Good News, old post, and other such things...

GOOD NEWS! This past Tuesday I went down and had a good meeting with my conference peeps and had a discussion on my ordination paper. Today, i received the news that:

Last night the Board affirmed our recommendation that Lucas be approved for an Ecclesiastical Council for Ordination Pending Call.

(Lucas is my "official" name)

So that's pretty freak'n sweet! The Ecc. Council will be sometime in June. Ordination pending call means that when I find a "call" or a church position, that is when I'll be ordained. exciting times!

Old Post: I did more reading on Christus Victor and have discovered my popular post of the same title is actually mislabeled. I talked about the satisfaction theory posited by Anselm while Christus Victor posited by Gustaf Aulen is in opposition to the satisfaction theory. I will do a new post soon about the differences and usually the two are mixed in Christian circles. I need to flesh both out and have done a little preliminary work in the old post as I have gone back and edited the old post. Going for accuracy as per Sabio's example.

Other Such Things: My Ohio Bobcats knocked off Georgetown in the first round! AWESOME!!!

The rule of Three: Book: John Dominic Crossan's Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography

Movie: Kundun is a fantastic film about the Dali Lama's life. Great music and atmosphere and directed by Martin Scorsese. pretty awesome stuff.

Music: Getting in an Arizona state of mind, here's one song on heavy rotation aside from all the country-western stuff like "i'm an old cowhand"

Step One Done!

I am on step closer to ordination. My local congregation graciously accepted my call and asked really great questions about the ordination paper... through which i had a bad bout of seminarian's disease and had long, complex answers for things that should have been shorter. that being said, they agreed to forward me onto the committee on ministry, meeting set for March 16th at 11 a.m.

so yay!

i've been reading a lot of Christology and Islam books for class. more Steinke and such... and also listening to The Silversun Pickups



and watching movies like Zombieland, The Hangover, and The Hurt Locker. I enjoyed all of them!

so there's your update, what are y'all watching, reading, and listening to?

Scheduled

all things are set to go... tonight, Tuesday the 14th, we go in to give Boogie his/her womb eviction papers.

i will update y'all as soon as i can. keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Rule of Three:

Movie: Tudors: Complete First Season

Music:


and also this song:



Book: Brisingr by Christopher P. i needed a break from all the theology...

but check out Voltaire's The Philosophical Dictionary: Religion

The Baby Comet... i mean cometh!

so Boogie is due soon...

Kate and I feel like we're standing on our front porch and watching a comet come at our house. we're pretty sure it's gonna hit us, we just don't know when. we think we're prepared for it, but who know what the aftermath will look like.

craziness.

but have you seen a better looking mom-to-be? i don't think you can get better than my wife here!



can't wait to meet this little person i've been talking to for 40 weeks or so... i'm a little nervous about becoming a dad, but i figure that since Kate and I are decended from the most successful parents in human history.. our caveman and women ancestors survived long enough for us to get here, so that relieves some of the pressure.

i'll keep y'all posted on when Boogie arrives.

Rule of Three:

Listening:

Watching: Joan of Arcadia, the complete second season.

Reading: UnChristian, what a new generation really thinks about Christianity and why it matters by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons.

Orthodoxy Check

A slight misunderstanding can go a long way. This is what I'm learning in my Church History class. I absolutely love history! It's great to find out why we do what we do and what historical origins and contexts brought these about.

Cody, who used to attend LTS but is happy at a seminary in NYC, had a high view of the church fathers. I must say, after reading the writings of the first fathers of the 1st to 3rd century, i'm highly impressed. but then came the Imperial Church and that's where i'm struggling.

in this era we see the church adopting the very thing it was fighting. the church took on the worldly power and mixed itself with imperial ideology so much that we still have this confusion today. here is where all the heirarchy, militaristic language and themes, and concern with catagories were spawned.

and y'all know what i think of categories! as Rabbi Heschel wrote "Trying to pierce the mystery with our categories is like trying to bite a wall."

