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March 21, 2013

Dec 24 2012 to March 21 2013 Tweets

As I have noted before, because I am busy working on my dissertation, I have mostly limited my blogging to doing 140 character tweets on Twitter the last couple of years. Here is another 3 month batch--about 90 tweets--about one each day. Again, I hope these are useful resources for those who "follow" me and those who would want to read my blog. In other words, I am trying to link to things I have found interesting and others might be interested in as well. The general topics tend to be theology, church ministry, leadership, and higher education. Someday perhaps these tweets will be blogged about and expanded on. They are something of a intellectual journal.

Greetings to all,

Andy

 

 

Tweets

  1. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell9m

    Decision making, etc.--all these have been studied with far greater care by sociologists than by theologians. Radner, http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2013/marapr/lenten-reading.html?paging=off …

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  2. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell23m

    "As disciples of Christ, the members of His Church do not rule: they serve." Karl Barth, Against the Stream, 40.

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  3. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell29m

    ... 'prayer' and mean rite; 'order' and mean regimentation; 'Christ' and mean the Fathers." Karl Barth, Against the Stream, 75.

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  4. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell29m

    Barth (2-tweet quote): "We must not say 'gift' and mean our own ability; 'service' and mean office; 'confession' and mean denomination;...

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  5. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell1h

    Stanley Hauerwas writes tribute to Rowan Williams--including reference to John Howard Yoder. http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2013/03/20/3719969.htm … @ABCReligion

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  6. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell1h

    Superbly-written review by @millinerd in @booksandculture of Ephraim Radner's A Brutal Unity on ecclesiology. http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2013/marapr/lenten-reading.html?paging=off …

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  7. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell1h

    In WWII, the firing of generals was seen as a sign the system was working, but now is seen as the system failing. Thomas Ricks, The Generals

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  8. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell1h

    George Marshall: Leaders have common sense, know their profession, are cheerful, energetic, loyal & determined. Thomas Ricks, The Generals.

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  9. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell16 Mar

    These memes--doctored from photos released by the Vatican--reflect well on Pope Francis. http://www.catholicmemes.com/pope/pardon-me-holy-father/ … & http://www.catholicmemes.com/pope/under-a-different-name/ …

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  10. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell16 Mar

    Heard Cheryl Sandberg on HBR Ideacast podcast, 60 Minutes podcast, & read Time cover story. I was impressed. Fresh encouragement to women.

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  11.  

    St. Peter's ListSt. Peter's List ‏@StPetersList16 Mar

    Pope Francis explains his choice of name and what happened when he was elected http://www.stpeterslist.com/?p=10511

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  12.  

    Matthew MillinerMatthew Milliner ‏@millinerd15 Mar

    .@jwilson1812 huzzah. Blogs at their best are servants of good books.

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

     View conversation

  13.  

    Todd RhoadesTodd Rhoades ‏@toddrhoades14 Mar

    Maybe your church should pull a 'Google' - http://bit.ly/YcZX0f

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  14.  

    Alan JacobsAlan Jacobs ‏@ayjay13 Mar

    "Ironically, I think the reason Google always wanted to pull the Reader team off to build these other..." http://tmblr.co/ZA1xbygDLp1E

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

     View summary

  15.  

    Alan JacobsAlan Jacobs ‏@ayjay13 Mar

    "When rich people present the idea that they’ve learned to live lightly as a paradoxical insight, they..." http://tmblr.co/ZA1xbygC_0RE

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

     View summary

  16. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell14 Mar

    Google Reader being shut down July 1. I have been using @feedly Instructions on switching: http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/tips-for-google-reader-users-migrating-to-feedly/ … & http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/google-reader/ …

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  17. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell8 Mar

    "It was a surprise that the most satisfied were in the program that relies most on online technology." @ahc & Mouw http://future.fuller.edu/Discussion_Points/Discussion_Point_6__Augmented_Reality__Technology_and_Personal_Presence/ …

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  18. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell8 Mar

    NY Times columnist Tom Friedman reports on online learning at M.I.T. and Harvard. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/opinion/friedman-the-professors-big-stage.html … via @RevAdamHamilton

     View summary

  19. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell6 Mar

    I commented on entry level church positions at Greg Henson's 2nd of 3 posts analyzing incoming seminary student data. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2013/03/06/seminary-life-today-2/#comment-444191 …

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  20. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell5 Mar

  21. "Reade's atheism left Winston Churchill with 'a predominantly secular view' of life that lasted until his death." Gandhi & Churchill, 97.

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  22. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell5 Mar

    "He who broods over results . . . is ever distracted." Mohandas Gandhi, quoted in Arthur Herman, Gandhi & Churchill, p. 81.

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  23. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell5 Mar

    "You cannot teach non-violence to a man who cannot kill." Mohandas Gandhi quoted in Arthur Herman, Gandhi & Churchill, p. 114.

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  24. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell5 Mar

    Good look at incoming seminary student data from Greg Henson though I commented with one stat quibble. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2013/03/04/seminary-life-today-1/#comment-443463 … @scotmcknight

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  25. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell28 Feb

    Former @DukeDivinity OT prof Jo Bailey Wells & wife of Sam Wells appointed chaplain at Lambeth Palace by @ABCJustin http://www.livingchurch.org/archbishop-calls-jo-bailey-wells …

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  26. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell28 Feb

    Hans Küng, who like the outgoing pope interacted with Karl Barth in the 1960's, is still feisty: "A Vatican Spring?" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/opinion/a-vatican-spring.html …

     View summary

  27. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell27 Feb

    Good conversation here between @fitchest and @edstetzer about megachurches, sheep-stealing, stats, and consumerism. http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/mega-churches-steal-sheep-my-ongoing-debate-with-ed-stetzer/ …

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  28. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell20 Feb

    See previous tweet. Traditional lexicon: ἐπισκοπή overseer/bishop, πρεσβύτερος elder, εὐαγγελιστής evangelist, ἀπόστολος apostle.

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  29. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell20 Feb

    Church leadership lexicon: ἐπισκοπή supervisor, πρεσβύτερος person with experience, εὐαγγελιστής good-newscaster, ἀπόστολος spokesperson.

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  30. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell16 Feb

    Listened to Double Cross: Story of the D-Day Spies. German, American, British accents! Bonhoeffer Abwehr parallels. http://search.overdrive.com/ti/38d67c14-1d3d-4b82-b116-12c5f18d57e1-425-1-1-1-1/double-cross-ben-macintyre-audiobook …

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  31. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell13 Feb

    @jonwasson That sounds good. I am reading Barth's CD III/1, 42: "the meaning of creation is to make possible the history of God's covenant."

     View conversation

  32. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell12 Feb

    It is not that God made a world and then needed the Jesus plan to fix it. No, God created a world so that he could carry out his Jesus plan.

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  33. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell9 Feb

    Karl Barth: "the expression hominum confusio [human confusion] is theologically appropriate because it says neither too little nor too much"

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  34. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell9 Feb

    So far in Double Cross, German Abwehr portrayed as incompetent but org was led by Canaris and Oster--Bonhoeffer's Hitler plot accomplices!

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  35. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell9 Feb

    Barth mentions Eisenhower Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in 1959. Dulles Daughter: Presbyterian minister. Son: Cardinal Avery Dulles.

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  36.  

    John PennimanJohn Penniman ‏@Historiographos6 Feb

    Les (Really) Miserables - the Grad School edition | http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1546 … #academia

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  37. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell4 Feb

    Bob Costas on NFL lawsuits and brain damage from football on Meet the Press yesterday. http://video.msnbc.msn.com/meet-the-press/50684279 … via @meetthepress

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  38. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell4 Feb

    Lax sports drug testing. Daring to Ask the Performancing Enhancing Drug Question http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8904906/daring-ask-ped-question … @BillSimmons via http://video.msnbc.msn.com/meet-the-press/50684100 …

     View summary

  39. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell4 Feb

    Updated my 2009 post slightly: The Birthdates of Famous Living Pastors, Theologians, Christian Leaders, Philosophers. http://www.andyrowell.net/andy_rowell/2009/09/the-birthdates-of-famous-living-pastors-and-theologians.html …

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  40. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell4 Feb

    Listened to Darrell Guder Oct 2012 lectures: Missional Thing? http://youtu.be/FzRjDbKCUdQ Missional Theology http://youtu.be/bJkPT5ALavc Superb analysis.

     View media

  41.  

    BBC Breaking NewsBBC Breaking News ‏@BBCBreaking4 Feb

    Justin Welby - @ABCJustin - confirmed new Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of 80m Anglicans around the world http://bbc.in/11IuWTj

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  42. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell3 Feb

    Enjoyed every one of the 300 tweets by @evnglcalhipster Great humorous depiction of 20's/30's evangelical American seminary culture.

