My enneagram number is 9- the Peacemaker. You can Google it, if you're interested. The point is that in some ways this whole blog theme is an outgrowth of this: as a 9 and an educator, I tend to be a bit obsessed about trying to help people develop empathy and understand perspectives that are not their own, what Yale theologian Miroslav Volf calls "inverting perspectives." For instance, last Fall I spent the first few weeks of a Reformation class I'm teaching at a private Christian school trying to help the 15 Evangelical Protestants understand how Roman Catholics might be right about a lot of things. This is a constant factor for me though. Today provides another example:
I'm reading Alan Thornbury's Recovering Classical Evangelicalism with a group of other Christian guys because, frankly, we tend to read more "progressive" Christian books and I thought it was important to read something anchored in mid-twentieth century evangelicalism to help balance us out, so we don't get stuck in yet another insular way of thinking. I'm not sure what I think or how I feel about the book, but I came across a reference to certain evangelical scholars who had run into employment trouble because they didn't "toe-the-line" of "Classical" evangelical doctrine. One of several scholars listed, and with whose work I was familiar, was Mike Licona, a New Testament scholar and Christian apologist who has dedicated his life to defending the basic reliability of the New Testament account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (check out one of his talks explaining the differences between the Gospel accounts here). I was curious, so I did a little Google search and found some information on this atheist's blog. Mike Licona had been fired because, in the course of his 700 page defense of the resurrection of Jesus, he suggested that the account of numerous "saints" exiting their tombs in Matthew 27:52-53 might not be historical. I haven't followed up on his reasons for thinking that the resurrection accounts of Jesus are historical but these aren't, but I respect Licona and find much of his scholarship helpful. Then, as befits internet research, I got distracted.
Another post listed on Atheist Jeffrey Jay Lowder's site caught my attention, atheist Neil Carter's review of God's Not Dead 2, which had some interesting outsider perspective on Christian victim-complex culture as well an account of the film that makes it sound like a sort of evangelical-fantasy Scopes Trial (the famous Dayton, Ohio "Monkey Trial") reprise in reverse regarding the resurrection, but that's besides the point. What was even more interesting was Carter's account of the reversal of the reverse: namely, his account of getting fired from teaching in a Mississippi public school for being a (closeted) atheist. I haven't done a big investigation of his claims and don't really intend to (he also has a great link to the site of evangelical bogeyman ACLU, listing of all the cases in which they have defended religious people's rights to free exercise, including rights to publicly evangelize).
I offer this post for those who didn't know that Christians who dedicate their lives to defending the Christian faith can get fired from Christian institutions for their perspective on 2 odd verses in Matthew and to those who didn't know that atheists can get fired from public schools for... well... not being Christians.
My self-actualization for 4/3/16 is complete.
I'm reading Alan Thornbury's Recovering Classical Evangelicalism with a group of other Christian guys because, frankly, we tend to read more "progressive" Christian books and I thought it was important to read something anchored in mid-twentieth century evangelicalism to help balance us out, so we don't get stuck in yet another insular way of thinking. I'm not sure what I think or how I feel about the book, but I came across a reference to certain evangelical scholars who had run into employment trouble because they didn't "toe-the-line" of "Classical" evangelical doctrine. One of several scholars listed, and with whose work I was familiar, was Mike Licona, a New Testament scholar and Christian apologist who has dedicated his life to defending the basic reliability of the New Testament account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (check out one of his talks explaining the differences between the Gospel accounts here). I was curious, so I did a little Google search and found some information on this atheist's blog. Mike Licona had been fired because, in the course of his 700 page defense of the resurrection of Jesus, he suggested that the account of numerous "saints" exiting their tombs in Matthew 27:52-53 might not be historical. I haven't followed up on his reasons for thinking that the resurrection accounts of Jesus are historical but these aren't, but I respect Licona and find much of his scholarship helpful. Then, as befits internet research, I got distracted.
Another post listed on Atheist Jeffrey Jay Lowder's site caught my attention, atheist Neil Carter's review of God's Not Dead 2, which had some interesting outsider perspective on Christian victim-complex culture as well an account of the film that makes it sound like a sort of evangelical-fantasy Scopes Trial (the famous Dayton, Ohio "Monkey Trial") reprise in reverse regarding the resurrection, but that's besides the point. What was even more interesting was Carter's account of the reversal of the reverse: namely, his account of getting fired from teaching in a Mississippi public school for being a (closeted) atheist. I haven't done a big investigation of his claims and don't really intend to (he also has a great link to the site of evangelical bogeyman ACLU, listing of all the cases in which they have defended religious people's rights to free exercise, including rights to publicly evangelize).
I offer this post for those who didn't know that Christians who dedicate their lives to defending the Christian faith can get fired from Christian institutions for their perspective on 2 odd verses in Matthew and to those who didn't know that atheists can get fired from public schools for... well... not being Christians.
My self-actualization for 4/3/16 is complete.
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