Christology and Omnipotence

So I haven’t been ignoring Christology, just trying to figure out what to say next that doesn’t presume too much. I came up with a list of issues that I wrestle with and thought I might set them out here and try to cast a general framework for my thinking. No idea what will come next.

One of my deepest theological convictions is that omnipotence, in the God can do anything-anywhere-anytime sense, is one of the biggest theological errors of the church. It shows up most any place, but a number of important questions are raised in Christology if you can’t envision God being omnipotent and the Abba of Jesus at the same time. The power of God is much more than an abstract issue in my mind, because religious people tend to imitate their understanding of God (on their best days) and if God sets the world right through coercive power and force it is logical or at least pragmatic for followers of God to do so. I could go on here, but will save my anti-empire spill for later. The point for me is that if God is relational love, then a reconciled creation can not be accomplished by the force of divine will. Any way, here are some Christology issues that need to be looked at if you are against an imperialist incarnation. If you have more ideas, questions, or issues to discuss holla at me. If you want to get ill on heretic go see Zach who is talking about homosexuality. Everyone knows it’s much more “in” to condemn heretics for their view of sexuality and not Christology.

Incarnation without Invasion: I am generally wary of describing the incarnation in a way that the initiator, should it not be God, sound more like the description of a military invasion.

Biology and Cosmology of Baby Jesus: Just how did the conception, birth, and coming of the Christ happen? My goal is to use the phrases “seminal logos” and “God sperm” as many times as possible, because it still makes me giggle.



Prophecy, Prediction, and Fulfillment: How could a Messiah be prophesied about, it actually be Jesus, and God not plan out history? That questions just makes me shiver if no other reason than I may have gone through a period in middle school where I used Josh McDowell’s “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” to witness to a Jewish friend. Sorry Raphael, you tolerated a bit of religious presumptuousness from me, stayed friends, and laid hands on me at my ordination. (Raphael is the handsome Hebrew in the picture with Alecia and I from my ordination service.)

Resurrection without Coercion: I think it is possible but I am not sure what I would do if it wasn’t so this may be a spectacle in theological projecting. I know Corbin (if he has the internet yet after leaving me in Winston-Salem) will let me know the error of my ways.

EMERGING COMMUNITY VISION pt.1

This summer I am interning with the local baptist association and their church plants. One of my jobs is writing up a brief description of a potential emerging community that could be used to help explain it to church people who may not know anything about the emergent movement so that they have some idea what they are supporting. I came up with a couple points and here is the first. If you have any ideas for being more clear feel free to share. Yes, I do know it is not really possible to describe an emerging community when it doesn't exist. I am just trying to get some kind of community vision guide together to hopefully firm up support. Enjoy.

Christocentric Community: The story of Jesus’ life, ministry, cross, resurrection, and active presence through the Spirit is the center piece of the community. As it develops it will begin with the story of Jesus, because in Christ we come to know who God is, God’s desire for creation, and the world’s future in God. First and foremost the community is living in the way of Jesus. Three parts of the ministry of Jesus will serve as guideposts to Christocentric life in the community: mysticism, mission, and message.
1. Mysticism. The story of Jesus reveals a world that God has created and in which God is actively present and working. Jesus lived and practiced the presence of God, whom he knew intimately as Abba, and this experience transformed his message and empowered his mission. An emerging community would be intentional on creating space for the Spirit of God to come in surprising and intimate ways. In a culture that is spiritual but not religious the followers of Jesus should actively proclaim and practice the Abba-intimate mysticism of Jesus.
2. Mission. For an emerging community there is an identification of the mission of Jesus with the mission of God. Jesus proclaimed and brought the presence of the kingdom of God. He also empowered and sent his disciples to do same. For this reason the kingdom of God is the most important theological concept for understanding the work of church. This community will intentionally focus itself on the mission of God and seek to participate. Doing so means that the community will be externally focused, people driven, and seek healing and reconciliation.
3. Message. Jesus is not just the one who made God present in a dynamic and mystical way, nor is he just the one who proclaimed the mission of God for the world, but Jesus himself was the message. His message was not simply preached but embodied. Jesus, the Word of God, is more than words and so the emerging community will witness to the message of God through embodiment. Every media and every relationship can become a spirit-filled medium for revelation and transformation of God. Recognizing this means the message of the community is more than words and doctrine but an invitation to experience the presence of God and embody the way of Jesus.

