9/18/08
Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem”

Mr. Cohen needs to find a different person to sing this song. Like Jennifer Warrens of famous blue raincoat fame.

Is it not that in our imperfection that god still loves us.
Everyday is new we have forgiveness
Ring the bells that still ring.

Page 28 quote, “the problem with you is your Mennonite moralisum. You need to go out and commit the worst sin that you can think of. You have to either learn to live with yourself or life by the grace of god.”

I’m actually tempted to try this out. Because honestly I feel like I need some sort of spiritual kick in the pant to get me to do something… some sort of awakinging I guess. I’ve been told I shouldn’t, but I am jealous of those who haave conversion stories where they were in a real bad place- living a life full of sin and then they found god and all is swell. They went out and committed the worst sins available and now can only live by the grace of god. I have been told however, by Glenn Kaiser of the Resurrection Band, that I don’t want to be where he has been. Yet I don’t feel like I have ever reallyfelt changed by God. Some people say you can’t know good with out evil, darkness with out knowing light.

Reimer says that social salvation will be a long slow boring event like my personal salvation has been for me. Social salvation is constant.
Yasch Siemans
- Live in marriage
- Good person
o Can we be saved by a community?

Individual salvation
- Instant
- Happens once
- Liberating disruption in your life, from a problematic life to a better one
- Brunk
o Fire and brimstone
o Take personal/individual responsibility now, and become born again.

Creation - creation
Fall - separation
At/one/ment - unity

Atonement theory, satisfaction (legalistic) required
- debt of human sin
- substitutioin
- God subbs in for human






I. Atonement, making things whole and right.
a. Anselm – one is saved by faith and grace
i. 11th cent.
1. Satisfaction
a. Justice exists as part of the fabric of the universe and says that not even god can give up on justice.
b. Justice must be satisfied, not God.
c. Atonement theory, satisfaction (legalistic) required
d. debt of human sin.
e. Substitution
f. God subs in for human

b. Abelard – one is saved by law and works
i. 12th cent.
1. Moral influence
a. based on love
b. Jesus life was noth what was necessary, it was jesus’s life that was necessary
c. Death was inedible due to jesus being commited to living a perfect life. He will go against authorities and he will be killed by them.

c. Aulen
i. 20th cent
1. Christus Victor
a. There is a war between powers
i. God (love, justice, equality) --- principalities & powers (state gov. corperation / things like racisum and sexisum
b. Voluntary sacrificial death of jesus
i. Chronicles of Narnia
c. Possible the model of the early church.
d. J Denny weaver likes this model but that it needs to work it’s self out non-violently.


Mark 10:45
Not god that needs to be payed the debt but the debt. Devel has claim on god for sinners or something like that.

Philippians 2:5-11
a. on one hand Christ is below everything
b. jesus dies in worst possible way
c. exhaulted by god
a. “therefore he was exaulted by god”. Verse 9



Therefore my beloved just as you’ve obeyed in my presence in my oresence but also in my absence…

Philippians were commanded to act out their own salvation. Law vs. Grace.
-->How are we (justified/santification/saved)?

What to do over the next to weeks to set up a time to come meet with Trevor bechtal to figure out what the large project.


Last word

I. THE CHURCH
a. The build ings
b. Home
i. coffee donuts
c. church of rock
i. couldnet get in
1. wasn’t dressed aporiately
d. three things that people can tough were present at churches in Jerusalem
i. is this church more holy? Then mine?

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Song personal jesus by Johnny chash

Chapter one – faith
“ two – doctrine
“ three – dogma

Names
- Method
o Content
ß Trinity
∑ Spirit
o Church
o People
o J.C. – God relationship mediator
o Less attention
∑ God the father
o Transcendent
o Immanent
∑ Jesus Christ
o Devine/human
o suffering
- tradition
- scripture
- experince
-

These are three starting points to studying Christian theology.

Experience
- emancipation
o Freedom
- women’s movement
- liberation theology
o feminist theology? Possibly
o but more often in developing countries
ß Gustavo gutierriez
o Slavery
ß James cone
ß Cornell West

Ways to think of these starting points
- faith seeking understanding (a famous text)
- Catholic’s belive the bible is understood by Scripture + Tradition
- Mennonites/annabaptists agreed with martin luther that in doing theology one only needs to reflect on scripture. Sola scriptura!
o Luther thought that required experts to understand bible, but Anabaptists believe that the community of faith can understand the bible just fine.


