Thursday, December 18, 2008

Jesus: Worshipped as God

The unique identity and sovereignty of YHWH in the Old Testament demanded the exclusive worship and obedience of Israel, the people he identified as his own possession. With Jesus inclusion in the divine identity in 1 Peter, the obedience, worship and identity of God’s people are now focussed around Christ. While Achtemeier notes that 1 Peter ‘appropriated without remainder the language of Israel for the church’17, he restricts the study of it’s christological significance to 1 Peter’s use of Isaiah 53. This is clearly inadequate. Belonging to the family of God is now only for those who obey the gospel of God (1 Peter 4:17). The list of titles traditionally given to Israel in 2:9-10 and especially a restored Israel in 2:1018 are now given
to those who obey the message about Jesus(2:8) and contrasted with pagans (2:12). In Exodus 24:4-8 Moses confirms Israel's covenant with YHWH by the sprinkling of blood, for obedience to God. In 1 Peter the believers are sprinkled with Jesus Christ’s blood, and are sanctified for obedience to Jesus Christ(1:2). While 1 Peter exhorts the believers in 1:16 ‘Be holy because I am holy’, quoting Leviticus 19:2, the shape of that holiness in the ethical material (2:11-5:9) comes from imitating Christ’s actions and attitudes. Through Christ the spiritual sacrifices of the believers are declared acceptable to God (2:5) and God is praised in their actions (4:11). The ambiguity of the doxologies (4:11, 5:10-11), as to whether they are speaking of Christ or only generally of God, further reinforces how far 1 Peter includes Jesus in the identity of God. In 1 Peter Jesus is included in God’s unique role of forming a people for himself, for his glory, praise and rule.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Prayer Mondays: Brueggemann

Re- text us


We confess you to be text-maker,
text giver,
text-worker,
and we find ourselves addressed
by your making, giving, working.
So now we bid you, re-text us by your spirit.
Re-text us away from all our shallow loves,
into your overwhelming gracefulness.
Re-text us away from our thin angers,
into your truth telling freedom.
Retext us away from our lean hopes,
into your tidal promises.
Give us attentive ears,
responsive hearts,
receiving hands;
Re-text us to be your liberated partners
in joy and obedience,
in risk and gratitude.
Re-text us by your word become wind. Amen


Walter Brueggemann "Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth"

ps. buy the book, it's awesomwe

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Is living ethical?

Barth in his Ethics, having raised the question of war as the actualization of a nations will to live, moves on to the individual. Though we may not be actively killing each other, all our various strivings in life are ethically questionable.

"I cannot live without striving. I cannot strive without it some way competing. I cannot compete in the serious competition of life without restricting the life of another, without impairing it in its movement, without stealing a march on it, and therefore without entering on that sharply inclined plane at the end of which man is the butcher of man.... As I live for myself, I necessarily live against others. In this action of mine, however, I am answerable to the command of respect for the life of others.We should have to drain the ocean dry if we were to describe the questioning of our action by the command with anything even approximating to completeness. Some hints may suffice at this point- hints that show we cannot really hide from the question of command, that we have to wrestle with the posing of this question at every step."
Barth "Ethics" T&T Clark Edinburgh 1981, 162-63

Barth leaves us with very little room to hide.
Firstly we cannot hide in naivity, that we simply did not know that our lifestyle impinged on others. Ethics doesn't quetion our intentions but our actions.
Secondly, even if we know what we are doing, we have have a nasty habit of obscuring the real violence of our living behind a complex web of relations
"When members of the white race enjoy every possible intellectual and material advantage on the basis of the superiority of one race and the subjection of many other races, and of the use that for centuries our race has made of both, I myself may not have harmed a single hair on the heads of Africans or indians. I may be very friendly toward them. I may be a supporter of missions. Yet I am still a member of the white race which, as a whole, has obviously used very radically the possibility of appropriation in relation to them. My share in the sin against Africa and Asia for the last hundred or fifty years may be very remote or indirect, but would Europe be what it is, and would I be what I am, if that expansion had never happened? Our ecenomic life clearly needs a whole series of delegated relations which apparently- only apparently- allow the individual to watch the struggle for life in the harmless role of the spectator, and even, it may be, in the very satisfying role of an actively critical spectator... But we cannot get away with the irresponsibility of this indirect grasping and taking. Again the law of God does not ask how close or distant our participation is" 164-65

Thirdly we do not absolve ourselves if our competing is part of a collective egoism, rather than simply an individual one. A bad action doesn't become good simply because it is done by a group. I am answerable for what my country does. Even in a difficult situation where I may oppose the country and simply look after my own family.
"The family is, of course, the mighty fortress of middle class morality which can easily unite a touching loyalty and concern for those in one's own nest with the laissez-faire of ruthless capitalism." 166
Barth has no time for socialism either, that simply opposes one collective egoism, the middle class, with another, the labour movement.
Fourthly, even as christians, acting for the gospel, our good intentions don't spare us from the command.
" Wherever there is a struggle between man and man, we are in this arena. This is not in itself forbidden. We cannot leave the arena. But it is fit that we should make only very circumspect use of the christian flag in this arena, for at the smallest step we take the danger is very great that we shall at least compromise severely the Christian name, and, in any case, Christ will triumph in spite of our Christian flagwaving and not by means of it".
Fifthly,
the fact that our existence takes place in certain generally recognized forms of tradition or rules will not absolve us.
While the rule of law is necessary, even good, we should be careful of over estimating things like the concept of personal property. His general point is that legal landholders can be, and indeed are often, the worst theives of all. The only way you are an ethical owner is because God has given you the land, and he may well give it to someone else. Again, the division of labour,a necessary thing so that all tasks are done, doesn't absolve the more privelleged from listening to the complaints of those under them.
Nor will any principle of recompense do, where I can claim that I have what I have due to being better and behaving more dilligently. Barth has a crack at puritans and America
"what still seems to be overlooked by the great majority of American- and not just American- Christians today, is that a morality which has practical success as its reward could finally be one which also makes this reward its goal.... We might well have been all the more guilty of cruelty and injustice in putting others under the wheels on which we so merrily rolled, even though we did smear those wheels with the oil of morality and Christianity" 170

And finally Barth turns to technology, which at first glance (to Barth) seems to have nothing to do with our struggle with others.
"Even the finest inventions become really interesting only when industry, and through industry the banks, become interested in them... not to mention the fact that the last war made it clear to us that the wonderful world of human technology can in an instant, if need be, transformed into a veritable hell of instruments of slaughter" 171

Nor is the ivory tower of scholarship, even philosophy and theology, breathing clean air in this respect.

Even our own love comes under judgement

"Is not love as such, apart from the means it may have to use, exempt from the law of struggle of all against all and therefore from the responsibility which we have to shoulder in this struggle? May there not be seen here in the world of ambiguity, of unbounded questionability, in which we normally live, a world of purity and therefore of innocence that needs no justification? Yes, we may say, if we really dare to claim that our love is real love, if we really know an actualization of love in which there is no grasping, taking, and ruling, in which there is no forcing of the one who is loved by the one who loves, if we really know a love in which no pain is caused, no pressure exerted, no burden imposed, no mastery enforced, in which the other is truly sought and not the self. It is true that love is not judged. But who of us has and practices the love which is not judged?" 172-73

"Why does the exercise of Christian love so seldom make any different impression on the world, and not just the wicked world, than that of a particular expression of the Christian will to power? We should not forget that the love of which Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 is an eschatological possibility and that in 1 John God is called love. If love is to justify us in the judgement, then it will not be the love that we have produced and demonstrated and proved, but the love which we can understand only as the love ascribed to us by God. In this love it may be that the command for respect for life is really kept and fulfilled by us even though, twist and turn as we like, we can understand ourselves only as its transgressors" 173.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Jesus is still my boyfriend...but we're going on a mission trip to a third world slum

I couldn't help noticing that Hillsong, the large pentecostal church, has subtly changed it's message over the past few years.
The message of social action, and especially global social action has taken a larger and larger portion of their message. I think it began with their womens conference, COLOUR, engaging with some African orphans in Uganda, but it has grown from there.
Listen to this from their latest documentary release " We're all in this together"

"people aren't just created to exist, or even called just to sing love-songs to God, but we are also required to be God's hands and feet- to bring releif and practical answers to the ever present needs of others"

The documentary is designed to illustrate the inseperable union of worship and justice.

While they are probably still a long way from many of us, culturally and theologically, this development is promising.
Hillsong has a long history of engaging non christians as a wisdom tradition with their prosperity gospel. ie. being a christian is a wise way to live because it brings blessings. Hopefully their emphasis on social awareness as followers of Jesus can be just as infectious to the affluent Hills district.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Jesus: Enthroned above all

1 Peter shows an extremely high christology by including Jesus in the eschatological role of YHWH.
This eschatological role is achieved for Jesus by including him in the divine sovereignty over all things. 1 Peter uses Psalm 110 in 3:22 to place Jesus at God’s right hand, with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. The exaltation is related to Jesus’ resurrection and the salvation that comes from the resurrection. This, however is not an achievement of Jesus, but a recognition of who he is. Jesus is not a ‘Son of Man who, like a second Prometheus, stormed heaven for himself and thus won divine worth for humanity’ 14 Nor is Jesus ‘one divine emanation among many others’15 1 Peter’s use of Psalm 110 is not one step towards a Nicene christology by identifying Jesus as an intermediary or angel. To set Jesus Christ at God’s right hand with angels, powers and authorities in submission to him was to identify him as God.
‘The spatial relationship between Jesus on the divine throne and the angelic powers is precisely how Jewish pictures of the heavenly realms portrayed the relationship between the divine throne and the angelic powers subject to God. The point is that Jesus now shares God’s own exaltation and sovereignty over every angelic power.’(Bauckham, God Crucified)
In the extremely high christology of 1 Peter, Jesus Christ is then more than an intermediary
figure, an exalted angel or demigod, he shares in God’s unique divine sovereignty

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I've been randomly dipping into some ethics over the past few weeks, in the form of the Hauerwas Reader and O'Donovans New College lectures.
I have some thoughts on their perception of time. Just a vibe, and not particularly thought through, but hey, thats what blogs are for.
O'Donovan seems to portray ethics as acting into a very proximate future, that is, all action is taken up in the moment attached to the present. That is the only future we have available to us. The reality that conditions that action and gives it meaning for christians can lie a long way in the past (ie the resurrection of Jesus).

