Marginal Christianity

Our culture is often likened to whitewater rapids - ever-changing, unpredictable, dangerous. It would be hard to gainsay the analogy. Experienced rafters know the key rules for successfully negotiating the whitewater rapids. I suggest these rules give us some critical guidelines for navigating our cultural/social rapids. I've tried to translate them into biblical/theological guidelines for just such a purpose. The Nature and Purpose of Theology Theology is the work of the church that evaluates and directs its journey into and through the unpredictable and treacherous rapids. According to Karl Barth this means that theology -is contextual and conflictual : an instrument of the “ ecclesia militans” (Church Militant) , theology guides the Church of a specific time to address and/or contest the needs and hopes of that time. ( Church Dogmatics 1.2, 841) -is communal and missional : “...theology . . . can be put to work in all its elements only in the context of the ...

Ch.3: Is God in Control? Why Predestination Does Not Have to be Depress-tination What Do You Mean By “Control”? Is God in control of the direction and actions of history? Yes? No? Maybe? It all depends on what you mean by control. -if you mean total control via a pre-scripted invariant plan drawn up by God before history began, No. -if you mean that God is directing history to a preordained end through the real and responsible actions of creatures he has enabled to make their own actions and decisions, Yes. The first is not love. Love creates new possibilities, growth, and futures. God’s love is both the expansive power of our growth toward new futures and that new future itself which brings each of us individually and as a whole to the fulness that is in Christ. Thus, the second option seems preferable. God establishes a good end for his creation and creatures and journeys with them in real relationships (in all their ups and downs) trusting his love to bring all things ...

  by Tim Soerens 08-19-2014 | 10:14am     You know that time when the apostle Paul says “don’t worry about anything” I sometimes wonder if he could get away with that today. Image via CreationSwap.com For example: Did you know that Congress recently had an approval rating of 9 percent? To put that in perspective, 11 percent of citizens want the Unites States to be a Communist country . It’s a lower rate than people who would approve of polygamy ! While this is sort of hilarious, it’s also pretty depressing. Thank God (literally) there isn’t a poll on the approval rating of the church, but as a ministry leader in Seattle, trust me when I say that what makes the headlines is not what anyone would call good news. Throw into the mix the global unraveling we are witnessing in the Middle East, Iraq, and our own treatment of immigrants, and it’s sort of difficult to keep our collective chins up. So yes, it m...

November 19, 2012 By Christopher Smith http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slowchurch/2012/11/19/rooted-in-gods-abundant-provision-gratitude-series-1/ This week I am going to be doing a daily series on gratitude, since this virtue plays a vital role in our understanding of Slow Church, and since of course, our readers in the U.S. will celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday later this week… When reflecting on gratitude, it is helpful for us to begin by considering its roots in God’s abundant provision for creation. All major economic systems — and especially capitalism — are built upon the assumption of scarcity of resources, an assumption that when scrutinized in the light of the scriptural narrative is simply false. Walter Brueggemann observes in an essay entitled “ The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity ” that he wrote for the Christian Century (which is well-worth your time to read in its entirety): “[The Myth of Scarcity] ends in despair. It gives us a prese...