THRS Exam 2.0
"Cheap Grace"
- "Cheap grace"= not holding yourself accountable with faith - Idea that anyone can ask for forgiveness without changing their behavior ex) "I love Jesus" bumper sticker = not diving deeper into faith
Dimensions of the Resurrection of Christ: Ecclesial Dimension
- Accepting is a personal act but never an isolated experience. - Communal experience - Individual and part community
The mystery of Evil & Unanswered Questions...
- All our reflections on providence and evil are incomplete - there is no solution to the "problem" of evil. We may do well to reframe our approach to "mystery" rather than "problem"
Classical Trinitarian Doctrine
- Classical Trinitarian Doctrine emerged in the councils of Nicea (325 CE) and Constantinople (381 CE) to combat and prevent (at minimum) these three heresies - Creeds= Who God is/explain/have universal understanding
Creation: God's Fellowship with Creatures
- Clough argues for a balance between a theocentric view of creation (i.e. that God creates for Godself) and the view that God creates out of God's abundant grace and love. - theocentric: God created for God's self but emerges out of a place of love - all=in 1st narrative, 2nd role of humans - In this way, Clough argues that the goal of creation is the participation of all creatures in trinitarian fellowship with God, not just human beings. - can't look at other things as unlimited resources ex) animals
Objectifying the Body: #1 and 2 [Copeland article]
- Copeland explores and names the ways black women's bodies were objectified. 1. Black women's bodies as objects of property - All slaves were property - chattel - Slaves had no socio-political power - subject to civil code, but not citizens - no education - Slaves had no rights, power and prosecuted if they stole - Punished if caught learning 2. Black women's bodies as objects of production - Work 6 days a week, sometimes 7; sunrise till sunset. - The majority of women did the same labor the men did. - Children were not exempt from labor - It was not uncommon for mothers to take their newborn or infant children into the fields with them.
The Subject of Freedom [Copeland article] [3]
- Copland considers some of the ways black women new they were supposed to be free and began to reclaim their personhood. - Freedom in light in midst of oppression - Life without freedom=not a life worth living 1. Freeing the mind - The myth that slaves were content and happy in slavery is built upon the fear of true and equal relational exchange. - Slavocracy attempted to prevent the enslaved from thinking about freedom, and it also attempted to limit their freedom to think. - Cannot be honest about oppression - Say what you need to survive 2. Freeing the Spirit - Some slave owners prohibited worship, others only allowed sermons that theologically justified slavery, service, and surrogacy. - Slaves sang and worshipped in woods - Freedom for future generations - Praying for you before birth 3. Redeeming the Body - Slavery sought to animalize the black body and many women fought for recognition of their humanity and that of their children - at times being willing to die for it. - Some things are worse than death - Pushed to the edge--> decision to rather die than be treated as less than a human being - Value body, willing to die for it
Attribute of God #5: The omniscience of the triune God is infinitely deep wisdom that is exercised with gracious patience.
- Creatures are given space and time to develop their own existence and to respond freely to God's love. - God has the patience for letting people grow
Modalism
- Father, Son, Spirit refer to three modes of activity of one undifferentiated being of God. - This understanding de-humanizes God - God is devine
Problems with Unitarianism #2: Redeemer
- Focusing on Jesus as an idol - "Cheap grace"= not holding yourself accountable with faith ex) "I love Jesus" bumper sticker = not diving deeper into faith
Dimensions of the Resurrection of Christ: The Theological Dimension
- God is faithful to the promise to defeat sin and death. - fulfillment of promise that Jesus will defeat sin and death
Attribute of God #2: The triune God has both constancy of purpose and is engaged in ever new and changing actions to fulfill that purpose.
- God is still revealing God's self in creation - Limit in the way in which God is revealed
Foundational Belief to Economic Crisis #4: Assumption of limitless resources
- Has not pushed back on resources we are exploiting
Biblical Roots of the Triune God
- Hebrew Bible clear on one God; "You shall have no other God's before me" (Ex. 20:2) - Christians call God "triune because this way of speaking accords with the biblical witness and with the experience of the church rooted in this witness - Talk of the triune God must always find its basis and its limit in the biblical narrative of the love of God that comes to the world through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit who has poured God's love into our hearts. (Romans 5:5)
Created Humanity: Migliore's Thesis Regarding Human Life Created by the Triune God #1: Human beings, created in God's image, are freely addressed by God and free to respond to God.
