Marginal Christianity

January 8 The following is wise counsel from Matt Tebbe on the matter of desire https://gravityleadership.com/desire-in-discipleship/ ). Desire in Discipleship -“What do you want?” he asks two disciples who are following him right after his baptism. -“Do you love me?” he asks Peter three times after his resurrection. These questions aren’t rhetorical for Jesus. They are sincere questions meant to help the listener own and name their desire. What Do You Want? What do you want? is the core question for every disciple of Jesus. But desire makes us nervous. We are anxious that we won’t get what we want or perhaps we shouldn’t want what we want, and so we have two dominant strategies in the church for dealing with desire: 1.        Kill it, or 2.        Fulfill it. Killing Desire Some Christian traditions are scared to death of desire, because desire leads us into sin (the devil is prowling around looking to hook our desires, James says).

http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/?p=4491 Posted on July 9, 2014 by David Fitch — No Comments ↓ Warning: This is a post which depends on some knowledge of Foucault, Coakley, even Zizek and McIntyre. Read at your own risk. I probably can’t reply to comments asking me to outline the thought of these thinkers. Sorry ——————– There is an idea in the work of Michael Foucault (p. 322-327 Order of Things 1970) he calls the “unthought.” It is the set of assumptions and stories that form the backdrop of our conscious thoughts and actions. The “unthought” drives how we see the world yet is never really examined. It’s in the water we swim in. In some sense the “unthought” can’t be examined, because it is so ingrained in the frame by which we think and feel and move. To look at it face to face is to dismantle the whole “frame” and, in a sense, have to start all over again (a bit of Zizek here). We lose who we are and that is just too traumatic. “Unthoug