At the end of the term...

It is the end of the Spring term, and I have been thinking about my blogging life, such as it is. I created this blog to add some extra content and/or questions and/or play to the content of the Theological Mosaic class. This term I also started to blog on a different site and realize that I need to give a little more 'face' time to that endeavor.

All this to say, I think that I am going to retire this blog and consolidate my two class blogs at the 'Artistic Impulse' blog site. So, if you want to keep reading/following my random abstract thoughts about life, art and theology, please visit my other two blogs. As for the Theological Mosaic, it will be missed, but all good things much come to an end eventually... or find a life elsewhere, as the case may be.


Here are the links. Enjoy!

The Artistic Impulse (short thoughts on what I am reading, watching, hearing and experiencing in my theology and the arts life... oh and occasional thoughts and announcements for my classes...)

Evangelical Crossroads (A group blog with the authors of Routes and Radishes. In my posts I will focus on my continued exploration of and search for a Christian aesthetic...)

Oh, and I should add one last sarcastic video for the road.... hope you like the video, it is meant to make you laugh, not cry...

A Few Thoughts on Rob Bell

I thought I would send a few links for recent thoughts on Rob Bell's new book. I appreciate Peterson's willingness to listen both critically and respectfully. And I appreciate Jeff Cook's thoughtful interaction with Lewis and Bell (although I don't think that Lewis is a Universalist...). Enjoy!

Eugene Peterson on Rob Bell

C. S. Lewis and Rob Bell

A Little Inspiration

A little inspiration for you from Henri Nouwen's Theological Ideas in Education:


Most students...feel that they must first have something to say before they can put it down on paper. For them writing is little more than recording a preexistent thought. But...writing is a process in which we discover what lives in us. The writing itself reveals what is alive.

In another place he writes:

The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey whose final destination we do not know....Writing is like giving away the few loaves and fishes one has, in trust that they will multiply in the giving. Once we dare to "give away" on paper the few thoughts that come to us, we start discovering how much is hidden underneath...and gradually come in touch with our own riches.

So, as you write, I pray that you will "come in touch with" your "own riches."

"The Bad Vicar"

OK, I promised that I would put up a couple of funny (read sarcastic) videos about the Church over the next week. We do need an outlet for some of our more cynical feelings about the Church. About this video, all I'll say is that I really hope that this has not ever been your experience of Church... if it has, I am extremely sorry...

This from the British TV show, "That Mitchell and Webb Look":

Music and Freedom: Wisdom from Jeremy Begbie

I feel like I have returned over and over again this term to the concept of freedom. Freedom and Kenosis. Freedom and Improvisation. Improvisation and the life of the Church... We keep coming back to the questions: "How do we define freedom? What does it mean for us to live fully before God and one another? What does it mean that 'where the Spirit is, there is freedom'? Are we in competition with God?" And many more questions. These are what I think of as 'driving questions.' They keep us exploring, wondering about our faith or the lack of it.

To aid in our explorations, I thought that I would share a couple of videos with you all. This is Jeremy Begbie speaking at the Veritas Forum a few years back. If it sounds a little familiar, it is true that I have stolen all of my best material on music and freedom from Dr. Begbie! My favorite phrase in the videos (although I really like everything that he has to say!) is, "God is about 're-humanizing' us, not 'de-humanizing' us." Good stuff!

Let me know what you think...

Speaking of Vulnerability

Just in case any of you are interested... Here is the my quintet playing Brahms a few weekends ago. This is the first time that we have played together, and the first time we have performed together. The Brahms quintet in F minor is an amazing piece (we are playing just the first movement). I think that we did fairly well for just a short amount of practice time. (Keep in mind that we are just amateurs--people who simply play for the love of the music... we are not the Emerson String Quartet--that is my tender vulnerability coming out...)

