By Co-Contributor
Michelle Dowell
The frequency and passion that the word "selfless," as in a"selfless act," is used may cause a person to think the best acts and best life are ones that never think about the value or care of self.
It may cause a person to serve to the extent that is unhealthy overall. Serving to the extent of not taking care of one's self over a long period of time is not good. By taking care of oneself, I mean taking times to rest, eat enough, and recreation that refreshes.
It's true that the best acts are not solely focused on one's self. But it doesn't mean that the self is denied completely. It's not an either/or situation, but a both/and. It's more thinking about both--more than just self.
An example is shared enjoyment at times because you brought someone happiness through work even though it was tiring. Or knowing you have value because of God's part of giving that value to created beings and, especially to those who have access to him in Christ, and God's guidance and care of their everyday lives.
Showing posts with label either/or. Show all posts
Showing posts with label either/or. Show all posts
Monday, June 23, 2014
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
God and Sinful Man
Often today Christian thinkers scoff at the phrase that "God hates sin and loves the sinner." It is too simple.
The reality is that in the current day we make the bible more complex than it is. We cannot understand the bible because we think ourselves out of understanding.
The bible always affirms that God hates sin and stands in opposition to it. It always affirms the eternal realities at stake in life.
And yet the bible always affirms that God takes no pleasure in those who will not repent and wishes to draw all people to himself.
You see many people wish to deny the truth of these points. We often meet two truths clearly stated in scripture and decide which we will pick. You see we say "no" to much of scriptural teaching rather than simply saying "yes" to all of scripture.
We are often stuck in an either/or when we should see God is teaching the reality of a both/and. God's desire to bring all people to himself and his will of an eternal reality based on faith or rejection of Jesus is always affirmed.
Often the issue is that we out think what is so clearly stated. The teaching of scripture is often only hard because we make it so.
The reality is that in the current day we make the bible more complex than it is. We cannot understand the bible because we think ourselves out of understanding.
The bible always affirms that God hates sin and stands in opposition to it. It always affirms the eternal realities at stake in life.
And yet the bible always affirms that God takes no pleasure in those who will not repent and wishes to draw all people to himself.
You see many people wish to deny the truth of these points. We often meet two truths clearly stated in scripture and decide which we will pick. You see we say "no" to much of scriptural teaching rather than simply saying "yes" to all of scripture.
We are often stuck in an either/or when we should see God is teaching the reality of a both/and. God's desire to bring all people to himself and his will of an eternal reality based on faith or rejection of Jesus is always affirmed.
Often the issue is that we out think what is so clearly stated. The teaching of scripture is often only hard because we make it so.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Dialectical Theology
Having read a number of dialectical theologians for a number of years I feel I will defend and explain what they have to say. In general I see on the web a lopsided unfairness to these theologians and explanations of their ideas which really make no sense of the people.
First what is dialectical theology? I think it is important to understand what motivates the theology.
It is an intuition that much of traditional theology oversimplifies reality. Take for an instance arguably the predestination and free will debate. There is a sort of either/or which permeates the debate.
Dialectical Theology simply says "yes." Is man free, yes? Is God sovereign, yes? Sometimes we need to look into a both/and approach in theology.
In a sense dialectical theology is simply a less structured theology than traditional theology. There is a willingness to intellectually meet paradox.
There is a claim that Dialectical Theology is a form of fideism. Often Fideism is suggested to be faith that is reasonless.
Really the reality is this is a poor representation of the position. Faith is above reason and beyond the comprehension or reason but not against reason.
You see that in fideism in Soren Kierkegaard for example the leap of faith is a in a sense a leap into the dark, but it is not an uncalculated one.
Really at the bottom of dialectical theology is a large degree of rational argumentation and reason. But it retains mystery and realizes that faith is above reason, but not in conflict.
You see we can always find enough to believe, but there will always remain enough doubt that if we wished not to believe we could so choose.
The sort of uncertainty in dialectical theology is more due to humility of mankind before God than irrational thinking. Really to a degree some traditional theologians are more at fault in this respect when claims are made by certain men that they know the mind of God.
Most theologians laugh at such claims but are much less hard on these theologians than on dialectical theologians which is strange because the bible specifically says that no one can comprehend God and thus the dialectical theologians are much closer to the teaching of scripture.
First what is dialectical theology? I think it is important to understand what motivates the theology.
It is an intuition that much of traditional theology oversimplifies reality. Take for an instance arguably the predestination and free will debate. There is a sort of either/or which permeates the debate.
Dialectical Theology simply says "yes." Is man free, yes? Is God sovereign, yes? Sometimes we need to look into a both/and approach in theology.
In a sense dialectical theology is simply a less structured theology than traditional theology. There is a willingness to intellectually meet paradox.
There is a claim that Dialectical Theology is a form of fideism. Often Fideism is suggested to be faith that is reasonless.
Really the reality is this is a poor representation of the position. Faith is above reason and beyond the comprehension or reason but not against reason.
You see that in fideism in Soren Kierkegaard for example the leap of faith is a in a sense a leap into the dark, but it is not an uncalculated one.
Really at the bottom of dialectical theology is a large degree of rational argumentation and reason. But it retains mystery and realizes that faith is above reason, but not in conflict.
You see we can always find enough to believe, but there will always remain enough doubt that if we wished not to believe we could so choose.
The sort of uncertainty in dialectical theology is more due to humility of mankind before God than irrational thinking. Really to a degree some traditional theologians are more at fault in this respect when claims are made by certain men that they know the mind of God.
Most theologians laugh at such claims but are much less hard on these theologians than on dialectical theologians which is strange because the bible specifically says that no one can comprehend God and thus the dialectical theologians are much closer to the teaching of scripture.
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