I recently started inching through J. Kameron Carter’s book Race: A Theological Account. I’ve found him to be an extremely insightful scholar and theologian as he discusses the origins of racial classification through a theological framing. He’s a heavy weight, but I promise his insights are worth it. Here is a video of him giving a lecture a Columbia, let me know what ya think.
Tag Archives: Theology
Postcolonial Church???
5 NovI’ve been wondering what a post-colonial church would look like. What would it look like if Christian communities freed themselves from western cultural captivity. Any thoughts?
The Cat and the Toaster
4 Sep
This is a great book I’m reading… this is the second book in a row that I have posted without finishing it. Nonetheless it is a great read. I do plan to finish, but I also have school stuff I’m working on now that class has started back that will “distract” me from the real important stuff 
Definitely check it out and let me know what you think. It is a christian writer talking about the complexity of living and social organisms, and how we can apply Christian principles to address solutions within our society. Sounds dull when I describe it but he is a great writer and has great insight into Kingdom work.
Micah 6:6-8
16 JunWhat does God require of you? Do justice (actively and intentionally), love mercy (not reluctantly), and walk humbly (through service) with God.
Theological Mut
9 Jun
I am a theological mut. My theology, ideology, and convictions are shaped by a plethora of christian streams and traditions. This usually leaves me finding myself associating with diverse theological communities, yet hardly ever feeling at home anywhere I go.
I meet monthly with some local Philly leaders, pastors, and proffessors. Many of them surprisingly have some odd theological combinations themselves. It’s nice to have a place of familiarity and comfort… even if only for 2 hours a month.
Four Dimensional Faith
25 May
It’s always been the case that we live in a complex world. Yet so often we are satisfied with reducing the world’s complex realities to simplistic dimensions. We simplify people so we can categorize them, we simplify ideas and concepts so we can “master” them, and we simplify our faith so we can comfortably attain and meet its requirements. It is our faith that should have room to stretch us and shape us into something new and better… rather we have molded our faith into one dimension limiting its formational capacity.
Regardless of what end of the spectrum of spirituality we find ourselves on, most of us approach faith and spirituality from a 1 dimensional perspective. On either end these 1 dimensional perspectives can be compared with the terms vertical and horizontal. Some people only operate from a vertical dimension. They believe that their spirituality is limited to loving God, but this world is the enemy. They keep their eyes focused upward and to the future, because this world is considered to be no good. On the contrary some people do not have a vertical approach but rather understand faith from a horizontal dimension. They believe that our purpose is to do good and care for creation and society, but they have lost spiritual vitality. God has been removed from the equation. Spirituality is more connected to community and culture than with God.
The bible presents something a lot more complex and I would argue beautiful than the reduced and simplified approach to spirituality. Take Luke 4 for an example.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Here we see from Jesus’ words that we ought not approach faith from a limited dualistic perspective, rather Jesus himself had completely integrated and intertwined spirituality with God and societal engagement as essentials for his faith. He did not believe to be spiritual would require him to ignore the realities of the world and separate himself so he could commit all his time to worshiping God. Nor did he have to reject spirituality as a reality of life so that he could begin having an impact on those who were oppressed around him. No, in fact based on that passage it was the very fact that Jesus had the Spirit, that he did the things he did. Jesus lived out a 4 dimensional faith in a 4 dimensional world. Let us move away from simplicity, as we allow ourselves to engage God and engage our world meaningfully every day. When we pick and choose, prioritizing one aspect of faith over the other, we all lose.
Drive-thru Readings
19 May
We love quick interpretations and applications for our life when we read the Bible. The slow process of reading and surveying the whole book, seeking to learn about the ancient context, putting the text we are reading in light of the whole biblical narrative, and reading everything in light of and through the context of Jesus’ life… well all that just seems to take too long. We want a microwaved instant reading. We want to get our truth and relevance for our problem quick and fast. We don’t want to commit to a lifestyle of study and meditation. We want to pull up make our order, and get our product and drive off. How might our instant and immediate driven culture affect how we read the Bible? Maybe John Legend is right, “maybe we should take it slow”? Freestyle with me…
Born Again or Entering the Kingdom of God???
