Situated in giveness is where we find ourselves. Giveness is under us, over us, and all around us. That which is given precedes ontology (human nature) and epistemology (human knowledge). Both these characteristics and features of humanity are second order discourse and neither is capable of being primary because they are already located in and preceded by the given. Take a moment to reflect on this and the possible implications it has for a theology of gift.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Living Spiritual Rhythms - June 29
When it comes to the creation and evolution debate, those who claim to be the most biblical among us are often more interested in dogmatically protecting their particular literal interpretations, than carefully studying, contemplating, and being open to a new dialogue between the theological and scientific informers. Whatever the text means to me is what it means has widespread influence today, and this lack of critical understanding can and does create serious problems for any viable questioning of one’s presuppositions. If there is no willingness to engage with and learn from the scientific informer and no interest in developing good biblical reading skills, then we’ve lost the path towards what’s true and real.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Reflection for the Week - June 27
Friday, June 24, 2016
Friday Musings - June 24
Earthy everyday life is made up of our waking and
sleeping, eating and drinking, going out and
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Thursday Thoughts – June 23
Total self-independence or total God dependence are not realistic options for life. Totalities are just out of the question. We lack access. Rather, it seems to me that God challenges us to be “dependently independent.” This blended configuration has to be worked out, but it gives us an opportunity to be the “in tension” creatures we’re intended to be, instead of violating ourselves, others, or God through totalizing illusions.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Living Spiritual Rhythms - June 22
Christian culture is all too often rooted in the dominating sub-text of false guilt, fear, and shame. There’s no room in this space for love, which is squeezed out by the imposition of powerful and manipulating forces that are far from the gospel. Christians, in these contexts, are drastically deprived from being shaped and informed by the real. Impoverishment is the lamentable result. Creating time and space for skillful and loving action is essential for engaging, challenging, and then going beyond the sub-text. Such efforts will bring to light fresh insights and new possibilities of redemption, grace, and freedom.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Reading Early Genesis - Creation - Evolution?
If you’re looking for a compelling hermeneutical path between
false options in the creation – evolution debate, and viable understandings of
Genesis 1-3 for today, you might want to check out our book From Evolution to
Eden.
Creation- Evolution?
Some excellent insights from Pete Enns.
http://www.peteenns.com/11-recurring-mistakes-in-the-debate-over-the-historical-adam-reprise/#disqus_thread
Friday, June 17, 2016
Friday Musings - June 17
Who am I? I am a human being who exists in time and
story. I am a creature. I love and am loved. I am knower and known. I am
limited. I am finite. I am sinful. I am not self-sufficient. I am not ultimate
authority. I do not have the capacity to exclusively self-determine what
actions I am free to do, nor what actions I am constrained from doing. I need
Divine sources and referents to give wisdom as to how to be and be with others.
Being human is subjectively objective – both inside of I and outside of I have
a role in telling me who I am, but they don’t have the same degree of say so.
Being human is to practice a hermeneutics of trust and suspicion across the
whole of life, including my own I am. It simply won’t do to trust I and be
suspicious of everyone and everything else. I cannot bear the weight without
pretending and cheating. But who will see; who will invite me to a genuine
integrity? Questioning my own perspectives of what I trust and what I suspect
in light of a greater calling is an essential part of being human and it begins
to respond to who I really am.
Thursday Thoughts - June 16
The
debate about God being influenced or affected by humanity is well-known today.
My wager is that God is not changed by humanity, but that God communicatively
acts out of covenant trajectory for the whole world. This does not mean, on my
account, that God does not relate to humanity contextually; God does, though
God is not ultimately contextual. That is, God is already, within his
covenantal being God, a God who has, is, and will take the context of humanity
into consideration when communicatively acting. God’s character and actions
remain related and distinct, yet God comprises them both in the One who
is.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Living Spiritual Rhythms - June 15
It seems to me our culture is increasingly one
of dislocation and fragmentation. Modernist notions of stability and permanence
are rightly being shattered, as they were rooted in deception. In its place
postmodern nomads now wander from here to there - to nowhere, but this is not
merely a physical or geographical phenomenon, it pertains to the way folks
live. False certainty has been replaced by false uncertainty. Flitting from
this to that and back again is so common today. Many attempt to re-invent
themselves by the hour. No home, no boundaries, no commitments – wandering.
These powerful, persuasive, and misleading images are often peddled by our
culture and embraced by the crowd. They leave us destitute and floundering. Such
forms of the postmodern turn now need to be replaced by a God turn, where true
images of what’s creationally and redemptively real abound and offer a safe
space to be.
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