Hauerwas seems to go the other way. The reality that conditions the meaning of our action is a proximate past, in the form of the traditions and practices given to us by our community. The action christians take is into a distant, eschatological future (even if we describe this future as breaking in now, it is still distant in its hiddeness).

Would those who know far better care to correect my muddled thoughts?

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Church is...

the tangible experience of God's love for us, through the Spirit led love of the siblings of his Son

Monday, December 8, 2008

Prayer Mondays: Jungel

Everlasting God, almighty Father,
From the beginning, you have been our help. You are the source of all
good gifts, granting each of us more than we deserve. We give you
thanks, and we ask you to open our eyes to the blessings with which
you so richly surround us on every side.
Lord Jesus Christ, you human God [Du menschlicher Gott],
You have lived our life and suffered our death in order to begin a new
life with us. You embrace us in a mystery where we are forever safe.
We praise your hidden presence, even as we yearn for the future glory
when, fully visible, you will meet us and all the world. Come, Lord
Jesus!
God, Holy Spirit,
Power from on high; you want to burn within us as a holy fire. Kindle
in us a love for truth that yields an earthly knowledge which does not
destroy the secrets of this world but rather enters them protectingly
and lovingly. Deem us worthy to know even you, opening our
mouths in awe.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Jesus: God coming from the future

By combining the words of the prophets with the gospel of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter includes Jesus in the eschatological role of YHWH. This is most obviously seen in 1 Peter 1:24-25, where the writer quotes Isaiah 40 and tells his readers ‘this is the word that was preached to you’. The context of Isaiah 40 is a message of comfort and salvation for the Jewish exiles. (40:1-4). God himself will come with power (40:10) and will gather his people like a shepherd (40:11). The glory of YHWH will be revealed in this salvation for all mankind to see (40:5). The passage is then followed by a long monotheistic passage extolling the uniqueness of YHWH over idols, in creation and salvation (40:12- 41:7). 1 Peter takes this message and applies it to his audience by framing them as the exiled diaspora (1:1). Through the resurrection of Jesus they also hoped for the salvation of God to be revealed in the last time (1:5). Yet what was to be revealed was Jesus Christ himself (1:13, 1:7). 1 Peter equates the time of his readers to the last time (1:20), because Jesus
has already been revealed. They are filled with joy now because of faith and salvation (1:8-9), yet will be overjoyed when the glory of Jesus is revealed to all (4:13). This is the glory that believers will share in (5:1), and already do share in, the glory of the Spirit of God, when they suffer for their identification with Christ (4:14). Thus in the christology of 1 Peter, Jesus Christ is not only the perfect human whose steps we should follow for salvation (2:21-22), but also the God who brings that salvation and reveals his glory. 1 Peter does not ignore the monotheistic intentions of Isaiah, or replace God with Christ, but includes Christ in the identity of YHWH. Both Christ and God are seen as the shepherds of the flock (2:25, 5:4),
the gospel is God’s gospel(4:17), spoken of Christ by the Holy Spirit (1:12) . The glory on the last day is still God’s glory (2:12, 5:10). Speaking words of comfort to the dispersed christian community, 1 Peter shows an extremely high christology by including Jesus in the eschatological role of YHWH.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Church is...

"...a communion of holy men and works, in that it submits to sole rule by Jesus Christ, in whom it is founded, that it also aims to live solely in the fulfillment of its service as ambassador, that it recognizes its goal solely in its hope, which is its limit." - Barth

Monday, December 1, 2008

Church is...

one of the few places left in our society that knows how speak of both loss and hope.
-Brueggemann

Prayer Monday: A Prayer Book for Australia

Lord God, bring us together as one,
reconciled with you and reconciled with each other.
You made us in your likeness,
you gave us your Son, Jesus Christ.
He has given us forgiveness from sin.
Lord God, bring us together as one,
different in culture, but given new life in Jesus Christ,
together as your body, your Church, your people.
Lord God, bring us together as one,
reconciled, healed, forgiven,
sharing you with others as you have called us to do.
In Jesus Christ, let us be together as one. Amen

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Jesus the God who speaks

The high christology of 1 Peter has God not only speaking about or through Jesus, but in Christ we see the God who speaks. 1 Peter speaks of the ‘Spirit of Christ’ in the prophets making predictions of his own suffering and consequent glories.(1:11) The predictions of the prophets are then connected to the preaching of the gospel by the Holy Spirit.(1:12) While these verses are not a full exploration of the pre-existent nature of Christ and his involvement in creation 11, along with 1:20 they touch on some temporal existence of Christ before his earthly life . The concept of pre-existence is not developed further, possibly because the writer of 1 Peter has no interest in it. Of far more importance to the question of high christology is the association of Jesus with the Holy spirit in God’s word. In this passage Jesus is seen not only as the object of God’s proclamation (1:12), nor simply
the indirect object through whom the word of God comes. In 1 Peter 1:11 Christ is shown as the divine power behind the proclamation. Through association with Jesus Christ, even the readers speech may be considered the word of God (4:10-11)
‘Reference to the Spirit further serves to show that the announcement that the events had taken place had the same divine power behind it as did the foretelling of those events, with the implication that as a result, those events not only are securely in divine hands and reflect the divine intention but also reflect the activity of the pre incarnate Christ.(Paul Achtemeier
The high christology of 1 Peter presents Jesus not only as an object of God’s word and action, or an agent through whom God works, but as God himself speaking through the prophets and living that which he predicts.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Karl Barth and Capitalism

Fundamentally, the command of God … is self-evidently and in all circumstances a call for counter-movements on behalf of humanity and against its denial in any form – and therefore a call for the championing of the weak against every kind of encroachment on the part of the strong. The Christian community has undoubtedly been too late in seeing this in face of the modern capitalistic development of the labour process, and it cannot escape some measure of responsibility for the injustice characteristic of this development…. The main task of Christianity in the West is … to assert the command of God in face of [capitalism], and to keep to the ‘left’ in opposition to its champions, i.e., to confess that it is fundamentally on the side of the victims of this disorder and to espouse their cause.”

—Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics III/4, p. 544 (KD III/4, pp. 624-25).
H/T Ben Myers

Monday, November 24, 2008

Prayer Mondays: Barth

"Lord our God, you wanted to live not only in heaven, but also with us, here on earth; not only to be high and great, but also to be small and lowly, as we are; not only to rule, but also to serve us; not only to be God in eternity, but also to be born as a person, to live, and to die.
In your dear Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, you have given us none other than yourself, that we may wholly belong to you. This affects all of us, and none of us has deserved this. What remains for us to do but to wonder, to rejoice, to be thankful, and to hold fast to what you have done for us?
We ask you to let this be the case in this hour, among us and in all of us! Let us become a proper Christmas community in an honest, open and willing praying and singing, speaking and hearing, and let us in great hunger be a proper Communion community. Amen.

Karl Barth 9 in "Fifty Prayers"

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Ben Myers: November 2006

Blogs like this make me ashamed. They are just soooo good! This is one of the biggest months I've seen to date.
What a month for Ben, there is too much here to mention, notice particularly

Pannenbergs eschatological ontology

Barth on Capitalism

Kim Fabricious ten Fab propositions on being human and Karl Barth

Snippets of Robert Jensons "Conversations with Poppi about God"

David Bentley Hart

Paul J DeHart's critique of post liberal theology, including a great quote from Hans Frei on the necessity of the resurrection, basically along the lines of, you beleive Jesus is risen, or that he was a fictional character, since the resurrection permeates his presentation and identity throughout the gospels.

Woo

Ben needs to get out more

Hauerwas and success

How do we assess the activity of our churches in a post-christendom environment?
How do we go about motivating the church for mission?
What do we call a successfu church and what do we call an unsuccessful church?
How do we think of being a parish church, for everyone in the parish, when so many have no interest in the church?