30 AprDid you know that Jesus only talks about being born again one time, and it is to one specific person (Nicodemus) and only found in the Gospel of John. On the other hand Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God countless times throughout the gospels (mostly Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew because they showed so much reverence to God’s name). Even when Jesus talked to Nicodemus about being born again, he mentioned the Kingdom twice, explaining why one must “enter” the Kingdom. I think we should focus more on what Jesus ACTUALLY said, and less on the Evangelical tradition’s infatuation and limited focus with this one biblical metaphor.
We need more of a Christ centered, and scripturally faithful theological approach. This does not mean discard the “born again” metaphor Jesus uses. It is both great and biblical! But lets keep things in focus and not major on the minors. When we talk about being born again and divorce it from entering the Kingdom of God (which Jesus did not do) we justify our individualism in which our faith in Christ is only about us. When we teach entering the Kingdom of God, we are subversively telling people that you have become a part of something bigger than yourself.
Once you are in God’s Kingdom, you must live as though Christ is King, and are now free to live free as a loved child of God. No longer enslaved to this world (its things, its appeal, it’s threats) but now may participate in what God has ultimately created you for… mission with God (to liberate, to save, to redeem, to reconcile, etc.) and community with God’s people (while sharing love with one another). And we do this while we await the final return of our King to fully establish His Kingdom here on earth.
Given this, the thing Christians should explore is what it looked like for Jesus to do Kingdom ministry in the 1st century, and what that might look like for the church now in the 21st century.
Unleashed…
29 Apr
Most churches seem to have their members on a short leash. Think about it, while most churches “teach” that the members need to go out and witness to others, they have everyone shackled and busy inside the church. Who are considered the most faithful people in the church? Usually they are the ones who commit the most time serving and ministering inside the church. Shoot, there is Sunday service, and of course if you are good you also attend communion and Sunday School. Most churches have a wednesday night bible study at their church. Of course, if you are really serious you will give up your time and serve on some committee, comission, church board, or meeting once a week. Don’t forget rehearsal for the choir, worship teams, band, drama, etc. Then we got our fellowships for the men, for the women, for the young adults, for the youth. We also got singles stuff and stuff for married folks too. If you are a “faithful” church member, then you are lucky to have even a few evenings home with the family. At the end of each week, surprisingly we find no time to reach, serve, and love neighbors and strangers in our community. (I don’t blame the members, I blame us leaders for this problem).
This doesn’t seem to be what is going on in the New Testament. And please, don’t get me wrong I am not saying that all those things are inherently wrong. However, I believe the primary role of the church is to equip and unleash the Church for mission locally, regionally, and globally. And when I say that I am not thinking primarily of evangelism events and missions programs. What I mean is that the Church ought to be released to go out and interact and engage the community naturally as God’s people. Whether individually or collectively we are to be the voice, hands, and feet of Jesus in our community.
For the neighborhood I live in I imagine people spending time with neigbors on the block or on the corner. I imagine Christians out at the basketball courts hanging out, or choppin it up about current events in the barbershop. I see christians having their favorite local bar where everyone knows their name and where they are building relationships with people that most church members would never encounter regularly. This can never happen if we are on a tight leash spending most of our time keeping church programs afloat. More than ever I think it is time for the church to disciple and equip its people in sacrificially minded community (opposed to consumer minded communities) so that it may be unleashed to bear witness to Christ to a world that needs it.
Micah 5:2 “A Foreshadow Of Things To Come”
28 Apr“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”
Who might this One be who is prophesied about here in Micah to be born in little old Bethlehem? And while they are going to “come forth” this person’s begginings are from ancient times, “from everlasting”. For it is this One prophesied about that is clearly more than just a prophet or messiah but seems to have no beggining as though He were equated with God. And it is this One who is to be Ruler.
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