Who are your theological influences?

This past weekend I began asking friends on Facebook and Twitter, “Who are your most significant theological influences?”  I wanted to ponder the question, but didn’t want to do so alone.  As I considered persons who had impacted my life, I thought that opening a conversation with others regarding those who have molded their Christian thought and practice could be extremely fruitful.  To provide one example, I have dear friends who love the theology of John Calvin.  They know the one to whom they owe a debt, and express their gratitude not only by reading and passing along his teachings, but by attempting to live their lives as a testimony to God’s sovereign grace as captured by Calvin.

For those persons called “Christian” it may be high-time for self-examination and close review of those whom we would own as our spiritual and theological mentors, if we can name them!  The names mentioned by my friends were John Calvin, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Karl Barth, Jurgen Moltmann, Augustine, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Stanley Hauerwas, Lesslie Newbigin, H. Richard Niebuhr, Marcus Borg, Martin Luther, Ravi Zacharias, John Hick, William Barclay, Paul Tillich, Irenaeus, Friedrich Schleiermacher, St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Martin Luther King, Jr., Hal Knight, Stanley Grenz, and N.T. Wright.  A friend from Dallas Theological Seminary listed John Walvoord, Robert P. Lightner, and Charles Ryrie.  Other pastoral examples included Rob Bell,  John Piper, Tim Keel, Fr. Tim Kelly, and Molly Wiggins Simpson (Will this sentence explode due to the placement of John Piper’s name?).  Christian writers such as Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne, Mike Yankoski, Dallas Willard, Philip Yancey, C.S. Lewis, Donald Miller, Mike Yaconelli, and Anne Lamott made the list.  Family members were also mentioned.  One of my friends listed his dad, another mentioned his mom, Barb Clinger.  A high school student mentioned other youth whom she had heard speak as part of Institute–a United Methodist youth camp here in the Kansas East Conference.  Two friends mentioned Rumi and T.S. Eliot (this reference warmed my heart).  Humorously, three or four of my friends listed me, complements which I can only take half seriously.  One moment I laugh, the next I’m scared to death.

As I think of my own theological influences, I would have to begin with my parents and (praise God) the church in which I was raised.  Who knew?  Theology in the church?  Yes.  David Dykes and Paul Powell taught me a great deal.  I learned from a man named Dick Ramsey as well, who I had the privilege to know and hear preach on occasion.  Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and Christian friends helped teach me to think theologically during my upbringing.

As I browse my shelfs and think of the most significant works I have read, here are ten of the most significant theologians I have encountered (in no particular order):

1. Stanley Hauerwas
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
3. Dallas Willard
4. N.T. Wright
5. Thomas A’Kempis
6. John Wesley
7. Walter Brueggemann
8. Lesslie Newbigin
9. Martin Luther King, Jr.
10. John Howard Yoder

So, who are your most significant theological influences?  If you care to expand, why?

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WhiteHouse.gov Gets a Redesign

This information appeared first here at TechCrunch, but I thought it was worth passing along.  Cool stuff.

You can check the new website here and browse the blog, see President Obama’s weekly web address, and read up on White House approaches to important issues.  

If the government can adapt their technologies to attempt and communicate better with the people of this country…I’m thinking there is a lesson here.

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Great Advice for Academicians

Thanks to Ben Myers at Faith and Theology.  Here is his advice for theological students.  I chuckled at a number of these.

1. As a theological student, your aim is to accumulate opinions – as many as you can, and as fast as possible. (Exceptional students may acquire all their opinions within the first few weeks; others require an entire semester.) One of the best ways to collect opinions is to choose your theological group (“I shall be progressive,” or “I will be evangelical,” or “I am a Barthian”), then sign up to all the opinions usually associated with that social group. If at first you don’t feel much conviction for these new opinions, just be patient: within twelve months you will be a staunch advocate, and you’ll even be able to help new students acquire the same opinions.

2. At the earliest possible opportunity you should also form an opinion about your favourite theological discipline: that is, you should choose your specialisation. To communicate this choice to others, you should dismiss as trivial or irrelevant all other disciplines: the systematic theologian should teach herself to utter humorous remarks about the worth of “practical” theology, while the New Testament student should learn to hold forth emphatically on the dangers of systematic theology; and so on.

