theo|digital

Well, although the seminary still has one more official week, I’ve got to be done today. A little intimidating, although I think I’m okay. I’ve been relentlessly chopping a the academic task list, and today means one more five page exit essay for Ethics. That typically wouldn’t be a big deal, but I don’t even have a faint idea yet of how I want to approach it, and I woke up late.

I’d love to think that the finish line is gonna be tonight at 5pm and I can celebrate, and while I do have plans to hit dinner with friends, I don’t get any celebration or respite—I’ve gotta clean and pack and plan to leave for Colorado LT, not to mention actually be on the job to get our student leaders assigned and good communication with the YMCA of the Rockies established. The task list seems pretty overwhelming that already.

So, God, walk me through one more day of being faithful today. I don’t need to write a genius paper or make crazy LT waves—just need to be faithful.

“At the end of his Gospel, John describes how Peter looks at the beloved disciple and seeks from Jesus some promise or prediction of what the future may hold. Jesus’s answer is brusque. “What is that to you? Follow me!” (John 21.22). So begins the journey of Christian ethics. Jesus’s statement recognized that there are mysteries, wonders, problems, and troubles that the disciples—even Peter—will not be able to resolve,at least not with a simple, verbal explanation. The statement asserts that there is, nonetheless, a valid way forward, despite the lack of a comprehensive solution.”

I’m reading The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics edited by Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells.

This rings true not only theologically, but experientially. A valid way forward without knowing which way that is…

Political moral insight is a law unto itself, independent. Such values are nature, reason, law. They are considered autonomous in that they are thought to be known otherwise than through revelation or worship. … Ordinarily the definitions of such concepts do not seem to be dependent on faith or on Jesus, although maybe we hold them to be vaguely supported by nature or “nature’s God.” In any case, we do not expect “worship” to tell us more about them. … The duties they lay upon us are different from what Jesus calls us to do. For example, a banker is called to save money or to lend it with interest, not to give it away or to lend it without interest. A soldier in battle is not supposed to love the enemy.

John Howard Yoder was a Christian Anabaptist theologian and ethicist. I’m reading Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community Before the Watching World for my course this term:  Christian Ethics.

(Photo is one of mine:  the National Archives in Wash DC in Feb 2008).

“Body” is an ancient image for the human community. When I use it as a modifier, it pins down the awareness that each member needs and serves each of the others, that the whole is more than all of the parts, and that the interdependence of all is structured according to an already given plan, flexible and able to grow, but neither chaotic nor infinitely negotiable.”

John Howard Yoder was a Christian Anabaptist theologian and ethicist. I’m reading Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community Before the Watching World for my course starting this term:  Christian Ethics.

Professor Emeritus C. John Weborg, 72 years old, is lecturing on his experiences on the combination of ritual and pastor identity.

When someone calls you to a death bed, do you know what to do? 
A pastor is someone who does rituals
People need someone who knows the words.

The Apostle Paul writes of apprehending what had apprehended him. [referencing Phil 3.9].  Ritual, using transrational thinking, using reflection, can sometimes help us apprehend what has apprehended us.

Quoting Aidan Kavanagh:
Ritual is a system of symbols rather than mere signs. Symbols being roomy, allow many different people to put them on, so to speak, in different ways. Signs do not. Signs are unambiguous because they exist to give precise information. Symbols coax into a swamp of meaning and require one to frolic in it.

Because he’s retired, we get only a few guest-lecture chances to hear from John Weborg.  Every time is worth it.

Dr. Jim Bruckner, Dr. Bob Hubbard, Dr. Klyne Snodgrass, and Dr. Stephen Chester.

In order.

 

via my Treo 700p

“One purpose of this chapter is to situate today’s Christian theologian by calling attention to the church’s global context and to remind us that no language or culture has a monopoloy on God, the gospel, or theology.  This is an important and timely prophetic blast against the monstrous regiment of systematic theologians, in whose company I count myself.

It is undeniable that the church has entered a new era.  … The reign of the sovereign knowing subject, and of universal method, is coming to an end. …  But does it necessarily follow that systematicians must go the way of the Elves, whose time had ended, setting sail (appropriately enough!) toward the West?”

Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer, writing in typical Smile: It’s Theology! form. His chapter is in Globalizing Theology, co-editied by one of my current professors, Dr. Craig Ott.

This past week has accelerated me to the absolute top speed I have. I could tell sitting in certain classes that my brain was over-CPU crunched and starving for extra cycles. Last I night I had to leave Romans early just so I could recover enough to do three hours in Contextualization this morning. My reading list is ruling my life!

Meanwhile, this weekend I’ll be traveling for GCM down to central Illinois to help at I-Life’s Fall Retreat–leading two training sessions on mentor discipleship and leading the weekend-closing session including communion. I look forward to seeing old and new friends, talking about topics I’m excited about, and getting away from the books for a few days.

And should I get one of these??

Downside: camera is reportedly taking as long as 10 seconds to take a picture!  And it doesn’t have Microsoft Exchange push, but I don’t care.  It DOES have a few feature the iPhone doesn’t, including gMail push, an amazing new “compass” mode for Google Maps Street View (you just move the phone to “look around”), and the thing that’s kept me from jumping to Apple:  a full QWERTY keyboard!

ps – I realize I can’t “get” a Google Android.  The open-source operating system will show up on multiple phones in the next year, T-Mobile’s G1 being just the first new example.  And I agree with Don Reisinger–there’s no reason not to expect Google to do well, even in the face of the iPhone.

So another part of my quest to start corralling my research is really still rather exploratory. I haven’t done any study in the doctrine of scripture, and I have a feeling that there are some related concepts to theology and communication that I need to understand. Unfortunately my attempt to do a directed study in this area hasn’t yet worked out, so out of necessity, I’m looking into thing on my own.

One suggestion to me from Scot McKnight was Telford Work. I haven’t yet read his book on the area, but I just finished reading a paper he recently gave entitled, “Are We Reading The Same Bible?” (fulltext: pdf) which not only was insightful, but caused me to laugh aloud.

Work makes the point that not all evangelicals speak about scripture the same way. And he has Christian bookstore prices to prove it.

Since at least Irenaeus and Athanasius the Bible has been an ultimate narrator locating us and all things in its story of creation, judgment, and redemption. Many evangelicals have drawn deeply from this ancient vision… [Families who see themselves within the Bible’s cosmic family tree can inscribe their whole family genealogy in the Keystone Family, Faith and Values Heritage Edition Bible (Fireside), available from Christian Book Distributors for $35.99.]

A similar but distinct type sees the Bible as a treasury of truth that teaches facts about God and the world… [Zondervan’s NIV Study Bible($31.99) supplies pages and pages of maps, charts, footnotes, artistic renderings, and cross-references that highlight and contextualize its archaeological, philosophical, and ethical material.]

Many find their own story in Scripture, making the Bible a mirror of personal life experience. Augustine was one pioneer in reading the Bible to gain self-understanding… [The Extreme Teen Bible (Nelson, $17.99) features forty profiles of young Bible characters and 250 study notes for life guidance; the Women of Color Study Bible (Augsburg, $28.99) offers a different range of figures to identify with.]

He’s got nine in all. Genius.

Happy Fall Semester 2008! Here’s what I’ll be reading.