P: The book explores the use of Trinitarian language in our church worship, in songs (doxologies, hymns), liturgy (prayers), preaching, Baptism, and visual arts. The authors draw from Scriptures, church traditions and contemporary new songs/liturgy to explore how our worship has incorporated languages that represent the Trinity--not just saying "Trinity" as a concept, but as a mystery and truth about our God in relation to His work related to us believers.
The problem: "so often speaks about the Trinity in the language of formal academic theology, and not the language of praise, faith, and piety, may contribute to the perception that the Trinity is peripheral to Christian life and worship." p.3
-"The main liturgiacl alternative to academic explanations of the Trinity has been the formula "Fahter, Son, and Holy Spirit," which, without further elaboration, may become a matter of rote recitation without room for wonder and growth in devotion and praise." p.3
-"...concern for correct theological formulation in the church's liturgy came to overshadow the search for vital praise." p.3
-"theologians such as Karl Rahner, Catherine LaCugna, Ted Peters, and Gail Ramshaw have also expressed the concern that the Trinity is not central to Christian faith and life." p.4
Why trinitarian worship is important:-"When Christian preaching and worship do not point to the possibility of new life in Christ, when the church does not witness to the power of the Holy Spirit, when Christians do not express their dependence on the holy Source of life, the faith experience of congregations is impoverished." p.4-5
-"The triune God, fount of all blessing, comes to us with gifts of abundant life, joy, and 'courage in the struggle for justice and peace.' Fully trinitarian worship lays out before the congregation the gifts of God and invites Christians to new life." p.5
On worship:
-"worship shapes the faith of Christians, over time inadequate language of praise will distort a church's understanding and experience of faith." p.4
-"One aspect of doing our best to glorify God is to consider how adequately the words of our worship express our faith." p.5
Language: -"Because our language can shape and motivate our actions, which contribute to creating the consequent nature of God, language is important." p.13
-"The criteria for their God-language grow from a determination to be faithful to the encounter between God and the world to which the scriptures testify and also to this encounter in contemporary language that is given birth, and shaped, by a feminist perspective." p.17
-"First, our language cannot be a projection about a deity that is the same reality as we are. Second, we do not believe the deity to be totally removed from us and unlike us. Those of us who speak of a divine reality not comprehended in this world, but in some way present in and to this world, must speak in metaphor and analogy." p.17
"Metaphor, analogy, symbol, and imagery are interrelated in classical and modern theologies. They assume a relatedness of the divine and the created order; they reject a useful adequacy of literal discourse to express the interrelationship of the divine and human realities; they also allow that once can and must speak about and to the deity." p.19
-"Language used to speak of the Trinity should reflect love, justice, and equality, which are the marks of ethical life based in trinitarian faith. ... Fully trinitarian liturgical language is emancipatory, showing the Holy One at work bringing justice and communion among humanity in the continuing mission of Jesus the Christ through the power of the Spirit." p.31
How do we speak to and about the trinitarian God in worship?
-"The trinitarian God is not a product of theology or philosophy, but is the God experienced and spoken about by the Christian community." p.19
-"the Trinity is the vast sea in which our small boats sail, intimately known to us, yet still mysterious." p.25 "The Trinity as mystery is not an unknowable abyss nor an unsolvable puzzle, but a living reality far beyond our experiences, our traditions, and our reason.
e.g. Brian Wren's Praising a Mystery hymns: "God is not one-dimensional, but a multi-dimensional mystery, decisively known in Jesus, active now as the Holy Spirit. The living God is a mystery, not a secret: secrets puzzle us, but lose their fascination when they are revealed. A mystery deepens the more it is pondered and known. At their best, worship, thinking and action are attempts to praise that mystery, to know God, and be known." p.25
-"Like the intratrinitarian relationship, this relationship between God and worshipers is not a closed system, but one which opens out in care for the world." p.26
-Guidelines about what we can say (or cannot say) about the Trinity:
1. should reflect coequality among the three partners, rather than a subordination of one to another. The triune reality is eternal; though the Word is begotten and the Spirit proceeds, this does not refer to a time sequence, but to the distinctive relationship of Word and Spirit to Source.
2. The unity of the trinitarian persons
3. The distinctiveness of each partner should not be blurred but recognised in Christian worship. p.27
the immanent Trinity: the relationality of God within God's self
the economic Trinity: the relationality of God with creation
[Source, Word, and Spirit], the Living/Eternal One/God
Outline/topics in the book:
1. in liturgical language the church speaks through metaphor and analogy of a God who is not simply a projection or creation of humanity, but a reality with whom we are in relationship.
2. how in worship we can and do give witness to the triune God through varied language for the Trinity (not exclusively male language for God) and the trinitarian dimensions of particular aspects of worship
3. preaching as trinitarian proclamation
4. the riches of Christian hymnody as a means of praising and testifying to the Trinity
5. the use of Wisdom (Sophia) imagery in worship, a contemporary issue
6. the connection between the Trinity, its representation in art and liturgy, and human life
Doxologies: are "words of praise to God, usually with trinitarian content and structure. They play an important part in worship, as a way of focusing on the triune God as the center of worship." p.49 e.g. Thomas Ken 1674 sung to the OLD HUNDREDTH.
Liturgy is "a drama of the development of our communion in God and also a pattern of how we are called to live and to act in God." p.120 How is the Trinity incorporated into our life of worship? in liturgical art, in images adorning the church walls, windows, statues, books for worship. In the words (rites, repeated words of community prayer) of liturgical prayer, we find in a different medium specific images of the Trinity, which also directly or indirectly interconnect the Trinity with human moral behaviour and ethics. p.120
-"Visual art and the repeated words of community prayer affect the whole of our personhood, not just our reason, aesthetic sense, or physical enjoyment of what we see and hear. Our minds and hearts are drawn into these forms of expression, and the whole human responds to and reflects on liturgical expression in visual and aural form." p.121
3 images of the Trinity in Salvation History: Gen 18 OT type of the Trinity: the appearance of the three angels to Abraham and Sarah under the tree at Mamre.; the baptism of Jesus; the crucifixion.
30 Jan-24 Mar 2018
Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Thursday, September 14, 2017
28. Caminemos Con Jesus: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of Accompaniment-Roberto S. Goizueta
how does U.S. Hispanic popular Catholicism inform/show the theology of the truth/relevance of particularity of embodied people/place/culture/experience/affects-feelings to mediate the universal truth for all. The interrelationship between person to person as human praxis vs. individualism that claims on rationalism and the dominant group's truth/legibility claims even while promoting pluralism and multiculturalism. The privatisation of faith forced by the dominant liberal individualists is a haughty position to take and actually pretends to be generous/tolerant but is still asserting their own position as the right one--that everyone should follow.
What we can learn from Hispanic Christians and their popular Catholicism that involves the physical, the ordinary--clay, candle, flower, kissing of the feet--pilgrimage and processions. They live out their faith in the particular, everyday life things. Family relations is prime vs. individualism; understanding that we are connected with the past (our ancestors who may be poor and had been exiles) and the future makes us humble. There is the universal truth of God that can be seen and only can be seen through the particulars so the particular experience/culture of a marginalised group cannot be seen as a mere number to be quantified to add up to the most number (p.167) of sum.
Introduction of the book:
The author sets the context for discussion:
Who are the Hispanics? Exiles in the US, identified by the language they speak
-"Language is not merely a superficial reflection of our culture and worldview; it helps construct and shape that culture and worldview." p.12
-"For this exile and mestizo/a, however, the everyday struggle to live this 'in between' existence becomes the seedbed of liberation."
Nosotros: Community as the Birthplace of the Self: community/universal v.s. individualism
-"One cannot love the universal and supernatural if one cannot love the particular and natural..." p.49
-"Community," writes Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, "is not something added on, but a web of relationships constitutive of who we are." The assertion that personal identity is intrinsically relational, or give by others from "outside," is thus the corollary of a sacramental worldview which asserts that the identity of every concrete, particular entity is relational, or given by an Other from "outside." ...the particular is the place where and the material through which the universal is encountered. p.50
-The U.S. tradition of modern liberal individualism manifests itself in three distinct, though interrelated areas of our lives: 1) the political, 2) the religious, and 3) the economic. p.54 "Whitin the horizon of modern liberal individualism, community is understood to be a "temporary and voluntary association of separate individuals." p.55 "The assumption underlying such responses is that participation in a religious community is in no way intrinsic or essential to religious belief; one relates to God as an individual, not as part of a community." p.56
-Bellah at al. speak of the "socially unsituated self" as the foundation of U.S. liberal individualism and the arbiter of all values, from the political (who is the best candidate) to the religious and moral (which is the right religion and the moral course of action) to the economic (which is the best brand of mouthwash). Thus, not only matters of taste but also matters of truth and morality come to be decided on the basis of quantitative criteria..." p.57
-The ironic result is, not a society of unique individuals, but a society of conformists: "As Tocqueville observed, when one can no longer rely on tradition or authority, one inevitably looks to others for confirmation of one's judgements. Refusal to accept established opinion and anxious conformity tot the opinions of one's peers turn out to be two sides of the same coin." p.58
-"The sentimental notion of community as an unstructured, deinstitutionalised, face-to-face, emotionally warm, and voluntary association implies, a dichotomy between community and tradition...for modern l i, community bonds cannot extend beyond this particular time and place; insofar as, through its structures and traditions, an institution extends communal bonds beyond and between generations, it can only do so illegitimately. If community is limited by space and time, then all institutions, all tradition, and all forms of institutionalisation will necessarily be viewed as intrinsically coercive, that is, a former, dead community's attempt to impose its identity and values (by definition obsolete, since that community no longer exists) on the only real community, that voluntary community which exists here and now. We have no responsibility to the past or to the future, since neither exists nor participates in our voluntary community." p. 64
P: I'm realising again how endemic the embededness of individualism is in today's people. It's so steeped in their psyches that they do not realise their way of individualist thinking is so strong and often opposing the grace-giving, community-needing, reality of who God created us to be. Thankful for Tim Keller's sermons who help me see this in my own thinking (e.g. the work rest sermon where I saw through my deep belief about my value as a person being relied on self accomplishment/actualisation in terms of career). Seriously, I can't believe my peers who say and believe in "your personal happiness is the most important thing, values/beliefs notwithstanding".