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  43.  

    Evangelical HipsterEvangelical Hipster ‏@evnglcalhipster13 Jul

    Barth-B-Q pork sliders #EdibleTheology

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  44. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell2 Feb

    Darrell Guder on Missional Church (1998) "There are 40,000 copies in print which for a theological book is remarkable." http://youtu.be/FzRjDbKCUdQ

     View media

  45. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell1 Feb

    Women only won the right to vote in 1966 in Basel-Stadt where Karl Barth lived; Switzerland, 1971. Barth died in 1968. USA: 19th Amend:1920.

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  46. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell1 Feb

    "Until they have explained how to 'test the spirits' (1 Jn 4:1) their critique of classical casuistry is theological adolescence." J.H.Yoder

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  47. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell27 Jan

    ‎5-year-old Jacob: "Mommy, did you know that an ogre came out when Jesus opened Lazarus's tomb?" [John 11:39 ". . . there is a bad odor."]

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  48. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell25 Jan

    Found "End This Depression Now" by Princeton economics professor @NYTimeskrugman counterintuitive/astounding. Listened to library audiobook.

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  49. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell21 Jan

    RT @byronborger HERE IT IS. Imagining the Kingdom by @james_ka_smith ON SALE at a place that cares about it. http://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/booknotes/imagining_the_kingdom_how_wors/#.UP3wLywl4L8.twitter …

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  50. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell18 Jan

    I commented on this good article "Play-Fighting May Actually Be Good for Kids" by @Rachel_M_Stone http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2013/january/let-boys-be-boys-play-fighting-may-actually-be-good-for-kid.html … at @CTmagazine

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  51. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell14 Jan

    RT @TGC How @AndyStanley and Tim Keller preach with non-believers in mind. Compiled by @TrevinWax http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevinwax/2013/01/14/how-andy-stanley-and-tim-keller-preach-with-non-believers-in-mind/ …

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  52.  

    David CongdonDavid Congdon ‏@dwcongdon13 Jan

    My first “real” blog post in awhile. An attempt to further clarify the different forms of apocalyptic theology. http://bit.ly/10tfeAH

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  53. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell14 Jan

    Both Owens and Coakley stress prayer with others: spiritual director and silent prayer group. http://theotherjournal.com/2012/08/23/pray-as-you-can-not-as-you-cant-exploring-a-prayer-slogan/ … http://theotherjournal.com/2012/12/27/prayer-as-divine-propulsion-an-interview-with-sarah-coakley-part-ii/ …

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  54. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell14 Jan

    L.Roger Owens "the crucial aspect in the life of prayer is our willingness to yield to God’s leading." @theotherjournal http://theotherjournal.com/2012/08/23/pray-as-you-can-not-as-you-cant-exploring-a-prayer-slogan/ …

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  55. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell14 Jan

    In prayer there "is a barely perceptible sharpening or transformation of the senses and the mind." Sarah Coakley http://theotherjournal.com/2012/12/20/prayer-as-divine-propulsion-an-interview-with-sarah-coakley/ …

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  56.  

    Drew DyckDrew Dyck ‏@drewdyck14 Jan

    2012 Leadership Book Awards http://bit.ly/101ZV0s winners include @waynecordeiro @DanKimball @AndyStanley @timastevens @TransformingCnt

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  57. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell14 Jan

    Mark Noll's Aug review of God Talks Back by @tanyaluhrmann in @tnr is also excellent--a similar take to @calebmaskell http://www.tnr.com/article/magazine/books-and-arts/106464/when-god-talks-back-vineyard-evangelical-church …

     View summary

  58. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell14 Jan

    "What is important to the process is a little faith, via imaginative risk, that God's voice can actually be heard." http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2012/julaug/coffeewithjesus.html …

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  59. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell14 Jan

    "God's communication is known subjectively in the mind but is best interpreted in community." @calebmaskell http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2012/julaug/coffeewithjesus.html …

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  60. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell14 Jan

    Superb review by @calebmaskell of book by @tanyaluhrmann in July/Aug @booksandculture on prayer and Vineyard churches. http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2012/julaug/coffeewithjesus.html …

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  61. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell11 Jan

    MT @stevelaubeagent A thousand decisions to write any book - great article by @PLeithart @firstthingsmag http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/01/out-of-the-cave …

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  62.  

    Paste MagazinePaste Magazine ‏@PasteMagazine1 Dec

    Our most read story this week: The 50 Best Albums of 2012 http://ow.ly/fJZ1n

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  63. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell10 Jan

    I commented on this: http://www.zachicks.com/blog/2013/1/10/can-kids-be-formed-by-worship-even-if-they-cant-understand-i.html … @zachicks @james_ka_smith saying "going through the motions" is ok if you have the right motions.

     View conversation

  64. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell10 Jan

    In @booksandculture piece, @ayjay is skeptical that "stories" are always good for us. All of them? he asks exasperated. http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2013/janfeb/just-so-stories.html …

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  65.  

    Daniel KirkDaniel Kirk ‏@jrdkirk9 Jan

    Relive all the excitement! "What Did Jesus Do?" atonement symposium videos now up. Including me & @scotmcknight http://ow.ly/gFMRa

     Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  66.  

    American ExperienceAmerican Experience ‏@AmExperiencePBS9 Jan

    If you missed last night's episode of The Abolitionists, catch it streaming free on our website! #AmericanExperience http://ow.ly/gF8Ir

    Retweeted by Andy Rowell

    View summary

  67. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell9 Jan

    Profile of Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio Journal http://www.marshillaudio.org/ at http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/pop-goes-culture_693754.html … in @weeklystandard

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  68. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell9 Jan

    Critics from @CTmagazine list The Most Redeeming Films of 2012. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-web-only/most-redeeming-films-of-2012.html …

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  69. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell8 Jan

    @DGShroyer Also: Tweet right after yours in my feed: RT @byronborger Best audio books. The 2012 Listen-Up Awards http://j.mp/UTMSdC

    View conversation

  70. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell8 Jan

    @DGShroyer Unbroken, In the Garden of Beasts, Omnivore's Dilemma, Greater Journey, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Bring Up the Bodies.

    View conversation

  71. The Wilson QuarterlyThe Wilson Quarterly ‏@wilsonquarterly7 Jan

    Editing nerds will have a cackle over this. Everyone else? Eh, sorry... http://www.theonion.com/articles/4-copy-editors-killed-in-ongoing-ap-style-chicago,30806/ … via @TheOnion

    Retweeted by Andy Rowell

    View summary

  72. Maria PopovaMaria Popova ‏@brainpicker5 Jan

    The 25 most read and shared Brain Pickings articles of 2012 http://j.mp/Ugrnko

    Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  73. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell4 Jan

    New Testament http://www.denverseminary.edu/news/new-testament-exegesis-bibliography-2013/ … and Old Testament http://www.denverseminary.edu/news/annotated-old-testament-bibliography-2013 … bibliographies (recommended commentaries, etc.) @denverseminary

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  74. David BrooksDavid Brooks ‏@nytdavidbrooks3 Jan

    OP-ED COLUMNIST; Suffering Fools Gladly http://nyti.ms/Whut7v

    Retweeted by Andy Rowell

    View summary

  75. Jeremy WalkerJeremy Walker ‏@peregrinus752 Jan

    A review of Spurgeon's "Lectures to my Students" in the hopes that more will take it up and read it http://shar.es/4nOVW

    Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  76. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell2 Jan

    Audiobooks to download from library: Thomas Jefferson, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Why Nations Fail, Bring Up the Bodies, The Last Lion.

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  77. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell1 Jan

    Nestle-Aland 28 Greek New Testament Now Online http://www.nestle-aland.com/en/read-na28-online/ … H/T Michael Gorman

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  78. David SwansonDavid Swanson ‏@davidswanson1 Jan

    5 Favorite Books of 2012 http://wp.me/p4OTA-1Gl

    Retweeted by Andy Rowell

    View summary

  79. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell1 Jan

    I liked Les Misérables but Jeffrey Overstreet @Overstweet didn't and articulates superbly why he didn't. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lookingcloser/2012/12/les-miserables-2012/ …

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  80. Jeffrey OverstreetJeffrey Overstreet ‏@Overstweet1 Jan

    So, here they are: The films that inspired, moved, challenged, and intrigued me in 2012. http://goo.gl/hTuQ1 @PatheosMovies

    Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  81. Ezra KleinEzra Klein ‏@ezraklein31 Dec

    4 of 6 Wonkbloggers picked Kate Boo's "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" as one of their books of the year: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/30/wonkblogs-books-of-the-year/ …

    Retweeted by Andy Rowell

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  82. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell31 Dec

    @james_ka_smith @ayjay "adolescents seem to be merely reflecting what the adult world is routinely inculcating in its youth." Smith, SS,166.

