03/13/06

Wells is now beginning to develop his points and bring details into his writings. He talks about givens and gifts – the similarities, differences, and implications of each. He suggests the idea of not blocking (as opposed to accepting) and seeing what happens when one accepts all offers. The main purpose of this chapter is to discern whether offers are gifts or givens.

Wells says that the sum of the givens found in life can be considered the natural law. We all need to accept these givens and not try to counteract them. One would be the given of death. There is absolutely no purpose in trying to ignore or evade death. It cannot happen. Wells then cites multiple sources and scholars to develop his argument – people such as Milbank, Niebuhr, and Hauerwas. Wells makes a profound statement at the end of this section, saying that Christians should not and do not need to compare their convictions with that of the real world since those convictions of the Christian are basic and final, not entirely different. This is an interesting perspective to understand since we as Christians often refer to the separate entities of being “in” or “of” the world.

Jesus used parables to put lessons in an easily understandable context. Wells used the parables to make things easier to understand for the reader. He talks of the unforgiving servant and the laborers in the vineyard, and then turns to the Old Testament stories of the four lepers and of Joseph and his brothers. Wells uses these stories as examples of when the given of human sin did not prevent betterment of self, prosperity, or possibility. The given of sin does not need to be a total hindrance. It needs to be accepted.

Another main point in Wells’ argument is that ethics is often based on givens while it should be based on gifts. The important aspects of a gift are that it is free and that it is present, as noted by Horner.

Wells needs to be quoted from the end of Chapter 8 in order to best understand his overall argument. “Givens are things that are simply there and the community must simply adapt to, if it is to remain the real world, whereas gifts are largely what one chooses to make of them.” Wells suggests that the only true given is God’s story, and this is because God is the only true giver. We are here to develop the ethics – we are on the receiving end. One example given by Wells is the transformation in our minds from fate to destiny. The first is seen as a given, while the latter is a gift from God. To put everything in this perspective would make life entirely easier to live and to deal with. It all makes more sense – it all seems to have a purpose.