As you are watching, notice how we play off of one another. Try to trace how the melody moves from instrument to instrument. How does the piano interact with the string quartet? How do the string players interact with the piano and with one another? Sometimes we literally pass the tune on to the next player. Sometimes we are all playing the tune together. Other times we support another player, helping them to soar beautifully. In a few sections we are all playing at different times, playing just two or three notes of the tune, playing off of one another to make a unified melody. I hope you enjoy!

Regardless, you just gotta love Brahms...

Vulnerability and the Improvisational Life

Yesterday in class we were talking about the church and improvisation. One concept that really stood out to me was the question of whether or not we will accept or block the 'offer' to come play. Will we say 'Yes' or will we say 'No'. Sam Wells argues that those who say 'No' think that what is being offered is either "improbable, improper or dangerous" or really all of the above. It is much safer not to take the risk.

I believe that risk (vulnerability), freedom and contingency (that anything can happen) all go together. The other side of the coin is trust (whether in ourselves or others--including God), structure (some kind of ordered way of being and doing) and constraint (some kind of canvas on which to paint our lives). There has to be structure if we are to practice and live into freedom and contingency.

When I put that together with Sarah Coakley's ideas that the kenosis of Jesus Christ (that mysterious way of talking about Christ's self-emptying or his pouring out of himself) as 'vulnerability-in-power' I realize that vulnerability, especially a healthy understanding of vulnerability, is at the heart of the gospel. It is the way of Jesus Christ. It is who we are empowered to be through the Holy Spirit. This is not some 'touchy-feely' way of thinking about who we are as humans, much less the people of God. We are called to be persons before one another, before God and before the whole of the created order. Our freedom as persons (not individuals) is bound up in and even vested in our interplay with others. There is no freedom without vulnerability. Freedom is mediated to us through other people. This is the call of the Christian life. This the core of the Jesus way.

And so I wonder about the Church. Could we do work in this class that actually moves us to a less cynical place about the Church? About God? About one another? Is there a constructive way to imagine what it means to come together? What role does worship play in your life? What desires do you have? Can worship awaken your desire for God? For healthy relationship? For wholeness? Or is vulnerability, freedom, wholeness, desire, etc. antithetical to what Church is? What are you questions? How can you aks these questions? Are you asking these questions?

I think this could be a very powerful integrative space in this class. Anyone up for the challenge? Say 'Yes' to vulnerability, even if it involves the imperfect group of persons (even individuals) that make up the Church...

Here is video by Dr. Brene Brown on vulnerability. I think she gets to the heart of the matter. Let me know what you think:

J. Kameron Carter On Jazz...

I am really enjoying blogging about 'making space'. I think I will keep going over the next few weeks. But today I want to invite another voice into the conversation, although he is talking more in terms of freedom and tradition.

Here is our guest blogger for the day: J. Kameron Carter on Esperanza Spalding. Theology and jazz. See, I'm not the only one thinking about this topic...

A Little Romance for You...

Here is a version of "My One and Only Love" by two Jazz greats, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. The way they play off of one another is like butter. I'm goin' all melty inside...

Sam Wells and Improvisation

Molly reminded me of the importance of Sam Wells's book, Improvisation. In this book, Wells talks about improvisation as a model for church. In essence, it is about how we are with one another and in the world. He was a pastor for years and applied these principles in his church and community. His church dying and was in a section of England defined by poverty and cynicism. He wondered how it was possible to revive a church in such circumstances, but it did work. He went on from there to work with Stanley Hauerwas, and is now the Dean of the Chapel at Duke Divinity.

I think I'll talk about this in class... I'll practice improvisation in my teaching life...


Molly sent me a link to an interview in The Other Journal with Scott Bader-Saye, where he talks a bit about Wells's understanding of improvisation. Check it out.

• The Other Journal & Dr. Scott Bader-Saye

Joshua Redman...what more do you need?

It is a truth known to jazz players that technique is the gatekeeper. You cannot make space for others if you do not have space for yourself. After you can play you are able to make space for others, you are ready to play the game. But first, you have to go to the woodshed. You have to play by yourself if you are going to immerse yourself in the game. Jazz is pure playing toward others...

