There statments that piqued my interest from Flickering Pixels chapters 1-8 are:
- "Therefore go and make disciples..." Jesus didn't tell us to make believers. He called us to make disciples, and disciples are followrs and students of the way of God. Followers learn to change their beliefs as they walk."
- "Much of evangelical Chritianity is witnessing a subtle shift from its heritage of abstract doctrine to the concrete ethics. that means we are more focused today on how we behave rather than how we believe."
- "In reality, our subjective experience is inescapable. Whether I acknowledge it or not...The fact that our subjective experience colors the way we read Scripture isn't a surprise to God. That's part of the beauty and mystery of Scripture. The stories of the Bible are remarkably adept at speaking to people in wildly divergent contexts. We must remember that the Bible is not merely-- or even primarily -- a collection of objective propositions. It is a grand story told through hundreds of different perspectives and diverse social settings. The message is multilayered, textured, expansive, and complex."
Our context shapes our faith. Technology, which is part of our 'culture' today also shapes our faith and the way we communicate or preach the gospel to present generation. I also beleive that techonolgy is not going to change how we believe, but changes how we preach the goodnews. Using techonlogy for preaching is "part of the beauty and mystery of Scripture."
I wonder if point two, about the shift that's occurring from interest in doctrine to interest in ethics has anything to do with the shift from the print age (where imagination was still encouraged) to the image age (where imagination seems to be stifled a bit by the prevalence of images)
ReplyDelete"The fact that our subjective experience colors the way we read Scripture isn't a surprise to God" Love it!
I would like to hear more about how you think "that technology is not going to change how we believe." I think as more and more people use technology it has the ability to change how we believe and what we believe, unless we, as church leaders, help our parishioners understand the information that technology throws at them.
ReplyDeleteI love your third quote! Our reading of Scripture "isn't a surprise to God." Of course it wouldn't be! I think we, as a society, get caught up in making sure we have the correct text or correct reading...I know I do! It's helpful to think that God knows, and knows beyond our understanding, what we're going through when reading Scripture and will be there with us through it!
ReplyDeleteI liked the quote about making disciples. It made me think about the crisis of faith people sometimes experience when they aren't sure what they believe. So what does it take for discipleship to become faith? (Besides the work of the Spirit?) So are we drawing/making faith-in-waiting disciples?
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