The Power of Talk

In her article Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why (PDF), Deborah Tannen, looks at linguistic styles and their affects on communication and relationships. In her research she claims that there is a difference between communication patterns of males and females, were men seems to focus on power dynamics and their place in the pecking order, while women seems to be more focused on protecting the placement of others.

Generalizations about genders is always risky, but her focus on linguistic differences is extremely important.

Principles for Worship – ELCA

The two principal parts of the liturgy of Holy Communion, the proclamation of the Word of God and the celebration of the sacramental meal, are so intimately connected as to form one act of worship.

…

Our congregations are encouraged to hold these two parts together, avoiding either a celebration of the Supper without the preceding reading of the Scriptures, preaching, and intercessory prayers or a celebration of the Supper for a few people who remain after the dismissal of the congregation from a service of the Word.  The Holy Communion is not simply appended to the offices of Morning or Evening Prayer.

Principles for Worship – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Beauty

In a world full of so much ugliness, liturgy should be a rest for the soul, a repose where the soul can breathe. Beauty is not aestheticism. It is not an aim in itself It is a glimpse of God’s glory.

Heaven opens in liturgy. Beauty in liturgy cost’s time, love, care, commitment. We must take time for preparing the liturgy, looking for the beauty of the flowers, the songs, the space, candles. All this has nothing to do with pure aestheticism, but is an expression of love. The faithful feel whether in a Church there is a love of God.

Wherever you have a beautiful liturgy, people come. People are attracted, and rightly. We should not say that this is only a superficial attraction. Beauty is one way to God. It should never be separated from goodness and truth.

Christopher Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna

via Orchestral Masses, (shared with me originally by Lisa Dahill)

Is ‘Mainline’ becoming Mainline again?

Total membership in the seven largest mainline Protestant denominations — United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian Church (USA), Disciples of Christ, United Church of Christ and American Baptist Churches — fell a total of 7.4% from 1995 to 2004, based on tallies reported to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.

Meanwhile, the total membership count for Roman Catholics, the ultra-conservative Southern Baptist Convention, Pentecostal Assemblies of God and proselytizing Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) reported to the Yearbook is up nearly 11.4% for the same period.

via Some Protestant churches feeling ‘mainline’ again – USATODAY.com.

An article about St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church in Yorktown, that is for sure a mainline denomination but is still growing. It does not use PowerPoint or a Praise band, but offers food twice a week for those gathered.

The Historical Jesus and Christian Theology

I suggest in short, that the Temple and YHWH’s return to Zion are the keys to gospel Christology. Forget the titles, at least for a moment; forget the pseudo-orthodox attempts to make Jesus of Nazareth conscious of being the second person of the Trinity; forget the arid reductionism that is the mirror-image of that unthinking would-be orthodoxy. Focus instead, if you will, on a young Jewish prophet telling a story about YHWH returning to Zion as judge and redeemer, and then embodying it by riding into the city in tears, by symbolizing the Temple’s destruction, and by celebrating the final Exodus. I propose, as a matter of history, that Jesus of Nazareth was conscious of vocation, a vocation given him by the one he knew as “Father,” to enact in himself what, in Israel’s scriptures, Israel’s God had promised to accomplish. He would be the pillar of cloud for the people of the new Exodus. He would embody in himself the returning and redeeming action of the covenant God.

via The Historical Jesus and Christian Theology by N.T. Wright.

N.T. Wright gives an example of how we can look at Jesus from Nazareth. Another article by N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Identity of God, addresses Christology or the notion of Jesus as God.

Marginalized people, liberating perspectives

This means that a people’s sovereignty is diminished inasmuch as that people lack any one valued human characteristic, namely whiteness or maleness. For instance, to be both white and male affords one the highest level of political, social, economic and ecclesiastical privilege and dominance. To be white and female eliminates the claim to gender (i.e., male) privilege but preserves the right to race (i.e., white) privilege. To be black and male portends a “racialized” male privilege. Specifically, black men are able to exercise sovereignty only in relation to black women. To be black and female is to have virtually no claim to the privileges accorded in a white patriarchal society and/or Church. …
The underside are better situated to see the radical and revolutionary change required to ensure that all human beings have access to what is needed to live and to fulfill our full human potential.

via Marginalized people, liberating perspectives: A womanist approach to Biblical interpretation | Anglican Theological Review | Find Articles at BNET.

Toward a Theological Understanding of Postmodernism, by Daniel J. Adams

It is obvious that modernism as an ideology of Western culture is in serious trouble. At the present time, however, no one knows for certain what will arise to take modernism’s place. The postmodern is the name given to this space between what was and what is yet to be.

Still another aspect of the postmodern is what one social scientist has called the “unsecularization of the world.” Not only are new religious movements coming into being, but even more significant is that traditional religions are experiencing revival and renewal.

via Toward a Theological Understanding of Postmodernism, by Daniel J. Adams.

Daniel J. Adams offers a readable and accessible overview of postmodernism, calling theologians to avoid the tendency of fragmentation.

Vocabulary: Dispensationalism

The believe that God acts differently towards God’s people and different time in History. This is usually connected to an understanding of different covenants between God and God’s people throughout the Bible. This understanding of dispensationalism is important for many Christians to make sense and even predict the end of times as we know it.
Some kind of dispensationalism is contained in all Christian interpretation, due to God’s salvific work in Christ. An historical event which, according to most Christians, changed the way God and God’s people relate.