This is the essence of how I understand jazz improvisation, and one of my favs is Joshua Redman. He is such an amazing player and his ensembles are solid. I love to hear him play. We saw him live about 10 years ago (we need to see him again!) and I was hooked. The whole band grooved and moved together. Making space for one another indeed. Here is Redman live:

Bach's Art of the Fugue

We can't have a series on 'making room for the other' without including J.S. Bach's art of the fugue. Here are a couple of videos of the Emerson String quartet (one of my favorite quartets) playing this monumental work (at least bits and bobs of it). The first video has a short explanation of the work, the second one of the 'Contrapunti'. In essence, this is a series of different fugues (Contrapunti) based upon the same theme (or subject, although the subject varies from variation to variation). The variety of the work spins out into eternity and ends mid-sentence because Bach died before he complete the work. I wonder if he would have just kept composing in endless improvisation on this theme into eternity... It seems as if that is exactly what he did.

Watch and listen for the independence of the different voice intertwined with how they interact. This is play in motion...

[N.B. The Oxford American Dictionary defines 'fugue' in the following manner: "Music a contrapuntal composition in which a short melody or phrase (the subject) is introduced by one part and successfully taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts."]

Talking of Michael Jackson...

So, one more adaptation that is amazingly cool (in my geeky string player mind). Here is version of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" played by two cellists. I love how they play off of each other. A great example of making room for one another, even if they seem to be dueling it out!

And one more...

OK, one of my favorite adaptations is Eva Cassidy's version of Sting's "Fields of Gold." I always loved Sting's song, but I think that Eva takes it to another level. I also love her version of "Time after Time" in case you are interested...

I'm not sure what I think about the nature shots in the video, but whoever put it together started in Scotland, which makes me want to go back. The fields of the Kingdom of Fife are truly the fields of gold... the light had that certain glowing quality when the canola fields were in bloom... Oh and there are some shots of the Orkney Islands as well... beautiful. I love standing stones!

Another Adaptation...

Jonathan sent in a different adaption. This time, instead of Queen on the ukelele (by the way, thank you to Emily for sending me that video), it is the Jackson 5's hit, "I want you back" by The Civil Wars. So I thought I would repost his link and also include the original with a Jackson 5 video. Love those moves! If you don't get up and dance I'm not sure if I want to talk to ever again... no really, I wish I could move like that. Michael, you inspired us all.

• "I want you back" by The Civil Wars

Making Space for the Other...

Every day this week it is my goal to post a different example of 'making space' through some kind of imaginative improvisatory and/or creative activity. One form of creative improvisation is taking a song from one genre and adapting it to another genre or instrumentation. This is a significant way of articulating this concept of 'making room for the other' within musical space. Adaptation helps you hear the song differently and gives honor to the integrity and power of the original song. (It also shows off the virtuosity of the player...)

Performance is an important way of learning to hear other voices, and in this video we have a very cool example of an unexpected song on an unexpected instrument. My guess is that after this performance, you will never hear Queen or the ukelele in the same way again.

Enjoy!

Calvinism vs. Arminianism

OK, for those of you who are interested, here is a good and concise website about the key stances and difference between Calvinism and Arminianism.

• Comparison of Calvinism and Arminianism

Enjoy!
Chelle

Chance for Extra Credit

This week there is a chance for you to get extra credit for the theology class. (Up to 2 points.) All you need to do is attend Jon Stanley's Wednesday night lecture, "God is Dead and I don't Feel So Good Myself," and then write a 2-page report about the content of the lecture and the evening. Here are the details:

Jon Stanley is a graduate of Mars Hill Graduate School and is currently working on his Ph.D. in philosophical theology with the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto (yes, in Canada).

