Posts

Showing posts with the label participation

Review of Andrew Root's "Formation of Faith in a Secular Age Vol.1 (Part2)

Part 1:  A History of the Age of Authenticity 1: The Boring Church and the Pursuit of Authenticity The Dawn of the Age of Authenticity Five hundred years ago we lived in an enchanted world. The self was porous and the good, the right, the true and beautiful (transcendent realities) were never thought to be a subjective apprehension. Rather we lived in a world where we could encounter such things in our lives. After the Enlightenment, the individual’s own subjective experience became the norm. No longer worried about being troubled or encountered by transcendent realities (good or demonic), our enemy became whatever frustrated or hindered our personal pursuits. The self was now buffered from transcendent realities; the word was disenchanted. We looked now at our own natural lives under the constraints of scientific rationalism, which meant doubting all other realities. All that was left to us was personal authenticity. Church and much of society lined up on the en...

Best Picture of Salvation Ever

I don’t remember the source for this story but it is wonderful! One Saturday morning a father was sitting on the floor in his den sorting through the week’s accumulation of junk mail. Unbeknownst to him, his 10 year-old son and a friend were sneaking up on him. Dressed out in their camo gear replete with eye black and helmets the kids crept to the doorway of the den. With a cry they bounded out and dove at the father amid his pile of junk mail. Then the fun started. They rolled and rough-housed around the den floor till all were exhausted. They fell apart belly-laughing for several minutes. The father looked at his son’s friend and realized he didn’t know him. Salvation is participating in the life of God through Jesus Christ. Like that kid who joined in the son’s fun with his father, we too share in the all goodness, beauty, and love – and fun! – of the life of the triune God! If you imagine yourself joining Jesus is such hijinks with the Father, you have some sense of ho...