September 30th, Power Points and Lecture

Today we will be talking about about the relationship between God and humanity (and the whole of the created order). I know, it keeps you up at nights.

Soooo here it is... a rare occurrence these days, but here is the link to the lecture and the power points for Wednesday's class:

• Lecture
• Power Points

Peace,
Chelle

Lecture Today: September 23rd, 2009

Here is a link to today's lecture.

This lecture is not as polished in written form, but has all of the essentials of what we talked about in class. If you more details about anything in this lecture, let me know. I have written about most of this in one form of another in other places.

Peace,
Chelle

Sept 23rd Power Points

Here is the link to the Power Points for today.

Lecture Today: September 16th, 2009

Here is a link my lecture from today: Trinitarian Creation. The first half is what we talked about today, and the rest I'll talk about next week; although I will most likely change some of it. So read as much as you want. If this is helpful to post my written lectures as well as the power points, let me know and I can do it whenever I have a written lecture.

Peace,
Chelle

Power Point Slides September 16th, 2009

Here is the link to the power point slides.

-Chelle

Early Sources for Trinitarian Language

I was looking back over some of my notes and found the first use of the concept of "triad".

Theophilus of Antioch (180 AD), in his To Autolycus, discusses the shape of God's creative activity as Father, Logos and Sophia. Here is a quote:

• "He is God, who heals and gives life through Logos and Sophia. God made everything through Logos and Sophia, but by his Logos the heavens were made firm and by his Spirit all their power [Ps 32:6]." Theolophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum, tr. by Robert M. Grant, Oxford: Claredon Press, 1970, I.7.
  

In another place, he says:

• "the three days prior to the luminaries are types of the triad of God and his Logos and his Sophia. In the forth place is man, who is in need of light--so that there might be God, Logos, Sophia, Man." (the footnote to this: "This 'triad' is not precisely the Trinity, since in Theolophilus' mind man can be added to it.") Theolophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum, tr. by Robert M. Grant, Oxford: Claredon Press, 1970, II.15.
  

Though this is not a perfect articulation of trinitarian theology, you can see how Theolophilus is attempting to put words and concepts to something that was already actively believed in early Christendom.

Another source of early trinitarian thought is Irenaeus of Lyon (125-203). He also talks about God creating through the Logos and Wisdom (Sophia), but more specifically talks about the Son and the Holy Spirit as the two hands of the Father:

• "It was not angels...who made us, nor who formed us, neither had angels power to make an image of God, nor any one else, except the Word of the Lord, nor any Power remotely distant from the Father of all things. For God did not stand in need of these [beings], in order to the accomplishing of what He had Himself determined with Himself beforehand should be done, as if He did not possess His own hands. For with Him were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things..." Ireneaus, "Against Heresies," in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, Edinburgh: T&T Clark; Eerdmans, 1996, Book IV: chapter XX.1.

Well, I hope that gets you thinking about early sources of trinitarian language and theology. I find it interesting that the activity of creation is trinitarian in shape and motion for these early theologians of the Church.

Peace,
Chelle

Power Points for Sept 9th, 2009

Here are the ppts for last week (intro to theology lecture continued today).

Here are the ppts for this week's lecture on the Trinity.

-Chelle

Why Do Theology?

When we, as embodied human beings, experience the world around us, we tend to make certain assumptions or begin to ask questions. A few classic questions are: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” “What is the meaning of life?” or another way to ask this is “What brings meaning to life?” “Who are these people around me and what is my relationship to them?” “What is the definition of family in such a fragmented and alienated culture?”

These questions are inherently theological because they ask how we are in the world in relation to that which is not ourselves. In other words, is there anything beyond and/or outside of the individual self? And, if so, what is it?

We all ask these questions. The problem is, if we don’t take the time to explore and examine our presuppositions, then we are left with half articulated beliefs that seem proper or correct in the moment but doesn't have real substance for the long haul called life. So, when life happens and we come to the end of our understanding, we tend to either turn to anger and frustration or to simply reject faith all together; especially faith represented by the established church. I think that this is amazingly characteristic of our contemporary culture. How do we respond to this within our culture? Or, more honestly, how do we respond to this within ourselves?

