tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80244630595128372852024-02-19T10:02:35.373-08:00Marginal ChristianityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2624125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-36641259137989168742020-11-24T06:37:00.001-08:002020-11-24T06:37:17.217-08:00Theological Journal – November 24 Dorothy Day<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">"What we would like to do is change the world – make it a
little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God
intended for them to do.… We can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can
work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can
throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle
will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing that we can do but
love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our
neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend."</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-28856993404605644722020-11-23T08:35:00.004-08:002020-11-23T08:35:42.660-08:00Theological Journal – November 23 FAITH IN CHRIST VS. FAITH(FULNESS) OF CHRIST – David Fitch<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">When I first became aware of the
difference between “faith in Christ” (objective genitive) and “faith(fulness)
of Christ” subjective genitive, and that the “righteous shall live by/in the
faithfulness of Christ,”(Gal 3:11ff; Rom 3:22ff) (as expounded by Richard Hayes
‘The Faith of Jesus Christ’ dissertation) many years ago, it really illumined
the depths of the role of faith in the Christian life. Not only a faith that
believes in Jesus’ person and work (Rom 10:9) but a living into/being infused
with a knowing presence/empowerment that is received via participating in
Christ. Out of this faithfulness, the fullness of living in His presence, comes
assurance over death, and a steady strength and obedience amidst the challenges
of modern insecure life, and a victory over sinful forces. This kind of
fullness of faith, or faithfulness, is rarely explored and invited into in
churches today? Instead a bland Protestantism often transactionalizes faith and
the life we receive in Christ is often how he can now make our life better. Or
how we should go work and make other people’s lives better. How does your
church explore these dimensions of faith? How do you teach disciples about this
faithfulness? Your kids?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-81280415688054825272020-11-20T06:17:00.003-08:002020-11-20T06:17:31.384-08:00Theological Journal – November 19 Terry Eagleton – Christian Love<p> “Yet what distinguishes the Judeo-Christian idea of love
from the romantic, erotic, touchy-feely sense it has acquired in modern times
is that it has nothing to do with feeling. Love for the New Testament is a
social practice, not a sentiment. How you feel about the person whose place you
take in the queue for the gas chambers is neither here nor there. You don’t
even have to know him. Only a love of this ruthlessly impersonal kind, which
couldn’t care less about the gender, rank, skin colour or personality of
whoever needs your help, could prove equal to what St John darkly calls the
powers of this world: Trump, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration-line: none;">Putin</span></a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/28/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-paramilitaries-corruption-david-miranda"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration-line: none;">Bolsonaro</span></a> and
their lackeys.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/21/dominion-making-western-mind-tom-holland-review?fbclid=IwAR1VOuWE3UrPZm7kFafvxeCnzwm0IsUCXQmz8qWSMey1qdpbhbPuhHeG3F8)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-18545669909818187792020-11-19T07:04:00.006-08:002020-11-19T07:04:59.315-08:00Theological Journal – November 19 What Happened to Empathy?: Geoff Holsclaw<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
What happened to <a href="https://click.convertkit-mail4.com/mvuo4vr3xu5hvewv9bm/owhkhwu43dnp73sq/aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvQnJlbiVDMyVBOV9Ccm93bg==" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Brené Brown</span></a>?<br />
What happened to <a href="https://click.convertkit-mail4.com/mvuo4vr3xu5hvewv9bm/z2hgh7uo9x7n84tz/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g_dj0xRXZ3Z3UzNjlKdw==" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Empathy</span></a>? Vulnerability?</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Remember
how 10 years ago (or less) everyone was reading and raving about Brené Brown.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
were all learning about the <b><i>courage of vulnerability</i></b>, and
the <b><i>power of empathy</i></b>, and the <b><i>gift of
imperfection</i></b>.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where
is all that now?</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The
politics of Trump happened.” Yes, but that is too simplistic.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
now live at the <a href="https://click.convertkit-mail4.com/mvuo4vr3xu5hvewv9bm/p8hehqu9kodml2br/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy90cmFuc2NyaXB0cy83MTIyNzYwMjI=" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">END OF
EMPATHY</span></a>, when <a href="https://click.convertkit-mail4.com/mvuo4vr3xu5hvewv9bm/x0hph3un80zolzcg/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2hvbGVyZWFzb24uY29tLzIwMTcvMTAvdGhlLWVtcGF0aHktZmFsbGFjeS15b3UtY2FudC1jcml0aWNpemUtdXMtaWYteW91LWFyZS1ub3Qtb25lLW9mLXVzLmh0bWw=" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">EMPATHY is a
FALLACY</span></a>.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Empathy
is only for those who already like us (the insiders), not to understand those
who are different (the oppressive outsiders).</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
accelerants of social media and news outlets have pushed us further apart just
as we were supposed to be learning the skills of leaning in.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That
“empathy” was more of a <b><i>fad</i></b> and less of the <b><i>fabric</i></b> of
our lives speaks to the fact that — as a society — we are more than willing to
nurture our own fears rather than help others overcome theirs, we are happy to
have our own way rather than help others flourish on theirs, that we care for
our own comfort more than actually caring for others.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
is part of the divide in our country, in our churches.<br />
Those who have given up on empathy. And those who haven’t.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">http://geoffreyholsclaw.net/what-happened-to-empathy/?ck_subscriber_id=175766955&utm_source=convertkit&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Where+Did+Empathy+Go+in+the+Age+of+Trump%3F%20-%204804179<o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-26961752006812810382020-11-18T06:31:00.003-08:002020-11-18T06:31:30.708-08:00Theological Journal – November 18 SK – Provocations<p> “Every life that is preoccupied with being like others is a
wasted life, a lost life.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(Kierkegaard, Søren. Provocations: Spiritual Writings of
Kierkegaard (p. 17). Plough Publishing House. Kindle Edition)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well, uh, that is provoking. Too provoking, I think. At
least for me. I’m going to get a snack . . .<o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-6099246318756767902020-11-17T08:46:00.002-08:002020-11-17T08:46:17.708-08:00Theological Journal – November 17 Institutions <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">"Systems and institutions
can be channels of shalom, but they can also be pipelines of pain and
suffering. One of the ways we can love our neighbors is by seeking to change
the systems, structures, and cultural norms that harm them. Sometimes this means
that we are called to pursue good public policy that contributes to the
flourishing of our neighbors and all aspects of creation. Laws cannot change
hearts, but they can be instruments of God’s grace to protect our neighbors
from the full effects of idolatry, injury, and injustice." </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/restoration?__eep__=6&__cft__%5b0%5d=AZUUU1zE3CDTvY4ErF0Qr2_MzP9u8ssRfazkX-nJb4TSLZEOdr0G4s9qAySz5Ck43J8pPsQW8qnq_AeNn7aoywfnpdyWXYLHpiolsq5x4e8WcFFeh5TbTome0hVBkNnSAUg31exc1w4giD8tTIm4klBc&__tn__=*NK-R" style="background-color: white;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: blue; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">#Restoration</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael Goheen, "The
Symphony of Mission"<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-74473808482460963742020-11-16T11:57:00.001-08:002020-11-16T11:57:08.065-08:00Theological Journal – November 16 The Biden Dilemma<p>Joe Biden wants to heal a
divided America and believes he can do it. This, I believe, is “the” question
that will haunt the Biden presidency and the Democratic party beyond it. Broken
down into two questions,</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;">-are the divisions we currently experience
fundamental or strategic?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;">-if fundamental, can Biden be of
much help?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-right: 15.4pt;">Our divisions
are fundamental.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-right: 15.4pt;">What we have
seen played out in the two Trump campaigns and his one term in office is we are
two Americas. One America is open to a future as a multiethnic nation and
desirous of extending the opportunities of the America we believe in to others.
