[THO] What is Sacred?

I've heard the critique of the sacred/secular split like this, "how dare we call our shit holy?" I understand that this sacred/secular notion has been used to entrench and justify a lot of liturgical insanity. We sometimes call this playing the God card, "well God gave it to me, so it has to be holy." I think this is a valid critique but it is far from sufficient. There is a deeper issue with maintaining a sacred/secular split.

The way we interact with the world, our elements and each other reveals a disturbing feature of the sacred/secular split. That of devaluation. We have devalued the earth and raped the planet. We have devalued humanity and sold our daughters into prostitution. Some might jump up at this point to protest their complicity. Before you do, I am not pointing fingers at any one of us - it is a problem of how we see things. And until we remove this false notion of sacred/secular we will always have the capacity to take our children, families, neighbours and world for granted. As long as we relegate those interactions to the realm of the secular we will have this problem, and we will be part of the problem.

For God there is no sacred/secular split in creation. Creation is at its most basic moment - very good. In fact the project of humanity is also part of that which is very good. There is an incredible potential locked within our species, it is so sad that we so rarely see it in full blossom.

Potential is always a double edged sword, and we demonstrate our understanding of this truth through the Adamic story. Sin is originary with humanity. Seen positively it shows the incredible capacity of humanity. In fact the curse turns this around and says that salvation will come out of humanity, or do we think that the incarnation of Christ was insignificant?

What we have done with the story of Adam's fall is to take all of creation down with him. Instead of seeing creation as full of potential, we have vilified creation. The more we submitted to this paradigm, the more we envisioned salvation as an escape from this "fallen" world. No longer were we able to recognize that all of creation declares the glory of God. We literally ripped heaven out of the earth and with it we sacrificed our souls on the altar of fear.

This leads us to an intense devaluation of creation. We see our world and humanity as something to struggle against as we reach for some celestial pie in the sky. We are desperate for something holy and so we fill that void with our ability to symbolically name our own constructs, created from our wants, desires and likes, as holy. And like good humans, we differentiate. Differentiation is a safetly reflex, we use it to determine good and bad, right and wrong. We use it to protect our own interests. So we lose our ability to see in creation many wonderful modes of divine mediation. We are empoverished. We are lost.

How can we turn this around? Well we need to change the way we tell the story. Instead of a flight from this world, we need to understand creation as God sees it. Living, holy, suffuced with God's presence, in God, held together by God's very Word, alive and full of life, good and full of potential. We need to recognize that we are home and our prayer is always to bring heaven to Earth, not the other way around (check out the Lord's Prayer).

Here are a few things worth meditating on:
1) God thought we were worth redemption - so why don't we see anything good in humanity?
2) God sees creation as very good, this is the first thing we learn from our Bible.
3) Jesus sent us to the world, just as he was sent to the world - God isn't joking about so loving the world.
4) Why do we live like God is something we claw our way to when Jesus promised to always be with us no matter where we are?

[THO] Moltmann and the Resurrection of Christ

I'm just about to write my Christology paper on Resurrection in Moltmann's Theology of Hope. Not just the book of that title, but that is what I would label his whole theology. Moltmann read Bloch's The Principles of Hope and realized that the category of hope had been lost to Christianity. In fact we were discussing in Liberation Theology class today how the early church practiced hope, yet we tend to practice systems of belief (dogma). Moltmann's response was his groundbreaking book The Theology of Hope, which is a profound read that I've worked with the last two semesters (last semester as a critique for the evangelical vision of grace). This time I did a survey of Moltmann's major works (Crucified God, Coming of God, Church in the Power of the Spirit, The Way of Jesus Christ, etc.) as well as some of his applications of the Theology of Hope (In the End...the Beginning, Future of Creation, etc.) Honestly I think I overdid it, but it isn't that easy to stop once you get started. I found that Moltmann is consistant all through this theology, at least in terms of the Resurrection. He brilliantly exposes why this foolishness about the Platonic Immortality of the Soul is a blight on modern Christianity and how the remedy is Resurrection faith. And Moltmann masterfully exposes the whole understanding of Resurrection in the langauge of promise, that is enough to give me goosepimples! But the best is his understanding of Resurrection as the inbreaking of the future into history in a way that re-makes history! This is such a profound insight that almost every text I looked at tried to unpack this idea. Just as Volf [Correction: it was Geiko Muller-Fahrenholz not Volf] says the theology of the Resurrection is the hinge on which the Theology of Hope turns, this understanding of the Resurrection builds the anticipation of Kingdom Inbreaking in the believer and becomes the imperative for our lived faith in this world. It is just so good.