    View conversation

  83. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell31 Dec

    Christianity Today @CTmagazine 2013 Book Awards http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/2013-book-awards.html … and Christian Century @ChristianCent recommends http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-12/cc-recommends …

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  84. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell31 Dec

    Kindle ed. of Faith Without Illusions by @Byers_Andy is $.99 at: http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Without-Illusions-Cynic-Saint-ebook/dp/B004NNUOJW/ … Recommended in @booksandculture http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2012/novdec/recommended-reading-nd12.html …

    View summary

  85. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell31 Dec

    RT @jonestony Pastor @JohnPiper retires from Bethlehem Baptist. http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/185174322.html?refer=y … by @STactsoffaith of @StarTribune

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  86. James K.A. SmithJames K.A. Smith ‏@james_ka_smith30 Dec

    @KYLEDBENNETT I used to say to Deanna: "For my next PhD I'd like..." She'd immediately retort: "Well, your NEXT wife..."

    Retweeted by Andy Rowell

    View conversation

  87. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell28 Dec

    Our kids (7, 5, & 2) continue to love Justin Roberts @MusicianJustin and the 3 @slugsandbugs albums from @randallgoodgame & @AndrewPeterson

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  88. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell28 Dec

    Thoroughly enjoyed hard copy magazines @booksandculture and @ERBks while traveling & in bed. Vacation! Thanks @jwilson1812 and Chris Smith.

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  89. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell26 Dec

    I thought Les Misérables, which came out today, was wonderful, powerful. @CTmagazine @nytimes @chicagotribune disliked closeup camera shots.

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  90. Andy RowellAndy Rowell ‏@AndyRowell24 Dec

    Yesterday's family photo at Grandma's house. Amy, Jacob (5), Allie (2.5), me, and Ryan (7.5). pic.twitter.com/2OpYzOHg

    View photo

Posted at 03:26 PM in Twitter | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

December 20, 2012

Tweets from Aug 15th to Dec 20th 2012

I have come to do most of my "blogging" over at Twitter because usually I am just wanting to alert people to a quote or article or to make a brief comment. I am doing more of my extensive analysis in my academic writing (dissertation and articles) so Twitter fits where I am at right now. Below I have pasted my tweets from the last few months. I would like to think there is a treasure trove of good resources here. Greetings to all, Andy

 

Tweets

 

Darrell Guder Oct 22-23, 2012 lectures @DubuqueSeminary video: Missional Thing? http://youtu.be/FzRjDbKCUdQ  Missional Theologyhttp://youtu.be/bJkPT5ALavc 

 

 

Rev 12:4 Nativity Scene. "The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth."http://amandajdrury.blogspot.com/2012/12/nativity-set-sam-style.html … @amandadrury@johnldrury

 

 

 

Twitter is officially rolling out your tweet archiveshttp://blog.twitter.com/2012/12/your-twitter-archive.html …

 

  Retweeted by Andy Rowell
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RT @ahc "Are the Metro-Evangelicals Right?" @Keith_J_Millermakes some sharp points about glib missional urbanism.http://www.mereorthodoxy.com/are-the-metro-evangelicals-right/ …

 

 

 

 

Gleanings: Luther Seminary (ECLA) president Richard Bliese has resigned after $4 million revenue loss || http://bit.ly/UI8mae 

 

  Retweeted by Andy Rowell
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My favorite books of the year: http://ow.ly/g9Oza  #books2012

 

  Retweeted by Andy Rowell
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Our annual list of top books of the year: http://ow.ly/g4d5l 

 

  Retweeted by Andy Rowell
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Karl Barth died today in 1968. "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."

 

  Retweeted by Andy Rowell
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For all the people I've met working on novels, forget everyone else, just slam the pedal to the floor and get them finished. Be stoked.

 

  Retweeted by Andy Rowell
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RT @therealtobymac Sooooo grateful for a Grammy nom for Eye On It! / It is indeed good. My kids (7, 5, and 2) love it.http://www.grammy.com/nominees?genre=14 …

 

 

 

 

 

"It pulled off a rare feat: making Christianity seem appealing to those who have no interest in ever being Christians."http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2012/11/read-all-about-it-ns-books-year-2012?page=0,12 …

 

 

@DougGay Your "Rewiring Practical Theology" Political Theology 12, no. 4 (2011): 608-612. is superb. @jasonclark told me about it.

 

 

RT @ahc Scorching review from Deirdre McCloskey of Sandel's WhatMoneyCan'tBuy http://www.deirdremccloskey.com/editorials/sandel.php … / DM defends innovation & virtue ethics.

 

 

 

 

@theonetruemyles Cf. J.H. Yoder, "Christological Presuppositions of Discipleship" pp.127-151 in Being Human, Becoming Human, Pickwick, 2010.

 

 

@james_ka_smith @jasonclark and I are planning to come to your session. We'll say hi to you.

 

 

@jrgordon13 @dwcongdon I'm not there but my ETS picks: Keith L. Johnson, Kevin Hector, Vanhoozer, Crisp, Stephen Long, and James Gordon.

 

 

 

"A woman who has sex with multiple partners (maybe hooking up a lot if she’s at a more elite college),..." http://tmblr.co/ZA1xbyW-U-y2 

 

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Thought in the night, those who made money betting on me give it to their local church! I suspect it was less than papers suggest.

 

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So Justin Welby currently +Durham is to be the new Archbishop of Canterbury. A turn up for the books!

 

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Video of Sarah Coakley, Andy Crouch @ahc, and Richard Mouw talks at @DukeDivinity October 15-16, 2012 now available.http://divinity.duke.edu/news-media/news/2012-10-23cpsrecordings …

 

 

I posted my AAR (American Academy of Religion) meeting (Nov 16-20 in Chicago) session recommendations. http://www.andyrowell.net/andy_rowell/2012/11/aar-and-sbl-recommendations.html …

 

 

1 hr panel "What Biography Reveals About the Presidential Candidates" with Hauerwas, documentarian Kirk & Rev. Lasater.http://ondemand.duke.edu/video/34270/what-biography-reveals-about-t …

 

 

 

Basically, the Ninety-Five Theses were a good post, but they led to a /nightmare/ of a comments thread...

 

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Barth: A good description of the church is τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν κύκλῳ καθημένους "those seated in a circle around him" (Mark 3:34). CD IV/4, 37.

 

 

Will I see my loved ones in heaven? Barth: You will see not only your 'loved ones' but ones you weren't crazy about.http://books.google.com/books?id=3N-PAdOUIfIC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q=%22herr%20professor%22&f=false …

 

 

Negotiating is not "horse-trading" but "trying to do the right thing...even if this leaves loose ends." Rowan Williamshttp://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/10/23/3616348.htm …

 

 

 

Stanley Hauerwas (3 min video): Elections are not serious for Christians but ideally provoke serious conversations.http://vimeo.com/51453976 

 

 

Paul Griffith @DukeDivinity on Christianity often letting itself be reduced to a lapdog called "religion." http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/10/19/3614200.htm …@ABCReligion

 

 

 

Folks: I have accepted an offer to become a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the Honors College at Baylor U. Excited! Nervous!

 

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Lack of sleep leads to typos. (Quantitative research based on sample size of one person).

 

 

@davidswanson Yes, a little. I wish the son of the Vineyard pastors would nudge the nonsense a little closer to coherence. We can hope.

 

 

Yes, Mumford and Sons "I will wait" is pretty sweethttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGKfrgqWcv0 … but @crowdermusic 's 2012 Give Us Rest album has banjo + substance.

 

 

I comment on @millinerd 's post about why studying history matters--sparked by M. Lilla's review of B. Gregory's book.http://www.millinerd.com/2012/10/the-unintended-abdication.html …

 

 

 

Big @CTmagazine day—along with @MarkGalli’s promotion to editor and @KatelynBeaty to managing editor, I become executive editor on 1 Dec.

 

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RT @FakeJDGreear: 9/23/12: Five Duke football players get baptized @SummitRDU. 10/20/12: Duke beats UNC. Hey Methodists, you're welcome.

 

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My portable Logitech M325 mouse (receiver) broke. I called Logitech and they are sending me a new one for free. #Pleasantlysurprised

 

 

@kylejnolan Daniel Kirk @jrdkirk was asking this on Facebook yesterday. @ericaustinlee liked @zotero I get EndNote free at Duke. It's fine.

