Bell’s major thesis in his book, according to thepage at the front is the title of this post , plus: “Christian resistance must take the form of a counter discipline”. In other words, a “detox” to unlearn the assumptons of the capitalist discipline; as in the “addiction groups” we need in the church to help us through our overcoming our Continue Reading

Marsh’s wrap-up chapter, entitled The Contours of an Activist Faith for the 20th Century has a lot to say about the fluid movement of God in and out and in between the ecclesia and the activism; one might say there is an interdependence, even so much as the church drawing some lessons and challenge from the willingness of the “movements” Continue Reading

I was struck by the stories of Martin Luther King and the early SCLC and Jordan’s Koinonia Farm community. I can’t identify a better narrative, including theological analysis, of the issues at stake and in play re: church and state when we look at these two stories through the eyes of Marsh. He talked about how shortly after King had Continue Reading

About half way into After Christendom, Stanley Hauerwas is posing questions about a “justice” whosae defintion is being set by, as he tells it, a sense of natural revelation that imparts to any in the world a common “shared” sense of what justice is, and this is grasped by Christians as a form of power-play. Certainly likely that there is Continue Reading

I stopped by and got a bag full of books from Vandy Divinity Library that I seriously doubt I will get through in two months, as follows: Does God need the church? : toward a theology of the people of God Lohfink, Gerhard (Renewed it—almost done….beware of upcoming posts with my reactions—-book has been great—– many confronting , umcomfortable, troubling Continue Reading

From the first chapter of Gerhard Lohfink’s book: in its first book the Bible not only narrates the story of human sin, but also the beginning of the story of salvation with Abraham. Without looking at that history of salvation and trying to live within it no one can say whether God’s creation is a success or not. It is Continue Reading

After finishing up Resident Aliens, I picked up Where Resident Aliens Live from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, which basically just picks up where they left off and intersperses commnets from others reaction to Resident Aliens.

In Resident Aliens, the authors Hauerwas and Willimon implore us in the ministry/theological/churchleadership professions to set as priority one the evoking of an exciting sense of adventure. The quote about theological writers making us feel “too dumb”: Alas, too much theology today seems to have as its goal the convincing of preachers that they are too dumb to understand real Continue Reading

Here’s a quote from Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon Salvation is not so much a new beginning but rather a beginning in the middle, so to speak. Faith begins, not in discovery, but in remembrance. The story began without us, as a story of the peculiar way God is redeeming the world, Continue Reading

Often during Seminary, I heard people quote Augustine’s City of God. Never once was it required reading. When I read the following “Back Cover” synopsis on this abridged version I picked up a couple of weeks ago (unaware of its being abridged, not noticing that it says so on the front cover), I anticipate seeing if I can pick up Continue Reading

This little gem is one which sits well with me. Hauerwas has discovered a dirty little secret Anabaptists who reject historical Christendom may not actually be rejecting the vision of Christendom as a society in which all life is integrated under the Lordship of Christ. On this reading, Christendom may in fact be a vision of shalom, and our argument Continue Reading