3. As far as possible, you should try to avoid all non-theological interests or pursuits. All your time and energy should be invested in reading important books and discussing important ideas. (Novels in particular should be avoided, as they are a notorious time-waster, and they furnish you with no new opinions.)

4. Every successful theological student must master the proper vocabulary. All theological conversations should be peppered with these termini technici(e.g. “Only a demythologised Barthian ontology can subvert the différanceof postmodern theory and re-construe the analogia entis in terms of temporal mediation”). The less comprehensible and more sibylline the sentence uttered, the better. There are some stock-in-trade terms that are de rigueur (e.g. perichoresis, imago Dei, Heilsgeschichte, Bullsgeschichte), but the really outstanding student should find creative ways to deploy a wide range of foreign polysyllabic words. Phrases of Latin, Greek or German derivation are particularly prized. (Those of Hebrew of Syriac extraction should be used more sparingly – they are usually greeted with some puzzlement, or with cries of “Gesundheit!”)

5. Now that you’re a theological student, you will discover that the world is filled with people who don’t share your new opinions. Every conversation should thus be viewed as an opportunity to persuade others of their simple-mindedness and to convert them to a better understanding. If you’re feeling shy about this, you should start by practising on your family and closest friends. And it’s not always necessary to engage in a full-blown discussion; at times a single Latin term or a knowing smirk is all that’s required to demolish another person’s argument.

6. Were you raised in a conservative Christian family? If so, your theological education provides you with the perfect opportunity for rebellion. The benefits of theological rebellion should not be underestimated: rejecting all your parents’ religious opinions allows you both to assert your independence and to imply that your parents are backward and naïve. In this respect, theological education can be every bit as effective as smoking cannabis or moving in with your boyfriend: but without all the bad smells.

7. Every true theologian is an avid collector of books. The day you became a theological student, you entered a race to amass a personal library larger and more impressive than those of your peers. Books should be acquired as quickly and as indiscriminately as possible; second-hand books are even better, since they give the appearance of having been read, which can save you a great deal of time. 

8. When you are asked to preach in a parish, you should take the opportunity to display the advantages of theological education. Every good sermon should quote the words of some great theologian (a “great German theologian” is even better). And the phrase “the original Greek says…” should be used sparingly but effectively – perhaps just two or three times in a sermon.

9. The goal of theological education is a good career: preferably an academic career, although in some cases you might have to settle for pastoral ministry (or worse, just a regular job). It’s never too early to get your career on track: every essay, every conversation with a professor, every question you ask in class – these are the opportunities to show the professor how deeply you share their opinions, and how superior your own insights are to those of your classmates. In all circumstances you should revere, admire and emulate your professors. Even if they are neither wise nor virtuous, your goal is to become their perfect reflection, mirroring back to them their own opinions, preferences and prejudices. To show thatyou are the professor’s true protégé: this is the beginning of wisdom, and the bedrock of any good career.

10. Under no circumstances should you resort to old-fashioned pieties like daily prayer and Bible-reading. There are far too many important things to be thinking about, and far too many important things to be reading. (Church attendance is acceptable, however, since it gives you the opportunity of improving your pastor’s theological education.)

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Reading the Institutes

Princeton Theological Seminary has launched a cool project in 2009.  They have partnered with Westminster John Knox and made the McNeill/Battles translation of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion available online.  You can visit the site or subscribe to the RSS feed and join with a community who has committed to read through the Institutes this year.  Considering that Calvin is a theological giant whose work has been very important in the history of Christian thought, the few minutes it takes each day to read through the entry is worth it.  Each entry is accompanied by audio, so if you don’t want to read, relax a few moments and listen.

I subscribed to the RSS feed late, so I’m having to read two or three entries a day in an effort to catch up.  I’m already encouraged by what I’ve read.  I’m taking on a research project right now, but on my reading list this year are other important thinkers whom I have too long neglected.  So far this year I’ve enjoyed reading more from John Wesley’s Sermons, have picked up books on church leadership, and have already enjoyed reading some selections from William J. Abraham.

Life is going pretty well right now.  I’m waiting to hear back from PhD programs and staying engaged with friends, family, and my church community.  I’ve been mentoring students who are part of our church youth group, and will likely be team teaching an adult discipleship class on serving God this coming spring.  I expect to have an article published in an upcoming edition of Collide Magazine on the church and live-streaming technology, and have been submitting some brief meditations to Devozine, a UMC devotional for youth.  I’m also headed to Israel in March, which will be fantastic.  On top of all this:

I’m going to be a dad.