UALC votes to leave

The first vote was 538 to leave the ELCA and 48 to stay, an assistant to the Rev. Paul Ulring said.
The next vote must be at least 90 days later and probably will be held this fall.
Before then, Bishop Callon W. Holloway Jr., leader of the Southern Ohio Synod, will meet with the 5,000-member church to hear questions or concerns. He will not try to persuade them to stay, though that is his desire.
“I will respect their decisions” and support their ministries, he said.
Two other churches in the synod have been through both their first and second votes, Holloway said.
Faith Lutheran, north of Cincinnati in Finneytown, has left. St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran, near Dayton in Fairborn, did not.

via UA church votes to quit the ELCA | The Columbus Dispatch.

The Myth of Positive Thinking

I came across this via orvitinn.com. Watching this video led my to www.thersa.org which describe themselves as:

For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress.  Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.

The Real Reason for Decline

The mainline denominations do seem to be weak in the sense of being unable to generate and maintain high levels of commitment among a substantial portion of their adherents. Although we are skeptical of Kelley’s argument about the relation between strictness and church growth, he is right that weak churches are in a precarious position as organizations because further weakening may diminish their members’ commitments to the point of noninvolvement.

via Mainline Churches: The Real Reason for Decline.

Benton Johnson, Dean R. Hoge, and Donald A Luidens look at the mainline decline, and come to the conclusion that people don’t show up because it does not matter.

Liberalism as the Root of Decline

In the article Death of Protestant America: A Political Theory of the Protestant Mainline (subscription needed), Joseph Bottum seems to come to the conclusion that well educated liberals in charge of the mainline denominations headquarters are to blame not only for the church’s decline but for rising division in God’s chosen country it self.

Many Americans are profoundly patriotic, no doubt, and many Americans are profoundly critical of their country. We are left, however, with a great problem in combining the two, and that problem was bequeathed to us by the death of Protestant America – by the collapse of the churches that were once both the accommodating help and criticizing prophet of the American experiment.

Mr. Bottum is right when he brings attention to the new unity in the religious spectrum.

The horizontal unity of Mere Religion cuts across denominations. Serious, believing Presbyterians, for example, now typically feel that they have more in common with serious, believing Catholics and evangelicals – with serious believing Jew, for that matter – than they do, vertically, with the unserious, unorthodox members of their own denomination.

However, I would not use words like serious and unserious believer, implying that those that don’t belong to the conservative, orthodox, “right-wingishy,” world that Mr. Bottum seems to lean towards are somehow not taking their faith seriously. It is actually possible to claim the oposite as a fact.

Avery Dulles on JDDJ*

The heart of the Joint Declaration is surely paragraph 15, and more particularly the sentence: “Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.” This consensus does not go beyond the clear conclusions of the dialogues. While it is in perfect accord both with the Augsburg Confession and with the Decree on Justification of the Council of Trent, it dispels some false stereotypes inherited from the past. Lutherans have often accused Catholics of holding that justification is a human achievement rather than a divine gift received in faith, while Catholics have accused Lutherans of holding that justification by faith does not involve inner renewal or good works. By mentioning both faith and works, both acceptance by God and the gift of the Holy Spirit, this sentence strikes an even–handed balance calculated to satisfy both sides.

via Two Languanges of Salvation: The Lutheran-Catholic Joint Declaration.

Avery Dulles addresses critically the difference in languages used by Lutheran Churches and The Roman Catholic Church when it comes to interpreting what JDDJ really says.

* Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.

Ecumenism – Ecumenical Work in USA

It is worth looking at how Consultation on Church Union (COCU), became Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC) and how ecumenical bodies like Christian Churches Together in the USA (CCT-USA) interact with each other.

It is important in this context to look at how different bodies focus on different aspects of ecumenism. Is it about working together or doing theology together?

The Association of Religion Data Archives

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) strives to democratize access to the best data on religion. Founded as the American Religion Data Archive in 1997 and going online in 1998, the initial archive was targeted at researchers interested in American religion. The targeted audience and the data collection have both greatly expanded since 1998, now including American and international collections and developing features for educators, journalists, religious congregations, and researchers. Data included in the ARDA are submitted by the foremost religion scholars and research centers in the world.

via The Association of Religion Data Archives.

Who Is Ramakrishna?

When Hindus talk about a divine incarnation, they mean somebody who is the actual vehicle by which God himself appears, manifests himself on the earth. Such a being has no past, he is not subject to the wheel of birth and rebirth—he has no karma in this sense, he simply manifests himself to do good to the world. He is, if you like, an expression of the world’s need at any particular moment. He manifests himself and gives through himself power, which is then transmitted and gradually begins to work within Society.

via Who Is Ramakrishna?

This link leads to a helpful and interesting article attempting to explain Hinduism and the status Ramakrishna has for the author.

The Seven Dimensions of Ninian Smart

Ninian Smart (1927 – 2001), Professor of Comparative Religions at the University of California and Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Lancaster, England, suggested that there are certain aspects or dimensions of religion. In ‘The World’s Religions’ (Cambridge 1989), Smart suggested that there were seven dimensions:

  • The Practical and Ritual Dimension
  • The Experiential and Emotional Dimension
  • The Narrative or Mythic Dimension
  • The Doctrinal and Philosophical Dimension
  • The Ethical and Legal Dimension
  • The Social and Institutional Dimension
  • The Material Dimension

via BBC – h2g2 – Religion – An Introduction.

Nostra Aetate

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.

via Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-christian religions – Nostra Aetate.

In the context of the Second Vatican Council, His Holiness Pope Paul VI made the proclaimation “Nostra Aetate” on October 28, 1965. It ends with those words:

No foundation therefore remains for any theory or practice that leads to discrimination between man and man or people and people, so far as their human dignity and the rights flowing from it are concerned.

The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion. On the contrary, following in the footsteps of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, this sacred synod ardently implores the Christian faithful to “maintain good fellowship among the nations” (1 Peter 2:12), and, if possible, to live for their part in peace with all men, so that they may truly be sons of the Father who is in heaven.