In "Remembering as a moral task", Hauerwas opposes simple universalism based on a common humanity

"Our Universalism is not based on assumed commonalities of humankind; rather, it is based on the belief that the God who made us his own through Jesus Christ is the God of all people." 'Hauerwas Reader' 344

"What does it mean for the church to be an eschatological community whose primary task is not to make the world the kingdom, but rather to witness to the power of God to transform our lives more nearly appropriate to the service of that kingdom....." 346

"The task of the church is not to survive, but to be faithful to its eschatological mission. The "success" of that mission is not measured by whether the church survives or not, but whether her survival or nonsurvival serves the ends of that kingdom. Any time Christians presume that the "success" of God's kingdom depends on the "success" of the Church they have already betrayed their beleif in God's lordship of history" 346

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Jesus is LORD

1 Peter uses passages of scripture that speak of YHWH to describe Jesus Christ.( In doing so he includes Jesus in God’s unique divine identity. This is described by Richard Bauckham as ‘the highest christology of all’. YHWH was the name by which the God of Israel, who alone was God, was known. 1 Peter twice quotes Isaiah 8, a passage explicitly speaking of YHWH, to speak of Jesus. In Isaiah 8 the prophet is given a message about impending judgement and suffering at the hands of the Assyrians. The prophet Isaiah is told by YHWH ‘do not fear what they fear and do not dread it. The LORD almighty (YHWH) is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear.’ (Isaiah 8:12-13) and to trust him as a sanctuary, even though YHWH will be the stone that causes people to fall. 1 Peter 3:14b-15 tells the christians facing suffering ‘Do not fear what they fear: do not be frightened. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord’ . Here the extremely high christology of identifying Christ with YHWH is useful to 1 Peter’s purpose. For the suffering christians addressed in 1 Peter, it is the Christ who is now to be regarded holy and should be viewed as a sanctuary. It is not that the Christ has replaced God, the readers are also told to fear God in 2:17, but that Christ is somehow included in YHWH.
This uniting of Christ and YHWH is also seen in 1 Peter 2:4-8. Christ is the living stone, rejected but chosen, in verse 4. The writer then uses three passages about stones to interpret one another and Jesus Christ. Psalm 118:22, quoted in 1 Peter 2:7, seems to be speaking of a messianic figure, or possibly of the whole of Israel. Isaiah 28:16, quoted in verse 6, also speaks of a servant of YHWH, again possibly YHWH himself in Isaiah 28:21. The quote from Isaiah 8:14 speaks explicitly of YHWH as the stumbling stone. Yet the writer is comfortable to use all three passages to speak of Jesus as both Christ and God. While some uses of kyrios for Jesus in the New Testament may be ambiguous, in
these quotes the septuagint ‘kyrios’ for YHWH in Isaiah is directly applied to Jesus. This calls into question Davies assertion that ‘There is no transference of divine standing or prerogatives’. It applies not only God’s ‘divine action in Jesus Christ’ , but to his divine identity. The many statements about God in 1 Peter that refer to the Father or God, and not Jesus, only show that Jesus was included in the identity of God and did not replace God. A reading of the entire epistle, (rather than just the ‘hymnic material’ that Earl Richard focuses on ) does not allow us to restrict the high christology to that of an exalted human, as both Richard and Davies do. This in turn calls into question Davies entire theory of a long Christological development from an early low to a late high . As noted by Hengel, ‘This development in christology progressed in a very short time’ . That 1 Peter can use such explicit connections between YHWH and Jesus without argument or explanation implies that an extremely high christology was already present for both the writer and audience of the epistle. 1 Peter displays an extremely high christology that includes Jesus in the identity of YHWH by using that name of Jesus.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Exam Prayers

On the topic of prayers I'm running a campaign to change the way we pray about exams.

Most prayers I have heard and formerly prayed for people who are about to sit exams is: that they remember what they have studied and God gives them a just mark.

My campaign is for gospel prayers: that the God of Daniel reveal to people what they haven't studied, and that the God of the gospel gives people marks they don't deserve.

I've been criticized that this is encouraging people not to study and allows for people to, how shall I say? 'sin more that grace may increase?' Paul's answer is fitting: 'Don't be stupid!'

Prayer Monday: Patrick

Permit us not, O Lord, to hear your word in vain. Convince us of it's truth, cause us to feel its power and bind us to yourself with cords of faith and hope and love that shall never be broken. We bind to ourselves today, you our God: your power to hold us, your hand to guide us, your eye to watch us, your ear to hear us, your wisdom to teach us, your word to give us speech, your presence to defend us, this day and every day; in the name of the blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to whom be the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Patrick in "Ancient Christian Devotional: a year of weekly readings"

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Is there high Christology in 1 Peter?

1 Peter is not a treatise on the divine nature of Jesus. Its primary concern is addressing the suffering of christians in Asia Minor. Much is made of the encouragement for the reader to identify with Jesus in his suffering and exaltation. However, within this addressing of suffering, 1 Peter also includes an extremely high christology that includes Jesus in the God of Israel’s unique divine identity. 1 Peter identifies Jesus with the unique divine name, has Christ speaking God’s eternal word, includes Christ in God’s eschatological role and assigns him divine sovereignty, with the corresponding sovereignty over God’s people.

New Essay for Wednesdays

Back in first year, I ripped off Richard Bauckham massively. MASSIVELY! in an essay (footnoted of course)

It is our new wednesday rehash

"High Christology in 1 Peter"

Monday, November 10, 2008

Prayers Monday

Thought I'd post some prayers on Mondays. Yep. No particular reason. Just want to.

We are all in hock


Christ is risen!
You have come into a world of debt where we are all in hock.
We pray daily that you forgive our debts.
We boldly qualify our prayer by the condition of how we treat our neighbors.
So we pray for the cancellation of our debts
and the debts of the poor
of the weak
of the imprisoned
of the abused.
Your Easter Jubilee has broken our old patterns of debt and credit,
and made us rich beyond our acknowledgement.
You are the one who was rich and became Friday poor,
that by being made poor,
you would make many rich.
We are among those who have been made rich.....
along with our neighbors.
For your Sunday wealth that is our new beginning,
we give you deep and exuberant thanks.
Amen.


Walter Brueggeman "Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: prayers of Walter Brueggemann"

Friday, November 7, 2008

Post Chrisendom Fathers

Continuing the ancient and venerable tradition of raiding the blogging Fathers archive for free content, this week we come to Chrisendom. This blog, published by Chris Tilling Really Very Holy Ministries, is one of the best mixes of Pauline scholarship and utterly hilarious baloney around.

Back in November 2006, Chris was reviewing Richard Bauckhams important work, "Jesus and the eyewitnesses".


At thirty posts, you almost might as well just read Bauckhams book, but then you'de miss Tilling's take and his humour.


ps. If you are cramming for 2nd year New Testament exam on Monday, there are far worse ways you could prepare for the Historical Jesus section. Then again, ther are probably better ways, such as the first few chapters of NT Wrights "Jesus and the Victory of God"

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Spirit of Hope

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you” Romans 8:11
The Spirit of holiness is the power by which God raised Jesus from the dead and declared him Son of God.(1:4) The presence of that same Spirit then, guarantees , as a first fruit offering from God, the redemption of the believers bodies and their adoption as Sons(8:23) . This is an anticipation of an eschatological event The covenant blessing of an inheritance will be provided in the liberation of the entire creation from decay.(8:18-23)
“Paul seems intent to tie together both the work of the Spirit with that of Christ, as well as the ethical life of righteousness effected by Christ and the Spirit with the final eschatological inheritance gained through the resurrection of the ‘mortal’ body “Gordo D Fee again)
Until that day, the Spirit remains, groaning with creation and believers, and interceding for them as they, in their weakness find hope incomprehensible. Paul himself groans with the Spirit for the incomprehensible restoration of national Israel(9:1, 11:33) . After exhorting the Romans to seemingly impossible standards of love(13:8-10) and difficult welcoming of each other, even in times of disagreement(15:7, 14:1), which still today seems hopeless, Paul's prays that the God of hope would give the Roman church peace and joy, that they might abound in hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s teaching on the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of life, encourages the faith of the readers of the letter to the Romans. In it, they find themselves united to the risen Messiah, the goal of the law who brings in covenant blessing. By the presence of the Spirit, the Roman believers are assured, even in times of suffering and hardship, of eschatological life that the Law was intended to bring, the restoration of all creation and the restoration of Jewish and Gentile relationships.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Burn me now

Just to heat it up a little

I hope that my church will be full of ikons, I use them for worship, I see God working in and through them, in fact I think true worship is pretty difficult without at least two of them. (Romans 8:29)

For that matter, and in the same vein, I believe in the real presence of the body of Christ in communion too. (1 Corinthians 12:27)


*Edit*
Just to round off my popish insolence, I also request saints to interceed to God on my behalf, everyday. Even more now that I am at college

**Edit 2**
I also believe in the second blessing of the Holy Spirit....
and the third, fourth, fifteenth and three thousand millionth

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Psalms and revolution

" The Metrical Psalm was the perfect vehicle for turning the Protestant message into a mass movement capable of embracing the illiterate alongside the literate. What better than the very words of the Bible as sung by the hero-King David? The Psalms were easily memorized, so that an incriminating printed text could rapidly be dispensed with. They were customarily sung in unison to a large range of dedicated tunes...The words of a particular Psalm could be associated with a particular melody; even to hum the tune spoke of the words behind it, and was an act of Protestant subversion. A mood could be summoned up in an instant: Psalm 68 led a crowd into battle, Psalm 124 led to victory, Psalm 115 scorned dumb and blind idols and made the perfect accompaniment for smashing up church interiors. The psalms could be sung in worship or in the market place; instantly they marked out the singer as a Protestant, and equally instantly united a Protestant crowd in ecstatic companionship just as the football chant does today on the stadium terraces. They were the common property of all, both men and women: women could not preach or rarely even lead in prayer, but they could sing alongside their menfolk. To sing a psalm was liberation- to break away from the mediation of priest or minister and to become a king alongside King David, talking directly to his God. It was perhaps significant that one of the distinctive features of French Catholic persecution in the 1540's had been that those who were about to be burned had their tongues cut out first"
Diarmaid MacCulloch "Reformation" 308


While I can think of some church tunes that make ME want to cut out people's tongues, I wonder what Psalms would be considered subversive today? I wonder where you could find church that knew their Psalms well enough to be roused by them?

Rowan Williams on Theological Integrity

As the sociologists and cultural critics of the last hundred years have made us aware, most speech, to varying degrees, is political. Whether we are aware of it or not, our speech often aims for or upholds particular power structures. Rowan Williams adresses this issue in his essay “Theological Integrity”. He defines integrity in discourse as “whether such a discourse is really talking about what it SAYS it is talking about”. Speech that avoids talking about the genuine issues, lacks integrity, as there is no possibility of response or conversation on the real issues. The underlying assumptions are never revealed and hence not up for question.
Speech with integrity, however, shows its working with critical self perception, displaying the axioms to which it beleives itself to be accountable, making it clear that there are ways in which it may be criticized and questioned.

