"Faith Seeking Understanding"
Home » Theology (Page 5)
I know that I stated that we’d be doing Augustine’s Confessions later on this month, but I’ve decided to hold off a bit longer to see if we can recruit some more people into the group, so we will not begin until June.
In the meantime, we will spend the rest of the month getting to know Augustine and the world he lived in better.
The video above gives an overview of Augustine’s philosophy and the world he lived in, which is vital to understand what and why he wrote. Although much of the video focuses on his monumental The City of God, we still get a good general overall sense of his beliefs, especially his political philosophy, and why he is still relevant today.
Well, we’ve come to the end after two years of reading “Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years” and we share our final thoughts here.
Howard and Chris share what they have learned and gained from reading this book; Michael writes about the historical development of how Greek pagan philosophy seeped into Western theology and how it has affected our contemporary reading of the Bible; I share my thoughts on divine intervention (or non-intervention more specifically) and history or my attempt to understand God’s role in history after having read this book.
We hope and pray that we will use the knowledge gained from this session wisely. I believe that this is just the beginning of our journey into learning more about the history of the Church.
“The Conversion of St. Augustine” by Fra Angelico, (circa 1395–1455)
‘You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness.
You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness.
You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you.
I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you.
You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.’
– Augustine of Hippo, Confessions (Book 10.27)
Starting in May, we will be taking an in-depth study into one of the most influential books ever written by one of the greatest and influential minds of the West, Confessions by Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis, otherwise known as Augustine of Hippo (or St. Augustine).
Perhaps you had to read Confessions as a requirement for your classics or liberal arts classes during college, but only spent a couple of sessions on it. Or maybe you read it a long time ago and now want to visit it again and ruminate on Augustine’s thoughts a bit more thoroughly now. Whatever the reason may be, we invite you to join us as we begin a new venture into the heart and mind of a man deeply and passionately committed to his faith and whose thoughts still resonate vibrantly till this day.
A friend sent me a link to this article about the Bible and biblical illiteracy among evangelicals today from the January 2015 issue of Newsweek.
The author makes the argument that modern American evangelicalism (aka the popular conservative portrayal of Christianity many have in mind in America) is quite at odds with what the Bible actually teaches, particularly when it comes to issues about the inerrancy of the Bible, issues on homosexuality, women’s roles in the church, the formation of the canon, and other issues. In fact, the Bible condemns the style of Christianity modern evangelicals are practicing now, the article states.
The faction of the “German Christian Faith Movement” (GDC, or the “German Christians”) in the church under the leadership of Joachim Hossenfelder, a pastor in Berlin, did its utmost as of 1932 to nazify the Protestant church in Prussia”, and, as of 1933, the entire Reich in the wake of the “national awakening” in keeping with the political “revolution.” They advocated racial and anti-Semitic ideas geared toward the Führerprinzip and aspired with their aims to take the lead in the Protestant church quickly. At their first “national assembly” in Berlin in early April of 1933, they called for the introduction of the “Aryan paragraph” within the Protestant church as well and for the formation of a Reich Church. In keeping with the Führerprinzip, they wanted to see a “Reich Bishop” at their head as the representative of all Protestants. This was actually translated into reality, at least nominally, at their first national synod in Wittenberg in September of 1933.
We were finally able to meet this past Wednesday and submit our essays and finish Chapter 24. Just one more chapter to go!
Also, this site has reached over 10,200 hits as of today. Amazing. Thank you all for visiting and contributing to this site.