The other America is not open to such a future or to sharing the “goodies” they
have gotten from their vision of America.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-right: 15.4pt;">To my mind,
these are fundamental, game-changing, non-negotiable differences. Now that the
Trump phenomenon has made it acceptable to go public with this second version
of America, can we move forward together, without one side subduing the other
(by electoral or other means)? If two fundamentally different gestalts inform
for same reality, and neither group, so far as I can tell, wants to substantially
revise or alter its vision of America, how can the two go forward together? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">-Biden cannot, then, be of much
help.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">A Biden administration can halt
the Trumpian slide toward authoritarianism. And that is not a small thing. But
his administration can only revert to Obama-like centralism and neoliberalism
in the hope that economic stability and, hopefully, progress, can win the
compliance if not the hearts of Trumpian American. That assumes, of course, that
Covid can be effectively corralled in the near future. And that the economic damage
Trump has inflicted can be undone in a four-year term. And if these things
happen, all that has been accomplished would be to reset the clock to 2016 and
leave the stage vacant for a return of Trumpian America to the centerstage in
2024 in the person of the Donald himself or Ivanka or Donnie Jr. running
against Harris for the White House. Such a scenario amounts to kicking the can
of the problem of our two Americas down the road for another day and other
people to wrestle with. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">Of course, this is all just a
guess. Circumstances or events unforeseen may change the political calculus substantially.
But at present, a return to 2016 is perhaps the best we can hope for. But is that
moving forward? Not, I suspect, for those who call themselves “progressive” or
push hard for the “open” vision of America noted above. They will not likely
support a centrist Democrat again. And what they do will change the face of the
2024 election, I am sure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can Joe Biden heal the divisions between the
two Americas? No. No one can. Thus, our future remains murky and unpredictable.
God may not even be willing to help us as a nation since it is possibly time for
or empire to end. Like I said, murky and unpredictable.<o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-1961058306963979402020-11-14T03:31:00.005-08:002020-11-14T03:31:45.965-08:00Theological Journal – November 14 Rethinking the Crucifix<p> The crucifix, a
cross with the body of Jesus still on it, is a staple of Catholic and other
traditions spirituality. Protestants quickly and decisively reject it because
the dead body of Jesus still hangs on it signifying crucifixion whereas we
believe the cross ought to be empty because Jesus has been raised from the dead
and the cross is empty.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt; tab-stops: 6.5in;">The Protestant
perspective is certainly legitimate and an important and crucial part of
understanding God’s work of salvation. At the same time, another crucial and
legitimate part of that divine work often gets overlooked, I think. Looking
back at the cross from the resurrection, it makes perfect sense to insist on an
empty cross and wonder if the crucifix does justice to Jesus’ work. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt; tab-stops: 6.5in;">But looking
forward from the resurrection does the New Testament not put Jesus back on a
cross? This time not as an instrument of torture, humiliation, rejection, and
death, but rather as a throne from which he exercises his cruciform and saving rule
over his people and his world? Is he not the Martyr par excellence? And is not
martyrdom the template of faithfulness the New Testament presents to us? Is the
one pictured as worthy to take and unroll the scroll of history from the one on
the throne in Rev.5 not a Lamb “looking as if it had been slain? Does not God’s
work of judgment on those who killed his servants await the “full number” of
the martyrs to be filled up (Rev.6:10)? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt; tab-stops: 6.5in;">Even if
martyrdom is not the actual fate of every believer it is the way of life each
and every believer is called to lead. As Paul describes his apostolic ministry
in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“</span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But we have this treasure in jars of clay to
show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.</span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span class="text">We are hard pressed on every
side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;</span> <span class="text">persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not
destroyed.</span> <span class="text">We always carry around in our body the
death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.</span> <span class="text">For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’
sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.</span> <span class="text">So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And there is no reason to believe Paul limited or would limit
“death at work in us, but life is at work in you” - a martyrological way of
life - to fellow-apostles. It is the life of the church. Early Christians<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>understood that the resurrected
Jesus climbed back up on the cross to live and reign from there till the End.
And he calls each of his followers to join him there and participate in his
cruciform rule. Even in the End the Lamb’s bearing the imprint of his wounds
throughout eternity never lets us forget that for this God death is always the
way of and to life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It seems to me then that, looking forward from the
resurrection, there is every reason to find him back on a cross as he lives and
reigns as the Lord of all. And we Jesus-followers must adopt cruciform ways of
life, even to giving up our lives for him (who gave his up for us), as witness
to his rule and power over death as we “make up what is lacking in Messiah’s afflictions”
(Col.1:24) carrying his good news around the world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Martyr is the Messiah. The church is a community of
martyrs. Now I don’t expect the meaning of the crucifix to change. Nor should
it. But there may be room to at least imagine a Jesus, a resurrected Jesus, to
be sure, also hanging on the cross, now not his humiliation but rather his
exaltation as Lord and Ruler of all. A Lord and Ruler, however, who rules and
commands his people rule by the logic and power of a cross on which death is defeated
by life and reveals the strangest and most confounding truth about this one we
acclaim and worship as “God”!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 51.4pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="background: white; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-51027165716886287342020-11-13T06:32:00.002-08:002020-11-13T06:32:22.289-08:00Theological Journal – November 13 The Radical Middle – Geoff Holsclaw<p><span style="color: #333333;">It
is clear the church must find a way to help mediate the tensions and
oppositions ripping or culture apart. But is there a way to do that, a way to
be a reconciled and reconciling body in a time like ours? Pastor and theologian
Geoff Holsclaw offers four possibilities for consideration (</span>http://geoffreyholsclaw.net/four-definitions-of-the-radical-middle-or-why-it-isnt-for-wishy-washy-wimps/).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 3;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Option
#1: Holding the Tension<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .25in;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This kind of radical
middle holds together what most people think are opposites, irreconcilable
differences. This is the practical view that comes from understanding
that Jesus is fully God and fully human (not just 50/50 of each), or the
reality that we “already” live in God’s new kingdom, while it is “not yet”
fully realized. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 3;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Option
#2: Via Media (Middle Way)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .25in;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This option finds the
middle between two extreme, values moderation over excess. Truth be told, this
way does seem to perpetuate false moderation, let’s ignore our differences by
watering things down a bit. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 3;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Option
#3: Break the Framework<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .25in;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This option says that
the two sides often hold something fundamental in agreement— ignored by both.
