Reading in modern liberal theology, you begin to notice some recurring themes. Especially when liberal theologians get around to describing God, they tend to emphasize a few characteristics. You find these pervasive patterns of thought: that God is deeply mysterious, but is always opposed to oppression; that God is intimately and immanently near to us, affirms matter in all its...
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English metaphysical poet Thomas Traherne (1636-1674) insisted that in spiritual matters, “the manner is always more excellent than the thing.” This has great implications for the idea of God as author.
When Kevin Vanhoozer presents God’s relationship to the world as a relation of authorship, his point is never simply that God is an author. What he's after is what ki...
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A short post here before plunging into the next major topic in Kevin Vanhoozer's 2010 book Remythologizing Theology (coming out in paperback this year, they say). That next major topic is how God speaks. But first a word about how Vanhoozer speaks.
Remythologizing Theology is a book about the doctrine of God, but it also extends into the doctrine about how God relates to th...
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It's one of the most famous verses in the Bible, the hit single everybody knows even if they don't listen to the rest of the album. You can wave it on a banner, paint it in your eyeblack, or print it underneath your In-N-Out cup; John 3:16. No matter how often I see it, no matter what kind of knuckle-head has stuck it to their bumper, no matter how out-of-the-blue or isola...
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Here are two books I recommended when I was talking Christology on the Frank Pastore show on Jan 12.
The single best book on the deity of Christ is Putting Jesus in His Place (Kregel, 2007). The authors, Bowman and Komoszewski, work through all the best arguments and even provide a handy mnemonic device, HANDS: Jesus shares the Honors, Attributes, Names, Deeds, and Seat of G...
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Does God speak? Does he have a mouth that words come out of? Does God suffer? How does he feel the feelings he feels? Does God do things? Does he have hands that reach out and accomplish his will? Do we have a personal relationship with God? Is God somebody in particular, a center of awareness and choice, a person with a psychology and a history of relationships?
To some ex...
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Featured Essay
On Friday, the Church celebrated the feast of Epiphany, reveling in Christ’s revelation to the Gentiles, and to the world. This day marks his going public, the laying bare of the secret long hid in the counsels of God and only whispered in the prophets.
Isaiah looked forward to Epiphany: ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a lan...
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Cultural critic Neil Postman wrote two books whose titles picked a fight with each other: Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1971), and Teaching as Conserving Activity (1982). Well, which is it, teacher, are you subverting or conserving? I ask because I'm coming to terms with Kevin Vanhoozer's Remythologizing Theology, which similarly looks in two directions at once. It subver...
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Kevin Vanhoozer has developed a reputation for reflecting deeply and at length on theological and hermeneutical prolegomena; perhaps too much at length. In the Preface to Remythologizing Theology, he admits that he has been “as guilty as anyone of procrastinating in the prolegomenal fields,” but with this text he has succeeded in moving on from preparatory methodology to t...
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Featured Essay
I stood in church and watched two baptisms on the first day of 2012. Just a few hours before, a couple of friends and I had raised glasses and toasted the new year. Then, there in the sanctuary, two heads were lowered and splashed in that old reenactment of Christ's new life.
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Kevin J. Vanhoozer published a very important book in 2010, entitled Remythologizing Theology. It's a long book (500 pages), and though Vanhoozer is a clear writer, his target audience here is people who have already read a lot of recent theology. It's also a very expensive hardcover from Cambridge University Press. Good news on that front: a paperback edition is on the way in...
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From the Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (pages 740-741), here is my attempt to describe the second coming from the point of view of spirituality, in 400 words. For New Year's Day.
When Christ ascended into the clouds to take his seat at the right hand of the Father, the angels of the ascension said, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come ...
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