 

 

If all your kids' pictures and videos are slowing down your dissertation laptop, move them onto 2 external hard drives.

 

 

If your five-year old Lenovo ThinkPad (which you see used examples of online for $250) is slow, get some more RAM fromhttp://www.crucial.com/index.aspx 

 

 

If EndNote is slow, you have to divide up your dissertation into smaller parts. Cf support: How to merge chapters into one document in Word.

 

 

"The lived witness of communities living God's Movement in the world leads people to ask Why?" -- Jonathan @wilsonhartgrove @ERBksprint ed.

 

 

"Missiology . . . studies the power that is unleashed when local agency is fully mobilized." --Mark Shawhttp://www.internationalbulletin.org/files/html/2012-04-home.html …

 

 

 

1st drafts are Down drafts--get it all down. 2nd are Up drafts--clean it all up. 3rd are Dental drafs--go thru tooth by tooth, clean or pull

 

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Congratulations to Craig Barnes who has been named the seventh president of Princeton Seminary! http://www.ptsem.edu/index.aspx?id=25769804360 …#education #ptseminary

 

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Where the Protestants Roam: Map of Protestant Denominations in the US - http://goo.gl/brF4j  via @patheos

 

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'Jesus' Wife' papyrus fragment replicates a typo from an internet site. I'd say that the story is now over.http://ntweblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/jesus-wife-fragment-further-evidence-of.html …

 

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Rowan Williams tells RC bishops to reach out by showing why Christianity is different, not "anxious . . . controlling."http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/10/11/3608616.htm …

 

 

 

I have moved my "Theological German: Advice and Resources" website to a new location: http://www.andyrowell.net/theological_german/ …

 

 

You built that. "The church builds itself. As its upbuilding is wholly the work of God, so it is wholly its own work." Barth, CD IV/2, p 634

 

 

You didn't build that. "Who is the true builder? In the strict and primary and ultimate sense it is God Himself and He alone" Barth IV/2 632

 

 

Though only God knows, we should accept as a working hypothesis that other members as well as ourselves are real Christians. Barth IV/1 699

 

 

For every "heresy" Douthat locates in his present, there exist precedents going back to colonial America. - Harry Stouthttp://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/09/pious-perversions …

 

 

 

Columbia's Mark Lilla slams Notre Dame's Brad Gregory's account that the Reformation ruined everything. http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/107211/wittenberg-wal-mart … Thx@agnologist

 

 

Plantinga’s criticisms of naturalism are directed at its deepest problem—how it can account for conscious beings.http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/sep/27/philosopher-defends-religion/?pagination=false …

 

 

@jwilson1812 Yes. "It is a heretical act of arrogance to arrogate divinity for oneself...Joseph Smith’s apostasy...gloriously...delusional."

 

 

@jwilson1812 I guess what Critchley is saying is that as an atheist, he thinks that it is good that Mormons are hard workers.

 

 

@jwilson1812 Weird though that a Christian/atheist? theological critique of Mormonism is titled "Why I love Mormonism."http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/why-i-love-mormonism/ …

 

 

"Obama asked for writings about war by people he admired: Saint Augustine, Churchill, Niebuhr, Gandhi, King."http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/10/michael-lewis-profile-barack-obama …

 

 

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s Battle of Antietam: 23,000 casualties in just 12 hours.http://lightbox.time.com/2012/09/17/150-years-later-picturing-the-battle-of-antietam/ …

 

 

Economists used to debate using words not equations.There’s something to be said for going back to that approach.Sumnerhttp://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=16285 

 

 

Here’s what a lot of economists don’t realize. Mathematical models cannot show which policy is best. --Scott Sumnerhttp://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=16285 

 

 

 

Before writing, I used to pray for words. Now I pray for a loving heart. The words come easier then. And they're better.

 

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@ayjay @james_ka_smith Automatic follow tells me the people really don't read any tweets. The demand to is like telling me what I must read.

 

 

@ayjay @james_ka_smith Touche. I agree with Alan that Twitter is great bec it is not social: "Here's my tweet. Feel free to enjoy or ignore"

 

 

@ayjay @james_ka_smith I agree that you need not follow those who follow you but Alan's "secret indifference" approach also likely offends

 

 

The Vatican website's brown font on brown background design says "I don't care if you can read this but I'm special." http://www.vatican.va/ 

 

 

"It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction." --Jonathan Franzenhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one …

 

 

RT @ahc "Mouw, Coakley, Rivers, and (as one untimely born) me@DukeDivinity Oct 15-16 http://divinity.duke.edu/cps2012  —very excited about this."

 

 

 

@AndyRowell but there is overall national growth in master degrees in religion. According to IPEDS data.

 

 

Seminary (ATS) enrollment peaked in 2006. Surely the availability of theological resources (audio, blogs) on the internet is a key factor.

 

 

Tim Keller's new book Center Church is out: @jasonclark says "superb" @scotmcknight says probably Book of the Year.http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2012/09/04/the-measure-of-a-church/ …

 

 

"Allow a gentle question from a friend of Pietism. Where were the 'converts' when Hitler came? I would have appreciated some help." --Barth.

 

 

The conversion stories in the Bible are always calling stories. What makes Christians Christians, is that they get to do something. --Barth

 

 

"Drop the name Pietism. All words with 'ism' at the end are terrible--Calvinism, Lutheranism. No, we are servants of Christ." --Karl Barth

 

 

@travisegreene I looked at not just MDiv but overall ATS enrollment to answer your question. https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/242750162173296640 … Looks like 2006 was peak.

 

 

Total ATS enrollment: 1970 31,072; 1980 49,611; 1990 59,033; 2000 72,728; 2010 75,898. Peak in 2006 81,063. Most recent data: 2011 74,193.

 

 

Decline in MDiv students: 2007 25,673; 2011 24,227. ATS Full-Time Equivalent Enrollment–All Member Schools. http://www.ats.edu/Resources/PublicationsPresentations/Documents/AnnualDataTables/2011-12AnnualDataTables.pdf … Table 2.3-A

 

 

"No amount of witty and supposedly prophetic and reforming criticism of the church can" replace being part of it.--Barth, Christian Life,189

 

 

The widow of missiologist David Bosch (who died in car accident in 1992) Annemie Bosch just friended me on Facebook.#MissionariesKeepGoing

 

 

 

"Ten rules for writing fiction" (Feb 2010)--submitted by many authors including Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen.http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one …

 

 

 

Branson Parler’s March 2012 review of The Heterodox Yoder by Paul Martens, M's May response, and P's Aug reply:http://erb.kingdomnow.org/the-heterodox-yoder-concluding-our-conversation/ … @ERBks

 

 

 

Rabbi Schwarzschild to John Yoder, "I think you are a good Jew and a bad Christian." Heterodox Yoder, 87.

 

 

Rabbi Schwarzschild to John Yoder, "I agree passionately with your ethics, but, bluntly, Jesus offends and bores me." Heterodox Yoder, 87.

 

 

Pope Paul VI assured me he would pray for me that in my advanced age I would be given deeper insight into the problem of Mariology. --Barth

 

 

"Are the predicates of Mary--Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, Mediatrix--to be understood only as pious invocation (Ratzinger)?"--Barth p23.

 

 

@bpetroelje Barth addresses Lumen Gentium on pp. 23-24 of Ad limina apostolorum; also suggests it does not cohere with Ad gentes pp. 33-34.

 

 

In Sept 1966 in Rome, Barth talked with Karl Rahner and Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) about Mariology. Ad limina apostolorum, 14.

 

 

Barth is polite but scathing on Vatican II documents in Ad limina apostolorum, but he sympathetically notes they were done by committee.

 

 

 

To resist the tyrannical 2 questions Is this good? Does this suck? the writer must learn to say Don't know. Lynda Barry, What It Is,123-135.

 

 

@jgsphd Hauerwas on his use of Karl Barth in the Gifford Lectures, "I believe it might make Stanley Jaki apoplectic." With the Grain, p. 20

 

 

 

 

Great conversation going on today here (http://tiny.cc/5he3iw ) from my fellow PTS friends @dwcongdon and @WTravisMcMaken -- worth your time!

 

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November 05, 2012

AAR and SBL recommendations

I am attending the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) meetings in Chicago Nov 16-20. I have put the sessions I am going to attend in Microsoft Word or PDF files below.

Download AAR & SBL session recommendations 2012 - Andy Rowell - Microsoft Word document

Download AAR & SBL session recommendations 2012 - Andy Rowell - PDF document

I look forward to seeing some of you there!

Andy

 

See also the recommendations of

See also from Anthony Le Donne’s blog:

See also the conference advice I first wrote up after going to my first SBL meeting in 2005.

