Jason, Scott & Others,
Life is hectic as always during the summer. I haven't been in the same state for more than four days since June 5th. In between my travels to weddings, moving and football camp, I have really enjoyed reading your thoughts. In a strange way it's like connecting with you guys in a more intimate way than we have been able to in our distance from one another. I sit in awe and almost tear up reading your posts, because I feel the same things inside my own soul and I feel extremely humbled by my own limitations to move from simply reading and realizing that truly things must change not just in society but in my own life. And yet as Jason said, we are all so trapped into the cycles of our decisions that we have chosen to make our way in this life. It is hard to escape these cycles and for me its because I really don't want to give up control of my own life. I think there is a comfort in the routines that we live by that keep up in control of our life and I truly don't know what it would be like to really let the gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God rule over the actions of my life. It is a truly frightening and yet exciting thought to contemplate. These thoughts in response to your posts lead naturally into our discussion on Section 3. I again will post some reflections and questions for discussion. Feel free to comment as you find it appropriate and to start your own topics of discussion.
1) What struck you as you compared the conventional view of Jesus' good news to the emerging view? It is obvious that McLaren favors the emerging view, but I wonder what we each thought about his comparison. Is he being fair or unduly one sided? I find it convicting that most of my faith, especially early on in my life was driven by the concepts of the conventional view, which does two specific things: 1) my faith is a product of fear not always love, and 2) my faith because a concern of individual salvation only. I liked his closing on page 83 about believing Jesus' news was and is better than we have been led to beliebe by the conventional view.
(If anyone is interested, there is a reason Western Civilization over time came to this conventional view...and it all relates back to Core 250 and Plato/Augustine. Plato's philosophy of dualism so affected Augustine whose ideas greatly shaped the Christian doctrine of the middle ages, in which the faith became more a matter of personal devotion happening inside (Innatism) the individual. While Luther and others "reform" the faith later on, even the bulk of their doctrines focus largely on the nature of salvation not necessarily the implication of the full message of Jesus. This all started coming together for me as I read and studied these different epochs of history in teaching my Western Civilization class.)
2) Chapter 11 was a short look at the competing narratives that existed in Jesus' time. I found it interesting because it explains well how various groups within a society often go about working under/against the controls of the dominate societal machine. I also like that the message of Jesus offers a drastically different option from all the other various narratives.
3) The discussion of the various counternarratives during Jesus' time gave me a fuller picture of why Jesus was in conflict so often against these various groups of religious people. It also helps to clarify how horrified Jesus must be that his message has been so co-opted by mainstream religion today.
4) Which of the gospels excerpts did you find most interesting? Profound? Confusing? Let's try and discuss one or two of these.
Well, I'm off for now. I look forward to hearing from you all soon. Let's have about a week for comments/reflections on Section 3 and then move to Section 4 by next weekend.
Peace, alan.
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Section three began to open up things a little for me; it seems like the author like Alan said possibly a bit basis on the emerging side. It was unfortunate that the issue discussed while comparing the emerging vs. conventional view was not backed by scripture. I enjoy McCleran and he is quite insightful, yet it seems that not only now in society but as Alan notes throughout history we have had competing view points. I don{t (sorry in Costa Rica right now, different kind of keyboard) like it when authors present dueling Christian beliefs without some type of middle ground.
So I guess that where Jesus comes in, he{s our middle ground.
He{s the reason our friendship exist in the first place.}
It sounds like Alan grew up in a similar type of household as myself. While my parents are not complete conservative Christians (they both will vote for Obama), they are far from what I call progressive. Hears the problem I had with this section, neither are truly correct, they are both followers of Christ and who{s to say is the better Christian. Do we need to take better care of our environment and the life Jesus shows us how to do so...certainly.
I left the book and my notes back at the house. The past week I have been amazed by God{s glory. The church I attend back at home has a mission to draw the different types of religions in the world together for common goals. Since Los Angeles has a well amount of people from each major religion they have been able to create some good success and relationships.
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