A week or so ago, I wrote a post exploring a “link” between clinical depression and the suicide/homicide of Andreas Lubitz. The discussion that ensued in the comments was challenging and instructive. One of the primary contributors to that discussion was Patricia Oliver. I have invited Patricia to write a post of her own on the topic. She has agreed to do so (her post is below). By way of introduction: Patricia’s career has been focused on solving business problems via... Read more
Conflict. Imperial violence. Embezzlement. Declarations of heresy. Coercion. Arrest and torture. Exile. This is all the stuff of a fine Hollywood movie, but these are also components of the story of the development of Nicene Orthodoxy. The two-natures doctrine of Jesus Christ (as fully God and fully man) developed through the grist of much that Christians today would deem not necessarily…you know…”Christian.” When I went to seminary, we didn’t talk much about that underbelly of the Nicene beast–we didn’t dwell... Read more
I vividly recall reading the Rolling Stone story, “A Rape on Campus,” last November. The article made me queasy, as it did so many others who read it. I recalled what I’ve heard already about rape culture on university campuses, and the stereotypes of fraternity party-culture, and of course my heart went out to the victim of such a horrible crime. The article led to a national conversation about rape on college campuses and about the entitled and elitist party-cultures... Read more
As I wrote in my last post, many theologians throughout history have been freaked out by the Gethsemane account. They tended to rely on the “two natures” (divine and human) doctrine of Christ, in order to protect the “divine nature” of Jesus from the emotions, anguish, and temptation of the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus may have been anxious, in his human nature, but not in his divine nature. He may have been sorrowful in his human nature, but not in... Read more
The Garden of Gethsemane story has given theologians fits. Many of them, particularly in the early-to-high medieval period, just didn’t know how to resolve the tension of a Jesus, the divine Son of God, who seemed to undergo such grief and sorrow. And what concerned them even more was the suggestion that Jesus’ will, clearly distinguishable from the Father’s, might have conflicted with God’s will: “Not my will, but yours…” Did Jesus really long for the cup to pass? Might... Read more
I’m reading a bit of Robert Jensen’s Systematic Theology at the moment. I like how he emphasizes the narrative identity of God (though I dislike his commitment to male gendered language for God). Jensen argues that the identity of God as rendered in the Bible requires that the beginning be interpreted in light of the end. All narrative events are contingent–but these contingent events all make up the story of God, which is the same as the story of God... Read more
Earlier today I posted a blog responding to an essay by Andy Borowitz regarding the the Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence. I didn’t realize the piece was satire! I’ve missed the Borowitz bandwagon, I guess. Turns out it was unbelievable because…well, it’s not true. So, my apologies to Mike Pence and any other offended parties for perpetuating misinformation. In any case, as with any good satire, there is a piece of truth to it. In this case, it’s the importance... Read more
The most difficult transition in early Christianity, which of course began as a sect of Judaism, was the shift from the unquestioned monotheism–represented in the Shema prayer (“Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord!”)– to a burgeoning belief in God as a trinity of equal, unified, but distinct ‘persons.’ Unqualified and single devotion to Jahweh became complicated by the growing sense that Jesus was also divine and therefore equally worthy of worship–as was the Holy Spirit. Debates... Read more
So I am a progressive Christian, but I believe in the bodily resurrection. Jesus rose up from the dead with a new body. His was not just a resuscitated body. He was not like Lazarus, whom Jesus called out from the tomb and to whom Jesus restored life. He was, so Paul claims, the “first-fruits” of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20). If we want to have a sense of what our resurrected bodies will be like, we can look to... Read more
Imagine if the Germanwings plane was brought down in an act of political or religious terrorism? As much attention as the tragedy is currently getting, the fury and intensity would be far greater than it is. I suggested in a recent post that perhaps we could think of severe mental illness as a kind of “terrorist,” insofar as mental illness terrorizes its victims–often with a relentless and darkness that leads ultimately to the taking of their own lives. “Terrorism” is... Read more
Unsystematic Theology
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