Posts tagged "Holy Spirit"
Simul Iustus et Schizophrenic: A Quick One from Clinical Theology
Books / Psychology / Suffering / Theology

Simul Iustus et Schizophrenic: A Quick One from Clinical Theology

by WB on Jul 27, 2011 • No Comments

Dr. Frank Lake was that rarest of beasts: a clinical psychologist, a pastoral counselor, and a learned theologian. Not surprisingly, we consider him a hero. In his landmark Clinical Theology, a textbook for pastoral counselors and theologically serious therapists, he relates classic Protestant anthropology and Christology to the process of psychoanalysis, using real-world case studies (and the Bible) as his foundation. The following is a characteristically profound quote on the simultaneity of human weakness and divine strength, viewed through a clinical lens:

The nature of the help God gives through His Church is to make what cannot be removed, creatively bearable. Paul’s thorn of weakness in the flesh remained. Resting in the power of God,…

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Jupiter, Failed Stars and the Spiritual Condition
Science / Theology

Jupiter, Failed Stars and the Spiritual Condition

by Mockingbird on Jul 17, 2011 • 1 Comment

We’re excited to present a little piece of interstellar theology from someone who actually knows something about it, Michael Belote of the excellent Reboot Christianity blog:

Earlier today, my wife mentioned hearing that Jupiter was a “failed” star. She asked me, perhaps unwisely, to elaborate. It’s actually a pretty interesting point, one which I think has a spiritual dimension that I will go into shortly. But you may have to sit through a little bit of science before I draw the spiritual connection.

So the existing theory about how stars form is as follows: in certain parts of the universe there are…

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When You Encounter the Spirit (You May Not Like It)
Church / Forgiveness / Theology

When You Encounter the Spirit (You May Not Like It)

by WB on Jun 10, 2011 • 1 Comment

I’ve been fortunate enough to get my hands on a copy of Simeon Zahl’s Pneumatology and Theology of the Cross in the Preaching of Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt: The Holy Spirit Between Wittenberg and Azusa Street. He has some truly trenchant things to say about the work of the Holy Spirit and its relationship to preaching. For Simeon, the Holy Spirit can encounter us directly as “negative” experience in convicting us of our sinful nature and need for grace. This outlook changes the task of preaching, shifting the emphasis away from conviction of sin and towards giving people a framework to…

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Humor / Theology/Religion

God Phasing-out the Holy Spirit

by Todd Brewer on May 26, 2011 • 1 Comment

This one was too good to pass up…

Tim Ferriss and the 4-Hour Soul
Identity / Psychology

Tim Ferriss and the 4-Hour Soul

by David Zahl on Mar 29, 2011 • 2 Comments

A moderately interesting look at 4-hour phenomenon Tim Ferriss in the NY Times. One gets the sense that although there’s clearly some energy here – it’s hard not to respect someone who goes to such lengths – all the optimization and efficiency talk is actually code for self-justification (and a very inflated anthropology). It sounds as though Ferris has simply replaced his own identity-driven obsession with business with a similar one with self – which strikes this blogger as different versions of the same thing. Plus, does anyone else think that the urgency/anxiety about time is a tad contradictory? Meaning,…

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"I Did It All For The Glory Of [Me]"
Books / Identity / News / Theology

"I Did It All For The Glory Of [Me]"

by Ron on Feb 9, 2011 • 3 Comments

In recent years, nearly every personal newspaper, magazine, or internet piece has been written written by someone “who is working on a memoir,” “has just completed a memoir,” or “is thinking about writing a memoir.” While some of these pieces are very good, most are unmemorable, becoming indistinguishable from previous entries within moments after reading. Why so many memoirs?

Neil Genzlinger’s recent NY Times Book Review The Problem with Memoirs laments the market saturation. While reviewing four memoirs (none of which I’ve read), he offers guidelines for deciding whether a memoir should be published:

Sure, the resulting list [of tens of thousands…

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Mockingbird at the Movies: A Little Bit of Pixie Dust
Children / Film / Theology

Mockingbird at the Movies: A Little Bit of Pixie Dust

by Nick Lannon on Jan 21, 2011 • 4 Comments

My two-and-a-half year old daughter is really into Disney movies now. She has gone through phases of loving everything from Snow White to Ratatouille. Their catalog is extensive enough that we don’t have to repeat very often, though she often gets stuck in a rut, requesting the same film over and over again. The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast are her two favorites. Last night, though, we watched Peter Pan, and, as I sometimes am, I was struck by a theological chord in the first scenes.

When Peter tells the Darling children that they can…

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Ashley Null (via Thomas Cranmer) on Reason, Heart, Will and Justification
Books / Church / Theology

Ashley Null (via Thomas Cranmer) on Reason, Heart, Will and Justification

by David Zahl on Jan 5, 2011 • No Comments

The true heart of the matter, as it were, from Null’s classic book Thomas Cranmer’s Doctrine of Repentance: Renewing the Power to Love:

“Unlike the scholastic model where the will acting in accordance with right reason in the rational soul was supposed to constrain the passions in the lower sensitive soul, [Protestant Reformer Philipp] Melanchthon argued that the affections were inextricably joined to the will in the same faculty. As a result, these inner attitudes of the human heart determined the will’s direction which then had power over the other faculty of reasoning as well…the passions of the heart ultimately determined…

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“Wake me up inside…” (part 6): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58) **final**
Theology

“Wake me up inside…” (part 6): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58) **final**

by L.R.E. Larkin on Dec 15, 2010 • No Comments

(iv.1.58.4 cont.) In a final turn, Barth deals with the dependence of the individual on community and the community on individuals; of the Christian on the Church and the Church on the Christian. For, “there cannot be one without the other”. The Holy Spirit assembles and sustains the Church, Christianity, not as a heap of individuals functioning autonomously, but as a collective of confessing persons proclaiming the same truths each cognizant of their individual calls; this is the delicate tension between the “objective ascription” and the “subjective appropriation” of salvation. “Salvation is ascribed to the individual in…

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“Wake me up inside…” (part 5c): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)
Theology

“Wake me up inside…” (part 5c): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)

by L.R.E. Larkin on Dec 9, 2010 • No Comments

(iv.1.58.4 cont.) *There are three forms to Sin. 1. Sin negates the first form of grace of God: that “God gives Himself to us, He makes Himself responsible for our cause, He takes it into His own hand”. Sin transgresses the great first commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your soul, mind, body, and strength. Sin negates that Jesus, very God, humbled Himself to become human in order to take humanity to Himself; thus, it negates Jesus’ High-priestly office; this is the sin of pride. 2. Sin negates the second form of the…

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Suffering and Revival in Haiti
Church / News / Prayer / Suffering

Suffering and Revival in Haiti

by David Zahl on Nov 25, 2010 • 1 Comment

A touching and deeply encouraging article from yesterday’s NY Times about the revival of charismatic Catholicism in Haiti (and among Haitian Americans), post-catastrophe. Doubles as something of a Thanksgiving devotion:

The quake, too, is reshaping Haitian religion. It has demanded new resilience — not only from Haitians and Haitian-Americans, who often lay claim to a legendary, divinely inspired endurance, but also from faith itself, suddenly more vulnerable to doubt, disillusion and competition. And it has pumped new life into Haitians’ version of charismatic Catholicism, which seeks direct contact with the Holy Spirit through uninhibited, even raucous prayer. This year, for…

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Brennan Manning on the Central Affirmation of the Reformation
Books / Reformation / Theology

Brennan Manning on the Central Affirmation of the Reformation

by Sean Norris on Nov 7, 2010 • 9 Comments

For some reason (i.e. the Holy Spirit) I felt like re-reading Brennan Manning’s The Ragamuffin Gospel this weekend. I guess I’ve been a little desperate and needy, and as is always said on this blog, “We need to hear the gospel again every day.” Few people have been able to write about the gospel like Manning, and I figured I’d share a paragraph that stood out. Enjoy!

“Justification by grace through faith” is the theologian’s learned phrase for what Chesterton once called “the furious longing of God.” He is not moody or capricious; He knows no seasons of change. He has…

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“Wake me up inside…” (part 3c): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)
Theology

“Wake me up inside…” (part 3c): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)

by L.R.E. Larkin on Oct 21, 2010 • No Comments

(iv.1.58.2 cont.) * Thirdly, Hope: The tertiary form of the being of humanity in Jesus Christ is “the positing and equipping of man as the bearer of the divine promise”, which constitutes Christian hope. And it is Christian hope which is the teleological** determination for humanity and the Christian in Christ. Christian hope is more than Christian vocation (the traditional protestant/Lutheran understanding of the result of justification and sanctification), it is the moment that the person is given the promise of God in Jesus Christ. The person is called along side their justification and sanctification, and…

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“Wake me up inside…” (part 3b): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)
Theology

“Wake me up inside…” (part 3b): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)

by L.R.E. Larkin on Oct 8, 2010 • 5 Comments

(iv.1.58.2 cont.) Secondly, Love: In love, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Christian is placed under and accepts the divine direction. The divine direction is the directing of humanity into freedom: by eliminating the old humanity and bringing to life the new humanity, humanity has peace with God, and, thus, is directed toward the kingdom of God. In the atoning work of Jesus in the act of reconciliation, humanity is told first, who they are and are not, and, second, “where we belong, where we have to be and live”. This being under…

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“Wake me up inside…” (part 3): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)
Theology

“Wake me up inside…” (part 3): Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Reconciliation (iv.1.58)

by L.R.E. Larkin on Oct 1, 2010 • No Comments

(iv.1.58.2) Barth continues by discussing ‘The Being of [Humanity] in Jesus Christ”. If being is found only in reconciliation through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, then Christians represent being in humanity. Therefore, to speak of Christians we can only speak of them in Jesus Christ because they only exist in Him. In this their “peculiar being”—being beings in Jesus Christ—Christians reflect the reconciliation between God and humanity and stand as the representatives of this reconciliation and being therein. Others, though they may be inheritors of the work of Christ, are not representatives in their existence…

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