Orthoparadoxical Theologizing

Sacred Text & Interpretation

Tomorrow I’m heading to Boston as part of my doctoral studies. I’ll be attend a conference entitled, “Sacred Text and Interpretation: Perspectives in Orthodox Biblical Studies” which focuses on Biblical and cultural exegesis from an Eastern perspective. The conference is

Dwight J. Friesen October 28, 2003November 16, 2022

Loosely Connected Wonderings

I got into a discussion with a friend regarding our view of Scripture and our connection to the “world.” She stressed that a very high view of Scripture is essential. What is a high view? And how does a “high

Dwight J. Friesen October 24, 2003November 16, 2022

Certain-ly Not

Kierkegaard wrote: “It would seem very strange that Christianity should have come into the world just to receive an explanation.” The question of experience is in part a question of certainty. Is my experience a guise or is it genuine,

Dwight J. Friesen October 17, 2003November 17, 2022

Spiritual Leadership

I just returned from a denominational conference and was shocked by the “us” verses “them” conversation representing the clergy verses the laity. As though “we” clergy (or whatever we are) have an experience of God that we need to lead

Dwight J. Friesen October 10, 2003November 18, 2022

“Fall”owing up to Yesterday’s Post

Ok, creation is good… God even said so. Though God seemed to make a slight oversight God caught it and fixed it before anyone really noticed. 🙂 I didn’t mean to suggest the Eden was anything less than paradise. It

Dwight J. Friesen October 3, 2003November 18, 2022

Fall-Forward

What would happen if we revisioned our theology of the “fall.” Clearly our creation accounts indicate that all was not perfect before the fall, (God even declares it is not all good…) in chapter two of Genesis… it is not

Dwight J. Friesen October 2, 2003November 18, 2022

Paradox… No Problem

In the modern era one of the most troubling theological enigmas was the Christian understanding of the Holy Trinity. Trying to wrap our little enlightened rational minds around how God could be one while simultaneously being three proved troubling indeed.

Dwight J. Friesen September 19, 2003November 21, 2022

Resurrection is Impossibility

Michael Jinkins, writes: “When the church faces the prospect of its own demise (for whatever reasons), it faces a critical moment when its vocation is called into question, when it has the unparalleled opportunity to comprehend and render its life.

Dwight J. Friesen September 18, 2003November 21, 2022

Perspectives

Is pluralism is a disruption to community? When each person does what is right in their own eyes, (is this even a useful way of thinking about pluralism?) then someone will get hurt. Which of course means that one person’s

Dwight J. Friesen September 15, 2003November 21, 2022

Post-Missional Presence?

I continue to wrestle with what feels like a growing tension between the Missional and Incarnational approaches to life. I may be way of base here, does anyone else feel this tension? Is it just me? I guess when I

Dwight J. Friesen September 11, 2003November 22, 2022

Refusing the Invitation of Us

What is sin? It seems it may be time to move toward an understanding of sin as a social construction rooted in time and space. Romans 14 has always painted a picture where what is “sin” for one may not

Dwight J. Friesen September 2, 2003November 23, 2022

Clear-ish Communication

Here’s a little something I posted on Emergent Village’s site the other day… Postmodern linguist theory seems to suggest that humans only communicate proximately. No one can perfectly understand what another is trying to communicate. Basically all I can hope

Dwight J. Friesen September 1, 2003November 23, 2022

Celebration of ‘Us’

Today I head out for Newfoundland, off Canada’s eastern coast. I will be officiating at my brother’s wedding. Dallas and Leanne will be declaring before God, family and friends on Wednesday; very exciting. One of the things I enjoy about

Dwight J. Friesen August 24, 2003May 4, 2022

morphing message

Talking with a “solid” evangelical” leader the other day I heard him say something to the effect of, “our message never changes, our methods may but not our message.” I would suggest that our message does in fact need to

Dwight J. Friesen August 16, 2003May 4, 2022

incarnation: the gospel’s center

The Eastern Orthodox concept of the center point of the gospel as the incarnation of Christ makes more and more sense to me. If we are relationally created by a relational God (One/Three), than it make sense that the Emmanuel

Dwight J. Friesen August 14, 2003May 4, 2022

Objectified Truth

Points of doctrine, apologetics, reason, objective truth and being able to spout the right answers were the signs I used to show I was growing. If Truth is a person, as Jesus claims he is. Any the than maybe any

Dwight J. Friesen August 11, 2003November 19, 2021

Can anything be Static?