The “radical middle” is to actually break free from these assumptions (break
the framework) and move into a new space, a space which is misunderstood and
criticized by both sides in the old framework. The framework thinks it
is position “A” fighting position “B”. Those who break with the framework
see that position “A” is fight with its opposite, (“not-A”), and that only by
moving on from both do we get to position “B”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 3;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Option
#4: See the Humanity<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .25in;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This option affirms that
all people should be treated as humans — humanely. It understands that
the world and people are complex. This option believes you can hold <b><i>strong
convictions</i></b> and <b><i>share compassion</i></b> for
others. This last option can be watered down as cover for the status quo,
false moderation, and calls to “be nice” in the <i>via media </i>approach
(option #2). Or it can be part of the revolution of breaking the frame
(option #3). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .25in;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What do you think?<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-16592685271769396412020-11-12T07:55:00.001-08:002020-11-12T07:55:07.758-08:00 Theological Journal – November 12 Important Election Post-Mortem from Craig Keen<p>Okay, I'm going to try to say this well (and
my attempt got really long, sorry):</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p>I think the standard, knee-jerk analyses of
the recent Presidential election returns have not been terribly helpful. They
are not simply without merit; it's just that they don't provide much insight
into why Trump won the election last time, almost won reelection, and continues
to pose a threat (there are rumors that he is planning to run again in 2024, an
empty threat, I would have thought, had we not just elected someone the age
he'll be then).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p>I do believe people voted *against* Biden and
*against* Trump, despite their displeasure with the candidate they cast ballots
*for*. I believe people voted from a racist sensibility (more for Trump, but
for both candidates). I believe people voted because they were swayed by ads or
campaign volunteers, and other one-liner-generaters. I believe people voted for
candidates because of personalities (e.g., either for or against Trump's mode
of grandstanding). However, what makes all of that inadequate to explain the
closeness of the race is the increase in votes *for Trump* from groups widely
regarded as least drawn to him: black people (men and women) and especially
Latinx persons. Trump got 12% of the black vote and 32% of the Latinx vote. Of
course, Biden got most of the votes of that demographic, but Trump got more
this time than in 2016.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p>The one group that came through most for Biden
were suburban voters. Not many of these people are among the 1%, but they are
generally quite a lot more prosperous than most other folks in America.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Another group that came through for Biden (at
least a little better than they did for Clinton) were white working class
voters, men and women, though men a little more. The reasons for that are very
likely complicated </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">So, why the increase in black and Latinx votes
for Trump? I think the answer has got to be economic. They found that life was
getting better during the Trump administration—until COVID hit. And, given that
perception, it is reasonable to expect life to get better in a similar way once
there's a vaccine. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Now, I don't believe that the improvement in
the economic lives of those voters was due anymore to Trump's policies than to
Obama's. A recovery was underway, when Trump took office. Now, that is a
disputable position and I don't claim to have the expertise necessary to know,
but that's what I think. Still, there were good reasons to believe that Trump
was good for the economic lives of people often shoved aside in America. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt;">So, the task in America, if we don't want
Trump again or someone worse than Trump, is to stop thinking of "black
voters" or "Latinx voters" or "Asian voters" (or
whatever) as one solid voting block, but as concrete, particular human beings
with significant personal challenges. And above all it is important to remember
that there are people having a hard time who are not being well served by
Republicans or Democrats and that something is needed for them other than Stock
Market Economics. (See Andrew Yang, Briahna Joy Gray, Nina Turner, et al.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(fb
11.12.20)</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-67735835152198576142020-11-11T06:24:00.004-08:002020-11-11T06:24:47.634-08:00Theological Journal – November 11 SK<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #080709;">If one has only a fantastic picture of Christ, if he
is not the individual human being who stands face to face</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #080709; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">with one, and his father, the carpenter, is not an
actual individual human being with whom one is well acquainted, and likewise
the rest of his relatives - then it is quite possible not to be offended. But
if one is not contemporary with Christ in this way, then it is also impossible
to become Christian.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-78993751144508845682020-11-11T06:22:00.004-08:002020-11-11T06:22:27.796-08:00Theological Journal – November 10 SK<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">But didn</span><span style="color: #262627;">'</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">t
</span><span style="color: #262627;">C</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">hri</span><span style="color: #262627;">s</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">t </span><span style="color: #262627;">co</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">m</span><span style="color: #262627;">e
in </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">t</span><span style="color: #262627;">o the world to take </span><span style="color: #3f3f40;">s</span><span style="color: #262627;">uff</span><span style="color: #3f3f40;">e</span><span style="color: #262627;">rin</span><span style="color: #3f3f40;">g
</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">awa</span><span style="color: #262627;">y, </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">so </span><span style="color: #262627;">t</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">hat
we </span><span style="color: #262627;">s</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">hould b</span><span style="color: #262627;">e </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">h</span><span style="color: #262627;">ap</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">p</span><span style="color: #262627;">y
</span><span style="color: #3f3f40;">- </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">n</span><span style="color: #262627;">o</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">t </span><span style="color: #262627;">to
bring n</span><span style="color: #3f3f40;">ew </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">sufferings[?] Doe</span><span style="color: #262627;">s</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">n</span><span style="color: #262627;">'</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">t
t</span><span style="color: #262627;">a</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">kin</span><span style="color: #262627;">g </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e;">it thi</span><span style="color: #262627;">s
way make hi</span><span style="color: #3f3f40;">s </span><span style="color: #262627;">whol</span><span style="color: #3f3f40;">e</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">coming into the world </span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">f</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">utile?
On th</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">e co</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">trary</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.
</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">came into the world to transform hum</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ity
</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">i</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n </span><span style="color: #3f3f40; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">s</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">u</span><span style="color: #3f3f40; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">c</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">h
a </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">way that all these human </span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">s</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">uff</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">e</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ring</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">s
(</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">p</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">overty</span><span style="color: #3f3f40; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">penury</span><span style="color: #3f3f40; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,
</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">sickness, loss of honor, etc.) b</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">e</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">com</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">e
as so</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">m</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ethi</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">g </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">childish,
something to be reckoned a</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">s </span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">n</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">o</span><span style="color: #0e0e0e; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">thing
</span><span style="color: #262627; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-59008644280407482342020-11-09T09:31:00.006-08:002020-11-09T09:33:08.526-08:00Theological Journal – November 9 Andy Crouch: A Spiritual Examen<p> <span style="color: #282828;">Some pertinent questions
we might usefully employ in matters private and personal/interpersonal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b><span style="color: #282828; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Spiritual Practices: An
Examen<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I do this
consistently.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I do this
inconsistently but want to do it consistently.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I do this
rarely (or not at all) but want to do it consistently.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I do not believe
this is appropriate for me.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt;"><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt;"><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Place a
1,2,3, or 4 in the blank space after each item.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #282828; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Private<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Solitude,
Silence, Fasting</span></b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am alone
(without interactive devices) for at least (a) an hour once a week or (b)
this frequency: _____________.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am silent
(without interactive devices, or reading or writing material) for at least
(a) an hour once a week or (b) this frequency: _____________.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I fast
(abstain from food, with modifications for health as appropriate) for at
least one mealtime at least (a) once a week or (b) this frequency:
________.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Physical
Exercise</span></b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I train for
strength and endurance, with modifications for health as appropriate, at
least three times a week.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I get
physical exercise for at least thirty minutes every day.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sabbath</span></b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I begin and
end the day free of devices and notifications.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I do no work
one day a week, and make the same possible for others in my sphere of
influence.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have a
regular annual extended absence from email and other work correspondence.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have a
plan for extended (at least three-month) sabbaticals where I do no paid
work.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #282828; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Personal/Interpersonal<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Friendship</span></b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l6 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I maintain
meaningful friendships with people (family and/or friends) who have known
me since adolescence or early adulthood.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l6 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have
friends with whom there is an explicit commitment to maintain our
friendship until we are parted by death or incapacity.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Accountability</span></b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is
someone to whom I am accountable for my income and pattern of spending,
saving, and giving.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is
someone who regularly helps me evaluate my travel, decisions about
invitations to public events, and overall work patterns.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is
someone (in addition to a spouse) who knows the details of those
friendships and working relationships that could pose a temptation to
inappropriate intimacy.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Prayer
Support</span></b><span style="color: #282828; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #282828; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is an
identified group of people with spiritual maturity whom I can contact for
prayer at urgent moments.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-54216468406522351982020-11-06T13:39:00.005-08:002020-11-06T13:39:58.460-08:00Theological Journal – November 6 Translating Romans – Douglas Harink<p><span style="background-color: white;">Try this experiment: working through
Paul’s letter to the Romans, when you read the word “Lord” in your NRSV or NIV,
think “Sovereign” or “Ruler”; when you read “Gentiles,” think “nations”; when
you read “righteousness,” think “justice”; when you read “faith,” think
“allegiance” and “trust.” Try this out especially on Romans 1:1-5, 16-17 and
Romans 15:7-13, the two texts that frame and determine the meaning of the whole
letter. Even these few translation changes (each of them warranted in
scholarship), begin to take us beyond merely “religious” and individualist
readings of this most important letter. Is it possible that Romans might speak
directly to questions of political authority and rule, of political allegiances
and practices, of justice in personal, social and legal spheres?</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-31590875289585868872020-11-05T06:02:00.006-08:002020-11-05T06:15:22.833-08:00Theological Journal – November 5 You Can’t Resonate with Psalm 119 Unless . . .<p> <b>Psalm 119 (1)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This longest psalm, artfully
crafted as an eight-part alphabetic acrostic poem (that is, each section begins
with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet and uses eight main words used
for “torah” . . . <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>corresponding to this
eight-fold acrostic; and about 176 of these synonyms for Torah occur in the 176
vv. of the psalm (<i>The Jewish Study Bible: Second Edition</i> [Kindle
Location 74340-74342]) has often been believed repetitive, redundant, and
boring. That has changed somewhat in more recent times but still, 176 verses
about the <i>Torah</i>, the Law of God! How much can, or needs, to be said
about it? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Further, in the West we tend to
construe law more negatively than not religiously. The prevalent tendency to
play law off against grace (as part of an Old Testament vs. New Testament
dialectic) in much American Christianity is a parade example. A long, boring,
repetitive, legalistic paean to Law is not likely to attract much favorable
attention. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Psa.119 itself, closely read,
gives the lie to these caricatures. Though formally petitionary it’s treatment
of <i>Torah</i> opens it up in illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting ways,
making its 176 verses a joy and delight to “meditate” (Psa.1:2) on. As well,
its acrostic structure gives it “a</span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> form
commensurate with the message. The message is that life is reliable and utterly
symmetrical when the torah is honored. And so the psalm provides a literary,
pedagogical experience of reliability and utter symmetry. A torah-ordered life
is as safe, predictable, and complete as is the movement of the psalm" (Walter
Brueggemann, <i>The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary</i> [Minneapolis:
Augsburg, 1984], 40).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And my contention is that until,
and not until, we can work through these caricatures, cultural trends, or other
hindrances to hear this psalm as intended it will remain a closed text for us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A chief way to “open it up” is
attentive or meditative reading. Stephen Chapman explains, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“In this kind of interpretive
practice, a reader will notice a rich word or turn of phrase from a poem or a
novel, roll it around on the tongue several times, perhaps use it in
conversation with others, and commit it to memory. The word or phrase then
becomes part of the reader’s lived reality. In fact, such a reader will
progressively inhabit the world envisioned by the text, living into it,
considering both its similarities to and differences from the world as the
reader has previously known and experienced it. Such reading is not only a
cultural desideratum but a theological imperative. In Jewish and Christian
tradition, reading the Bible has always involved meditating on its words as if
each and every one stood ready to disclose a divine message” (Chapman, Stephen
B.. <i>1 Samuel as Christian Scripture </i>(p. 10). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co.. Kindle Edition).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This kind of reading is not for
information, though it can be, wrongly, read only for that). It is far more for
formation than information. Read for formation we discover a distinctive
feature of the psalm: the psalmist describes his relation to <i>Torah</i> as
“clinging to it” (vv.25,31). This is “a very strong term, often with sexual
connotations (see, e.g., Gen. 2.24; 34.3)” (Kindle loc. 74352-74353) that
replaces the normal close relation of the worshiper to YHWH. In other words, <i>Torah</i>
replaces or is seen/experienced as a manifestation of God’s own self. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This “exchange” from YHWH himself
to <i>Torah </i>happens in many areas in this psalm:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 27.45pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-“<i>Torah,”</i> not God is the
source of life (vv. 50, 93;)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 27.45pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-in Psa.18.29//2 Sam. 22.29, God
is the psalmist’s “light” but in v. 105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, a
light for my path.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 27.45pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-God’s “deliverance” comes from
his words (v.123) rather than from God himself: “My eyes pine away for Your
deliverance, for Your righteous words.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 27.45pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-v.135 desires God to shine His
face on the psalmist (Num.6:25), but he wants this through <i>Torah </i>(v.
