I posted this almost a year ago and am re-posting it in light of the loss of Clark Pinnock. Yes, a loss. While I can’t stand on the same ground as his Open Theism, I’ve found in him (and great stories about him – read below) a pious, humble expression of the faith. Orthodox or not, the impression I have is the man walked humbly with his God. So here’s the re-post. Read more…
*Re-publishing this on the one-year anniversary of his passing. His thought still shapes my own, and the few times we met still leave a lasting impression.
If you’ve had a heart for missionary work overseas you may or may not have heard of the name “Ralph Winter”. Hands down, his was THE MOST influential voice in global mission in the past 50 years. While not the hagiographical superstar, his thought has subtly, yet profoundly influenced – no – charted the course of global Christianity and steered it toward new dimensions. Pop ideas like the 10 / 40 window would not be were it not for him, and those themes only scratch the surface of his ideas. Sadly, Ralph Winter passed away yesterday (5/20/09) at his home in Pasadena, after a long and courageous battle with Multiple Myeloma. He was well into his eighties. Read more…
Had an interesting discussion with one of the profs here @ Regent recently, a mainline evangelical seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). The gist of it was: as a professional academic (or professional student for that matter) in at times hostile environments (I think of the demythologizing atmosphere of most liberal theological schools), how does one keep one’s evangelical heritage and faith intact? Now it’s not the losing of faith that I’m concerned with, but more so the maintaining of theological commitments and convictions. His answer was simple; remember. Remember your context, community, and charter, all the whiles being fully aware of your environment; (actually he didn’t put it like that I’m just synthesizing – he just said something to the effect of “remember”) but I think that’s a good reason why many of the strongest orthodox theologians stayed in the safe via media of orthodox thought; their contextual faith communities. And in my theory, most of these are largely pietistic in origin.
This is just fantastic. I think James Cone hits the mark with laser precision here, particularly the differing philosophical epistemologies. Thoughts?
The difference in the form of black and white religious thought is on the one hand sociological. Since blacks were slaves and had to work from sun-up to nightfall, they did not have time for the art of philosophical and theological discourse. They, therefore, did not know about the systems of Augustine, Calvin, or Edwards. And if Ernst Bloch is correct in his contention that “need is the mother of thought,”1 then it can be said that black slaves did not need to know about Anselm’s ontological argument, Descartes Cogito, ergo sum, and Kant’s Ding an sich. Such were not their philosophical and theological problems as defined by their social reality. Read more…
Now that the Deadly Vipers controv has died down I can comment in retrospect and objectively.
More so than the controversy itself I think I’ll comment on the emerging asian-american consensus that is arising, a vociferous element that has finally gotten in touch with its angry side, its unabashed and bold calling out of the “white man” and its strong presence on the internet. I would say the DV controv is in some respects the hallmark event that congealed the solidarity of this movement, a sort of historic moment in my opinion. I see strengths and weaknesses of this incipient movement: Read more…
Some thoughts spurred on by my readings in feminist theology (a req for hermeneutics) as well as a spate of blog posts lately by perceptive and insightful writers. I’m realizing in many ways how complicit I am in the domineering of the opposite gender. Now I don’t just mean overtly sexist behavior or speech, but rather a complicity that comes by being part of a system, a culture, a way the world works. I’ve found naming the problem is not enough. Elitist intellectualisms don’t solve the problem either. My wife would remark how I tend to pride myself that I am progressive intellectually but really am in truth, quite conservative in outlook and practice, showing just how much I am ingrained into a way of life that is patriarchal, Korean, hierarchical, oppressive. So yes, I am part of the problem, sexist, an oppressor just by nature of the way of life I perpetuate. How are women truly liberated by my work as a pastor? I’m not sure yet but I know that it’s going to be more than just leaving the toilet seat down.
Letty Russell, theologian and feminist
Reading through selections of Letty Russell, Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. It’s poignant, moving, and sad. Several of these scholars, having started from a Christian frame of reference, have eventually become so discouraged so as to have given up on the Bible entirely, concluding the chasm between the Bible (and thus, God) and feminism unbridgeable. They stand antagonized by a God who is male, oppressive, and dominant. But I find Letty Russell as a light in the sadness; while recognizing the oppression, she sees the End – eschatological fulfillment – as the reason to carry on. Maybe the Bible is sexist. Maybe we won’t see women treated fairly today, or for a long time. But a Day comes… and so she ends on a hopeful note. In the same volume, Phyllis Trible recognizes: Women as victims of the text, but refusing to let go w/o a blessing – tenaciously pouring over a male-oriented, male-interpreted Scripture, trying to find a light that will both be true to revelation and at the same time treat women as full persons and not just supplementary helpers. I find myself deeply reflective over these words, repentant, moved, and hitherto part of the dialogue. We’re going to comment respectfully and thoughtfully here (assuming there will be any comments). Anything slanderous / disrespectful will be deleted.
One thing I love about Regent is its emphasis on art. So the current discussion is if there be something religious about art, both the experience of viewing it and creating it. Having a Bachelor of Fine Art from Parsons School of Design, I am somewhat aware of the conventions – but I also know how godless the study of art can be. Nonetheless, now, almost 15 yrs since I first set foot in NYC’s art scene, I adamantly do believe there be a spark of divinity in the creator and the created. A hermeneutical shift, here the “Christian viewer” can have one of two responses when confronted with “art”: Read more…
Jamie Arpin-Ricci has some good words to say about this subject over @ A Living Alternative. It seems the consensus sways between an undiscriminating dependency on pastors on the one hand and on the other, a sort of anti-hierarchical sentiment. Do we need pastors today? Here were my thoughts: Read more…
Has been the question over @ Regent as of late, with Boersma, Provan, Watts, and others getting into the brouhaha. The debate is simply this. Athens is the city of man (political, Constantinian, establishment, institution, the State). Jerusalem is everything heavenly-minded (kingdom of God, kingdom come, Augustine’s City of God, pure religion). Can the two mix is the question. But most notably, it has cultural implications. The issue being, can one extract a pure Christianity from its Hellenistic Greco-Roman roots? Is such a thing possible? Some would argue yes, and it must be done. Others would say no, the two have become inseparable, and essentially we must accept the reality that Christianity is a religion of the West, rooted in Western philosophy. The issue then is if there is integrity to the pursuit of a contextualized Christianity – a Black theology, or an Asian theology, or what not.
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