Marginal Christianity

Just posted the second installment of podcast as titled above to Soundcloud. Just google me there and you'll find it. Love to hear your response!

For Holy Saturday this year I’ve selected some rock songs from my young adulthood which in singing about love and relationships sound some surprising reflective notes consonant with the movements of Lent. The selections (all available on You Tube with lyrics) are listed below. If this music is not to your tastes try to find some that is. These two songs speak to the Lack Lent calls us to own – our fallibility and frailty. All Out Love – Air Supply (fallibility) Dust in the Wind – Kansas (frailty) The Longing that drives Lent – both the love sought and the faith  needed to seek it. I Want to Know What Love Is – Foreigner (object) Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey (subject) The Love that fulfills Lent – God provides the love we find, in finding we grow towards that love and its practice. The Search Is Over – Survivor (finding) Can’t Fight This Feeling – REO Speedwagon (responding) When You Love Someone – Bryan Adams (practice)

What is theology? This question cannot be answered once-and-for-all time, a template and corpus requiring merely competent internalization and reproduction. This way of thinking about theology can take two main forms. -theology as a flotation device: here theology is used to distance and separate believers from the world and its hurts and struggle. It centers one’s interest on a God whose interest is to “save souls” from a world gone wrong and now destined for destruction. Theology in this mode spawns an inner-focused spirituality looking upward to return to God in heaven at death or at Christ’s return. Focused on a God somewhere else interested in getting us somewhere else for some other kind of existence (non-bodily), the believe “floats” above the life and the earth he or she had been freed from with little concern for that world and those left in it, save for their “souls” which needed saving. -theology as a belt: here theology is used to secure the believer in faith as a be...

For some years now Andrew Perriman at his blog and in his books has been forming and re-forming what he calls a “narrative-historical” hermeneutic or approach to interpreting the Bible. His chief concern is to extend an N T Wright-type of approach to read the NT in a fully historical manner rather than stop at the end of the 1 st century a.d.  As he puts it, “What I say is: a narrative theology ought to be able to account for the  whole experience of the people of God, not just the beginning, middle, and end of it. We may give some sort of priority to the early biblical sections of the narrative, but the  story doesn’t stop with the events of the New Testament —even those future events which are foreseen in the New Testament. We are still part of that story, and so is  our  future” ( https://www.postost.net/2019/03/testing-times-narrative-framework-renewal-western-church?fbclid=IwAR28U5wmrfCodsjrYIXyFUUpiJn-dWG3vUPAz-5QnR6Ej6RNkNB0IRBuiUI ). So far as I’m aw...

Andres Serrano's photograph of the cross of Christ suspended in a beaker of the artist's own urine has, not surprisingly, evoked head-scratching perplexity and vigorous opposition and condemnation. An artist's commentary on his or her work is obviously a place start in assessing that work. Serrano comments: ""At the time I made Piss Christ, I wasn't trying to get anything across . . . In hindsight, I'd say Piss Christ is a reflection of my work, not only as an artist, but as  a Christian." Say what, Andres? Christian? Really? "The thing about the crucifix itself" he continues,"is that we treat it almost like a fashion accessory. When you see it, you're not horrified by it at all, but what it represents is the crucifixion of a man. And for Christ to have been crucified and laid on the cross for three days where he not only bled to death, he shat himself and he peed himself to death. "So if Piss Christ upsets you, m...

Jean Vanier, the Canadian philosopher and theologian and the founder of L'Arche communities, turned ninety this week. To commemorate the occasion he released a YouTube video laying out his “ten rules for life to become more human” by sharing his thoughts on life and on growing older. He speaks about success, vulnerability, listening, fear and love.  1. Accept the reality of your body Vanier says, “For a man to become a man he has to be at ease with his body. That body is fragile, like all bodies. We are born in weakness (as a little child); we will die in weakness. And when we get to a certain age – ninety – we begin to get weaker.” He adds, “I have to accept that I’m ninety. I’m not fifty, or forty, or thirty.” 2. Talk about your emotions and difficulties He acknowledges that men in particular “have difficulty expressing their emotions.” 3. Don’t be afraid of not being successful Vanier adds, “you have to discover you are beautiful as you are” ...

Notes -Last in a series of five laments after the two introductory sins (Pss.1 & 2) -theme of refuge ties this psalm back to 2:12. “ Taking refuge in the Lord or making the Lord one’s refuge is a favorite and frequent metaphor in the psalms for the religious act of trusting one’s life to the care of God in uncertain or threatening situations. . . . The prayer itself is a way of taking shelter in the providence and salvation of God.” (Mays, James Luther.  The Lord Reigns: A Theological Handbook to the Psalms.  Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994, 63) -God the judge (vv.6, 11) is highlighted here. -Again, we do not know the specificities of attack here. Gerstenberger writes: “ Psalm 7 . . . as well as the other laments, does not report a single incident, for instance, of somebody being accused of theft. Rather, the complaint represents an accumulati...