First conversations and next assignment
Here we go. The following questions may spark some good conversation, but feel free to pose others. No need to respond to each question--pick what interests you.
The real action will be in the "Comments" section, not in my posts. See that "Comment" button in the lower right of your screen? Click on that and you'll be able to do two things: read whatever comments have been made, and add your own. Visit from time to time to see how the conversations are developing--and help keep them moving!
Oh, and while we're chatting about the opening of the book, let's prepare for the next assignment: please work on reading Section I, "Christ Plays in Creation," pp. 48-130. Use that hghlighter!
Intro and Clearing the Playing Field
1) Select a section that you underlined/highlighted. Tell us which section and why it caught your attention.
2) Peterson has a different understanding of and approach to 'spirituality' than what I grew up in the charismatic movement of the 1970s. Are there aspects to his approach that strike you as helpful, provocative, worth some further thought/discussion?
3) I was struck, and helped, by Peterson's thorough-going trinitarianism. Are our churches genuinely trinitarian in practice as well as belief, or are we actually functionally unitarian?
4) Does it really matter? Why?
5) "Play is another important idea here. What are your responses to the idea of Christ playing, of the place and power of playfulness in true spirituality?
posted by Brian Emmet @ 2:19 PM
5 Comments:
Thanks, Brian. I have just started reading the book and have almost completed the introduction. I made the same discovery that you did, when I went back to the table of contents, it made a little more sense as to how he is developing his argument. Looking forward to the blogging. Randy
With Robert, I was struck by how often I use "machine language" (resource, dysfunction)... evidence that our minds have been more thoroughly "colonized" by the thoughtforms of the Empire in which we live. Interesting, too, that in the Psalms, whenever "enemies" or the "wicked" are mentioned, the aspect that is feared is NOT their swords,spears and other weapons, but their words/tongues/lips/mouths: if our language, thoughts and imaginations can be colonized, the enemy has us... I think we're all becoming more and more aware of the extent to which the enemy "has" the church in the modern West.
Hey Brian, thanks for setting this up! First, a suggestion: I am wondering if one question per assignment might help us focus on the same topic? Just a thought.
It seems that "finding Jesus" is easier then finding "true spirituality." In the early history of the church, the "desert fathers" thought that they found it in the desolate, solitude of their lifestyle. Brother Lawrence came along centuries later and stated that he felt as close to God in the clammer of the kitchen, as he did in the quiet of the sanctuary. I was about to embark on my morning prayer walk (which has to be early these days, no later than 6:30 AM), when it was announced by Eric, as he raced out the door to work that the toliet in the middle bathroom was stopped up! Now, I had already met with the Father in my quiet time, reading Scripture and writing in my prayer journal, but I love the time with God on my prayer walks. So, now the question is (was!), can I meet with God while I try to unclog a stopped up toliet? mmmmmmm .......? True spirituality?
Randy makes a good point: would it be better to have onbe question to focus on, or do you prefer the shotgun approach? Responses invited!
one of the things I emjoy about Peterson's work, that I feel i've really received as a gift from him, is the way he writes about living spiritually that makes me say, 'I can do that!" I don't mean that I can do it by myself, for myself, without relating to God, but that it presents life in Christ in a way that feels like it "fits" me better than some of my charismatic upbringing. So now I'm probably reflecting more about me than the book! And I understand that Peterson isn't/doesn't need to be everyone's cup o' tea. I'm just enjoying Randy's picture of finding God while unstopping the toilet... there was a time I/we would have (a) prayed for healing (b) cast a demon out or (c) had someone who was "submitted to" us take care of it.
Yes, I'm exaggerrating, and overgeneralizing, and probably committing some other sins as well--but does any of what I'm trying to say make any sense to any of you?
It's OK if it doesn't!
I'm not sure I'm up to the task LeRoy suggested...and I don't mean to dump on our charismatic heritage. But here's a swing at responding to LeRoy:
It seems to me that if the doctrine of the Trinity were somehow 'canceled', it would make almost no difference to the life and practice of most churches. Of course, over time there would be tremendous distortions to the faith, but in the short term most chrstians would greet the news with a shrug and a 'Who cares? What difference does it make?'
But the Trinity is who God is; it is not doctrinal "information", it is revelation of the identity/nature of God. It is therefore fundamental to every aspect of life and faith.
So here's a way to put it: in the 70s, the Spirit was often identified as "the neglected Person of the Trinity". Point made, point taken--and the point needed to be both made and taken. Maybe now what we're experiencing is a "recovering" of the Trinity, just as we "recovered" something of the Person and work of the Spirit through the charismatic outpouring.
But how should the reality that God is one in three Persons shape our lives in Christ, personally and corporately? Here's where I found Peterson helpful (bottom of page 6 through mid-page 8). Creation matters; history matters; community matters. And they matter together and they matter all of the time; we can't pick and choose, anymore than we can pick and choose among the Persons of the Trinity.
When's the last time we heard a sermon, or gave one, on the Trinity?
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