the singularity of being and nothingness
Theology
Justice So-Called, Reconciliation and the Execution of a Dictator
Jun 17th
My thinking has been engaged recently by a series of posts made by mofast entitled "The Myth of the Redemptive Bauer." As fellow blog-o-addicts might be aware, there was previously a series of posts (the origin of which I can no longer remember) that dealt with parallels between Bauer's vigilante-esque justice and the atonement of Christ. In his posts,
Mofast disavows any similarities between the two figures, arguing that the crux of atonement cannot be violence, as if God's response to human sinfulness would proceed along the same lines as the power and destructive quality of humanity's doppleganger nature. Mofast's comments are erudite and prophetic–I would suggest that all check them out.
But anyway, while reflecting upon Mofast's conclusions, as well as upon recent events, I have been compelled to think about the nature of "justice." So here goes.
Justice is an incredibly dense and complicated notion. To utter the word or allude to the idea is to conjure a thousand related issues that come to bear in maddeningly intricate ways upon the final notion of the original concept that is decided upon. In fact, one of the things that convulutes the meaning is the tendency to attempt to reduce the More >
Why Can't Creationists Be More Like Augustine…?
Jun 17th
When, then, the question is asked what we are to believe in regard to religion, it is not necessary to probe into the nature of things, as was done by those whom the Greeks call physici; nor need we be in alarm lest the Christian should be ignorant of the force and number of the elements,–the motion, and order, and eclipses of the heavenly bodies; the form of the heavens; the species and the natures of animals, plants, stones, fountains, rivers, mountains; about chronology and distances; the signs of coming storms; and a thousand other things which those philosophers either have found out, or think they have found out. For even these men themselves, endowed though they are with so much genius, burning with zeal, abounding in leisure, tracking some things by the aid of human conjecture, searching into others with the aids of history and experience, have not found out all things; and even their boasted discoveries are oftener mere guesses than certain knowledge. It is enough for the Christian to believe that the only cause of all created things, whether heavenly or earthly, whether visible or invisible, is the goodness of the Creator the one true God; and More >
The Closing of the Evangelical Mind
Jun 17th
Let's just be completely perspicuous: evangelicalism is doomed.
It's leaders sense it. It's adherents feel it, uneasily. Everyone looking at it from the outside fully acknowledges it.
The most pitiable fact, however, is that evangelical's fatal wound is entirely self-inflicted. It's arsenic? Sola Scripura.
Why, the inquisitive reader may ask, is sola Scripture so deadly? The answer is quite simple, yet quite terrifying.
Sola Scriptura, in its simplest and most consistent form, is a presupposition that the Christian Scriptures are not only sufficient for determining divine truth, but moreover that they are exclusively privy to this role. Therefore, any other potential sources of authority–such as Christian tradition, historical theology, and even the creeds and councils of the ecumenical Church–while potentially useful in "expounding on the truth already present sufficiently in Scripture," are fundamentlly adiaphora–unessential to faith, right belief, and Christian praxis.
Obviously, one might question why this is a problem. After all, the Scriptures are obviously a crucial and irreplacable source of authority within the life of the Church. Should they not be given the primal and exclusive place of authority? The answer will depend upon how much one cares about the survival of the Christian Church.
Historically, the ecumenical church did not hold More >
Calvinism, a Syllogism and the Origin of Evil
Jun 17th
Those who affirm the canons of Calvinistic philosophy often laud the logical coherence of its systematic formulation. In this post, I would like to turn the tables on this methodological assumption, showing how Calvinistic philosophy, while perhaps logical, leads to a horribly perverse image of the divine nature and will of God. I shall do this through a syllogistic form and shall concentrate upon the origin of evil.
A: God has eternally decreed all that comes to pass. B: That which God decrees proceeds from the free and boundless will of God. C: The will of God is essential with Gods being. Proposition: Evil exists.
Therefore:
A: Because God has eternally decreed that evil should exist, or come to pass: B: Because the existence and perpetuity of evil proceeds from the free and boundless will of God. C: Because the will of God is essential with Gods being; D: It is logically concluded that evil is essential with the being of God.
In response, I suspect a couple different approaches may (and will) be taken. I assume many will argue with the relationship between will and being. Note that I have carefully qualified the language: essential with. I think this More >
Introductory Thoughts Concerning the Shift from Faith to Objectivity in Religious Thought
May 2nd
There was perhaps no greater shift in human epistemology than that engendered in the Englightenment. The revolution in thinking was so profound that if Socrates is the father of philosophy, Descartes is his violent and victorious progeny. All aspects of human epistemology–from history to science to religion–have undergone palpable changes, philosophy being forever marked by the revolution of the modern philosophical programme.