Williams notes that religious talk is in a strange position on this analysis. On the one hand, it wants to make large, cosmic and authoritative claims, yet on the other hand these claims should lead to the recognition that the speaker is not God, and does not have a total perspective on everything. How can we speak of a God over the whole cosmos without simply using that speech for our own power claims?
The answer, according to Williams, is not to dismiss the observations of sociologists as post-modern guff, but neither is the answer to capitulate to them in secular scepticism. Rather, Williams looks for a theological response from theology and christian practice.
Firstly, he notes that Christian theology is often not an attempt to map the moral significance of every event in the universe. Not everything is open to definitive interpretation. Rather, it is an attempt to act consistently, even faithfully in a complex world.
“To say that a religious discouse is ‘about’ the whole moral universe may simply be to say that it offers a sufficient imaginative resource for confronting the entire range of human complexity without evasion or untruthfullness”.
For christians, this imaginative resource is the stories of imperfect response to God found in the narrative of Israel, and the narrative of the perfect response of Jesus. On top of this talking ‘about’ God found in the scriptures, there is also mingled a history of speaking ‘to’ God. While address to God can be as starkly ideologically driven as speech about God, Williams draws out three aspects of Christian worship that mitigate against this.
Firstly is repentance. The christian propensity to admit failure before God shows that its speech is as much under the judgement of God as the listeners. Williams encourages us to look closely at the history of the church and theology to become aware of where our speech has been used to justify this or that system of power, rather than being utterly transparent to the power of God, or to the giving of power and liberation to those who are addressed. This self critique and repentance applies both to the content of our speech, and its style. How much do we limit approved talk of God to the pulpit or the college, and exclude songs and stories (blogs?)? How much do we opt for precise language at the expense of evocative imagery? The Bible itself, with its multiple voices and styles, should move us toward repentance in this regard.
The second useful Christian practice is praise. To praise God is to say that there is something worth speaking about outside of my own need for power/ security. It is essentially a decentering activity. This is seen in glossolalia and in Job, as God is praised regardless of his usefulness to humanity, for his sheer otherness as creator.
But more specifically, God is praised for his saving presence in his revelatory acts in history.
Central in this praise for Christians is the Eucharist. Here we praise God by remembering and recapitulating the death and resurrection of his Son, the ultimate revelatory event.
“Here the action of praise necessarily involves evoking a moment of dispossesion, of death, in order to bring the novum of God into focus”.
Here we identify with the unfaithful apostles at table with Jesus, here we identify with a God who was broken for us, recognising our utter need and powerlessness, we worship a God who displays his power in weakness.
In this kind of praise, of this kind of God, we learn to speak about the world in a certain way, and about ourselves in a certain way, that is shaped by the movement from loss and disorder to life.
With repentance and praise come prayer. At the heart of prayer for Williams is contemplation: the realisation that God will never be definitively defined, there is always more of this person to know, so shutting up is always a valuable exercise. Williams notes the strategies of dispossesion of the Carmelites and early Jesuits. Theirs is a process that BEGINS with disruption to the everday patterns of life and speech (sometimes pathologically), but the “fruition of the process is the discovery that one’s selfhood and value simply lie in the abiding faithful presence of God, not in any moral or conceptual performance”. This leaning on the presence, grace and power of God, strengthened through prayer, goes a long way to uniting the outward forms of our speech and our inward reality, as our inward reality is less and less about securing our own position. A theology with integrity then, will be one that presents itself to God in penitence, praise and prayer, but more than that, one that is about supporting and serving the penitent, praising and prayerful people of God. Thus a theology of integrity isn’t about explaining why we have everything right (at least, more right than that church down the road), but constantly probing our assumption we that we have everthing right, and bringing the church to a decentered repentance, praise and dependence on God. “It will understand doctrinal definitions as the attempt to make sure we are still speaking about GOD in our narratives, not about the transactions of mythological subjects or about the administration of religious power”

“And to do this it needs to know when it has said what it can say and when it is time to shut up”

On that note...


ps. for those who were in the class, this is the article that was used to accuse Williams of outright apophaticism. It is worth reading for yourself to make your own judgement. It can be found in "On Christian Theology" by Rowan Williams

Monday, November 3, 2008

Prayer Mondays: Jungel

Almighty God, dear heavenly Father,
You are worthy of praise, you who so wonderfully created the world,
crowning it with human beings. You preserve the heaven and the
earth. Every morning you give into our hands the work of your
hands—though we shamefully misuse it.
You entrust to us the world that we might live on earth in peace and
joy. Not we, eternal Creator and fatherly Preserver—not we, but you
are worthy of praise. We praise you!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Light from eternal Light,
You are to be praised by all the world, for you have borne and broken
through the darkness of our sins. Your death took away the power of
death. Raised from the dead, you broke through the darkness with
which we so often and so furtively darken our own lives and those of
others. You are and remain the Light of Life: the light that illumines,
the light that warms, the light that guides our way—highly to be
praised in time and eternity!
God, Holy Spirit,
You glorious bond of unbreakable love between heaven and earth!
You come to people who are unable to praise. You open closed ears
and touch embittered hearts. You renew what we make old. Come,
Holy Spirit, you unsettling Spirit, move and free our hearts so that we
heartily praise you, so that all of us, in thanks and prayer, entrust
ourselves to you, the Spirit, the Son, and the Father: our God.
Amen


Ebhard Jungel "Trinitarian Prayers
for Christian Worship" in Word And World Vol 43

Posting Nice Father- Hebel

Matt introduced me to blogs, and for this I am ever grateful.
After dabbling around with an eu blog, posting our silly conversations, Matt forged ahead with Hebel in October 2006.
By November it was clear that this was a 'blog worth watching' ; )
Firstly, it hadn't died in the first few posts
Secondly, it was full of quality posts, driven by Matt's insatiable desire to read
Thirdly...it no longer reflected our silly conversations.

Back in November 2006, Matt was working through a Biblical theology of the sea, introducing me to Barth, Gunton and Schweitzer; and telling us why All Saints Day is good, but All Souls was a recapitulation to wooly medieval theology. (Though strangely he has never used this as a joke at the expense of my current church).

But most of all he served us by giving us large and fascinating slabs of NT Wright on subjects other than justification (well, also some stuff on justification too).

So, next All Souls day, when you remember this great blogging saint.. light a candle, say a few hail Marys, and pray for the release of his soul from that purgatory that is particularly reserved for lovers of Bishop Tom.
(please, please see the multiple tongues in multiple cheeks)

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The terrible horrors of the papacy

As we finish off Reformation church history for second year, and bathe in the glory of our heritage, and wonder at the continuance of the Roman Catholic church, it's worth listening to what the current Pope has to say about his own office.

‘The pope cannot impose commandments on faithful Catholics because he wants to or finds it expedient. Such a modern, voluntaristic concept of authority can only distort the true theological meaning of the papacy. The true nature of the Petrine office has become so incomprehensible in the modern age no doubt because we think of authority only on terms that do not allow for bridges between subject and object, Accordingly, everything that does not come from the subject is thought to be externally imposed’. – Joseph Ratzinger, On Conscience: Two Essays (Philadelphia/San Francisco: The National Catholic Bioethics Center/Ignatius Press, 2007 [1984]), 34.

‘One can comprehend the primacy of the pope and its correlation to Christian conscience only in this connection. The true sense of the teaching authority of the pope consists in his being the advocate of Christian memory. The pope does not impose from without. Rather, he elucidates the Christian memory and defends it. For this reason the toast to conscience indeed must precede the toast to the pope, because without conscience there would not be a papacy. All power that the papacy has is power of conscience. It is service to the double memory on which the faith is based – and which again and again must be purified, expanded, and defended against the destruction of memory that is threatened by a subjectivity forgetful of its own foundation, as well as by the pressures of social and cultural conformity’. (p. 36)

I found this at the wonderful Per Crucem ad lucem, where Jason makes some interesting observations for protestants.

The Spirit of life

Paul’s teaching about the Spirit in Romans encourages the Roman believers faith and hope in the resurrected Jesus Christ. The Spirit is the Spirit of life (8:2). In Romans 1-8 death, entering the world through sin , reigns over Jew and Gentile, and subsequently over the entire creation. The Law, though intended to bring life, weakened by sin and the flesh, actually brought death.(7:10, cf Deut 30:11-20). Paul’s fresh reading of Deuteronomy 30 in 10:6-10 intimates a renewal of this promise of life, based on the Lordship of Jesus, and of faith in God’s action in raising him from the dead. This faith is the same faith as that of Abraham, who believed in the God who gives life to the dead(4:17), and is the faith for which righteousness will be credited.(4:23-25) The Roman believers however, seem to be going through some time of suffering . If Paul’s message of new covenant fulfilment and membership for Jew and Gentile is true, where then are the covenant blessings? It is at this point of the argument, in both chapter 5 and 8, that Paul introduces Spirit material. The presence of the Spirit in 5:5 confirms the hope of believers. This hope is based on the union with Christ by the Spirit in 8:9-10. This union initially brings life to the spirit of believers (9:10), but the end result repeats the outcome of union with Christ in 6:5.


I, II, III, IV

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Remembering the past: Nothing New Under the Sun

The very title of Byron Smiths blog invites us to look back over his archive. There is nothing new!

