I'm not feeling well at the moment. I feel a little discombobulated and a bit disappointed too. Democrats lost an election in Florida that I think they should have won. It was close, but we just couldn't get enough voters to come out. I know it doesn't necessarily mean anything for future elections one way or another. But that's the way it goes.
I also am still in a searching period, trying to build a weltanschauung, a theological approach to life for myself. It's been a while since I had a coherent theology that meets the challenges and describes the world and our place in it, as well as our calling from God, in a way that makes sense to me. I feel sometimes like this process will never end. Like I'm stuck in a perpetual limbo that will only break in such a way as to make my life worse. I feel like its never enough, and I don't know how to break free and contribute to the development of my world in a meaningful and positive way. Debt has me stuck in a limbo. Love and self-respect has me stuck in a theological rut.
Right now I'm reading about the theologian William Stringfellow. He is a notoriously difficult theologian to accept. His theology sounds to much like the rantings of an Old Testament prophet for it to be fully embraced by many. I frankly started reading about him because he was a gay (if closeted) theologian. I have been surprised to find that his interests reflect my own. His theological views as I've explored them so far seem to me archaic, naive and quaint, however. His approach to the Bible is based on the same rhetorical literalism that is the Hallmark of the theology of Karl Barth. It treats the Bible like a consistent whole whose lessons are simply to be learned and obeyed. This of course is not true. In fact Barth, Stringfellow and any other person who rhetorically expresses our relationship to the Bible in this way are only doing this in their rhetoric. In actual practice, they pick and choose which passages scripture they feel are in harmony with the Gospel of Christ as they have come to experience and understand it. But I guess if you come from a religious background that has little use for the practical application of ANY part of the Bible, such rhetoric might feel accurate.
I will continue to persevere with his theology to see if his views develop into something more Biblically honest, if still troubling.
I also am still in a searching period, trying to build a weltanschauung, a theological approach to life for myself. It's been a while since I had a coherent theology that meets the challenges and describes the world and our place in it, as well as our calling from God, in a way that makes sense to me. I feel sometimes like this process will never end. Like I'm stuck in a perpetual limbo that will only break in such a way as to make my life worse. I feel like its never enough, and I don't know how to break free and contribute to the development of my world in a meaningful and positive way. Debt has me stuck in a limbo. Love and self-respect has me stuck in a theological rut.
Right now I'm reading about the theologian William Stringfellow. He is a notoriously difficult theologian to accept. His theology sounds to much like the rantings of an Old Testament prophet for it to be fully embraced by many. I frankly started reading about him because he was a gay (if closeted) theologian. I have been surprised to find that his interests reflect my own. His theological views as I've explored them so far seem to me archaic, naive and quaint, however. His approach to the Bible is based on the same rhetorical literalism that is the Hallmark of the theology of Karl Barth. It treats the Bible like a consistent whole whose lessons are simply to be learned and obeyed. This of course is not true. In fact Barth, Stringfellow and any other person who rhetorically expresses our relationship to the Bible in this way are only doing this in their rhetoric. In actual practice, they pick and choose which passages scripture they feel are in harmony with the Gospel of Christ as they have come to experience and understand it. But I guess if you come from a religious background that has little use for the practical application of ANY part of the Bible, such rhetoric might feel accurate.
I will continue to persevere with his theology to see if his views develop into something more Biblically honest, if still troubling.
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