-Dichotomy btw the particular and the universal-individualistic anthropology: Where there is no strong, constitutive sense of community, then, the r/s btw the particular (individual) and the universal (family, church, community, tradition, institution) will be viewed as intrinsically dichotomous: i.e., the particular is in no way constituted by the universal; the universal is ipso facto oppressive because it limits individual autonomy. p.64 "As Alasdair MacIntyre contends, 'the essence of individualism is not so much to emphasize the individual rather than the collective...as to frame all questions according to an ostensible antithesis between the individual and the collective.' p.65
-The anthropology implicit in U.S.Hispanic popular Catholicism: "community is understood to be fundamentally preexistent (therefore involuntary) and constitutive. Therefore, the universal is not merely the sum of the particulars; rather, the universal is mediated by the particulars." p.65
-case: an elderly Mexican woman kisses the feet of the crucified Jesus: "If this piece of wood merely 'points to' some external supernatural reality, not itself revealed in and through the wood, then to kiss the wood is to commit an act of idolatry. But, if this piece of wood, shaped into Jesus' crucified body, is itself the particular and concrete manifestation of a universal, supernatural reality revealed in and through this object, then to kiss the wood is the make the only appropriate Christian response. ...but the disparate interpretations stem from a fundamental, anthropological and epistemological difference. --the universal (e.g., the community, or the Jesus Christ of Christian faith and tradition), and an organic worldview, which would presuppose an essential, intrinsic, or 'organic' r/s btw the particular and the universal. ..Jesus and Mary defined relationally to each other and to us. p.65
-The Latinos' depictions of Jesus implies a concrete, physical historicity and concrete, physical relationship. p.66
-A relational being: Hispanic presupposes the foundational role of relationships in defining what it means to be a human being--and what it means to be a Christian. e.g. I do not experience myself as an individual person until I am confronted by another. infant-mother. ...entails an interaction. p. 72
Community does not extinguish but enhances individuality p.75
-"In an organic anthropology, each person is not a mirror reflection but a unique refraction of the whole." p.76
Beauty or Justice? The Aesthetic Character of Human Action
-"A relational anthropology, wherein the person is viewed as intrinsically social, is thus rooted in human action, or 'praxis.' p.77
-What is the r/s between theology (our knowledge of God) and praxis (the theological articulation of that knowledge in our everyday lives/action"?
-the significance of Latin American liberation theology for understanding praxis.-the person is defined more by what he or she does than by what he or she thinks.; orthopraxis aka "correct action" as the most basic norm of Christian faith. ...vs. injustice and oppression p.78
-What is praxis?
1) modern Western understanding: praxis as instrumental action=the action of an autonomous subject upon his or her external environment, itself construed as but a passive object of the subject's actions.; technique/practicality-the value of human action or life is predicated upon its usefulness. p.80 e.g. Marx-human action->prodcution; Aristotle-all human activity whose end is internal rather than external to itself aka human intersubjective activity. Human action whose end is external to itself is called poiesis. e.g. production aka the process of doing/making doesn't have intrinsic value, only the product is the goal p.83 For Aristotle, "life is action [praxis] and not production [poiesis]. p.84 What makes human life human is precisely that it is an absolute value in itself--regardless of its productivity, usefulness, or practicality. ...To reduce human action to social transformation is to reduce it to productive activity, which is to reduce it to technique; and to reduce human action to technique is to reduce the human person to but a passive object, a mere instrument of production. p84
The modern, post-Enlightenment emphasis on technique, or instrumental action, as the highest form of human activity: ...then all human activity will tend to be judged by the criteria of production; whether in capitalism or socialism. p.85
P: Doesn't this view of human action/life affected my view also? I thought I must be useful to God--be able to evangelise a lot--in order to be of worth. But this is antithetical to God's grace and preeminent love. This was why I found it hard to accept the saying that there is nothing more that you can do to make God love you more and nothing that you do that can make Him love you less.
1b) liberation theologians were also influenced by this view of praxis as liberating social action. p.86
Several definitions, but this one: represents "perhaps the most significant contribution of liberation theology to the church, reminding Christians that the lived commitment to social justice is not superfluous to but a precondition for authentic Christian faith. The struggle for justice is not an option for Christians, over and above their Christian belief and worship" p.88
-What is the r/s between historical praxis aka praxis-as-an-end-in-itself & liberating praxis? still ambiguous: "Is liberating theology fundamentally a reflection on human action as an end in itself (historical praxis), or on human action as an instrument of liberation (liberating praxis)? p.88
2) Praxis as aesthetics:
early 20th century Latin American philosophers emphasise the aesthetic experience as the key category for interpreting human action. Jose Vasconcelos (1882-1959): against the Comtean positivism of the day that asserted that "human beings can know only that which is verifiable through empirical scientific analysis/observation." p.89 separation between the subject-observor (external)
-Aesthetic philosophies=grounded not in pure reason/practical reason but in the mystery of aesthetic judgment. ...the special pathos of beauty as the unifying principle aka the "emphatic fusion" between subject and object that takes place in the aesthetic experience (i.e., the experience of beauty, or a work of art), wherein the person loses himself in the experience. p.91
Ethical-political, and aesthetic character of praxis
-"As revealed in popular Catholicism, human action is 1) sacramental; 2) essentially and intrinsically communal/relational; 3) an end in itself; 4) empowering; and, therefore 5) liberating. p.103
-Beauty as revelatory: the aesthetic character of human action: people's action is mediated by physical symbols, by physical gestures/movement and processions, singing songs, and by the very physical effort exerted in preparing the church for the celebrations. Our r/s to God thus involves embodied action in the world; it is not merely a private sentiment or feeling. p.103
-"For it is in the acting, in the performing, in the participation, in the living itself that God is revealed." p.103
-The term sacrament refers not only to the revelation of God in creation, but also to the revelation of God in the person's embodied action in the world, in interaction and participation. p.103
-Their value to the participant derives from the fact that these are not fundamentally the actions of one individual by him or herself, but actions between him or her and God, ...and the other members of the community, both living and dead. ...even in my most "private" moments, I am responsible to those communities and hence, ultimately, to the entire human and divine community, in which I necessarily participate." p.105
-"If our goal is a just society, where all human persons are valued, affirmed, and loved as ends in themselves, as genuine "others," we cannot arrive at that goal through an instrumentalisation of persons which contradicts the very goal itself. At its most basic level justice, like happiness, is not a product but a concomitant, or byproduct, of human life when that life is lived and valued as an end in itself. ...social justice and personal growth or transformation are not directly-intended 'products' of the 'work' the individual person undertakes respectively 'on' society, or 'on' himself or herself. Rather, these are but byproducts of the persons' interaction with others. In short, the only justice and the only true self-improvement or personal growth is that which is the unintended (directly, at least) consequence of the person's active love of others. This is simply another way of expressing the paradox of the cross." p.107
-"Celebration becomes possible only when we cease making a project of our lives and our world." p.107 "In sum, the achievement of freedom and justice, whether at the personal or social level, will be impossible if freedom and justice are viewed primarily as products of our efforts rather than as, fundamentally, implicit byproducts or concomitants of human lives affirmed and valued as ends in themselves. Only if and when our intersubjective r/s-as lived in our families, communities, and institutions--reflect such an affirmation will we have true freedom and justice." p.108
-"Only when we are freed from the anxiety created by the need to control others, or the need to be controlled by others, are we truly free. Thus, the highest form of aesthetic praxis becomes the act of celebration, wherein the intrinsic value of human life as an end in itself." <-this reminds me of what Nouwen wrote in "Here and Now" about why we celebrate birthdays.
Conversely, "When human action is instrumentalised, one's 'life' becomes a problem to be solved, a plan to be carried out, or a project to be realised. ...Consequently, I become enslaved to the desired result, anxious to plan all aspects of my life so as to ensure its successful conclusion. Convinved that I am free bc I am 'in control' of my life, I am actually enslaved by my very need to control..." p.110
-Praxis always has an affective dimension. It is through this affective dimension that we can relate most intimately with others." human interaction, not billiard balls. p.110 "The sharing of any feelings, however 'negative,' implies and affirms interaction, connection, and relationship with the other person; the failure to do so implies and affirms estrangement and alienation." p.110-111
-Domestic life as human action. not just the productivity in the public sphere (marketplace/political arena).; A proper understanding of human action must, thus, embrace both public and private spheres of activity, and the intrinsic r/s btw them: Although it is often regarded as autonomous, daily life is in fact at the center of history, invading all aspects of life." p.113
-the depreciation of domestic life as praxis has resulted historically not only in the marginalization of women's experience but also in the marginalization of popular religion as a locus theologicus" p.116
-in the context of the modern Western private-public dichotomy
-The insufficiency of aesthetics : embedded in ethical-political and economic r/s too. "After all, as bodies we act and make (products) as well as feel. Human action always has an ethical-political character since--given our relational or organic anthropology--human action implies a rs between ourselves and our environment, especially other persons. ... "the intrinsic interrelationships among aesthetic action, ethical-political action, and poiesis" P: reminds me of musicology, the lecture about opera in Paris and how things affected each other-sponsorship, audience reception...