In October 2006
Byron was almost drawing to the end of his 'Heaven: not the end of the world' series, that didn't end my world, but certainly rocked it. There are many posts in this series.. read them, yes all of them, every last one, fantastic for the soul (hehe and obviously body too)

Byron draws on Augustine's self-criticism . Augustine seemed to be the ultimate blogger, but gives some good tips for comments


And this monster quote from Moltmann, which has shaped my experience of hope the most over the past two years

Thursday, October 23, 2008

The people of God

Paul’s teaching about the Spirit in the letter to the Romans opens the boundaries of who is included in the people of God, so that Jew and Gentile might glorify God together. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of unity (15:5) and adoption (8:15) , that marks out the new covenant people of God. From chapter 1 through to the end of 16 “the burden of this letter....has to do with the Gentiles as full and equal recipients in the covenant promises made to Israel- and that without excluding Israel”(Fee, GEP). Paul opposes, on the one hand, Jews who falsely rely on the observance of Law and circumcision (2:17) , and on the other, Gentiles who boast over the Jews rejection by God.(10:18) Paul’s argues for a united people of God, Jew and Gentile, with one God(3:27-30), one Lord(10:12) , one family faith (4:11-12, 10:12-13), who “with one heart and mouth may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:6). In Paul’s argument, the Spirit, along with faith, replaces Law observance and circumcision(2:28-29) as the boundary markers of the new covenant people of God. The Spirit is the one who circumcises hearts to make true Jews, and it is the Spirit who empowers Paul’s gospel to sanctify the Gentiles (15:15-19). The Spirit unites believers to Christ , and those without the Spirit do not belong to Christ. In 8:12-30 Paul transfers terms of covenant status, based in the narratives of Israel’s exodus, from Israel to Jesus, and subsequently to describe those with the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit makes us share in Jesus prayer of sonship to the Father and confirms us as co-heirs with Christ sharing in his glory(8:15). “Those led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” chosen to be freed from slavery, waiting to inherit the entire world, as promised to Abraham in 4:13. While the language is from Roman adoption practices, “the idea of divine sonship links back into Israel’s sense of election as God’s son” (Dunn) The use of these terms for those with the Spirit is strong enough to generate the questions about the continuing role of Israel in chapters 9-11, to whom belong the adoption as sons, the law and the promises and the divine glory. Thompson, Tobin (and Paul ) are quick to point out that Jews are not therefore excluded, but welcomed on the same basis
“confession of God as Father highlights God’s mercy to Israel as well as to the Gentiles in adopting them into one family who, as descendants of Abraham, inherit together in Jesus Christ ”(M.M. Thompson)
Recognition of this unity in the Spirit, along with the death of Christ for both Jew and Gentile forms the basis for Paul’s exhortation to both weak and strong in chapter 14, so that each may welcome the other, to the praise of God.(15:7-9) As part of Paul’s goal of seeing Jew and Gentile united in praise of God through Jesus Christ, the Spirit replaces the Law as a boundary marker of the people of God.



I, II, III, IV

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Alister McGrath on Justification notes

Sorry to those of you who do RSS, this is the easiest way for me to get notes home from college

Alister Mc Grath, opening chapters on Justification

Distinguish between the concept and the doctrine of justification.

The term justification came to be the dominant metaphor for the entire soteriological action
1.Pauline scholarship in 12th Century
2.High Scholasticisms rationalisation of divine action to justice
3.Generally high regard for jurisprudence
4.Luthers wrestling with God is justification
5.The discussion at Trent of Soteriology under this heading

Not in the East though, they are more interested in theosis.

The problem boils down to
God is righteous
Man is a sinner
God justifies man The rest is working out how this can be the case

Sedeq
-rooted etymologically in 'conformity to a norm'
first used Judges 5 as 'victory', as the condition of continuance of covenant
acting in accordance to the claims of a relationship

dikaiosun- Aristotle, is part of the human contract polis for greater good
usually translated sdq, but sometimes the LXX traslated sdq with elemosuvn, mercy!

Iustitia- Cicero 'giving each one his due'
importantly, Jerome translated the Psalms from latin for the vulgate

hasdiq- to justify (not condemn but vindicate, aquit). Yet the greek can mean punish too, in fact, applied to an unjust person, it almost always means punish.
Not only this, but the Latin iustifacere and merit introduces the idea of merit,a quality of deserving, and the reward due because of this quality followed by Augustine and tertullian. If the greek had the sense of being estimated righteous, the latin had the sense of being righteous.

This results in an anthropocentricity to the argument. Ie What is the nature of righteousness in man, how did it get there, where did it come from?

The righteousness of God
Augustine- not God's personal righteousness, but the righteousness he bestows on sinners
Gabriel Biel- God's own moral righteousness.
Luther- objective genetive 'a righteousness which is valid before God
Bultmann- a relational term, a genitive of authorship
Kasemann-subjective genetive, attribute, God's saving action
Stendhal- Yes but God's saving action through History of his people
Cranfield- a genitive of origin, the status which comes from God
One thing is clear. NOT A MORAL CONCEPT

The whole tradition can be reduced to four questions: How is the concept of the justification of the ungodly to be understood? How is it possible? In what sense is it relevant? How may it be the legit and necessary interpretation of the history of Jesus?

Premodern was interested in the first two, 20th Century mostly interested in existential answers to the second two

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Consumerism, Identity, Piety

It seems many of the churches (and my) attacks on consumerism focus on the pursuit of pleasure. We posit that the key problem with consumerism is selfishness, and so we urge ourselves and others to live more selfless lives. While this is true, I’m wondering whether there is another key problem of identity and story.

People don’t buy things simply for comfort or pleasure, but also to express, confirm or construct their identity. We want there to be some kind of meaning to the daily grind we go through, and with few other options, we find that meaning in stuff.

Personally I find the temptation to buying stuff (or being worried that I”m uable to) is strongest when my sense of identity is weakest, or when I forget the wider story that my life is involved in.
The times when stuff just isn’t an issue is when I have a stonger sense of identity and purpose within a wider story.

A christian response to consumerism then, should probably involve both a frontal attack on consumerist values, and a subtle reshaping of our identity. Hauerwas tells us we need to recapture the sense of Christianity being an adventure.
“The Good News tells of the adventure that humans have been made part of through God’s grace, through Christ, and through the church. God made each christian part of God’s sacrificial life so that the world might know it is not abandoned and that there is salvation”
Hauerwas Reader, 530
Not an adventure in the ‘Wild at heart’ kind of way, but the adventure of being shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ, and the adventure of being part of his renewing of lives and the world.

The difficulty I have, is that I see this among the college students I am with, but not so much in the pews. My worry is that we have reduced the adventure of christian formation and living to a particular path into a particular type of paid ministry. We tell the people in our pews that that is the only real christian adventure. We have lost our doctrine of vocation (except for those in verbal ministry), and we have lost our sense of the incredible witnessing power of pious lives. This is due partly to historical battles with liberals, who want to deny the importance of verbal ministry, and partly through rejection of individualistic piety of evangelicals. While I’m no big fan of ‘simply read your bible ,say your prayers’ piety, we do need to recapture the sense of christian living as an adventure of character formation.

Or, to get back to the start of this rant, we need to show people the importance of their identity in Christ and their place in his story. Not simply in a textual, ‘lets go through Biblical theology’ way, but in a way that recognises and cultivates meaning in the various aspects of their lives.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Telling stories

Last year in Bile study, we were treated to an experience of Bible study for oral cultures. Two missionaries who worked in South Asia displayed a narrative technique, where a Bible story is told by a narrator, then retold. The tellings are followed by discussion, centred around a few simple questions 'Wht did you like about the story? , What did you dislike? What does this tell us about God, What does this tell us about people.. (and another one I can't remember). After the discussion, the participants would then take turns at retelling the story, with the other participants making corrections where necessary.

It was a refreshing and eye-opening experience, and quite enjoyable.

Last week I was chatting with a Bible College student who is looking to plant a church in a very low socio-ecenomic area. He had some very interesting statistics saying that in Australia at least 50% of the population is functionally illiterate. That is, even if they can read, for the most part, they wont. Reading to learn is foreign to them, let alone for pleasure.

Which makes me think there may be a massive niche for christian study and training based around a narrative, oral technique. If we taught just 1 story well evey two weeks, that would be 26 memorised stories a year. 100 in four years. That would have to help people both to live as christians and to pass those stories on to others.

What Bible stories would you include in a one year program.
Heres some ideas I have already.
Jesus' parables
The usual biblical theology suspects, maybe even a cycle of stories for each Genesis 1-2, Abraham, the exodus, judges/conquest, David, Split kingdom, Exile
Jesus' Healing/miracles stories
Maybe models of the cross and resurrection, that is, picking up different ways of exploring what was going on and telling it in narrative form.. PSA, Christus victor, exemplar, trinitarian.

Joseph, Jacob, the ark of God (that's the one we did in Bible study)
Maybe a few from Acts?

Admittedly it doesn't work so well fo Epistles, but then, knowing the stories is helpful for understanding the epistles.
Wisdom literature is a bit tricky too, although some of the psalms could work well.

Cmon now, more ideas from you, and maybe some ideas on tha balance/order

Bounded, Centered, Fuzzy, well formed

Which of these would be said of me? probably fuzzy and bounded, certainly not centered, or well formed.

What about your church?

Olivia Moffat lets us in . on some good reflection on new ministry in Melbourne. Though 7 years old, it is still a great read, especially for we Sydneysiders, that hardly ever talk about such things
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~efac/whatchurch.htm

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Digging into the Fathers Saturday: Ben Myers

The grandaddy of them all (well probably not, but still, pretty early and pretty good), Ben Myers 'Faith and Theology' looms over the theoblogosphere. Looking back at his early posts (October 2005), I'm amazed at the consistency of quality this blog has from the very beginning.

