Out of Ur: Friday Five: Matthew Lee Anderson

By Daniel Darling

Today, for Leadership Journal, I interview my friend Matthew Lee Anderson. Matt is a gifted thinker and writer. He runs the influential blog, Mere Orthodoxy. His first book, Earthen Vessels offered a terrific theology of the body and his latest work, The End of our Exploring is a look at how we ask questions.

It was this book that I wanted to discuss with him. Seems today that young evangelicals are fond of “asking questions.” I’m a big question asker myself. And yet, Matt says we must recognize that even our questions can be tainted by the Fall.

Modern evangelicals, largely, seem to believe questioning is always a good thing. But you’re saying that not all types of questioning are good. Why is this?

For biblical reasons, first and foremost. The first question we see in Scripture is not simply a dud; it’s thoroughly malicious and deceptive in its very form. Satan asks Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1). That alone should be enough to make us all realize that not all our forms of questioning are good.

Read more from the interview here: