thoughts from reading... Things I find interesting as I read

Wednesday, February 08, 2006   As you can see, I have not posted to this blog for a while now. I am posting to my general blog on a regular basis, including thoughts I have about what I read and lots of other stuff. Click below to continue reading what I am thinking about. Of course, I may continue to add to this blog for my own purposes rather than attempting to make public comments on any particular topic. Why the heck would anyone care about my pontifications? :-) Go here: http://hypersync.net/mt/ posted by Bob | 2/08/2006 09:07:00 AM Sunday, January 18, 2004   My experiences in a theologically liberal setting with a strong and ancient tradition, I can't help but be changed - a progression both gradual and somewhat imperceptible. It is one thing to disagree with another or others concerning issues, ideas, or theories of all types, but another thing entirely to deny Christ in the other or others when I might hold a differing opinion. We are seeking God. God is beyond our understanding, yet God has finagled a way so that we can know Him. We can never fully understand, yet we can know! By the word of their testimony - they seek God; seek to understand God and the world. Their actions (for the most part, recognizing we humans are always fallible and always prone to mistakes) are generally consistent with their words. I cannot deny Christ in them; I cannot deny the Holy Spirit working within them to conform their lives to the image of Christ - freedom, peace, joy, and prosperity of the soul. I may think they are dead wrong and at this point in their understanding dangerous to the cause of Christ, but I cannot deny Christ in them! I cannot, even though they deny Christ in me. I can ask where their passions lie! "Linking Isaiah's allegory with our Lord's vine and branches metaphor in tonight's gospel, the warning is clear: you and I put ourselves in great danger when we abide in any other vine - whether person, issue, tradition, or theological conviction - as the source of our identity and purpose. There is only one vine in which to abide - our Lord." (The Rev'd. Fred Anderson, pastor of the Madison Ave. Presbyterian Church, preacher for the William Reed Huntington Memorial Eucharist, September 2003) He spoke of many wild grapes that have been produced by the Church throughout history. Where does my passion lie? Within what vine do I abide? Within which do you? "Our disunity has produced more than simply bad wine." Within the Episcopal Church and within Anglicanism, much bad wine is being produced, many wild grapes are growing. We are abiding in vines of theology, pride, power, "purity," polity, piety, Biblicism, idolatry, etc. We are denying Christ in others from whom we hear their words of testimony and see the fruit of their lives and their claim of life in Christ. Anderson refers to his first professor of Ecumenics, as he touches on the issues that continue to divide us, especially at this time concern human sexuality, "President McCord regularly warned students, 'If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always chose heresy. For as a heretic you are only guilty of a wrong opinion. As a schismatic, you have torn and divided the Body of Christ. Choose heresy every time!'" Here is a profound change in me! I would have always chosen against heresy (maybe not for schism per-say, but for expulsion) and would have denied Christ in others who did not hold a generally Evangelical theology. Now, I cannot deny Christ to others or in others with whom I disagree (who disagree with a certain theological vain), even though I may consider them heretics. I have moved from choosing a particular take on "purity of doctrine" ending is schism (expulsion), to choosing heresy. I see in part and I know in part, so who am I to judge others to the point of denying Christ in them when their words and deeds show a seeking after the things of Christ, a longing and desire for the Way of Christ. I may think they are dead wrong, and I may think their current ways of thinking or doing are dangerous to the cause of Christ, but it is not my prerogative to decide whether they do or do not have Christ! posted by Bob | 1/18/2004 05:55:00 PM Friday, December 26, 2003   I've been reading Rowan Williams' (Archbishop of Canterbury) book Lost Icons: Reflections on Cultural Bereavement. In chapter two he writes of 'Charity,' "Since social activity outside the framework of 'charity' is regularly characterized by the sense of rivalry for limited goods, the festival or the fraternity comes to be a vastly important redefinition of what is involved in acquiring 'goods' at all. The material world appears as a world of scarcity - at least in the sense that no material acquisitions can be infinitely divided out. The game of 'charity' is based on the implied proposal that there are goods to be worked for that are completely different in kind from material goods, goods that exist only in the game, within the agreed structures of unproductive