the singularity of being and nothingness
Theology
Rethinking Divine Forgiveness: Part II
Jan 15th
Without a doubt, becoming a parent has revolutionized how I think about God’s love. Before my daughter was born, the concept of God as “Father” had a very one-dimensional nature to it as I filtered this metaphor through my own experiences of being a son. However, when my daughter was born, God as “Father” suddenly blossomed into a much fuller concept for me, for not only could I think of this in terms of God as “Parent,” but now my own experience was impacted as God, as “Father,” began to have meaning for how I am a “father” as well.
And it is precisely these experiences which make popular theology about sin, atonement, and forgiveness so unpalatable and inexplicable to me. Earlier, I described briefly the structure of atonement as envisioned in popular theology, complete with the notions of “penalty,” “guilt,” and what-ever-else. What I find so striking is that, from a parental perspective, these concepts have absolutely no meaning to me when I apply them to my relationship with my daughter.
The Personhood of ForgivenessFor example, consider the notion of “penalty.” Although I, as “father,” do give “laws” that my daughter should follow, her periodic transgressions of them do not More >
Rethinking Divine Forgiveness: Part I
Jan 15th
During my not-quite-eternal-but-still-15-hour return drive from Wichita to Kentucky over Christmas break, I happened to catch a radio interview of James Garlow, pastor of the ridiculously huge Skyline Wesleyan Church in sunny San Diego. On this program, Garlow was discussing his newest book, Heaven and the Afterlife, alternating between questions from the show’s host and callers to the show.
One call-in was particularly interesting. A woman, who was clearly in the midst of a significant existential crisis, asked some pointed questions about the nature of God’s forgiveness. As she described, she believed that her past sins had been forgiven when she was saved, but was worried about her chances for heaven if she at some point forgot to ask forgiveness for future sins. In other words, she wondered if God would bar the doors to heaven if she died without asking forgiveness for any unconfessed sins.As I listened, I felt very sympathetic for this woman, for she was clearly in the midst of some significant emotional distress. I also felt very frustrated because the source of her distress was simply an inheritance of bad theology, a severe misunderstanding of the nature of humanity’s relationship to God and the fundamental nature of More >
The (Failed) Literalist Interpretation of Genesis
Dec 6th
I recently listened to a lecture by Keith Ward entitled “Misusing Darwin.” In this lecture, Ward makes a very compelling argument about what he sees as the unfounded assumption that scientific methodology de facto requires (or presumes, at least) a commitment to philosophical materialism.
While there is a lot of ground covered in this lecture, one section was particularly interesting to me. Here, Ward launches into a discussion about some common misconceptions about the compatibility of science and Christian theology. As a background, Ward notes the [potentially] unfortunate state of modern, popular Christian theology about “origins” in the West and its commitment to a literalist interpretation of the Genesis accounts of creation. As a means of contrast, Ward notes (rightly) that this theological position is actually quite a modern development: historically, theologians have classically interpreted the Genesis accounts allegorically–or at least not “literally.”
So from where does this often rabid allegiance to a literalist interpretation of the Genesis account come? Ward suggests that such a hermeneutic is precisely associated with the rise of scientific methodology.
And this is not surprising. The advent of scientific methodology was borne out of a radical shift in philosophy in the West. The Enlightenment brought with it a deeply More >
Mortality and Resonance
Nov 1st
(Thanks to Kevin, as always, for the inspiration!)
This week at church saw the start of a new message series entitled “Resonate.” The series seeks to answer how we are to live our lives in such a way as to leave a lasting impact on the world in which we live.
Quite appropriately, Kevin kicked off the series by calling attention to the 30,000-pound elephant in the room. This elephant, of course, is the stark realization that all of us, without exception, have the prospect of death looming powerfully and ominously on the horizons of our lives. Try as we might, we cannot escape or otherwise elude this fate; we are mortal, and our days are numbered. In the face of this reality, the psalmist’s words are still poignant thousands of years later:
“Please, LORD, show me my future. Will I soon be gone? You made my life short, so brief that the time means nothing to you. Human life is but a breath, and it disappears like a shadow. Our struggles are senseless; we store up more and more, without ever knowing who will get it all.” (Psalm 39:4-6 CEV).
I found today’s conversation particularly meaningful for several reasons. First, as part of More >
St. John of the Cross: The Danger of Experiential Worship
Oct 5th
I'm currently reading through St. John of the Cross' "The Dark Night of the Soul." In this short book, the 16th century mystic expounds upon his "Songs" which deal with the "dark night of the soul," the period of purgation through which all followers of Christ must come in order to be perfected and united completely in love and purpose with the Divine.
The Songs itself is quite short–only a few stanzas. However, St. John devotes several pages to expounding the meaning of the verses. In his introduction to the concept of the "dark night of the soul," St. John describes some of common barriers that hinder believers from true knowledge of God and precipitate the need for the grand purgation. Two of these hindrances are spiritual voluptuousness and spiritual gluttony…or simplified, the danger of experiential worship.
