Creating Art by Polling

Alex Melamid and Vitaly Komar
at the SAATCHI Gallery in London 

Every once in awhile, a story on PRI's This American Life just sticks in my head. It may even weave itself into the very fabric of our family language. Every Labor Day, such a story reemerges in our goofy humor. We find ourselves walking around the house singing, in our loudest "children's" voices, "Labor Day! Labor Day!" It all started when two artists, Alex Melamid and Vitaly Komar, decided to create art by polling people in different countries about what they like most and least in paintings. They seem to have a good sense of humor about people and pop culture even as they critique it.

Melamid & Komar's painting for the US

The most memorable part of the story is when they talk about writing two songs. The first incorporates all the favorite elements from their polling data - love, low female voice, ballad, etc. Your basic pop song... The second incorporates all the least favorite elements - bagpipes, an opera singer rapping, children voices, tuba, singing about holidays, etc. I love the second song. It is so goofy, and it always cracks me up when the children's choir shouts out, "Labor Day! Labor Day!" and then, later in the song, "Yom Kippur! Yom Kippur!" (Well, it is fast approaching!)

Hilarious and silly! So, on this Labor Day weekend, may you find many ways to observe your celebration of work in your leisure and sing a jovial (if silly) song in your heart. "Labor Day!"

"88: Numbers - Paint by Numbers" on This American Life, Chicago Public Media: PRI, January 2, 1998:

Thinking about what to read: What are the options?

Classes start in just under a month and my mind has turned to the various reading lists and options for my theology class. Every Fall students in my class have to choose between various options for small reading groups (or reading pods). I decided that I would put up some resources to help with that decision.

Here are the reading options for the reading pods:

• Black Liberation Theology:
• Selections from Carter, Cone, Hopkins, and Baker-Fletcher
• Anabaptist:
• Selections from McClendon, Yoder, Finger, and Weaver
• Baptist: Stan Grenz
• Theology for the Community of God, Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994.
• Church Fathers:
• Christopher A. Hall, Learning Theology with the Church Fathers, Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2002.
• Eastern Orthodox:
• Selections from Stavropoulos, Lossky, Zizioulas, and Ware.
• Feminist Theology:
• Selections from Johnson, Soskice, McFague, Gonzalez, Storkey, and Gilliss.
• Womanist/Mujerista/Post-Colonialist Theology:
• Selections from Baker-Fletcher, Joh, Oduyoye, Grant, Isasi-Díaz, Kwok, etc.
• South and Central American Liberation Theology:
• Jon Sobrino and Ignacio Ellacuria, eds., Systematic Theology: Perspectives from Liberation Theology, Orbis Books, 1996.
• Reform (German): Jürgen Moltmann.
• Selections from Trinity and the Kingdom, God in Creation, and The Crucified God.
• Reform (British): Colin Gunton
• The Christian Faith, Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.
• Reform (American): Kathryn Tanner
• Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity, Edinburgh, UK: T&T Clark, 2001.

Thinking about what to read: Why all of these choices?

You may be wondering why there are so many choices for the Reading Pods. I know that it feels complicated or unnecessary, but there is a method to my madness. 

A few years ago, Dr. Hollins and I attended an Association of Theological Schools (ATS) conference on Race and Ethnicity in Theological Education. ATS is looking ahead to 2040 when it is projected that white Americans will become a minority in the US. They are concerned that Seminaries are not prepared for this major change in American culture. Are the pastors of the future prepared for such diversity in churches, or will Sunday morning continue to be the most segregated morning of the week? Their assertion is that we won't know until we experience this reality, but for now, we can practice what it means to listen more broadly in our theological explorations. 

After I came back from this conference, I decided to change up my reading lists for The Theological Mosaic class. I wanted students to read more broadly, yet find one space where they read more deeply. My hope is that this diversity with spill into discussions and dialogue both in and outside of class. Theology is a mixture of seeking out the least inadequate language through which to talk about God (Colin Gunton) and how that reality intersects and forms our views of culture, humanity, and the sacred in every day life. 