action..." (pp. 56-57; italics his) In this context (rivalry of limited 'goods', although not in reference to a 'game'), I wonder whether the conflicts between different groups of Christians, and between some Christians and other religions, and between they and secularists, is a result of this notion: that salvation is a limited commodity so that there is a competition to see who gets it -- or -- God's acceptance and attention are limited, so that there is a rivalry to attain them. Thus, one group demands that their way be the only way and that their definitions be the only definitions to the exclusion of all others, securing for themselves God's salvation, attention, acceptance, and blessing. I wonder whether for many there is an underlying concept of limit to God's grace and mercy, to God's salvation? The politicized Religious Right demands (in so many ways and at so many levels) that society accepts their understanding of what determines a Christian and their definitions, and accept their assertion that those who do not are not saved or are not Christian. Why? I know there all kinds of sociological, psychological, and theological explanations for such views and behavior, but I wonder within a theological context whether there honestly is a belief that God's grace and salvation are limited, and because of this there develops a sense of rivalry and competition that compels them to horde, to become exclusive, to deny others that which they claim for themselves? This could explain a lot in the way the conservative Religious Right is responding to the inclusion of homosexuals into society and the Church and their obsessive, fanatical opposition to any Christian person or group that advocates for such inclusion. I wonder? God's salvation, attention, acceptance, and blessing are limitless, thus there is no need to adopt an economic or consumer model of competitiveness and rivalry to attain/obtain limited resources -- whether spiritual, material, a sense of acceptance or self-worth, forgiveness, love, etc. There is no 'charity' and no concern for the other in this model, just selfishness, ego, and pride -- which can and will lead to violence, whether spiritual, mental, or physical. posted by Bob | 12/26/2003 05:05:00 AM Monday, November 17, 2003   "...they say, 'of all other most clear, where speaking of those things which are called indifferent, in the end he concludeth, That 'whatsoever is not of faith is sin.' But faith is not but in respect of the Word of God. Therefore whatsoever is not done by the Word of God is sin." Whereunto we answer, that albeit the name of Faith being properly and strictly taken, it must needs have reference unto some uttered word as the object of belief: nevertheless sith the ground of credit is the credibility of things credited; and things are made credible, either by the know condition and quality of the utterer, or by the manifest likelihood of truth which they have in themselves; hereupon it riseth that whatsoever we are persuaded of, the same we are generally said to believe. In which generality the object of faith may not so narrowly be restrained, as if the same did extend no further than to the only Scriptures of God. 'Though,' saith our Saviour, 'ye believe not me, believe my works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him.' 'The other disciples said unto Thomas, We have seen the Lord;' but his answer unto them was, 'Except I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into them, I will not believe.' Can there be any thing more plain than that which by these two sentences appeareth, namely, that there may be a certain belief grounded upon other assurance than Scripture: any thing more clear, than that we are said not only to believe the things which we know by another's relation, but eve whatsoever we are certainly persuaded of, whether it be by reason or by sense?" (Richard Hooker, Book Two of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity - so to answer the Puritan's demand that nothing be done but that which is directly found in scripture, and if something be done that is not found in scripture, then it is sin.) posted by Bob | 11/17/2003 03:34:00 PM Saturday, September 20, 2003   "No one should deny that traditional biblical interpretation has proved inadequate to protect the Reformed Church in South Africa, inadequate to protect the Medieval Catholic Church from the cruelty of the Inquisition - inadequate to protect American Christians from their twentieth-century military (cf.Ethics, p. 314). We cannot correct all the excesses Christians have carried out under traditional cover, but we must ask if we ourselves are helpless prisoners of our traditional ways of reading the Bible." - James Wm. McClendon, Jr., Doctrine: Systematic Theology, Volume 2, pp. 468-469 Have to read this book for Systematic Theology. He comes from a Baptist tradition and teaches at Fuller. Kind of an odd choice for a more liberal Anglican seminary, but it is very good - someone with whom I actually feel an affinity. Add to this, southern expressions of national denominations that split, north and south (American Baptists vs. Southern Baptists, for example), as they attempted to biblically justify chattel slavery! We will add to this, later on, perhaps many years from now, prohabitionist Christians and denominations as they demanded belief that homosexuality would be the destruction of Western Civilization, the United States, and of all that is good and virtuous in the world, because the Bible said so! I'm not a scholar nor an intellectual, but why don't people think? posted by Bob | 9/20/2003 02:29:00 PM Sunday, September 07, 2003   Theology: "Theology is faith seeking understanding." Anselm. From, Studying Congregations: A New Handbook After seeking, "The Order," yesterday, the idea of the "Carolingian Order," a somewhat rogue order often acting outside the authority of the Roman Church, was to seek understanding and knowledge beyond measure. By the way, in Church History, we are actually beginning "Carolingian Christianity." Hum. Anyway, faith seeking understanding is a good way to sum up my obsession. posted by Bob | 9/07/2003 03:58:00 PM Tuesday, September 02, 2003   This comes from the commencement speech by Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University, to the graduating class at Hillsdale College. The speech is entitled, "Freedom and Its Counterfeit." These are a couple excerpts from the speech I found particularly interesting. "True freedom consists in the liberation of the human person from the shackles of ignorance, oppression and vice... What overcomes ignorance is knowledge, and the object of knowledge is truth - empirical, moral, spiritual. "True freedom, the freedom that liberates, is grounded in truth and ordered to truth and, therefore, to virtue. A free person is enslaved neither to the sheer will of another nor to his own appetites and passions. A free person lives uprightly, fulfilling his obligations to family, community, nation and God. By contrast, a person given over to his appetites and passions, a person who scoffs at truth and chooses to live, whether openly or secretly, in defiance of the moral law is not free. He is simply a different kind of slave. "The counterfeit of freedom consists in the idea of personal and communal liberation from morality, responsibility and truth. It is what our nation's founders expressly distinguished from liberty and condemned as 'license.' The so-called freedom celebrated today by so many... is simply the license to do whatever one pleases. This false conception of freedom - false because disordered, disordered because detached from moral truth and civic responsibility - shackles those in its grip no less powerfully than did the chattel slavery of old. Enslavement to one's own appetites and passions is no less brutal a from of bondage from being a slavery of the soul. It is no less tragic, indeed, it is in certain respects immeasurably more tragic, for being self-imposed. "Counterfeit freedom is worse than fraudulent. It is the mortal enemy of the real thing. Counterfeit freedom can provide no rational account or defense of its own normative claims... "But counterfeit freedom poses greater dangers still. As our founders warned, a people given over to license will be incapable of sustaining republican government. As our founders warned, a people given over to license will be incapable of sustaining a republican government. For republican government - government by the people - requires a people who are prepared to take responsibility for the common good, including the preservation of conditions of liberty. "Listen... to President Fairfield.... at that ceremony on July 4th, 1853... 'Unrestrained freedom is anarchy. Restrained only by force and arms, is despotism; self-restrained is Republicanism...' "The self-government that is the right of free men and women is truly a sacred trust." posted by Bob | 9/02/2003 10:20:00 AM Thursday, July 03, 2003   I finished Recent History. In many ways, it brought up similiar feelings as when I read Lake Effect last summer. Now, today, I got into Young Man from the Provinces. He, the author, writes about growing up in a violent alcoholic family (his father, who would beat him and his mother). He had a couple reoccuring nightmares. One, a big black bear would slowly raise the bedroom window inch by inch posted by Bob | 7/03/2003 10:48:00 AM Tuesday, June 17, 2003   This, from a paper I got off the Web entitled Eschaton or Escape? Paul's Two Ages vs. Plato's Two Worlds by Michael S. Horton, quoting Nietzsche and his six stages of "the history of an error," describing "How the 'Real World' Finally Became a Fable." "First, the real world was 'attainable for the wise man, the pious man, the virtuous man.' But then it was said that the real world was 'unattainable for now, but promised to the wise man, the pious man, virtuous man (to the sinner who repents).' In its third stage, the fable said that the real world is 'unattainable, unprovable, unpromisable, but the mere thought of it [is] a consolation, an obligation, an imperative.' Here is the Kantian stage, in which modern liberal theology developed." This is a shame, I do think. Those who reside in the cognitive domain alone miss the essence of relationship between God and His creation (us) that resides most often in the experiential, the affective domain. They miss... Horton goes on, "Eventually, the 'real world' becomes totally irrelevant. Not even an obligation, the ethical residue finally evaporates and nothing is left. 'The real world -- we have done away with it: what world was left? The apparent one, perhaps?... But no! With the real world we have also done away with the apparent one!' Elsewhere, he wrote, 'I hate that overleaping of this world which occurs when one condemns this world wholesale. Art and religion grow out of this. Oh, I understand this flight up and away into the repose of the One.'" Interesting, ah? posted by Bob | 6/17/2003 02:23:00 PM Wednesday, May 21, 2003   "God’s righteousness became all the more apparent when sin was revealed in the Law!" - From NT2 notes coving Romans posted by Bob | 5/21/2003 02:11:00 PM   This is in the most current newsletter from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Akron, OH., my sponsoring parish. It is nothing really profound about it, but the list of topics George Murphy is present during a summer adult education class on church-state issues. Here are the topics: - Religion and the state in the Bible - Natural law and the Ten Commandments - What is "an establishment of religion?" - The Church's use of force - Religion in the public schools - Were the founding fathers Christian? - Luther's "two kingdoms" concept - Separation of church and state - "Don't preach about politics." - In what "God" do we "trust?" - Revolution - 1776 and others - Capital punishment - Who needs government? And, why? posted by Bob | 5/21/2003 02:01:00 PM Wednesday, March 05, 2003   Slavery (Greco-Roman): artical assigned for New Testament, probably from the New Interpretors Dictionary vol. VI, pp65-67, or some such thing. "...Among a variety of institutions for maintaining dominance and dependence characteristic of the early Roman Empire was an especially important form of compulsory labor in which part of the population legally owned other human beings as property; it was practiced in all cultures relevant to the writing of the documents of the New Testament. dio Chrysostom, a popular orator in the 1st century C.E., spoke for the Mediterranean consensus when he defined slavery as the right to use another man at pleasure, like a piece of property or a domestic animal (XV.24). "Yet it must be stressed that for the most part knowledge of slavery as practiced in the New World in the 17th-19th centuries has hindered more than helped achieving an appropriate, historical understanding of social-economic life in the Mediterranean world of the 1st century, knowledge which is absolutely essential for a sound exegesis of those NT texts dealing with slaves and their owners or using slavery-related metaphors. For example, in contact to the Authorized Version's translation of the Greek term doulos as 'servant,' the word 'slave' should be used in order to stress the legally regulated subordination of the person in slavery. Yet in contrast to present connotations of the term 'slave' resulting from the special racial, economic, educational, and political practices characteristic of slavery in the New World, the slaves and slavery mentioned in NT texts must be defined strictly in terms of the profoundly different legal-social contexts of the 1st century. "Central features that distinguish 1st century slavery from that later practiced in the New World are the following: racial factors played no role; education was greatly encourages (some slavers were better educated than their owners) and enhanced a slave's value; many slaves carried out sensitive and highly responsible social functions; slaves could own property (including other slaves!); their religious and cultural traditions were the same as those of the freeborn; no laws prohibited public assembly of slaves; and (perhaps above all) the majority of urban and domestic slaves could legitimately anticipate being emancipated by the age of 30. "...And sufficient differences existed among the three traditions (Jewish, Greek, and Roman) relevant to NT texts to require that serious students investigate the specific legal-social-philosophical background of each NT passage. "For example, the Greek tradition tended to regard an enslaved person as inferior by nature and thus fortunate to have a Greek master (Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, echoed by Cicero), and to view human freedom as divisible into parts. The Jewish tradition, despite the practice of debt-slavery and the use of slaves even in the Jerusalem Temple, tended to regard any enslavement of Jews by Jews as improper because every Jew had already become exclusively a 'slave of God' by means of the liberation of his or