-One culture can fuse emphatically with another culture only if and when they are both already acknowledged as equal. p.126
-Culture is an attractive, alternative 'key to history,' ..to human liberation... If justice demands nothing more than an open mind, a room-full of pre-Columbian artifacts, and an 'exposure' to other perspectives, then we can achieve justice without leaving the comfort of the suburban enclosure or the ivory tower. p.127 Culture symbols and practices are always mediated by political and economic structures and r/s.
-Conclusion: Goizueta suggests that "rather than superseding the ethical-political, the aesthetic dimension of human action is mediated by the ethical-political; it is encountered and lived out within ethical-political action, as the deepest meaning and significance of the ethical-political." p.128
-"The only proper locus of aesthetics and worship is, thus, the ethical-political option for the poor. Yet the deepest significance of that option is not social transformation per se, but the celebration of everyday human life. This is why, paradoxically, it is among the poor that one will find the most vibrant and vital communities of celebration and worship." p.131
Rationality or irrationality? Modernity, Postmodernity, and the U.S. Hispanic Theologian
-"If lived human experience is inherently relational, embodied, and affective, then we cannot understand that lived experience through concepts alone. Interpersonal reality cannot be understood or known primarily through theoretical analysis, but through an aesthetic, affective, and active participation in ('fusion' with) the sacramental r/s, symbols, and rituals. p.141
-Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz: "Praxis is both intellectual enterprise as well as action; the dichotomy between intellectual activity and physical work is a fictitious one..." p.142
-The liberation of the poor implies the emergence of historically marginalised persons as full-fledged rational historical subjects. p.148
-dichotomy of theory and praxis->dichotomy of truth and meaning
-If objective, scientific methods cannot lead us to truth, then truth per se must not exist. All that we can hope for is "meaningful" experiences which, as "meaningful," are inaccessible to rational analysis and judgment; the statement, "this particular experience or theory is meaningful for me," is ipso facto incontrovertible and must be accepted at face value, since to judge it according to rational criteria would be to impose on it external, alien, and artificial categories. Truth, then, is reduced to meaning...Rational certainty is replaced by sheer indeterminancy and ambitguity, since the story which is true to my experience is not necessarily true to yours, and the work of art which is meaningful for me is not necessarily meaningful to you. p.150
-The postmodern absolutization of particularity places U.S. Hispanics, and other historically marginalised groups, in an ambiguous situation. ...Justo Gonzalez: ...in which the dominant is confused with the universal. p.151
-For Christians, the understanding of the rs btw the universal and the particular is rooted in the incarnation itself, in the "scandal of particularity" p.152
-The possibility of mutual understanding--not simply mutual empathy--is thus itself intrinsic to an organic, relational anthropology. ...implies the possibility of shared norms--mediated, always, by the particular perspectives through which they are revealed. ...mediated by praxis aka the active relationship btw particular others. Truth is not fundamentally a thing but an event. p.153
-Symbols are both the end and the source of rational understanding; in the words of Paul Ricoeur, "the symbol gives rise to thought, but thought always returns to and is informed by the symbol." Aesthetic experience not only transcends theory; it also gives birth to theoretical reflection. p.155
-Particular meaning mediates universal truth.
-Only if I affirm your own concrete particularity and uniqueness will I be able to understand how your own life and history reveal a universal truth that is also true for me. p.157
*-"When the meaning of particular experiences is not recognized as mediating universal truth--art, literature, and religion lose their ability to subvert the dominant culture because, by becoming privatized, they lose their ability to engage that culture at all." ...We experience art and religion as not only meaningful, but as also true, as having a relatively autonomous and objective reality beyond our own particular social location. p.160
-competition among particular theologies, especially Third World and feminist theologies. ...surest sign that an authentic pluralism or multiculturalism does not exist: the access to those material resources necessary for making one's voice heard remains controlled by the same dominant groups. p.166
-Whatever else a pluralist is telling you, he is also telling you that his heart is in the right place...the right place is every place and therefore nowhere at all." p.170
-A pluralistic, multicultural society is one that multiplies the number of available options (whether political, economic, religious, or cultural) without according explicit preference to any--
"I'm OK, you're OK." Implicit preference continues to be accorded, however, to the dominant culture's interpretative horizon. ...Whatever its multicultural intent, such a pluralism ironically perpetuates the violence inflicted on marginalised groups and, indeed, compounds that violence by forcing these groups to turn against each other, thereby deflecting criticism and opposition. p.171
The preferential option for the poor & the proper place of theology:
-Authentic justice ->authentic pluralism=presupposes a praxis that is genuinely intersubjective, between particular, unique others. If mutual respect and understanding presuppose a r/s of others, oppression, injustice, marginalization, and exclusion are the names we give to the denial of the particularity and otherness of certain persons, namely, the poor. Thus, as long as there are poor persons there can be no pluralism. p.173
-emerged within the Latin American culture because or their organic worldview; it could not have emerged within a worldview that pits the universal (the good of the whole) against the particular (the good of a part, e.g., the poor). Within an individualistic worldview, the scriptural command to do justice--as a necessary implication of our very humanity and creatureliness--is literally inconceivable; instead, that command will be interpreted as a mere suggestion that one autonomous individual help other autonomous individuals. Where there is no necessary connection between persons there can be no necessary ethical-political imperative to love others. p.173
-Gustavo Gutierrez argued for a scriptural basis of this historical option: God's predilection for the weak and abused of human history in the Bible, starting with Cain and Abel...This preference brings out the gratuitous or unmerited character of God's love. p.175
-Gutierrez: "God has a preferential love for the poor not because they are necessarily better than others, morally or religiously, but simply bc they are poor and living in an inhuman situation that is contrary to God's will. The ultimate basis for the privileged position of the poor is not in the poor themselves but in God, in the gratuitousness and universality of God's agapeic love." p.176
-if God is present preferentially among the poor, we can only know God if we place ourselves there also. The option for the poor is, then the most important epistemological precondition for Christian faith: to know God we must first opt for the poor. p.177 To turn a deaf ear to the cries of the poor is implicitly to identify God's voice with that of the status quo and, hence, its established power structures. To hide their suffering and struggles is thus to make faith in a transcendent God impossible." [a precondition for authentic Christian faith] p.178
-illustration: a father would help the 3 year old brother who is involved in a fight with the big sister because he is weaker and to help the older sister would be to side with the privileged and unfair. To help the younger brother is the loving/fair thing to do.
-other reflection: when the rich people keep building tall walls and install alarms for fear that the poor outside would invade and steal their abundance of money. p.178This is not recognising that we all are humans created by God and we are connected because God is love. Our ignorance of their needs is what compelled the poor to have to steal--they taking the initiative to get what they need from whoever has a lot. Why can't we go out and give them in the first place? When I think about this in this way, I suddenly am not so scared of having my valuable things stolen (except for those associated with memories that are not replaceable). Who am I to think that the things I enjoy are mine? Aren't they all gifts from God and He can will these material things to whoever He chooses to give?
-To love the poor preferentially is to make an intentional choice to be that which we already are through no choice of our own: individual persons defined by our a priori rs to others, to humanity, to the universes, and, ultimately, to the Triune (i.e., intrinsically relational) God. p.179 If to be a human person is to be intrinsically related to others, what is irrational, then, is the failure to acknowledge that reality.
-"If God can love even clay, then God can love gold and silver. ...If--and only if--God can love even the crucified criminal, then God can love the ruler." p.179
-"It is from their (the poor) perspective that the intrinsically relational character of the person is revealed. It is, paradoxically, in the faces of those persons most alienated, most abandoned, most excluded that the intrinsic bonds that unite us all show forth--as that which is denied by such injustice. That is precisely why our society continues to alienate, abandon, and exclude the poor--bc, face-to-face w/ the poor, one is forced to confront our intrinsically relational reality. ...is so threatening that those bodies must be isolated, hidden from view in barrios, ghettoes, reservations, hospitals, etc." p.182
-When we recognise the injustice of those consequences, we get our first glimpse of what true justice is. If I, as an exile, have experienced the separation from my family, ...it is bc that experience threatens, and thus evokes a truth deeper and more fundamental than that of separation, namely, the truth of community." p.182
-"Suffering shared is suffering already in retreat." p.183
-"the concreteness and particularity of human praxis"
-"the particularity of the poor is the most accurate perspective from which to view the community as a whole--and from which to "opt for" all persons." p.185
-The act of accompaniment (being with, feeling with, doing with-as equals) p.191~
-"Where the option for the poor is simply reduced to an option for social justice, the poor will inevitably be reduced to an abstract concept or a manipulable object. ...universal love is mediated by particular love, and the most particular love is familial love. p.195
-Familial relationship->gives dignity->life affirming/common personhood affirmed
-to walk with the poor--literally, physically, and spiritually (self-reflection/soul changing) as Jesus walks with them (including geographical location-the hetereogenous urban vs. the white suburbs, crossing boundaries/in between/in exile people). Together with is important-affective, aesthetic union with the poor.
