Hedgehogs, Foxes, Plato, Shakespeare and Paul

Isaiah Berlin wrote a famous essay entitled "the hedgehog or the fox." Hedgehogs are thinkers who view the world through one single defining idea: Plato and his allegory of the cave, for example.

A fox thinker is someone for whom the world cannot be defined by a single clear idea: Shakespeare and the cornucopia of themes explored in his plays is an example of a fox.

The apostle Paul was a hedgehog. And no where is this made more clear than in his master work that we call the book of Romans.

Paul's hedgehog could be summed up thusly: all of reality is relational, and what is wrong with the world is that relationships at every level have broken down--first with God, then with one another, and even within the greater created order.

So Paul's mission could be summed up quite simply: reconciled, restored relationships. It starts with restoration with God, then between people, and goes on even to the eventual restoration of all things, all of creation.

And as you stroll through Romans, you see Paul relentlessly play out his hedgehog. The brokenness of the rebellion of humanity against God at the outset and the work of Christ to deal with that.

Then he engages with racial divisions. The divide between Jew and Gentile is nullified: all of us have sinned and all of us have received mercy, there is no condemnation for the Jew or Gentile once they are in Christ.

And at the end of Romans 8, the glorious promise that all of creation will one day be restored.

Paul's missional hedgehog is to reconcile relationships: God, humanity, creation. This good work is God's call in Christ to all Christians everywhere from those of you in cube world to teachers in the classroom to students working lame summer jobs every where. We have been invited to participate in this same hedgehog.

Paul's life is gathered up in these threads of prayer, community, and mission.

The mission part is clear: working with the Spirit to wade into a world of rampant broken relationships...and to work to make them right, make them new.