tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13848483.post746051913943962759..comments2023-06-30T15:28:17.371+03:00Comments on brummie@sea: Theology and Perspective (Part 3...)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13848483.post-57055440403407158822011-01-06T12:44:19.122+02:002011-01-06T12:44:19.122+02:00http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus#Terminology
...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus#Terminology<br /><br />Octopus isn't a Latin noun, it's Greek, so Octopi shouldn't be the plural, I think. Octopoudes just sounds silly in English, so Octopuses.danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10637645694586728898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13848483.post-58238885050659574012011-01-06T12:33:41.480+02:002011-01-06T12:33:41.480+02:00OctopiOctopiSarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08011176379938926416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13848483.post-9958309233315531922010-12-23T11:46:26.118+02:002010-12-23T11:46:26.118+02:00Note my use of capitals.
Maybe I'm using it b...Note my use of capitals.<br /><br />Maybe I'm using it backwards. I know of the contentions of using the word Christian (or christian), and deliberately used 'christian' (small 'c') to NOT mean "Christian in the political / religious / yada-yada sense".<br /><br />"Follower of Jesus" / "Follower of the Way" / etc. may be <i>better</i> in some ways... but it's also: <br /><br />(a) more wordy;<br />(b) sounds a bit pretentious at times;<br />(c) well on it's way to getting it's own religious / political connotations.<br /><br />Alas.<br /><br />The whole abstract / conceptual thing is a bit weird, to be honest.<br /><br />Like, in some ways, I think we can easily over-abstractify everything. Which may well be were part of the issue with neo-Reformed dudes vs. Emergents comes in. They abstractify different things, and refuse to budge.<br /><br />For the Reformed perspective, Jesus' life/death/resurrection is often abstracted and codified in to a bare and stark "Penal Substitution = IT", but then hellfire, brimstone, heaven, hell, etc, are left as un-abstracted literal absolutes.<br /><br />Then in the Emergent camp(s), Jesus' life/death/resurrection is often left as a story - not that it's not true, but that it has layers of depth and complexity, and we must view it as a story, not a formula, and then heaven/hell/judgement/etc. become abstract.<br /><br />The classic argument/nonsense between WotM and Doug Pagitt is case in point. The WotM guy is like "WTH? You don't believe in HELL and JUDGEMENT?!" and Doug is like "Dude, like, God <i>interacts</i> with you, when you die..."<br /><br />Both sides are missing so much.<br /><br />Funny thing is, I'd like to say it's a Modernist/Post-Modernist battle. But I don't think it is, after reflection and a wee bit of study. A lot of the gnostic, arian, etc. debates seem to be very much related.<br /><br />Which could be a good historic argument against (systematic) theology! :-)<br /><br />However, I find myself skeptical about alternatives.danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10637645694586728898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13848483.post-33586282288897607372010-12-23T11:28:14.494+02:002010-12-23T11:28:14.494+02:00You done gone and hit that thar nail on de head.
I...You done gone and hit that thar nail on de head.<br />I was hoping you'd get back to your opening comments in the first part. Nicely put indeed.Bridget Macfarlanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14422294148630893021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13848483.post-68781268443803092992010-12-23T07:22:32.158+02:002010-12-23T07:22:32.158+02:00The reason why it's so difficult to be a Chris...The reason why it's so difficult to <b>be</b> a Christian is partly because of the word - it tends to obfuscate the fact that we are called to be followers of Jesus who demonstrated this integrated life of love. Christianity (for the last few centuries at least) might be considered to have become schizophrenic - having a split personality with each personality demonstrated by a different group claiming to have found the complete truth. <br /><br />Jesus demonstrated 'the way' of being love. When we say 'I am love Becky' we are not illustrating a grammatical problem, but a conceptual linguistic one with the word I which is seen merely as a noun (inactive) rather than a verb (active). 'I am' as a single word integrates noun and verb into an integrated concept. <br /><br />Sadly, one of the problems we have since this split in mainstream Christianity is we don't see examples to follow. We don't have apprenticships to learn from masters. Of course, this is what parenting is, or should be, about. It is a bit of an indictment for us as parents that this is not so.Richard Fairheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15443956246800155197noreply@blogger.com