Oliver Crisp on Robert Jenson
What caught my attention is how one critiques those they may not agree … “Certainly this is one way of critiquing a writer; but it’s not a very interesting way, since such a critique has not yet made the necessary imaginative effort of entering into the writer’s own thought, in order to critique that thought from within.”
10 Propositions on Certainty & Theology (HT: Ben Myers)
My favorite for today is … proposition 6: “Faithful theology incorporates doubt but does not revel in it. Theology is not only suspicious of overly-protective truth claims but also of overly-zealous doubt claims. Theology is not so frivolous to assent to scorning “disproofs” (ala Da Vinci Code).” I like this phrase “Faithful theology”.
What Did You Go Out to See?
Brunch for thought …
“By focusing our attention on Western look-a-likes rather than the God-breathed expressions of ekklesia, we miss the joy of participating with the global church. We also miss the blessing these networks and ministries can offer us. But even more tragic is the reinforcement of our western stereotypes as superior models, each one another mega-brick in the colonial tower of Western Christian supremacy. Any attempts at finding a third space, where their world and ours could meet, are thwarted by our search for what appears successful in our own eyes.”
Advice for Barack Obama
I was intrigued and listening interestingly to a Malaysian speaking with much excitement about Barack Obama 🙂 Here;s some advice that would make people sit up and there’s more (perhaps we could use this piece as a springboard to think of our own politicians in Malaysia? “Please don’t lie to us. Please forego both the repulsive, deceptive, and twisted lies and also the flattering lies we like to hear. For example, I heard a fellow candidate recently trot out the tired old line, “America is the greatest country in the history of the world.” This makes Americans feel good and gets applause. Maybe it wins votes. But it is a lie.”
Paying Respects to Anna Nicole Smith
Reading this makes me reconsider the way I’m tempted to make comments or criticisms to lightly on public figures … as the adrenaline pumps in our system as we launch into cheap shot statements, it does damage to our soul. This last paragraph made me pause and now pray: “As the television blared every detail of Anna Nicole’s life and death, titillating viewers with lurid tales of her paramours and drug use, I could only think of those baptism vows. A woman dies. A mother leaves behind a child. She was not a joke; she was a wounded sister in the human family. Yet even in death, she is offered little respect for her innate dignity, her humanity.”
National Pastors Convention 2007 Webcasts (USA)
Looks good and I’ve heard session 1 which is VERY good especially for pastors!
“The liturgy is itself a kind of music”
This statement rings so true: “The fact there you can’t have a conversation about worship in church without music intruding its way into the conversation within the first 30 seconds is evidence that we’ve all been taken hostage to a medium meant to be worship’s servant not master.”
Atonement and Cultural Anthropology
I’ll save the link for after I finish reading a book on the atonement.
Praying with Fr. Jacques
Great quote from Luther, “Learn from me, how difficult a thing it is to throw off errors confirmed by the example of all the world, and which, through long habit, have become a second nature to us.”. I’ll read this later again.
Andrew Walls: Don’t Know Him? You Should!
While I can’t remember the whole lecture he presented, I do remember sitting and listening to him and making a mental note – one day I will read him. Now I regret not buying the relevant books at a mission conference in Singapore years ago. Then again… we will have another chance. By the way, I fully support the following: “While some scholars such as Philip Jenkins emphasize a shift of power from Western churches to those south of the equator, Walls sees instead a new polycentrism: the riches of a hundred places learning from each other.”