30 Aug-14 Sep 2017
New York: Orbis Books, 1995
What we can learn from Hispanic Christians and their popular Catholicism that involves the physical, the ordinary--clay, candle, flower, kissing of the feet--pilgrimage and processions. They live out their faith in the particular, everyday life things. Family relations is prime vs. individualism; understanding that we are connected with the past (our ancestors who may be poor and had been exiles) and the future makes us humble. There is the universal truth of God that can be seen and only can be seen through the particulars so the particular experience/culture of a marginalised group cannot be seen as a mere number to be quantified to add up to the most number (p.167) of sum.
Introduction of the book:
The author sets the context for discussion:
Who are the Hispanics? Exiles in the US, identified by the language they speak
-"Language is not merely a superficial reflection of our culture and worldview; it helps construct and shape that culture and worldview." p.12
-"For this exile and mestizo/a, however, the everyday struggle to live this 'in between' existence becomes the seedbed of liberation."
Nosotros: Community as the Birthplace of the Self: community/universal v.s. individualism
-"One cannot love the universal and supernatural if one cannot love the particular and natural..." p.49
-"Community," writes Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, "is not something added on, but a web of relationships constitutive of who we are." The assertion that personal identity is intrinsically relational, or give by others from "outside," is thus the corollary of a sacramental worldview which asserts that the identity of every concrete, particular entity is relational, or given by an Other from "outside." ...the particular is the place where and the material through which the universal is encountered. p.50
-The U.S. tradition of modern liberal individualism manifests itself in three distinct, though interrelated areas of our lives: 1) the political, 2) the religious, and 3) the economic. p.54 "Whitin the horizon of modern liberal individualism, community is understood to be a "temporary and voluntary association of separate individuals." p.55 "The assumption underlying such responses is that participation in a religious community is in no way intrinsic or essential to religious belief; one relates to God as an individual, not as part of a community." p.56
-Bellah at al. speak of the "socially unsituated self" as the foundation of U.S. liberal individualism and the arbiter of all values, from the political (who is the best candidate) to the religious and moral (which is the right religion and the moral course of action) to the economic (which is the best brand of mouthwash). Thus, not only matters of taste but also matters of truth and morality come to be decided on the basis of quantitative criteria..." p.57
-The ironic result is, not a society of unique individuals, but a society of conformists: "As Tocqueville observed, when one can no longer rely on tradition or authority, one inevitably looks to others for confirmation of one's judgements. Refusal to accept established opinion and anxious conformity tot the opinions of one's peers turn out to be two sides of the same coin." p.58
-"The sentimental notion of community as an unstructured, deinstitutionalised, face-to-face, emotionally warm, and voluntary association implies, a dichotomy between community and tradition...for modern l i, community bonds cannot extend beyond this particular time and place; insofar as, through its structures and traditions, an institution extends communal bonds beyond and between generations, it can only do so illegitimately. If community is limited by space and time, then all institutions, all tradition, and all forms of institutionalisation will necessarily be viewed as intrinsically coercive, that is, a former, dead community's attempt to impose its identity and values (by definition obsolete, since that community no longer exists) on the only real community, that voluntary community which exists here and now. We have no responsibility to the past or to the future, since neither exists nor participates in our voluntary community." p. 64
P: I'm realising again how endemic the embededness of individualism is in today's people. It's so steeped in their psyches that they do not realise their way of individualist thinking is so strong and often opposing the grace-giving, community-needing, reality of who God created us to be. Thankful for Tim Keller's sermons who help me see this in my own thinking (e.g. the work rest sermon where I saw through my deep belief about my value as a person being relied on self accomplishment/actualisation in terms of career). Seriously, I can't believe my peers who say and believe in "your personal happiness is the most important thing, values/beliefs notwithstanding".
-Dichotomy btw the particular and the universal-individualistic anthropology: Where there is no strong, constitutive sense of community, then, the r/s btw the particular (individual) and the universal (family, church, community, tradition, institution) will be viewed as intrinsically dichotomous: i.e., the particular is in no way constituted by the universal; the universal is ipso facto oppressive because it limits individual autonomy. p.64 "As Alasdair MacIntyre contends, 'the essence of individualism is not so much to emphasize the individual rather than the collective...as to frame all questions according to an ostensible antithesis between the individual and the collective.' p.65
-The anthropology implicit in U.S.Hispanic popular Catholicism: "community is understood to be fundamentally preexistent (therefore involuntary) and constitutive. Therefore, the universal is not merely the sum of the particulars; rather, the universal is mediated by the particulars." p.65
-case: an elderly Mexican woman kisses the feet of the crucified Jesus: "If this piece of wood merely 'points to' some external supernatural reality, not itself revealed in and through the wood, then to kiss the wood is to commit an act of idolatry. But, if this piece of wood, shaped into Jesus' crucified body, is itself the particular and concrete manifestation of a universal, supernatural reality revealed in and through this object, then to kiss the wood is the make the only appropriate Christian response. ...but the disparate interpretations stem from a fundamental, anthropological and epistemological difference. --the universal (e.g., the community, or the Jesus Christ of Christian faith and tradition), and an organic worldview, which would presuppose an essential, intrinsic, or 'organic' r/s btw the particular and the universal. ..Jesus and Mary defined relationally to each other and to us. p.65
-The Latinos' depictions of Jesus implies a concrete, physical historicity and concrete, physical relationship. p.66
-A relational being: Hispanic presupposes the foundational role of relationships in defining what it means to be a human being--and what it means to be a Christian. e.g. I do not experience myself as an individual person until I am confronted by another. infant-mother. ...entails an interaction. p. 72
Community does not extinguish but enhances individuality p.75
-"In an organic anthropology, each person is not a mirror reflection but a unique refraction of the whole." p.76
Beauty or Justice? The Aesthetic Character of Human Action
-"A relational anthropology, wherein the person is viewed as intrinsically social, is thus rooted in human action, or 'praxis.' p.77
-What is the r/s between theology (our knowledge of God) and praxis (the theological articulation of that knowledge in our everyday lives/action"?
-the significance of Latin American liberation theology for understanding praxis.-the person is defined more by what he or she does than by what he or she thinks.; orthopraxis aka "correct action" as the most basic norm of Christian faith. ...vs. injustice and oppression p.78
-What is praxis?
1) modern Western understanding: praxis as instrumental action=the action of an autonomous subject upon his or her external environment, itself construed as but a passive object of the subject's actions.; technique/practicality-the value of human action or life is predicated upon its usefulness. p.80 e.g. Marx-human action->prodcution; Aristotle-all human activity whose end is internal rather than external to itself aka human intersubjective activity. Human action whose end is external to itself is called poiesis. e.g. production aka the process of doing/making doesn't have intrinsic value, only the product is the goal p.83 For Aristotle, "life is action [praxis] and not production [poiesis]. p.84 What makes human life human is precisely that it is an absolute value in itself--regardless of its productivity, usefulness, or practicality. ...To reduce human action to social transformation is to reduce it to productive activity, which is to reduce it to technique; and to reduce human action to technique is to reduce the human person to but a passive object, a mere instrument of production. p84
The modern, post-Enlightenment emphasis on technique, or instrumental action, as the highest form of human activity: ...then all human activity will tend to be judged by the criteria of production; whether in capitalism or socialism. p.85
P: Doesn't this view of human action/life affected my view also? I thought I must be useful to God--be able to evangelise a lot--in order to be of worth. But this is antithetical to God's grace and preeminent love. This was why I found it hard to accept the saying that there is nothing more that you can do to make God love you more and nothing that you do that can make Him love you less.
