A key part of the drama of the gospel narratives is
that Jesus manifests himself as the sent One in the midst of the “actual” world
in order to point people in the direction of a “possible” world that is so much
more than the actual one. The actual and possible world connection and
trajectory he provides leads us into the “real” world, which can only be
grasped through imagination. Thus, when our imaginations are engaged by these
stories and in dialogue with the rest of who we are, the beliefs and actions
that pertain to this real world gradually come into focus and in so doing offer
us an illuminating vision for beginning to live a transformed life.
Friday, September 8, 2017
Friday Musings - September 8
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Thursday Thoughts - September 7
The notion of the supposed loss or partial loss of
humans being “images of God” has had disastrous results for humanity, but
especially for the weak, disabled, and impoverished, as well as for those with
a skin color other than white, or for women. Approaches to God’s image have all
too frequently been more connected to early church, Medieval, or Reformation
ideas (of course the case for God too), than the biblical narrative. As far as
I can tell from my contemporary standpoint, in that mega story, all humans
were, are, and will continue to be “images of God,” and thus should be treated
as such.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Living Spiritual Rhythms - September 6
Fallen leaves, so fragile, flutter in the breeze.
Monday, September 4, 2017
Reflection for the Week - September 4
We can often tend to put far too much weight on
knowing and being a knower. While this is fitting to some degree, the
over-emphasis is a major plague, and expresses itself in several ways
including: reductionism, hiddenness, and falsification. Other perspectives are
necessary. My proposal, for one of these, is that to have knowledge is to ‘be
known.’ Being known carries significant power for knowing and therefore without
this ‘knowness’ our knowledge will surely be greatly impoverished. The more one
attempts to be a knower with a single focus trajectory of knowing, the further
one is away from the actuality of knowledge.
Friday, September 1, 2017
Vive l'imagination
What’s
your take on imagination? Do you see it as opening up creative possibilities or
fraught with dangerous fantasies?
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Thursday Thoughts - August 31
It is monumentally important to realize that there is no absolute certainty concerning God, the biblical text, the self, or the world, but degrees of knowing – more about this or that – less about that or this. When such a discovery takes place, shock therapy can set in. What to do and who to be might leave one in a quandary. No more hyper conservative on one side – hyper liberal on the other, since both fail. Then what? Weighing up options and possibilities comes to the fore. Finding the viable middle somewhere is less stifling than embracing polarization, though it often appears to leave one without a voice. Yet a veracity tension in the middle “says more” and is far preferable to the alternatives.
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Living Spiritual Rhythms - August 30
A realistic faith is a constant dialogue between the
because of and the in spite of. In living a spiritual life,
we traverse periods of belief in God that are like the vistas of a changing
landscape. Sometimes the viability of the reasons for faith are convincing and
firm, while at other times we are clinging to faith with little conviction or strength.
We can experience the joy of sufficient answers or the dread of the awareness
that many questions are left unresolved. Passing through, as we are, invites us
into this tension, which is inescapably connected to life in this world.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Reflection for the Week - August 28
In addition to
Freud’s atheism, there are many others, including Nietzsche, Barthes, and
Foucault, who argue that God is a contradiction to life, for the death of the
Author, and that the strategic alignments of power interests are out to control
knowledge, relationships, and truth. While these thinkers have some salient
insights, their wayward conclusions have contributed to the cultural construction
and propagation of a cynical, pessimistic, and decentered self. Yet, in the
face of such views, the counter-cultural and always avant-garde perspective of
Christian promise and hope defies this manufactured status quo. Destroying
idols and listening to symbols is one of the keys that unlock living
spirituality and possibilities for engaging God. When this takes place we are
no longer trapped within a network of self – other power plays that exploit us,
but we are embraced by a Divine love without measure, where freedom leads to
redemption and transformation. Being loved in this manner supplies us with a re-centered
self and an identity that goes far beyond any of our own making.
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