The PoMo Xian
Reimaging Xianity in the wake of Modernism's passing
Beach Books
Aug 31st
Meredith and I are going on vacation Thursday to Sarasota Florida with her immediate family. We are excited (we’ll be seeing the honorable Dawn and Jacob Jones). While I’ll have my iPad along and hope to imbibe much of Rorty’s Philosophy and Social Hope and the latest issue of Asimov’ Science Fiction, Meredith and I [...]
Speratus on Christians and Government
Aug 30th
Came across this passage today as I was writing a lecture on Gender and Religion. In The Acts of the Martyrs of Scilli, Saturninus is interrogating some men and women Christians around the end of the second century (180CE).
Saturninus: If you begin to speak evil of our sacred rites, I will give you no hearing; but wear rather by the genius of our Lord the Emperor.
Speratus: I do not recognize the empire of this world; but rather I serve that God, whom no man has see nor can see. I have not stolen, but if I buy anything I pay the tax, because I recognize my Lord, the King of Kings and Emperor of all peoples.
Physical Evidence for Women Leaders in Early Christianity
Aug 30th
This is my second post on early Christian sources for women’s leadership. Today we are going to look at inscriptions. They are a great source for attitudes in Antiquity. Today I want to look at some epitaphs, or burial inscriptions.
What we see is that during the 3-6th centuries, there were definitely women elders and deacons in various locations within the Roman Empire. Women are in positions of leadership in the early church, both as elders and deacons, as bishops and presbyters.
Early Women Leaders in Christianity
Aug 29th
Last year, I began a post series on women leaders in early Christianity over at Theology for the Masses, which I never finished. I am in the process of moving and finishing that series.
Today, I take a look at the earliest Roman mention of Christian belief and practice, Pliny’s letter to Trajan, which dates to the earliest years of the second century. Pliny has rounded up some Christians and to his horror, they were lead by two women slaves. He writes his emperor for advice on the situation and both the letter and it’s response speak volumes of early Christian makeup and practice as well as Roman attitudes towards governance. Read on for more…
Two Cisterns
Aug 28th
Both these influential Christian leaders tackle the same topic, but take vastly different approaches:
The world is filled with boys who can shave by “Pastor” Mark Driscoll
vs.
If 40 is the New 30 Then is 20 the New Junior High? by Don”ald” Miller.
Driscoll and Miller see the same problem, but use significantly different motivational strategies. And I think those strategies are telling of each’s brand of Christianity. I’ll leave it to you to evaluate.
Philosophy which aims true
Aug 25th
Such a breath of fresh air:
Plato and Aristotle were wrong in thinking that humankind’s most distinctive and praiseworthy capacity is to know things as they really are – to penetrate behind appearance to reality. […]
My candidate for the most distinctive and praiseworthy human capacity is our ability to trust and to cooperate with other people, and in particular to work together so as to improve the future.
NT Wright on the Humanity of Jesus
Aug 24th
Over at the BioLogos Forum, Peter Enns asks Wright about the humanity of Jesus. Check it out.
Twitter Convo–Can you be an Angry Xian Pacifist?
Aug 19th
After something one my of students mentioned last night about the tennor of Xian pacifist rhetoric, wondered about the role of anger and Christian nonviolence (and how Anger should play into the rest of Xian life). Here is some of that conversation:
The Horizontal and Vertical Meaning of the Christian Religion
Aug 19th
The church’s social teaching tells everyone that the Christian religion does not have a merely horizontal meaning, or a merely spiritualized meaning that overlooks the wretchedness that surrounds it. It is a looking at God, and from God at one’s neighbor as a brother or sister, and an awareness that “whatever you did to one of these, you did to me.”
Would that social movements knew this social teaching! They would not expose themselves to failures, to shortsightedness, to a nearsightedness that sees no more than temporal things, the structures of time. As long as one does not live a conversion in one’s heart, a teaching enlightened by faith to organize life according to the heart of God, all will be feeble, revolutionary, passing, violent.
None of these is Christian.
- Oscar Romero
On Being a Post-Conservative
Aug 17th
Although the liberals and conservatives routinely dismiss each others work, they share the single agenda of seeking to maintain the credibility of Christianity within a culture that glorifies reason and deifies science.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing I learned last year was that 20th Century Liberal and Conservative Christianity are different sides of the same coin. I describe myself as a post-conservative. Read on to see why.
We are no longer this; let us become that.
Aug 16th
Let us not forget:
we are a pilgrim church,
subject to misunderstanding,
to persecution,
but a church that walks serene because it bears the force of love.
- Oscar Romero
I earned the TPM medal of distinction at “Battleground God”
Aug 12th
My buddy JR pointed me to this minefield of questions about God: Battleground God. I highly suggest you play the game and share your results.
I earned the TPM medal of distinction, taking no hits and biting one bullet, which I maintain is justified, for Atheism is just as much a matter of faith as any meganarrative.
The Photo Creates
Aug 12th
We don’t see a collection of photographs of Indian people. We see race.
As I was organizing some books as I await some shelving, I came across this passage in The Truth About Stories. So far King is discussing the disconnect between actual Indian life and the pictures that Richard Throssel took of the supposed romantic [...]
I am Lovecraft.
Aug 10th
Ok, not really, but I did run my thesis through the “I write like” analysis tool and I came up with HP Lovecraft.
Who do you write like?
Scridb filter
Why God?
Aug 10th
The person behind Almighty God, asks for a serious discussion concerning why people do or do not believe in a God(s). There’s been some good discussion over there, some discussion I hope to join in soon. I had to think hard about why I assume a theistic worldview rather than a atheistic one.
Ultimately, it comes down to three things: origin, beauty, ethics; without an appeal to a God, I can’t make sense of those things, because materialism is a grammar that only recognizes nouns. It can’t even explain something as common place as love.
Christianity is on the Brink of Collapse!
Aug 2nd
For those of you who are Christians, think about the story we tell ourselves in our evangelism seminars, our sermons, our dinner conversations, in our political speeches, and our youth rallies. What general picture is painted? Is it one of a bold Christian nation, blessed by the Hand of God that has lost her soul [...]
ESF on the Irony of the Synagogue of Satan
Jul 31st
This evening I was reading the excellent Revelation: Vision of a Just World by the beloved ESF and I came across this bit:
Sorry, wrong herald.
Background: ESF has been talking about John’s opponents in Asia Minor, most notably the Jezebel in Thyatira and the Synagogue of Satan in Smyrna. She suggests that the most likely explanation [...]
Wonderful Commentary on Xian Rhetorical Strategies
Aug 4th
Posted by Henry Imler in Quotes
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From Silver Surfer #58.