135): “Show favor to Your servant [lit. “shine Your Face upon Your servant”],
and teach me Your laws.” (see <i>JSB</i>: 74355-74362)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When <i>Torah</i> opens up to us as
this sampling of texts indicates, it becomes another way of speaking about our
relation to God whose character it reflects and in whose light we must read it.
Meditative or appreciative reading is then clearly the most appropriate way to
engage it. I once heard meditation described as a cow chewing its cud. It chews
it over and over, turning it with its tongue to get all sides, slowly enjoying
each morsel. The way one might read a love letter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That’s how I will attempt to
engage each section of this psalm, and I hope you will too. Feel free to share
your insights with the rest of us. For I surely have only a limited range of
insight and need your help to grow mine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Next time:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Aleph section, vv.1-8. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-75895010047607530692020-11-04T05:46:00.004-08:002020-11-04T05:48:04.504-08:00Theological Journal – November 4 Craig Keen’s Theological Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer (Part 2)<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">“. . . as it is in heaven,” as it is already where our
thought and imagination cannot reach, as it is in mystery, as it is in our
hopes and prayers . . . .</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“. . . Give!”—that the hope and mystery of the world *gives*
is the life and breath of all the faithful, all those who pray in Jesus’s name,
all those who know by name the poor whom we have with us always, the poor among
whom—as whom—Jesus lived, died, and was raised . . . .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“. . . us this day,” all we are is *this day,* though we are
*this day* with a past and with a future, an indeterminate past and a differently
indeterminate future, both at work in *this day* in ways that elude our
management skills and our consciousness, a future calling upon *this day* to
hope, a past calling upon *this day* to despair . . . .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“. . . our daily bread,” a prayer of those who cannot assume
they will eat today, who do not and have not had more than enough for today and
in too many days have had nothing at all, they are the *us* of this prayer . .
. .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“. . . forgive us,” give-forth, rupture our closure with
your openness, with your gratuity, with your mercy, with your grace . . . .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“. . . our trespasses,” our sins, our debts, the hard
affairs of a hard life in which there are no expenditures that are not about
food and shelter and the hands of young and old, male and female, sick and
well, the hands that do not have the luxury of a day of rest, the hands that
gather and hunt and hold to heal and bury and nurse a newborn while hoping and
praying that another child’s death might be held off a little longer. . . <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“. . . as we forgive those who trespass against us,” for the
hope of people who live and work together is no solitary hope, but a hope for
all the world, for the deer at pools of fresh water, for the winds and the
rain, for the declining health of elders in a precarious household, for
neighbors in a tiny village, for the strangers who are drawn to the nighttime
fire around which they gathered, because my forgiveness is inseparable from
yours . . . .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“. . . lead is not into temptation,” open a way for us where
the blows that have rained down on us all our lives do not any longer on us
fall . . . .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">". . . but deliver us from evil," from new
assaults, from new wounds, from new defeats, from the loss of a day's work or a
season's harvest or the children who might have been a new generation . . . .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“. . . For thine is the Kingdom,” the embrace of all
creation in the arms of your righteous justice . . . .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">". . . and the power," the irruption into our
exclusions and inclusions and conclusions of possibilities nowhere native to or
inherent in this world . . . .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">". . . and the glory," the disclosure, the
manifestation, the revelation, the coming, the outpouring of your holiness,
your deity, your overwhelming love . . . .<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">". . . Amen!" yes, yes, yes!<o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-39756460421870574192020-11-03T07:30:00.002-08:002020-11-03T07:30:36.320-08:00Theological Journal – November 3 Craig Keen’s Theological Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer (Part 1)<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">If you’ve heard the term “theological interpretation of scripture” and wonder what it means or looks like, I submit Craig Keen’s version of the Lord’s Prayer (Part 1 below) as a prime specimen. You could read any number of books and articles on it (not necessarily a bad thing) but you’d do better to spend time immersing yourself in Keen’s work here (and in Part 2) until you discern the theological loom on which it is woven. Then you’ll understand theological interpretation.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">-------------------------------<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">“Our Father”—no father at all, no God at all, nothing at all—without “the Son” who with you was humiliated his whole life long and above all on Golgotha in solidarity with other poor, oppressed, outcast sufferers of the world, never shaking off that solidarity, not on Holy Saturday, not on Easter Sunday . . . .<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">“. . . who art in heaven,” in mystery, outside our reach, sovereign in ways that shock, confuse, and tempt our understanding to offense, i.e., in weakness, in loneliness, in a manger and above all on a cross . . .<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">“. . . hallowed be thy name,” the name only you can and do utter, a name that will not yield to our lust to manage and control, a name that ruptures our word “God,” a name as wildly free as are you, as wildly free as is the Father of the abased Son . . . .<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">“. . . ; thy Kingdom come!” Shatter the unjust systems of this world, the ones that exalt the unrighteousness, the rich and powerful, and grind the faces of the poor . . . .”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">“. . . thy will be done,” the will that is nothing but wild, boundless love, shockingly immersed with solidarity in the agony of the world’s suffering poor, tempting to offense those with standing in this present evil age . .<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">". . . on earth," not in Elysium or Valhalla, not in a proper heaven or a proper paradise, but the very earth from which Abel's blood still cries out, the earth into which a planter reaches her hands, from which new life springs, that earth out of which both the first Adam and the second Adam are scraped and into which the Spirit of God breathes . . . .</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-71889353052778082302020-11-02T05:16:00.001-08:002020-11-02T05:16:12.842-08:00Theological Journal – November 2 Miroslav Volf: Accepting Truth<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">Despite our Western bias that