- Human beings are distinctive. We don't simply have bodies, we also are our bodies - we are embodied beings. - Free will, freedom to respond/engage - Body and soul equally matter--trust sense of self - Identity: gender, sexuality and race
Created Humanity: Migliore's Thesis Regarding Human Life Created by the Triune God #2: Being created in the image of God means that humans find their true identity in coexistence with each other and with all other creatures.
- Human beings exist in relationship with non-human creation. This interrelatedness is expressed in both creation narratives - Truest sense: in a relationship with family, community, and Christ - interconnectedness of creation narrative
Theological Anthropology&Slavery Understanding #1: Begins with exploration of Creation narratives
- Humans are made in the image of God; have a unique place in creation; are made for community - Most Christians don't speak about theological anthropology in terms of embodiment, or enfleshing; often speak of spiritual transcendence; somatophobia = fear of the flesh/suffering on Earth/free spirit
Created Humanity: Migliore's Thesis Regarding Human Life Created by the Triune God #3: Being created in the image of God is not a fixed state or condition but a movement with a goal: human beings are restless for a fulfillment of life not yet realized.
- Jesus is the image of God perfected, as such our goal is to strive to live in ways that reflect the "soladaristic love praxis" of Jesus - goal is to try to mirror image (aim)' - reflect actions of Christ - Process always trying to fully embody image of God
Problems with Unitarianism #3: Spirit
- Justifying actions, words and understanding through Holy Spirit **All of 3 of these components have problems** - Context put in practice can subject certain groups to harm
Creation: All About God?
- Karl Barth argues that creation was not about human beings, but just about God and God's covenant with humans. - God's covenant with human beings precedes creation so that creation can be seen as the external basis of the covenant. - God created for humans - covenant--> creation= extensive of convenent - Barth: creation happened becasue of covenant God had with human beings - Barth critiques a purely anthropocentric view because it elevates human beings to a god-like status - How "different" is Barth's position? - Barth is replacing "humanity" as the goal of creation with "God's covenant with humanity" - is that really all that different?
Problems with Unitarianism #1: Creator
- Little awareness of sin or forgiveness which becomes problematic - Creates hierarchy in a negative way that establishes drastic differences
Attribute of God #3: The love of the triune God is vulnerable yet unconquerable
- Love requires vulnerability; God's suffering is a free act - The way in which God makes God vulnerable - The way in which spirit combines and empowers marginalized communities - The way in which Jesus healed the marginalized people
Rethinking Classical Interpretations of the Work of Christ: Satisfaction Theory
- Made popular by Anselm; the work of atonement requires a just "satisfaction" to God, but only God can provide it. atonement: way you pay back something you did wrong - suffering against Lord=sacrifice something or be punished - rather than humans punished, Jesus Christ sacrifices himself for humanity and takes on the sins of the world - Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrifice, only worthy one - Above us all, Jesus defeated satan PRO: God gave his son for all of us to exist CONS: Seeking validation [when its about doing good] to feel as if you've done enough or claim you have it without doing anything - Sin is taken care of - Some things have to suffer to be redeemed
The Attributes of God Meaning
- Migliore adopts the practice of Karl Barth and argues that God can be best described by Divine perfections that exist in dialectic relationship with each other. - dialectic relationship: magnet, complimentary, intentional - The triune nature of God means that the power of God is not coercive but creative, sacrificial, and empowering love; and the glory of the triune God consists in sharing life with others. - 3 things in relation to each other - Love between us
A New Human Being: What it means to be human #1
- Migliore argues that for Christians, what it means to be human and be in relationship to God and creation should be rooted in the new life we find in Christ, best expressed in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. 1. If being in the image of God means living by the grace of God, and if such a relationship with God is denied by the sins of self-glorification and self-abnegation, faith is the simple trust and confidence in the benevolence of God extended to us by Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. - faith=trust and confidence in God's grace and can image of God --> faith leads to action
Violence and the Cross
- Migliore argues that we cannot hide the violence of the Cross or else we are subject to "cheap grace." - cheap grace: thinking it doesn't cost anything to be a disciple - He argues that "when Jesus proclaims, embodies, and enacts the reign of God in a world built on violence, it is not arbitrary religious doctrine but profoundest truth that Jesus must suffer." - JC suffered a violent death - take seriously the death and resurrection of JC is a necessary part of salvation story - cost of JC to resist empire= his life - doing work of love/justice/reconcilliation people in power want to silence you through violence violence= reaction of human/human nature God= NOT for violence
Rethinking Patristic affirmations of the Person of Christ [3]
- Migliore argues that we need to recognize the benefits and deficiencies in the classical affirmations in order to reformulate new understandings of the Person of Christ. 1. Jesus is fully human - Jesus was "born of a woman" and lived in the concreate reality of Palestine. - In Jesus we find a new humanity, a revolutionary human being that radically shifts our understanding of what it means to be human. His humanity is not found in his maleness but in his soladaristic love-praxis. - JC can understand our humanity=suffering - relationship building and breaking down OPPRESIVE hierarchies 2. Jesus is not only fully human but also fully divine - God acts, suffers, and triumphs through Jesus - Defeat sin and death through JC 3. Both of these affirmations point to the mystery of the unity of his person. - Some things are beyond comprehension
Moral Evil
- Moral evil refers to the suffering caused by the immoral actions of human beings, and include the suffering of both human beings and nonhuman nature - people who's conscious is numb to their actions - can justify evil they do because they view group of people they marginalize as less than human ****choice made to exploit someone**** ex) Slavery, child labor, Genocide, colonialism etc.