The complication is that we live constantly with great mystery - e.g., God, trees, cabbages, the person sitting next to you on the bus, etc. Mystery is sometimes thought to be those things that you cannot know. I disagree. Mystery is not an unknowing or an ignorance. Instead, mystery is a pressing into what we can only know in part. British theologian, Sarah Coakley, encourages us to press into the task of doing theology, to learn the discipline, read, think, and discern. It is only at this point, when we push the boundaries of our knowing, that we can understand the boundlessness of the mystery of God and of one another.  

With this in mind, I'll leave you with a quote from the Swiss theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar. Every time I read this quote, I realize that this articulation of mystery and prayer are foundational for how I do theology. So, I invite you to come and dive into the abyss with me...

“Contemplation starts at the point where the believing mind begins to perceive a dawning light in the abyss of the mystery, where the mystery begins to reveal itself in all its vast proportions. Not in the sense of doubt, of loosening the tautness of the dogmatic affirmation, but in an astonishment which reaches to the very roots of our being (Balthasar, Hans Urs von,  Prayer,  Tr. By Graham Harrison, San Francisco: Igantius Press, 1986, 158.).”

Thinking about what to read: Colin Gunton

Colin Gunton with his teacher Robert Jenson

Colin Gunton's book, The One, The Three, and The Many, is probably the most influential theological work that I have ever read. Partly this is because I read it early in my theological training but more likely it is how he masterfully brings together trinitarian theology, the arts, philosophy, and a theology of culture. His theology helped to shape my theological imagination in significant ways, and for that I will always be grateful. 

At the center of Gunton's theological project, is a robust and vibrant trinitarian theology. For Gunton, the Trinity is not some nice abstract idea about absolutes or perfections, nor is it a cypher by which and through which to understand the mysteries of the world (an entry into some kind of mystery religion). Instead, this doctrine brings us to the very heart of the God who is distinct, particular, and unity-in-community. As he argues:

“God is not God apart from the way in which Father, Son, and Spirit in eternity give to and receive from each other what they essentially are. The three do not merely coinhere, but dynamically constitute one another’s being” (Gunton, The One, The Three, and The Many, 164).

Thus, unity and diversity (particularity) are mutually constitutive - they do not exist separately or outside of one another. Unity in God requires the distinct persons and diversity requires the unique manner of God's being one. 

This kind of trinitarian theology leads to a core concept that I have taken from Gunton (and he took from Barth, and so on, and so on...): because God has space to be the one triune God as Father, Son, and Spirit, then all of the created order has space to be itself. This is the very heart of his dynamic theology of freedom. Freedom is mediated by relationships. It is his argument that the very being of God leads us to this conclusion. Freedom and relationship are intertwinned. 

Even though Colin Gunton was not my classroom teacher (though I did hear him lecture a number of times, and I almost spilled tea on him during a private conversation), I feel that he is one of my best teachers. His commitment to disciplined and critical theological thinking, his pastoral heart for the church, and his desire to raise up a new generation of theologians and pastors inspire me in my writing and teaching life. 

Gunton died too early. At the time of his death, he was in the midst of writing his systematic theology. The world of Christian theology will always be impoverished because his final theological project was never finished... 

Prof. Gunton, thank you for your passion and leadership. You are sorely missed.

Obituary for The Rev. Prof. Colin Gunton by Stephen R. Holmes

Thinking about what to read: Jürgen Moltmann

I used to joke that Jürgen Moltmann was in every one of my classes, which was strange because he wasn't registered for any of them. OK, not a very funny joke, but it articulates something of the impact that he has had on my students. As a teacher, I have to pay attention to any thinker that is enthusiastically received by my students.

Moltmann, who is German, became a Christian in the aftermath of World War II. At the end of the war he was in a series of prisoner of war camps. It was in these camps that he was given a Bible and experienced the love and care of the local Christians. He eventually went back to Germany and studied theology. 

Thus, Moltmann's theology was nurtured in the ashen soil of the Holocaust. Because of this, his theology takes suffering very seriously. Love and suffering are intertwined in Moltmann's thinking about humanity and God. A central tenet in his theology is that God meets us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus' solidarity with human suffering that shows forth and reveals the ever pursuing love of the triune God who created all things and persons.