What: Alumni Speaker Series (co-sponsored with The Other Journal and The Parish Collective)

Where: Mars Hill Graduate School

When: 7PM on Wednesday February 9th, 2011

Anne Lamott at Seattle Uni's Book Festival

Check out Seattle University's Search For Meaning Book Festival this Saturday, February 5th. It looks like Anne Lamott is speaking at 10:15. Let me know if you go!

Go Knox and the Union Gospel Mission!

Hey, I was just looking at the Seattle Times and the lead story was about art at the Union Gospel Mission. And, there was Knox on the front page...

So, check out art at the Union Gospel Mission this week! Gallery open from 6PM to 8PM this Thursday, February 3rd.

Tierra Nueva Mural Artist: Troy Terpstra

In class this week, I will refer to the mural found at central building for Bob Ekblad's ministry, Tierra Nueva, up in Burlington, WA. Here is the link: Troy Terpstra Mural.

This is truly a prophetic and theological work of art. I hear and see many of the images and metaphors that we will discuss in class this week in this painting. 

Here is an explanation of the piece in Troy's words. It is from the Tierra Nueva e-testimony blog:

"At the center of the mural is Christ. He will be tattooed, appearing to be an ex-con. Jesus is an ex-con of sorts, but the idea is inspired by drawings done by prisoners and given to the staff here at Tierra Nueva. Many prisoners feel a deep sense of shame and inadequacy when invited to know a God they have always perceived as judgmental and harsh. This portrayal of Christ as a modern day convict aims to contextualize the Gospel into our present culture. Jesus of the ghetto, Jesus of the barrio, is the Jesus of Nazareth. We want the men in the Skagit Valley Jail to know the Jesus who rolled with his society's misfits and outcasts, and who longs to be with them today. On the left, the character of Jesus embraces a young prisoner in a county jail uniform. The jail chaplaincy has been an amazingly fruitful ministry, and I am continually amazed at the stories of healing and renewal that come out of the jail every week.

On the right, Jesus has his arm around a campesina (female farm worker) who stands in the strawberry fields. She is weary and a palette of harvested fruit rests on her hips. Much of Tierra Nueva's ministry is to farm workers, who continuously move to follow the seasonal work, uprooting their families and working sun-up to sun-down for less than minimum wage. Our Family Support Center assists these people in finding housing, obtaining legal help, and in many other basic needs. I want to honestly portray the labor endured by migrant farm workers, as well as the closeness to the heart of Christ they have.

At the top of the wall, the Hands of our Abba pour out the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is made of water and takes the shape of a dove. The waters pass through a gaping wound in the torso of the living Christ, the self-giving sacrifice of love which conquers death. Many characters, addicted, accused and accusing, rich and poor, liberated and bound up, undergo the baptismal outpouring. Chains, addiction, resentment, guilt, and death itself drown under the waters.

Coming up from the waters (the wings of the dove) two joyful worshippers emerge, a woman pounding the drums of mercy and a man blowing the horn of justice, crashing through the oppressive orderliness of the vertical prison bars and the horizontal field rows. I love the idea of the Holy Spirit breaking into prison. The prison cells sit under the night sky of a city contrasted with the field under the full sun of a summer day.

I have taken over a year to settle on the design, and I don't think I quite understood the process of mural making when I began this project, so the slowness has been very educational. I have drawn and redrawn this design several times, and God willing I am nearing the day when I will begin to paint it.

Bruce Cockburn has a line in his song 'Mystery' that goes "come all you stumblers who believe love rules – stand up and let shine." I like to think that this e-testimony is addressed to the 'stumblers who believe love rules.' Come by and check out the mural if you are in the neighborhood."

Different Theologians on the Holy Spirit

Here are some theologians and some "pithy" statements describing their pneumatology.

Enjoy!