Natural Evil
- Natural evil refers to injury and suffering caused by natural events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, disease, etc.[what happens in nature] - Natural "evil," or some form of suffering belong to the very structures of life (e.g. evolution) [embedded in structure of existence]
Subordinationism
- One great God, Son and Spirit created - Not all part of the same God - People didn't want to believe that God suffered through Christ
Popular interpretations of Creation #1: Creation is all about Humans
- Philo of Alexandria (15 BCE- 50 CE) is a Jewish philosopher who argued for an account of creation where humans were the goal of creation - created description of understanding of Judaism and consistent with the learning of the day - Philo attempts to merge together Plato's account of creation with the 1st creation narrative. - Plato's account: humans were created first - 1st creation: humans were created last - Philo: humans=last so everything could be set up perfectly for us - Philo's interpretation was extremely influential and resonates in some theologies today.
Foundational Belief to Economic Crisis #2: Power as domination
- Power over domination over rest of creation
Dominion" & Imago Dei
- Representation and roles from God on Earth - Dominion: literal hebrew translation- responsible for taking care of land while gone - Imago DEI: we reflect this because we were created in the image of God, we must understand what it means to be created in the image of God in order to understand the commandments
Second Development of Patristic (i.e. early Christian) Christology
- Second development is Council of Chalcedon, 451 CE. - Argument between two schools of thought, Alexandrian and Antiochian - Trying to figure out whether to call Jesus Christ God or human - Alexandrian school argued for a "Word-flesh" Christology where Jesus' divinity and his humanity were unified. [1 person] - Antiochian argued for a "World-human being" Christology where Jesus was fully human but had a distinct and separate Divine nature. - Divine nature=no suffering, but humans=suffer - The council wrote a creed that balanced both approaches. Jesus was "fully divine and fully human, two natures in one person" Christian perspective: bad to view Jesus as just humam
Theological Anthropology&Slavery Understanding #2: The problem of slavery and theological anthropology
- Slavery deformed the Christian convictions of humanity found in the Creation Narratives. - Christian Baptism was distorted to focus on Eschatological freedom rather than material freedom in this world Eschatological= Freedom of salvation
Freedom of the Subject/Emancipation from Slavery
- Slavery was horrible and evil, but freedom without reparations was to set free blacks up for a difficult and challenging future. - Emancipation of slaves: set free with no help after
The Doctrine of Creation & Modern Science
- The Christian doctrine of creation is not a quasi-scientific theory about how the world came to be. - Rather it is an affirmation of faith in God the creator, whose grace was revealed in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Science and Theology are 2 distinct things because they do different thing BUT are in conversation with each other
Rethinking Classical Interpretations of the Work of Christ: The Moral influence Theory
- The belief that Christ shows Gods love to us in such a compelling way that we are constrained to respond in wonder and gratitude. - late enlightenment --> modern times - death and resurrection of Jesus Christ changes the way humans are - This was so meaningful, it moved people to change how we are in world in relation to others - inspired by JC to be better/greater - relationship with God CON: About disciple's response to it but not fully appreciating JC's sacrifice
Creation: All About Us?
- The bible doesn't give a clear answer as to the "purpose" for creation. - However, a thematic reading of the biblical text leads us to believe that creation must be contingent: wholly dependent on God for its origin, including God's free choice to create. - God sustains creation - God's grace decided to create humans
The Meaning of Original Sin: 3 paradoxes of the Doctrine of Original Sin
- The bible is far more interested in affirming the reality of sin, the need for repentance, and the divine promise of redemption than in longing for the recovery of a lost paradise. - The doctrine of "original sin," then, is not a theory of the origin of sin but the claim that the whole of humanity finds itself in a condition or state of captivity to sin.