her ancestors from Egyptian bondage (Lev. 25:55). In the Roman tradition, slaves on the one hand were rigorously regarded in much legislation as things (instrumentum vocale - a 'speaking tool'), yet on the other hand they were regularly treated as well as free human beings and were normally granted Roman citizenship when set free, as happened regularly. For this reason, it has been argued that urban and domestic enslavement under Roman law is best understood as a process rather than a permanent condition, as process of social integration of outsiders (Wiedemann 1981: 3). "Although slavery was practiced in most (but not all)cultures from as far back as records have been found, ancient Greece and Rom are two of only five societies in world history which seem to have been based on slavery. "Thus whereas there is no justification for referring to 1st century Jewish society as a 'slave economy,' this is an entirely appropriate designation for the Greco-Roman world in general. The leisure used by the Greeks to create their extraordinary cultural achievements has been made possible for the most part by the surplus taken from the work of a large number of slaves (Ste. Croix 1981; 133-73). How did a person become a slave? "prisoners of war and people kidnapped by pirates provided the Mediterranean world with the vast majority of its slaves. By the 1st century C.E., however, the children of women in slavery had become the primary source of slaves... This prolific source was supplemented by self-sale, the sale of freeborn children, the raising of foundlings, and debt-bondage. "It is highly likely that the 'synagogue of the freedmen' mentioned in Acts 6:9 had been founded by such Jewish freedmen who had returned to Jerusalem. "Large numbers of people sold themselves into slavery for various reasons, e.g., to pay debts, to clime socially (Roman citizenship was conventionally bestowed on a slave released by a Roman owner), to obtain special jobs, and above all to enter a life that was more secure and less strenuous than existence as a poor, freeborn person. "The practice of self-sale into slavery is the most likely context for understanding Paul's admonition to the Corinthian Christians: 'You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men (I Cor 7:23), even if his emphasis was primarily metaphorical. Knowledge of such self-sales provides the necessary background for appreciating the commitment of those Roman Christians who exploited the system by selling themselves into slavery in order to gain money to ransom others (apparently having worse owners) from slavery and to provide food for others (I Clem. 55:2). posted by Bob | 3/05/2003 04:11:00 PM Friday, January 31, 2003   A History of Christian Thought by: Justo L. Gonzalez "In short, from its very beginning Christianity has existed as the message of the God who 'so loved the world' as to become part of it. Christianity is not an ethereal, eternal doctrine about God's nature, but rather it is the presence of God in the world in the person of Jesus Christ. Christianity is incarnational, and, therefore, it exists in the concrete and the historical." (29) posted by Bob | 1/31/2003 05:53:00 PM Wednesday, January 29, 2003   Timaeus by: Plato "We must, then, in my opinion, first of all make the following distinction: What is that which always is and is untouched by becoming? -- and what is always in a state of coming-to-be but never is? Now that which intelligence grasps by way of a rational account is what always is self-identically; while that which is the object of belief by way of non-reasoning sense-perception is that which is coming into being and perishing but never in the proper sense is. Everything, though, that is coming into being must necessarily come into being by the agency of some cause; for it is absolutely impossible that anything should be in a state of coming-to-be apart form some cause." huh? Isn't this fun! posted by Bob | 1/29/2003 04:33:00 PM Tuesday, January 28, 2003   A History of Christian Thought by: Justo L. Gonzalez I know some of this stuff is common sense, but it is always good to be reminded. Plus, I like the way he puts things - to me he is very clear and concise. "The task of the historian does not consist in mere repetition of what has happened - or, in this case, of what has been thought. On the contrary, the historian must begin by selecting the material to be used, and the rules guiding this selection depend upon a decision that is to a considerable degree subjective... This selection depends in good part upon the author, which means that every history of Christian thought is of necessity also a reflection of the theological presuppositions of the writer, and the historian of Christian thought who suggests that such work is free of theological presuppositions is clearly deluded." (23) "The presuppositions and value judgements of the historian determine the selection of the material, the bridging of gaps in the sources, and the very manner of presentation, which may appear so objective