To John, the con-mingling of the spiritual and physical experience of worship is wholly positive: to be united with God is not just an act of mystical ecstasy, but is rather a way of being that intersects the whole of one's life with that of the divine. The danger of experiential worship, however, arises when the experience of worship–and not God–becomes the thing for which More >
The Discipline of Giving
Sep 14th
(Thanks to Kevin for the inspiration!)
This Sunday's message was about money. Yep, pretty exhilarating, right? I mean, who doesn't LOVE to sit through half-an-hour-or-so of hearing someone speak at you about how you should give more, how giving money is an act of worship, how you really will be blessed-in-spite-of-the-recession…blah-blah-blah, right?
We've all sat through these messages before. We've all heard how only 3% of Americans Biblically tithe 10% of their income, and of course that means that you, me, and the person sitting in front of us are not in the holy 3%. But we should be thanked nonetheless, right? After all, without the 97% of us backslidden, God-hating heathens, pastors wouldn't have such wonderfully shocking statistics. That counts as some form of giving, right?
In all seriousness, growing up in the church I've sat through an unbearable number of messages about money. I've heard pastors rail against congregations for not giving enough; I've heard others try to coax money out of their parishioners on the promise of God formulaicly responding to their act of generosity and sacrifice; and I've even seen people intimidated out of their money by, let's say, overly enthusiastic ministers trying to mold their listeners into the More >
A Generosity That Transcends Morality
Apr 26th
(Thanks to Kevin for the inspiration!)
In Luke 10, Jesus tells the famous story of the Good Samaritan. In this narrative, the behavior of the Samaritan toward the injured man is juxtaposed with that of the a priest and a Levite to reveal the nature of the message of love which Jesus was teaching, a love which treats one's "neighbor" as oneself.
Obviously, the various facets of this story have been mulled over for countless centuries. However, while listening to a exposition of this passage this weekend, I was struck by something of an interesting idea: that the nature of love and generosity transcends morality.
Let me explain.
Generally, the attitudes of the Levite and priest are characterized quite pejoratively–after all, it is they who walked so callously by the injured man, with seemingly little regard for his life or injuries. While there is certainly a measure of truth to this characterization, I think some other considerations are warranted.
One of these considerations is that these men did not bypass the injured man out of gross neglect or comfortable apathy. In fact, it is quite possible that their hearts were moved to compassion. If this is so, why did they not then act?
Part of More >
The Face of God in the Poor
Oct 15th
Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. – Matthew 25:34
This vision of the kingdom of God reveals an interesting perspective into the identification of the face of God. The scenario is that of the eschatological Christ presented as victor and King. Yet the ones who belong to the kingdom of the Victor are not warriors and statesmen, nor kings and rulers–rather, it is the sick, the impoverished and the oppressed. Yet these are not simply citizens of God's eschatological kingdom by proxy, but are more audaciously the ones with whom God in Christ self-identifies. It is in their faces and lives that God dwells most vividly.
It is often said that God is no respector of persons; and in ways this is probably true. However, the eschatological Christ reveals that the More >
The Diminution of God's Glory…Possible?
Aug 11th
Wow. I haven't posted here since the middle of May.
Well, I've been busy…and whatnot.
For the last several months, I've been extremely busy with my company, Singularity Concepts. I've launched several websites and currently have some "bigguns" in progress.
But for some reason, I've gotten the theology bug recently. So here goes.
The other day, I came across a post talking about problems with Arminian theology. As was once my practice, I jumped into the fray, gunning down the arguments of my Calvinist detractors (not to difficult, but good sport nonetheless). At one point, one of the Arminians actually defended the Reformed view of the atonement, and pointed me to a post somewhere which he believed was a "great" defense of PSA theory from a non-Reformed perspective.
Needless to say, the argument highlighted was terrifically weak and philosophically thin, but one point did pique my interest. One of the fundamental arguments made by the author for his view of atonement is that sin damages God's glory, and that this glory must be restored.
Obviously, this is nothing new. Beginning primarily with Anselm, theologians have thought this way about atonement. Simply, they suggest that in the fall and continuing sinfulness, humanity degrades the glory of More >
Good Friday Reflection: The Universe and Resurrection
Mar 21st
Ok, so I know it's technically Saturday while I'm writing this, but I wanted to get down these Good Friday reflections before the weekend is over…
In pulpits across the country this weekend, congregations will hear various messages about the meaning of Easter: Christ's death and resurrection, the triumph of Christ over sin and damnation, etc. Obvoiusly, these are fitting subjects to pursue.
However, when we think of Christ's death and resurrection, what does it mean beyond the sin-oriented connotations? That is, is the cross merely about forgiveness of sins and the defeat of the powers of evil, or it is possible to find even more basic threads of meaning?
For example, is there a primal meaning in Christ's death and resurrection for existence itself? Let me explain.
We live in a universe that, according to the best evidence, is at least 15 billion years old. This history of temporal existence is marked by cycles of life and death, decay and new birth. Stars grow, age and then spectacularly supernova, spewing in their deaths the seeds of "life" that will become the incubators for yet-to-form stars. Animal life is similar: we grow, age and reproduce, the energies of our lives being passed on (whether More >