Chelle

1. Augustine: The Spirit is the bond of Love between the Father and the Son.

2. Irenaeus: The Son and the Spirit are the two hands of God.

3. St. Basil: The Spirit is the perfecting cause.

4. Richard of St. Victor: The Holy Spirit is the motor outward of God.

5. Wolfhart Pannenberg: The Spirit is a force field. (NOT like on Star Trek!)

6. Jurgen Moltmann: "wherever there is a passion for life, there the Spirit of God is operating" (Karkkainen, Pneumatology, 126)

7. Karl Barth: the Spirit is always in relation to Christ, mediating Christ (the Word of Christ) to people's hearts

8. Clark Pinnock: The Flame of Love OR The sex dude... 

9. John Zizioulas: Eastern Orthodox. The Trinity as an Ontology of Communion. The Spirit and the Son work in parallel: "The work of the Spirit is not the subordinate to the work of the Son, nor is Pentecost a continuation of the incarnation but rather its sequel, its result." (Karkkainen, Pneumatology, 109)

10. Elizabeth Johnson: The Holy Spirit as Sophia, or wisdom.

11. Karl Rahner: The Spirit has a universal orientation. He talks about 'anonymous Christians', as people who are Christians but just don't know it yet. In other words, the Spirit is at work in them.

12. Robert Jenson: Lutheran theologian who believes that the Spirit is moving Christianity back to being one Holy catholic/Catholic Church.

13. Stan Grenz: We are made in the image of God, therefore we have been created for community. The Spirit constitutes and dwells in the Community of God.

14. Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza: scholar who rigorously and passionately argues for the recognition of women in the establishing and forming of the Christian tradition. The Holy Spirit moved women into prominent positions in ministry back then, why not today?

15. Mark I. Wallace: Green or Ecological Pneumatology.

16. Karen Baker-Fletcher: The Spirit is at work today in our lives and is the resurrection (as in the resurrection of Jesus) and the resurrecting power (as in for us) of God, even in the darkest places of evil and oppression. 

Gordon Fee: Gender and Translation

As I was poking around the web for a picture of Gordon Fee, I found this article on Gender and Translation. This is a co-authored piece with Mark Strauss. I thought that some of you might be interested in this discussion. Enjoy!

• "Gender and Translation" by Gordon Fee and Mark Strauss

Gordon Fee

A few people asked if I would put the Fee quotes from this week's lecture on Kenosis up on the class blog. Since I'm not sure which quotes or ideas provoked further contemplation, I'll just put up my lecture and notes. If there were other quotes or ideas that you were interested in exploring, just let me know. Don't forget that all of my lectures and slides are posted in the class folder.

Gordon Fee: Defining Kenosis

Biblical theologian, Gordon Fee, can help us establish a different understanding of kenosis.[1] In his commentary on Philippians, Fee points out that the phrases ‘did not consider equality with God something to be grasped’ and ‘made himself nothing’ function together in the poetic form of the hymn. These two ideas play off each other, saying something similar.

Unfortunately, this pairing of phrases has often been translated or understood to mean that Jesus gave up or emptied out his divinity or something vital to his being. As if Jesus, in the incarnation, was like a bag that could only carry so much stuff and had to be emptied out in order to enable the incarnation. All the God-stuff had to be taken out of the bag.[2] Fee argues that the first phrase ‘did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,’ points to the reality of Jesus, that he truly was God. This identity as God was not something that he desired; it was always his from eternity.[3] He also notes that some commentators translate ‘to grasp’ [harpagmos] in a manner more unto being. That being God, Jesus did not grasp or seize, because that is not the way God is. Power, leadership, kingship is about service not about the grasping of power.[4] Fee seems to agree with this idea that the life of Christ reveals what God-likeness is. “Rather, his ‘equality with God’ found its truest expression when ‘he emptied himself’.”[5]

Fee asserts that the primary theological mistake in this passage has hinged on the assumption that if Jesus emptied himself [ekenosen] he emptied himself of something, rather than it being a statement of identity. This person, Jesus Christ, did not grasp at equality with God (he was God) and the one who didn’t grasp poured himself out by taking the form of a slave.[6] “God is not an acquisitive being, grasping and seizing, but self-giving for the sake of other.”[7] Thus this passage is talking more about the nature of who Jesus is rather than what was given up.[8]

