postmodern

Here are some quotes from Spencer Burke's and Barry Taylor's just released book, A Heretics Guide to Eternity.

[William Ventimiglia] goes on to quote Jesus' analogy of the Holy Spirit as a wind that blows where it chooses and writes that this element of God's action in the world has “always been a problem for organized religion with its well-established categories of understanding.” (Heretic's Guide, p8)

This reminds me of Reido's use of this same quote. Let's look at it.

continue reading "A Very Quick Look At "A Heretic's Guide To Eternity""

We've had some great discussions at faithCommons over the past twenty months or so. Speaking for myself at least, I'll say that I've grown quite a bit from the discussion and through the insight of others here. Now seems a good time to reflect and remember some of those threads.

There are many new readers that have come our way recently. Thousands of first time visitors found faithCommons over the past several weeks. So, for these new readers, and for nostalgia's sake, I thought I'd list some of my favorite discussion threads from the past.

continue reading "Some of My Favorite Discussions From the Past"

A recent post by Will Samson explaining why he's Leaving Seminary, reminded me of my own ill-fated forays into graduate school and the general disconnect between modern education and learning.

Several times over a ten year period I looked seriously into graduate school. My job was much more than mechanical engineering, so

continue reading "The Disconnect Between Education and Learning"

My copy of Brian McLaren's new book, The Secret Message of Jesus : Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything, arrived yesterday afternoon.

The introduction starts out like this.

continue reading "Initial Impression of McLaren's New Book: The Secret Message of Jesus"

With the growing clamor from the happy-with-things-as-they-are insiders against Emerging Church, postmodernism and alternative worship, the big, elephant-in-the-room question is: who will stand for the dechurched?

continue reading "Who Will Speak Out For the Dechurched?"

We are in the beginnings of a new age of communication that will undermine and topple the old bastions of publishing. Eventually, someone will find a way to centralize online publishing power and end the party. But for the next several decades, intellectual discourse will move increasingly into the multi-way medium of the 'net. The two most important aspects of this move are multi-way communication and inclusiveness that allows everyone with something to say, a seat at the conference table. This will have a huge impact on religion (more on this later).

continue reading "Religious Leaders Must Embrace the Internet or Fade Away"

In twenty odd years as an adult in the Christian church (dare I say culture?), I have heard many criticisms of “culture” and its apparent synonym; “worldliness.” But is culture really worldly or evil? Or is culture just what it is?

Although I was born in Alabama and spent a tenth of my life there, I was raised in the Southwest, including another tenth in southern California. One of my favorite types of food is Mexican Food. I even worked in Mexico for awhile at an American owned maquiladora. That was after almost seven years at a Japanese owned maquiladora based in the USA. So I'm familiar with, and also like a lot of Japanese dishes. Spicy is good. And that's one reason that I also enjoy Indian cuisine, especially curry. I've enjoyed curry dishes in various places including the UK, Japan, Thailand, the USA and yes even India. Curry may be one of the more adopted and adapted dishes in the world. Cuisine is part of culture. And thanks to globalisation, we can enjoy cuisine from other great civilizations, right at home. But is this worldly? Is it decadent?

continue reading "Should the Church Be Sensitive or Critical Toward Culture?"

In order to be effective in our witness to this generation, for which we are responsible, it is necessary to discover what sets it apart from its predecessors. Understanding these peculiarities will better prepare us to meet it more effectively with the word of truth that has been entrusted to us. Every generation, every culture responds more readily to a tailored presentation of the message; but that doesn’t mean the message itself should be altered.

continue reading "Theism in a Postmodern World"

Objectivity is sometimes overrated. Although objective pursuit of fact, and even truth, during the Enlightenment wrested power from tyrants and the imperial church by establishing that truth is knowable by anyone who observes and investigates rather than being vested only in titled officials, it is not all that it's cracked up to be. Sometimes, it is the subjective truth that's most powerful.

continue reading "The Power Of Subjective Truth"

Alan Hartung hits the the proverbial nail on the head and drives it through the “Idol of Truth.” The point he makes is similar to some of our discussions here.

The Idolatry of Truth - Jesus amazingly showed little regard for the belief systems he encountered. He neither felt the need to correct eve

continue reading "The Idolatry of Truth"