I’ll be slowing down… March 15, 2009
Posted by Damian in Biblical Exegesis and Interpretation.3 comments
My life has gotten a bit busy, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. So, I’ll be posting a little less regularly – I can’t say how often – but less than the three or four a week I’ve been posting lately. If you’ve recently found your way here, browse the categories or popular posts in the sidebar until I get back on my blogging feet. I encourage you all to leave comments regarding your thoughts – perhaps conversation can make up for my own decreased output, and help maintain a lively community. God bless!
Top Ten Blogs You Read Regularly July 6, 2009
Posted by Damian in Biblical Exegesis and Interpretation.6 comments
Celucien asked ‘What are the Top Ten blogs you read regularly?’. Polycarp has followed suit; I’m not sure who else has. I’m seeing some trends, but here’s my list, in no particular order:
- Doug Chaplin – Clayboy: Whilst Doug slowed down at Blogito Ergo Sim, his new address, Clayboy, is full of as interesting conversation as his old, Metacatholic. He discusses a range of Christ-related topics, always in a fair and interesting manner.
- Richard Beck – Experimental Theology: Richard comes at commonplace questions from interesting angles.
- David Kerr, Peter Kirk, Wayne Leman, etc. – Better Bibles: I’m an avid (if flawed) linguist, and so the conversation here, is always enlightening, thought-provoking, and entertainng.
- Ben Myers – Faith and Theology: There are few enough Aussie’s in the theology and bible blogging sphere, but Ben’s posts are often so thought provoking I fear becoming involved in case I lower the calibre of the conversation. Nevertheless, he often inspires my thoughts in ways I never would have anticipated.
- Mike Spencer – Internet Monk: He needs no introduction. But his commentary on modern evangelism made me realise I wasn’t alone, back when I was involved in the movement.
- Jeff – Scripture Zealot: One of my favourites, Jeff is truly enjoyable to know, for his honest way of speech and his open conversation with those (such as myself) who disagree with him on everything but the essentials of the faith.
- Mike Koke – The Golden Rule: A relatively new blog, Mike’s a young fella such as myself, but seems better studied and more adept at asking questions that invite fascinating discussion.
- Nick Norelli – Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: He’s the most prolific blogger I know of, so you’re guaranteed a gold nugget or two if you stick with him long enough ;-).
- Polycarp – The Church of Jesus Christ: He has a unique mind, that often finds nuance that others miss.
- Steve Douglas – Undeception: Lately he’s trended towards politics, but he’s a sound and knowledgable Christian with a respectful attitude and some unorthodox viewpoints, sincerely interested in discussion.
Of course, I read many other blogs – too many, in fact – irregularly, and these are only some of the ones I read regularly. But they’re every one of the good. Check them out, if you don’t already!
Ministry to the Disabled: Individualism, Independence, Autonomy, and Self-Advocacy July 3, 2009
Posted by Damian in Living Christianity.Tags: dignity, disabled, god's image, imageo dei, imagio dei, imago dei, independence, ministry, restoration, shared life
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Kent Eilers at the Theology Forum has written on Ministry to the Disabled. In my opinion, he forms a good working theology on Ministry to the Disabled. I agree especially on Kent’s thoughts on promoting the worth of God’s image, on the restorative work of ministry in addition to evangelism, on the focus on dignity, and on avoiding the diminishing of the lives of the disabled through simplistic theodicy. I have one issue with what he writes, however, and that is in his first Thesis:
The church’s ministry to the disabled must disavow itself of liberal society’s measure of human worth – autonomy, individualism, reason, rationality, independence and the capacity for self-advocacy.
Now, I’m sure my thinking has been influenced by my experience: I work in Allied Health, and my mother has been severely disabled for the majority of my life. But this thesis, to me, denies the human need for these things that Kent phrases ‘liberal society’s measures of human worth’. That is, there is a human need for a degree of autonomy, individualism (in the sense of feeling an individual), independence and self-advocacy.
Whilst I agree whole-heartedly, that the churches ministry should ‘offer the dignity of shared life’, the importance of community in Ministry to the Disabled should not overshadow the realisation that this ministry should facilitate autonomy, independence, a sense of feeling an individual, and the ability to self-advocate. This is because, as much as a given person with a disability might need help with activities of daily living such as showering, dressing, or food preparation, they gain as much from the facilitation of autonomous activities of daily living (for example through funding home modifications) as they do through ’shared life’. Dignity hinges both on the ability to be respected through the disability, and the ability to stand on one’s own abilities as much as possible.