as to beguile the reader." (25) "Faced by these two positions," (Docetism & Ebionism), "Christianity affirms that the truth is given in the concrete, the historical, and the particular, contained and hidden within it, but in such a way as never to lose its veracity for all historical moments." (26-27) "THE truth of doctrine will never be such that we can say: here is the eternal and incommutable truth, free of any shadow or conjecture of historical relativism. The truth of doctrine is only present to that degree in which , through the various doctrines, the Word of God (which is the Truth) is able to confront the church with a demand for absolute obedience. When this happens that doctrine indeed becomes the standard of judgment of the church's life and proclamation." (27) "Are all doctrines then equally valid? Certainly not. Moreover, no doctrine is valid in the sense of being able to identify itself with the Word of God." (27) posted by Bob | 1/28/2003 09:57:00 AM   A History of Christian Thought by: Justo L. Gonzalez "Just as the Israelites, when they escaped from Egypt, carried off some of the gods of their oppressors, so the Christians utilized the ideas and intellectual methods of their opponents in fashioning their replies. Broadly speaking, the intellectual concerns of the Christians, although theological rather than philosophical, placed them in the tradition of Greek philosophy, and even those Christians who, like Tertullian, decried the use of pagan learning , nevertheless in the acuteness of their reasoning were heirs of the classical heritage. But there was also a background in Judaism for intellectual pursuits. The synagogue was unique in the ancient world, a church without an altar, only a desk for the reading of the Law. And after the reading came the exposition, for the Law was to be interpreted. The desk in the synagogue was the lectern of a professor as well as the pulpit of a prophet. The rabbi was both. Significantly the first churches were modeled after the synagogue." (14) "The incarnation of God in the man Jesus involved another affinity of Christianity with Judaism and a divergence from the Hellenic approach to religion, because Judaism and Christianity see the primary self-disclosure of God to man in the events of history. The Eternal breaks into time. This is supremely the case with the incarnation, itself an event in time... The Word became flesh at a point in time. Therefore, Christianity must always be historically oriented. This also means that God in Christ was disclosing himself to man. This is revelation." (15) "This is essentially true of the Stoic and Aristotelian approaches and largely also in the case of the Platonic, where, form the shadows that he sees, man infers the realities that he does not see. In such a case, revelation, if such it can be called, proceeds from the ground up. It is not a deposit, but the object of a quest.... There need be no anchorage in the past, and there is nothing once and for all delivered." (15) This last sentence reminds me of the attitude among most of the Evangelical, and especially Pentecostal, Christians I know. The knowledge of history among most in the Church is atrocious. Historical ignorance is an American phenomena, so this characteristic isn't something particular to the American Church. All the while many religious-right political leaders like to harken back to different periods in history to justify their political stands or their theological dictates, their use of history is often so selective as to render their pronouncements null and void. Of course, we find liberals doing the very same thing. Yet, if we are to be a church, a people, rooted in the historic understandings so to better understand the place of faith in our own time, we need to be well versed in history. This seems to be such a common sense notion, but it is lost on most of us. Especially within Pentecostalism, where the idea of God doing new things through the Holy Spirit is so engrained that every whim of excess can quickly sweep through whole denominations and church-groups. It is a pop-theology, a pop-expression of Church, and the very thing we want - the one and forever Truth - can be quickly lost in the urgent and the now. If God truly is the same yesterday, today, and forever, world without end, then the one and forever Truth is there to discern and understand, but we have to be open to understand, even if the understanding completely upturns our clenched current beliefs. As Father Wright writes, "If one is to avoid becoming a mere prisoner of present perspective, then one must transcend the conventional wisdom of the immediate past, avoid the tyranny of the 'tract-rack' theology, for the past must be surveyed before it can be surmounted." and "Participation in the future by interpretation of the past." posted by Bob | 1/28/2003 05:09:00 AM Sunday, January 26, 2003   Celebration of Discipline by: Richard Foster "...if we can quite ourselves enough to listen." (25) "Whereas the study of Scripture centers on