I think that one of the reasons that students respond so passionately to his theology is that he connects theory to the realities of life. There is an honest wrestling in his work that responds compassionately and critically to a Christianity steeped in a century of war and political upheaval. At the beginning of the 21st century, his theology feels relevant and deeply hopeful. Moltmann's theology is never naive but is, instead, infused with the faith that God will always meet us in our most broken places and experiences.

The following is a lecture that Moltmann delivered at Yale Divinity School in 2004: "Control is Good, but Trust is Better." The video has the added benefit of an introduction by Serene Jones, another intriguing theologian that you should read. (See her book, Trauma & Grace):

Thinking about what to read: South and Central American Liberation Theology

In 1968, educator Paulo Freire published his seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In this book, he is critical of any society that complacently sits back and tolerates systemic poverty in the context of great wealth and power. Instead, he advocates for solidarity with the oppressed. This means that people with wealth and power should lay aside their wealth and power and stand (silently) with the oppressed. The oppressed must think and speak for themselves. If the powerful attempt to speak on behalf of the oppressed in any society, they once more suppress their freedom. As he articulates this, “To glorify democracy and to silence the people is a farce; to discourse on humanism and to negate people is a lie.” Freire argues that the poor and the powerless must be trusted to think and speak on their own behalf. In another place he asserts, “No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption." Thus, his message is that powerful must stand with and beside, not above or on behalf of the poor and oppressed. Solidarity is the pedagogy of the oppressed.

In 1971, Peruvian Catholic Priest and theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez published his seminal work, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. This book is commonly thought to be the formal beginning of Latin American Liberation Theology, inspiring a theological way of thinking and being framed by a "preferential option for the poor" (as Gutiérrez expresses this). Here is his definition of the preferential option for the poor, from a 2003 interview:

“Yes, I do believe that the option for the poor has become part of the Catholic social teaching. The phrase comes from the experience of the Latin American church. The precise term was born sometime between the Latin American bishops’ conferences in Medellín (1968) and in Puebla (1979). In Medellín, the three words (option, preference, poor) are all present, but it was only in the years immediately following Medellín that we brought these words into a complete phrase. It would be accurate to say that the term “preferential option for the poor” comes from the Latin American church, but the content, the underlying intuition, is entirely biblical. Liberation theology tries to deepen our understanding of this core biblical conviction. 

The preferential option for the poor has gradually become a central tenet of the church’s teaching. Perhaps we can briefly explain the meaning of each term: 

• The term poverty refers to the real poor. This is not a preferential option for the spiritually poor. After all, such an option would be very easy, if for no other reason that there are so few of them! The spiritually poor are the saints! The poverty to which the option refers is material poverty. Material poverty means premature and unjust death. The poor person is someone who is treated as a non-person, someone who is considered insignificant from an economic, political and cultural point of view. The poor count as statistics; they are the nameless. But even though the poor remain insignificant within society, they are never insignificant before God. 

• Some people feel, wrongly I believe, that the word preferential waters down or softens the option for the poor, but this is not true. God’s love has two dimensions, the universal and the particular; and while there is a tension between the two, there is no contradiction. God’s love excludes no one. Nevertheless, God demonstrates a special predilection toward those who have been excluded from the banquet of life. The word preference recalls the other dimension of the gratuitous love of God—the universality. 

• In some ways, option is perhaps the weakest word in the sentence. In English, the word merely connotes a choice between two things. In Spanish, however, it evokes the sense of commitment. The option for the poor is not optional, but is incumbent upon every Christian. It is not something that a Christian can either take or leave. As understood by Medellín, the option for the poor is twofold: it involves standing in solidarity with the poor, but it also entails a stance against inhumane poverty. 

The preferential option for the poor is ultimately a question of friendship. Without friendship, an option for the poor can easily become commitment to an abstraction (to a social class, a race, a culture, an idea). Aristotle emphasized the important place of friendship for the moral life, but we also find this clearly stated in John’s Gospel. Christ says, “I do not call you servants, but friends.” As Christians, we are called to reproduce this quality of friendship in our relationships with others. When we become friends with the poor, their presence leaves an indelible imprint on our lives, and we are much more likely to remain committed.” (Daniel Hartnett, “Remembering the Poor: An Interview with Gustavo Gutiérrez,” America: The National Catholic Review, February 3, 2003: http://americamagazine.org/issue/420/article/remembering-poor-interview-gustavo-gutirrez [accessed August 15, 2013].)