human beings are but “brains on a stick” (J. K. A. Smith), we are not. In
biblical perspective we are beings moved to action by loving and being loved. From
whom we receive that animating love and direct our responsive love and action
is the decisive question of each of our lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;">We are, however, beings fallen
out of sync with that divine wiring, no longer responsive to truth, beauty, and
goodness. God in Christ has acted, however, to reclaim and restore us to that
divine design. His love penetrates even our darkness and through Christ and by
placing humanity in him. We henceforth live not from who we are to who we hope
to be (as we normally do) but from who we are in Christ to who we will be and,
indeed, already are in him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We traverse this path from who
we are in Christ now to the full experience of that identity to come requires
response and pursuit from us. God’s love given us in Christ fires in us and
makes possible this pursuit just as it assures its fulfilment even though our
old life, defeated by Christ, continues to cling to us and do everything it can
to keep tripping us up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In light of this conflicted
existence Miroslav Volf parses this pursuit in this way:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"To accept truth, much more
to actively pursue it, we must be willing to part with ego boosting self-deceit
and power maintaining ideologies, be ready to rewrite the story of our
identities and reform our practices. If we refuse to be unsettled and
transformed, we will shy away from truth and stick to our preferred beliefs,
which make us "blessed" precisely because they tell us lies. The
truth will never be sustained without the will to obey the truth."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This pursuit, thus, calls us to
embrace the conflict, unflinchingly refuse to let ourselves off the hook or
excuse ourselves by composing a new narrative of who we are and becoming,
internalize the habit of living “backward to forward.” That is, from who we are
to who we will become. This counter-intuitive practice, which is a correlate to
the giving of the Holy Spirit and a life lived by grace and not performance, is
the one and only way to experiencing our creational design and Christ’s
redemptional achievement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What does this pursuit entail? I
suggest something like the following. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-Remembering we are more than
“brains on a stick” it must be full-bodied, whole person, encompassing all we
are and have.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-Seeing ourselves as a bundle of
three dynamics – our passions, our priorities, and our practices (each of which
has integral connections with the others) – which make us who we are and
become.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-These three dynamics (the
“wiring” I mentioned above) are meant to be mutually supportive of the others
and “walk arm-in-arm together” (as it were) reshaping us into that image of
Christ in whom we already dwell.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-Identity, vocation, and
community, essential aspects of God’s design for us, become the loom and site
of conflict in our pursuit of the reality to which God has already redeemed us
in Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">-The new narratives we compose
(under the guidance of the Spirit and in the life of the community) follow the
principle powerfully articulated by Karl Barth: ”the real is the possible” (and
not the other way round!). Christ’s resurrection, ascension, and exaltation
establish the real for us within whose parameters (which are infinite) are our
reality and within which new possibilities for our lives unfold. One could call
what we are talking about in this post “living into this new reality.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 51.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">May it please God that this be
so for us this day, tomorrow, and every tomorrow God grants till kingdom comes!
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-43115644167108763872020-10-30T13:48:00.000-07:002020-10-30T13:48:07.280-07:00Theological Journal – October 31 "In Conversation" by Samuel Wells and Stanley Hauerwas (1)<p> A TIA and a seizure followed
by a stint in rehab have taken me away from my Theological Journal for the last
couple of weeks. I return today with a nifty outline of the Lord’s Prayer by
Sam Wells in his new book with Stanley Hauerwas <i>In Conversation</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“’give us’ is about the present and ‘forgive us’ is about
the past and ‘deliver us’ is about the future (Kindle loc. 266).” Life with
Jesus’ Father is <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;">-totally gift<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;">-mercy not performance-based<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 15.4pt; margin-top: 0in;">-aimed at rescue<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 15.4pt;">Next time you teach or preach the
Lord’s Prayer, try it out!<o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-26380034742423191962020-10-12T16:28:00.004-07:002020-10-12T16:28:57.555-07:00Theological Journal – October 12 Flat Epistemology: David Fitch<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;">THE PROBLEM OF FLAT EPISTEMOLOGY
(A quick 7 paragraphs - looking for some dialogue)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">Flat epistemology – focuses on
the essence of what we know – directly, as individuals, not on how what we know
must be translated, and even shaped within a different language world and
culture in order to be understood and lived together. It sees all knowledge as
flat - from one so-called universal viewpoint. It takes many forms.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">Flat epistemology is
uni-dimensional. It tends to focus on the foundational metaphysics of the way
things are. In a flat epistemology, we tend to think about what we know as
universally true before we have thought through the peculiarities of its
manifestation to us in this time and place. Flat epistemology goes from the
universal to the particular. There is an absence in flat epistemology in
acknowledging that other dimension that the way you conceptualize what you
know, and the way you live it is conditioned (even made possible) by your
language and culture.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">My argument against flat
epistemology, in no way, suggests that there is not (what I’ll label) a hard
reality towards which all that we know refers. There is always a hard reality
that we are relating to as human beings via all our cultures, geographies,
countries, languages. A flat epistemology however focuses on that hard reality.
