the singularity of being and nothingness
Posts tagged Eschatology
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 Eschatological Christ in the Face of the Poor
Jun 17th
Let's be honest: in the final analysis, the Christ of revelation–the one who comes in power, glory and vengeance–is the Christ we want. Yes, of course, the humble servant was a great example of love; his moral example was admirable; the atonement, for sure, was necessary, so we can't forget that. But really–REALLY–it is the cosmic hero of the apocalypse, the rider of the white horse who strikes down his enemies–it is this Christ that we desire.
This is hardly surprising. We live in a world suffused with violence, hatred and, most of all, injustice. We intuitively know and daily experience that justice and recompense in the "here and now" are impossible; therefore, there is something psychologically pacifying about the thought of God setting things "right" in the eschaton. Therefore, in a very definite sense, it is this Christ that we seek, it is this Christ for whom we wait. When Immanuel comes a second time, the final time, we assert that he shall not come in weakness and vulnerability as before; rather, the whole world shall know of his coming, and the necks of nations shall be tread beneath the feet of his judgment. In a nutshell, this is the 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 >
Universal Reconciliation and the Deconstruction of Personhood
Jun 6th
One of the scandals of religion is that of exclusivity, the belief that the adherents of the particular religion will receive “X” benefits and those who don’t…will not. In reaction to these claims of exclusivity, there are many who attempt to equalize the playing field, so to speak. These advocate that if there is God who rewards humans with “X,” then all humans, without qualification, will receive “X” unconditionally.
There is one level, of course, on which this idea (i.e., universal reconciliation) is an appealing concept. After all, it is difficult to imagine eternal separation from reconciled life with God. As callous as we humans can oftentimes be towards others, there is something innately disturbing about the idea of another person existing in dysfunctional relationship with God for all of eternity. Such reflections quickly lead to sentimentalized conceptions of eternity in which all, unequivocally, are reconciled to God and others.
Unfortunately, the sentiments of universal reconciliation disastrously ignore the issues that lie at the heart of the meaning of reconciliation and forgiveness. In reality, such a move co-opts the crises of reconciliation and forgiveness, replacing them with the opiate of universalism. However, this anaesthetizing of the severe consequences of relationship and its potential dysfunctions More >
Creation and Eschatology
Apr 14th
A fundamental tenant of Christian faith is that the universe, humanity and history are dynamic. Rather than simply existing as the static expression of some primordial causation, the universe, humanity and history are all moving in a direction. Christians believe that God is working within the cosmos, shaping and contouring it toward a goal, toward a final consummation. Leaving aside the debates about the interpretations of the potential chronology of the events recorded in the book of Revelations, Christians are united, at least, in the firm belief that cosmological history is going somewhere and that this movement is being actualized in the dynamism of the reality which we all experience.
It is precisely this conviction which rejects certain forms of deism. At the height of modernism, cosmological history was reduced to a series of predictable, unavoidable consequences which were merely the logical expression of causal forces. In this schema, God became reduced to a principle causation, to Aristotles' "Unmoved Mover." Being "unmoved," however, God was also the extreme disconnected deity, merely watching as the universe followed the impetus of the divine causality. This conception of God's creative relationship to the universe, however, is explicitly rejected by the Scriptures which clearly reveal More >
