8: Questioning Givens
Blocking and Sin. Accepting all offers ethics leads to bad reactions. That is road to manipulation, abuse, etc.
Ethics as a Class of Givens. There are givens in life: death, ignorance (we can’t know everything), space and the body, and sin and evil.
Scripture and the Ethics of Givens. Scripture turns the idea of givens upside down. Wells gives several examples.
Givens and the Gift. The differences between givens and gifts. Wells argues that God is the only given.
There is Only One Given. “The process I am describing can therefore be seen as threefold: first, recognizing that much of what seems given is in fact gift; second, realizing that the key to a gift is not its intrinsic nature or purpose but how the receiver responds and accepts it; and third, receiving the gift in such a way that it becomes part of the continuing story of the way God deals with his people. Thus is fate (a given) transformed into destiny (a gift) by placing it within a larger story.”
Excerpt From: Samuel Wells. “Improvisation.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/improvisation/id473939687?mt=11