See also advice from 2008-2009:


Below are some highlights for 2012 from me including some events not on the program:

 

 

 

FRIDAY NOV 16

 

 

P16-210

Karl Barth Society of North America

Theme: Karl Barth Society of North America

Friday - 3:15 PM-6:15 PM

McCormick Place East-258

Katherine Sonderegger, Virginia Theological Seminary

The Attributes of God

Paul Dafydd Jones, University of Virginia

Divine and Human Patience

  

 

 

Not on the AAR or SBL programs:

Theology Studio reception Friday night Nov 16th at 7:30-10:00 pm Grace Episcopal Church. (637 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60605). The Theology Studio is a Facebook group for academic theology. You can join or I can invite you. Here is the link to the group. Here is the link to the event. The invitation reads “On Friday, November 16th, at 7:30PM, we'll be hosting a reception at Chicago's Grace Episcopal Church, just a few blocks from the convention centre and the AAR Annual Meeting hotels. Come discuss the future of systematic theology with Sarah Coakley, Stephen Fowl, and lots of others. Seriously, come. Because it's likely to be the most interesting thing that's ever happened at an AAR.” If you haven't joined, join or just come.

 

 

 

Not on the AAR or SBL programs:

Nov 16, 7pm-9pm, Hilton Chicago: Scot McKnight presents on kingdom and church; N.T. Wright responds. Public event and free. Waldorf room at Hilton.

 

 

 

SATURDAY NOV 17

 

 

P17-112

Karl Barth Society of North America

Theme: Karl Barth Society of North America

Saturday - 9:15 AM-12:15 PM

McCormick Place West-183A

David Haddorff, Saint John's University

Christian Ethics as Witness: Barth's Ethics for a World at Risk (Wipf and Stock, 2011).

Gerald P. McKenny, University of Notre Dame

The Analogy of Grace: Karl Barth's Moral Theology (Oxford University Press, 2010)

 

 

 

Not on the AAR or SBL programs:

There will be a panel about McClendon's work on Saturday November 17 from 9:00-11:30 pm in Chicago at the McCormick Place Convention Center / Room W183C. Panelists include Terrance Tilley (Fordham University), Kimlyn Bender (Baylor University), and Jacob Goodson (William and Mary). Moderator: Curtis Freeman in honor of: James Wm. McClendon, Jr.'s 3-volume Systematic Theology in its new printing by Baylor University Press with a new introduction by Curtis Freeman.http://www.baylorpress.com/en/Contributor/396/James_Wm._McClendon,_Jr..html

 

 

SUNDAY NOV 18

 

 

A18-119

Ecclesiological Investigations Group

Theme: Ecclesiology and Ethnography

Christian Scharen, Luther Seminary, Presiding

Sunday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM

McCormick Place West-185D

Panelists:

Luke Bretherton, Duke University

John Swinton, University of Aberdeen

Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Duke University

Elizabeth Phillips, University of Cambridge

Responding:

Richard Wood, University of New Mexico

James K. A. Smith, Calvin College

 

 

A18-281

Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture Group

Theme: Christology in Barth and Tillich

Frederick J. Parrella, Santa Clara University , Presiding

Sunday - 3:00 PM-4:30 PM

McCormick Place North-128

Panelists:

Bruce McCormack, Princeton Theological Seminary

Responding:

Robison James, University of Richmond

Tom Greggs, University of Aberdeen

 

 

M18-407

Loyola University, Maryland

Theme: Diagonal Advance: Discussing Christian Perfection with Anthony D. Baker

Dan McClain, Loyola University, Maryland, Presiding

Sunday - 7:00 PM-9:00 PM

Hilton Chicago-PDR 2

The concept of perfection has wideranging consequences for politics and ethics, anthropology, and eschatology. Tony Baker's book, Diagonal Advance, has been hailed as the most theological sophisticated treatment to date of perfection in the Christian tradition.

Panelists:

Frederick Bauerschmidt, Loyola University, Maryland

D. Stephen Long, Marquette University

Sarah Coakley, University of Cambridge

Responding:

Anthony D. Baker, Seminary of the Southwest

Posted at 03:53 PM in Conferences | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 30, 2012

Theological German: Advice and Resources website has been moved

I have moved my Theological German: Advice and Resources website to a new location: http://www.andyrowell.net/theological_german/

Posted at 04:27 PM in German, Th.D. / Ph.D. | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 15, 2012

Why the theology doctorate and why ecclesiology is practical

I am continuing to work away at my dissertation. As of tonight, it stands at 92,085 words (303 pages in Microsoft Word). The dissertation only needs to be 80-100 K words but I have lots of revising to do. I think the product (likely a book a few years from now) will be both a significant contribution to the literature surrounding Karl Barth's ecclesiology as well as an excellent entry point for people interested in the theology of the church. In the dissertation, I explore how Barth's understanding of the church has been understood across the ecclesial spectrum from Eastern Orthodox to Roman Catholic to Lutheran to Anglican to Reformed to Methodist to Mennonite to Baptist.

"But why do this?" you may ask, "Why spend what will be six years of doctoral work at Duke (coursework, languages, exams, dissertation, etc.) when you could have been 'doing ministry'?"

"Well," I answer, "My hope is that I will be able to assist people in ministry for decades to come because of this time given to study."

"But," you say, sputtering, "Ecclesiology? Ecclesiology?!"

Good question. When I say "ecclesiology," I am referring to something that provides insight into very "practical" questions, in particular, the questions that pop up almost every day in ministry, "What are we supposed to be doing? How are we to prioritize and think about the infinite demands and needs in front of us?"

Some people have a go-to answer, "What we need is . . ." and then they say, "excellence" or "the sacramental" or "to be missional" or "the spiritual disciplines" or "social justice" or "community." But most of us sense it must be all or at least many of those things. But that just puts us back to where we started: "How much of each of these things? How do we prioritize how we spend our time in ministry?"

The immediate Sunday school answer is "Look in the Bible!" and that is largely right. The trick is to read it all, digest it all, and synthesize it all, and run our conclusions past others in the church to screen out idiosyncratic interpreterations that might accidentally lead us over the cliff into cult, scandal, and abuse. The good news: this is "theology" and we are all allowed to, even supposed to do it. We get to do it--reading, thinking, praying, talking! Woo-hoo! All Christians are to be theologians--that is, trying to understand what God is telling us. The bad news is it is a big task--it takes awhile to read the whole Bible, digest it, and make sense of it and mull over all of it with other Christians. The nice thing about academic theologians like Karl Barth is that they offer us their take, a suggested preliminary synthesis. The good theologians don't expect us to swallow it whole. They instead want us to be like the Bereans who examined the Scriptures every day to see if what they heard was true (Acts 17:11).

Back to our practical question of "What do we do?!" Again, it is useful and primary to go to the Scriptures but as we do we might want to keep in mind Barth's suggestion that what we might find when we look in the Bible is an emphasis on the Holy Spirit as the primary actor, or the most important active participant. This conviction is suggested in Barth's titles for his sections on the church in the Church Dogmatics: "The Holy Spirit and the Gathering of the Church-Community," "The Holy Spirit and the Upbuilding of the Church-Community" and "The Holy Spirit and the Sending of the Church-Community." In other words, Barth thinks, as he reads the Scriptures and how others have read the Scriptures throughout church history, that it is pretty important to remember that what we do really pales in comparison to what the Spirit does. This is not to denigrate human action but just to keep it in perspective. It is the Holy Spirit who brings together the church, edifies it, and sends it. It is only on a subordinate level that we help. Now that might strike you as just nitpicky semantics. You reluctantly grant, "Ok, ok, I'll try to preface my statements, discipline my speech, with the phrase  'as far as the Holy Spirit moves' but I still don't see how that helps me know what to do!"

But we have made some progress already modifying our practical "ecclesiology" question from "As church ministry people, what are we supposed to do given the infinite demands and options?!" to "I wonder what the Holy Spirit is doing. How is the Spirit gathering, upbuilding, and sending the people of God?" Again, you may suspect that this still does not get us anywhere. Worse, you are right to worry that someone might get the idea that we are talking about some sort of mystical "sensing" of what the Spirit is doing that will lead us to do all sorts of wacky stuff that our glands (which we thought were the Spirit) told us to do. No, instead, the Holy Spirit is not just doing random "feel good" things. As I mentioned, Barth organizes his comments around the Spirit's gathering, upbuilding, and sending of the church-community. It is useful to think of the Spirit of Jesus Christ doing what Jesus did in the Gospels with his disciples: gathering them (that is, calling them), upbuilding them (that is, teaching them), and sending them. Of course there is more content that fills out this gathering, upbuilding, sending outline: Barth goes on to emphasize that what, rather who, people are gathered to is Jesus Christ ("where two or three are gathered in my name"); that upbuilding has to do with service; and sending has to do with witness. Again, I am just sketching a few key themes in ecclesiology but I think this brief glimpse demonstrates that the muddle of possible tasks and initiatives in ministry might find some better, wiser, more biblical, formulation than the buzzwords listed above: excellence, sacramental, etc.