One of the great protagonists of Liberation theology was the Archbishop of El Salvador in the late 1970's, Oscar Romero. He stood with the people of El Salvador at a time of great oppression and violence. He paid for his preferential option for the poor with his life. Romero's assassination/martyrdom has inspired millions of people. The selection of Pope Francis from Argentina (who chooses to live more simply and commonly than his power and privilege allows) shows that the inspiration of such amazing faith and bravery as seen in the life and death of Archbishop Romero has permeated the Catholic imagination. Liberation Theology has come a long way.

Here is the beginning of a documentary about Archbishop Romero's life and his stance against the extreme injustice in El Salvador. (The entire documentary is on instant play on Netflicks right now.):

Thinking about what to read: Womanist, Mujerista, and Post-Colonial Feminist Theologies

Many students ask me about the difference between Feminist Theology and Womanist or Mujerista or Post-Colonial Feminist Theologies. Women are women, right? Why are there so many different labels? 

I think these are good questions, but they come from folks who often assume that their experience is the normative experience (but don't we all do this to some degree?). These other feminist theologies began when women of color and women from the two-thirds world questioned some of the assertions of Western White Feminist Theologians. These women spoke to some of the truth about being a Christian female in the world, but they missed a lot of the experience of poverty and oppression that comes from being on the margins of the dominant culture. 

These women are brave, bold, and profoundly Christian. They bare witness both to the injustice of society and to the work of God in their communities. They speak truth in prophetic ways, challenging us to re-think the gospel so that we might live out the narrative of Jesus Christ in new and expanding ways. 

One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Ghanian Theologian, Mercy Amba Oduyoye:

“Women live in the knowledge that the tyranny of patriarchy is bound to end. Because biblical hope tells of a time without death and tears, because God is the God of life and Jesus has promised abundant life, the suffering of women cannot be the last word. There must be a resurrection in its wake—new life, love, peace and justice—a new creation, a new community, the household of God in which all things are made new.” (Mercy Amba Oduyoye, “Resurrection of the Body: An Eschatology,” in African Women’s Theology, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2001, 119.)

Amen!  

Thinking about what to read: Feminist Theology

When I was growing up, Feminism was considered to be dangerous for a proper young Baptist girl to think about. I might get ideas and leave the faith. I might assert myself too much and not know my place. The problem was that I was one of those young women who had a strange combination of characteristics: I had pastoral gifts and I thought too much. If only I could get married to a pastor or a missionary, then I could find my place. (My husband is neither...)

It wasn't until my final year in university that I discovered Feminist Theology. I have to admit that I didn't always agree with the women that I was reading, but that didn't matter. They gave language to my experience as a Christian woman. Under their tutelage I began my vocational path to become a theologian. I didn't need to wait for a man or any patriarchal authority to validate how and where my giftings should be used. It was the Spirit of God that lead me to my vocational path and to the finding of my voice.

Ange Espiegle
Arcabas

I guess I could describe my experience as a "setting free." Not everyone has this experience when reading Feminist Theology, but as with all reading in graduate school, I would hope that diverse voices would challenge your preconceived ideas so that you might think more intentionally and critically about your life, faith, and theology.

These women discuss God through the lens of feminine experience. They wonder and question how human context shapes Christian doctrine, because those who control our language and questions about God have a lot of power over the body of Christ. As Wittgenstein argued, "the limits of my language mean the limits of my world. All I know is what I have words for" (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922, 5.6). Feminist theologians question our language and wonder about the false limitations that have been placed upon the feminine imagination. There is an open wonder about the redemptive and reconciling possibilities for women, without the subjugation of roles or power or language. That sounds a lot like Jesus to me.

This group is for those who are curious, who want to be challenged, who want to explore the context of feminine language and questions, and, most of all, want to encounter God. This encounter is the goal of all theology.

Viva la difference!! Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people!

Here are a few videos:

Elizabeth Johnson:


Janet Soskice:


For Fun:

Thinking about what to read: Eastern Orthodox Theology

A protester in London

My last post was on the early Church Fathers, so it would make sense that this post be on Eastern Orthodox theology. This stream of Christian faith, practice, and theology claims a direct lineage with the early Church Fathers, especially the theology and the creeds established at the first 7 ecumenical councils: Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451), Constantinople (553), Constantinople (680), and Nicaea (787).

