I you have visited my site before you will know that I am in the process of constructing a more relational theology. Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) has helped us to see that anytime the is a paradigm
Bold Love, by Dan Allender Linked, by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, by Leonardo Boff Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Sanctorum Communio, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Nexus, by Mark Buchanan I and Thou, by Martin Buber The Love of God,
In a class this spring a couple of students drew some interesting “hugging connections” between Schnarch and Volf. In David Schnarch’s Passionate Marriage he encourages hug therapy, which he sums up as “hugging till relaxed”. Schnarch describes hugging till relaxed
Which came first? The chicken or the egg? In a brief conversation with Marty Folsom (Seattle-area theologian/counselor), he highlighted some possible connections between recursion theory and relational theology. The language of recursion was new to me and I have much to learn. This
In the theological process of crafting statements addressing the many and various issues which inevitably arise in the process of life (for example), there is often a summary statement followed by a series of articles of affirmation and denial. These affirmations/denials are an
Following up to my “U-Theory and the Cross” post. One aspect of the U-Theory that Senge and the rest did not seem to speak to was the process of ongoing transformation. In my personal life – especially my spirituality –
My friend Kyle, passed along an interesting article in USA Today (April 20, 2005): “Picking apart the ‘Big Bang’ brings a big mystery.” “From colliding atoms: Instead of a hot gas of independent particles, top, experiments generated a ‘perfect’ liquid
Among the many intriguing characters of Holy Scripture is the Northern Kingdom prophet Hosea(circa 8-7 century BC). He’s the man God called to marry a “prostitute” named Gomer as radical form of prophetic performance art. It’s a tragic relational story.
For many, if not most people, today’s observation of “St. Valentine’s day” has come to underscore some of the deepest pains and greatest longings of our lives. The day is also one of the very few days on our calendar
Have been using Leo Tolstoy’s short story “What Men Live By” for a class I get to team teach. It is a wonderful read… I commend it to you. The following quotations are from its conclusion. And you can find
In one of the courses I get to guide this term, we’re using Michael Polanyi’s ground breaking text, Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. As I’ve been preparing and revisiting Polanyi I am undone by his courage, as he stands
In a recent conversation with some friends who are engaged to be married (congrats Thomas & Kelly) we got to talking about themes for their upcoming wedding. We batted a few ideas around the one that seemed to generate the
The Third Body by Robert Bly A man and a woman sit near each other, and they do not long At this moment to be older, or younger, or born In any other nation, or any other time,
Who am I? Arguably, one of the great gifts modernity offered humanity has been the gift of “the self”; and like all gifts it cloaked a curse. So much has been said in critique of the modern idea of the
In the seemingly unending stack of theology papers I am privileged to be engaging, a quote from Albers’ Interaction of Color caught my heart… thanks Ed. “In musical compositions, so long as we hear merely single tones, we do not
A couple of days ago I was asked why I’ve named my on-line journal and. I desire to bridge between. Where there is an ‘us’ and ‘them’ I want to be the and. Where there is black and white, male
A few years ago I asked a few people to help me see myself as “pastor” and “leader”. Through the process of that three month conversation I made a number of commitments that I revisit often and fail even frequently.
I was rereading The Web of Life and The Hidden Connections by Capra this morning (he may be best known for his book The Tao of Physics). These thoughts come from his work: A living social system of any sort, be
Let me pick up from my “young love” post of yesterday. So I was a poor college student recently home from studying abroad. Lynette’s birthday was coming up and I didn’t have two cents to rub together. I opted to
Bill Wallenbeck of Jacob’s Well just preached a sermon called Scale-Free Networks and the Kingdom using some concepts of Scale-free networks, he even drew on some of my research. Check it out. Tim Samoff posted some photos of a community-mapping
Special thanks to Amber for recently directing my attention to “Sobornost.” Sobornost is a Russian Orthodox social church theory. It is a communal unity by free association in Christ finding expression in gathered church where harmony is attained by free
I’m in the process of doing a deep dive into feminist theology. So much of it resonates, opens me up, and is giving me even better language. I’m discovering that I share even more feminist concerns regarding the results of
Many people have commented on the resurgence of Protestant Trinitarian writing and research post-Barth. In an era where the postfoundational, postcritical, postmodern, post-etc. reign supreme, objective propositional claims of truth no longer carry the weight they once carried with certainty.
In a 1986 interview with Didier Cahen, Jacques Derrida said, “Narcissism! There is not narcissism and non-narcissism; there are narcissisms that are more or less comprehensive, generous, open, extended. What is called non-narcissism is in general but the economy of
Today Lynette and I celebrate our fourteen years of discovering our own ways of reflecting God’s relationality. Fourteen years sounds like a long time to me but it sure hasn’t felt like a long time. In fact it’s hard to
I finished my “unleadership” essay for my doctoral program. I titled it, “Hubbing: The “Being” and “Act” of Leadership within Dynamic Christ-Clusters.” I hope to take some of the main ideas from the essay and turning it into shorter and
Over the past few months I elicited a small group of friends to help me evaluate my person and leadership. This small group comprised of three men and two women have known me for an average of three and one-half
I’m in the process of writing an essay on the concept of leadership as a communal ethos (I talked a little about this on 3/25). This is a constructivist position arguing in favor of a self-emptying, relationally connective form of
What is power in a loving relationship? When John Calvin wrote, that he was – among other things – seeking a way for the church to be kept pure without “the Church,” thus there was great safety in the system