Doctrine of Trinity
- The doctrine of the Trinity is not a revealed doctrine-->It is the product of the meditation and reflection of the church on the Gospel message of God revealed in Christ that continues work through the Holy Spirit. - Doctrine is deeply embedded in how we interpret our encounters Encountered through: God as the father, life of Christ, Holy Spirit to be mediator - Trinity=making sense of the 3 encounters
Immanent Trinity
- The eternal distinctions of "persons" within the being of God - Relational, God makes salvation available to us - Salvation rooted in free grace - Free grace: God's love is free/don't need to work to "earn" it God as creator= fashions the creation together Jesus= message that humanizes those who have been marginalized Spirit= how it is carried out in the world
Interpretations of the Image of God
- The first creation narrative states that human beings were created in the "image of God" both male and female. This has been interpreted in a few ways throughout Jewish and Christian history.
First Development of Patristic (i.e. early Christian) Christology
- The first major development in Western Christian Christology was the first council of Nicea, 325 CE. - Early stages of Christianity to discuss the matters of the doctrine - Called to counter the "threat" to Christian faith posed by Arianism. Arianism: preserve divinity of God and to do that, God cannot suffer - According to Arianism (developed by Arius), Jesus was a preeminent creature rather than the eternal son of God. Arius wanted to preserve Christ's divinity and thus argued that God, in Jesus, could not suffer. - Christianity= diff values of sacrifice - Nicene theology defending the "full humanity" of Jesus - The creed states that Jesus was "begotten, not made," and was "one substance with God" and not merely like God.
Economic Trinity
- The one yet threefold agency of the God, Jesus, Holy Spirit in the "economy" of salvation - Emphasizes the reconciling acts of God - Functional/logistical way of functioning in relation to others and God
Attribute of God #4: The power and love of the triune God are inseparable
- The power of the triune God is the power of omnipotent love - Omnipotent power of love using God's power through narrative based on love God has for communities
Attribute of God #7: The unity of the triune God is communion
- The relationship with one another
Dimensions of the Resurrection of Christ: Political Dimension
- The resurrection challenges the powers and principalities of evil in the world - Challenging empires, oppressed and dehumanized structures
Dimensions of the Resurrection of Christ: Cosmic Dimension
- The resurrection is a sign, the beginning of the coming of a new world. - resurrection of JC=sign of what's to come - has not been fully realized
Freedom of the Subject/Emancipation from Slavery #3: Freedom to love without restraint
- They could marry without fear of having their spouse sold away - Relationship with spouse and child - Women could love their children without restraint or fear - detachment= unnatural to survive in past//women used to have to give up their kids
Freedom of the Subject/Emancipation from Slavery #4: Freedom for community, solidarity, and for being human together.
- They could not gather as groups without arising suspicion prior to emancipation. - being human together by gathering in communities - gathered in churches to make white ppl less suspicious
Attribute of God #8: The eternity of the triune God is glorious
- This is different from timelessness; everlasting - Always just been everlasting
Traditional Theodicies: Incomprehensibility of God
- This position recognizes that we do not know why there is so much evil in the world or why it is distributed so unevenly, but we are to trust God and have patience. - The problem with this position is that it tends to suppress all questions about suffering and gestures toward accepting all suffering as part of "God's plan" - Each of these theodicies were influenced by Stoic philosophy (theory of resignation), specifically the idea that whatever happens is ordained by God
Liberation theodicy
- This theodicy acknowledges the plurality of responses to the mystery of evil in the bible, but finds some resonance with the idea of redemptive suffering that comes to its fullest expression in Christ. - offers several reasons, not just 1 reason - redemption of suffering--> God on side of those who are suffering -This position holds that it is not useful to spend time on the mystery of evil, rather one should align themselves with the mission of Jesus and focus on resisting evil - Focus on resisting evil
Process Theodicy
- This theodicy argues that God has persuasive power rather than coercive power. In other words God lures or pulls people toward the good but ultimately it is their personal choice to do or be good. - God pulls you toward the good - God wills us to do good - While God is indirectly responsible for evil within creation God is not blameworthy because God intends the good and shares in suffering. - evil was part of giving free will - ppl are responsible for evil through their actions
Person-making Theodicy
- This theodicy argues that evil is an unfortunate consequence of human freedom, and human freedom is necessary because without the real choice between good and evil human beings would not mature as Christians. - option for good and evil - how you mature into a wiser Christian - Human beings are born incomplete and must freely participate in the process by which they become what God intends them to be - This doesn't get at the social structure of evil
Protest Theodicy
- This theodicy tends to question the overall goodness of God because there is too much suffering and injustice in the world to believe otherwise. - It builds on passages in the bible where people challenge God - saying God is good=inconsistent with experience with suffering - This theodicy offers no easy answers but pushes Christians see protest as a faithful response to God. - protesting that God should do better - right to argue and push back against God
Traditional Theodicies: Cultivate Hope for Eternal life