I suppose, in short: Ministry to the disabled must support the individual as much as the community, must give the individual independence as much as support, must allow them to advocate for themselves as well as advocate for them. Ministry should provide people with disabilities a taste of the power of God that works through them, as well as the love of God that comes through the church.
Why treat the NT like the pharisees treated Torah? July 1, 2009
Posted by Damian in Biblical Exegesis and Interpretation.Tags: abuse, exegisis, holy spirit, husband, marriage, New Testament, Torah, wife
4 comments
Bryan L said something quite insightful over at New Leaven:
Why keep treating the NT like another Torah so that we have to come up with crazy exegetical arguments just to support a position that we already know is right?
He’s right. As the cliche goes, God didn’t give us the New Testament by which to judge our actions, but the Holy Spirit. When something is right, we don’t need to create an exegesis to support it. Jesus told off the Pharisees for doing exactly that. When a wife, a child, or a husband for that matter, is being abused, the solution is to stop that abuse by whatever means necessary.
Abuse is bad. We know this, even if the New Testament isn’t explicit on the fact.
An attempt to clarify the theological implications of Satan’s development June 28, 2009
Posted by Damian in Ancient Near Eastern Thought, Church and Christian History, Early Christian Belief and Patristics.Tags: Adam, bible, canon, christianity, cosmic struggle, diablos, eve, evil, fallen angel, good, good and evil, gospel, gospels, history, judaism, lucifer, Mark, Matthew, New Testament, old testament, satan, the devil, zoroastrianism
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The other week, I posted on Robert Oester’s article ‘the Curious Career of Satan’. Since then, he’s commented on what I wrote, specifically this:
How do we reconcile the Old Testament picture of evil being God’s responsibility (and all that entails), and modern concepts of the struggle between good and evil? Does the New Testament paint that picture, or is it something later Christianity projected onto the text? Was this projection something that started before or after solidification of the canon?
His response was this:
I don’t know Damian, so I’m probably not being fair to him here, but he seems to be asking, “Is the development of the character of Satan something that is in the NT [and therefore something important], or something that happened after the NT was written [and therefore something to be ignored].” That seems to me to be a chicken-and-egg question: one that probably doesn’t have an answer. Rather, there must have been an interplay between canon development – as certain texts that mention Satan became more widespread in the Christian communities – and the development of ideas about Satan. Neither one came first: both developments happened at more or less the same time.
My understanding of canon development is that the canon – which records a specific understanding of Satan’s role – was chosen because it was a record of the developing ideas that became regarded as Orthodox. Hence, of course, there was an interplay between development of canon and development of ideas: They reflected each other.
My questions were slightly different:
- Did the New Testament record a specific understanding of Satan that is seemingly different from the Old Testament understanding of Satan?
- Did post-first-century Christianity develop these ideas and project it onto the text?
- Did this projection occur before or after solidification of the canon?
Now I’m not sure Robert understood my reasons for answering these questions. I want to attempt to reconcile two seemingly contradictory understandings of evil. The first regards God as the ultimate arbiter of Good and Evil; the second regards Satan as one part of a weak dualism, where whilst he will inevitably fall, he is very similar to a god himself. To me, this second understanding causes (understandably) some theological issues. This is why I’m curious about what opinions people have on the New Testament Satan and its relationship to his Old Testament counterpart. Now I don’t have access to many early Christian texts, and I’m not well read in them, but I’m confident that some record of early Christianity’s thoughts regarding this issue must exist; this is why I ask about if Christianity post-dating the writing of the New Testament developed these ideas and projected them onto the New Testament. It’s been known to happen. Finally, I asked about the location of this projection: That is, if the canon might have solidified around a weak-dualist understanding of Satan, or if the weak-dualist understanding was developed around the canon we’re familiar with.
Now, there are no true answers to these questions, but I’m open to any opinions, ideas, or texts that people are willing to give.
Bibleworks Giveaway! June 28, 2009
Posted by Damian in Biblical Exegesis and Interpretation.add a comment
Nathan and the boys at Cal.vini.st are giving away two copies of Bibleworks 8 for their first anniversary. It’s an invaluable tool that I will never be able to afford, so I’m writing this post solely to boost my chance of getting one. I’m shameless, I know. But it’s a fantastic blog that I’ve been reading for most of the past year it’s been around. It’s given me plenty of food for thought – congratulations on making the one year mark!