Well I better get writing.

[THO] The Problem with Personal Salvation

I wrote a paper last year which uses Moltmann's theology as a critique of the Evangelical vision of grace. I did really well on it and the professor, Ken Melchin, agreed to help me work on it some more in hopes of finding it a home in a scholarly journal of some sort. I just finished reading it and it was really encouraging. If I were to nutshell my argument I would say that Evangelicals consistantly have an orientation towards personal salvation that blinds them to constructive participation in the world. The hard part is that this insight of personal salvation is important and worth protecting. But when our focus on personal salvation becomes an escapist philosophy then we miss the incarnational insight of Christ's life. I tackle some of the issues that flow out of this like the breakdown of medieval synthesis and the prevalence of apocalyptic decline narratives in the article, I think it will be a worthwhile read if I can find it a home.

[THO] Resurrection and Grace

"The raising of Christ from death is an expression of the surplus of grace, for 'where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more' (Rom. 5.20). This added-value of grace becomes effective when liberation from the chains which bind the victims and the guilty to the past allows them to move out into the new shared life in the powers of God's righteousness."

- Jürgen Moltmann, In the End - The Beginning: The Life of Hope, Fortress, 2004.

[LIF] Grace Paper is done!

My critique of the modern Evangelical vision of grace is complete and handed in. I loved working with Moltmann on this one, of all my papers this is the one I think is most important this semester. I think Moltmann does a great job of keeping the tension between a personal grace and a social grace, I personally think this will be the challenge of our generation. In fact I think that is one of things that the Emergent/Emerging contexts touches that is very valuable.

I have one more little paper due Monday on Berry's The Great Work. And I've been invited into a small group of students who want to study Thomas Berry from a Berryite. I'm hoping that works out, it isn't for credit but I think it will be worthwhile.

I'm going to work on the last Worship series article right after my exams, sorry for the huge wait! Then I'll jump right into the promised Kingdom series. My paper on the Kingdom of God as it influences Vineyard Ecclesiology came back - 88% which is awesome as Prof. Clifford is a really tough marker. It was a fun class, I now officially know more than I wanted to about Roman Ecclesiology. I appreciate a lot about the Catholic Church, but I sure am glad I'm not a Roman Catholic.

Well we have snow today, the kids want to go out and I am thinking it is about time.

[THO] Moltmann and Grace

The coming lordship of the risen Christ cannot be merely hoped for and awaited. This hope and expectation also sets its stamp on life, action and suffering in the history of society. Hence mission means not merely propogation of faith and hope, but also historic transformation of life.
Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, 329-330.

Just getting my head around Moltmann's view of grace for a paper I'm going to write in the next week or so. Loved this quote!

[THO] Stacking up Capitalism

Part of the job of a theologian is to be able to look at the world and understand what is going on. To make judgements and when something is problemmatic, to sound the alarm. I mean that in the most prophetic of senses.

I've been thinking a lot about how we engage with the world around us. Introspective I know, but I think this is vital. The obsession that I have with stuff is incredible. I have a collector mentality and derive pleasure from sorting things. In fact it is one of my wierder traits. I like order, even though I live a lot of times in chaos from the sheer amount of stuff I have collected over the years. My wife is into purging, which is healthy for me, but it doesn't make it easy.

