Copyright © 2022 Jannie Malan

Published by Jannie Malan Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Jannie Malan using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Andrew Pender-Smith for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

E-mail: [e-mail]

Jannie Malan

[e-mail]

Table of Contents

1. Background and purpose

2. The context in which Jesus communicated a surprisingly new message

3. Jesus’ metanoia call as a breakaway from prescriptive religion

4. Ways in which Jesus’ message was apparently accepted or rejected

5. The patristic and ecclesiastic development of Christian theology

6. An overstanding Church challenged by understanding reformers

7. The development of unprejudiced and meaningful Bible interpretation

8. Metanoia as an inner transformation of thinking and living

9. Metanoia as incompatible with effort ethics and content faith

10. Prospects and proposals

Sources

1. Background and purpose

1.1 Background

What I wish to share on the pages that follow has taken shape over almost 70 years. It may therefore be useful to mention a few of the experiences and insights for which I remain extremely grateful.

In my last school years, in spite of an enthusiastic interest in mathematics and natural science, I became convinced of a calling to the ministry. For admission to the theological seminary, I had to attain a three-year degree with courses in the biblical languages. Although language study was not my favourite at school, I found Greek and Hebrew, as well as Latin, quite interesting. But it was the sub-sections on the contexts in which these languages were used that gave me a crucially important insight. I began thinking myself into the daily life situations of the people concerned. And so, instead of reading the Bible merely as an ancient book with divinely inspired contents, I began looking through its pages into the thoughts, feelings, interpretations and convictions of fellow human beings of earlier times. Through their everyday experiences and religious experiences, their responses and beliefs came to life – and an insight into what we call divine inspiration became real.

This apparently trivial insight changed more than just my approach to Bible study; it changed my attitude whenever anything has to be understood. Without fully realising it, I experienced a move from overbearing certainty to understanding receptivity. And during the four years of theological training this enabled me to begin distinguishing between the external and the internal components of the Christian religion. Clear signs of this mind-shift were the following. My class sermon was on believing and my final test sermon on inner change (metanoia). For my Master’s degree in Theology, I wrote on inner change and believing, and for my D.Phil. in Biblical Studies, on understanding Scripture. In my subsequent work as a minister, however, I became more and more disturbed by the subtle dominance of well-intended externalities in Christianity. Sadly disappointed, I undertook the further study needed and became a high school science teacher. After four pleasant years of teaching, however, I realised that inner change need not prevent one from being loyal to traditional Christianity – as far as traditional Christianity is compatible with inner change. I returned to the ministry and once again worked with sincere commitment. Thereafter, for twenty years, it was my privilege to teach Biblical Studies (in the Arts Faculty) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). What we focused on, was the contextual understanding of the various parts of the Bible, and the ethical implications of such an understanding. Most of those years fell in the era of unjust apartheid, and I participated, with the students and many colleagues, in the anti-apartheid struggle. I devoted a study leave period to research into courses on human relations and conflict resolution. One outcome of that was that in Biblical Studies we also began offering a post-graduate module in Conflict Studies, which I presented for 17 years, and later co-presented as an inter-disciplinary model for six years. Another outcome was that my involvement in the field of dealing with (injustice and) conflict caused ACCORD (the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes) to invite me to join their team as senior researcher. I worked in this post for 28½ years until I retired in my 90th year (2021). Since the apartheid ideology did not only have a socio-political background, but also a religious one, some of my research work at ACCORD has focused on why religious people can cause conflict, and on how religious people can contribute to conflict resolution.

Looking back over all the years, I can thankfully say that my study and experience have consistently confirmed my discovery as a student – that inner change (John 3:6) was the core of Jesus’ message, and that a complete change of mind (metanoia, Romans 12:2) is the essence of the unique religion he initiated. What I have also discovered, is the never-ending importance of understanding – in daily life, at home and at work, in all study, and very specifically in studying the Bible. I remain very satisfied that my doctoral study was focused on understanding Scripture, and my inaugural lecture at UWC was on reductional and relational Biblical Studies.

1.2 Purpose and design

The main purpose of this paper is to share insights into understanding and internalising the unique message of Jesus. I am very much aware of the fact, however, that focusing on the apparent essence of Jesus’ message inevitably reveals where well-intended and well-established traditions seem to side-line the core of his message. My secondary purpose is therefore to explore and suggest ways in which faithful loyalty to such traditions may be maintained in healthy conjunction with spontaneously living the inwardly transformed life Jesus proclaimed.

I wish to emphasise, however, that everything I share and suggest is meant to come across in a thought-provoking and not in a pressurising way. Both the title and the sub-title are deliberately question-marked.

After much thinking and planning, it seemed to me as if the most reader-friendly way of sharing my thoughts may be to organise them in the following way:

• The context in which Jesus communicated a surprisingly new message (section 2)

• Jesus’ metanoia call and the ways it was apparently accepted or rejected (sections 3 and 4)

• The patristic beginnings and further development of Christian theology (sections 5 and 6)

• The development of unprejudiced and meaningful Bible interpretation (section 7)

• Metanoia as an inner transformation of thinking and living (section 8)

• Metanoia as incompatible with effort ethics and content faith (section 9)

• Prospects and proposals (section 10)

2. The context in which Jesus communicated a surprisingly new message

It should be obvious that for a proper understanding of a message of two thousand years ago, one needs to explore the context of that time. In the preface to The Living World of the New Testament (Kee and Young 1987), in which contextual understanding is convincingly propagated and practised, we read the following: to ‘understand the power that continues to operate through the New Testament down to our own time’, we have ‘to enter the thought world of the people’ concerned, and must therefore ‘study the life situations in which their convictions came to them’ (Kee and Young 1987:vii-viii).

When we compare the context of that time with our contemporary situation, we should be prepared to find all-time similarities of human nature and spirituality on the one hand, but on the other hand, inevitable differences in cognitive development and spiritual insight. To think ourselves into the religio-cultural situation in the then Palestine, it would be possible to undertake a comprehensive review of the entire Jewish background of patriarchs, exodus, law observance, judges, kings, prophets, subjection to foreign powers, and the roles of priests and scribes. A more