Reimaging Xianity in the wake of Modernism's passing
Missions?
Missions then is less about the transportation of God from one place to another and more about the identification of a God who is already there.
Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, Highlight Loc. 1242-44
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Truth is just over that Horizon
about 1 month ago - No comments
In my philosophy classes, I often try to help my students distinguish between that set of beliefs that we think are true and a description of the world-as-it-is. Another way of putting it, between Little-T truth and Big-T truth. Little-T truth is everything we think is true, but it is limited by our perspective of reality and contained within our language.
Big-T truth, on the other hand, is impossible for humans to achieve. We all have limited horizons and in order to be able to speak of the world-as-it-is, we need to get beyond that horizon, we need perspective.
The Cave of John of Patmos
about 1 month ago - No comments
Here is a really cool 360 walk-through of the Cave of the Apocalypse in Patmos, Greece. It is the site fabled to have been where John the Seer recieved his revelation from God.
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So also do all natures feel God
about 1 month ago - No comments
Sections from a hymn of Ephrem the Syrian. Somebody, turn this into a hymn we sing at church!
There is One Being, who knows Himself and sees Himself. He dwells in Himself, And from Himself sets forth. Glory to His Name. This is a Being [...]
The Boast of the Lord of the Host
about 2 months ago - No comments
Has any other god dared to take a nation for himself out of another nation by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, a powerful arm, and terrifying acts? Yet that is what the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, right before your eyes.
Deu 4:34 NLT
Israel, you just got [...]
Do not Invert the Perversion
about 3 months ago - No comments
No longer are there utopias in a postmodern society – the best we can hope for are heterotopias. [1] If we really buy into the idea of Heterotopias, then that needs to be reflected in our rhetoric. No longer can we speak of the one true way of doing things. Instead, we need to start talking [...]
The Modern, Post-Enlightenment Mind
about 3 months ago - No comments
The Modern, Post-Enlightenment mind assumes that knowledge is certain, objective, and good. It presupposes that the rational, dispassionate self can obtain such knowledge. It presupposes that the knowing self peers at the mechanistic world as a neutral observer armed with the scientific method.
The modern knower engages in the knowing process and believing that knowledge [...]
On the Essence of Christianity
about 3 months ago - No comments
These wise words can guide us from the depths of hubris up into the oceans of humility and finally into the active land of creatively morphing our faith forward:
Immersion in the literature of the 5th and 6th centuries has slowly eroded any lingering conviction that I had that throughout these centuries Christianity stood for [...]
about 5 months ago
Completely agree. After all, blessed are the feet that bring the “good news,” not the feet that bring God. The good news is that God and His Kingdom are already in their midst.
about 5 months ago
You are right, Scott. And it certainly checks our hubris at the door and that is pretty difficult sometimes.
about 5 months ago
So, @graceisunfair , do you see any potential problems with viewing missions in this way? I love the idea prima facie, but it worries the hell out of me.
about 4 months ago
What are some examples of potential problems? I'm an eternal optimist, and so often forget to think about problems, haha. I think that one positive aspect of this approach is that it typically includes a goal of empowering locals, rather than trying to have outsiders continue to be in leadership roles. After all, despite arguments towards the objectivity of outsiders, locals who have lived in a culture and community their whole lives are much more equipped to understand the problems and nuances of their own society.
about 4 months ago
There is a constant fear of not unearthing God enough, leaving too much of the cloud behind, so to speak.
You list the wonderful benefits (esp of empowering *local* leaders). But there is the danger of syncretism.
about 4 months ago
I'm by no means an expert, but I've found in my *very* limited experience that people in other countries with very limited exposure to the Gospel (well, at least in countries where there isn't heavy religious belief) people don't come with the same baggage that people in America do. When they hear good news, they tell their friends about it because they don't know any “better.”
Syncretism is certainly a danger. But isn't it everywhere? For example: http://bit.ly/93qsu3