This quote from J. Christian Beker is a doozy.

The theologian as believing unbeliever
“And the biblical theologian must recognize that unbelief is not just out there, but as contemporary man, it is within himself. Faith is too often a form of repressed unbelief. No longer, if ever, is the biblical theologian or preacher an ‘answer-box’; in many ways he is unbeliever—in hope.... Luther’s simul iustus ac peccator in our time must mean first of all the willingness to demonstrate in one’s own person, not the ready answer of the biblical or theological paraphrase, but the struggle of how to become a believer in the midst of one’s own unbelief.”

—J. Christiaan Beker, “Biblical Theology Today,” in New Theology No. 6 (London: Macmillan, 1969), p. 33.

(I must also admit that Jonathon H has been poking me to read Beker for quite some time too)
Barth, Bultmann, Beker, Jungel, and of course Dylan they are all there from the early days.
This whole month is worth checking out, especially Ben's critique of his own doctrine of Scripture.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

The Bible guys are not the missional guys....

Darren Cronshaw,
in his thesis
(and, I can only assume, in the book derived from it) argues for some specifically Australian models for patoral ministry. Spiritual Companion, Chaplain for Convicts, Shepherds for settlers, Advocates for the marginalised, Servants for the needy, hosts for a multicultural community.

His methodology is to deliberately NOT start with biblical material. Rather he looks at historical images of Australian identity, sees how pastors have responded in those times, and only then find resonances to biblical material and current practice. The corresponding images of identity he explores are Aboriginal spirituality, Convicts,Bushmen, the Eureka stockade, ANZACs, and multicuturalism.

Darren kicks off by discussing Aboriginal spirituality's sense of the sacred in the land and in the everyday. There is no divide between sacred and secular, either in the plants and rocks, neither in the general activities of life, however momentous or trivial.

"Indigenous spirituality suggests a traditional image of ministry as spiritual companionship. After 200 years of white
people in the land, Australia is still on a journey and looking for its own dreaming. This is a context that invites pastoral ministers to serve as spiritual companions. " pg 23

Or, to put in a way more comfortable for my ears, Jesus really is Lord over Australia. We really do want to learn to live wisely for him in this land.

"Ministry as spiritual companionship resonates with indigenous beliefs that recognise that the journey of life has spiritual implications. The world is spiritually interconnected and part of a person’s task in life is to honour that interconnectedness.
Part of the task of those who are spiritual leaders is to help people make and maintain those connections. This is the role of a spiritual companion – to help people realise the spiritual dimension to living and relate spirituality to everyday life." pg 24

Darren isn't being dualist here. Nor, I think, is he being a washed out hippy. As ministers of the gospel, we preach that God really is working in people's lives. That their lives have a renewed meaning in following Christ. Yes, even when they aren't in full time paid ministry! Part of our role as christian ministers is to help people navigate this storied world. Part of our capitulation to western secularism is that we have stopped telling the story of Jesus in rocks and plants and working and resting, living and dying, and have only told his story in our private hearts and church buildings.

"Ministers functioning with this model, however, are not content to be general spiritual therapists exploring whatever
meaning and spiritual background people bring, but help people perceive where God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit wants to interact with them...........A spiritual companion is a friend who walks alongside a person to explore together
where God is working in that person’s spiritual life. It is a role of companionship in a
journey and exploration of spirituality. If spirituality is awareness of and response to
the sacred, then Christian spirituality more specifically is awareness of and response to
God in the context of biblical faith and community, centred in response to the Spirit of
God. Furthermore, Christian spirituality relies on friendships and mentors who nurture
awareness of and response to God. David Benner (2002: 15-16) defines these terms
and explains that sometimes spiritual companionship is offered among friends in a
mutual form of encouragement, and other times it is offered by a designated guide or
spiritual director in a one-on-one, one-way relationship. Spiritual companionship as
defined here – walking alongside someone to explore together where God is working –
broadly covers both aspects of spiritual friendship and spiritual direction.
" pg 25

Darren laments that while pastors talk among themselves, prophets from other spheres are addressing the issues that are shouting out for attention in Australia.
He highlights one such figure: Michael Leunig

"Though not explicitly Christian, Leunig is a popular ‘prophet’
who often surreptitiously addresses public issues and questions popular assumptions.
Furthermore, he functions as a fellow traveller and ‘spiritual companion’ in helping
many of his readers connect with a sense of meaning and spirituality."

Leunig's appeal is not just his personal 'spirituality but also his prophetic edge. He not only walks beside us, but gently and sadly exposes our weaknesses and foibles as a nation and culture. This prodding, that at once makes us sad , and smile, and think, is exactly what Darren desires to see in pastoral ministry.

"Biblical salvation is holistic and encompasses all aspects of life’s
journey: public and domestic issues, friendships and sexuality, leisure and business
ethics. The presentation of the gospel in Australia needs to address and build on these
everyday themes. Perhaps this is part of the role of Australian ministry as spiritual
companionship – not in a faddish or escapist style but in a down-to-earth manner that
is pastorally caring and prophetically challenging. "

Urban Neighbours of Hope

A few years back I was chatting to an Anglican minister who worked near Mt Druitt. We were at a conference that was presenting models of training and church growth. While the minister liked the models, he didn't think any of them would be appropriate to his context. The major difficulty, he said, was that Christianity made people move out of the area. A local would become a christian, and as their lives changed, they became more middle class. Education became important to them. They started caring more for their families, and the wellbeing of their families, and so just at the point where an Anglican minister may want to train them to serve in the church, they moved away to a nicer suburb. 'I can't blame them' he said. 'It isn't all that great a place to live'. A pipe dream that many have had, and some even spoken about, is trying to convince wealthier christians to move from the east and north into these areas. For the most part this hasn't happened, partly due to the distance people would have to travel back into the city to work there. Partly because it is difficult to convince churches that they should advise their parishoners to be downwardly mobile AND leave.

But praise God, there are beautiful people who are willing to be all things to all people (even the poor!).

One such group of people is Urban Neighbors of Hope.

While UNOH has a range of different activities and levels of commitment, at the heart of it are the workers. The workers of this missional group commit to living on the poverty line to reach those on the poverty line. They open their homes to their neighbors in areas where bars over the windows are a must have.

Pray for their gospel work in Thailand, Melbourne and Mt Druitt

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Good Books- throw them away

That's right, especially as christians, we shouldn't tolerate good books in our houses.
Not because God hates them book learners.
But because someone else should read them.

My life is randomly peppered with anecdotal evidence for this claim.

When I was 17, my youth group leader left his job in order to be a missionary overseas. On his last night with us, he mentioned he had a stack of books he wasn't taking...would anyone like them. No one claimed them so I dived in. While it took me a few years to get through them all (still haven't), two standouts that changed my world early on were Jim Packer's ' Evangelism and the sovereignty of God' and Francis Scaeffer's 'Escape from Reason'.

Two years later my Mum let slip that her church library was getting rid of boxes of books that weren't seen to be suitable. Apart from the many spare Bibles I picked up (unsuitable?..) standouts were works by Calvin, McCheyne and Spurgeon.

And more recently I have been blessed by the faithful ministry of my mate Matt. Every birthday, he would arrive with a christian book. Not a sappy, 'might as well be a self help book' type book, but a meaty, lets make you think about your faith a bit book. Though there have been so many books from Matt that have dominated my life and thoughts, the two in front of me right now are Wright's ' Jesus and the Victory of God' and DRB Robinsons ' Faith's Framework'.

Without these three events/ influences, I really don't know who I would be today.

Books change things.
I'm sure good books have changed your life too.
Let them run free. Give them away.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Mining the rich tradition of the Ancient Fathers

Blogging is an incredibly immediate medium (if those two are allowed to go together). I love opening up my bookmarks or feed to see what pearls of wisdom and learning the blogging Fathers have dispensed for the day. Good blogs really do shape your thoughts. And yet I know that even if I recommend a blog to someone, it is highly unlikely that they will delve into the archives, to learn from the ancient blogging traditions. So in the spirit of church history, and preserving the memory of those who wrote and thought and wrestled so many weeks before us, Saturday will from henceforth be archive day. We will be mining the rich seam of thinking- pre 2008.


First up is the venerable Halden Doerge, with his mysterious work inhabitatio dei

Back in October 2006 Halden was musing on his relationship to evangelicalism


using Barth to reflect on the misery of starting theology and liturgy with man


and swimming joyfully in Von Balthasars exposition of divine love and judgement

Thursday, October 9, 2008

A retraction..of sorts

Chatting to a couple of women at college today, I was pleasantly rebuked for the contents the previous post. One of them said that the talk on Friday had generated a great deal of discussion in her chaplaincy group, although the group had been discussing womens ministry for some time. Another commented that she was sick of the term womens ministry (what does it refer to anyway..women ministering or women being ministered to?),and had already e-mailed John about it. Together we have devised a cunning plan to satisfy all rigteousness. The said woman would speak in chapel...in tongues... (French, which she speaks fluently), a man would then interpret (from prepared notes to aid accuracy) and the whole thing would be kosher. Game over. Solved. We'll see how that goes down.

The success of the Spirit

For Paul, where the written code failed, the Spirit succeeds. In 8:9-13, a passage also related 6:1-14, it is the Spirit that enables the believers to put to death the misdeeds of the body , uniting believers to Jesus in his death and resurrection , in an act that echoes God’s own condemning of sin , to live a new life of obedience. Believers are transferred to a new realm of the Spirit, and not of the flesh. This is achieved by the Spirit’s effective control and shaping of the mind and desires of the believers . In 12:1-2 the minds transformed and renewed by the Spirit offer their bodies in holy worship, solving the problem of the false worship of Gentiles, given over to worthless minds and distorted use of their bodies in 1:18-32. The minds transformed by the Spirit will be able to correctly test and approve God’s will , fulfilling the false boast of the Jews who boasted of their knowledge of God’s will from the Law in 2:18.( Having had that good and pleasing will provided for their mouths by the very same Spirit in 8:26-27. There is also a connection here between Paul’s groaning for national Israel and the doxology at the end of chapter 11. While God’s plans are in some ways unsearchable regarding Israel, and require the groaning of the Spirit, those with the Spirit do have some grasp of God’s plan to restore for Israel, which results in the love and mutual acceptance of 12-15.