- This view holds that Christians should view all suffering as an opportunity for spiritual growth. It is a way for us to learn to look past the material and focus on the spiritual. - The problem with this position is that it essentially argues that suffering is good and that God must view it as good also. This is inconsistent with the themes of God in the bible. - Suffering=makes you grow into a more mature Christian - the notion of resignation God is in control and what happens is in God's plan [problematic] - Each of these theodicies were influenced by Stoic philosophy (theory of resignation), specifically the idea that whatever happens is ordained by God
Traditional Theodicies: Divine Punishment
- This view is a continuation of ancient Israelite religion (Deuteronomic tradition) where God governs the world and both the good and the wicked receive their due. - The problem with this position is that Jesus calls this view into question when he argues that children are not punished for their parents sins. - Must keep covenant with God - Another BIG problem is theological victim blaming - Assumption is victim did something to deserve the suffering they are receiving - Each of these theodicies were influenced by Stoic philosophy (theory of resignation), specifically the idea that whatever happens is ordained by God
Tritheism
- Three separate Gods that work together (i.e. Avengers, Justice League, etc.) - Equally powerful [All 3] -Jesus refers to God as Father -Persons= interdependency with Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Freedom of the Subject/Emancipation from Slavery #2: Freedom for being human
- To be a human subject; man or woman; to consciously and intentionally affirms their own personhood and humanity - own moral agent
Freedom of the Subject/Emancipation from Slavery #5: Freedom to love their own bodies
- To be restored from brokenness to Wholeness black women needed to love her body, and this meant dealing with the wounds of slavery. Loving her body meant that the free women took control of her sex and sexuality, denying neither sexual pleasure nor desire, resisting both coercion and intimidation. - see yourself built for relationship and in image of God - gathered in the woods and created a scared and holy space to reclaim happiness [embrace humanity]
What is Divine Providence?
- Traditional Christian belief holds that God is the creator of heaven and earth, and that all that occurs in the universe takes place under Divine Providence — that is, under God's sovereign guidance and control. [see problem of Evil Diagram]
Sinful Humanity: Migliore's thesis Regarding Human Life as Related to Human Sin #1: If being human in the image of God means life in free response to God who freely and graciously addresses us, then sin can be described as the resistance to our essential relation to God and our need of God's grace.
- Understood this way, sin is a disruption of our relationship with God, which consequently harms our relationship with the rest of creation. - sin disrupts relationship with God - love, justice and rationality --> turning back and hurts embodiment of creation
Sinful Humanity: Migliore's thesis Regarding Human Life as Related to Human Sin #2: If being human in the image of God means responding to God's call to accept our freedom as a gift and to live freely with and for others, then sin in dealings with fellow creatures takes the dual form of domination and servility, self-exaltation and self-destruction.
- Understood this way, sin is both the desire to dominate and the lure to passively accept group-think. - sinful status quo- following/complicit by being inactive/not fighting for change and "accepting group think" - cultures/communities so self-giving, exploited and taken advantage of [last line of BP 1&2]
Sinful Humanity: Migliore's thesis Regarding Human Life as Related to Human Sin #3: If being human in the image of God means being open to the coming of God's reign, then sin is the denial of human destiny as appointed by God.
- Understood this way, sin is both the resignation to injustice and evil and the presumption that we should bring about the reign of God through violent means (i.e. with or without God). - "What can I do" in defeat or "I am just one person" and continuing on with life
Dimensions of the Resurrection of Christ: The Pneumatological Dimension
- Ushers in a new life in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit - spirit empowers Christians to create new Christian community
Attribute of God #6: The omnipresence of God is that God is present everywhere but everywhere freely
- Way of being in the world - God moves freely
Dimensions of the Resurrection of Christ: Christological Dimension
- We must identify the risen Christ with the crucified one. - Take death and resurrection seriously - crucification=meaningful
Costly Grace
- When you are transformed through baptism and you give a confession to Christ - Cost= how you view others in the world - Way in which God moves us through us to become more mature Christians
Foundational Belief to Economic Crisis #3: Denial of interconnectedness
- With other creatures without recognizing we are created just like the other animals are - Should not separate ourselves from them
2nd Creation Narrative
- Women were created to be a "helper" as his partner" --> issue with equality - Told through the lens of a man - women were traded for cattle
Freedom of the Subject/Emancipation from Slavery #1: Freedom for God
- ability to worship and see God as active in their lives; perceive their authentic value and significance - have authentic relationship with God with no pressure to surrogacy etc - world view you know to be true
1st Creation Narrative
- creation prior to human=sacred value and worth - establishes creations as God - More important part of 1st creation narrative is: - Imago DEI: we reflect this because we were created in the image of God, we must understand what it means to be created in the image of God in order to understand the commandments - Men and women were equals when created in the text - Plural use of God/devine language - "are" represents 1 God - can cause issues for Jewish ppl who practice Judisim (polythestic- multiple Gods) but not so much for Christians
The Meaning of Original Sin: Paradoxes of the Doctrine of Original Sin #1: Sin is a universal condition, but it is also a self-chosen act for which we are responsible.
