Guilt, Shame and Conviction Guilt and shame are widely acknowledged to be negative, unhelpful emotions. Guilt is more inward-focussed – how bad I feel about that thing I did or didn’t do. Shame has a more outward direction, but is still internalised – how bad I feel about how they might feel about what I […]
I’m progressing well with the dissertation, over 15 thousand words written. Here’s a paragraph (with footnotes) that I enjoyed writing, and I hope throws a little light on what I think Rob Bell is trying to do. Bell’s reference to Origen is especially interesting. Origen appears at times to have taught universalism, while at other […]
Read the previous ‘Metanarratives’ posts: 1, 2. In my first post on metanarratives, I said that one of the defining features of postmodernity was the suspicion of metanarratives. What I never wrote about was why the postmodern is outright hostile to the giant stories. In a historical sense, it could be that postmodern philosophy was born from the […]
Read the previous ‘Metanarratives’ posts: 1, 2, 3 Previously I said that though postmoderns reject metanarratives (in favour of smaller, local narratives) on account of their violent totalizing, my view of scripture is that it does not have to be read as presenting that kind of metanarrative. Here’s why. We can discern two metanarratives woven […]
In my last post, I mentioned the story of Redemptive Violence as one of the dominant metanarratives that the media feed to us. I am sure you will recognise it when I describe it – it is the basis for every action movie ever! Whether the story takes place in history, in space, or in some […]
“Time is money” the old saying goes and we’ve thoroughly bought into it. But I don’t want to be ruled by capitalism in that way. Sometimes my time can be bought and sold. But sometimes it just isn’t up for sale. Time can be treated as a commodity rather than simply as an object to […]
I’m reading some of the people who are writing about Emerging & Missional Church for my MA Dissertation, including Alan Hirsch. He quotes a statistic that says only 4% of Southern Baptist churches will plant a daughter church – 96% will not ‘give birth’. By analogy, if 96% of women did not have children it […]
Some of my friends joke that I can get the word ‘metanarrative’ into any conversation. Probably true. Warning: this series of posts may have an overdose of the word ‘metanarrative’! This first post in my metanarrative series will try to define what I’m talking about for those who don’t try to slot it in to […]
Unless you understand that Jesus invites us through faith in him… to actually live in the Kingdom of God now, there will not be a basis for discipleship and transformation. Dallas Willard, http://www.outofur.com/archives/2011/05/ur_video_dallas.html As the conversation goes on to say, faith in Jesus is not about a new life after death, but death in our life […]
Krish Kandiah has been musing on Bin Laden’s death and how scripture has been used by Christians responding to it on Twitter. If we are not careful Bible verses become bumper stickers – ways of publicly labeling our beliefs. Or worse we end up not trying to seek God’s will but rather draw on the […]