My modest contention here is that whatever "practical" ministry questions you lob at ecclesiology, ecclesiology has some useful material to toss back. If you ask about affinity-based youth ministry vs. intergenerational worship services, ecclesiology will ask you to consider whether the sending is being undervalued for the sake of upbuilding or vice-versa. If you ask about a study that shows people like cathedral churches more than mall-like ones, ecclesiology will suggest reflection on what it means to witness. If you ask about: Godly Play vs. Group Publishing curriculum; church planting vs. megachurches; topical sermons vs. expository ones; Chris Tomlin vs. the Book of Common Prayer; short-term missions trips vs. microfinance; ecclesiology will suggest biblical texts and considerations, along with analogous situations in church history, all of which may help (if the Spirit wills!) bring truth and love to the situation. I look forward to, Lord willing, decades of those conversations--that the church might be built up--for the world.

This is just a little informal splash of an explanation why I think ecclesiology is practical which also gets at why I am doing this theology doctorate.

"What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants." (1 Cor 3:5). A good life that.

There are lots of other posts about Karl Barth and Ecclesiology under those categories on the blog and in lots of tweets saved on the blog at the Twitter category. 

Posted at 02:54 AM in Ecclesiology, Karl Barth | | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

August 14, 2012

Why Twitter? and July 19 to August 10 2012 Tweets

I tend to do most of my "blogging" on Twitter these days so thought I would post my recent tweets. My basic approach is to pass on stuff I find very interesting and helpful for other thoughtful Christian types like myself, mostly pastors and professors. I also link to places where I have made extensive comments on a blog post. I end up posting about 1 tweet per day. Having been on Twitter since 2008, that's is quite a few little tips and resources but mercifully they are brief (140 characters) so easily skimmable. See all my past tweets at my blog category Twitter.

How did I come to use Twitter?

I started experimenting with blogging in 2004 when Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code (2003) and Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ (2004) were the talk of the Christian community and the conversation began to get shift from Yahoo email distribution lists to blogs. I started blogging here with TypePad at my own url www.andyrowell.net in January 2006. I have always seen the blog as an overflow outlet for my "real" life as a pastor, professor, and then doctoral student--posting answers to frequently asked questions I receive and pointing people to great resources as the internet has developed over the years.

I started also using Twitter in 2008. Before Twitter, I had subscribed to perhaps 300 blogs in my RSS reader Google Reader. It was much too onerous of course to look up everything everyone wrote (there were often 100 posts per day) so I did what I think everyone does now who uses an RSS feeder: skim through the titles of the posts. I would pick maybe 5 out of 100 to check out. Fewer still would I comment on, perhaps 1 a week. Besides occasionally finding written gems and finding kindred spirits online, the upside was keeping a basic pulse on what people were talking about through skimming the titles of the blog posts. It is sometimes perspective-enhancing to realize what you are up to is not the only thing going on.

Twitter therefore was a very natural extension to skimming blog post titles in an RSS feeder. I follow around 200 people, who happily only tweet a couple times a day or less. They, like me, try to make their 140 characters count: sharing useful stuff. I enjoy their humor, wit, passion, and insight. In the old days, pastors and professors recommended keeping a file system for illustrations and resources. I think Twitter and blogs are something like that--marking but also sharing(!) good illustrations and resources.

P. S. Many of my favorite people including my wife and most of my best friends have very little online interest: no blogs, Twitter, Facebook, online reading, etc. but they read books and are present with the people in front of them. If this is you, don't worry about tweeting or facebooking or blogging. Just keep doing your thing. You will find out anything you need to know by "just" talking to people.

P. P. S. I would try not to worry about who follows you on Twitter and whether people are offended that you don't follow them. I would also try not to worry about how many people read or subscribe to or comment on your blog. For one thing, you won't get rich anyway, says Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird, the first book on writing you should read. Second, if you can write with the general aim that something you write might be helpful to someone out there, it really isn't about the numbers. Third, because writing itself is fulfilling in that you clarify your own thoughts and concerns by writing them down, there is eventually some joy and satisfaction in that. Anne Lamott is a little over the top on this topic, sometimes making creative expression sound almost as good as Jesus (which she sometimes clarifies is not the case), but she is on to something when she says things like: "creative expression . . . .can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty." And on Twitter, "Writing is about not being in the mood and doing it anyway. When I blow off my Writer, it injures my Being, my wild creative worker-bee soul." All of that to say, don't worry about your stats, just write, journal, blog, and tweet to get out your swirling thoughts and to possibly help people.


Tweets

The U.S. #cities getting smarter the fastest? You might be surprised... http://ow.ly/cSMni  via @NewGeography

Blue Like Jazz is at Best Buy, Wal Mart and RedBox! Hope you like it!

Want book review despair? To really do a review right, you'd have to read most of the sources cited therein and countless more that weren't.

I commented about John Flett's Witness of God: recommending it & advising what to read in Barth first. @NextReformation http://nextreformation.com/?p=8827 

@matthewamoser On my dissertation, I have written 86,576 words with about 1 chapter to go. Working on revising at the moment.

Luke Powery (professor of homiletics at @ptseminary) Named New Dean of Duke Chapel @dukechapel succeeding Sam Wells http://today.duke.edu/2012/07/powery 

Wild argument between theologians John Milbank, Stephen Long, Craig Keen, and others on Facebook about role of state. http://www.facebook.com/groups/136703486462365/permalink/176213279178052/ …

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Posted at 11:53 PM in Blogging, Twitter | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 16, 2012

November 2011-July 2012 Tweets

I have been backing up my tweets here for a long time now because Twitter is where I am doing most of my "blogging" these days. But I was disturbed to learn recently that you can only access your last 350 tweets so I am glad I have been doing this. See the most recent tweet below about that.

 

Tweets

Twitter pioneer has little faith in its future. Example: You cannot access all your own past tweets or direct messages. http://www.orianmarx.com/2012/07/12/wha …

I reflected on the "marks of the church" in comment #90 at "Marks of the Church: Driscoll’s Proposal" at @scotmcknight http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscre …

@mattleeanderson Yes, you argue for a Christianly-limited "patriotism" that is grateful for past good things and calls for improvement. Ok.

I commented on shepherd vs. megachurch ecclesiology at Megachurch Pastors: A Petersonian Perspective @scotmcknight http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscre …

Why cannot I see the Direct Messages I sent on Twitter?

I got a kick out of picking 10 Fun Summer Reads: Great, Enjoyable Non-Fiction (Hearts & Minds Books) http://bit.ly/LRnQVf  On sale, too!

By the end of 2 weeks, the 6-hour sleepers were as impaired as those who had been sleep-deprived for 24 hours straight. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/mag …

Today's (long) massively popular "Why Women Still Can’t Have It All" by @SlaughterAM in @TheAtlantic is must reading. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archi …

I commented at the good post by @peteenns "Advice on Whether an Evangelical Should Get a PhD in Biblical Studies" http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenn …

20 April 1962 @Time mag "Last week Barth saw the iconoclastic troupe in a coffeehouse-nightclub called @TheSecondCity." http://www.kerrins.co.uk/articles-gener …

Like Karl Barth 50 years ago, went to @TheSecondCity in Chicago last night. Next week going to @barthconference focusing on his trip to US.

RT @christianaudio Free audiobook of the month "Hearing God" by @DallasAWillard http://christianaudio.com/free/  My wife says this is an excellent book.

Hauerwas: I'm not cynical about fundraising. With confusion re: $, development people are educators if they do it well. http://theologystudio.org/content/interv …

John Howard Yoder on Niebuhr brothers: for Richard H., Christ is not enough; for Reinhold, Love is not enough. DVD 1: http://www.regentbookstore.com/product_detail …

@ahc @jgsphd Hauerwas says Martin is Niebuhrian so doesn't get H but is changing because of H student Bill Cavanaugh. http://theologystudio.org/content/interv …

Four minor league pitchers in 1994. One used steroids, three did not. Quite a story. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/magazine/ … (tx Tim Stafford)

Video of Kimlyn Bender's Apr 27 lecture "Barth and Baptists" @truettseminary http://www.podcast.tv/video-episodes … Encourages baptists regarding tradition.

