CCBlogs thinking critically, living faithfully

I had a too-brief chat with a fellow who had just returned from several years of mission work in India ... his continuation of that conversation after the jump.

Continue reading A conversation that began in England ......

In my response to a recent review, I said that I hoped people wouldn't problematize me and NKCy and in so doing avoid dealing with the questions raised in the book, because they're being raised all over, by thousands of people. Here's still more evidence of how widespread and intense the struggle feels for many people. (after the jump)

Continue reading Responses: A New Kind of Christianity ... from Europe...

If you haven't heard about Glenn Beck's advice on leaving churches, here's a Catholic response.

Here's a general overview.

And another response here.

This video will take you about six minutes to watch. It will disturb you. But it will also enlarge your understanding, if you let it, and may impact you in ways that last for the rest of your life. I hope you will watch it.

It highlights the importance of a gathering that will take place March 21-22, in New York City. You can learn more about it here.

The gathering will address a question articulated forcefully by Rita Nakashima Brock in a recent article:
How many of us know that, of the 30,000 suicides every year in the U.S., twenty percent are veterans? About 18 a day kill themselves, and from 2005-2007, the rate among younger vets rose 26 percent. None of these many thousands of deaths is counted among the casualties of our current wars. Some of these deaths, perhaps a substantial number of them, occur because people are forced to fight wars they know are morally wrong.

The conscience of soldiers and the conscience of the citizens they represent are inseparably connected. These matters touch us all.

Continued from Part 1

Part 2:
In A New Kind of Christianity, I raise ten questions that I believe Christians in all our traditions need to hear, ponder, and engage in respectful conversation. I explain why these questions need to be raised, sketch out some of the responses that they are eliciting from me and others, and emphasize the need for positive ongoing engagement with them.

When the evangelical flagship magazine CT reviewed the book, I expected the review to be less than enthusiastic, and I imagined most of the online responses to the review would be of a similar tone, since most of the people who would feel the need for this kind of project wouldn’t be among its core readership.

I’ve had the chance to spend a few hours now reading through a couple hundred responses to the review ... (continued after the jump)

Continue reading Reviews: A New Kind of Christianity ... Christianity Today, Part 2...

... from Arkansas, here.

You might be interested in this ...

Here. And here.

Helen Mildenhall summarizes her religious story like this:
My beliefs/doubts: I was a committed Bible-believing Christian from young adulthood until recently (about 17 years). I began to have serious doubts about my faith about six years ago. As a result I’m not currently actively involved in any church or Bible study groups. You can read more about this at various links on the page Why I don’t go to Church Anymore.

She reviews A New Kind of Christianity with her characteristic thoughtfulness here.

I'll miss attending church today, as I'll be on airplanes returning home from an excellent weekend in Denver. But while on the plane, along with doing some writing, I'll be meditating on a few Scriptures that have been on my mind in recent days.
On believing in Jesus and suffering for his sake, Philippians 1:29.
On believing in Jesus and loving him even though we haven't seen him, 1 Peter 1:8.
Believing, loving, suffering ... how do they go together?

You'll find a very personal response to the book here. (Be sure to read the McLuhan quote at the top of the blog too.)

John Sylvest puts A New Kind of Christianity in a context that makes sense to its author... here.

I picked up a term from Kester Brewin's upcoming book (excellent!), which was picked up and expanded beautifully by Reverend Mom here. I love her term "God's neighborhood."

Consider reading this statement ... and signing if you agree.
Thanks!

In the blogs responding to the recent CT interview, Mike Clawson's comments stood out to me as "getting" what I was trying to say in ways that many others didn't. So when he raised some good questions, I was happy to respond. He'll be blogging those responses here.

This one includes the delightful line, "Embrace your inner rabbi!"

This one nicely amalgamates conversations that are already stirring based on the ten questions. So does this one and this one.

This one focuses on the church question.

This one's provocatively entitled "Sex: Sympathizing with the Damned."

A thoughtful question about justice, poverty, history, and theology after the jump

Continue reading Journey and Destination ......

From Michael Gungor:

Here's the Q:
I am a part of the Present day "Inclusion", or "Ulitimate Reconciliation Movement." Bishop Carlton Pearson and many others have been the one who influenced me. However, after reading your book "The last word and the word after that." I am seeing things in a new light. The "inclusion" movement speaks heavily of the Greek words thumos and Orge as "degrees of God's Passion." Orge is spoken of as "God's Passion." Thumos is the "inbreating of God's Passion." Yet, I got a feel from some of your writtings that we need to shift our attention to the Hebrew words for "Wrath." The Religious leaders of that day warned against the "coming" wrath while the common people welcomed it. You have obviously done alot of research. Your website comments that Your new book deals with this. I am doing my own research at Dallas Theological Seminary, SMU, Southwestern in Forth Worth, Texas. Plus I live in a Messanic Jewish Community. Can you help me see more details on your View of Wrath. Recommend something?

R: Thanks for your question. I'm so glad that Carlton - at great personal cost - had the courage to question the view of "eternal conscious torment" that we were both taught, and that large numbers of people sincerely believe is their only option. In my new book, I take a slightly different tack that isn't incompatible with other approaches, but maybe provides a larger context or frame that supports them.