- everyone is subject to actions of sin - individual sin=individual actions
The Meaning of Original Sin: Paradoxes of the Doctrine of Original Sin #3: Sin is a corruption of the individual person, but it is also active and powerful in public and corporate structures of life. - individual sin finds its way in public/corporate structures which effects it as a whole
- individuals can do something and can affect corporation as whole ex) Bernie Maydoff - corporation goes under - corporations=people - companies not held accountable post '07 economic crisis
Foundational Belief to Economic Crisis #1: Anthropocentrism
- misread Christian narrative - human centered idea of creation - justifies the exploitation of creation
Migliore's 3 Principles of Trinitarian Theodicy
- must understand trinitarian relationship - centered around the logic of love not control - God responds to evil with love
Foundational Belief to Economic Crisis #5: Unchecked consumerism
- result of Christianity wrapped up in capitalism
Theological Anthropology&Slavery [2]
- seeks to understand the meaning of purpose of existence within the context of divine revelation - what does it mean to be human in light of the relationship we have with God, with other humans, and with Creation
The Meaning of Original Sin: Paradoxes of the Doctrine of Original Sin #2: Sin insinuates itself into all human action, including not only what is widely condemned as evil but also what is commonly praised as good. (i.e. sin sometimes operates under the guise of doing good).
- sometimes people will say things that they think is good but is actually a sin ex) Red Cross Relief Funds for Haiti victims - Raised 1/2 billion but only built 6 homes ex #2) Law system - Should be fair -Unfair to African Americans - Should be good, but sinning because it is unfair
New Testament
- the reality of the one God cannot be separated from God's love for the world in Jesus Christ and his life-giving Spirit. - New Testament= only 1 God - God is revealed to us/Christians in these 2 different ways [son and holy spirit]
How does/should your interpretation of human beings role in the creation narrative influence your theology?
- things we need to live is already here because it was created by God - what resources we have and to manage to provide for human beings -created in the image of God - represent love and justice for creation - come to Earth to serve the Earth [intimate relationship with the land]
What are the 5 key ideological beliefs that are foundational to our current ecological crisis?
1. Anthropocentrism 2. Power as domination 3. Denial of interconnectedness 4. Assumption of limitless resources 5. Unchecked consumerism
Violence and the Cross: Migliore's 3 aspects of the non-violent self-gift of God in the crucified Christ as it addresses our world of violence
1. Christ died for us in order to expose our world of violence for what it is, a world that is in deadly bondage to sin and violence and that stands under God's judgement. - JC shows us that human beings act violently 2. Christ died for us in order to reveal and mediate God's free gift of love and forgiveness that breaks the unending cycle of hatred for hatred and violence for violence. - Shown weight of servent - Return hate with love "turn the other cheek" - Humanize community through compassion 3. Christ died for us in order to open, in the midst of our violent world, a new future of reconciliation and peace for a new humanity and a new creation. - Show new way of being in world and imagining what new world can look like - Kingdom of God - Full revelation of Christ has not come yet
Unitarianism
1. Creator: God creating 2. Redeemer: Life/lens of Christ 3. Spirit: Emphasis of holy spirit/how religion is made known to the world
Attribute of God #1: Grace and Holiness are inseparable
1. Grace and Holiness are inseparable - Costly grace; holiness is not simple purity or faultlessness that places us under judgment; this encounter should seek to redeem and sanctify - When you are transformed through baptism and you give a confession to Christ - Cost= how you view others in the world - Way in which God moves us through us to become more mature Christians
Historical Problems confronting Christology
1. How are we to make sense of the ancient Christological creeds such as the Nicene and Chalcedon? - language not commonly used anymore - how to interpret today 2. The quest for the "historical Jesus" and the rise of the historical-critical method of biblical study. 3. There are a variety of pictures of Jesus in the New Testament and they are all distinctive - which one should receive priority? - all emphasize different ways of viewing Jesus Christ 4. The scandal of particularity - gender particularity, racial particularity, etc. - how much of this is wrapped up in image of Jesus Christ? - rule out genders? race? - image/reflecting God
