On Provocations

I have a great many short and incomplete thoughts that I think might be worth discussing. Call them "provocations" to thought and discussion. I hope they give you something to ponder and meditate on. I will be posting them under the title of "A provocation on..." These will be a couple of sentences, and not more than a paragraph. I will keep them all topically under their appropriate topic, as well as under the topic of provocations.

The Trajectory we follow in interpreting Scripture

For the last several years, I have been tweaking a Hebrew and Greek daily Scripture reading system, with a lectionary for reading through the English Bible every year and a half. If you are interested in viewing or using it, a PDF is available HERE. 

What is of interest here is that, in the introduction to this reader (pages 2-3), I most clearly lay out how I interpret Scripture, and the main concerns I pay attention to when seeking to understand what God has revealed to us through Scripture. I have written elsewhere about how I apply the Biblical laws to our ethical life, and how Scriptural difficulties are worked out when we see Scripture as a process of Developmental Revelation, which is on a trajectory that is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. In this understanding, to use words spoken by Martin Luther King Jr.: The Moral Arc of History (and Scripture) is long, but it trends toward Justice. This view has been shaped by voices as diverse as CS Lewis (in terms of overall narrative development of History), NT Wright (in terms of looking at the Old Testament from the perspective of the New Testament), Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (in his work on confronting violence in the Torah). 

When Goodness is repellant and Evil is seductive

I just saw Venom, and along with it a preview for Captain Marvel. Very enjoyable movie, and interesting preview. But I realized something that has always struck me as hollow about the Marvel Universe, and most other movie universes* from DC to Star Wars to Harry Potter to Indiana Jones. That is this: Evil is not evil until it is truly seductive, and Good is not good unless it is truly repellant. 

Let me explain. 

Things left behind

Some prefer to leave behind
Buildings and statues
That stay static and inert
Until they crumble
To dust

I prefer to leave behind
Ideas and stories
That ever change and evolve
Until they inspire us
To live

Childlike Faith and the Neverending Story

I watched the Neverending Story with my kids this morning. This movie impressed me deeply as a child with a view of imagination, and multiple dimensions of reality, which shaped me at a deep level. In many ways this movie and several other books I read as a young person “baptized my imagination” to experience our co-authorship, with God, of the great unfolding Story of Creation and Redemption centered in Christ. What I did not realize until watching this movie as an adult: 

First, this movie may be the best illustration of Jesus’ saying that the Kingdom of God belongs to those with childlike faith which I have ever seen. 

Second, it is a potent critique of living in a world culture of Consumerism, in which every Corporation and advertisement seeks to co-opt our imagination, and stop us from dreaming, with the lie that their products can satisfy our every desire, and bring us to true happiness. 

On Sickness, Healing, and Unforgiveness

“But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” (Jesus, according to Mark 3:29)

“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors... If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” (Jesus, according to Matthew 6:12–15)

Out of all the things Jesus said and did, at the top of his list were Love, forgiveness, and healing. Jesus taught and acted as if all things could be forgiven and healed, no matter how big or how small. From little children, to squabbling siblings, to women caught in immorality, to a thief dying on a cross, to his best friend denying him in his time of need: Jesus forgave everything, and healed everyone, out of his deep Love. 

All except for one thing.

Bart Ehrman, Theodicy, and Leaving Evangelicalism

Recently I posted a chart about various models of dealing with "Theodicy" (the problem of how evil and God can co-exist in the same reality). Someone asked me if I had read the 2009 book by New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman on Theodicy entitled "God's Problem". Now I have read a couple of Ehrman books on Biblical studies, and heave seen several of his debates, lectures, and interviews (including him talking about his deconversion and the problem of suffering). But I have never read this book, although I have heard him sum it up several times in his videos on YouTube.

Ehrman's book and his talks strike me as having very similar themes to other books I have read, particularly by Evangelicals who have lost their faith. As a former Evangelical, I have experienced much of what Ehrman (and others like him) have experienced, except that it turned me to a broader and deeper faith in Christ rather than abandoning Christ. While I disagree with Ehrman on several core ideas, from the Divinity of Christ to the basic reliability of Scripture, I do find him to be a rational, honest, and well-intentioned thinker who is pursuing the truth as best he can. Erman’s story, as I understand it, points out several gaping holes (or persistent heresies) in American Evangelicalism:

Models of Theodicy Chart

How do we deal with God allowing evil and suffering? This ever-daunting "Problem of Evil" is one of the biggest perennial problems in Theology and the Philosophy of Religion. The academic name for this problem is "Theodicy", and it is one of the things I have blogged about the most on this website, with articles big and small discussing the problem from all kinds of perspectives. Today in teaching Philosophy, we talked about the subject once again. And as a result I decided to turn my class notes into a chart. 

You will note that it lays out the essential logic of the problem of Theodicy in a flowchart of options which are either affirming to the reality of God, or which diminish or deny the reality of God. I have even further simplified this flowchart into an image which can be displayed on one slide as part of a presentation or sermon:

If you would like to use these charts or image, you can click the image above, or download the charts in PDF or JPEG here.