As opposed to the sinful mind, that cannot please God (8:7-8), those with the Spirit are praised by God(2:29) and are pleasing to God (14:17-18).



I, II, IIIIV

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Why think about women....(why not?)

Last Friday, John Woodhouse, the principal of Moore College, encouraged the students in chapel to think seriously about the role of women in ministry. He rebuked us for not coming to firm conclusions on this issue, saying that we did the women of our congregations a great disservice by being unclear. John outlined his position that, while valuing the equal status of women, denied them a role in preaching and teaching, as this was chiefly one of pastoral oversight, and in his view the Bible prescribed this role only for men. John urged conversation on the matter, and repeatedly emphasised the need for graciousness in difference. However, there were three strategies in his presentation that mitigated against this graciousness. Firstly was the continual use of the ‘world’ and it’s perceptions of male and female relations as the main foil for his argument. While John may not have meant it, this strategy instantly places those who disagree firmly on the pagan side of the equation. While the secular world may very well have different concepts of male and female relations, the argument against christians from secular failure holds about as much weight as charicatures of the conservative position as wife beating mysoginists. None. Neither of these rhetorical strategies do justice to the fact that there are faithful christians on both (all) sides of this debate. It essentially is the argument ‘I’m right because I’m a christian, therefore you are not a christian’.
The second unhelpful strategy is related to the first. John set out ‘the biblical data’, without argument or much comment on each passage (admitting the limits on time). This, combined with the allusions to the ‘world’, gave the impression that those with a non-hierarchical view were motivated by capitulation to the current worldview rather than faithfulness to the Scriptures. Again, this may be true at the level of the pews. But these things were said in a theological college, where we were being encouraged to think. The proponents on a non-hierarchical complementarianism are no exegetical or text critical lightweights. They include the likes of Gordon Fee and I H Marshall. If we are genuine about thinking this issue through, then carefully engaging with a book like ‘Discovering Biblical Equality’ is a must. These guys love Jesus and really do know their stuff. Having read them, it is far harder to nonchalantly plant your flag in the ground and claim the biblical high ground.
The third unhelpful strategy was the timing of the talk. It came one day after the ACL recruitment meeting, with John as one of the ACL’s guest speakers), and only days before the opening of the Sydney Diocese Synod, where womens ministry will again be debated. The reason given for the talk was the integration of Mary Andrews College (Womens) with Moore College. However, the two colleges have been integrated for ten months.Thus in a fairly charged environment, John put forth as normative for the College a policy which is more restrictive than the current diocese position (Which has provision for females preaching). Hardly opening up the floor for debate.
What has the result been? I can only speak from a very limited position, but from my view the result has been lacklustre. Those who agree with John had their views confirmed with very little in the way of argument. Those who disagree have either viewed this as an attempt to polarise the college, and so kept their heads down; or alternatively have capitulated

‘It’s not worth losing the opportunity to do gospel ministry in Sydney over this issue’.’

But is this the case? If John, and those who follow him, are wrong on this, then not only are we depriving the church of the work of leaders gifted by God to build it up; we are placing an uneccessary (and huge) stumbling block for the gospel in the way of 50% of the worlds population.

Either way, someone is going to lose (or already is denied) the opportunity to have a preaching ministry in Sydney.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Politics and church politics

Thinking of the current state of church politics in Sydney, some of us are dissatisfied with the current order, others are bent on convincing us that there are big nasty threats to that order, and that they are our protectors. On the one side is dissatisfaction that appears to lead to an uncertain future. On the other there is a satisfied sense of security that wants to keep things exactly how they are.

Byron had a great post on hope and dissatisfaction in politics back in February.


I wonder whether his musings on Moltmann could be helpful for both sides in our church politics.
Our desire for change doesn't have to come from demonising the present, but comes from the sheer goodness of the promised future of Christ. The certainty of that promise is what should make us dissatisfied with all politics that justify their own pragmatic (and sometimes underhanded) policies. Let me make this as blunt as possible. The ACL does not secure the future kingdom of God. Nor are they THE threat to it for that matter. They are neither the messiah or the devil.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Are we Lutheran?

"The consequences of imprecision in pneumatology may lead to a type of Lutheran quietism. Both clergy and laity can easily come to the conclusion that, as long as the Word is preached, the Spirit will be present, and sanctification will follow. They believe that proclaiming the gospel is necessary and sufficient for sanctification to take place." [my bold] p114 Jeffrey Mann, 'Luther and the Holy Spirit', Currents in Theology and Mission 34:2 (Apr 2007)

Ouch, how much does this sound like us!

One Matt comes, and another Matt is back

In the most celbrated poaching of talent ever, Matt Bales has bowed before the awesome power of this blog. He'll be posting his thoughts here on a random basis, so if any of the posts are bad...blame him.

In other exciting news, Matt Moffit is posting again over at Hebel. He is still trying to convince us that the story of Israel is important for us today. Pfff. It's like he thinks Jesus and Paul were Jewish or something.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Love the Lord your God

All this activity of the Spirit fulfils the purpose of the Law in believers. This fulfilment should not be separated from Paul’s rereading of Deuteronomy 30 in 10:4-9, where Jesus and faith in him are the telos of the Law. But nor should the Law’s fulfilment be seen as somehow limited by this. It is those who have the Sprit dwelling in and interceding for them that are named ‘ lovers of God’ (8:28), fulfilling the shema of Deuteronomy 6:4. The clear parallels between 8:18-39 and 5:1-11 should then guide our understanding of 5:5 to recognise tou theou as an objective genitive( or at the very least plenary). The Spirit then, fills believers with hope as it enables believers to fulfil the shema even in suffering, rather than by providing some internal, subjective sensation of God’s love. It is believers, offering their bodies as spiritual sacrifices who are to fulfil the law and all the commandments by loving their fellowmen in 13:8-14. The central position Paul gives the commandment of Leviticus 19:18 here, echoes Jesus’ summing up of the Law( Matt 22:34-40). While the Spirit is not mentioned explicitly in Romans 13, the language of obligation and fulfilment, the eschatological context( 13:11-14) and the later references to “walking in love”(14:15) confirm that “what is said here about love “fulfilling” the Law is in Pauline understanding a direct outworking of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer”.(Fee, GEP) Paul’s use of opheilete returns the reader back to Paul's hanging half sentence of 8:12. The believers putting to death of the misdeeds of the body by the Spirit is to be done in the context of love of the other.(also 15:2) The exhortation to “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh” in 13:14 , then refers backwards to the obvious debauchery of 13:13, but also forwards to the relationships between weak and strong in the Roman churches. Paul’s teaching about the Holy Spirit in the letter to the Romans forms a major part of his goal to bring about the obedience of faith in the new covenant people. He avoids the charge of anti-nomianism by showing how those with the Spirit, though not under the Law, fulfil the righteous requirements of the Law, love of God, and love of one another.


I, II, III

Holy Spirit

In Paul's letter to the Romans, the Spirit fulfils the purpose of the Law in the new covenant. The Spirit enables obedience and right worship, marks out the boundaries of the people of God, and brings the covenant blessing of eschatological life and inheritance. This purpose corresponds to Paul’s goals for his letter and ministry; to bring about the obedience of faith , that through his gospel both Jew and Gentile might glorify God through Jesus Christ ‘with one heart and mouth’ , and to encourage the Roman believers in their faith .
Paul’s teaching about the Holy Spirit in Romans defends, outlines and encourages the obedience of faith brought about through his preaching of the gospel. The Holy Spirit Spirit is the Spirit of holiness , that enables obedience and right worship, in fulfilment of the original purpose of the Law. After Paul has outlined the mutual culpability of both Gentiles and Law observers (1:18-3:20) , and the free gift of justification by faith in Jesus Christ apart from Law observance (3:21-5:21) , Paul raises four rhetorical accusations of anti-nomianism against himself . What role is there for obedience, if the Law is not the basis for justification? Paul answers these questions in two parallel passages, 6:1-23, in relation to Christ, and 8:1-17 primarily in relation to the Spirit. In 8:3-4 the righteous requirements of the Law are fulfilled, not by observance of the written code, but by the sacrificial death of God’s Son and by those ‘walking in the Spirit’. Already in 2:28-29, the Spirit is presented as the agent circumcising the heart, the very basis of fulfilling the Law in the Mosaic covenant.( Deut 10:16) The agency of the Spirit makes this a reference to the promises of a new covenant, the new eschatological age. (Deut 30:6, Jer 31:31-34, Ezek 36:26-27)
“They are now given as their guide, not indeed the law, which, although given by God, is unable to do more than condemn them for their sin, but the Spirit, so that the Mosaic covenant is replaced, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel said it would be, with the covenant written on the hearts of God’s people by God’s own Spirit”
Nicholas T. Wright , ‘ New Exodus, New Inheritance: The Narrative Structure of Romans 3-8’ . in Romans and the People of God: Essays in Honour of Gordon D. Fee on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. 1999, 29
Dunn in his theology of Paul (643) however cautions us from seeing both 2:29 and the reference to the Spirit in 7:6 as a simple antithesis and replacement to Israel’s Torah ethic. The new covenant did not envisage a new law, but a more effective keeping of it. The problem of the Law is the weakness of the written code against sin and the flesh14 to circumcise the heart and bring about right living, rather than a defect in the Law itself. Paul's use of nomos touv pneumatos thvs zwhvs is “more than a clever turn of phrase” , but denotes continuity between the two ages. Paul’s antithesis is not between Law and Spirit, but the written code and the Spirit, or as Tobin notes (Paul's Rhetoric), flesh and the Spirit.




