Category: Uncategorized

  • Eugene Peterson on Mark’s Gospel

    Update November 4, 2011:

    The lectures and videos for Scripture as Formation are now available through iTunes for free.

    Original post:

    Seven quotes (paraphrased (!) and reconstructed from my notes) from Eugene Peterson's talk tonight at Seattle Pacific University.

    1. Mark 1-8 Jesus is strolling–leisurely meandering, he has time to eat meals with anyone and take boat rides.
    2. Mark 9-16 is dominated by death talk. But Mark is not morbid–Matthew, Luke, and John keep that proportion.
    3. Spirituality is today viewed as a certain insipidity–blurred piety. But in the Bible, it means livingness.
    4. The capacity to say no is the key to freedom. I don't have to do what my culture and glands tell me to do.
    5. Mark 8–Peter tried to avoid the cross's asceticism. Mark 9–Peter tried to make the aesthetic functional.
    6. St. Mark teaches us that we get to enter the center of the story but we are not the center.
    7. Find a couple of theologians you trust and read them. We are not paying enough attention to our good scholars.

    He was speaking at http://spu.edu/depts/theology/events/scripture-as-formation/ and http://www.napce.org/conference.html

  • Roman Catholic Nicholas Healy says we need to begin with scripture

    Roman Catholic theologian Nicholas Healy on the ecclesiology of Thomas Aquinas:

    But while doctrines and practices guide our reading, they cannot issue in a settled interpretation. We must always begin with scripture and must always return to it again as we move along our way . . . Theology, then, is the pursuit of consistency between scripture’s witness to Christ and the lives of Christians, a consistency that must be continually tested and re-established as the church lives in via.

    Healy, Nicholas M. "Practices and the New Ecclesiology: Misplaced Concreteness?" International Journal of Systematic Theology 5, no. 3 (2003): 306-307 of pp. 287-308.

    Healy is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John’s University, New York, New York.

    I am interacting with Healy's articles on Barth's ecclesiology in my dissertation.  He is a delightful conversation partner. 

    Healy, Nicholas M. "The Logic of Karl Barth's Ecclesiology: Analysis, Assessment and Proposed Modifications." Modern Theology 10, no. 3 (1994): 253-270.

    Healy, Nicholas M. "Karl Barth's Ecclesiology Reconsidered." Scottish Journal of Theology 57, no. 3 (2004): 287-299.

    See also:

    Healy, Nicholas M. Thomas Aquinas: Theologian of the Christian Life.  Aldershot; Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2003.

    and

    Healy, Nicholas M. Church, World and the Christian Life: Practical-Prophetic Ecclesiology. New York: Cambridge Univ Pr, 2000.

     

     

  • A few resources on Mormonism

    We were talking with friends today about their conversations with their Mormon neighbors about: coffee (best not to repeatedly invite Mormons over for it), premarital sex (Mormons are proud of their strictness on this), Dr. Pepper (the Mormon husband sometimes gives in to temptations), and Monday Family Home Evening (it is best not to ring the doorbell lest you interrupt devotional times). 

     

    A few resources I came across:

    A Christianity Today article on the state of relations between Christians and Mormons.  This is the place to start:

    http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/november/11.23.html

    Most Improbable Dialogue
    Mormon Tabernacle revival service is latest sign of openness to evangelicals.
    Richard N. Ostling | posted 10/30/2009 10:04AM

    This 1997 book also looks good and is referred to in the article.  Craig Blomberg is a highly respected New Testament scholar.    

    How Wide the Divide?

    Craig L. Blomberg,…

    Best Price $0.39 
    or Buy New $12.28

    Richard Mouw (also referred to in the CT article), president of Fuller Seminary, says there is some common ground with Mormons in Jesus Christ but also serious differences, and that Mormons should engage in dialogue more openly.   

    http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2004/11/We-Have-Sinned-Against-You.aspx
    http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2008/06/A-New-Opportunity-For-Mormonism.aspx

    See also the PBS Frontline documentary:
    http://www.pbs.org/mormons/

    which I don't think I have seen. 

    But I have seen this one which takes on similar issues:

    http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/