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Heresies Alive!

This weekend I was honored to teach seminarians about the Age of the "Ecumenical Councils" and help them understand the heresies which helped define orthodoxy in the Imperial Church. One of the persistent problems in teaching this material is the interconnected and confusing convergence of different groups in the early Church and the specialized terminology they used to explain themselves and condemn each other. 

So, to help students understand these issues and concepts, I find it helpful to discuss how we find these heresies alive and well in our churches today. We tend to think of heresies as something that happened "back then" which are only of academic interest today. But the fact is, the same heresies pop up over and over and affect people in profound ways. Thus, I created the chart above (and available in PDF HERE) which helps students connect these heresies with the contemporary world. 

Models of Metaphysical Cosmology

In my philosophy class my students are trying to wrap their minds around what is different about how Plato and Aristotle viewed Reality, and how this relates to other thinkers and models of Reality. Basically, Plato is seen as the prototypical rationalist, viewing Reality from the "top down", while Aristotle is seen as a proto-empiricist, viewing Reality from the "bottom up". If this is already confusing, Crash Course has a nice summary HERE.

Anyway, there are many terms that could be used for comparing different views of how to understand the essence of Reality. In one way, we are discussing Metaphysics, because it is a discussion of how the realm of physical reality might relate to "higher" or more fundamental levels of reality (if there are such levels). In another way, we are discussing Ontology, because we are trying to understand what the natures of things are, and what are the essential aspects that make a thing what it is. In a final sense, we are discussing Cosmology, because we are seeking to understand the nature of the Universe (the Cosmos) in relation to various ways of understanding Ultimate Reality. 

So, I have chosen to call it "Models of Metaphysical Cosmology". I know people may disagree, but it's what I will go with right now. My summary chart for teaching can be seen by clicking the JPEG at the top of this post, or by clicking on THIS PDF.

And, if you are up for more charts, you can see my whole collection of charts for teaching Religion, Scripture, Theology, and Philosophy HERE. 

Truth is always Stranger

Tertullian once said “I believe because it is absurd”. It is the strangeness of an idea— it’s undeniable texture and inconsistent density— which is a hallmark of its truthfulness, and not the smoothness and consistency of an idea. The old quip that “truth is stranger than fiction” has much in common with Tertullian here. Fictions have smoothness and consistency, clear beginnings and symmetrical endings. But reality makes twists and turns which, while they do not contradict reason, neither can they be predicted by reason. Real things are irreducible, and defy being fully encapsulated in a conceptual system, to be rendered completely predictable, and hence controllable. 

Can Cattle Breeding trigger the Apocalypse?

A friend recently sent me an article with the overblown and click-baity title of "Birth of first red heifer in 2000 years fulfills Bible prophecy and signals end of days". He asked me what I thought about this. In reply, I told him I’m probably the most un-fun Bible scholar to play this game with. 

This absurd article is based on an obscure read of Numbers 19 where it says “This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded:  Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. …  This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the aliens living among them.” [verses 1–2, 10] 

Some sects of fundamentalist Christians interpret it this way: Jesus cannot return until the Third Temple is built in Jerusalem; The Third Temple cannot function unless there are Red Heifers to sacrifice there; Therefore if and when a Red Heifer is born, it will trigger the building of the Third Temple, which will trigger the return of Jesus. Don't blame me for the logical holes in this: I'm just reporting what a subsection of a subsection of a subsection of Christians believe. 

Here are some of the many reasons why this interpretation is problematic...

Jesus, the Bible, and Private Property

The earth is the LORD’S and all that is in it, 

the world, and those who live in it! (Psalm 24.1)

Recently one of our History classes viewed this video in which Billy Graham makes the claim that “Jesus... taught the value of private property” (start at 5:14 for the whole quote). This seems to be an odd claim for the teachings of Jesus, and it generated quite the class discussion, after which the teacher asked me to make sense of Graham’s claim. 

I’ve actually been reading and thinking about this subject for the last 20+ years, but I’ve never penned anything publicly about it. In that time, I have travelled quite a distance politically and economically. I ended the 1990’s and began the 2000’s as a Christian Libertarian, convinced of the goodness and Divine sanction of the Free Market and its Invisible Hand to find the best solution to all social ills. I fundamentally resonated with George W. Bush’s vision of compassionate conservatism and market based public-private partnerships to do good in the world. 

Two decades later, in the midst of an interminable War on Terror which diverts trillions of dollars to the Military Industrial Complex, after a Bank Bailout that diverted trillions of dollars of public money to private coffers, after Occupy and Bernie Sanders and staggering levels of wealth inequality, as we watch public institutions and civic life desiccated and destroyed by ravenous Global Consumerism, after reading and re-reading and re-re-reading Scripture and Christian Tradition on economics and social justice, I have come to reject the naive Christian Libertarianism I embraced as a 20-something. 