exegesis, the meditation of Scripture centers on internalizing and personalizing the passage." (26) Chapter 3: The Discipline of Prayer "Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. It is original research in unexplored territory." (30) "The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ." (30) "But when we pray God slowly and graciously reveals to us our hiding places, and sets us free from the." (30) "...we should remember that God always meets us where we are and slowly moves us along into deeper things." (31) "It is Stoicism that demands a closed universe, not the Bible." (32) "Søren Kierkegaard once observed: 'A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening." (34-35) "The prayer of guidance constantly precedes and surrounds the prayer of faith." (35) "If we are still, we will learn not only who God is but how His power operates." (35) "Coincidence? Perhaps, but as Archbishop William Temple once noted, the coincidences occurred much more frequently when he prayed." (38) "Units of prayer combined, like drops of water, make an ocean which defies resistance." (39) Chapter 6: The Discipline of Simplicity "Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear." (69) "The Christian Discipline of simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward life-style." (69) "Experiencing the inward reality liberates us outwardly." (70) "Inwardly modern man is fractured and fragmented... He has no unity or focus around which life is oriented" (70) "Asceticism and simplicity are mutually incompatible." (74) "Asceticism renounces possessions. Simplicity sets possessions in proper perspectives." (74) "The central point for the Discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of His kingdom first - and then everything necessary will come in its proper order." (75) posted by Bob | 1/26/2003 05:52:00 PM Friday, January 24, 2003   Testing - okay, is this one working? posted by Bob | 1/24/2003 04:13:00 PM   Celebration of Discipline by: Richard Foster I'm reading this book along with the other members of our TSP group. We plan on continuing to meet together this term and to go over this book. It has been around 20 years since I last read this book. So far, it is as good as I remembered it to be! Chapter 1: Door to Liberation "Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people." (italics mine) [ This is so applicable to our situation here and now in seminary. We can learn so much and experience so much, but without the work of discipleship - of the disciplines - the deepness of life and the formulation of meaning of all the learning and experience can be for nothing. ] "In fact, the Disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our normal daily activities. If hey are to have any transforming effect, the effect must be found in the ordinary junctures of human life." (1) "The Disciplines are 'classical' because they are central to experiential Christianity" (1) "Joy is the keynote of the Disciplines. The purpose of the Disciplines is liberation from the stifling slavery to self-interest and fear." (2) "The primary requirement is a longing for God." (2) "As Thomas Merton said, 'We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners all our life.'" (2) "Psalm 42:7 reads 'Deep calls to deep.'" [ I know this can sound, or even be, exclusionary, but their is a recognition that is present between those who find themselves in the 'deep.' There is always the danger of pride and haughtiness, yet deep does call to deep. It can be seen in another, just like one who has gone through horrific times in life can discern the same path of experience in another who has gone through horrific experiences. ] "One word of caution, however, must be given at the outset; to know the mechanics does not mean that we are practicing the Discipline. the Spiritual Disciplines are an inward and spiritual reality and the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than he mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life." (3) "The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over our sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshiping the will." (4) "Heinri Arnold concludes, 'As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own will power, we will only make the evil in us stronger than ever.'" (4) "By dint of will people can make a good showing for a time, but sooner or later there will come the unguarded moment when the 'careless word' will slip out to reveal the true condition of the heart." (5) "It is not that we intend to be that way. We have no intention of exploding with anger or of parading a sticky arrogance, but when we are with people, what we are comes out... Willpower has no defense against the careless word, the unguarded moment." (5) "The needed change within us is God's work, not ours." (5) "Once we clearly understand that God's grace is unearned and unearnable, and if we expect to grow, we must take up a consciously chosen course of action involving both individual and group life. That is the purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines." (7) "We must always remember that the path does not produce the change; it only puts us in the place where the change can occur. This is the way of disciplined grace." (7) "We did no more than receive a gift, yet we know the changes are real. We know they are real because we find that the spirit of compassion we once found so hard is now easy... No longer is there the tiring need to hide our inner selves from others." (7) "The Spiritual Disciplines are intended for our good. They are meant to bring the abundance of God into our lives. It is possible, however, to turn them into another set of soul-killing laws. Law-bound Disciplines breathe death... When the Disciplines degenerate into law, they are used to manipulate and control people... Once we have made a law, we have an 'externalism' by which we can judge who is measuring up and who is not... When we genuinely believe that inner transformation is God's work and not ours, we can put to rest our passion to set others straight." (8-9) [ This is very good! I have experienced so often the legalization of our life with God. This can be found in all forms throughout the whole Church, but some traditions are more adept at it than others. Legalistic righteousness is found alive and well within the "conservative" Church. "Conservative" is a bad word to use because of the baggage it brings, but I just don't have a better descriptive word at this point. Then, of course, we judge one another in order to prove our own self-righteousness. We judge in order to make ourselves feel better. Read Romans chapter 2! ] "In these matters we need the words of the apostle Paul embedded in our minds: 'We deal not in the letter but in the Spirit. the letter of the Law leads to the death of the soul; the Spirit of God alone can give life to the soul.' (2 Cor. 3:6, Phillips)" (9) Chapter 2: The Discipline of Meditation "In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in 'muchness' and 'manyness,' he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist C. G. Jung once remarked, 'Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.'" (13) "They call us to the adventure, to be pioneers in this frontier of the Spirit." (13) "It is a sad commentary on the spiritual state of modern Christianity that meditation is a word so foreign to its ears." (14) [ I think this has been changing since this book was first published (the '70's). Of course, for me, it could be that I moved from Pentecostalism and into Anglicanism, which has an ancient history, along with all the Churches within the Catholic tradition, of meditation. ] "Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it. The two ideas are radically different." (15) "Detachment is the final goal of Eastern religion... In its popular form, TM is meditation for the materialists." (15) "Christian meditation goes far beyond the notion of detachment... The detachment from the confusion all around us is in order to have a richer attachment to God and to other human beings. Christian mediation leads us to the inner wholeness necessary to give ourselves to God freely, and to he spiritual perception necessary to attack social evils." (15) "If you believe that we live in a universe created by the infinite-personal God who delights in our communion with Him, you will see meditation as a communication between the Lover and the one beloved." (18) "The history of religion is the story of an almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a go-between. In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves. Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change. It is very convenient this way because it gives us the advantage of religious respectability without demanding moral transformation. We do not need to observe the American scene very closely to realize that it is captivated by the religion of the mediator." (19) "This is why meditation is so threatening to us. It boldly calls us to enter into the living presence of God for ourselves." (19) [ It is an experiential action. It is coming to know God. ] "We must come to see, therefore, how central the whole of our day is in preparing us for specific times of meditation. If we are constantly being swept off our feet with frantic activity, we will be unable to be attentive at the moment of inward silence." (20) [ How many people have I known who cannot go a moment with silence. They always have to have a radio playing or television droning in the background. How many people never let themselves sit still for more then a few moments. With some of my friends, and even one relationship, I know it is because they cannot let themselves dwell in themselves - they are afraid to focus on the inner self. ] "...we would do well to cultivate 'holy leisure.' And if we expect to succeed in the contemplative arts, we must pursue 'holy leisure' with a determination that is ruthless to our datebooks." (21) posted by Bob | 1/24/2003 03:18:00 PM		archives links link link link