8.29.2007

quiz?

You scored as Jürgen Moltmann,The problem of evil is central to your thought, and only a crucified God can show that God is not indifferent to human suffering. Christian discipleship means identifying with suffering but also anticipating the new creation of all things that God will bring about.


Which theologian are you?
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Interesting... =)

8.14.2007

Stuff

A conference that sounds really neat.

A manifesto that I really like!

Good news in a bad situation.

A kid that I barely knew, but still am grieving over.

8.03.2007

Two cool dudes

Got some free time?

http://www.ntwrightpage.com/ ...

listen to the durham seminars down the page...
James Dunn and NT Wright having two chats, one about Jesus, one about Paul. Its just fun to listen to - they're funny and have cool accents. And its fun dialogue. I love dialogue.

8.01.2007

Korean Hostages

Why are we not hearing more about this?

Why is the Christian community silent about this???

No words.

(Petition)

7.30.2007

Oh Happy Day!

Joy, joy! I just got back from Cokesbury book store on campus here, and they had a "Crazy 8's" sale. What this means is that I got to fill up a bag full of books from specified racks and paid only $8.88! Woo hoo! I got 14 books for 9 bucks! That is awesome. For you, the readers, enjoyment, and for posterity, here are the books that I bought:

1. The Next Christendom: the coming of global Christianity by Jenkins
2. After Race: racism after multiculturalism by Darder and Torres
3. Christology in Cultural Perspective: marking out the horizons by Greene
4. Hinduism: a very short introduction by Knott
5. Exploring Unseen Worlds: William James and the Philosophy of Mysticism by G. William Barnard
6. Divine Nobodies by Jim Palmer
7. Women in the Early Church by Elizabeth A. Clark
8. the Art of Biblical Poetry by Robert Alter
9. The Transformation of Anglicanism by Sachs
10. Church Reimagined by Doug Pagitt
11. Praying with the Church by Scot McKnight
12. Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy by Descartes
13. The Changing Shape of Church History by Justo Gonzales
14. The Call to Conversion by Jim Wallis

and to make things even sweeter today, I picked up the rest of my books for class this fall:
Intro to Old Testament:
The Land by Walter Brueggemann
Intro to New Testament:
The New Interpreters Study Bible
Christian Heritage:
Early Christian Mystics by McGinn and McGinn
And the big one, Intro to Theology:
Fortress Introduction to Contemporary Theologies by Miller/Grenz
Dogmatics in Outline by Karl Barth
Handbook of Process Theology by McDaniel and Bowman
The Humanity of God by Karl Barth
Inheriting our Mothers' Gardens by Russell, Kwok, Isasi-Diaz, and Cannon
The Process Perspective by Cobb

Whew. This is fun. I like books.

Alot.

Oh Happy Day, oh happy day...

7.25.2007

Miss Elaine Eous

Update on what's happenin:

* Been working about 20 hours a week at SMU, about 5-7 hours a week on Praise Team stuff (which is going spiffingly), and about the rest of my time reading and working on the apartment with Jaimie.
* I have been listening to my MP3 player abunchaton. While at work, while walking around campus, while driving (i know, illegal, blah blah blah), and while reading. It is proving to be awesome. Soundtracks to life are fun.

What I'm readin:

* I have finally put down PNHotW. Not because I finished, but because once I passed 1500, things got really hairy. I think its because we still haven't figured out what the major 'threads' of history after that point really are yet. Things are still too cluttered, too fresh. Give us another 200 years, we'll be able to summarize 1500-2oo0 much easier...
* I just picked up my first assigned book for School - History of the World Christian Movement: Vol 1 - Earliest Christianity to 1453. So far so good; I like the writing style. The perspective is nice, as the authors are very focused on a global picture of the church's history. But it is somewhat of a review. The names, faces, and places are familiar - I guess that's a good thing...

Random thoughts on my PVM:

Jaimie and I watched the Democratic CNN/Youtube debate. Pretty entertaining, as far as debates go. Of course, I loved Obama - he was clear, outspoken about reform, and seemed to be the most consistent candidate on the stage. He speaks from a solid platform - I don't know when the last time a front-running presidential candidate spoke that passionately about the systemic failures of the political machine as it is. More power to him, if he can get the nomination. I told Jaimie last night, if this man is not president sometime in the next 4 terms, then our country is broken. Of course, that might be an exaggeration, but you get my point.

The rest of the candidates weren't bad. Jaimie is a Clinton fan, and I could vote for her (my biggest fear is that she will be a divider, whereas Obama will be a uniter); we both liked Edwards alright, and Biden got big points for being calm in demeanor compared with the rest of the stage... Gravel was fun, as always.

Overall, we both felt like, more than anything, the debate made us want to get more involved in this whole politics thing. I've been feeling more and more of a call to holistic Christianity. We need to find a way as a couple to make sure that all aspects of our life fall under the cross - home, work, politics, school, etc, etc. And we need to be in movement - in action. I'll be thinking about that today...

7.18.2007

Orthowhatsy?

Update on what's happenin:

* workin and blorking.
* still trying to find my rhythm up here.
* excited about thursday small group! Starts tomorrow. have no friggin clue how it will go.

What I'm readin:

* Still on the PNHotW.
* Am really ready to finish and start my books for next semester!

Random thoughts on my PVM:

Just listened to an interview with Phylis Tickle and Tony Jones. They said some neat stuff, but the thing that stuck with me was some terms that I really like. Orthonomy and Orthoparadoxy. I'll start with some background for you 'uninformed' theologians out there...

Orthodoxy:: right or straight; correct <-doxy> from doxos; teaching, understanding. >>>
Orthodoxy is the foundation upon which the church of history has stood upon. There is no heresy without the opposing orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is the standard by which lines are drawn in the sand; orthodoxy allows one believer to say to another, "you are wrong, and I am right."

I would argue that this idea has been essential in the formation of the faith. Without the idea of orthodoxy, Christianity might have been assimilated into any number of previous religions or philosophies. Without this idea or rightness, the early Christian might have floundered about, and the confidence and assurance of knowing G-d that made Christianity so appealing in a time of great change and uncertainty might have dissipated. The movement of G-d's kingdom among the earth might have slowed down or flickered out without the idea of orthodoxy... might have.

Orthonomy:: right or straight; correct <-nomy> from nomos; originally harmony, later law (which meant harmony with G-d) >>>
Orthonomy is an appealing idea, one that is perhaps best captured in the phrase attributed to Keats, "beauty is truth, truth beauty." Phylis Tickle speaks of a time when she was lecturing to some Presbyterians regarding the validity of the virgin birth - the issue is apparently hotly debated in some of these circles. The story goes that as she was speaking, a youth stopped what he was doing in another room, and slowly drew closer to the talk. When she was done, the youth approached her and asked her about the whole topic - why was she talking about it? After explaining herself and why it was important to discuss this historical event, the youth said, "I don't know... It just seems too beautiful to not be true."

When examining the scope of history, the movement of G-d through history, the stories of salvation, redemption and restoration, and the beauty of all that G-d has done, sometimes (perhaps often) my response is - It's just too damn beautiful for it to be false. There's no way I can simply dismiss it out of hand. Even with hard proof to the contrary, my soul would speak out otherwise.

Unfortunately, this idea is centered and anchored around the idea that beauty defines truth, and beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. This idea also does not resonate with me, as pure relativity is too open to distortion and perversion. In my limited perspective, I cannot imagine that all truth is relative...

Orthoparodoxy:: right or straight; correct from para and doxos; para- meaning beyond or against and doxos meaning understanding, or teaching. Hence... orthoparodoxy = rightly beyond understanding... or a correct paradox.

I love this. It captures to me, more than any other idea, the thought that G-d is other-than, beyond our comprehension. It is time, in my humble opinion, for us to return to the mystery of our faith. Reason has helped us along. However, reason cannot carry us to the throne. Only pressing into the mystery, the beauty, and the presence of a living G-d can be our path.

I will dwell on this thought and post more later...