I, II, III

It's rehash essays Wednesday..... YAY!!

Is it inappropriate to post old essays on a blog? On the one hand, they are a bit dry. But on the other hand, they are a place where I've bothered doing some reading and thinking on a topic. Yet on my third hand, I usually don't leave enough time for writing those thoughts down, so they are a bit sloppy, but on the fourth hand.....
I'd better give up this deliberation before I become Ganesh.

So, in the spirit of poorly thought through decisions.... I will post old essays on Wednesdays.

You can always ignore the posts if they don't interest you.

First up is the Spirit in Romans

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Perichoresis

For MTC second year students who still want to keep thinking about Doctrine ("why bother, the exam is more than a year away" I hear some of you say), Halden at http://inhabitatiodei.wordpress.com , has had an interesting series on perichoresis this month. Halden, (prodigious if somewhat controversial) is always worth a read

Sunday, September 28, 2008

The best writer of short books

Richard Bauckham is about to release his tome on Christology, "Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament's Christology of Divine Identity".
It looks like it will be an expansion on God Crucified, a short book on Jesus' divine identity that rocked my world a few years back. It really is one of the best short books around.
Just about anything by Bauckham is worth a look, but he seems to have a knack with short books that hit the nail on the head.
I highly recommend " Bible and Mission: Christian witness in a post modern world".
In 112 pages, Bauckham gives an excellent biblical theology of mission, and then, get this, and then he bothers relating that to our current globalized context. Fantastic! One gets the impression that the area of the world most in need of truthful witness and mission is the affluent West.
On 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
"At Corinth- and Paul certainly does not mean only at Corinth- God singled out the poor and the powerless, choosing to begin his work with them, not because God's love does not extend to the cultural and social elite, but actually for the sake of the wealthy and the powerful as well as for the poor and the humble. God's love has to reach the strong via the weak, because the strong can receive the love of God only by abandoning their pretensions to status above others" pp50

If this is the case, perhaps a church plant to reach the business people of Sydney CBD should be started by the homeless of the CBD.
We should view the poor, useless, untrained, unteachable and ungifted in our churches as our greatest evangelistic asset.

.......on church and world

"The Universal Church is today, it seems to me, more definitely set against the World than at any time since Pagan Rome. I do not mean that our times are particularly corrupt; all times are corrupt. In spite of certain local appearances, Christianity is not and cannot be within measurable time, 'official'. The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."

How patient should the church be?

Guess the author and date

Friday, September 26, 2008

Volf on judgement

“God will judge, not because God gives people what they deserve, but because some people refuse to revieve what no one deserves; if evildoers experience God’s terror, it will not be because they have done evil, but because they have resisted to the end the powerful lure of the open arms of Jesus”
Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, 298

Barba on training

" Let us understand each other, however: it is not by killing oneself with exhaustion that one becomes creative. It is not on command, by forcing, that one opens ones self to others. Training is not a form of personal asceticism, a malevolent harshness against oneself, a persecuting of the body. Training puts one's own intentions to the test, how far one is prepared to pay with one's own person for all that one believes and declares. It is the possibility of brisging the gap between intention and realization. This daily task, obstinate, patient, often in darkness, sometimes even searching for a meaning for it, is a concrete factor in the transformation of the actor as a man and as a member of the group. This imperceptible daily transformation of one's own way of seeing, approaching and judging the problems of one's own existence and that of others, this sifting of one's own prejudices, one's own doubts- not through gestures and grandiloquent phrases but through the silent daily activity- is reflected in one's work which finds new justifications, new reactions: thus one's north is displaced"
Eugenio Barba ' Words or Presence'

Of course, he is speaking of actor training.

But hey, if corporate training types are allowed to lecture us about training and development, why not a director?

Especially on the role of disciplined practice (so here I'm thinking especially meditation on the scriptures and prayer) "thus one's north is displaced"!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Spirituality?

What do you think of when you hear the word 'spirituality'?

We were having a discussion at college about this a couple of days ago. Most of the responses were fairly negative.

I threw in the view that is gently pushed at my church, that spirituality is the shape of your life before God, so that mundane things, like serving others morning tea, is part of your spirituality.

The lecturer liked it.

One student called out from across the room. "Michael goes to a hippy church"

I mustered my best Cartman voice

"AYY!, SCREW YOU!"

Most unspiritual

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Brueggemann on Quarrels

"The insistence of gospel-rooted social action is a dream of a genuinely covenantal community of neighbors. That finally is what the "kingdom of God" means. But covenantal neighborliness is a demanding alternative in the world, one deeply at odds with our conventional ways of thought and life. I submit that our work is to bring every aspect of our life together under the neighborliness of God.
In doing so, I dare suggest, there are only two difficult questions. One is sex. Sexuality has to do with intimacy and power; the Bible, so it seems to me, intends covenanted sex and not promiscuity or exploitation. The other hard question is money, for money is about freedom and control, and the Bible is for covenantal economics that are not promiscuous or exploitative. It strikes me as odd- but predictable- that conservatives, people who tend to stress evangelism, care a lot about covenantal sexuality but seem strangely naive about promiscuous, self indulgent economics. Conversely, liberals, those who seem to care about social action, have some sure sense of covenantal economics but tend to mumble about sexuality. Why not a recognition that money and sexuality are twin manifastations of our lust for power, our refusal of commitment, our will to live otherwise, but also our chance for genuine neighborliness as intended by God? I cannot think of a reason to choose up sides on these issues, for such choosing is silly and obsolete."
Walter Brueggeman ' Together in the Spirit- Beyond Seductive Quarrels' in "Deep Memory, Exuberant Hope: Contested truth in a post-Christian world" pp39

Monday, September 22, 2008

Martin Esslin-Advertising Religion

"There can be no doubt about it: the TV commercial, exactly as the oldest known types of theatre, is essentially a religious form of drama which shows human beings as living in a world controlled by a multitude of powerful forces that shape our lives. We have free will, we can choose whether we follow their precepts or not, but woe betide those who make the wrong choice!
The moral universe, therefore, portrayed in what I for one regard as the most widespread and influential art form of our time, is essentially that of a polytheistic religion. It is a world dominated by a sheer numberless pantheon of powerful forces, which literally reside in every article of use or consumption, in every institution of daily life. If the winds and waters, the trees and brooks of ancient Greece were inhabited by a vast host of nymphs, dryads, satyrs and other local and specific deities, so is the universe of the TV commercial. The polytheism that confronts us here is thus a fairly primitive one, closely akin to animistic and fetishistic beliefs. We may not be conscious of it, but this IS the religion by which most of us actually live, whatever our more consciously and explicitly held beliefs and religious persuasions may be. This is the actual religion that is being absorbed by our children from almost the day of their birth."
Martin Esslin 'Aristotle and the Advertisers- The Television Commercial as Drama' (1974) in "Meditations" pp240

This isn't a Christian speaking, but a secular drama critic. He argues that the commercials don't create these belief systems, but are highly sophisticated and scientifically developed responses to the beliefs of society.

In all our responses to various 'spiritualities', surely this one is neglected the most.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

It's a matter of life and death

"For Jesus lives as the One who was put to death for me, as the one in whom I am put to death, so that necessarily His life is the promise of my life. But with His life, my life too, the life of man who is not himself Jesus Christ but only his younger brother, is an exclusive act of God, a pure divine revelation, a free act of divine grace”
K Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/1, 356

Over the next few weeks I want to think through (ie. rant about) the idea of Jesus' representative death and resurrection, and the idea that as Christians, we have died with Christ.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Martyr complex- what I cynically mutter that others have...woops

Early last year I sat silently eavesdropping on a conversation a friend was having with a political mover and shaker in church circles. One phrase that the M&S'r kept repeating was that he was a 'die on every hill' kind of guy. What he meant was that he was willing to fight on every issue, every issue was of supreme importance, there could be no thought of compromise. Which got me to thinking, why is the phrase ' die on every hill' used. Why not be more realistic and say, ' I'm a "kill on every hill" kind of guy' or ' I'm a strategically retreat until I can crush you and then take your position...kind of guy'
I guess saying that sounds less and less like Jesus.
Of course, I said nothing. I left feeling vindicated as the martyr who would never stoop to such barbarity.. ha!

This quote, stolen from inhabitation dei, serves as a great rebuke to both our church culture, which loves to posit big bad enemies for us to fight valiantly, and a rebuke to quiet cyynical people lik me for keeping my mouth shut.

“The pathology of a martyr complex is often a heavy-handed attempt to escape the vulnerability of speaking the truth without the means of convincing others that it is true. It signifies impatience with the freedom of others not to believe. It betrays an insecurity that cannot bear its own knowledge without compulsion for everyone else. In a word, it expresses doubt. Such doubt may explain why martyrdom is sometimes misconstrued and applied to the deaths of fighters. For the New Testament, martyrs do not die because they fight for what is right but precisely because they refuse to fight for what is true. A fighter fundamentally doubts whether his truth is true and anxiously grasps at it, preferring secure knowledge to uncertain promise made certain only through faith. Fighters do not stand by the truth of their convictions.”
~ Craig Hovey, To Share in the Body: A Theology of Martyrdom for Today’s Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 148.

Heavenly Father, give us such a faith in your resurrection power that we don't kill others to defend it