That’s right.  Due date is in August.

God bless friends, hope all are well.

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MLK :: I HAVE A DREAM

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

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Speaking in Quiet Voices

As of late my blog has been a bit quiet.  This has been for several reasons.  Beginning in mid-November I began writing an autobiographical essay, statements of purpose, and compiling academic resumes for applications to PhD programs around the country, a task which took a substantial amount of time.  By the beginning of January I had submitted my materials to six programs: Baylor, Duke, Emory, Notre Dame, Southern Methodist University, and Vanderbilt.  Programs vary from school to school, but each application was submitted in the area of Religious Studies/Christian Theology/Christian Ethics.  I’ll likely hear back in the early portion of 2009 from each institution.  Let’s hope the news is good.

Following Christmas and New Year’s I spent the week composing an article to submit to Collide Magazine on Live-Streaming Worship.  A number of churches are feeding their worship services live to internet venues and attempting to form virtual communities who follow the way of Jesus Christ.  I see potential upside to this movement, but I also see theological problems.  Because it is not a matter of if, but when and how churches move forward using these technologies and calling the individuals who log in and form a community “church,” I have attempted to raise some questions about how such practices (re)shape our ecclesiology.  In the article I say both positives and negatives about these technologies.  My conclusions will result in some labeling me a luddite.

As an additional project, I’m writing my master’s thesis this semester.  Last semester was spent doing an immense amount of reading and research.  My project focuses on the homosexuality debate in the United Methodist Church.  I have intentionally avoided discussing such matters in depth on my blog for various reasons.  The internet is a place where one may speak loudly without being heard.  Listeners find you by having their ears tuned to your frequency, searching for keywords or topics of interest and stumbling into a discourse.  This is why “Yankee Stadium,” “Ric Flair,” and “Robert Schuller” have drawn more people to my blog than my discussions of theology and ministry.  At this time, I’d rather not have a discussion on homosexuality on my blog.  I’d rather have these discussions in more personal environments where our humanity isn’t masked by our technology.

With that being said, I’m going to be spending a lot of time on my project this spring–more than I will brainstorming and writing reflections for my blog.  As Tim Keel once observed, there are some people who only have so much writing in them.  I am one of those people.  I’m going to reserve my words for my research project at a time when deadlines are pressing.  For the loyal readers of my blog, if you have books, articles, videos, or other documents that you think might help me examine the United Methodist conflict on homosexuality I would appreciate those links and references.  Feel free to leave a request to pursue the subject via email, if that would be a better alternative.

On the local front, I’m hoping that 2009 will bring about deeper friendships and holy conversations with leaders in my local community.  I’m praying that while our voices may be raised in small, quiet space, the lives we live as a result of mutual edification and encouragement would speak volumes.

God bless.

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Jon Foreman :: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

Last week I downloaded Jon Foreman‘s four EPs which were released last year: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer.  The collection is excellent, and I couldn’t recommend it more highly.  Foreman has also released Limbs and Branches, which includes the greatest hits from the four EPs.

You may know Foreman from the band Switchfoot, or you may not.  (Switchfoot is affectionately known as Switchwood by my friends.)  I didn’t know his name before reading about this release and scooping it up.  I’d recommend checking it out.

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Sanctity of Life Sunday :: January 18

Check out this video preview found through WorshipHouse Media.  Until this was passed my way I was not aware that there was a Sunday designated for Sanctity of Life.  I’ve heard my fair share of sermons on this topic, have read a number of scholarly essays, and have thought about this issue (if I may call it that) carefully.

Thoughts?

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Story of Stuff

Check it out here, or watch this video:

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Tony Jones No Longer to Serve as National Coordinator of Emergent Village

The new year brought a change to Emergent Village, with Tony Jones no longer serving as the National Coordinator.  This news broke here, among other places, in November, and was among the changes outlined in an online letter posted to Emergent’s Weblog.  I wasn’t aware of this change until yesterday when spotting it as a news blurb in the most recent edition of Christianity Today.

We’ll see what the future holds for Emergent Village.

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