1b) liberation theologians were also influenced by this view of praxis as liberating social action. p.86
Several definitions, but this one: represents "perhaps the most significant contribution of liberation theology to the church, reminding Christians that the lived commitment to social justice is not superfluous to but a precondition for authentic Christian faith. The struggle for justice is not an option for Christians, over and above their Christian belief and worship" p.88
-What is the r/s between historical praxis aka praxis-as-an-end-in-itself & liberating praxis? still ambiguous: "Is liberating theology fundamentally a reflection on human action as an end in itself (historical praxis), or on human action as an instrument of liberation (liberating praxis)? p.88
2) Praxis as aesthetics:
early 20th century Latin American philosophers emphasise the aesthetic experience as the key category for interpreting human action. Jose Vasconcelos (1882-1959): against the Comtean positivism of the day that asserted that "human beings can know only that which is verifiable through empirical scientific analysis/observation." p.89 separation between the subject-observor (external)
-Aesthetic philosophies=grounded not in pure reason/practical reason but in the mystery of aesthetic judgment. ...the special pathos of beauty as the unifying principle aka the "emphatic fusion" between subject and object that takes place in the aesthetic experience (i.e., the experience of beauty, or a work of art), wherein the person loses himself in the experience. p.91
Ethical-political, and aesthetic character of praxis
-"As revealed in popular Catholicism, human action is 1) sacramental; 2) essentially and intrinsically communal/relational; 3) an end in itself; 4) empowering; and, therefore 5) liberating. p.103
-Beauty as revelatory: the aesthetic character of human action: people's action is mediated by physical symbols, by physical gestures/movement and processions, singing songs, and by the very physical effort exerted in preparing the church for the celebrations. Our r/s to God thus involves embodied action in the world; it is not merely a private sentiment or feeling. p.103
-"For it is in the acting, in the performing, in the participation, in the living itself that God is revealed." p.103
-The term sacrament refers not only to the revelation of God in creation, but also to the revelation of God in the person's embodied action in the world, in interaction and participation. p.103
-Their value to the participant derives from the fact that these are not fundamentally the actions of one individual by him or herself, but actions between him or her and God, ...and the other members of the community, both living and dead. ...even in my most "private" moments, I am responsible to those communities and hence, ultimately, to the entire human and divine community, in which I necessarily participate." p.105
-"If our goal is a just society, where all human persons are valued, affirmed, and loved as ends in themselves, as genuine "others," we cannot arrive at that goal through an instrumentalisation of persons which contradicts the very goal itself. At its most basic level justice, like happiness, is not a product but a concomitant, or byproduct, of human life when that life is lived and valued as an end in itself. ...social justice and personal growth or transformation are not directly-intended 'products' of the 'work' the individual person undertakes respectively 'on' society, or 'on' himself or herself. Rather, these are but byproducts of the persons' interaction with others. In short, the only justice and the only true self-improvement or personal growth is that which is the unintended (directly, at least) consequence of the person's active love of others. This is simply another way of expressing the paradox of the cross." p.107
-"Celebration becomes possible only when we cease making a project of our lives and our world." p.107 "In sum, the achievement of freedom and justice, whether at the personal or social level, will be impossible if freedom and justice are viewed primarily as products of our efforts rather than as, fundamentally, implicit byproducts or concomitants of human lives affirmed and valued as ends in themselves. Only if and when our intersubjective r/s-as lived in our families, communities, and institutions--reflect such an affirmation will we have true freedom and justice." p.108
-"Only when we are freed from the anxiety created by the need to control others, or the need to be controlled by others, are we truly free. Thus, the highest form of aesthetic praxis becomes the act of celebration, wherein the intrinsic value of human life as an end in itself." <-this reminds me of what Nouwen wrote in "Here and Now" about why we celebrate birthdays.
Conversely, "When human action is instrumentalised, one's 'life' becomes a problem to be solved, a plan to be carried out, or a project to be realised. ...Consequently, I become enslaved to the desired result, anxious to plan all aspects of my life so as to ensure its successful conclusion. Convinved that I am free bc I am 'in control' of my life, I am actually enslaved by my very need to control..." p.110
-Praxis always has an affective dimension. It is through this affective dimension that we can relate most intimately with others." human interaction, not billiard balls. p.110 "The sharing of any feelings, however 'negative,' implies and affirms interaction, connection, and relationship with the other person; the failure to do so implies and affirms estrangement and alienation." p.110-111
-Domestic life as human action. not just the productivity in the public sphere (marketplace/political arena).; A proper understanding of human action must, thus, embrace both public and private spheres of activity, and the intrinsic r/s btw them: Although it is often regarded as autonomous, daily life is in fact at the center of history, invading all aspects of life." p.113
-the depreciation of domestic life as praxis has resulted historically not only in the marginalization of women's experience but also in the marginalization of popular religion as a locus theologicus" p.116
-in the context of the modern Western private-public dichotomy
-The insufficiency of aesthetics : embedded in ethical-political and economic r/s too. "After all, as bodies we act and make (products) as well as feel. Human action always has an ethical-political character since--given our relational or organic anthropology--human action implies a rs between ourselves and our environment, especially other persons. ... "the intrinsic interrelationships among aesthetic action, ethical-political action, and poiesis" P: reminds me of musicology, the lecture about opera in Paris and how things affected each other-sponsorship, audience reception...
-One culture can fuse emphatically with another culture only if and when they are both already acknowledged as equal. p.126
-Culture is an attractive, alternative 'key to history,' ..to human liberation... If justice demands nothing more than an open mind, a room-full of pre-Columbian artifacts, and an 'exposure' to other perspectives, then we can achieve justice without leaving the comfort of the suburban enclosure or the ivory tower. p.127 Culture symbols and practices are always mediated by political and economic structures and r/s.
-Conclusion: Goizueta suggests that "rather than superseding the ethical-political, the aesthetic dimension of human action is mediated by the ethical-political; it is encountered and lived out within ethical-political action, as the deepest meaning and significance of the ethical-political." p.128
-"The only proper locus of aesthetics and worship is, thus, the ethical-political option for the poor. Yet the deepest significance of that option is not social transformation per se, but the celebration of everyday human life. This is why, paradoxically, it is among the poor that one will find the most vibrant and vital communities of celebration and worship." p.131
Rationality or irrationality? Modernity, Postmodernity, and the U.S. Hispanic Theologian
-"If lived human experience is inherently relational, embodied, and affective, then we cannot understand that lived experience through concepts alone. Interpersonal reality cannot be understood or known primarily through theoretical analysis, but through an aesthetic, affective, and active participation in ('fusion' with) the sacramental r/s, symbols, and rituals. p.141
-Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz: "Praxis is both intellectual enterprise as well as action; the dichotomy between intellectual activity and physical work is a fictitious one..." p.142
-The liberation of the poor implies the emergence of historically marginalised persons as full-fledged rational historical subjects. p.148
-dichotomy of theory and praxis->dichotomy of truth and meaning
-If objective, scientific methods cannot lead us to truth, then truth per se must not exist. All that we can hope for is "meaningful" experiences which, as "meaningful," are inaccessible to rational analysis and judgment; the statement, "this particular experience or theory is meaningful for me," is ipso facto incontrovertible and must be accepted at face value, since to judge it according to rational criteria would be to impose on it external, alien, and artificial categories. Truth, then, is reduced to meaning...Rational certainty is replaced by sheer indeterminancy and ambitguity, since the story which is true to my experience is not necessarily true to yours, and the work of art which is meaningful for me is not necessarily meaningful to you. p.150
-The postmodern absolutization of particularity places U.S. Hispanics, and other historically marginalised groups, in an ambiguous situation. ...Justo Gonzalez: ...in which the dominant is confused with the universal. p.151
-For Christians, the understanding of the rs btw the universal and the particular is rooted in the incarnation itself, in the "scandal of particularity" p.152
-The possibility of mutual understanding--not simply mutual empathy--is thus itself intrinsic to an organic, relational anthropology. ...implies the possibility of shared norms--mediated, always, by the particular perspectives through which they are revealed. ...mediated by praxis aka the active relationship btw particular others. Truth is not fundamentally a thing but an event. p.153
-Symbols are both the end and the source of rational understanding; in the words of Paul Ricoeur, "the symbol gives rise to thought, but thought always returns to and is informed by the symbol." Aesthetic experience not only transcends theory; it also gives birth to theoretical reflection. p.155
-Particular meaning mediates universal truth.
-Only if I affirm your own concrete particularity and uniqueness will I be able to understand how your own life and history reveal a universal truth that is also true for me. p.157
*-"When the meaning of particular experiences is not recognized as mediating universal truth--art, literature, and religion lose their ability to subvert the dominant culture because, by becoming privatized, they lose their ability to engage that culture at all." ...We experience art and religion as not only meaningful, but as also true, as having a relatively autonomous and objective reality beyond our own particular social location. p.160
-competition among particular theologies, especially Third World and feminist theologies. ...surest sign that an authentic pluralism or multiculturalism does not exist: the access to those material resources necessary for making one's voice heard remains controlled by the same dominant groups. p.166
-Whatever else a pluralist is telling you, he is also telling you that his heart is in the right place...the right place is every place and therefore nowhere at all." p.170
-A pluralistic, multicultural society is one that multiplies the number of available options (whether political, economic, religious, or cultural) without according explicit preference to any--
"I'm OK, you're OK." Implicit preference continues to be accorded, however, to the dominant culture's interpretative horizon. ...Whatever its multicultural intent, such a pluralism ironically perpetuates the violence inflicted on marginalised groups and, indeed, compounds that violence by forcing these groups to turn against each other, thereby deflecting criticism and opposition. p.171
The preferential option for the poor & the proper place of theology:
-Authentic justice ->authentic pluralism=presupposes a praxis that is genuinely intersubjective, between particular, unique others. If mutual respect and understanding presuppose a r/s of others, oppression, injustice, marginalization, and exclusion are the names we give to the denial of the particularity and otherness of certain persons, namely, the poor. Thus, as long as there are poor persons there can be no pluralism. p.173
-emerged within the Latin American culture because or their organic worldview; it could not have emerged within a worldview that pits the universal (the good of the whole) against the particular (the good of a part, e.g., the poor). Within an individualistic worldview, the scriptural command to do justice--as a necessary implication of our very humanity and creatureliness--is literally inconceivable; instead, that command will be interpreted as a mere suggestion that one autonomous individual help other autonomous individuals. Where there is no necessary connection between persons there can be no necessary ethical-political imperative to love others. p.173
-Gustavo Gutierrez argued for a scriptural basis of this historical option: God's predilection for the weak and abused of human history in the Bible, starting with Cain and Abel...This preference brings out the gratuitous or unmerited character of God's love. p.175
-Gutierrez: "God has a preferential love for the poor not because they are necessarily better than others, morally or religiously, but simply bc they are poor and living in an inhuman situation that is contrary to God's will. The ultimate basis for the privileged position of the poor is not in the poor themselves but in God, in the gratuitousness and universality of God's agapeic love." p.176
-if God is present preferentially among the poor, we can only know God if we place ourselves there also. The option for the poor is, then the most important epistemological precondition for Christian faith: to know God we must first opt for the poor. p.177 To turn a deaf ear to the cries of the poor is implicitly to identify God's voice with that of the status quo and, hence, its established power structures. To hide their suffering and struggles is thus to make faith in a transcendent God impossible." [a precondition for authentic Christian faith] p.178
-illustration: a father would help the 3 year old brother who is involved in a fight with the big sister because he is weaker and to help the older sister would be to side with the privileged and unfair. To help the younger brother is the loving/fair thing to do.
