When Religion Insults Humanity
So, it seems that the innocent act of naming a teddy bear has resulted in a strange legal charge called “insulting religion” and blood-drunk cries to execute a teacher by an angry mob brandishing swords and sticks. I wonder if religion can ever be charged with insulting humanity? If so, this would be a good case study.
Everything Must Change Chapter Nineteen
I mouthed - out loud - several “amens” as I made my way through chapter nineteen of Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change. I deeply resonate with the peace and non-violent Gospel distinctives that are articulated and celebrated in this chapter. I found myself cheering exuberantly as I read, in spite of the nagging personal discomfort that I mentioned in an earlier post regarding the socio-etymological connotations and potential negative symbolism created by McLaren’s attempt to re-frame detrimental imperial/counter-imperial narratives while simultaneously retaining imperial/counter-imperial terms like “insurgency”. Chapter nineteen is titled: “Joining the Peace Insurgency.” It is an incredible chapter laden with Gospel truth. The use of imperial/counter-imperial terms like “insurgency” in the re-framing of narratives doesn’t seem necessary. I agree with the chapter content, but I am mystified by McLaren’s need to use such a word in his re-framing effort. Given the times in which we live, a word like “insurgency” surely can’t be as helpful to the Gospel’s peace cause as McLaren seems to indicate in his choice of title. Read More »
Why Narrative? Readings in Narrative Theology
Narrative Theology. Yes, you have probably heard the term. These days, it seems, Narrative Theology is in demand. It’s no small wonder! Our faith is built upon narrative! The Christmas season we are just beginning to enter only emphasizes the fact. The story of the Incarnation will be told, re-told, sung, illustrated, and celebrated around dinning room tables all over the world during this Christmas season. The narrative nature of our Christian faith is most obvious in times of holiday. It has always been so and it will continue to be so. Read More »
The Daily Scribe’s Newest Scribes 112407
The Daily Scribe’s newest scribes: William P. Young’s WindRumors (Paul is the author of one incredible story called The Shack); Jemila Kwon of Quirky Grace; Nathan Smith of SonSpring; Glenn Jordan of CrookedShore.
Everything Must Change Chapter Sixteen
Chapter sixteen of Everything Must Change focuses entirely on McLaren’s attempt to reinterpret Jesus’ contextually derived “Kingdom of God” metaphor. There are three paragraphs concluding the chapter that point readers towards the “real culture war.” This culture war is fueled, according to McLaren (and David Korten), by the divergent narratives of groups who embrace - or live as though they have - a re-framed Jesus story and those who adhere to the imperial and counter-imperial narratives of empire. These three concluding paragraphs seem a bit out of place within the larger context of this chapter. They do seem to be an addendum to the chapter’s last subsection (”God’s Sacred Ecosystem”), but their existence as a separate subsection with a dedicated title (”The Real Culture War”) not only forced this feeling of textual misplacement, but also left me longing for an actual chapter conclusion. The quality of the chapter’s thought and content would have been much easier to process had it not been for this odd ending. Come to think of it, the quality of the entire book’s thought and content would have been much easier to digest and apply if the conclusions of individual chapters and their eight sections were given more attention. Often it seems as if there are no summary conclusions. Was this intentional, I wonder? Read More »
Thanksgiving in Jersey
We are back from a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with family in New Jersey. Good food, good drink, and good times. We are almost into December already; I can’t believe it! Where in the world did the year 2007 go? At any rate, time to get back to work. It’s going to be a late night.
Happy Thanksgiving
Have a happy Thanksgiving all!
The Ressurection of the Daily Scribe
It’s been a year since I totally mishandled the situation surrounding the website known as The Daily Scribe. Many readers undoubtedly remember the fiasco surrounding the project. Everything about the site unraveled as I was personally unraveling. I was burn-out from over ten years of full-time theological education (long story); I was in the midst of a spiritual journey that at the time seemed hopeless; I was totally disenchanted by/with the American Religious Liberalism I hopefully embraced (thank God for Ricoeur’s expressed ‘Second Naivete’); I was in the midst of a Clinical Pastoral Education Program that placed me right in the middle of more human suffering and death than I ever cared to witness; I was worried about my immediate family and our future. All of these real-time issues intersected and created the perfect personal storm. Most of my relationships suffered a bit during this stormy time. Online interactions were damaged too. I handled the entire Scribe situation in a less than mature fashion. For that, I have no excuse. I can only offer the above as an attempt at explanation. Read More »
Resource Reviews Coming in December
Mike (Mike Morrell of Zoecarnate) and the good people behind The Ooze Select Bloggers Network just shipped this month’s batch of books for review. This month’s titles are pretty exciting, to say the least. They are: A Short and Easy Method of Prayer: Praying the Heart of the Father by Madame Jeanne-Marie and Bouvier De La Motte-Guyon; Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in Consumer Church by Paul Louis Metzger; Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion will Transform Your Life and Our World by Michael Dowd.
A great bunch of titles, all of them. I am especially excited to read Consuming Jesus and Thank God for Evolution. I am most excited about Thank God for Evolution. The fact that this book, as Mike says in his included monthly communique, “… has endorsements from 5 Nobel prize-winning scientists and more than a hundred other scientific, religious, and cultural leaders is pretty amazing.” Yes, it is amazing indeed. I look forward to reading this book. In fact, I’ll be starting with it first.
Watch for the reviews of these three works coming sometime in December.
William Lloyd Garrison’s Declaration of Sentiments
A timely, relevant, and inspired word for today lifted from the Declaration of Sentiments Adopted by the Peace Convention (composed by William Lloyd Garrison, September 28, 1838): Read More »