In the pomo world boundaries and such definitions are shot to heck;-). Nothing is seen as static, instead all is understood holistically and dynamically. When we start talking about a relational way of being and doing church or organic this,

Dwight J. Friesen August 5, 2003November 19, 2021

Heaven & Hell . . . the same place?

Could heaven and hell be the same place? (this one is for Todd) For all of the talk of streets of gold, angels on clouds playing harps, and such – within the Christian tradition – Heaven is generally understood as

Dwight J. Friesen August 4, 2003November 24, 2022

Transcendence & the Return to Religion

As Christ-followers we say we trust the Spirit to guide us into all truth. Which we have collapsed into something we have come to label Orthodoxy… why is orthodoxy such a big deal? Is the Spirit untrustworthy? Unreliable? I wonder

Dwight J. Friesen August 3, 2003November 24, 2022

Coming into Being

One of my areas of interest has to do with the essence of relationship. What is a relationship? How… When… Who… Unto… Why… etc. So far I have feel like my relational imagination is being expanded by attending to Augustine’s

Dwight J. Friesen July 31, 2003November 25, 2022

relational theology: a beginning

Let me start off by saying that I am a person in transition. I was raised in a fundamentalist dispensational post-Mennonite evangelical church, throughout college and seminary I shifted to a more reformed position, and now I am finding myself

Dwight J. Friesen July 30, 2003November 7, 2021

I am the Gospel

Jesus preached the gospel but it wasn’t Jesus’ preaching that that made people take note. Jesus preformed the gospel – making the blind to see and the lame to walk but it wasn’t Jesus’ performance of the gospel that made

Dwight J. Friesen July 27, 2003November 25, 2022

Beyond (De)construction?

There is a lot of talk of moving beyond “deconstruction” to reconstruction. Of course it goes almost without saying that when the predominate tide shifts from deconstruction to construction or even reconstruction we will have moved to post-postmodernism. Because we

Dwight J. Friesen July 25, 2003November 7, 2021

questioning God

I just picked up this collection of essays by Derrida, Milbank, Ward, Kearney and others. , “Questioning God” edited by Caputo, Dooley and Scanlon. Free Sample What does it mean to Forgive in a postmodern age? If forGIVEness is a

Dwight J. Friesen July 15, 2003November 7, 2021

Faith, Doubt & Certainty

The offspring of paradox are faith, doubt and certainty. Certainty looks at paradox and says, “they can’t both be true. I will take sides. I will exercise my mind and my reason to confidentially claim my argument as true. I

Dwight J. Friesen October 30, 2002November 6, 2021

“A Prayer of Unknowing”

A Prayer of Unknowing by Thomas Merton My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really

Dwight J. Friesen May 5, 2002July 11, 2022

Discourse on Method

A Discourse on Method: The Communion of the Holy Trinity as the Basis and Logic of Christian Theology by Baxter Kruger. See www.perichoresis.org Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen April 16, 2002November 5, 2021

Thoughts on Beginning to Read the Bible

When you read the Bible you open yourself up to encountering God through the stories of our spiritual mothers and fathers, offering a glimpse into their experience of God’s story. You’re not simply learning facts or trivia or reading just

Dwight J. Friesen March 11, 2002November 5, 2021

The Dance

Growth as a child of God; how is it measured?  One of the metaphors I was raised with that no longer serves me is the metaphor I refer to as, ” the steady, uphill climb.”  It’s the idea that though

Dwight J. Friesen June 18, 2001January 6, 2023