Reimaging Xianity in the wake of Modernism's passing
Posts tagged God
Truth is just over that Horizon
Jun 11th
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
Jun 3rd
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.
Cave-of-the-apocalypse-Patmos in Greece
Scridb filter
So also do all natures feel God
Jun 1st
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
May 10th
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 [...]
Apocalyptic Asceticism – a Means to Resist
May 3rd
In this post, the nature of apocalypticsm in early Christianity is explored.
Marginalized groups are often apocalyptic;[1] they recognize that the present world is radically amiss and construct ways in which this can be fixed.[2] Often, there is a utopia that they look towards for a negation of the current woes.[3] Terms like apocalypticism, eschatology, protology, [...]
Do not Invert the Perversion
Apr 24th
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 [...]
Some Malformed Thoughts on Edwards and True Religion
Apr 20th
In my Church history class I was asked to read A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards and to give some commentary on it. The below are my first thoughts when I read the text. Incidentally, I have just taught over the Descartes-Locke-Hume-Kant debate over the nature of the self during the Enlightenment period, [...]
On the Essence of Christianity
Apr 9th
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 [...]
Pastorship Run Amok.
Apr 8th
It’s not always this way, but if you’ve been in ministry long enough (or in any position of authority or responsibility), this is what tends to unconsciously happen:
Found this picture over at the Naked Pastor, who has gone though his own personal hell lately. May God bless him and his family and restore to him [...]
Good Friday? More like our Day of Mourning.
Apr 2nd
In class Wednesday, I mentioned that it is a bit odd that Christians call it “Good Friday,” when it is the day that marks the death of their God. A student, as he was leaving, made it a point to tell me that Jesus’ death was a god thing for it saved us from [...]
Thecla – one of the most important women in Christianity
Mar 30th
Only three nights from Tarsus, in Isauria, is the martyr shrine of Saint Thecla. Since it was so close we were pleased to travel there… Around the holy church there is a tremendous number of cells for men and women… There are a great many cells on that hill, and in the middle a great [...]
Sex, Freedom, and Obedience
Mar 24th
A good post is posted over at Challies about Sexual Sin and our cultural myths about the fulfillment of desire. Sex and Cravings are two things often swept under the rug. It is more than profitable to talk about them, wrestle with them, and to ask for help with both.
When discussing sexuality with young men, [...]
McKnight Reviews McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity
Mar 18th
I highly suggest heading over to Christianity Today and checking out Scot McKnight’s review of A New Kind of Christianity. It reads as a fair, but critical review[1] of McLaren’s work.
McKnight is critical of McLaren’s attempt to write a myth of Christianity’s Constantinian Fall and the creation of Theos. He does like, for the [...]
The Seven Stanzas of the Johannine Prologue
Mar 13th
The Word With God In the beginning was the Word And the Word was with God And the Word was God [...]
Beware of Inverting the Fundamentalist Paradigm
Mar 13th
Lots of my new people are increasingly frustrated with fundamentalist foundationalism. In rejecting what they see as rigid and foolhardy approaches to Christianity, they seek out new ways of looking at the world, new sources of authority, trying as hard as they can to escape the pitfalls of their Spiritual Elders.
However, in running from [...]
Art
Mar 12th
When the specter of a permanent dwelling surfaces, new questions arise. Questions like
What do I want this space to look like?
What do I want this space to say?
Accordingly, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about art. More specifically, what art I would like to hang in my office. There are two pieces I [...]
Our Canon is the Protestant Canon.
Mar 9th
Someone asked me why I hold the Protestant Canon to be my Scripture and not the Apocrypha or the Quran. This is the best I can come up with, from my statement of faith.
We have no scriptural basis, no manuscript basis, and no scientific basis for this claim. It rests solely upon our faith in [...]
Do we have a duty to die?
Mar 7th
Even more so than sex, Death in the West is taboo.
We don’t talk about death.
We don’t discuss death.
We have convinced ourselves that we must stay alive at all costs.
(no matter the quality of life or thought to the effects upon others)
Death disjoints us. Scares us. Kills us.
Should it?
In a very humble and [...]
Air
Mar 2nd
Our lil man, Reed, grinning at our waiter at Rio Grande last night. The lil man was shy at first, or perhaps inquisitive, but he soon warmed up to him. You can see is four front teeth in the pic.
Here’s another pic from last night:
Sometimes it is good to stop and enjoy the [...]
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