Many Christians unthinkingly assume that the biblical text is all they need for their point of view. But theology, like philosophy, science or art can’t go it alone. There is an obligation nowadays, for the sake of integrity, to have a dialogue between a multiplicity of informers before drawing any conclusions.
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Living Spiritual Rhythms - May 26
Theology is socio-culturally dependent, but God cannot be reduced to being solely the product of socio-cultural contexts. The God of promise and action comes to humanity in and through these, but emerges from beyond them.
Monday, May 24, 2021
Reflection for the Week - May 24
The judgmental critique by ‘those in the know’ of anyone who does not hold to their ‘conservative’ ‘traditional’ ‘orthodox’ Christian position can be hurtful, even devastating for some. If you’ve experienced it, remember this. Such criticism is usually not well founded and can often be merely a desperate attempt to bring you back into the ‘fold.’ Don’t buy it. Spending all your time and energy watching your back for the next attack is nonsense. Rather, grow stronger and more informed about your own trajectory; learning, refining, sharpening, and formulating credible points of view – think direction, not certainty or closure. Though this will scare the hell out of the ‘religious elite’ and maybe even yourself, it’s worth pursuing.
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Living Spiritual Rhythms - May 19
When
our faith in God configuration is rigid and brittle, we’re going to have
problems. As new ideas surface and gain traction, particularly with respect to
the evolutionary natural world informer, an inflexible paradigm will produce
fear rather than engagement. Dogmatic formulations of God, self, other, and
world are unsustainable and will eventually collapse. Meta-narrative – a
totalizing story that explains everything is an illusion. Christians don’t want
to embrace illusions, but be open to a real world that may challenge us to
revise our views and then to hold them with a spirit of flexibility and
exploration.
Monday, May 17, 2021
Reflection for the Week - May 17
Being, knowledge, genetics, neuroscience, hermeneutics, and ethics have a tendency to operate as monologues closed into separate compartments, but none of them can go it alone, since the human niche is far more complex than any one discipline can account for. Thus, a dialogue between each informer is necessary in order to lead us in a better direction and in so doing, to give us enriched, even sumptuous innovative and truth oriented perspectives and possibilities about life in the world.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Thursday Thoughts - May 13
Reimagining theology in the light of evolution is not a threat, but an obligation.
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Living Spiritual Rhythms - May 12
Feelings are highly significant, though they are not decisive when it comes to knowledge. In order to assess whether feelings are trustworthy or deceptive, it is crucial that they be in dialogue with the rest of who we are, including reason and sense observation, so that we have a more holistic perspective. We should not stop, however, at an interpersonal dialogue. We are obliged to interact with a multiplicity of other informers if we are to have our feelings and the whole of our lives refigured, and to begin to know in the light of being known.
Monday, May 10, 2021
Reflection for the Week - May 10
Since absolute knowledge is unattainable, a conflict of interpretations is inevitable and I’d wager, beneficial.
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
Living Spiritual Rhythms - May 5
When Christian caring for others becomes ultimately about self-preservation, either privately or institutionally, something has gone terribly wrong. The other, as a Christ follower should well know, is not an object for selfish use or a commercial enterprise for profit, although there is plenty of hidden or sometimes even blatant rhetoric that attempts to endorse these views under the subterfuge of care. Such a distortion of caring will eventually be shown up for what it is: hypocrisy. Fresh directions are available. Starting with a hermeneutics of charity will go a long ways towards developing a fruitful dialogue with oneself as another where mutuality becomes one of the keys that unlocks real care.
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