Reading Church history as we’ve been doing for the past year and a half has been quite sobering, to say the least, for all of us as we go through MacCulloch’s book. In this chapter, we thought about the reasons why so many Christians might ally themselves with blatantly evil forces such as the Nazi Party during World War II. At times, during extreme circumstances you have to go into a form of ‘survival mode’ and defer to the powers at be in order to stay alive or not get yourself killed. Yes, this is a very watered-down reasoning on why the German (both Protestant and Catholic) Churches supported the Nazis (there are other more complex factors involved for sure), but it was, dare I say, understandable. If faced with a life and death situation, there will be some who will become martyrs for the faith in defiance towards the powers at be, and others who will compromise and capitulate to the domineering powers. Though many will make quick, knee-jerk reactions and snap judgements that they were cowards and perhaps not real Christians, in reality it’s not an easy decision to make. When you factor in personal economic and family considerations, you count how much you can lose and base your decisions on that. We cannot be quite sure how we’d respond during extreme circumstances where our faiths are tested to its furthest extent.
Also, a couple of us in the group (Michael and I) have been part of Pentecostal and charismatic churches in the past, and it was interesting to learn and read about the history of the development of its theology over the years, and why it has such a high appeal to so many people that it is the fastest growing Church movement in history.
Here are our essays.
Statue of Satan at the Satanic Temple in Detroit, MI.
Great article and post on the development of Satan/the Devil in Judeo-Christian thought and theology through the centuries over at isthatinthebible.wordpress.com.
Highly fascinating.
“Princes of Darkness: The Devil’s Many Faces in Scripture and Tradition”
Chris wanted to clarify his position on the post i made here about the conversation we had during our last meeting last month that concerned evolution – human evolution in particular.
Here is his statement:
“Perhaps I was unclear in my comments. I apologize.
With respect to whether God directly intervened to make man or it was done by strict
evolution, I am AGNOSTIC. We simply lack the knowledge to decide at this time.
MUCH MORE CRITICALLY, my real point may have been missed.
Whether by God or evolution may not be the real question. The real question is who or
what gives us humans eternal worth?
The real ‘Adam and Eve story’ may be that God DOES directly intervene to imbue us with
eternal value as a totally free gift by His infinite and unknowable Love and through pure fiat.
What does evolution have to do with it? Whether a man or a cockroach what value
without God’s Desire and Will? We could evolve for an infinite amount of time and
reach stupendous levels of intellect, cognition and morality, we will still be (star) dust
and to (star) dust we will return. We will not even possess consciousness of our existence.
What value?
(These are not statements but questions. I appreciate comment, if any. Thanks.)”
– Chris
When you ask your average Christian or evangelical what salvation means, more likely than not, he or she will respond with, “Jesus Christ died for your sins so that you will enter heaven after death, escape from the fires of hell, and instead spend eternity with Him.” And normally, they would equate that statement to be the basic meaning of the gospel.
However, that seems to be a very parochial understanding of the term ‘salvation’.
What did the Bible writers, especially the author of the Gospel of Luke, mean by the term ‘salvation’ or what it means to be ‘saved’?
Here’s an essay about the term ‘salvation’ here.
I was saddened to hear of the passing of one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, Wolfhart Pannenberg, last Friday on September 5.
On and off, I’ve been reading his magnum opus, Systematic Theology vols. 1 – 3, along with his Jesus – God and Man, Metaphysics and the Idea of God, and Theology and the Philosophy of Science.
I’m also currently reading a book about his theology edited by one of his students, Philip Clayton, titled “The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: Twelve American Critiques, with an Autobiographical Essay and Response“.
You can read Clayton’s obituary of Pannenberg here.
Prof. Pannenberg will be missed.
More about Prof. Pannenberg:
After being reintroduced to Immanuel Kant’s thought after our last session on MacCulloch’s book, his philosophy intrigues me and I see the inherent and serious challenges Kant poses in reference to theistic epistemology.
A good introduction to Kant’s philosophy of religion can be read here on the Stanford Encycopedia of Philosophy website. (A supplemental entry on Kant’s influence on religion can be found here.)
After writing my last church history essay on Kant, that prompted me to delve deeper into Kant’s philosophy and his thoughts about God, religious epistemology and morality. One book I got in specific reference to Kant’s subsequent impact on theology is Kant and Theology at the Boundaries of Reason by Chris L. Firestone.
Project Augustine 