9MP – What are your hopes?
How will Malaysia move forward? and where is our place in this “movement”? what do we expect as Malaysians? and what is expected of us? One thing for sure, I hope we won’t just be defined by the following (I’m usually better with what I don’t want to be but we need to work harder on what we do want to be *smile* we got to start somewhere.):
ECONOMIC PROFILE
Population: 26.6 million.
Labour force: 10.5 million (1.3 million in agriculture).
Income: US$5,110 (S$8,280) per capita (Singapore, US$27,300).
GDP growth: 2004: 7.1 per cent; 2005: 5.3 per cent; 2006: forecast 6 per cent.
Poverty:
1995: 8.7 (per cent of population).
1997: 6.1.
1999: 7.5.
2002: 5.1.Broadband: 8 per cent (Singapore, 52 per cent).
Discovering a positive model for responding to unorthodox theology
VERY good stuff here … I’m happy to see myself with “open evangelicalism” on this issue … some gems here:
“… Sometimes, perhaps, a purely defensive reaction is still called for but a much better norm is to assume that there are good and compelling reasons for the case being set out. Those making it may well be wrong, perhaps hopelessly so, but the really critical question is what has happened within Christian “orthodoxy” for them to see it this way? What gap or hole are they exposing? Responding to this question and rising to its challenge is much harder than defensive reaction because it involves being open to there being really crucial things within the Scriptures that we may have missed or neglected. But it can also be the means by which we find these things and are consequently enabled to really grow in our understanding, faith and discipleship.
… The model that suggests itself for evangelicals, therefore, is one of self-critical as well as critical engagement. Rather than assuming that those proposing unorthodox theology are simply misguided, lazy or even plain wicked, a better and more humble approach is to be open to the weaknesses within current “orthodoxy” that they have detected. My increasing opinion is that they will always be on to something. And evangelicalism, at its best, will have the nerve to rise to the challenge of addressing these areas and be prepared to be surprised by the fresh insights thrown up from this engagement. We won’t necessarily (or even usually) endorse the suggested reconstruction but we will be prepared to accept, partly because of our theology of the Body of Christ, that a crucial insight has been raised that we need to engage with. Perhaps this is one of the core values of “Open Evangelicalism”. Abandoning an instinctive and reactionary defensiveness, we will strive to employ a positive, generous and exciting model for responding to unorthodox theology.”
The Formation of Godly Community: Old Testament Hermeneutics in the Presence of the Other
much to chew here …
“It is imperative that the Church move beyond simplistic formulations of the hermeneutical options. Sweeping reductionist claims are, of course, often intended to be accessible, to welcome neophytes into the richness of God’s Word. But such claims do a drastic disservice to all readers of Scripture, and especially to beginners and non-specialists. Reductionist summaries underplay precisely those complex textual dynamics and issues of reader accountability that we need to acknowledge in our own embodied and particular contexts in order to avoid the unwitting deification of our own loyalties, idolatries, and misunderstandings.”
“… Reading in the presence of the Other will radically subordinate foundationalism and reductionism to the passionately embodied claims of difference that fracture and enrich our world. Our theologies may need to be similarly fractured and enriched. Our ecclesiologies may need to suffer in the presence of that which is “Other.” But I believe that we are called by Christ, the living Word of God, to stay present to this suffering and to continue to read together. What a testimony it will give to Christ when we read on together through dissent, through contradictory hermeneutical assumptions, through the pain of responding to readings that destabilize our favorite idolatries and press insistently against our most cherished community boundaries! As Augustine learned centuries ago, the Word of God brings us to our knees. Let us read there together, on our knees before the One whose incarnate Word of love conquers all. For with God, nothing is impossible; and we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.
Propositional Revelation and Scripture, pt. 1 of 2
Propositional Revelation and Scripture, pt. 2 of 2
More things to digest … interesting.
Why churches should offer wireless internet
ok let me see … maybe we can … 🙂
The Christian Theological Research Fellowship Papers
Interesting collection … imagine this The Church as a Community of (Un)Common Grace: Toward a Postmodern Ecclesiology was already written in 1997!!
Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained (via Maggi)
Opps I got ordained … 😛 *grin*
Dissolving the Inerrancy Debate: How Modern Philosophy Shaped the Evangelical View of Scripture
stumbled on this article by accident …
hey did you know LHC has wireless? hehe…
nice paragraph on responding to ‘unorthodox’ theology (like the kind I tend to espouse, ahem!).