The key issue I raise in the book is our assumptions about the big narrative of the Bible. (I avoid the contentious term metanarrative for reasons I explain in the book.) Once we question the precritical assumptions about the story which the Bible is telling, we suddenly find that specific words take on different meanings - meanings that are more in tune with the Jewish rabbis of Jesus' own people. You mention the word wrath - which many people assume means "anger that leads to the punishment of eternal conscious torment." But outside of the old narrative, another possibility arises: wrath means God's displeasure that allows people to experience the consequences of their negative actions. Try that out in a reading of Romans 1 and see if you think it fits. So if we neglect the poor, there will be crime and revolutionary movements ... If we neglect our children, they'll feel alienated from us, hurting themselves and us. If we neglect the environment, we'll suffer erosion and global warming. If we worship idols, we'll play to our own baser instincts.

Another powerful example is "righteousness," which I actually think would better be translated "justice" in most cases, and the related word "judgment." Most people assume that righteousness means simple religious rigor, but if it means justice, it integrates personal uprightness with social concern - doing right to my neighbor, enemy, stranger, and so on. And judgment in the conventional narrative means God sending people to hell. But what if ... what if this is based on a mistaken understanding? What if judgment means "setting things right," or "restoring justice?" So for God to come as judge to bring judgment would mean God coming to stop the oppressors from oppressing, the polluters from polluting, the violent from plundering, the greedy from hoarding, etc? It would be good news, not bad news!

A short way to say the same thing: we assume justice is merely retributive. But I believe God's justice is far better and richer than that. It is restorative. I hope my new book will add more shape and depth to this.

Here's the Q:
I am a part of the Present day "Inclusion", or "Ulitimate Reconciliation Movement." Bishop Carlton Pearson and many others have been the one who influenced me. However, after reading your book "The last word and the word after that." I am seeing things in a new light. The "inclusion" movement speaks heavily of the Greek words thumos and Orge as "degrees of God's Passion." Orge is spoken of as "God's Passion." Thumos is the "inbreating of God's Passion." Yet, I got a feel from some of your writtings that we need to shift our attention to the Hebrew words for "Wrath." The Religious leaders of that day warned against the "coming" wrath while the common people welcomed it. You have obviously done alot of research. Your website comments that Your new book deals with this. I am doing my own research at Dallas Theological Seminary, SMU, Southwestern in Forth Worth, Texas. Plus I live in a Messanic Jewish Community. Can you help me see more details on your View of Wrath. Recommend something?

R: Thanks for your question. I'm so glad that Carlton - at great personal cost - had the courage to question the view of "eternal conscious torment" that we were both taught, and that large numbers of people sincerely believe is their only option. In my new book, I take a slightly different tack that isn't incompatible with other approaches, but maybe provides a larger context or frame that supports them.

The key issue I raise in the book is our assumptions about the big narrative of the Bible. (I avoid the contentious term metanarrative for reasons I explain in the book.) Once we question the precritical assumptions about the story which the Bible is telling, we suddenly find that specific words take on different meanings - meanings that are more in tune with the Jewish rabbis of Jesus' own people. You mention the word wrath - which many people assume means "anger that leads to the punishment of eternal conscious torment." But outside of the old narrative, another possibility arises: wrath means God's displeasure that allows people to experience the consequences of their negative actions. Try that out in a reading of Romans 1 and see if you think it fits. So if we neglect the poor, there will be crime and revolutionary movements ... If we neglect our children, they'll feel alienated from us, hurting themselves and us. If we neglect the environment, we'll suffer erosion and global warming. If we worship idols, we'll play to our own baser instincts.

Another powerful example is "righteousness," which I actually think would better be translated "justice" in most cases, and the related word "judgment." Most people assume that righteousness means simple religious rigor, but if it means justice, it integrates personal uprightness with social concern - doing right to my neighbor, enemy, stranger, and so on. And judgment in the conventional narrative means God sending people to hell. But what if ... what if this is based on a mistaken understanding? What if judgment means "setting things right," or "restoring justice?" So for God to come as judge to bring judgment would mean God coming to stop the oppressors from oppressing, the polluters from polluting, the violent from plundering, the greedy from hoarding, etc? It would be good news, not bad news!

A short way to say the same thing: we assume justice is merely retributive. But I believe God's justice is far better and richer than that. It is restorative. I hope my new book will add more shape and depth to this.

Richard's recent meditation on giving birth resonates powerfully with the first few chapters of A New Kind of Christianity. I wish I could have included this quote in the book!

Those of us who are seeking to give birth to a new kind of Christian faith certainly feel some pressure and pain. The controversy engendered by my new book isn't enjoyable for me or others on this quest. But I think it's important to remember that it's not easy for those who critique or oppose what we're doing either. Perhaps that realization can help us to not become preoccupied with our own discomfort, and to actually empathize - on both sides - with those who disagree with us. Empathizing with your neighbor must surely be a part of loving him or her!

If I can risk being excessively explicit, it's the "conservative" strength of the woman's cervix that keeps new life from being born prematurely, while it's the "progressive" strength of the woman's uterus that assures the resistance is overcome in due time. One without the other would be catastrophic to our survival. This is a balance I sought to convey in my book, although obviously, I'm throwing my energies into the progressive work of being sure that the cries of a healthy new generation of disciples will in due time be heard among us.

Thanks, Richard! (By the way, Richard and I will be speaking together a couple times this year - first April 9-11 in Albuquerque. Phyllis Tickle, Shane Claiborne, and others will be there as well. Maybe you should join us?)

Excerpt after the jump ...

Continue reading Fr. Richard Rohr on Birthpangs...