Fee’s argument reminds me of the concept of perichoresis, as a gifting and giving of being from the Father, Son and the Spirit. This self-giving is the way of God. Thus, Christ’s self-giving and emptying is an eternal a continuous way of being. This is not given up in the incarnation—this can be seen in how he relates to the Father and the Spirit throughout his ministry. Jesus is given from the Father the renewed gift of the Holy Spirit at his baptism. This is the inauguration of his ministry. It is interesting that in the synoptic Gospels, immediately after his baptism, Jesus is lead by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by Satan. It is here that he truly does not grasp after power and authority. He takes no privileges—because the rule of the world was his by right—and remains a servant. He does not take the easy way toward Lordship that is offered to him. And, as the Christ hymns proclaims, it is in this way of not grasping and of pouring himself out as a servant for the sake of others that Jesus is exalted as Lord over all of creation.

---

[1] Gordon Fee, Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, 191-214, esp. 210-214.
[2] Though this is not really Kathryn Tanner’s articulation, I got this idea from her. Check out her discussion of the Chalcedonian definition in Tanner, Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity.
[3] Fee, 208.
[4] Cf. Fee, 206 for the discussion of harpagmos, which seems even more difficult to translate than kenosis.
[5] Fee, 208.
[6] Fee, 210.
[7] Fee, 211.
[8] Here is how Fee sums up his argument: “In Christ Jesus God has thus shown his true nature; this is what it means for Christ to be ‘equal with God’—to pour himself out for the sake of others and to do so by taking the role of a slave. Hereby he not only reveals the character of God, but from the perspective of the present context also reveals what it means for us to be created in God’s image, to bear his likeness and have his ‘mindset.’ It means taking the role of the slave for the sake of others…” (Fee, 214.)

C. S. Lewis

     This past summer I taught a class on C. S. Lewis. A graduating student had seen this class listed in the academic catalogue and asked me if I would teach it. I said yes with a little reluctance. Though I had read all of Lewis' fiction before, I had rarely read with much attention or care his non-fiction works.  


     I have to admit that I have been suspicious of how people (evangelicals in particular) say the name of Lewis with such reverence. "Well, as C. S. Lewis once said..." He is the 'thinking Christian's' patron saint and the champion of wisdom over knowledge. Oh, and everyone likes to read about talking animals. 


     Regardless of my previous prejudices, Lewis completely won me over. He is remarkably insightful and wisely subversive. When I say subversive I mean that he sees into the culture (both Christian and secular) and knows how to subtly deconstruct previous ways of understanding and then reframe the conversation with wit and depth. 


     What also surprised me was the relevancy of his voice. Even though he died in 1963, he addresses the same issues as students today wrestle to understand. I think part of this is because he lived in a culture (20th century war-torn Britain--Lewis fought in WWI and lost his best friend) that struggled with the relevancy of faith. Where was God in the midst of such evil and destruction? Or even, why believe in God when science and philosophy have shown the sheer ridiculousness of Christianity? 


     Despite all of this, Lewis--with the help of such friends as J. R. R. Tolkien and Charles Williams--moved through his own atheism and then deism back to Christianity. This formed his thought and his pursuit for God. He speaks to the sincere yet cynical soul who is not sure if the God of their youth is really viable anymore. How do we pursuit God in an age of cynicism? Lewis seems to know how to lead the way...


     In class I read the very beginning of Lewis' famous sermon, "The Weight of Glory." In this sermon he talks about 'desire.' This is a very important theme for Lewis in his writings. He believed that the telling of stories had the power to awaken desire in the human heart. More specifically he talked about desire as Sehnsucht, that desire and longing for God's presence; a heart sickness for home. For example, Reepicheep, the chief of the mice in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, had a Sehnsucht for Aslan's country. As a theology teacher, I often wonder what it means to awaken desire for God. Again, Lewis is able to lead the way... 

“If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” ("The Weight of Glory")