Thursday, June 28, 2007

What, Who, and How.

what is it exactly to re-create or re-imagine that which already exists? to make it one's own, right? to find a way in which it resonates with your innermost being, Who-You-Are inherently?

that is beautiful. but for it to become a missional work- isn't that the same thing the evangelicals are doing??
and to re-create the language that is used in this new context...and to have it become "THE" language, set of terms, way in which things are spoken of and understood...isn't that the same as any other organized establishment?

also, when does gathering and discussing move into action and living? or is that all intertwined? really i don't think talk is worth a damn thing.

do you think the study and discussion of theology could be defined as attempting to understand God through the intellect?

i wonder.
all just questions- i don't assume to know much.

3 comments:

glen. said...

In a sense, I suppose it is understanding God with the intellect, but I guess the question I would ask before that would be something like "as opposed to what?" What am I understanding Him with otherwise? If I were smelling Him or even feeling Him (be it a tangible feeling or something much more difficult to nail down) I am still running those perceptions through a filter in my brain which requires me to take stock and categorize said perceptions (ie. I smell a particular smell and make my best comparison to other smells I have previously smelt: sweet like roses or potent like incense; does the smell of God smell like anything I've smelt, is there anything else I can compare it to?) and then interpret them. Even if such perceptions shouldn't be as quantifiable as that which I can see in my checking account or boil in a test-tube, it still makes it through the grid of one's intellect for the sake of understanding.

The next thing I would say is who are the Evangelicals you're referring to in particular? I would consider myself, for better and worse, an Evangelical Christian and would like to know which Evangelicals we're referring to.

Raquel said...

i suppose the "opposed to what" i was thinking of would be experience. Experiential understanding versus intellectual acknowledgement.

no "for better and worse" needed Glen- no judgement here! i was writing in particular about a group of people who are working out what it means to live like Jesus in their own lives, for themselves. i have noticed a tendency amongst some towards wanting to "convert" other Christians towards their way of thinking. (nothing wrong with their way of thinking, mind you- i agree with much of it). i don't want to speak for them, but i think within this group there is some issue taken with how things are done in the modern American evangeilcal church. so, it was curious to me the similarity in thinking-
of needing to convert others to YOUR way....it was in no way an attack on evangelicals (or this other group, really).
just curious to me that we can't allow others to figure out following Jesus for themselves- however that looks and whatever that means for them.

HOONiE said...

you just hurt my head with that begining part. confusssiin!!