Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Snow in Benoni
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Orthodoxy
On an email forum that Methodist Ministers in Southern Africa have there was a debate (argument) about orthodoxy. I responded by writing this post:
I was thinking about this orthodoxy stuff and I have been challenged many time in the past couple of years about “what is right” when it comes to our Theology (knowledge of God). In my devotions I use a little book called A guide to prayer for ministers and other servants and this week I came across a very intriguing quote from Anthony Bloom regarding the knowledge of God (I believe this informs us also about the knowledge of how God operates and how we respond in our religion). In the passage quoted in A guide to prayer he uses the illustration of the Buddhist Salt Doll who gradually gets to know the sea by being dissolved more and more into the sea (if you do not know the story…Google it). This was an excellent illustration, but what intrigued me more was what he said after using the quote. He said:
“The process of the gradual discovery of God leads us at every moment to stand with our past experience behind us and the mystery of God knowable and still unknown before us. The little we know of God makes it difficult for us to learn more, because the more cannot simply be added to the little, since every meeting brings such a change of perspective that what was known before becomes almost untrue in the light of what is known later (italics mine).”
We grow gradually into the knowledge of God throughout our lives until the end of our life and we will continue to know God into eternity. However we will never come to a point at which we will know all there is to know about God. When we realise this, we firstly stay in awe and wonder of this God and realise that perhaps we do not have the monopoly on knowledge of God. In recent times I have become painfully aware of how arrogant people can become about their religion and theology. People can become downright nasty when someone does not agree with their brand of God-knowledge. Truth be told, we all know God differently. Much of the time our knowledge of God will coincide, but often it won’t.
Much of the division in the church has come about because there are differing views on Scripture and Doctrine. In my observation I have only seen good things come from Christians (and other Religions devotees) when they were able to set aside their differences and work together in their similarities. Sadly we spend far too much energy trying to convince one another that the other is wrong and not enough time celebrating what we do have in common. I know that as long as we remain human we will always differ and always feel the need to convince others of our positions (we feel safe in numbers). I believe it to be good that we continue to debate our positions because it keeps us honest and continues to grow us. We can only learn from one another in this process…but only if we allow ourselves to learn.
I was thinking about this orthodoxy stuff and I have been challenged many time in the past couple of years about “what is right” when it comes to our Theology (knowledge of God). In my devotions I use a little book called A guide to prayer for ministers and other servants and this week I came across a very intriguing quote from Anthony Bloom regarding the knowledge of God (I believe this informs us also about the knowledge of how God operates and how we respond in our religion). In the passage quoted in A guide to prayer he uses the illustration of the Buddhist Salt Doll who gradually gets to know the sea by being dissolved more and more into the sea (if you do not know the story…Google it). This was an excellent illustration, but what intrigued me more was what he said after using the quote. He said:
“The process of the gradual discovery of God leads us at every moment to stand with our past experience behind us and the mystery of God knowable and still unknown before us. The little we know of God makes it difficult for us to learn more, because the more cannot simply be added to the little, since every meeting brings such a change of perspective that what was known before becomes almost untrue in the light of what is known later (italics mine).”
We grow gradually into the knowledge of God throughout our lives until the end of our life and we will continue to know God into eternity. However we will never come to a point at which we will know all there is to know about God. When we realise this, we firstly stay in awe and wonder of this God and realise that perhaps we do not have the monopoly on knowledge of God. In recent times I have become painfully aware of how arrogant people can become about their religion and theology. People can become downright nasty when someone does not agree with their brand of God-knowledge. Truth be told, we all know God differently. Much of the time our knowledge of God will coincide, but often it won’t.
Much of the division in the church has come about because there are differing views on Scripture and Doctrine. In my observation I have only seen good things come from Christians (and other Religions devotees) when they were able to set aside their differences and work together in their similarities. Sadly we spend far too much energy trying to convince one another that the other is wrong and not enough time celebrating what we do have in common. I know that as long as we remain human we will always differ and always feel the need to convince others of our positions (we feel safe in numbers). I believe it to be good that we continue to debate our positions because it keeps us honest and continues to grow us. We can only learn from one another in this process…but only if we allow ourselves to learn.
Check out this blog for an interesting insight on orthodoxy:
http://stphransus.blogspot.com/2006/12/orthodoxy-paradox.html
I also liked this pic used in the above post:
Friday, June 08, 2007
On Holiday in Sedgefield
We are on Holiday in Sedgefield at the moment and I decided to go extreme...check it out
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