Volf, Dawkins, Wright, Smith, Derrida, and Tim.

My friend Tim Barenscheer and I have been highly involved with each other's development as we journey through our philosophical wonderings and thoughts on the Kingdom of God. It's a beautiful thing having a contemporary and friend with whom honesty and vulnerability exist genuinely without pretense. I've been sharing my thoughts with Tim about my "Premodern, Modern, and Postmodern Philosophy" course including readings from Roxburgh's The Sky is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition, Dawkins' The God Delusion, and James K.A. Smith's Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church. Tim has been conversing with Caputo's What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church and has given me two of N.T. Wright's volumes, Jesus and the Victory of God and The New Testament and the People of God, that I've been wanting and will work through this summer following my course. I gave Tim Miroslav Volf's The End of Memory. Anyone desiring to have a greater understanding of Jesus, culture, and the Kingdom of God may want to check out any or all of the aforementioned texts.

Blogging is the new "devotions?"

Remeber that term "devotions?"
"Did you do your devotions today?"
"I need to spend 15 minutes a day in my devotions."

What did that even mean?

I can only presume that the language of "devotions" was used as the idea of being devoted to God. So did that mean that only 15 minutes a day was devoted to God? I have always preferred the idea of the disciplines. Reading, solitude, writing, and prayer are all fundamental elements of the Christian life. I maintain a personal journal that I do not publish here but have also found that blogging has become a source of fulfillment as a discipline. We are able to read the thoughts and lives of fellow sojourners and learn and grow from one another. When I ensure that I have time to post and read others' posts I feel more creative and imaginitive as a hopeful follower of Jesus.

Clarity and Mystery.

Apparently, I have been reading too much. I had to get glasses for reading, writing, and blogging due to a slight stigma, farsightedness, and ocular fatigue. It is relieving to have greater clarity when I read. At times I think that I would like greater clarity of thought, perspicuity in communication, and lucidity of vision but am trying to embrace the fatigue that accompanies the beauty of the unknown and unseen mystery of the kingdom of God.

Upon Advent.

This Sunday, December 2 marks the first Sunday of the Advent season. I am using A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants to follow the themes of the liturgical calendar as established by the New Common Lectionary. The guide begins with Advent and proceeds through Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. It also includes monthly retreat models which I will begin to practice as a discipline and point of reference and reflection.