-other reflection: when the rich people keep building tall walls and install alarms for fear that the poor outside would invade and steal their abundance of money. p.178This is not recognising that we all are humans created by God and we are connected because God is love. Our ignorance of their needs is what compelled the poor to have to steal--they taking the initiative to get what they need from whoever has a lot. Why can't we go out and give them in the first place? When I think about this in this way, I suddenly am not so scared of having my valuable things stolen (except for those associated with memories that are not replaceable). Who am I to think that the things I enjoy are mine? Aren't they all gifts from God and He can will these material things to whoever He chooses to give?
-To love the poor preferentially is to make an intentional choice to be that which we already are through no choice of our own: individual persons defined by our a priori rs to others, to humanity, to the universes, and, ultimately, to the Triune (i.e., intrinsically relational) God. p.179 If to be a human person is to be intrinsically related to others, what is irrational, then, is the failure to acknowledge that reality.
-"If God can love even clay, then God can love gold and silver. ...If--and only if--God can love even the crucified criminal, then God can love the ruler." p.179
-"It is from their (the poor) perspective that the intrinsically relational character of the person is revealed. It is, paradoxically, in the faces of those persons most alienated, most abandoned, most excluded that the intrinsic bonds that unite us all show forth--as that which is denied by such injustice. That is precisely why our society continues to alienate, abandon, and exclude the poor--bc, face-to-face w/ the poor, one is forced to confront our intrinsically relational reality. ...is so threatening that those bodies must be isolated, hidden from view in barrios, ghettoes, reservations, hospitals, etc." p.182
-When we recognise the injustice of those consequences, we get our first glimpse of what true justice is. If I, as an exile, have experienced the separation from my family, ...it is bc that experience threatens, and thus evokes a truth deeper and more fundamental than that of separation, namely, the truth of community." p.182
-"Suffering shared is suffering already in retreat." p.183
-"the concreteness and particularity of human praxis"
-"the particularity of the poor is the most accurate perspective from which to view the community as a whole--and from which to "opt for" all persons." p.185
-The act of accompaniment (being with, feeling with, doing with-as equals) p.191~
-"Where the option for the poor is simply reduced to an option for social justice, the poor will inevitably be reduced to an abstract concept or a manipulable object. ...universal love is mediated by particular love, and the most particular love is familial love. p.195
-Familial relationship->gives dignity->life affirming/common personhood affirmed
-to walk with the poor--literally, physically, and spiritually (self-reflection/soul changing) as Jesus walks with them (including geographical location-the hetereogenous urban vs. the white suburbs, crossing boundaries/in between/in exile people). Together with is important-affective, aesthetic union with the poor.
30 Aug-14 Sep 2017
New York: Orbis Books, 1995
Friday, August 25, 2017
27. Songs of the Saints: Enriching our singing by learning from the songs of Scripture - Mike Raiter & Rob Smith
Exodus 15-the song of Moses. Saved people sing: "when the Saviour God has captured someone's heart, forgiven their sins and worked in them the new birth, one of the spontaneous responses of the newly redeemed is to sing. They realize that God has done something incredible for them, something they could never have done for themselves. And he has done this both for his glory and as an expression of his grace. The only appropriate human response to this is wonder, praise and gratitude; a response that naturally finds its voice in singing." p.33-34
-"to praise is to express respect, adoration or gratitude by declaring the greatness, goodness or worthiness of the object of our praise." p.34
-"The songs God wants us to sing celebrate both what he has done, and his eternal purposes in winning salvation for us. Our Christian songs must turn our eyes backwards and forwards. ...And it is so important that our songs lift our eyes beyond the here and now, which so consumes our thoughts, anxieties, dreams and prayers, to the place where God is leading us." p.38
-"the songs of Scripture don't just invite us to praise the Lord, but give us a mountain of reasons why we should do so." p.53
-Chronicles: "How, then, do God's people respond appropriately to the presence of the God who is now in their midst? ...appoint...singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy (15:16)" p.63
-association of music and warfare..."the singers and musicians are set apart 'for the ministry of prophesying' (25:1)...because their praise and thanksgiving was understood to be the result of divine inspiration. ...the Lord himself both commanded and enabled this ministry (2 Chr 29:25). Second, because of the vital teaching role their ministry played." e.g. Asaph Psalms 50, 73-83
-"in the act of worship, the 'singing prophets' both led the people in praise and edified them by addressing profound theological questions of life and faith, all the while reminding them of the character and deeds of their faithful, sovereign God." p.65
-"73 of the 150 psalms are laments, either in part or in whole. Why, then, do so few of our contemporary songs present us with the brutal realities of life outside of Eden? ...a handful of musical resources that both express these sufferings and help us find strength and comfort by turning our hearts and minds to God? Theologian Carl Trueman suggests: "...Perhaps--and this is more likely--it has drunk so deeply at the well of modern Western materialism that it simply does not know what to do with such cries and regards them as little short of embarrasing. Yet the human condition is a poor one--and Christians who are aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart and are looking for a better country should know this." p.77
-Ps 42-43 tell the story of a believing man's profound sense of estrangement from God.' p.78
-"The importance of lament is not that it makes our troubles disappear, but that as we come before the throne of God and give voice to our present distress, hope is awakened and we are enabled to 'rejoice in our sufferings' (Rom 5:3-5). While we wait for the end of our sufferings, singing has a unique way of helping us process the emotional dimension of our pain and so bring us to a point of genuine praise." p.90
Hannah's song 1 Sam 2:1-10
-we're singing it on two levels: Hannah's personal testimony to God's saving grace in her life & Israel's anthem for what the Lord is about to do for all of his people. p.102
-"Too many churches have embraced the world's intolerence of the God of Hannah. ...we would rejoice in the fact that God both "brings down to the grave and raises up" (v. 6, NIV). WE would teach our children all the truth about God, and they would grow up deeply loving him and appropriately fearing him." p. 103
-1 Sam 2:4-9 "Hannah's song celebrates the truth that God is the God of reversals, the one who confounds the ways of the world. She catalogues the mighty warrior (whose weapons are broken), the wealthy (who are left beggars), the mother of many (who is rendered childless), and the rich (who is impoverished), while the feeble, the hungry, the barren and the poor take their places. This is what the New Testament calls the gospel." p.104
& Mary's song/the magnificat Luke 1:46-56
-God has "always responded with kindness to those who fear him (Luke 1:50), he has always been the God who delights to dwell with the humble (vv. 51-52), and he has always acted mercifully when his people have been in need (v. 54).
Eph 5:19, Col 3:16
-calls upon Christian congregations to engage in singing "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs". p.118
Zephaniah 3:17 "...he will exult over you with loud singing." p.155
Emotions and music, singing
-Robert Robert, who has written extensively on emotions in the Christian life, calls them "concern-based construals." ...emotions--like joy, fear, anger, exasperation, regret--are the natural responses we have, when we grasp 'with a kind of perceptual immediacy" the significance of the situation we are in." ...the significance of this event grips you...
in singing a good hymn, "the response is both intellectual and emotional." p.179
-Music can both express and arouse emotion. Stephen Davies, a philosopher at the University of Auckland, suggests that the connection lies in what he calls 'appearance emotionalism'. That is, there is a connection between the appearance of something and the emotion it evokes. e.g. a weeping willow... Music, acts in much the same way. e.g. a gradual downward movement/dark timbres/thick harmonic bass textures, music can recall an appearance of sadness." p.180
-"when we sing, we usually sing words with meanings, and those words not only express the cognitive content of the song, but the singing of them helps communicate the emotional content of the song as well."
Yip Harburg: "Words make you think a thought; music makes you feel a feeling; a song makes you feel a thought'. p.183
-our emotional responses, are largely determined by our (selfish) instincts, (corrupted) values, (false) beliefs and (foolish) thoughts. p.185 but "just as God's Spirit continually transforms our ways of thinking and patterns of behaviour, so he transforms our emotional responses as well." p.186
-"For God wants us to not only 'think his thoughts after him', but to 'feel his feelings after him' as well--to share his passions, grieve his griefs and know his joys. This is part of our growth. Indeed it is part of the renewing of our minds. ...'There is a distinction to be made,' wrote Edwards, 'between a mere notional understanding, wherein the mind only beholds things in the exercise of a speculative faculty; and the sense of the heart, wherein the mind don't [sic] only speculate and behold, but relishes and feels." p.190
The book ends with several practical ideas for how we should do congregational singing in our churches. Song leaders' roles etc.
P: Overall, this book is an easy read, very helpful for having a comprehensive discussion about how we should sing in churches, following the biblical examples of songs and what the Bible teaches about singing. It makes me want to join in in singing with my heart and being with other Christians, to praise and proclaim that "God's truth is marching on" and what a wonderful Saviour He is, kind and compassionate and just. To sing to Him and sing to one another to edify each other.