- trinity
o God
ß creator
o Jesus
ß Person
∑ christology
ß Work
∑ Salvatinon
o Soteriology
ß Santification
ß justification
o spirit
ß church
ß eccelsiology
o Human beings
ß Theological anthropology
o Creation
o Endtimes
ß eschatology

What is creation theology and what are the end times


Think about what you would like to focus on. What theological method or place in human experince do I wan t to work from. Create a form of theology?

Rimer says:
Technology/technique of prary
Thinking that therer is a “good techniqe of prary is bad.
Techne – making – technique
Tools hands
Phronesis - Practical wisdom
Muscile movement… body
Theoria – theorectical knowledge

- mind

heresy vs. orthidox

test on Thursday, study the text.
Through chapter 6


Thursday, September 11, 2008

Creation,
- dawkins
o no god says he
- god creates, world evolves
o is god connected to that evolution?


I. Kauffmen states…
a. Big bang theory
i. Described with faith based language
1. Started with a zero point, that was infinitely hot and small
2. Infinitely hot and small
b. Biological evolution
i. Evolution of life
1. science does good job of describing this.
a. Theology should learn fromscience in how to investigate things
2. Time (human)
a. Does not make sense to talk of time before abrahem
c. Cultural evolution
i. Theology
ii. Science
II. when is it useful to talk about time?
a. The beginning of our world was outside of time
b. Creation
i. Fall
1. gift of choice and beginning of time.
ii. babble
1. gift of language and diversity
iii. Before time.
1. was the Garden of Eden and the fall of man in that garden- outside of time?
iv. Genisis 1-12
1. mythic, against reason
a. not accurate in time, but in truth.
2. myths and science can be truth and agree with each other
3. a story means to explain something meant to offer truth about something
4. Creation is good! God says. J
c. The end of time, Eschaton




For th3e notes. Why is Abraham the start of time and not the end of eden.






Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Creation (perfect) – fall – redemption cycle

I. Creation
a. prelapsarian, before the fall
II. Fall
a. Idolitrous choice
i. Idolatrous means putting something before God
III. Redemption


As we all know frozen streams don’t flow.

Greenland’s glaciers are melting. Bangladesh could sink.


What is a sin?
Church defined.

Venial sin
Half venial/necessary sin
Mortal sin

Sins

- omission
- commission

Social verses personal/individual sin.
Sin to drive car, sin not to drive. to survive in this culture we must drive.
And in order to sustain life expotation must happen. Enviroment vs. economics

Is it still a sin if you are ignorant of committing it?
- intention
- .
- .

WALMART IS EVIL!!!!!



Invincible ignorance – don’t need to have access to a Christian church to be saved.

Hooo raH

Notes for 9/2/08

Played see it when I believe it by dogs o peace.

Name exorcises involving finding and thinking about names of god in the bible.

Analogies of fath
Scrabble
Parameters
- words
- direction is open
- set of rules and materials
- Luck involved

Jigsaw puzzle
- Fixed outcome

Basketball game
- Rules don’t dictate how game is played, game can change while still being legal and consistent with the rules of the game.
- “play above the rim”
dogma

documentary hypothesis

J = Yhwh Yahwist – anthropomorphic
E = elohim (plural) Elohist – less
P = Preistly Preistly -preist liturgy
D = Deuteronomist Law


When we read the bible we tend to focus on what the bible says for a /truesimple straightforward meaning. And we try to find what the bible can tell us about god.

Ways to read bible
Literal
Tropological
Allegorically

homework
Read 20 verses in song of Solomon and write in journal about it.
Is it as an allegory for the love of Christ’s church, should we read it Allegorically?

I say literally and allegorically. Hosea uses only one form of the word love, the word does not change when he talks about God or Gomer his wife, so if we think of the book Hosea as a sort of Rosetta stone of old testament, we realize that much of the old testment is told in a material way which humans can relate to. If an ancient Hebrew wanted to talk about God he would probably tell a story using human experiences to get a point across as it is the only thing we can fully comprehend.