Marginal Christianity

Ransom lands and begins to experience the wonders of Perelandra. As alien and strange in its own way as the ancient planet of Malacandra had been, Ransom felt no fear or discomfort, though, as he had there. In part it was that very experience that helped him deal with his encounter with Perelandra. On Malacandra he had had an adventure. But because of that, on Perelandra he “had a sensation not of following an adventure but of enacting a myth”(3270). Perhaps even more important, that earlier experience had made him realize “that he was part of a plan. He was no longer unattached, no longer on the outside” (3318). And that’s a good thing he had this sense of enacting a myth too. Because when he meets the Green Lady near the end of the chapter he comes face-to-face with a smorgasbord of mythologies. “Opposites met in her and were fused in a fashion for which we have no images. One way of putting it would be to say that neither our sacred nor our profane art could make her port...

Luke’s Pentecost tale is a triad of stories: -Acts 2:1-13 the experience of "tongues," -Acts 2:14-41 Peter's speech and the response of the crowd, and -Acts 2:42-47 the discipleship community of goods. The first two parts, what we usually consider the Pentecost story is fascinating, perplexing, strange, and a bit fabulous. And if we don’t read to closely we get away with sentimentally celebrating the “birthday: of the church and move on without further ado. Closer reading, however, will not allow that. If in the gift of the Spirit Jesus returns to indwell his church, that is, if God “comes again” to them, we should expect a thorough reworking of the church’s life in every area. This is what happened to Israel when God called Abraham and Sarah and redeemed their family from Egypt and made them his own people and we should expect nothing less when his Spirit is poured out on them. And it is that reworking of the shape of the church’s life we find if we include ...

Matt Gunter says Christianity also requires us to believe and live as though: "Jesus is the measure of all things? The turn-the-other-cheek guy from Nazereth who got himself crucified? "I must love my enemies and pray for them, repaying evil with good? "We are expected to live nonviolently in such a world as ours? Peace is always better than violence? "Forgiveness is always better than revenge or resentment? "Money is "unrighteous" and dangerous to my soul? That my best investment is to give it all away? "All people are created equal? Is there any other "truth" that is less self-evident or more easily contradicted by reason and scientific evidence? The closest I can get to that is we are all of us equally created in the image of God, equally loved by God, and equally the objects of Christ’s redeeming. It’s still pretty hard to believe from a purely empirical perspective. Humility is a virtue?" Read more at http://int...