What got me thinking about this is a bit of TV I've seen lately, an advertisment and a show I saw tonight. The show was 'How Clean Is Your House' in which Kim and Aggie tackle the house of a literal rubbage collector. They dragged 4+ tonnes of crap out of this small flat (not exaggerating) and scrubbed some of the vilest crap I've ever seen. Now I live in a pristine castle compared to this man, but you know it is not hard to imagine being swallowed up by all my own crap. But for me it isn't recycling rubbish or being unwilling to part with broken stuff that does me in. I actually am pretty good at chucking real garbage. (Well if you look at my library there is a bit of crap in there that I should purge, likely will now that my shelves are full, say goodbye Josh McDowell!) What does me in is the allure of stuff that I just don't need.

Take this cup stacking game that is advertised on the tv all the time now. At first I thought 'that might be fun', but then I thought about it. 'What the heck?' They are re-selling the common plastic cup as a game??? This is the empitome of capitalism. Convincing the masses to buy more crap that they won't ever need because it fuels the artificial economy and keeps the wealthy happy in their relative comfort. But are we happy? Even the rich? The thing is for capitalism to work we all have to buy into this buy to be happy deal. If someone wakes up and begins pointing out that they are just re-selling cups then possibly the illusion will be shattered. Well, I can hope can't I. (The illusion is necessary because it lets us sleep in a world where our capitalism hides incredible disparity and oppressive poverty in the world, but let's keep this light shall we.)

Sears has this new wish big campaign for Christmas shopping, where folks are going home with more oversized things they likely don't need. It is madness, sheer madness. But what drives me nuts is I am the worst culprit. I fight with my wife over buying new tools I could borrow from neighbours. I purchase more paintable terrain than I could ever use to populate a battle map, or make sure I have oodles of miniatures for trading, yet hesitate when the offers to trade come in? I am just as sick as the whole system.

I think what this points to is my next Lenten fast. Instead of giving up food or coffee. I think this time I'm going to give up buying, in fact I think I need to find something each day of Lent to either give away or chuck out. Think of it as a protest of the capitalism that so enthralls my soul. Lent is a ways off yet, so I have a chance to get my ducks in order first. A chance to flesh out the ground rules. Last year I gave up Internet Poker for Lent, and you know what I've played maybe three times since giving it up. It was hard, damn hard actually. I really enjoyed the thrill of gaming. I actually enjoyed making new online friends. But giving it up I realized how much I was missing out on simple things, like playing with my kids (or letting them have the computer long enough to learn how to use it well). And I wasn't really playing that obsessively before! I wonder if this will change the way I feel about buying into this commercialism driving society. I know I am already very distrustful of capitalism. I see the cup game and it is like writing on the wall.

[LIF] Nightmares and other stuff

I have been spending my online moments getting through the 3 hour documentary Sam pointed to in this post. All I can say is holy crap! I ended up having an interesting chat about Leo Strauss in my Grace class (at break) after the first hour of this. Not sure I have the tools to sort through it properly, the thesis is pretty darn scary and makes me very glad Rumsfield is gone! Kenny, would love to hear you weigh in on this.

I've been progressively stuffier over the last four days, today I have a sinus headache. Yuch. Two papers to try and finish today (one is just little on the Eastern Churches Pneumatology)All the Easter papers should be "God Said it so we believe it and say it twenty times each liturgy." But they usually end up in me working out my frustrations over the horrid texts. This week we did Kalistos Ware and it is like a breath of fresh air. Sure I don't agree 100%, but Ware doesn't make me feel like a knob for having a different opinion.

[THO] Theological Influences

There has been a lot of buzz about books that have influenced our theology and I feel a bit out of it because I can maybe list a handful of really prominent influences view books, but the real influence belongs to the context of where those books came into play. I discovered Moltmann in James Pambrun's classes, that is also where I discovered Ricoeur, Lane and Charles Taylor. I discovered O'Donoghue in a Celtic Christian Spirituality course which was very influential on my theology of worship and evangelism (George Hunter jumps to mind). Also without John Gibaut I would not have developed such a passion for the Eucharist. Heather Eaton put writers like Johnson, Soelle and Berry in vivid context. And I could go on. So I was delighted when Ben decided to list his top 20, in no particular order, theological influences. Here are mine.

