the singularity of being and nothingness
Theology
Why I Do Not Kill Spiders Anymore
Jun 17th
The other day I was engaged in the obligatory yard and outside-ish work associated with owning a home and hoping to eek some little bit of equity out of it in the face of the currently murderous housing market (grr…). While I was brushing away some dead leaves by the door step, I uncovered a horrifically and unnaturally large, brown spider. While you imagine my freakishly girlish screams that accompanied this discovery, let me give some back story.
I hate spiders. Well, more appropriately, I hate them because I am afraid of them. All 190 pounds of me (yes, I know…) is scared of a less than 1 ounce creature that probably does not have the fortitude of fang to pierce my flesh to a meaningful depth. In the past, my normal reaction (after the aforementioned screaming, of course) has been to hurtle the spider in question toward no uncertain oblivion, first in the black-hole crushing weight inside of 20-ply paper towels (hey, it's a big spider!) between my fingers, then down the toilet to a final, watery doom. The incredible speed with which I execute divine fury against these creatures is only matched by the absolute terror which grips More >
The Limitation of Limited Atonement
Jun 17th
Recently, the theological blog-o-sphere has been in an uproar over comments made by Liberty University's Jerry Falwell wherein he suggested that Limited Atonement theory (held by many within the Reformed camp) is a heterodox theological perspective.
I will not attempt to defend Falwell's statements, for there has been no ecumenical determination concerning particular views of the atonement. Therefore, it is not possible to make definitive statements about the orthodoxy or heterodoxy of particular views of the atonement (this, of course, requires a fair bit of qualification, but I will not pursue that here).
Although Falwell has over-stated the issue, I still believe that a very strong case can be made against the philosophical tenability of Limited Atonement theory. Therefore, it is to this discussion that I devote this post.
The most basic premise of LA is that Christ's sacrifice can, and must only be understood as efficacious for the salvation of those for whom it is offered. As traditional Christian belief eschews any notion of universalism (in that all will eventually be reconciled to the divine), LA presses that Christ's sacrifice is made only for those who are eventually reconciled to God, for if it were made for those who do not More >
Yet Another Reason Calvinism is Certain to Die
Jun 17th
Deviant Monk has recently posted an incredibly cogent discussion of the relationship of divine and human wills, connecting the conclusions to considerations of the meaningfulness of human will in light of the Incarnation. In this post, DM deconstructs the all-too-familiar strawman argument of Reformed thinking in relation to the "inability" of the human will.
This post confirms, in my mind, the assertion that the best way to overcome the Calvinistic argument is not to bother with arguments about Scripture (which, in Tertullian's words, will only lead to "headaches and stomachaches"). Rather, as Calvinism and its interpretation of Scripture are built upon some pretty absurd philosophical categories, the best way to kill Calvinism is to call the categories themselves into question, showing them to be entirely vacuous and untenable in the face of meaningful and consistent philosophical dialogue.
Also, it pisses off the Calvinists pretty good, which counts for at least 15 bonus points.
Share this: A 1600 Year-Old Justification of an Assertion?
Jun 17th
In several of my posts, I have argued that human language is incapable of propositionally communicating truth about the divine nature of the Godhead. The qualification of propositionally is important, I think, because on the one hand it acknowledges the severe break that exists between the human and divine in terms of ontology (and the comprehensibility of the same) while concomitantly avoiding the equally deficient perspective that human language is incapable of speaking of God en toto.
My conclusion to these discussions is that we must always be aware that in our speaking of the divine nature, our languagebeing defined and deployed through the paradigm of finitudeis entirely incapable of encapsulating the truth of the divine nature in a propositional way (that is, in such a way as to be able to definitively prove the truth or falsity of such proposition through some means of quantification). Rather, epistemological humility must not simply be given lip service, but a strategic place in the deployment of any human-speak about God.
With that said, let me begin again.
Last semester, I analyzed St. Athanasius defense of the Nicaean determinations concerning Christs relationship in divinity to the Father in his important work, De Decretis. For those More >
Thoughts on Christian Ecumenism
Jun 17th
Well, Ive been back in the blogosphere for about a full month now following my extended leave of absence. Over this month, I have visited a lot of blogs and have had many interesting conversations with individuals of varying theological backgrounds. I would have to say that one of the most disturbing things I have seen is the tremendous ferocity with which many reject ecumenism within Christianity. This experience has corroborated other encounters I have had outside of cyberspace, as well.
To begin, I am not Roman Catholic, nor do I consider myself to be an apologist for Roman Catholocism. I say this because what I am about to say will be a bit harsh toward Protestants (which I am) and Orthodox. While I know that my personal experiences on this issue are not an exhaustive nor completely accurate rendering of all the issues involved, my experience is what I would like to talk about. Since this is my blog, here we go.
Concerning Protestantism, my experience has been that particularly in the non-mainline traditions, there is a deep-seated distrust of Roman Catholicism and a virtual ignorance about the very existence of Eastern Orthodoxy. The vitriol against RCism is, of More >
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 >
Come Let Us Reason Together - A Call for Sacramental Reevaluation
Jun 17th
On Thursday of last week, I officially finished my Master's Degree in Theology. Given that I am now working as a web designer/developer, the immediate relevance of my degree is not readily apparent. Nonetheless, theology is-and will continue to be-my first love. Hence, I will continue posting reflections that I have in the course of my theological development.
My final semester was, in many ways, one of the most important. While I will be posting about many of the things I have learned, the reflection which I will today share derives from my semester's work in the subject of Sacramentology. I simply wish to discuss the role of the sacrments in the early church, examining them in light of the current practice which I encounter in my worship. But first, a bit of background.
I grew up in the Wesleyan Church, a small denomination established in the late 1960's from a merger between the Wesleyan-Methodists and Pilgrim Holiness churches. Although Wesley himself speaks of the sacraments as "converting ordinances," the practice within the Wesleyan Church is thoroughly Zwinglian. That is, the sacraments are viewed symbolically, as psychologized memorials of that which Christ has done for the believer. True enough, the *official* More >