Fascinating review by @jgsphd of David Martin's book The Future of Christianity. It's going on my list. http://stackblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/dav …

Hiring ‪#charisma‬ MT @jonestony: The Mars Hill ‪#Church‬ Job Description http://goo.gl/fb/5KhJa  ~ reminds me of Weber on succession/routinization

Nice little interview with Lauren Winner of @DukeDivinity including books she recommends for writers. http://www.cardus.ca/comment/articl …

Alan Jacobs (@ayjay) reflects, "In order to survive as an academic: During work time, work; during play time, play." http://ayjay.tumblr.com/post/232286731 …

@matthewamoser Stanley Hauerwas says, "Write a draft of the whole thing. You can revise after you see what you have written."

@matthewamoser 80,000-100,000 is the policy but I am only in ch. 3 of 5 so will need to prune a lot eventually.

"The final version should be between 80,000 and 100,000 words, including notes and bibliography." http://divinity.duke.edu/sites/default/ … / 67,450 so far.

@matthewamoser I'm at 67,450 words on the dissertation--almost exactly the same as you . . Hopefully 800 more this afternoon.

Wrote 10 more mins; now can have guilt-free day. "Write" too fancy--like dressage. Intimidating. How about Scrawl,scribble, spew?

RT @AndrewPeterson Thinking about the best book I've read all year: UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand / I too recommend it.

As usual, enjoying what Alan Jacobs @ayjay has highlighted for me to read this morning at: http://ayjay.tumblr.com 

Duke Graduate Program in Religion Ph.D. dissertations available online. 36 of them from 2007-2011. http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/browse? … H/T @goodacre

A very fine judicious theological review of Christian Smith's Biblicism book by Mark Bowald. http://www.colossianforum.org/2012/05/16/boo … H/T Joseph Mangina

Barth "It is not that theology itself has to preach" but rather to serve as "guard duty over the guards." Theology and Church, pp. 303-304.

Barth: "I cannot help it if this word 'dialectic' . . . immediately becomes a bogy with which one frightens children." http://books.google.com/books?ei=UZi2T …

Barth on Church's "relative" authority. "Under this presupposition, it would be judged better not to burn one another." http://books.google.com/books?ei=UZi2T …

RT @donaldmiller My main advice to young writers: Memorize poetry. As much as you can. It teaches an economy of words. /How bout tweets? :-)

If you're writing, you're a writer. Ignore your narcissism & bad self-esteem. Write a graf, badly, daily: it's creating beads for a necklace

A beautiful commencement address delivered by Stanley Hauerwas this week: "Because It Is True" http://www.ssw.edu/blogs/office-c …

Most counties that voted against amend. have universities: Duke-Durha, UNC-Orang, NC St & Wake For-Wake, Davidson-Meck. http://www.wral.com/news/political …

Alan Jacobs (@ayjay) writes, "I’m right where he is: I cannot justify watching football. Not with what I know now." http://ayjay.tumblr.com/post/222803666 …

RT @Andy_Staples Junior Seau's suicide: I hope football didn't do this but football has lost the benefit of the doubt. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/a …

For some, Barth’s dogmatic ecclesiology that they so admire, leads, Barth thinks, to polity that they find unpalatable. ‪#dissertationpuns‬

Bishop Will Willimon says guaranteed appointment is problematic but bishops can already partly resist it. http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/video/entr … @ShaneRaynor

RT @bethfelkerjones No more tenure for Methodist pastors http://fb.me/1HYVTD7zj  / Wow. United Methodist Church guaranteed appointment ended.

I wrote a blogpost on Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, Douglas Campbell, and Pauline Soteriology: http://www.andyrowell.net/andy_rowell/20 …

The enemy of a bad 1st draft--the source of all good writing--is our perfectionism. It's the voice of the oppressor. Flounder as radical act

In Bird x B, I wrote about writing your story as a letter (or e-mail) to your safest person. No critic--just you telling 1 friend 1 story.

One bad messy paragraph--where nothing existed before--is a small miracle. Now one more, & one more. You did it! We'll make it better later.

Stanley Hauerwas, "Because I read, it seems I have something to say—and so I write." http://books.google.com/books?id=CdAui …

Stanley Hauerwas, "I write like I learned to lay brick. You do it because you have to get it done before it rains” (Hannah's Child, 86).

Hauerwas: “Give me thirty minutes here or there, and I could get something done. I am often asked how I have written so much. That is how."

"Finally, my wife would like to thank me for finishing the dissertation." James J. Buckley, Yale dissertation, 1977. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?did=76 …

(4) We need far more Christian public voices like Ross Douthat. And the good news is I believe they are on their way.

(3) For me, the book was worth the price for pages 240–241 alone—a powerful diagnosis of the consequences of "God Within" spirituality.

(2) The book does not have nearly as many flaws as its progressive critics (Silk, Winters) claim. It is overall judicious and careful.

(1) There is little here that those who have read JD Hunter, Christian Smith, Mark Noll, and Rod Dreher will find terribly surprising/novel.

Okay, having finished Ross Douthat's _Bad Religion,_ my evaluation follows in four tweets.

A number of interesting audio at @TruettSeminary http://www.baylor.edu/truett/index.p … Willimon, Bauckham, Peterson, Hays, Moltmann, Wright, Willard, Sanneh.

@TruettSeminary @theonetruemyles Kimlyn Bender's book Karl Barth's Christological Ecclesiology is the best on the topic: careful & precise.

I commented on Barth's doctrine of election and his comments on universalism at @scotmcknight 's blog: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscre …

I'm not in conservative Reformed crowd but good post from Carl Trueman: @T4GOnline is magnificently just a conference. http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2012/04/t …

N.T. "Tom" Wright & @james_ka_smith have continued to comment (#: 10, 19, 24, 25) on a blogpost by Jamie on Tom's book. http://the12.squarespace.com/james-ka-smith …

See critique by @jameskasmith of N.T. "Tom" Wright's most recent book and Wright's lengthy comment (#10) in response. http://the12.squarespace.com/james-ka-smith …

Upon @theonetruemyles urging, I have read the first chapter of Barth's Der Romerbrief, and have learnt that God is not a lot of things.

"Instead of practicing my speech, I spend all my time trying to make it better." http://paulgraham.com/speak.html  HT @ayjay

In smaller places, you may end up mixing with more diverse people. How Big Cities Can Lead to Small Thoughts. http://www.instapaper.com/text?u=http:// … HT @ayjay

Good post by @DonaldMiller "Some Thoughts on Self Promotion and Why Arrogant People Think it’s Wrong." http://donmilleris.com/2012/03/29/why …

Hauerwas: "The biggest threat to the ministry is adultery and it is not because pastors have too much energy (i.e. lust). It is loneliness."

Hauerwas to future pastors: I want to give you two things to do. Never marry anyone you don't know. Never bury anyone in a funeral home.

Hauerwas:The great problem in the ministry today is loneliness. One of the great challenges is how to be friends with those you are serving.

Hauerwas: "So the minister retreats home from the church to the family but no spouse can love another spouse that much."

Hauerwas: "You begin to hate the people you're serving because of their unlimited demands on you."

Hauerwas: Ministry today is like being nibbled to death by ducks. Since "you don't work" people think they can ask you to do anything.

Hauerwas on 1 Cor 11:29-30. "I suspect most people in our churches are not dying from eating the Eucharist unworthily but out of boredom."

Lost phone charger& have no battery. Doomed. Forget you ever knew me. Even Jesus rolling His eyes. Maybe NOW I can get a service dog.

Extremely practical guide to graduate school and the PhD toward getting an academic job ‪#highered‬ http://chronicle.com/article/Gradua …

Lines from The Princess Bride that Double as Comments on Freshman Composition Papers. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/lines … H/T @ayjay

Professor advice on the importance of being in touch with where students are & getting them excited about the subject. http://chronicle.com/article/A-Tech …

Video of my "Confessions of a Converted Lecturer" presentation at Johns Hopkins (with slides -- nice quality) http://ow.ly/90O0P 

@ANNELAMOTT picked up 4500+ followers in two days. (Maybe because she's a terrific writer?)

Richard Hays appointed to full term as dean of Divinity School, President Brodhead and Provost Lange announced Monday. http://bit.ly/ylEjhS 

RT @kevinwatson "Successfully defended my dissertation on the early Methodist band meeting yesterday at SMU. Praise God!" / Congrats!

Christianity Today's Critics' Choice Movie Awards of 2011: Oscar favorites & little-known indie films http://bit.ly/y71uNE 

McCormack on Adolf von Harnack's History of Dogma: It is not that Harnack was right but that Patristics scholars are saying what he said.

McCormack on Hegel: He was hetero-orthodox (e.g. resurrection) but that doesn't make him heretical. He usefully disrupts.

McCormack argues as a Protestant (sola scriptura) he needn't follow Rom. Catholic Lewis Ayres's pro-Nicene theology beyond the creed itself.