Rule of Three:
Watching: King of Kong; a Fist Full of Quarters LONG LIVE STEVE WIEBE! He's got the true title, Billy is a punk! Watch the movie and email the site to state that Steve rules!!!
Listening: my Halloween rotation of Slipknot, Rammstein, and Type-O Negative
Reading: Change of Heart

Homecoming 08

Proof that you can go home again! This time was very different as our partners in crime Karen and Nick were busy having Elijah Jack! Here's a picture of the young man and his favorite stuffed animal (there's absolutely NO pressure for him to go to OU ;-))

This also means that Karen's brother and sis-n-law Brian and Katie were busy setting stuff up and welcoming E.J. home. We're looking forward to seeing the happy family this October.

This homecoming felt quite different for many reasons, the biggest being that our running crew wasn't there, but it's still great to get back to Athens and catch up and remember. There's something about Athens in the autumn, the Marching 110 and Bobcat's football! 51-31 over VMI, it was a great game.

You can view all the lovely photos at EAG's site here.

Some other goings on are: the recently-married Rasmus, our Georgetown friend, was in town and we discussed Carpark North's newest cd. Also Justin is engaged! that's a huge deal! Justin is marrying the woman who is solely responsible for bringing Ultimate not only to OSU but also to LTS! We caught up with some more awesome people and weren't able to see everyone we wanted too, due to such an abreviated stay.

C.J. introduced us to my new favorite musical of all time, Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. It's got Neil Patrich Harris in it and is written by the ever-awesome Joss Whedon!

Kate and I are already looking forward to next year!


Rule of Three:
Reading: Too much for class! Origen, Justin Martyr, Worshp Across Cultures and Homosexuality and Civilization to name a few

Listening: Interesting theological overtones in Carpark's new CD Grateful (Thanks again Rasmus!)


Watching: Dr. Horrible! IT'S SO GOOD!

Why is Satan Evil?

I don't beleive in Satan... I believe in evil, but that evil is NOT Satan.

There WAS no satan in Hebrew cosmology until the PERSIANS came (as they have a good god/evil god thing going on, the Jews had ONE God from whom both good and evil came from: Job 2:9-10, Isaiah 45:7). however, satan isn’t bad…

i don’t see a belief relavent in jewish tradition to warrent such a poor reading of Ha Satan, the Accuser and tester of Mankind (in Job). God sends HA Satan in jewish tradition to test the faithfullness of man and help God judge accordingly. God is merciful and satan is like the prosecutor in a court room. this doesn’t make Satan inherently evil.

There is no biblical record of the “fall of Satan” in oral or written tradition. it took the Christian church 200 years to come about a doctrine of ‘Satan the devil.' Unless there's a apocryphal book that i'm unaware of, I'd say that this story is completely non-biblical.

There are a few references in the gospels, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” from Luke 10:17. I think what Jesus is saying here is people with a strong faith in God cannot fail and satan falls. however, there is no tradition or hebrew understanding as Satan being evil until this line. It’s like saying “that guy is an einstien” (title). then saying “no, really, that guy is Einstien!” (name). THEN saying “i saw Einstien falling like lighting” which makes no sense.

The other famous ones from Jesus' 40 days in the desert and telling Peter to "get behind him" all deal with temptation and that's in line with the current Jewish thought about ha-satan.

Believing in Satan as evil is rather unfounded. I just don’t support for it until the gospels, and even that scholars have been scratching their heads about the purpose and lead up for this… I think it’s just another example of a duelistic doctrine no one wants to question because it’s easy and convenient.

Rule of Three:

Book: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
Music: Walking on Air by Kerli
Movie: Wall*E by far the most christian movie you'll ever see this year (or ever!). Inherent laziness of humans, love conquers all, and salvation by the societal misfits. It RAWKS!

Which Sparrow is "HIS" Eye On?

I know which one mine is...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Rule of Three:

Reading: Sandman Mystery Theatre, thanks to the Shu for the find! Great pulp comic!

Watching:: Ironman, great movie, one of the better superhero movies I've seen.. can't wait to see Batman! Also catching up on heros with Cathi and Rachel, great series! Also Jesus of Montreal is a MUST SEE! Wonderful film that has the "historical Jesus" in it... WONDERFUL! RENT IT NOW!

Listening: