Power Point Slides and Lectures

From now on, look for powerpoint slides and lecture notes on the our.MHGS site for this class. I'll post other sorts of interesting things upon this site, so take a look from time to time.

Also, I will try to get the slides up before class so that anyone who is interested can take notes on the slides. Hopefully that will happen consistently.

Peace,
Chelle

Tierra Nueva Mural Artist: Troy Terpstra

In class last week, a few people referred to the mural found at central ministry building for Tierra Nueva, up in Burlington, WA. Here is the link: Troy Terpstra Mural.

Rachel Beatty also sent this helpful explanation. Rachel, thanks for sending the link and the words from the artist! This is truly a prophetic and theological work of art. I hear and see many of the images and metaphors that we discussed in class this last week in this painting. Enjoy:

Here is an explanation of the piece from Troy before the mural was completed, that speaks of the water as baptismal. 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."

Webster--"Revelation, Sanctification and Inspiration"

I hear that there is some frustration with the Webster article. Here is a short summary for you, I hope it helps:

Webster's "Revelation, Sanctification and Inspiration"

OK. Here is a short summary of John Webster’s essay, “Revelation, Sanctification and Inspiration,” from his book Holy Scripture. In this essay, Webster identifies a key problem with how Scripture has been handled and understood within recent history (say the past 200 years or so). He believes that the idea of what Scripture is has been isolated from the Doctrine of God. In consequence, Scripture has been subjected to unnecessary qualifications to prove that it is indeed a text given to the church by God. The central issue, as he states it, is how to prove or even talk about how a human document can contain divine wisdom and self-disclosure with surety and integrity. What is at stake is how we live with Scripture as a trustworthy and authoritative text within the community of God.

The solution to this problem, according to Webster, is to locate our thinking about Scripture within a dynamic trinitarian doctrine of God. He does this through the interrelating of three concepts: 1) revelation, 2) sanctification and 3) inspiration. The most important of all of these concepts, if there is to be a kind of prioritizing, is sanctification because it is through the agency of the Holy Spirit that God has consistently communicated himself to humanity. This self-communication of God includes both the writing of the words of Scripture as well as the interpretation of those words within the community of God. Thus, what is most important for Webster to set out in his doctrine of Scripture is not the veracity or the reliability of the words themselves (such as the concept of ‘inerrancy’) but, instead, the very presence of God with us.

As you read through this article (I did warn you that it was difficult) focus on the definitions of the three main terms: 1) revelation, 2) sanctification and 3) inspiration. Sanctification is the most important of the terms. You may not understand the entire article. If you only come out with his definition of the sanctification of scripture, then you will be in good standing.

Peace,
Chelle

January 20, 2010: Notes, etc. for Class

Hello All,

Here are the lecture notes and the power point slides from today.

I'll do another entry for the artist from Tierra Nueva.

Thanks for diving into the projects today. I love the posters!!

Peace,
Chelle

Reading for the Pub Quiz

OK, for all you folks who like to read ahead, I have finally figured out the page numbers for the Pub Quiz based on Stan Grenz's The Millennial Maze. Read chapters 3 through 6, pages 65 through 173. In essence, you are reading for the descriptions of the four major millennial views.

Happy Reading!
Chelle

Otiose

I was reading Sarah Coakley's article: "'Femininity' and the Holy Spirit?" (found in the "Feminist Theology" folder on our.MHGS) and came across an unfamiliar word: 'otiose.' According to Webster's, otiose means: "producing no useful results."

What a useful and descriptive term! It is an important theological task to discern between ways of thinking that we disagree with and other ways of thinking that are truly otiose, really do not produce any useful results. One is a difference of opinion while the other identifies a way of thinking that should be discarded.

January 13, 2010--Lecture and Power Point Slides

Here are the links to the lecture and the ppts from today's class.

Peace,
Chelle

Thinking about 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 OR the dude I wish had a more robust pneumatology...

8. Clark Pinnock: The Flame of Love OR The sex dude... (the definition from the group!)

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: Feminist theologian/biblical 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.

Doctrinal Position Papers

Three necessary components to a Doctrinal Position Paper:

1. Formal Structure: Introductory paragraph that includes a thesis statement, a body, and a conclusion.
2. Engagement with the assigned readings.
3. A thoughtful attempt at an articulation of the doctrine you are addressing.

An exceptional paper will integrate your engagement with the assigned readings and your own articulation of the doctrine.

You only have two pages so it is imperative that you are brief and to the point. Personal reflection is not a necessary component to this paper and if used excessively will hurt your paper.

You may feel that are not in a place to articulate a doctrine - my encouragement to you is that risk taking will be rewarded. Take a chance - put your thoughts down.

Welcome and Reading Lists

Hello to you all. Welcome to Theology II, the study of the Holy Spirit, the Church and the Last Things.

I wanted to make available the reading lists for the different "Theologian Groups," so here they are. We will discuss these the first day of class, so you will be able to sign for a group then:

African American Liberation Theology
Ana-Baptist Theology: Thomas Finger
Baptist Theology: Stan Grenz
Beginning Theology: Mike Higton
Church Fathers: Christopher Hall
Eastern Orthodox Theology
Feminist Theology
South and Central American Liberation Theology
Reform Theology: Jurgen Moltmann

See y'all on Wednesday Morning at 9:30AM.

Peace,
Chelle