Graduation

The Best Two Profs on Planet Earth



My Pannenberg Minion



My favorite 2 div students (who happen to be my wife and bro)



My Class and Profs

Len Sweet Audio pt 1

I posted the first segment of Len Sweet's audio from the 'Remix\Reboot' event. Check it out.

Whitehead on Caesar-fying God

"When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered; and the received text of Western theology was edited by his lawyers…The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly. In the official formulation of the religion it has assumed the trivial form of the mere attribution to the Jews that they cherished a misconception about their Messiah. But the deeper idolatry, of fashioning God in the image of the Egyptian, Persian, and Roman imperial rulers was retained. The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar."
Process and Reality 342

The Gospels, Jesus, and Christology

So a friend and I were in a conversation about Christology, which is just the fancy word for theology about the person (how human\divine stuff works out) and the work (what was accomplished in Christ). I promised I would attempt to write a few blog entries that are not completely useless and hopefully helpful, so here is part one and more or less where we spent the most of our time talking. Of course this is just my opinion, so don't get upset if you don't like it. I'm not sure i always do.


The Gospels are an important source for theology, but for Christology there can be no other more important source. While the Gospels are the substance for historical retrieval, they cannot be understood as direct historical accounts or “remembered history” because the Gospels are the result of the early church’s communal remembering, retelling, and reflection on the history of Jesus. The Gospels are not narratives that could have been written by a biographer of Jesus or even by Peter directly after Pentecost. The Gospels can best be understood as “Theological history,” in that the Gospel narratives tell the story of the historical man from Nazareth written from a post-Easter perspective. After the cross and resurrection the identity of Jesus, as Son of God, that existed throughout his life became clear. The historical act of identification for Jesus the Son of God led to the theologizing of the history of Jesus so, as my theology prof likes to say, “all the stories of Jesus have been washed in the blood of his cross and polished in the light of the empty tomb.” Said another way, after Easter the history of Jesus was retold in a way that (re)shaped the stories in light of the resurrection identity of Jesus. So Jesus had a gospel-effect on the (re)telling of the Gospel narratives. The history of Jesus that was retold in the Gospels is different than the gospel itself who is Jesus. To tell the stories of Jesus from an Easter perspective with a gospel-effect was not an underhanded act of the evangelists, but a means to effectively present both the history and truth of Jesus in the single narrative. If the Gospels are taken as history and their Easter perspective is not acknowledged, what was a life full of contingencies is presented to the reader as the divinely ordained plan of God. Therefore, the history of Jesus must be acknowledged as separate and deviating from the theologized Gospel accounts. Recognizing this allows one to seek the historical Jesus contained beneath the imaginative constructs of the Gospel texts and engage Christology from below. Christology from below is not an inappropriate starting point for Christology because it is the very place the earliest disciples pursued Christological thought. The history a Christology from below seeks and begins from is the history behind the stories that served as the substance of the early disciple’s Christology.

That last bit in italics I think is stated too strong, because it's not like we have much to go on outside of the actual canonical Gospels. The point I am going for is just that the actual person of Jesus who lived is the foundation of the faith and Christology. The Gospel texts are foundational theological reflections about the person.

Why I Need to find $ to go to AAR in november.

Joint Session of the Open and Relational Theologies Unit and the Christian Systematic Theology Group

“Radical Orthodoxy and Process Theology”
Chairs: Thomas Jay Oord & James K. Smith

-- Graham Ward, “The Bride of Christ: Creation, Christology, Ecclesiology”


-- Catherine Keller, “Reciprocating Gifts: Truth, Politics and Participation in Process”

-- John Milbank, “Change and Participation”


-- John Cobb, “Rethinking Tradition”

Process theology 2, Radical Orthodoxy 0.