The Great Schism between the Eastern and the Western Church happened (was formalized) in 1054. There are a number of theological issues that caused this split between the East (Eastern Orthodox Church) and the West (the Roman Catholic Church). Key to the schism was the added "filioque" clause in the Nicene Creed - that the Spirit proceeded not only from the Father but also from the Son (filioque). The Eastern claim is that the filioque undermines the agency of the Father through the Son and the Spirit (Irenaeus' "two hands of the Father"). For example, Metropolitan John Zizioulas refers to the Incarnation and Pentecost as exemplifying this parallel movement of God in the Son and the Spirit, that Pentecost (and the birth of the church) is not a continuation of the Incarnation but its sequel. Of concern is the limitation and subordination of the Spirit, that the Spirit would be just an extension of the Son rather than distinct in agency and personhood.

Another key doctrinal distinction concerns the means of salvation. The Eastern view is that we are in union with Christ and that Christ gives over his benefits. As Irenaeus, the second century theologian, put it, "he became what we are so that we might become what he is." (This idea comes from the final line of the preface to book V of Irenaeus' Against Heresies. See also Gregory of Nanzianzus's concept of the communicatio idiomatum in his "Fourth Theological Oration.") In Eastern Orthodox theology this is called "divinization" and is distinct from the assertion of substitutionary atonement that developed later in the theologies of theologians such as Anselm and Calvin.

All this to say that this is a different stream of theological development and practice than most Christians in the West are familiar with, yet we have a common history in the early Church Fathers. It is fascinating to explore how a thousand year schism as effected a contrasting yet similar theological tradition to that in the West.

Here is a series of 5 videos about the 7 ecumenical councils from a distinctly Eastern Orthodox perspective. A good resource for learning some of the basic issues in the early heresies of the church, as well as the what does it mean to be Eastern Orthodox:

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5



If you want to hear directly from a few of the theologians in this reading group, here are a few videos of interviews and lectures.

Metropolitan John Zizioulas:



Video streaming by Ustream

Bishop Kallistos Ware:

Thinking about what to read: Church Fathers

A number of years ago I listened to a lecture by John Webster on the definition of Constructive Theology (this link is not to the lecture that I heard, it is a short interview with Webster). I was struck by his insistence that the task of Constructive Theology was to attend well to the Christian Tradition while simultaneously critiquing and emending historical doctrine. This task is not for the sake of critique, it is done because every generation must do theology for its day. Moreover, the theologian's task is to think hard about doctrine for the sake of the church (catholic, with a small 'c') because theology is prayer, for the church, by the church, and as the church. 

St. Basil of Ceasarea, St. John Chrysostom,
and St. Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzen)

Another way of saying this would be to claim that the only way to formulate and think well about theology for today and for the future is to look to the past. Theology should never be done without a clear window on the doctrinal history of the church. God's work in the created order (God's economy of creation and reconciliation) is not a-historical. It didn't just begin yesterday, or with the birth of the United States, or at Azusa street, or in the theology of Karl Barth. God's creative and redeeming presence has been around a long time, and every age of the church has born witness to the redeeming work and presence of Christ in the Spirit. As Karl Barth argues:

“As regards theology…we cannot be in the Church without taking as much responsibility for the theology of the past as for the theology of our present. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Luther, Schleiermacher, and all the rest are not dead, but living. They still speak and demand a hearing as living voices, as surely as we know that they and we belong together in the Church…The theology of any period must be strong and free enough to give a calm, attentive and open hearing not only to the voices of the Church Fathers, not only to the favorite voices, not only to the voices of the classical past, but to all the voices of the past” (Karl Barth, “The Task of a History of Modern Protestant Theology”, in Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: Its Background and History [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2002], 3).

Thus, if we should look to the past in order to think well about the future, then it is vital that we read the early Church Fathers. These were the men (and yes, I do mean a very gendered definition of men) who wrote letters, preached, lead, called forth and sat in ecumenical councils, and wrote theology on behalf of the church in the first six (or so) centuries of the Christian church. Many of the early creeds (e.g., the Nicene Creed & the amendments at Constantinople) and doctrinal statements (e.g., the dual natures doctrine formed at Chalcedon) were debated, written, and agree on (for the most part) by these early leaders of the church. 