4-25 Aug 2017
Sydney: Matthias Media, 2017
-"to praise is to express respect, adoration or gratitude by declaring the greatness, goodness or worthiness of the object of our praise." p.34
-"The songs God wants us to sing celebrate both what he has done, and his eternal purposes in winning salvation for us. Our Christian songs must turn our eyes backwards and forwards. ...And it is so important that our songs lift our eyes beyond the here and now, which so consumes our thoughts, anxieties, dreams and prayers, to the place where God is leading us." p.38
-"the songs of Scripture don't just invite us to praise the Lord, but give us a mountain of reasons why we should do so." p.53
-Chronicles: "How, then, do God's people respond appropriately to the presence of the God who is now in their midst? ...appoint...singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy (15:16)" p.63
-association of music and warfare..."the singers and musicians are set apart 'for the ministry of prophesying' (25:1)...because their praise and thanksgiving was understood to be the result of divine inspiration. ...the Lord himself both commanded and enabled this ministry (2 Chr 29:25). Second, because of the vital teaching role their ministry played." e.g. Asaph Psalms 50, 73-83
-"in the act of worship, the 'singing prophets' both led the people in praise and edified them by addressing profound theological questions of life and faith, all the while reminding them of the character and deeds of their faithful, sovereign God." p.65
-"73 of the 150 psalms are laments, either in part or in whole. Why, then, do so few of our contemporary songs present us with the brutal realities of life outside of Eden? ...a handful of musical resources that both express these sufferings and help us find strength and comfort by turning our hearts and minds to God? Theologian Carl Trueman suggests: "...Perhaps--and this is more likely--it has drunk so deeply at the well of modern Western materialism that it simply does not know what to do with such cries and regards them as little short of embarrasing. Yet the human condition is a poor one--and Christians who are aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart and are looking for a better country should know this." p.77
-Ps 42-43 tell the story of a believing man's profound sense of estrangement from God.' p.78
-"The importance of lament is not that it makes our troubles disappear, but that as we come before the throne of God and give voice to our present distress, hope is awakened and we are enabled to 'rejoice in our sufferings' (Rom 5:3-5). While we wait for the end of our sufferings, singing has a unique way of helping us process the emotional dimension of our pain and so bring us to a point of genuine praise." p.90
Hannah's song 1 Sam 2:1-10
-we're singing it on two levels: Hannah's personal testimony to God's saving grace in her life & Israel's anthem for what the Lord is about to do for all of his people. p.102
-"Too many churches have embraced the world's intolerence of the God of Hannah. ...we would rejoice in the fact that God both "brings down to the grave and raises up" (v. 6, NIV). WE would teach our children all the truth about God, and they would grow up deeply loving him and appropriately fearing him." p. 103
-1 Sam 2:4-9 "Hannah's song celebrates the truth that God is the God of reversals, the one who confounds the ways of the world. She catalogues the mighty warrior (whose weapons are broken), the wealthy (who are left beggars), the mother of many (who is rendered childless), and the rich (who is impoverished), while the feeble, the hungry, the barren and the poor take their places. This is what the New Testament calls the gospel." p.104
& Mary's song/the magnificat Luke 1:46-56
-God has "always responded with kindness to those who fear him (Luke 1:50), he has always been the God who delights to dwell with the humble (vv. 51-52), and he has always acted mercifully when his people have been in need (v. 54).
Eph 5:19, Col 3:16
-calls upon Christian congregations to engage in singing "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs". p.118
Zephaniah 3:17 "...he will exult over you with loud singing." p.155
Emotions and music, singing
-Robert Robert, who has written extensively on emotions in the Christian life, calls them "concern-based construals." ...emotions--like joy, fear, anger, exasperation, regret--are the natural responses we have, when we grasp 'with a kind of perceptual immediacy" the significance of the situation we are in." ...the significance of this event grips you...
in singing a good hymn, "the response is both intellectual and emotional." p.179
-Music can both express and arouse emotion. Stephen Davies, a philosopher at the University of Auckland, suggests that the connection lies in what he calls 'appearance emotionalism'. That is, there is a connection between the appearance of something and the emotion it evokes. e.g. a weeping willow... Music, acts in much the same way. e.g. a gradual downward movement/dark timbres/thick harmonic bass textures, music can recall an appearance of sadness." p.180
-"when we sing, we usually sing words with meanings, and those words not only express the cognitive content of the song, but the singing of them helps communicate the emotional content of the song as well."
Yip Harburg: "Words make you think a thought; music makes you feel a feeling; a song makes you feel a thought'. p.183
-our emotional responses, are largely determined by our (selfish) instincts, (corrupted) values, (false) beliefs and (foolish) thoughts. p.185 but "just as God's Spirit continually transforms our ways of thinking and patterns of behaviour, so he transforms our emotional responses as well." p.186
-"For God wants us to not only 'think his thoughts after him', but to 'feel his feelings after him' as well--to share his passions, grieve his griefs and know his joys. This is part of our growth. Indeed it is part of the renewing of our minds. ...'There is a distinction to be made,' wrote Edwards, 'between a mere notional understanding, wherein the mind only beholds things in the exercise of a speculative faculty; and the sense of the heart, wherein the mind don't [sic] only speculate and behold, but relishes and feels." p.190
The book ends with several practical ideas for how we should do congregational singing in our churches. Song leaders' roles etc.
P: Overall, this book is an easy read, very helpful for having a comprehensive discussion about how we should sing in churches, following the biblical examples of songs and what the Bible teaches about singing. It makes me want to join in in singing with my heart and being with other Christians, to praise and proclaim that "God's truth is marching on" and what a wonderful Saviour He is, kind and compassionate and just. To sing to Him and sing to one another to edify each other.
4-25 Aug 2017
Sydney: Matthias Media, 2017
Monday, March 27, 2017
18. Prelude to Practical Theology: Variations on Theory and Practice - Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner
Schleiermacher's tree model, an image of organic unity: roots-philosophical theology, trunk-historical theology, crown (branches, leaves, fruits)-practical theology.
-Emphasis: interconnectedness, healthy interdependency; "there is something that beckons persons into connectedness...underlying our endeavors of self-differentiation in denominations, disciplines, and guilds, we are created to be organically related to others in ministry and theology." (p.4) "The vital exchange of nurture within the parts of the tree" p.68
-"practical theology bears fruit, offers shade for sojourners, provides a nesting place for wayfarers, and connects its branches to other trees" (p.6); is "a discipline-in-relationship" (p.8)
Image of musicians-in-relationship, playing their individual instruments but in a way that benefits the whole artistic enterprise (performers entering the center stage at different timings and from different directions with different tempos.
-Dynamic symbolism "points to the infinite and incomprehensible; the use of multiple symbols can prevent an overbearing focus on or concretization of any one of them." H. Flanders Dunbar
(p.9)
Love of God and neighbour.
-"Future questions for the field of practical theology cluster around the multicultural nature, the international audience, and the organic unity of the field. (1) How shall a multicultural or intercultural context influence "exegesis" and practical theology?..." p.20
-Hospitality recognizes the particularity of others as part of the broader interdependence of being and the interconnectedness of learning that characterizes the depths of our reality." John B. Bennett p.20-21
Practical theology concerns itself with movement or direction. p.30
-"An inversion of power has to take place for the world to see how Christ loved the church. The postcolonial mind-set disuses the imagery of slaves and servants and instead prefers the imagery of friends." John 15:12-15 p.32
-The Somalian refugee case: "This space between two lands or countries is likened to an interstice, or crack, between cultures. ...third culture or hybrid culture. Phan depicts this intercultural space as a matrix with a womb-like, generative possibility." p.34 "How might a theologian best enter the land of 'betwixt and between?' First, it would be with humility and with an eagerness to learn. The vision of our call to service would be dialectically related to the discernment of this particular context, that is, the worldview of the transnational migrants or refugees." p. 34
-Theologian Judith Berling: "What makes theological learning distinctive is its development of Christian character, habitus, or wisdom, the deepening of Christian understanding and of Christian lives. As the theological learner learns more about the context of her Christian life--including the impact of religious diversity in it--that learning is folded back into her reappropriation of what it means to be Christian, her sense of the Christian tradition and its language of self-understanding." p. 34
-"Instead of the top-down power movement of colonial powers to to the conquered, we have a circular movement in place." p.35
-"Boundary crossing gives the church more opportunities to be in relationship. This connectedness can yield increase in the love of God and neighbor, sometimes with risk but always with movement. In the end, the purpose of the music of ministry is to hear the overture of God." p.36
P: The purpose of practical theology is connecting theology (biblical teachings, historical theology, doctrine, theology) to how the church can live this out, and when the church encounters discordant notes (unexpected situations) then the church responds as best as they could being faithful to the Word, then also reflect on the situation back into theology.
-"Practical theology is a collaborative exercise between theory and practice." p.44;
-David Tracy: "practical theology is the mutually critical correlation of the interpreted theory and praxis of the Christian fact and the interpreted theory and praxis of the contemporary situation." p.45
-"In practical theology, this ever-deepening reflection is either preceded or followed by action and practice." p.59
-Countermovement in accord with the currents in contemporary practical theology: "There is a shift away from traditional sources of power and authority" ....to redefine power as God-given, innate authority. ...Those on the margins of society are offering up lots of "cold water" if those of us who are nonmarginalized would receive." p.49
-Living human instruments:
"action-reflection" or "theory-praxis";
Praxis=when practice is involved with political powers and injustice or justice issues. p.59
Practical theology="an academic discipline in relation to other theological disciplines. In practical theology, critical reflection is combined with "doing theology": acts of ministering to the poor, the wick, the imprisoned, the subjugated, the despairing, the homeless, and the unjustly treated." p.67
22-28 Mar, 2017
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2008.