The mystery of Evil & Unanswered Question #1:
1. No doctrine of providence can be compelling that is not rooted in and tested by the gospel of Christ. - Jesus came to serve oppressed, marginalized
Migliore's Principle for how Christians should understand the relationship between Christianity and Science: #1:
1. Science and theology employ two very distinct languages. - Write and read differently - There are ways in which they complement each other
Interpretations of the Image of God #1
1. Some interpreted this to mean that human beings had a physical resemblance to God. - Men and Women both fully reflect the image of God
Rethinking the Doctrine of Creation
1. The Christian faith affirms the radical otherness, transcendence, and lordship of God. - Difference in the way God exists - There is an "ontological" difference between God and God's creation. -ontology: being --> the way God exists is beyond human beings -Fundamental difference between God and God's creation 2. The world as a whole and all beings individually are radically dependent on God. - God brought these things into existence - We would not exist had it not been for God's will and out of God's love for creation to exist 3. In all of its contingency, finitude, and limitation, creation is good, if imperfect. - 6 days of creation, at the end of each day God said "this was good" [alters how we view creation] - To say that creation is good is to reject every "metaphysical dualism" - Metaphysical dualism prioritizes certain ways of being such as male vs female, tall vs short - To accept that ALL is good and there is no opposite, only goodness is creation - Saying that creation is good is saying that God values all creatures whether or not we consider them useful. -Whether or not humans consider it useful doesn't mean whether it is useful or not [intrinsic/natural value] - To say that the world is good is not to say that it is perfect and without suffering. -Animals die, people suffer, this how the world has come to be -Sacred worth in all creation - To say that world is good does not deny that the world is in need of redemption. - Need for salvation - Moves toward better relationships with God and creation 4. A doctrine of creation must recognize the coexistence and interdependence of all created things. - Recognizes that human beings were created at the same time as other animals and things - Existence is dependent upon healthy existence as other created beings -Effects our ability to flourish 5. God the creator is purposive, and the world that God has created is dynamic and purposeful. - Particular aim moving forward [goals] - New heaven and Earth emerged -Part of purpose when God fashioned creation
Migliore's Principles of Trinitarian Theodicy #1:
1. The love of God the creator and provider is at work not only where life is sustained and enhanced but also where all that jeopardizes life and its fulfillment is resisted and set under judgment. - God is at work where joy is present in life but also where people are oppressed because of structural evil
Differences between the 1st and 2nd Creation Narratives
1st creation: everyone is equal 2nd creation: inequality is demonstrated - told through the lens of a man - women were traded for cattle - marginalizes women
A New Human Being: What it means to be human #2
2. If being in the image of God means life in mutual helpful relations with others, and if this created structure of human life is distorted both by despising others and by hating ourselves, then love is the new way to be human with and for others supremely embodied in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. - In order to be human, is to reflect and be in love: love yourself, love your neighbors, must love yourself before others - reflect love in ways we like to receive it from others
The mystery of Evil & Unanswered Question #2:
2. Prayer has a necessary place in the Christian life and their theological work, particularly in response to radical evil. - Prayer is not just individual, it is communal, and should always lead to action - Prayer=enlightenment indiv. in Christianity - Community based - God's will, providence, love and justice
Migliore's Principles of Trinitarian Theodicy #2:
2. The love of God the redeemer is at work both in the heights and in the depths of creaturely experience, both when the creature is strong and active and when it is weak and passive. - Love of God is present in both joy and suffering - God is suffering with us to ease the pain
Migliore's Principle for how Christians should understand the relationship between Christianity and Science: #2: While distinct, the two languages of science and theology are not totally different or mutually exclusive.