McCormack in 2nd Kantzer lecture asserts that God does not die (cease to exist) but experiences death in the human nature of Jesus Christ.

In McCormack's 2nd Kantzer lecture he criticizes divine simplicity and impassibility as unbiblical Greek developments. http://www.henrycenter.org/programs/kantz …

PC(USA) conservatives announce new reformed body: "Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians." http://www.fellowship-pres.org/new-reformed-b … H/T @edstetzer

The Most Redeeming Films of 2011: Why quiet, contemplative movies top the list for @ctentertainment http://bit.ly/ADx8AL 

2011: The Year in Reviews! My top films of last year…and reflections on the movie year that was. http://www.decentfilms.com/articles/2011- … @NCRegister ‪#CathMedia‬

RT @jonestony @AndyRowell Oh, geez. Tri-theism? Puhleeze. / Tony jumps in to defend his man Moltmann.

McCormack decries social trinitarianism of Moltmann/Volf as tritheistic and says people need to read "Nicaea and Its Legacy" by Lewis Ayres.

McCormack, a Barth scholar from Princeton Seminary, laments the growth of the Evangelical-Catholic agenda in theology. (Kantzer lecture #1).

Nice RT @TheAtlantic: New, old, and dead writers offer their advice for stepping up your literary game http://theatln.tc/Aisrnv  via @brainpicker

As of this week I will be serving as the Executive Director of the Max De Pree Center for Leadership http://tinyurl.com/7mefubl 

@edstetzer @CTmagazine I told @spulliam and @tedolsen about feed problem. They were working on it January 4th and I think they fixed it.

BREAKING NEWS: Magnificat not even a real cat, much less a magnificent cat.

If you fell off, or never got on, the Karl Barth Dogmatics-reading bandwagon, it's time to get back on! Year 2 Plan: http://bit.ly/bWLjnr 

Tim Keller uses one of Stanley Hauerwas's favorite sayings: You Never Marry the Right Person. http://bit.ly/zwsA3u  @RELEVANT H/T: @millinerd

Procrastination is not laziness. It is the act of directing effort toward other activities. Alison Miller, Finish Your Dissertation, p. 44.

My most-used library-access dissertation-writing sites: Chicago Manual of Style Online, Digital Karl Barth Library, ATLA Religion Database.

My most-used free dissertation-writing websites: http://books.google.com , http://thesaurus.com , http://translate.google.com/?hl=en#de|en|

I have a Karl Barth bobble-head on my desk. When I ask him a theological question, he nod-shakes his head dialectically.

I have an "unspoken prayer request." If you could just lift up all the masters level students who don't know when to choose "its" or "it's."

A nice little post by theologian Ben Myers @FaithTheology summarizing Karl Barth's main works in a few phrases: http://bit.ly/vsYgoQ 

Greatest thing I have seen in awhile...You're welcome Taylor University’s Silent Night Tradition Is Amazing http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2011 …

Essay on keys to finishing a dissertation | Inside Higher Ed: http://bit.ly/vG9cVj  via @AddThis

Independent Christian bookstore owner @byronborger reviews new Children's Picture Books https://bit.ly/vzg1kz  and has them for 20% off.

Sam Wells is to be vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields from next year http://shar.es/oI7Z7  We are doing a something of a swap! @dukedivinity

@ayjay RE: Cathy Davidson http://ayjay.tumblr.com/post/136030447 … In the podcast, Davidson says " the world would be filled with a lot more Buddhas" at 4:09.

"The way is slow, And we've so far to go. Keep your eyes on the prize... Hold on." http://youtu.be/BmrTvDoqvMM  @Goannatree @cwdaniels ;-)

I send out this song by @grovesroad that is really about @IJMHQ fighting slavery to my fellow dissertation writers. http://youtu.be/BmrTvDoqvMM 

In §62 of IV/1 of Barth's KD, Kirche (church) occurs the exact same amount of times as Gemeinde (community): 357. In §67 & §72, G. wins.

Posted at 09:41 PM in Twitter | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 30, 2012

A comment on Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, Douglas Campbell, and Pauline Soteriology

I'm writing a bit on Karl Barth and Emil Brunner in my dissertation right now and saw Douglas Campbell referring to the two theologians in passing in the comments of a post entitled Douglas Campbell’s “Rereading” of Paul at Larry Hurtado's blog about Pauline soteriology. I just thought I would add some theological reflection to their exegetical discussion there. Hurtado and Campbell debate in the comments some of the features of Campbell's big book The Deliverance of God (which I have referred to in the past). 

Campbell writes,"And it may be that Paul and his opponent agree on quite a bit in Rom 1 in any case (I think they do); but Paul doesn’t want to put this material up front, so to speak. And that’s a critical difference–as big as the difference between Barth and Brunner, or between Athanasius and Arius."

Here's my comment: Barth and Brunner are indeed interesting to compare because they are indeed so close on so many matters. John W. Hart writes in his conclusion of his book on Barth and Brunner,

"It is the thesis of this book that Barth and Brunner represent fundamentally different ways of doing theology. This thesis is maintained despite the fact that, viewed within the context of the history of theology, it would be difficult to find any theologian closer to Barth than Brunner, or closer to Brunner than Barth” John W. Hart, Karl Barth vs. Emil Brunner: The Formation and Dissolution of a Theological Alliance, 1916-1936 (New York: Peter Lang, 2001), 218.

Brunner's zeal to be missionally, ethically, and philosophically relevant to the world and Holy Spirit-led worries Barth. Brunner was interested in what was contemporary: he loved the parachurch Oxford Group Movement and was deeply concerned about communism and thought personalism was extremely insightful (Emil Brunner, “Toward a Missionary Theology,” Christian Century 66, no. 27 (1949): 817-818). Barth’s famous angry “Nein!” to Brunner was explicitly about natural theology but in particular about the warm reception Brunner’s “point of contact” theology was getting from German-Christian (Nazi) theologians (Emil Brunner and Karl Barth, Natural Theology: Comprising “Nature and Grace” by Professor Dr. Emil Brunner and the Reply “No!” by Dr. Karl Barth (Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock Publishers, (1956) 2002), 67.). My project deals with Barth’s ecclesiology. Barth's ecclesiology is quite similar to Brunner’s at first glance. They were both Swiss Reformed church theologians–advocates of the importance of the local church and decried Roman Catholic “clericalism.” But again Barth felt that Brunner’s “being led by the Spirit” was naive and foolish–that thinking about such practical matters as church and mission demanded far more discipline.

Here is the contours of the Brunner-Barth debate regarding Pauline soteriology: Hart reports, “Brunner argues that his understanding of Law-Gospel is truly Pauline and Calvinist–the Law is the tutor from the Gospel (‘this point-of-connection (Beziehungspunkt) [cannot be] surrendered’) and only subsequent to faith does one correctly see the Gospel in the Law” (Hart, Karl Barth vs. Emil Brunner, p.79). Whereas, Barth says “Brunner’s opposition between Law and Gospel is too harshly Kantian: ‘Is not the Law also revelation, not only punishment and opposition?’ (Hart, Karl Barth vs. Emil Brunner, p.78).

I hear Campbell arguing for the Barthian side–questioning whether the ostensible Romans 1-3 presentation is the normative definitive ordering of all gospel presentation: presentation of Law then conviction of sin then experience of faith. The Oxford Group Movement, which Brunner loved, used this approach: testimonies of how people were gripped by sin then were changed by faith in the work of Christ (Hart, Karl Barth vs. Emil Brunner, p.178). Barth and Campbell want to hold together more closely Jesus’s person and work so that Jesus’ life (as depicted in the Gospels and alluded to in Paul and elsewhere) matters. For Campbell the Jesus story contains Pneumatological, Participatory, Martyrological, and Eschatological components (“PPME”). Barth says that Jesus Christ is the Lord as Servant (IV/1) and the Servant as Lord (IV/2).

The problem with Brunner and those who place all this emphasis on the Law and Sin, says Barth, is that his framework gives humanity too much credit and relegates God to some minor bit player who gets brought in when there is a problem. God is just the cleaner-upper-guy, Mr. Fix-it, the Stain-Master, the Spot-Remover. What is interesting, thinks Brunner, is philosophical trends like personalism, new initiatives like the Oxford Group Movement, and political developments like communism; the church and theology must catch up to what is going on and try to fix it. Barth and Campbell think that what the Triune God is up to is more interesting, more definitive. The question is whether human beings will “correspond” (Barth), “participate” (Campbell) with God. I’m grateful for the work of the New Testament scholars doing the difficult exegetical work to see whether Barth and Campbell over-read this emphasis into the texts but I think these are at least some of the theological issues at stake.

Posted at 04:48 PM in Douglas Campbell, Karl Barth | | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

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