Again, we ask the question, why do theology? Well, you are here at this graduate school doing a degree at this particular time and place. I assume that you are interested in theological questions or you would not be here because you would have gone to a different school. However, you are diverse in your goals. Some of you are counseling students, some are training to be pastors and some of you are not sure why you are here . (There is nothing wrong with not really knowing why you are doing a degree. That was me when I went to do my master's degree and now I'm teaching at a seminary. You never know where you'll end up!) In that context, the challenge of this class (which is my task as much as it is your task) is to learn to connect our individual questions about life, the universe and everything to the discipline and tradition of Christian theology. I will be honest. I don’t really know how to do that in a classroom, and I don’t know how to do that for each of you.

So, I would like to challenge you, to charge you with this task: work hard in this class to push your own questions outward in order to connect those personal questions to the wider tradition of theology. In the midst of this, it is OK to disagree with me, with one another and even yourself. (I saw a bumper sticker once that said: “Don’t believe everything you think.” It is a good philosophy when approaching theology!!)

I believe that theology should be transformative and even life-giving. But, in my own story, it wasn’t until theology was connected to my own questions that I could even understand the broader theological questions. In fact, it wasn’t until I connected theology and music that I became a theologian. Throughout my theological journey, I have worked to connect my questions and my ways of thinking with the traditional questions. It was hard work. I’m still working hard, and that is why I am here at Mars Hill Graduate School teaching. I want to understand how theology connects with life, with us as individuals and how the hard work of individual exploration can connect us back to a wider community that transcends time and space: throughout the world and throughout history. When we sing, when we proclaim and profess, when we preach and when we laugh and cry with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, we do so with Christians throughout the ages and the world. We sing “Holy, holy, holy,” together in the broadest sense of that word.

Therefore, as we start this class, we need to acknowledge that we are not the first people to ask the ultimate questions. We are also not the first ones to offer answers. It is the height of arrogance to say that we understand the relationship between God and the world better than those believers that lived 50, 150 or 1500 years ago. However, we do understand the world differently. We have a different context and a different Zeitgeist. But to answer these questions in isolation, ignoring the tradition, is naïve at best. Despite our attempts to answer these questions in isolation, we should acknowledge that we all have inherited many assumptions and beliefs, often unexamined. In this class, with respect I hope, we will work to question, critique, explore and sometimes even answer these inherited presuppositions.

So, why do theology? Because it hits us in the intimate places where we live. It shapes the way we are in the world.

To the Task!

Chelle

Vocab Quiz, Missing Words...

I have heard that there are a few words missing out of the Pocket Dictionary. Let me define them for you here:

Doctrine of God: The area of systematic theology that focuses on the study of God's being; e.g., God as Trinity or God as Creator.

Theological Anthropology: The area of systematic theology that focuses on the human person, in other words, in the light of who God is, who and what is humanity.

Dual Natures Doctrine: This doctrine articulates the paradox that Jesus Christ is both fully human and fully divine; i.e., one person but two natures.

ex nihilo: literally, "out of nothing". This doctrine holds that God created the world out of nothing rather than out of some kind of pre-existent chaos or formless matter.

Heterodoxy: Other or different belief.

Transgression: Sin.

Hope that helps!

-Chelle

Reading Pods!!

OK. So...this was a little more confusing that I was hoping. Here are links to the readings for each group. If you are not sure which group you are in, email Jordan.

African-American Liberation Theology
Anabaptist Theology: Thomas Finger
Baptist: Stan Grenz
Baptist: Roger Olson
Mike Higton
Church Fathers
Eastern Orthodox Theology
Feminist Theology
South and Central American Theology
Jurgen Moltmann
Kathryn Tanner

Here is the the final syllabus (without proper formatting): Constructing the Theological Mosaic. There is an up-to-date syllabus in the Theology I folder found at our.MHGS. That copy has better formatting, etc.

Let me know if you have any problems opening any of these documents.

Peace,
Chelle