As you may guess by now, I am convinced that the Bible as a whole, and Jesus in particular, do not support the post-enlightenment Consumerist concept of "private" property, in which "goods are irrevocably and unaccountably owned and controlled by the libertarian freedom of atomistic individuals, without connection to a higher duty, social purpose, or larger community".

In fact, to understand Jesus’ teaching on property, we have to look at the whole trajectory of the Bible on these issues. And, in short, the Bible nowhere supports our odd and recently formed concept of “private” property. It may be used to support ownership and property in a very publicly accountable sense, with many responsibilities tied to ownership. But it does not support private ownership unaccountable to other social, ethical, or spiritual responsibilities. 

Pontius Pilate and the inversion of Cynicism

One of the many things that interest me about the Passion narrative in the Gospel of John is how he writes Pilate. Pilate is the epitome of worldly wise, battle hardened, cynical wisdom. His one liners of “What is Truth?” (John 18.38) and “What I have written, I have written” (John 19.22) show us the sardonic gallows humor of a man who doesn’t believe anything anymore, except the power of power to crush and silence. And yet...

Credo: The Story that Reads Us [A Mini-Systemic Theology]

This was originally written in 2006 in partial fulfillment of requirements for Systematic Theology at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. It is fairly representative of my current thought, although in several ways I have built on, or superseded, what is written here. This is especially true in matters dealing with Science, World Religions, and Socio-Economic Justice.

This is the FULL 18,000 word original version that was trimmed to around 10,000 words to be turned in. Note that all endnotes have been removed from this version, due to the limitations of the blog format. However, all sources cited and consulted are found at the end of the essay.

A Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, send forth your Spirit that I may say what needs to be said, in space allowed, and bear witness fully to your Father's Glory and His Story which writes us all. Amen+

Hard Power, Soft Power, and Christ's Kingdom

A sermon for St. Paul's Episcopal Church, based on the readings Ezekiel 2:1-5; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13

One of the great pleasures of working as a chaplain in a rigorous college prep environment is that I get to work with young leaders who really think they have a shot at changing the world. They have a kind of "childlike faith" in the possibility of making the world a better place, and a wonderful naivety about their own capacity to bring about that change. 

They have been told repeatedly that the sky is the limit, and they can do anything they put their mind to, if they will just work hard enough. And most of them have not had enough experience with the world yet, to have that beat out of them by life's hard knocks, or slowly drained out of them by life's compromises.

Do you remember what it was like to have that kind of childlike faith that you could change the world? Before you "grew up" and repeatedly failed the same failures, fought the same fights, and argued the same arguments, over and over and over again. Jesus repeatedly praised childlike faith, saying that it was necessary if we wanted to enter into the Kingdom of God. 

When American Politics became Professional Wrestling

Watching American politics seems to me to be much like watching professional wrestling. Back in my childhood, both Hulk Hogan and the Rowdy Roddy Piper (and a whole host of heroes and villains) were all owned and operated by the same World Wrestling Federation. No matter who you root for, or who wins in the ring, the money all goes to the same place. 

Why God feels sorrow and joy

Is God able to truly feel sorrow over our failures? Does God truly rejoice with our successes? Today in Church our lectionary included the text from 1Samuel 15 that "The  Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel". This is a wonderful text which leads into several interesting theological places I have wanted to write about for some time. To get to those places, let's start Biblically. 

The Devil is in the Algorithms

Today I want to deal with a subject that scared us to death as children, that we tend to laugh off as mere superstition when we reach adulthood, but that still haunts us when we experience something truly evil in our lives, or see it on the news. That subject is hinted at as early as Genesis chapter 3, when our first parents were tempted by a sneaky snake in the Garden of Eden, and afterward God gave that snake the ominous warning: "I will put hatred between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; The human will strike your head, and you will strike his heel." [Gen 3.15]

Four Years of Fitness Logging

Note: The material here has been incorporated and enlarged into my comprehensive Training Program and Principles, as well as my thoughts on the Spirituality of Physical Training. 

The last time I blogged about Fitness in 2014, I had just started my journey back to health. I have learned a great deal since then, and figured it was time to share some of that.

I will only toot my own horn if it helps others, so perhaps this will help someone. Today I have logged my meals for 3 years straight, 1095 days in a row, on MyFitnessPal. It would be 4 years in a row, but my Mission Trip in 2015 broke my 1 year streak. In these 4 years, I have gone from 330 lbs to 275 lbs (I still have 25 lbs to go to get to my goal of 250 lbs). With that loss of 55 lbs, I have gained muscle mass, and my 5 rep max lifts are at 285 for bench, 205 for overhead press, 325 for front squat, and 425 for deadlift. And beyond that, I generally feel healthy and energetic and comfortable in my own skin. 

What’s my point in this bragging? My point is that you can do it too. Your goals may be different. They may be running or swimming or CrossFit or whatever. But you can do it, with self discipline that comes from the grace of God. It may not come dramatically or quickly (it sure hasn’t for me), but it will come. I’m a very busy married guy with three active kids and a demanding job. And if I can do it, you can do it.