Unity in the Face of Destruction

One of the things that has really begun to strike me is that, by-and-large, early Christian writings (both canonical and non-canonical) seem to focus more on ethics and the proper relationship of Christians to one another than they do on developing any comprehensive, dogmatic, specific theology. I mean obviously there's the whole Resurrection thing. Paul (1 Cor. 5:13) and Clement (1 Clement 24-27), both writing to the church at Corinth, argue for the necessity of resurrection faith. But that is sort of fundamental and you don't find many Christians who deny the resurrection outright (there are some, but they really aren't close to being mainstream. But it seems to me that other than a few major theological points where a broad consensus could be gathered, early Christian writers really focused on the "so-what" of our faith. Namely ethics ("how shall we then live?"-of course I'm borrowing Francis Schaeffer's title now) and eschatology ("what happens next?"). And even the eschatology was kind of vague; after all, it's kind of hard to describe something we have no concept of...

But anyway, back to the point. It seems that in the face of the threat of destruction, Christians were able to maintain unity by not riding their theological hobby-horses into gladiatorial battles over whose doctrine was the purest. Clement even warned the Corinthian community: "Ye are fond of contention, brethren, and full of zeal about things which do not pertain to salvation" (1 Clement 45). Oh how Clement's words speak to the church today! How we bicker and fight over our hymnology to the point that our church is split is beyond me. How we allow our petty differences over the trivialities of faith, to the point that not only will we not worship together, we don't even consider each other to be "brethren," to borrow Clement's term. I'm not arguing for a build-your-own Christianity out of some postmodern fantasy, but an approach to our faith which calls us to have, in the words of Penrose St. Amant, "an open Bible and an open mind." The open Bible will anchor us, the open mind will allow us to see the place from whence our fellow Christian comes.

Blessings and Unity,
Wyatt

Beginning Anew

Well,

This is a new blog I am creating to highlight my experiences with seminary, and help me to process and think through the knowledge I receive in this context.

As far as introductions go, I should say that I am a theology nerd and a natural pastor. I say natural because I think in metaphors, analogies, and parables. Thus, much of my communication and teaching takes the form of making connections between texts, both biblical and non-biblical.

Aside from theology, I read a lot of poetry (Walt Whitman, Gary Snyder, Wendell Berry, Charles Bukowski, and others), Science fiction (Frank Herbert and Orson Scott Card mostly).

As far as this whole seminary thing goes, I should say this:

I have been tremendously excited to begin this adventure for the past three years. In contrast to my experience with looking for college, I knew very early in my seminary search where I wanted to go. I shouldn't hesitate to say that I felt the hand of God in this decision in a very real way, and I was also influenced by my professors and my desire to go to a school with moderate theology ((there are a lot of crazies out there-- on both sides)).

My hope is that this blog will help me tie together my learning from classes and other sources of knowledge, including, but not limited to:

The Bible- obviously needs to be the central document for anything faith-related (my apologies to anyone who thinks we need another document at the center of the Christian faith).

EthicsDaily- the Baptist Center for Ethics' news site. This site is not without its biases, but I read it to get a faith perspective I can stomach on the headlines of the day. I reccomend it to anyone who has ever asked the question, "What should Christians think/do about (insert world event or popular headline)?" Also, it provides a perspective within Christianity that largely gets overlooked in favor of the more conservative elements of the faith.

Whatever else I happen to be reading- this can kind of run the gamut from nothing at all to pretty heavy classics. Usually I'm reading three or four things at a time, from fiction to poetry to history books.

With pretty lofty goals, I realize that I may fall short of some of them, but I'll try to keep my updates frequent, or at least regular, whether I have anything profound and drawn out or not.

May the peace of Christ be with you,

Wyatt