Zartman is not concerned with simplicity of life, but with simplicity of thought. Read “Against Being Simple.”
One of the reactions to sophisticated doctrinal debates that provokes me is this cry of simplicity. “Why must we be philosophical?” The alternative, it is suggested, is to be biblical. The alternative is, however, to be unphilosophical, and the problem is that the careful complexities of philosophically informed doctrine were developed to prevent our being unbiblical. Christian theology is not complex in order to repel the average believer or to baffle the uneducated. Christian theology is complex because interpreting divine revelation requires it.