The purpose of this reading group is to learn about these early theologians and the reasons that they established specific doctrines. Often they were responding to teachings (e.g., Arianism) that they felt were contrary to the gospel. In the early church, there was no systemic working through established systems of thinking through doctrine, for there were few widely established theological systems. (NB: This does not mean that doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus or the Trinity were made up by these thinkers. The councils established what was already commonly believed. They formalized more precise language for many doctrinal assumptions that were being reinterpreted and reformed by some teachers to deleterious effect [thus referred to as heresy].) Instead, the primary task was to think hard about foundational doctrines and defend the faith. The way this was done was to read scripture closely and to have dialogue (which is a nice way of saying that there were a lot of letters and councils and denouncing of heretics). None of the early councils happened until Constantine legalized Christianity in the early 4th century.  

All in all, these early thinkers helped establish orthodox thought in the worldwide Christian church. 

Here is a video for a little bit of silly trinitarian theology humor, and the issues that are brought up by language and analogy. Enjoy!

Thinking about what to read: Stan Grenz

I have a soft spot in my heart for Baptist theologian, Stan Grenz. It has little to do with his theology and more to do with his willingness, when I was a student at Regent College, to play his trumpet when students, like myself, had hair-brained ideas about trumpet fanfares at special events. He would show up and play like a pro, rarely needing extra instruction or direction. A great theologian and a rock solid musician, a man after my heart!

I never took a class with Grenz (since I didn't think that I really liked theology the year that I was in residence in Vancouver...how we change, and how we regret our missed opportunities) but I heard my friends talk about him leading classes in a song from his trusty guitar. I loved that idea so much that, in honor of Dr. Grenz, I too begin my theology classes with a hymn. As J. I. Packer is fond of saying, "All theology should lead to doxology." Stan Grenz lived this out with dignity and grace.

Grenz, who died too young, was always a pastor at heart. As the title of one of his books shows, Theology for the Community of God was not just a nice or high ideal, it was the very core of his theological agenda. He believed that the greatest call for humanity was to participate in and be the body of Christ in the world. His theology is an open invitation for us all to love and be for the sake of one another. And in various eulogies for Stan Grenz (such as this one by Brian McLaren) it is evident that his was a lived theology.

Grenz studied with the great German theologian, Wolfart Pannenberg. This influence is most keenly felt in Grenz's emphasis on the eschatological church. He believed that the Kingdom of God was now and not yet, and that the Christian church was called to live out this in-between reality every minute of every day. All the promises of God were already fulfilled, we just haven't experienced the fullness of that reality. Regardless, we should live as if the fullness of the Kingdom of God is here and now. As he articulates this in his book, Created For Community: 

“By linking our lives to God’s future, the Spirit admonishes us to open ourselves and our present to the power of God’s future, which is already at work in our world” (171-2).

Thanks Stan... we miss your wisdom and passion for the church...

Thinking about what to read: Kathryn Tanner

I'm going to skip ahead in the option list because of this morning's gospel reading from Luke. We read from Luke 12 this morning. The line that stood out to me was: "'Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom'" (Luke 12:32 RSV). In the sermon on this passage, the speaker pointed out that the giving of the kingdom was something that had already happened (see the NIV: "'for the Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.'"). We do not have to wait, it has already been given to us, so what are we waiting for? I also like the RSV translation, "'for it is the Father's good pleasure to give...'" Thus, the gift is already given and God is pleased, was pleased, will be pleased (with good pleasure) to give this abundant gift.

This gift giving language reminds me of Kathryn Tanner's theology. The triune God gives good gifts - in the Son and through the Spirit, the Father gives us more than we can ask or even conceive (see Eph. 3:20). This gift giving comes forth from the eternal and internal gift giving love that is the triune God and is revealed to us in the person of work of Jesus Christ, through the Spirit.  It is in the light of this gift giving that we are empowered to live the Christian life, for "The Son is sent by the Father in the power of the Spirit to bring us into the gift-giving relations enjoyed among the members of the Trinity; living our lives in Christ according to the mode of the Son, should involve, then, our own service to that mission, spreading the gifts of the Father that are ours in Christ, empowered by the Son's own Spirit" (Tanner, Jesus, Humanity, and The Trinity, T&T Clark, 2001, 68).

