Both/And...Ouch My Head Hurts!

Notes for Season 5, Episode 3 – Both/And… Blowing Your Mind

Father Anthony, Doug, Perkins decided Jonathan did not have enough of the good ole’ Orthodox way (Ukrainian Orthodox to be specific) and joins us again as a guest host for this episode. They decided to take it slow and easy and to talk about the nature of the incarnation, i.e. how Jesus can be understood as both God and human. First off, we all need to remember that Doug and Jonathan are talking about a mystery of God and will never be able to fully explain or understand what it is that they are talking about. But that is not new.

They share views from two different schools of thoughts:

Alexandrian School

·      Focuses on the saving nature (soteriological character) of Christ through the incarnation

o   In order to be salvific the human is made divine and thus must be united with the divine nature of God

·      God becomes human so that humans might become (like) God

·      Cyril of Alexandria is one of the poster kids of this school of thought

·      Through this approach the ethical life is lifted up

Antiochine School

·      Concerned with the moral life

·      The Word (God) assumes a specific human being

·      Redemption is based on a new obedience of humanity

o   To get this there must be a unity of human and divine

·      Hypostatic union is one way of explaining/speaking about that union

·      Athanasius is one of the poster kids of this school of thought

With both we are called to consider the miracle of the incarnation and the implication that it has for us. I.e. through uniting with God we are brought into a new life/are lead to live an ethical life. Neither school is right and both are slightly confusing. If you learned Greek then it would only be slightly less confusing.

Here is the altar that Jonathan had to keep nervously avoiding eye-contact with throughout the whole conversation:

Scripture:

Acts 7:55-60 – the death of Stephen

Remember the martyrs of your faith tradition, the witness they gave to the person of Christ and his ministry. Be a martyr, but don’t look to die in doing it… just be a good witness.

Into:

Jonathan just read an interesting book about the Boston Molasses Flood in 1919 – Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo

Anthony is reading and working on the ideas of Jonathan Haidt’s work The Righteous Mind

Both need to get their noses out of the books and go outside and play. Nerds!

Thanks again for listening and don’t forget to leave a comment on iTunes or send a note to 12ecast@gmail.com

Educate Me!

12enough, Season 5,Episode 2

This week Jonathan is joined by the Rev. Paul Robeson Ford, the pastor of the historic Union Baptist Church of historic Cambridge in historic Massachusetts. Paul’s presence makes the whole episode historic.

            Paul is joining Jonathan to talk about education in the church context. Jonathan’s problem is that he has been reading Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. We should wonder if maybe he is seeing church work as analogous to prison work… hopefully not. If Jonathan really wants to know what prison is like he should be watching Orange is the New Black – it is a true-to-life depiction. Much more than Oz ever was.

            Foucault goes into great length and detail about how discipline can shape the body; forming it into the person, worker, etc. that you want it to be. Time and energy is spent on the minutia of movements, the most basic of thoughts in order to more greatly shape and influence the whole. Now a religious community is not a prison (in most cases), but the approach to discipline has some merit. In worship one is learning how to physically be religious through the repetition and imitation of others. If you are surrounded by others who raise their hands during songs then in time you very well may do the same. If you see everyone bow their heads when they pray you may do the same. You learn the words that are said, you learn a way of speaking that reflects faith.

            Even more happens in Bible studies, Sunday School, and in other aspects of the life of the church. In those instances more is spent on the sharing of information, but still a shaping of the body occurs. It is good and important to be aware of this and to be deliberate in shaping and helping to form people in good habits of faith. What that looks like will vary from community to community. It happens whether people are deliberate or not, so make it deliberate.

Railage

            Paul takes the high road and is angry about the over 200 schoolgirls who were kidnapped in Nigeria. He is even more angry about the lack of political will in the United States to get involved. Since the recording of this episode we have seen some progress, but there is still much that can and should be done. Jonathan just jumps on the bandwagon – wuss.

Scripture

Job 14:7-9

 ‘For there is hope for a tree,

   if it is cut down, that it will sprout again,

   and that its shoots will not cease.

Though its root grows old in the earth,

   and its stump dies in the ground,

yet at the scent of water it will bud

   and put forth branches like a young plant.

Taken out of context this seems like a very nice and hopeful passage – not typical for Job. It is good to find a moment of hope when you are in a place of struggle and suffering. Make sure to read a little before and a little after to get a sense of the dissonance in Job’s experience.

Watcha’ Into?

Paul is watching the NBA playoffs. Apparently that is a basketball game that is played again and again and again.

Jonathan watched Les Miserables and found it long and plodding. What is his problem?

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