While volumes and volumes can and have been devoted to outlining the changes and effects actualized through the implementation of Enlightenment thinking to all areas of human epistemology, one of the most profound can be seen in Christian thinking. While doctorates could be written and institutes established concerning this more refined topic, I simply wish to outline some very brief reflections concerning what I perceive to be devastating shifts within Christian thinking concerning the inheritance of the Enlightenment and the nature of faith. In doing so, I simply wish to call attention to the all-too-subtle ways in which inherent philosophical assumptions of culture (racial, social and religious) create definitions of religious categories which may or may not cohere with the ancient beliefs of the earliest believers, concluding, alternatively, with suggestions of the how the same can be avoided More >
Penal Substitutionary Atonement Theory, Sans Atonement
Apr 26th
Several weeks ago, I posted some reflections on the meaning of Good Friday. In this post, I suggested that the "goodness" of Christ's death (which is commemorated on this day) is not located within the violence of the cross, but rather in the ultimate victory which Christ acheived over the powers of human sinfulness and hatred even in the face of the collected history and force of evil which was gathered therein against him. That Christ did not capitulate to the cycles of human violence and sinfulness, but rather resisted them even to the point of death, I argued, is truly where the "goodness" of this day is located.
Although there were some very generous comments left, other readers were not impressed. Two in particular argued that I had "missed the point," the "point" being that the violence enacted upon the cross against Christ was not borne out of human sinfulness and hatred, but rather had its primal origin in the very ontology of God.
This kind of thinking very much in keeping with Penal Substitutionary Atonement theory which, in a nutshell, locates the crisis of atonement in the satisfaction of divine wrath through the punishment of sin. This theory suggests More >
A Brief Introduction to The Absolute Necessity of Speaking of Sin as "Privation"
Mar 14th
Think about the word "sin." What do you think of? A stain? Some black, ethereal substance? A "negative" field of energy? Throughout history, humans have struggled with defining this difficult concept to align with and elucidate religious and social notions of right and wrong, good and evil, morality and ethics.
In Christian theology, sin occupies a primal and primary importance. The Scriptures speak of sin as that which has given rise to the "fall" of humanity, it is that which brings death, and it is that which is responsible for severing the divine/human relationship.
But what, exactly, is sin? I propose that it is, in fact, "nothing." Let me explain.
Christians believe that the creative act of God is exhaustively characterized as "good." That is, there is nothing that exists which was not created out of the good pleasure and will of God. (Now philosophers can, of course, argue about whether this designation of "goodness" can be applied to that which is created, but that is another post). However, Christians also believe that God's will is opposed to that which is sinful: in fact, one could describe sin as that which is antithetical to the will (and, necessarily, to the being) More >
Human Language and the Divine
Aug 10th
Over the last several monthsand especially within the last few daysI have been involved in numerous conversations about the nature and function of human language in describing God. What follows is not meant to be a fully-developed essay, but is rather intended to be somewhat of a summary of the lines of thinking I have pursued and the very tentative conclusions which I have reached.
Obviously, one of the most prescient issues is to what extent one can affirm that human language is capable of literally expressing and/or encapsulating truth about the nature of God. The initial, and I believe correct, answer is that human language is insufficient to do this. After all, we are speaking about a finite medium (human language) through which we attempt to speak about that which is infinite. To use a material example, such would be like the proverbial two-dimensional Flatlander attempting to shake the hand of the three-dimensional invader of the two-dimensional plane. While the Flatlander may be able to intersect a two-dimensional cross-section of the three-dimensional visitor, the Flatlander will be, by virtue of his difference, incapable of fully engaging or encapsulating the reality of his new higher-dimensional friend. In a similar and More >
God of the Feminine – Reflections on Genesis 1:26-27
Aug 3rd
As I have been studying the numerous connections between the structures and themes within the Hebrew Scriptures and other ancient Near Eastern literature, I have been particularly drawn towards the correlations between the respective creation stories. Although the Genesis text is by far the most popular creation text, there are numerous others that share very similar features that presumably influenced the final form of the Genesis text. One interesting feature of the creation-epic literature of the ancient Near East is the dual role of masculine and feminine divine figures in the act of creation. In numerous stories, gendered gods and goddesses are utilized to describe the unique way in which the creation came to be.
As I have been reflecting upon the significance of the identification of the masculine and feminine in the ANE creation stories, an interesting thought occurred to me: perhaps this male/female connection exists within the biblical text as well. The primary candidate for such a consideration, I believe, is Genesis 1:26-27:
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the More >
