Marginal Christianity

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2013/10/14/certainty-is-idolatry/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatheosJesusCreed+%28Blog+-+Jesus+Creed%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher Oct 14, 2013 @ 0:02 By Scot McKnight Leave a Comment Here’s the argument: we are born with an ache and yearning to find love in the unconditional love of God, and we find this yearning in our desire for “more” and the idea of Sehnsucht ; this yearning is to enter into the love of God — the trinitarian community love of Father, Son and Spirit; this love is seen most clearly in the cross of Christ — Calvary; in that revelation we see pure divine love for us. Yet, our sinfulness distorted our yearning and turned into forms of idolatry. We are addicted to idols. This is the central theme of Greg Boyd,  Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty . The key orientation, certainty, is found in a number of ways — craving the next experience, sexua...

03 Sep 2013 Posted By: Greg Boyd Over the last week many of you have written ReKnew asking me to weigh in on the crisis in Syria. Does being a pacifist mean that I am opposed to America violently intervening to keep Assad from using chemical weapons against his own people? And if so, what would I say if Obama asked for my opinion on how America should respond to this crisis? The first thing I’ll say is that I don’t believe that being a kingdom pacifist (viz. on who swears off violence out of obedience to Jesus) means that one must embrace the conviction that governments are supposed to embrace pacifism. Many people assume this, and I’ve found that the implausibility of this position is one of the main reasons some people reject pacifism. After giving talks about the kingdom call to unconditional non-violence, I’ve frequently received responses like: “Are you telling me our government should just love the terrorists and ‘turn the other cheek’?” Actually, I’m not sayin...

http://reknew.org/2012/10/a-response-to-tony-campolo-on-fighting-the-powers-part-i/ 24 Oct 2012 Posted By: Greg Boyd While I have nothing but admiration for Tony Campolo, I differ with his views on how Christians are to be change agents in the world. He has always been a strong proponent of Christians bringing about change by political means. I, on the other hand, am not in principle opposed to Christians engaging in politics, so long as they’re very careful about it. Yet, while they may engage in political activity a s citizens , there’s nothing uniquely kingdom about this. So, in my opinion, this is not where our focus should lie. The church is the body of Christ, and its job is to be a corporate version of what Jesus was when he was present on earth in his “first” body. We are the church, therefore, insofar as we individually and corporately love, serve, and sacrifice for others. This is what the reign of God looks like. What deeply concerns me is that, by this...

by Greg Boyd 27 Aug 2012 Posted By: ReKnew Q&A Question: I’m very intrigued by your cruciform hermeneutics and can’t wait for your book (Crucifixion of the Warrior God) to come out. But I have to say that it strikes me as dangerous. You’re basically saying that the violent portraits of God in the OT are not completely accurate. But doesn’t this place us flawed humans in a place where we are the arbiters of truth, deciding what is and is not accurate in the Bible? If the Word of God can be defined and explained away through our definition of what we (again, as flawed humans) believe to be the character of God, then doesn’t that (in a sense) make us like God? And doesn’t this logically lead to the conclusion that all Scripture is up for debate as to whether it is true or not? How can we even know if any of it is true? Answer: I appreciate the seriousness with which you take this important theological topic. I’d like to make four comments by way of a response. First, as much ...