The strangeness of contemporary arianism

The title is a bit of a joke.

Early today I stumbled upon a series of articles examining second temple Judaism and Jesus divinity.

I'll admit that I did not read all of them but recognized from the little I did that these arguments are very similar to the arguments for Jesus divinity from the likes of NT Wright? The argument basically boils down to a philosophical contesting over the difference between agency,essense,substance and representation. I won't go into the details but basically you can have the same arguments for Jesus divinity as his non divinity and simply diasgree over those four concepts. It's a bit ridiculous.

Politics, Religion and Ethics

There is much ink spilt in Christian theological discourse in recent decades over what is perceived as the false dichotomy between religion and politics. After much consideration I'd like to offer a little thesis.

Politics is a category that is not identified with ethics although in actuality politics is mass organization based on an ethical foundation.


I think such a thesis can inform my Christianity and it apparent political implications. They are not political so much as they are ethical. Now if I take the whole idea of 'political organizing' as itself an ethical matter I may just be an anarchist.

Communinty Contra Communitarian

I have preferential option for communitarian ecclesiologies. The same ilk as MacIntyre and the postliberal clan. But recently I have encountered a problem with language of 'community'. Living in an intentional community I have to say that what 'community' we are pursuing is not the same as 'community' in the sense of 'the Christian community', or 'the Francophone community'. These are not at all identical in my mind - yet they do have some relation.

When I speak of 'church' I mean the very practical embodiement of Christians living in face-to-face community. Yet 'church' to me also means showing some sort of solidarity with all who profess Christian identity. But to use the word 'community' to describe both is just confusing.

ALSO: the notion of face-to-face relationships opposed to relating to someone not face-to-face (not talking about merely technology) is an interesting ethical question for me. How are we to relate to people as we encounter people primarily as friends ,acquaintances and people you will never meet.

A Liberation from Illusion

Awesome post over at the de-scribe.

I've been struggling over the idea of the preferential option for the poor. I neither want to reject which I believe is unbiblical, nor accept it uncritically. I've been trying to articulate in my own mind for quite some time the relationship between justice and spirituality in a non-oppositional way. I think this begins to to do so.

One of the reasons I named this blog consumer liberation theology is out of the realization that yes hate poverty and systemic
injustice but do we really want to raise people to be consumers (in the case of economic liberation theology) or the various power issues white men have (in regards to other liberation theologies of gender,race and colonialism).

Deconstructing Institutions and Grass Roots

Here's a binary:

Institutions / Grass-roots Movements.

Let's be iconoclast and deconstruct that binary opposition!

Friendships

A little briefing on my journey of political thinking.

Until relatively recently I have criticized institutions but have tried not to fall into anti-organizational fallacy I think many of my anti-institutional brethren fall into.

Yet recently as I have thought about the dangers of institutional culture I have realized that one can not merely 'network'. The danger of networking is to see in a person the potential for connection but not friendship. Is this even ethical?

So I suggest a new paradigm: do no institutionalize, nor network, but organize with friends! Build long lasting friendships, including with people who may only seem as connections. Illich believes that the function of prophecy has passed on to friendship. I'm beginning to see the greatness of that!

So to all of you out there who read this who may have ambitious plans of networking and organizing: friendship first! friendship last!

Great Quotation on Worship

“In many church circles the only gifts that are valued for worship are musical ones or the ability to speak well. This attitude needs shattering, and opening up so that poets, photographers, ideas people, geeks, theologians, liturgists, designers, writers, cooks, politicians, architects, movie-makers, storytellers, parents, campaigners, children, bloggers, DJs, VJs, craft-makers, or just about anybody who comes and is willing to bounce ideas around, can get involved.”

Read more: http://www.emergentkiwi.org.nz/archive/review-of-jonny-bakers-book-curating-worship/#ixzz0vxqActzr
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial