Marginal Christianity

The Fourteen Triads: Practices The great barrier to taking the SoM seriously is, as we observed earlier, their seeming lack of contact with our daily reality. We noted the various attempts to account for this each of which ended up treating them as anything but what on the face of it they appear to be. That is, practical instruction for Jesus’ hearers about living faithfully through the crisis of that time, God’s coming to judge his people for their default on the very reason for which he brought them into being. I introduced Glenn Stassen’s way of resolving this seeming unreality or impracticality by treating Jesus’s teaching as triadic rather than dyadic, that is having three elements rather than just two. Instead of traditional teaching – Jesus’ prescription Stassen believes they consist of traditional teaching – vicious cycle – Jesus’ prescription. This means the parts that seem the most difficult and remote from reality to us are not what Jesus says we ought to be doi...

Lighting used for the Serm0on on the Mount unearthed     The Problem Jesus’ SoM is a perfect example of G. K. Chesterton’s dictum that “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” [1] And it has been found difficult because it has been misread.   And because it has been found difficult numerous ways of interpreting the SoM have emerged to deal with that difficulty. The salient feature of all these tactics is that they turn Jesus’ sermon into something other than what it clearly appears to be – a piece of practical instruction for his followers as they are preparing to face a epoch-changing crucible.   -Some have claimed the SoM is intended for another time, the so-called Millennium, when Jesus rules on the earth for a thousand years. -Some have argued that the SoM is an “interim” ethic designed for the brief time Jesus claimed would pass between his resurrection and return...