Real
relationships offer us dynamic possibilities to take part in a productive
spiral towards mutuality—the narrative drama of a shared space to be and be
with the other. Being enmeshed in the beauty of mutuality does not undermine
individual freedom, but enhances it. For where responsible trust increases and
unreliable suspicion diminishes within the theater of a redemptive life, we
discover that a poetics of loving and being loved is a marvel. Sameness and
separation, which both happen in a perpetual moment of embrace and release are
located in, yet transcend words and actions, as we draw ever closer to who we
were meant to be.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Friday Musings - September 30
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Thursday Thoughts – September 29
Many Christians contend that God fixed the planets and stars and made natural laws that don’t look like they require further specific intervention (if they did things would be likely to spin off into utter chaos), but somehow when it comes to their personal lives God is “seen” to be explicitly intervening every two minutes or so to re-arrange the world on their behalf. On the basis of this incongruity, perhaps a re-exploration of Divine action would be pertinent for the credibility of theism and the Christian faith.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Living Spiritual Rhythms - September 28
Encountering the infinite mystery of another human
being is a sacramental invitation and a sacred adventure towards convergence.
This coming alongside or coming together phenomenon will take place at
different levels of familiarity; it is never nothing or everything. That is, to
be unaffected by or irredeemably lost in another is an expression of
inappropriate selfhood. Unadulterated oneness is not desirable. We are always
to be intensely touched by our engagements with the other, while remaining
ourselves.
Monday, September 26, 2016
Reflection for the Week - September 26
Christians all too often become inoculated against the
real. Plagued by inauthentic churches peddling illusions and the deception of
unreal images that manifest themselves in misplaced expectations and
extravagant regimes, which are given an illegitimate authority and unwarranted
priority, Christians fade from the scene of being engaged by the real world. We
have become all too clever at making it up as we go along, propagating reveries,
ignoring science, and imagining life to be as it is not. There are many
attempts, for a variety of reasons, to live in imaginary worlds of our own fabrication,
when we should be living imagination from and to the world as it appears: vive
l’imagination – a sign post to the real.
Friday, September 9, 2016
Press release!
Held for further investigation. Scientist George Diepstra and
theologian Gregory Laughery have been detained by the literalist religious
elite for embracing evolution, viewing Genesis 1-3 as story, and then publishing
a book on it. If you’re interested in knowing more about this case read From
Evolution to Eden and Peter Enns review.
http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Eden-Making-Sense-Genesis/dp/1938367197/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440154029&sr=8-1&keywords=laughery
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Thursday Thoughts - September 8
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, September 7, 2016
Living Spiritual Rhythms - September 7
Early
Genesis makes room for cocreativity. God endows the natural world with the
capacity to be part of a creative process that is a massive enterprise, which
far surpasses what we can fathom or imagine. It appears that God releases
nature to be distinct from God, while God nevertheless remains sovereign over
its creationality processes and its ultimate destiny. This picture of God and
nature can be partially filled in from both sides; the biblical and natural
world informers paint in a startling diversity of colors more luminescent,
mysterious, and creative than any eye has seen.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Reflection for the Week - September 5
It doesn’t seem to make much sense that
God would be angry or threatened when humans accomplish good things. After all,
this is one of the chief reasons why we exist. In fact, a key feature of the
creational mandate is that humans would step forward and represent God in this
manner. When we do this well, as evidently sometimes happens, God should not
mind. God may even applaud the accomplishment with both hands. Well done! But I
guess we’re not quite sure what to do with this possibility. Usually, in
Christian circles, we’re told that it is inappropriate to value what we
accomplish. Part of the logic of this view is that when we accomplish something
good, it can lead to arrogance or idolatry. Yet, I would want to argue that
while this is sometimes the case, it isn’t necessarily so. That is, we do have
other options. Take this example. Keep accomplishing good, but steer clear of
arrogance and idolatry. When we do so, we partially fulfill our Creator’s invitation.
This means there seems to be a place and space to see our accomplishments of
good as valuable, without them turning into something that is anti-God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
