We are all in a state of becoming. All changing, all growing, all dying, all decaying. Bending, breaking, repairing, rotting. There is no other reality but change. Stagnation, though perhaps perceived, does not exist. Over the last couple of years, my faith has been in various states of crisis. It started with something small (namely, … Continue reading »
This post is part of a review series for S. Mark Heim’s Saved from Sacrifice. To start at the beginning, click here. We will be skipping over chapters 6 & 7 in Heim’s book. While I found those chapters informative, I did not think they served to move the arguments around the main thrust of the book forward. … Continue reading »
This post is part of a review series for S. Mark Heim’s Saved from Sacrifice. To start at the beginning, click here. S. Mark Heim – Saved from Sacrifice While Chapter 4 dealt with the passion narratives in light of Girard’s scapegoating theory, chapter 5 (“Sacrifice to End Sacrifice”) moves on to discuss how the early Christians understood … Continue reading »
Chapter four is the first chapter in part II of the book. Part II focuses specifically on Jesus, his death, and how the Gospels not only continue in the trajectory of the Old Testament regarding sacrifice, but how they end up being the ultimate critique of the system. Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection can be … Continue reading »
The last post about S. Mark Heim’s Saved from Sacrifice focused on chapters 1 & 2 of the book, which discuss some of the difficulties in talking about the atonement in our current, modern society, and specifically how the language of ‘sacrifice’ is virtually unintelligible to us because of the cultural and religious differences that exist. Another important … Continue reading »
Our last post on S. Mark Heim’s Saved from Sacrifice focused on the four major ways the atonement has been understood by (western) Christians since the crucifixion itself. It is true that there have been more than simply four ways of understanding the atonement, but most (or all) of them fall within one of the four major … Continue reading »
S. Mark Heim – Saved from Sacrifice Here at One Theology, I will be starting a weekly, intensive book reviewing series, starting with S. Mark Heim’s Saved from Sacrifice: A Theology of the Cross (if you would like to see the other books I plan to read this year, click here). Since the period of deep doubt and … Continue reading »
“The love of God is just emanating off of you, man… You are just a witness to God’s love, in the name of Jesus…” The guy took his hand off my chest, and awkward silence ensued. “What’s your name?” I asked, hoping to kill the awkwardness. As much as I love it on The Office, I … Continue reading »
Humanity loves a good binary. Right/wrong, Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative, Jew/Gentile… the list could go on infinitely. These (false) binaries help to give us a story that we tell ourselves to make us feel in control, to feel like we have the answer. The problem is, the binaries that we create often don’t tell the whole story, … Continue reading »
As my first post on One Theology, I’d like to address a few issues before actually discussing theology/philosophy/politics. Over at the (Re)vangelical Blog, Brandan Robertson addressed (as the beginning of a long-running series) what he calls “The Spectrum of Protestantism.” He also has a response post here. I cannot say that I agree with every detail … Continue reading »