2. While distinct, the two languages of science and theology are not totally different or mutually exclusive. - Different but in conversation with one another
Objectifying the Body: #3 and #4 [Copeland article]
3. Black Women's bodies as objects of reproduction - Biology bound the black woman to capital accumulation. - Pressure to produce human capital meant that slave women often had miscarriages. - Cheaper to make a slave than buy one 4. Black Women's bodies as objects of sexual violence - The body of a black woman made that which was private (sex and sexual desire) very much public and familiar. - Refusing a sexual advance could result in physical punishment - Could be killed if they refused sex - illegal interracial couples that was nonconsensual - Black women helped raise white children
The mystery of Evil & Unanswered Question #3:
3. Despite the incomprehensibility of evil, the Christian call to discipleship in faith, hope, and love is clear. - Highest virtue=love - hope= encouraged to go into world and make change - foundation of actions=love
A New Human Being: What it means to be human #3
3. If being in the image of God means a hunger for the coming of God's kingdom, and if this hunger is denied or distorted by the sins of despair and presumption, then hope is the new freedom toward God's future in which we live in the expectation of the fulfillment of the gracious promise of God in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Embody hope in the future Kingdom of God - active hope=live in expectation of fulfillment - commitment to fashioning a world we see
Interpretations of the Image of God #3
3. Still others connect our imaging God to the language of "dominion" over earth - ecological responsibility - responsibility to the land (in the image of God/dominion) - about relationship with God and human nature - how we interconnect with the rest of creation - Migliore contends that the symbol of the "image of God" should be understood as describing human life in relationship with God and other creatures.
Migliore's Principles of Trinitarian Theodicy #3:
3. The love of God the sanctifier is at work everywhere, preparing for the coming reign of God, planting seeds of hope, renewing and transforming all things - God is working through people who are transforming the lives of those in communities - Understand how God has resisted evil in biblical text and responded to it with love rather than dwelling on the evil
Migliore's Principle for how Christians should understand the relationship between Christianity and Science: #3
3. There is a growing consensus among theologians and scientists that science and faith should not be at war with each other but can enrich and influence each other. - Ways of reading science can push understanding of religion even better - Theories grounded in science
Christian Faith & The Ecological Crisis
Critique of Christian theology and its complicity in our current ecological crisis began in earnest in the late 1960's. - Criticized lack of care toward Earth - Lynn White forced Christians to wrestle with the question: "how has our theology contributed to the ecological problems we face?"
Free Grace
God's love is free/don't need to work to "earn" it
Trinity, Creation, Ecology
In a trinitarian theology, creation is an open and ongoing process, not closed. Thus a doctrine of creation that takes the trinity serious can be helpful in producing an ecological responsible doctrine of creation for at least 3 reasons: [takes trinity seriously in 3 ways] 1. A trinitarian theology holds together the affirmations of the transcendence of God over the creation and the immanence of God in the creation. - See this with God and Jesus & God and Holy Spirit - Present with people on Earth, present with people in the way the spirit moves - God exists outside of physical creation 2. A trinitarian theology views the coherence and rich diversity of the created order as rooted in and consistent with the life of the triune God. - Diverse ways we see creation moving and being - Rooted and represented in the way we understand God 3. A trinitarian theology underscores the goodness of creation, its groaning, and its longing to be renewed and perfected. - Human beings see and experience Earth's paint: environment crisis, people suffered from abuse to land - Ways in which creation is good - Renew it and can be perfected
Models of Creation
Migliore offers 5 analogies for thinking theologically about creation, the fifth of which, play, he believes is best. Creation as artistic expression or play - True play is always free and uncoerced activity - all artistic expression is free, expressive, and playful - God was not forced to do it - God created living things out of love and grace - There is free self-limitation in all artistic expression - Artist can set limits on their own terms and control in the realm of play - When artists express themselves they create something different from themselves, but they leave their own image stamped on it. - Something about God present in creation - Experience with others where we see God - Sacred moments feeling something beyond ourselves
Interpretations of the Image of God #2
Others interpreted this to mean that the image of God resides in the rational nature of human beings - this is the dominant Western Christian interpretation.
Rereading the Bible
What does the bible actually reveal about Creation? 1. Rethink doctrine in light of ecological crisis that is consistent with the text - The earth belongs to God - God existed before creation, spirit of God is hovering over - Theocentric understanding of creation - Human beings created in the image of God 2. Humans are creatures, and are to be in relationship with nonhuman creation. - Interconnectedness relationship with nonhuman nature deeply tied to human identities 3. The whole of Creation is involved in the story of redemption - Plans/ideas of what God had set aside for creation suffers because of human sins - Humans have exploited the Earth - New Earth emerging escotology
Rethinking Classical Interpretations of the Work of Christ: Christ the Victory theory
[Classical doctrines of Atonement - how do we interpret Christ's death as "atoning" for human sins] - Cosmic myth, above us all - The work of atonement is a dramatic struggle between God and the forces of evil in the world. - Initial antonment theory= early Father's view of sacrifices PRO: God's grace and love to care for problems by trying to take care of problems in cosmic way CON: God is not omnipotent/have unlimited power