It even recognizes that I must translate that hard kernel of reality to other
cultures/languages. But it does not as easily recognize that we always come to
this hard core reality first already shaped and influenced by a culture and a
language.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">In my opinion, Biblical studies
people often fall into the trap of flat epistemology (although scholars like
Wayne Meeks prove there are exceptions). The Biblical studies person often
spends the majority of his/her time exegeting a text in its original context,
and arriving at its truth. As a result, the translation of this truth into
another culture can be treated like an afterthought. “We’ve done the hard
part.” But I suggest the next leg of communication is often the hardest part.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">As Christians in the West,
particularly those who have been part of the dominant culture, we have to fight
the knee-jerk tendency towards a flat epistemology. Flat epistemology resides
deep within the history of Western colonialism. There’s a blindness there that
requires self-reflection.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">The issue of sexuality provides
an example of what I’m talking about. We can say for instance that the Bible
prohibits same sex sexual relationships, gay and or lesbian relationships, that
God created us binary male or female, but what those very words mean, “male
and/or female”, “gay and/or lesbian”, mean vastly different things across
history, across cultures, even within my country (USA), even within my city
(Chicago). And to even get at the social dynamics, the hierarchies, the
oppressions, the antagonisms that have been built into these gender/sexuality
structures will take many hours of listening and understanding of the language,
the terms and what they mean. So even if we Christian students of the Bible are
one hundred percent confident that God created a gender binary and prohibits
same sex sexuality, we have miles to go before we can translate these ideas,
what drives them, so that they communicate what God is doing in gender and
sexuality to heal the world. This is the reality of our multi-cultural
multi-linguistic post-Christendom world. This is what it means to be a
missionary in the 21st century West.</span><span style="color: #1c1e21;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.75pt;"><span style="color: #1c1e21; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In conclusion, “flat
epistemology” thinks in only one dimension. In that God did not come by way of
the universal to the particular, but revealed the universal by coming first in
the particular, a human person born enculturated as a Palestinian Jew, God
expects that we Christians do the same. Christian leaders must listen deeply,
know their cultures, listen for the Spirit, and extend the hard core reality of
the gospel into all the cultures of our times. This is what church is, this is
what church does. This is ‘missional church.’<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-73367453787809305042020-10-11T08:12:00.004-07:002020-10-11T08:12:29.019-07:00Theological Journal – October 11 Bonhoeffer’s “Polyphony of Life” – Barry Harvey<p> <span style="background: white; color: #050505;">Bonhoeffer's
musical image of the polyphony of life should not be taken as merely a winsome
illustration, but as a fertile way of thinking about the dynamics, the
movement, the interactions, that characterize what he calls the profound
worldliness of Christianity. Music generally, and polyphonic music in
particular, forms synchronic and diachronic patterns in the modes of rhythms,
melodies and harmonies which, though they do not follow a law-like necessity,
are nonetheless purposeful and promising. It is able to incorporate discordant
elements in the form of dissonance, but also looks to resolve that dissonance
into what can truly be called a harmonious difference. It also moves in time in
distinct arrangements of meter and rhythm, which, in collaboration with the
tonal dimension, progress toward climatic endings in the form of half and full
cadences, each of which in their own ways anticipate the final cadence.</span>
(fb, 10.10.20)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-27905008681573399322020-10-10T21:29:00.003-07:002020-10-10T21:29:34.099-07:00Theological Journal – October 11 Mark’s Crucifixion Story<p> <span style="background-color: #885522; color: #fffdee; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">One of the many differences that you can find
in the gospel of Mark appears to come during the telling of the crucifixion
story. An astute Bible student may notice that in the gospel of Mark, Jesus is
offered wine mixed with myrrh before He is on the cross; in every other gospel,
He is offered vinegar mixed with gall, both before and on the cross. This seems
like a minor detail (or a major one for biblical critics), but in fact, Mark is
doing something much deeper under the surface. In order to explain this, I
would like to describe the coronation of a Roman Caesar. (While I heard this
teaching from Ray Vander Laan, the man who did the definitive work on this was
the Oxford scholar Thomas E. Schmidt.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #885522; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #fffdee; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<br />
We don’t have a comprehensive account of every coronation of a Caesar, but we
do have a few. One of the best records we have is of the coronation of Emperor
Nero. From the records that we do have, one could conclude that the typical
coronation had nine steps:<br />
<br />
<b>1. The Praetorian Guard gathers to hail Caesar as lord and god.<br />
2. Royal robes, a wreath crown, and a scepter are placed on Caesar.<br />
3. They lead Caesar through a procession, lined with incense altars.<br />
4. Caesar is followed by the sacrifice (a bull, in Nero’s case), and he carries
the instrument of death.<br />
5. They arrive at Capitoline Hill; Caesar is offered wine mixed with myrrh, but
he refuses it, pouring it out.<br />
6. The bull is killed; Caesar pronounced death or life on a host of prisoners,
demonstrating that he has the power of life and death.<br />
7. The emperor ascends the steps of the temple with the High Priest on his
right and his commander on his left.<br />
8. Caesar is acclaimed “lord and god” as people sing his praises.<br />
9. They wait for a sign from the heavens (in Nero’s coronation, according to
history, there was an eclipse).</b><br />
<br />
If one takes this list and reads through Mark’s account of the crucifixion,
they are stunned to find what Mark is doing. Take the list above, open your
Bible to Mark 15, and connect them to the following passages:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: #885522; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #fffdee; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #885522; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #fffdee; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1. 15:16<br />
2. 15:17–18<br />
3. 15:20<br />
4. 15:21<br />
5. 15:22–23<br />
6. 15:24<br />
7. 15:27<br />
8. 15:29–32<br />
9. 15:33</span></b><span style="color: #fffdee; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
Mark tells the crucifixion as if it was Jesus’s coronation. Mark’s trying to
make the case that Jesus’s crucifixion was not a moment of defeat — it was His
greatest moment of triumph.<br />
<br />
This is a stunning agenda to attempt to communicate to a bunch of Romans. Mark
is essentially trying to tell them that the world they live in is completely
backwards and upside down. He’s saying that the way of empire doesn’t actually
bring true peace. That in weakness — in the laying down of His life — Jesus
showed empire to be the farce that it is.<br />
<br />
And then, there is the ending. If you look in your Bible, you will notice a
note that says that Mark 16:9–20 is not in the earliest manuscripts. To be
quite frank, I do not believe that Mark 16:9–20 should be in our inspired Text.
I believe that the early Christians attempted to “clean up” the ending to
Mark’s gospel and fix something that was never broken.<br />
<br />
If you read Mark 16:8, you can see why they would think such things. Would Mark
really end his gospel with women running away, trembling and afraid?<br />
<br />
<b>Of course he would.</b><br />
<br />
Because any Roman who reads Mark’s gospel — and accepts it — is going to feel
just like those women. If they affirm the truth that Jesus is a better king,
their Roman life as they know it is over. They have much to fear. And so, much
like the story of the prodigal son, Mark leaves the ending open-ended and
unwritten, inviting the Roman readers to consider what they believe to be the
truest true about the world
http://makingtalmidim.blogspot.com/2014/10/mark-roman-gospel.html<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<b><span style="color: #fffdee; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">1. 15:16<br />
7. 15:27<br />
8. 15:29–32<br />
9. 15:33</span></b><span style="color: #fffdee; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br />
<br />
Mark tells the crucifixion as if it was Jesus’s coronation. Mark’s trying to
make the case that Jesus’s crucifixion was not a moment of defeat — it </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-73796898542344372732020-10-09T08:27:00.002-07:002020-10-09T08:27:42.421-07:00Theological Journal – October 9 Bonhoeffer for Today<p> From DB’s <i>Ethics</i>:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The most astonishing
observation one makes today is that people surrender everything in the face of
nothingness: their own judgment, their humanity, their neighbors. Where this fear
is exploited without scruple, there are no limits to what can be achieved.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We see this in Trump to the nth
degree.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Only when Christian faith in
God is lost do people feel compelled to make use of all means—even criminal—to
force the victory of their cause.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sadly, we are seeing this to
today across the political spectrum.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Total war uses every
conceivable means toward the end of national self-preservation. Everything is
right and permitted that serves the cause of one’s own people.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ditto! </span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol-ext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";">☹</span><span style="color: #050505; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-5942958314666001162020-10-07T07:14:00.006-07:002020-10-07T07:14:30.543-07:00Theological Journal – October 7 Renewing the Church – Brad Brisco<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt;">Renewing the church
isn’t complicated, but it is multi-faceted. It involves at least involve these
five aspects:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1. We must recapture the
missionary, sent nature of the church. The church doesn’t just SEND
missionaries, the church IS the missionary. (individually and collectively)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2. We must activate ALL
the people of God to engage in Jesus' redemptive mission in their local
contexts. We have to diminish both the sacred-secular divide but the
clergy-laity divide. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3. We must start new,
smaller, simpler, agile expressions of church that are organized around
mission. They pray for and engage the brokenness where they live, work and
play.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4. We must cultivate a
more comprehensive view of discipleship and evangelism that is more contextual,
relational, communal and Kingdom/Jesus-centric. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 6.5in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">5. We must use different
metrics to measure "success" that focus on missionary behaviors and
activities in the daily rhythms of life and not just what happens on Sunday
morning.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8024463059512837285.post-74289521426621099512020-10-06T10:21:00.000-07:002020-10-06T10:21:05.830-07:00Theological Journal – October 6 1 Tim.2:12 in a Nutshell: Marg Mowckzo<p> </p><p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 42.05pt; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">I take </span><a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%202.12" style="background-color: transparent;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration-line: none;">1 Timothy
2:12</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent;"> literally, and it says nothing about whether educated
women can be </span><a href="https://margmowczko.com/women-pastors-in-the-new-testament/" style="background-color: transparent;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration-line: none;">pastors</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent;"> and </span><a href="https://margmowczko.com/preaching-words-new-testament-women-preached/" style="background-color: transparent;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration-line: none;">preachers</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent;">, or not. This becomes clearer when we pull back from
this one verse and look at its immediate context.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 42.05pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 42.05pt;">In <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%202.8-15" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Timothy
2:8-15</span></a> Paul addresses and corrects problem behaviour from
various people in the Ephesian church:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-right: 42.05pt; mso-add-space: auto;">1. angry
quarrelling men (“men” is plural in verse 8)<br />
2. <a href="https://margmowczko.com/pauls-instructions-for-modest-dress/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">overdressed</span></a> rich women (“women” is plural in verses 9 and
10)<br />
3. <a href="https://margmowczko.com/a-woman-not-all-women-1-timothy-212/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">a woman</span></a> or a wife (the Greek word for “woman/wife” is
singular in verses 11 and 12, and the Greek “saved” verb is singular in verse
15; it is correctly translated as “she will be saved.” Cf. <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/csb/1%20Tim.%202.15" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Tim. 2:15
CSB</span></a>).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 42.05pt;"><a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%202.11-12" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Timothy
2:11-12</span></a> is about a woman in the Ephesian church who
needed to learn and was not allowed to teach and was not allowed to domineer a
man, probably her husband. She needed to chill.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 42.05pt;">Paul goes on, and in <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%202.13-14" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Timothy
2:13-14</span></a> he gives correct summary statements of Genesis
2 and 3. It is not clear why he mentions Adam and Eve, but it may have
been to provide a correction to the woman’s faulty teaching of the Law (Torah),
particularly a corrupted version of Genesis 2 and 3 that<a href="https://margmowczko.com/adam-and-eve-in-gnostic-literature/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> favoured Eve</span></a> (cf. <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim.%201.3-4" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Tim. 1:3-4</span></a>, <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%201.7" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">7</span></a>).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 42.05pt;"><a href="https://biblia.com/bible/csb/1%20Tim%202.15" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Timothy
2:15 CSB</span></a> is a difficult verse to decipher but it may be about
the Ephesian woman’s <a href="https://margmowczko.com/tag/authentein/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">domineering behaviour</span></a> towards her husband. She may have
been motivated by a pious desire for <a href="https://margmowczko.com/chastity-salvation-1-timothy-215/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">sexual
asceticism</span></a> and was refusing sex and, consequently, procreation
(cf. <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim.%204.3a" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Tim. 4:3a</span></a>). Sexual renunciation was not uncommon in the
early church. (Paul wrote <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%207.1-6" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Corinthians
7:1-6</span></a> to address the issue of both married and single <a href="https://margmowczko.com/1-corinthians-74-in-a-nutshell/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Corinthian
Christians</span></a> who were choosing to become or remain celibate.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 42.05pt;">Paul is addressing problem
behaviour of both men and women and offering corrections in <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%202.8-15" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Timothy
2:8-15</span></a>. He also gives directives about problem behaviour of both men
and women in <a href="https://margmowczko.com/1-corinthians-1434-35-in-a-nutshell/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Corinthians 14:26-40</span></a> which contains the verses <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.34-35" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Corinthians
14:34-35</span></a>: “women are to be silent in the churches …” These two
passages, which are about issues in the Ephesian and Corinthian churches, are
not Paul’s general thoughts about wholesome, edifying ministry.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 42.05pt;">The apostle’s overall <a href="https://margmowczko.com/paul-romans-16-women-coworkers/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">theology of
ministry</span></a> was, “You have a gift use it,” and he doesn’t exclude
women from his general statements about ministry, including leadership and
teaching ministries, in <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Rom%2012.6-8" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Romans 12:6-8</span></a>, <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2012.28" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Corinthians
12:28</span></a>, and <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Eph%204.11" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Ephesians 4:11</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 42.05pt;">Furthermore, it’s important to
note that church meetings in the first century were different from most church
services today. Paul encouraged participation in ministry and even welcomed
spontaneous contributions during church meetings (<a href="https://biblia.com/bible/csb/1%20Cor.%2014.26" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Cor. 14:26
CSB</span></a>; <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/csb/Col%203.16" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Col 3:16 CSB</span></a>). He did not prohibit gifted and orderly speech,
only nuisance, unedifying speech and wrong teaching.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Paul did not silence or limit the ministries of capable,
gifted, and well-behaved men or women in either <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%202.8-15" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Timothy
2:8-15</span></a> or in <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Cor%2014.26-40" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Corinthians
14:26-40</span></a>, or in any other verses in his letters. So I repeat, <a href="https://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/1%20Tim%202.12" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">1 Timothy
2:12</span></a> has nothing to say, one way or the other, about whether
educated women can be pastors or preachers or any other kind of church leader
or minister.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">https://margmowczko.com/1-timothy-212-in-a-nutshell/<o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0