In the late twentieth and early
twenty-first century many Christians have moved in one of two directions:
embracing absolute arrogance or humility. To be sure, both these points of view,
in this form, are problematic, and it is somewhat bewildering that some
Christians hold onto the ridiculous notion that they’re right about everything,
or that no one’s right about anything. A better configuration would be
something like this: Confidence without humility is arrogance and humility
without confidence is relativism. These two are to be in tensional dialogue,
disallowing any absolute form of one, or the other. This configuration is an
expression of what I call ‘Living Spirituality' - tethered to dialogue, and
dialogue shatters the monologue of absolutes.
Monday, October 30, 2017
Reflection for the Week - October 30
Friday, October 27, 2017
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Thursday Thoughts - October 26
Interpreting something does not make it what it is. The interpreter is always related to, but distinct from, the interpreted. This may seem mundane, but it’s explosive because it informs us about a crucial aspect of what humans and the world are like.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Living Spiritual Rhythms - October 25
I’d
wager that for many the assumption that the Bible is completely authoritative
is TOO big to fail. That is, for them to question biblical authority is totally
inconceivable. Such avoidance, however, will thankfully be the downfall of the assumption,
which has actually been at the root of dubious beliefs about God and Divine
action for centuries.
Monday, October 23, 2017
Reflection for the Week - October 23
Amazing Alpine Autumn - Engadine Suisse
Friday, October 13, 2017
Friday Musings - October 13
Genesis 1-3 de–deifies nature and humanity, as no other
story of beginnings does. What is avant-garde and always will be about these
creation stories is their relentless focus, not on the cosmic architecture of nature, but on relationality: God,
humanity, and the world. This perspective provides us with both a meaningful
structure for and a re-description of reality.
If you’re interested in knowing more about all this, check out our book From
Evolution to Eden.
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Thursday Thoughts - October 12
Asking a
multitude of questions about God’s specific action in the world
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Living Spiritual Rhythms Book 4 - October 11
Feelings
and experience can often attempt to be our sole sources and criteria for
assessing who we are and what the world is like. Someone says, “I feel like I
have to accomplish something in order to be liked.” Why? “Because this has been
my experience.” Another says, “I feel ashamed and have to hide my real self
from others.” Why? “Because this has been my experience.” Both confirm, “this
is who I am and the way the world works.” While feelings and experience are
valid dimensions of being human, the question of whether or not we should trust
or be suspicious of them cannot be solely based on feelings and experience.
Why? In themselves they offer no valid way to discern if the perceptions of
ourselves and the world are accurate. Unless we’re willing to go for the
jugular and raise the difficult question of what
is true, we will spin around in circles of the same, never having adequate
criteria for being able to evaluate which feelings and experiences can be
considered trustworthy and which suspicious. Once we begin to focus on this
explosive question and start to answer it, trust and suspicion will function in
better ways that will in turn lead to a truer view of ourselves and the world.
Monday, October 9, 2017
Reflection for the Week - October 9
When
it comes to the question of biblical authority, it’s fine to say that
‘Scripture interprets Scripture’, or the ‘voice’ of God is revealed in
Scripture, or the Bible is the ‘final’ authority for theological assessment.
Surely, these are valuable ways of speaking if one assumes that the Bible is
authoritative. But none of these ‘speech acts’ in itself is an argument for
establishing that authority. In effect, it seems likely, in my view, that the
biblical text cannot be deemed ‘authoritative’ on its own. That is, the Bible
has to be interpreted and then placed into a dialogue with other informers,
notably the natural world, in order to assess its reliability or vulnerability
with respect to its claims.
