The Stranger's Gospel: The Modern Magi

Quadra is the kind of place where you hear the oysters pop as you stroll down the beach, breathing in the fresh sea air. Vestiges of turbulent times are found in the cafeteria on the ferry from Campbell River. Under the ly lacquered trim, scrawled like a fossil, is an ancient peace symbol, or an upside down chicken track as the early locals saw it. From a table filled with laughter comes an anachronism of an early time, "That's really right on!" The slip doesn't go unnoticed, everyone groans. The men's hair is still long but groomed

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Honouring What Once Was

This morning I began reading Berhard Lohse's Martin Luther's Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development. Lohse introduced me to an early version of Luther as a theology student studying a standard medieval curriculum. Peter Lombard's Sentences emphasized Augustine, whom Luther regarded highly, but did so in a very scholastic philosophical manner, with which Luther felt at odds. Luther's assignment as a young student was to write marginal notes on this benchmark text. On the margins of Lombard's book Luther railed against scholasticism, especially that which was influenced by Aristotle. He complained that philosophic theology was not true theology but mere

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Introduction to Origen

Last class we studied Origen, a guy who was dedicated to understanding the Christian message at its depths and contributed the first systemic theology of Christian thought. Origen lived from 185-251 in Alexandria, a city rich in learning. The wealth of his family allowed him to study, and the martyrdom of his father for his Christian faith must have encouraged his own devotion to the message. Up until this time no one had really sat down and made sense of Christian thought so one of the responses to Christianity was a mocking disdain of it as a folk religion. Origen's

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Origen's Allegorical Method

During this second night on Origen we explored his theme of warfare and his allegorical approach to reading. 1) Origen's third theme of warfare. He has an interesting twist on this idea that is linked to being a martyr. He feels we are called first to an inner war - to fight that which brings conflict within our soul. Having fortified our character, we are called to change the world through active non-resistance. So how do we fortify our character, you may ask? Origen says through training. He believed that God acts as a divine goldsmith who hammers us into

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Persuading The Gardner

Whether or not Luther derived his existential way of interpreting Scripture from the medieval four-fold interpretive method, the German mystics, his love of Augustine, or his own passionate nature, what translated his tentative inklings into definitive spiritual prescriptions was the assignment by his mentor Johan Von Stauptiz: to teach students. His first serious attempt (1513-15) involved reading the Psalter as a living oracle. This was not an easy task given the obscure, vindictive, lament-like nature of many Psalms. Luther filtered his reading of the Psalms through his understanding of Christ. He read them christologically. He also applied the tropological or

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Thoughts on a Covenant Sunday

When I think of covenant, the first thing I think of is food. Not just because I like to eat but primarily because of what eating together reminds me of. Because you don't eat together with enemies, you eat with friends. With morning snack beforehand and a potluck afterwards, our meetings together are bracketed by eating together.

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