Foster/Tennant attempt to flesh out the concept of gravitas as they go but first consider the fear of the Lord as primary to the sort of gravitas they think a man should develop. As discussed in the last post, the reader will recall that there are actually only three passages in the New Testament directly relevant to something called gravitas. So, building two chapters off of such a passing interest on the part of the Apostle Paul is automatically suspect. True to form, Foster/Tennant make an initial statement about gravitas and then start talking about the fear of God and how they think men should behave. Why? Apart from the authors’ redefinition of the term, there is very little biblical support for what they claim.
But, do the Scriptures actually say that the fear of God moves one toward the sort of gravitas Foster/Tennant argue should be a part of men’s lives? They don’t present any such evidence from the Bible. For the authors “gravitas means to be taken seriously as a man” and “you must become more like Jesus”. Further, Foster/Tennant say gravitas will only come by “making a practice of meditating on the gravitas of God”. But, what do the Scriptures say about God and gravitas? The answer is only silence from God’s word. The Scriptures use the term “kabod” (or “kavod“) to speak of God and his glory as a matter of heaviness. But, there is no real place where the Scriptures say God has gravitas and particularly so given the way Foster/Tennant define the term as a sort of earned recognition from men. Remember here that the authors previously distinguished between “kabod” and “gravitas” as two different concepts so speaking of God as one with gravitas is going well beyond the Scriptures once their own definition is made plain.
Nevertheless, Foster/Tennant want the reader to start with ‘the fear of the Lord’ as the way to make a clean start in getting gravitas. The discussion of fear as it pertains to fearing God here isn’t entirely bad but what they point out isn’t a matter of masculinity or what it means to be a man. Everyone is told to fear God and the knowledge that Christians have as a result of fearing God is available to all, men and women. Another problem with this chapter is what the authors have said to this point in linking the fear of fathers to physical punishment, sex, and power. Foster/Tennant also don’t see fear as something learned without reference to either physical or spiritual fathers, so there is more in the presentation here than the standard Reformed consideration of biblical fear that the authors seem to be laying down as a matter of course in their search for gravitas.
The less obvious subtext of the authors’ discourse is also at work in the points Foster/Tennant offer that have affinities to Enlightenment and postmodern thinking. Notice that for Foster/Tennant a man must be willing to be confronted and change. A man must also be willing to be made low. A man must capably trust his betters and avoid speaking ill of others. All this in normal discussions of what it means to be a Christian disciple might be appropriate in the right context and with the right qualifications, but Foster/Tennant in the main put this all as a matter of sonship with spiritual fathers, ultimately pastors that guide men in how to be men. Remember that for Foster/Tennant getting gravitas “requires spiritual fathers”. In essence and in context the claims of Foster/Tennant make relationships about power rather than love and as such represent a Foucauldian design I doubt the authors themselves have even considered. Foster/Tennant sing along with Bob Dylan in making the fear of the Lord about how ‘you’re gonna have to serve somebody’. Remember that for Foster/Tennant dominion is driven by sex and implemented as a matter of power. Of course, the authors do state that “to fear God is to love Him and to walk in His ways”. The problem here, however, isn’t about how fear is defined in short form but what they mean in terms of how it is exercised. Note that fearing God for Foster/Tennant is loving God but the only points the authors actually offer in doing so are wrapped up in how a man relates to others via exercises of power and not to God himself.
Here the reductive nature of their postmodern take of the fear of the Lord comes into play because the authors only look at hierarchical power among men in considering the subject. Yet, the Scriptures see the “fear of the Lord” as much more comprehensive, not just a matter of being ready to be rebuked or change when confronted along with the few scant considerations Foster/Tennant bring to bear besides. Instead, the fear of the Lord is a way to reference the laws and commands of the Scriptures (Psalm 19:8-9), ultimately the way God reveals himself and the response of men in return, the way we live for God, what motivates us toward right living, and something that can be taught (Psalm 34:11). The fear of the Lord also includes trust, love, and emotional responses of fear or awe as we might more normally understand these terms all wrapped up together in a manifold and humbling response when we encounter God and his word. In Deuteronomy, love and the fear of the Lord are treated as synonyms but in Foster/Tennant love is only ever mentioned twice in the whole chapter. Bruce Waltke goes through a more complete look at the fear of the Lord in his commentary on Proverbs 1-15 ( p. 100 ff.), where much of what’s presented above can be found.
Discerning the fear of the Lord in Proverbs 2 is not in fact a matter of getting the right spiritual father in play but crying out to God for discernment and lifting your voice in prayer to God for understanding (Proverbs 2:1-5). The Bible tells us to pray for wisdom, not merely meditate on God’s “gravitas” (James 1:5). Notice that the teachers of Proverbs 1 are initially a son’s father and mother but eventually Wisdom herself becomes the teacher because we find out in 8:22 and elsewhere that wisdom is eternal and really the Word himself (Proverbs 1:8, 20). In fact, the identity of Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is one of the key passages the early church used to defend the Trinity. So, as Paul says, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Had Foster/Tennant presented the fear of the Lord in a more biblical fashion and with God’s “kabod” in play as the driving factor of understanding just who he is and what the Lord has done there would be little to write about in reviewing the chapter. But, Foster/Tennant’s flattened conception of their made up concept of gravitas and the more biblical notion of the fear of the Lord falls short here especially because the fear of the Lord is the start of wisdom for anyone in Christ. There is nothing distinctly masculine about fearing the Lord and the Scriptures don’t delineate a difference between how women meet and deal with God compared to men. In fact, Galatians 3:28 even says there is no male or female when it comes to being in Christ. To say otherwise is to go beyond what the Scriptures make plain.
Foster/Tennant then spend the rest of the chapter talking about the extremes of men who are too serious and men who are too silly. But, all this is a sort of false piety that the Scriptures spend no time talking about in the first place. The Scriptures speak positively about how a Christian should live in the Spirit and what that looks like for all believers that sees no treatment in the book in the first place (Gal. 5:22; 1 Cor. 13). Foster/Tennant’s take enforces a negative dialectic and an apophatic take when they focus on a man that is either too serious or too joking. Another astounding miss, Micah 6:8 remains absent from the book’s pages even though it tells us what is required of a man, ‘to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with his God’. Instead, Foster/Tennant continue with what shouldn’t be done because they’ve run out of passages that speak to gravitas and they’re really just offering a postmodern reductive take on the Scriptures in service to the gods of masculinity.
Next Review:
The Anti-Technological Stance of It’s Good to Be a Man
No Fatherhood, No Manhood – Part 1
No Fatherhood, No Manhood – Part 2
No Gravitas, No Manhood – Part 1
No Gravitas, No Manhood – Part 2
How Porn & Video Games Hijack Manhood
Two for One Day – How to Bear the Weight/Manhood Through Mission