1. Eucharist - for anyone who has discovered the richness of the Eucharist there can be no doubt that theology starts here.


2. Planting a church - I am convinced that theology and church belong together.


3. James Pambrun - a systematics professor par excellance. Probably one of the best lecturers you could even meet, and passionate about theology.


4. Celtic Spirituality - I came at this from a few routes, but the biggest was a course at St. Paul. This has impacted my theology of worship, evangelism, community and life.


5. Questioning my Pentecostal roots - this is likely why I have so much trouble with the course I'm taking on Eastern Christianity. Questions are good.


6. My wife - sometimes in the middle of wrestling through questions my wife will say something profoundly grounded and help me make sense of the bigger picture. She is definitely a gift to me.


7. Ecumenical Friends - I am part of a lot of mixed tradition communities which has always been a source of rich theological insight for me. I guess that is why I persist with such communities even when I am the minority voice in the conversation.


8. The Bible - yeah there are a few books that make this list, but I have had the sheer privilege of studying under Walter Vogels who is able to hold the tension of a historical critical analysis and a love for the sacred Scriptures. I bless my Pentecostal heritage for its emphasis on reading the Bible has made it so that the Scriptures are part of my vocabulary.


9. John Gibaut - how could I not acknowledge his influence on me. He encouraged me to study the primitive house churches and imparted a passion for the Eucharist that marks almost everything I do liturgically. A finer Anglican Scholar I have yet to meet.


10. Training Ministers - I prepared and ran a year long ministry formation class for leaders form Freedom and the Smiths Falls Vineyard. I focused on the Vineyard, but we covered biblical interpretation, preaching, history, theology and spirituality. It was intense but I learned so much.


11. Philosophy - for helping me gain a critical distance from my engaged theology.


12. Jurgen Moltmann - both from books and from the dialogues those books have spawned. Moltmann is my homeboy!


13. Heather Eaton - she taught me how to take my spirituality apart and put it back together again. That is one of the most imporant abilities for a theologian.


14. Theology Blogs - man I am loving the richness of this community. I list many of the regulars I follow in my sidebar, but more often than not I'm following their links in the rich conversation that happens on the web.


15. Eastview Baptist Church - where I was given wings to fly and the freedom to realize I am not a Baptist. That is also the place where my library began, thanks Aubery!


16. The Vineyard - where I found a home. Kingdom theology is the bomb!


17. My kids - I think Luther was onto something when he said you are not a man until you change a diaper. My kids make me think deeply about a lot of things. Who the heck tried to tell them we aren't animals?


18. Experiences - I've had lots of freaky experiences along the way. The influence of witnessing healings, visions, guidance and other Kingdom realities can not be overestimated. I might not be Pentecostal, but I am definitely not a cessationist.


19. Worship in Song - I am oriented towards worship in this way. Especially to participate. I love to pick up my guitar and just worship. This has shaped my theology with a leaning towards the expressed love of God.


20. Preaching/Teaching - especially lectionally, but any time I've wrestled with scripture to prepare a message for our community (or another community) I've been blown away by how God shows up. Though it is scary, I do love it when the Word challenges my preconceptions.

[LIF] Grace Paper

I wasn't that impressed with how the prof for my Eastern Studies course wants us to structure our papers, but hey it's his course. But I just got an email from Prof. Ken Melchin confirming my proposal for a wickedly awesome Grace paper, well it has potential anyway the rest is up to me.

I am going to talk about how modern day evangelicals have so bought into the personalist view of salvation that their view of grace is severely truncated. To show this I will put a number of modern evangelism models in dialogue with Jurgen Moltmann. This is going to be fun!