-Emphasis: interconnectedness, healthy interdependency; "there is something that beckons persons into connectedness...underlying our endeavors of self-differentiation in denominations, disciplines, and guilds, we are created to be organically related to others in ministry and theology." (p.4) "The vital exchange of nurture within the parts of the tree" p.68
-"practical theology bears fruit, offers shade for sojourners, provides a nesting place for wayfarers, and connects its branches to other trees" (p.6); is "a discipline-in-relationship" (p.8)
Image of musicians-in-relationship, playing their individual instruments but in a way that benefits the whole artistic enterprise (performers entering the center stage at different timings and from different directions with different tempos.
-Dynamic symbolism "points to the infinite and incomprehensible; the use of multiple symbols can prevent an overbearing focus on or concretization of any one of them." H. Flanders Dunbar
(p.9)
Love of God and neighbour.
-"Future questions for the field of practical theology cluster around the multicultural nature, the international audience, and the organic unity of the field. (1) How shall a multicultural or intercultural context influence "exegesis" and practical theology?..." p.20
-Hospitality recognizes the particularity of others as part of the broader interdependence of being and the interconnectedness of learning that characterizes the depths of our reality." John B. Bennett p.20-21
Practical theology concerns itself with movement or direction. p.30
-"An inversion of power has to take place for the world to see how Christ loved the church. The postcolonial mind-set disuses the imagery of slaves and servants and instead prefers the imagery of friends." John 15:12-15 p.32
-The Somalian refugee case: "This space between two lands or countries is likened to an interstice, or crack, between cultures. ...third culture or hybrid culture. Phan depicts this intercultural space as a matrix with a womb-like, generative possibility." p.34 "How might a theologian best enter the land of 'betwixt and between?' First, it would be with humility and with an eagerness to learn. The vision of our call to service would be dialectically related to the discernment of this particular context, that is, the worldview of the transnational migrants or refugees." p. 34
-Theologian Judith Berling: "What makes theological learning distinctive is its development of Christian character, habitus, or wisdom, the deepening of Christian understanding and of Christian lives. As the theological learner learns more about the context of her Christian life--including the impact of religious diversity in it--that learning is folded back into her reappropriation of what it means to be Christian, her sense of the Christian tradition and its language of self-understanding." p. 34
-"Instead of the top-down power movement of colonial powers to to the conquered, we have a circular movement in place." p.35
-"Boundary crossing gives the church more opportunities to be in relationship. This connectedness can yield increase in the love of God and neighbor, sometimes with risk but always with movement. In the end, the purpose of the music of ministry is to hear the overture of God." p.36
P: The purpose of practical theology is connecting theology (biblical teachings, historical theology, doctrine, theology) to how the church can live this out, and when the church encounters discordant notes (unexpected situations) then the church responds as best as they could being faithful to the Word, then also reflect on the situation back into theology.
-"Practical theology is a collaborative exercise between theory and practice." p.44;
-David Tracy: "practical theology is the mutually critical correlation of the interpreted theory and praxis of the Christian fact and the interpreted theory and praxis of the contemporary situation." p.45
-"In practical theology, this ever-deepening reflection is either preceded or followed by action and practice." p.59
-Countermovement in accord with the currents in contemporary practical theology: "There is a shift away from traditional sources of power and authority" ....to redefine power as God-given, innate authority. ...Those on the margins of society are offering up lots of "cold water" if those of us who are nonmarginalized would receive." p.49
-Living human instruments:
"action-reflection" or "theory-praxis";
Praxis=when practice is involved with political powers and injustice or justice issues. p.59
Practical theology="an academic discipline in relation to other theological disciplines. In practical theology, critical reflection is combined with "doing theology": acts of ministering to the poor, the wick, the imprisoned, the subjugated, the despairing, the homeless, and the unjustly treated." p.67
22-28 Mar, 2017
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2008.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
'To God be the glory' -Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)
To God be the glory, great things He has done;
so loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
and opened the life gate that all may go in.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
and give Him the glory, great things He has done.
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
to every believer the promise of God;
the vilest offender who truly believes,
that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Great things He has taught us, great things He has done,
and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
but purer, and higher, and greater will be
our wonder, our worship, when Jesus we see.
Sunday, December 11, 2016
3. Proclamation and Theology - William H. Willimon
Acts 8:4 "Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word." (the church, after Stephen's martyr)
-"Preaching is a theological act, our attempt to do business with a God who speaks... At the heart of preaching is... a God who speaks, and who speaks now" (p.2)
-"The gap that is the main concern of the evangelical preacher, ... is the theological space between us and the Trinity.... not style, rhetoric, or method when Theos ought to be our concern." "...biblical stories render a God true but strange." (p.4)
-God initiated the divine-human dialogue: the Incarnation, Word Made Flesh (p. 15)
-Preaching must be God's Word. Kant: preacher as the person standing at the street corner pointing to the sky and everyone looking there.
"Our faith in preaching is not based upon preaching's effectiveness but rather upon its truth, a truth that graciously reaches out to us and gives us what we need to hear as the way, the truth, and the life." (p.21) Eph 4:15-16 truth-telling->maturity
The Biblical Word
-"The word is read and interpreted in worship; the people weep and then celebrate and align their lives accordingly." Ezra 8:8-12 (p.35)
-"Most of Israel's Scripture was written by a community either in exile or coming out of exile, Scripture like that found in Nehemiah. Only exilic literature could adequately express the pain and the loss felt by disestablished, relinquished Israel in the catastrophe of exile. Yet some of Israel's most assertive, visionary, hopeful, pushy poetry and prose was also written in exile, testimony to Israel's great faith in the reign of a resourceful God who is determined to have a people. ...a God who tends toward the oppressed." (p.37-8)
-"biblical preaching is part of the church's tough theological task of taking the Bible as God's word more seriously and ourselves a little less so." (p.49)
The Incarnate Word
"The proclaimed word is the incarnate Christ himself..." (p.54)
-"The Word is meant to be heard, embodied, performed, and enfleshed. ...so that our congregations might embody the Word and the Word might dwell in them richly. That means that every sermon is meant to be a summons, a call, a vocation toward Incarnation." "We preachers seek to perform the Word in our sermons so that the congregation might perform the Word in the world." (p.60-61)
Cross and Resurrection in Preaching
-Cross: the foolish to shame the wise 1 Cor 2:1-5
-Resurrection: content of gospel preaching and its miraculous means; hope; "Resurrection carries with it a claim, a demand that we live in the light of this stunning new reality...Now we must acknowledge who sits upon the throne, who is in charge, how the story ends. Now we must either change, join in God's revolution, or else remain unchanged, in the grip of the old world and its rulers, sin and death." (p.86)
Dec 10-12, 2016
2005, Nashville: Abingdon Press
To read: Justin Martyr's Apology (c. 150)-one of the earliest detailed account of a Sunday service
-"Preaching is a theological act, our attempt to do business with a God who speaks... At the heart of preaching is... a God who speaks, and who speaks now" (p.2)
-"The gap that is the main concern of the evangelical preacher, ... is the theological space between us and the Trinity.... not style, rhetoric, or method when Theos ought to be our concern." "...biblical stories render a God true but strange." (p.4)
-God initiated the divine-human dialogue: the Incarnation, Word Made Flesh (p. 15)
-Preaching must be God's Word. Kant: preacher as the person standing at the street corner pointing to the sky and everyone looking there.
"Our faith in preaching is not based upon preaching's effectiveness but rather upon its truth, a truth that graciously reaches out to us and gives us what we need to hear as the way, the truth, and the life." (p.21) Eph 4:15-16 truth-telling->maturity
The Biblical Word
-"The word is read and interpreted in worship; the people weep and then celebrate and align their lives accordingly." Ezra 8:8-12 (p.35)
-"Most of Israel's Scripture was written by a community either in exile or coming out of exile, Scripture like that found in Nehemiah. Only exilic literature could adequately express the pain and the loss felt by disestablished, relinquished Israel in the catastrophe of exile. Yet some of Israel's most assertive, visionary, hopeful, pushy poetry and prose was also written in exile, testimony to Israel's great faith in the reign of a resourceful God who is determined to have a people. ...a God who tends toward the oppressed." (p.37-8)
-"biblical preaching is part of the church's tough theological task of taking the Bible as God's word more seriously and ourselves a little less so." (p.49)
The Incarnate Word
"The proclaimed word is the incarnate Christ himself..." (p.54)
-"The Word is meant to be heard, embodied, performed, and enfleshed. ...so that our congregations might embody the Word and the Word might dwell in them richly. That means that every sermon is meant to be a summons, a call, a vocation toward Incarnation." "We preachers seek to perform the Word in our sermons so that the congregation might perform the Word in the world." (p.60-61)
Cross and Resurrection in Preaching
-Cross: the foolish to shame the wise 1 Cor 2:1-5
-Resurrection: content of gospel preaching and its miraculous means; hope; "Resurrection carries with it a claim, a demand that we live in the light of this stunning new reality...Now we must acknowledge who sits upon the throne, who is in charge, how the story ends. Now we must either change, join in God's revolution, or else remain unchanged, in the grip of the old world and its rulers, sin and death." (p.86)
Dec 10-12, 2016
2005, Nashville: Abingdon Press
To read: Justin Martyr's Apology (c. 150)-one of the earliest detailed account of a Sunday service
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