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Posts Tagged: theology
December 9, 2009
Learning and Unlearning and the Asking of Rhetorical Questions
Learning and Unlearning
I’ve been spending a bit of time in the Christian Gospels as of late. I must say, they are all beautifully written. I especially enjoy the Gospel of John and all of it’s supernatural pomp and spectacle and oddly long dialogues attributed to Jesus. Jesus is, in the Gospel of John, expressed as the pre-incarnate logos, which existed even before time and space itself. It’s a novel interpretation, if not unlikely. Jesus is also always in complete control in this Gospel; this is a sharp departure from the Synoptic Gospels, of course. Nothing occurs without his willing approval; everything is prefaced upon a methodological sift through his intuition laden pre-knowledge. Again, the Synoptics are slightly different. Compare, for example, Mark and John’s Gethsamene stories and the sharp Jesus juxtapositions found therein (Mark’s Jesus has little control of the situation; John’s Jesus is in complete control of the situation). Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us a bit more human Jesus, or at least Deity with very human skin tossed over it. Read more…
December 5, 2009
A Treatise on Atonement by Hosea Ballou
Hosea Ballou
Peter Newport, a colleague and friend, tagged me via Facebook with the following excerpt from “A Treatise on Atonement” by Hosea Ballou (Treatise was originally published in 1805). Read more…
November 14, 2009
Freedom to Make Good Decisions and Other Abstract Things
Original Inherited Sin
I’ve been sketching. No, I do not have a full or complete picture yet, but I’m still sketching with the hope that one will materialize. So, what am I sketching? I’m trying to sketch a Christological picture that specifically addresses the concept/doctrine of Original Sin. Perhaps some of you may be able to help me with this sketch. Please remember, I’m just sketching an abstract of sorts …
So, I’m starting with the idea of Original Sin. Judaism does not have a doctrine of Original Sin. In fact, the teaching of Original Sin is antithetical to the basic teachings and message of the Torah and Prophets. Further, Judaism has no concept of Original Inherited Sin (i.e., humanity being infected by Original Sin through conception and birth?). Judaism instead emphasizes the radical freedom human beings have been afforded by God so that we may make honest moral choices (e.g., choosing good over evil, life over death). In other words, Judaism celebrates the deeply theological idea of humanity being purposefully created in the image of God and – this is important – it never acknowledged/acknowledges the idea of human beings being infected by the passing of Original Inherited Sin and consequently being born by default in a damned and corrupted state. Read more…
October 28, 2009
On Lions and Zebras and Genesis Fall
Garden of Eden
I have contemplated the concept-idea of a “Garden of Eden” for more than a few late nights. The metaphorical center of human beginnings, purity and perfection is an important product of Hebrew myth-making. The Garden is still an important element/idea in many, many movements and expressions that identify as Judeo-Christian. Read more…
October 26, 2009
The Christian Reformation’s Four Soteriological Groups
Pelagius Art
The age-old question concerning how individuals are actually reconciled with God haunted Martin Luther during his formative years as a Christian until he finally and stubbornly submitted to grace. Grace, he finally realized, was the only answer for his deeply theological question.
Justification by faith in this grace was the sole bridge uniting an unrighteous and estranged humanity to an all righteous and holy God, at least for Martin Luther, who was merely the catalyst of some small movement presently referred to as the Protestant reformation. His was a theology founded upon faith; in other words, a supernatural intervention by God would be required if an individual would be justified – or ’saved’ – from eternal punishment. This intervention was made tangible for the whole world in the Gospel (i.e., the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ). The salvific aspect of Luther’s soteriology was accomplished in Christ; the life of discipleship still exists in the present/future life of the Christian, and subsequently requires work. This is Luther’s understanding of Soteriology. His position was a new one, at least for the time. Not all were in agreement with him. In fact, there were four soteriological camps to which a good Christian could align, and all claimed to be representative of the correct Augustinian interpretation of the doctrine. These four groups can be referred to as Augustinian, Pelagian, Lutheran, and the “Orthodox” (i.e., Catholic Church’s official position). Read more…
October 24, 2009
Nonviolent Resistance as Third Way
Nonviolent Resistance
Walter Wink’s Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way is an excellent introduction to the social and spiritual ethic of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance.
Wink’s big picture focus in this little book is fixed upon coloring impossible the vain attempt to separate Jesus of Nazareth and his inspired expression from power politics and nonviolence. One cannot embrace Jesus’ program and simultaneously refuse the nonviolent requirements upon which it is inherently founded. Trying to do so makes about as much sense as attributing the nonviolent salvation Jesus proclaimed to a God who required violence before the salvation could be realized by those who are supposedly being saved. Read more…
October 5, 2009
Pitching Parabola: Parables of Kierkegaard
Soren Kierkegaard
Kernels and Shells: To what may The relation of God and the world be compared? This is the question which led Soren Kierkegaard toward the following parabolic expression:
“If two men were to eat nuts together, and the one liked only the shell, the other only the kernel, one may say that they match one another well. What the world rejects, casts away, despises, namely, the sacrificed man, the kernel – precisely upon that God sets the greatest store, and treasures it with greater zeal than does the world that which it loves with the greatest passion.” Read more…
October 4, 2009
Emerson Divinity School Address
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838, by American essayist, philosopher, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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In this refulgent summer, it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the buds burst, the meadow is spotted with fire and gold in the tint of flowers. The air is full of birds, and sweet with the breath of the pine, the balm-of-Gilead, and the new hay. Night brings no gloom to the heart with its welcome shade. Through the transparent darkness the stars pour their almost spiritual rays. Man under them seems a young child, and his huge globe a toy. The cool night bathes the world as with a river, and prepares his eyes again for the crimson dawn. The mystery of nature was never displayed more happily. The corn and the wine have been freely dealt to all creatures, and the never-broken silence with which the old bounty goes forward, has not yielded yet one word of explanation. One is constrained to respect the perfection of this world, in which our senses converse. How wide; how rich; what invitation from every property it gives to every faculty of man! In its fruitful soils; in its navigable sea; in its mountains of metal and stone; in its forests of all woods; in its animals; in its chemical ingredients; in the powers and path of light, heat, attraction, and life, it is well worth the pith and heart of great men to subdue and enjoy it. The planters, the mechanics, the inventors, the astronomers, the builders of cities, and the captains, history delights to honor. Read more…
October 3, 2009
The Theologian’s Nightmare
Bertrand Russell
The Theologian’s Nightmare by Bertrand Russell, English philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic, from: Fact and Fiction (1961), a collection of Bertrand Russell’s essays that reflect on the books and writings that influenced his life.
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The eminent theologian Dr. Thaddeus dreamt that he died and pursued his course toward heaven. His studies had prepared him and he had no difficulty in finding the way. He knocked at the door of heaven, and was met with a closer scrutiny than he expected. “I ask admission,” he said, “because I was a good man and devoted my life to the glory of God.” “Man?” said the janitor, “What is that? And how could such a funny creature as you do anything to promote the glory of God?” Dr. Thaddeus was astonished. “You surely cannot be ignorant of man. You must be aware that man is the supreme work of the Creator.” “As to that,” said the janitor, “I am sorry to hurt your feelings, but what you’re saying is news to me. I doubt if anybody up here has ever heard of this thing you call ‘man.’ However, since you seem distressed, you shall have a chance of consulting our librarian.” Read more…