In her book, Jesus, Humanity, and The Trinity, Tanner mines the depth and breadth of the Christian tradition, relying especially on the Church Fathers. She assumes that her readers will be familiar with most, if not all, of this theology. Because of this, her work is difficult to dive into. On the other hand, by the end of this book, the reader will be exposed to a rich and beautiful theology. Thus, like a difficult hike in the mountains, the hard work of getting to the top of the ridge is rewarded by an amazing and expansive view.

If you would like to hear a little more, follow this link to see a short video biography of Kathryn Tanner (though she no longer teaches at the University of Chicago, she is now at Yale).

If you are even more intrigued, here is a lecture on the Trinity and Politics (in four parts) given by Tanner at Huron University College in London, Ontario on March 9, 2011:

Thinking about what to read: Anabaptist Theology

The Martyrdom of Anneken Hendriks in the 16th century,
convicted of heresy by the Spanish.
(Image found on Wikicommons.)

I remember learning about Anabaptists in my Church History classes in seminary. This group of European Christians were group of reformers that focused on believers' baptism (as opposed to infant baptism, thus "re-baptizing" those who converted) and the simplicity of the gospel message (especially the Sermon on the Mount). What struck me most were the stories of a people who held fast to their faith and conviction in the midst of widespread persecution and torture. These Christians often fled for their lives, relocating their faith communities all over the world. Today we can identify the Anabaptists in such communities as the Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites.

One cannot understand Anabaptists without this history of persecution and dispersal, but this is not what defines what it means to be Anabaptist. This group of Christians believes in the person of Jesus Christ and what it might mean to live fully into the narrative of the person of Jesus. For Anabaptists (Mennonites in particular), the presence of God is most fully known and experienced in action. There is a conviction that political power and violence should not be intertwined with the pure message of the gospel. A theology of non-violence is often at the center of conviction and action. More recent Anabaptist theologians and thinkers - e.g., Weaver - emphasize a non-violent theology of the Cross alongside a conviction that we are entering a post-Christendom age. How can we be Christians in a Church that has little cultural influence or power?

If you want to do a bit of research, I suggest the Wikipedia article on Anabaptism along with the entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia; which begins with the line: "A violent and extremely radical body of ecclesiastico-civil reformers which first made its appearance in 1521 at Zwickau ... and still exists in milder forms." I love comparing different dictionaries (theological and otherwise), especially when they show their theological and historical prejudices upfront!

For a quick introduction to Anabaptist thought, here is a short interview with Stuart Murray, author of The Naked Anabaptist.

Thinking about what to read: Black Liberation Theology

I want to start my explorations of the Reading Pods with Black Liberation Theology. I think this theology is very important for every American Christian to read. We Americans have a tendency to be very a-historical and, as James Cone puts it, "America likes to be innocent, it likes to be the exception." The truth is, America is what it is because of the clash of cultures, because of our past, because our greatest moments, and because our greatest trespasses. 

The men and women in the Black Liberation Theology group want to do theology from this place of remembrance. They ask the question, "what does the gospel mean in the context of black oppression in American history?" 

What often catches me off-guard when I read Black Theology is the freshness of the gospel, the renewal of the identity of Jesus, and the solidity of the presence of the Spirit with us in the day to day of this crazy world. I have found that I need these theological voices in my life and in my heart. My faith and my assumptions are challenged and revived in the presence of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. 

May we learn to stop and listen to one another, because I know that the Spirit is listening...

Interviews with James Cone and Dwight Hopkins:

To get a taste of Black Liberation Theology, here is a short Fresh Air interview with James Cone. It was done in the wake of the controversy around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as Obama's pastor, before Obama was elected president:

If you want to hear more from Dr. Cone, check out this interview with Bill Moyers on PBS. (Be warned, there are some disturbing images included in the video, since Cone is talking about the culture of lynching after the Civil War.)

Bill Moyers Journal: James H. Cone from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.