I may have already posted this

nataliedee.com

Obama

I can't begin to tell you about the layers of meaning this has for me. At the deepest level, the caustic overtone of comparing Barack to Christ is lost on me.

Don Miller

I barely recognized him.

Saving Paradise

"Once Jesus perished, dying was virtually all he seemed able to do."



We were over at Wendy and David's house tonight and he passed me a book from his bookshelf. I was so caught by the dust jacket blurb on the book. It made me feel aware again of this awkward seem I'm on between one way of following Jesus and another. The thesis of this book resonates so strongly with me, but I know if wasn't that long ago that it would have been impossible for me to hear their critique.

Dust Jacket:

_________________________________

When Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker began traveling the Mediterranean world in search of art depicting the dead, crucified Jesus, they discovered something that traditional histories of Christianity and Christian art had underplayed or sought to explain away: it took Jesus Christ a thousand years to die.

During their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ as a living presence in a vibrant world. He appears as a shepherd, a teacher, a healer, an enthroned god; he is an infant, a youth, and a bearded elder. But he is never dead. When he appears with the cross, he stands in front of it, serene, resurrected. The world around him is ablaze with beauty. These are images of paradise—paradise in this world, permeated and blessed by the presence of God.

But once Jesus perished, dying was virtually all he seemed able to do.

Saving Paradise offers a fascinating new lens on the history of Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, and asks how its early vision of beauty evolved into one of torture. In tracing the changes in society and theology that marked the medieval emergence of images of Christ crucified, Saving Paradise exposes the imperial strategies embedded in theologies of redemptive violence and sheds new light on Christianity's turn to holy war. It reveals how the New World, established through Christian conquest and colonization, is haunted by the loss of a spiritual understanding of paradise here and now.

Brock and Parker reconstruct the idea that salvation is paradise in this world and in this life, and they offer a bold new theology for saving paradise. They ground justice and peace for humanity in love for the earth and open a new future for Christianity through a theology of redemptive beauty.

Recycle Me

nataliedee.com

Maroda or Winner?

Karen Maroda | MHGS | SHOW SOME EMOTION: Completing the cycle of affective communication | Oct 10, 7-9:30pm

or

Lauryn Winner | Quest Church | Faith and Gender | Oct 10, 7-9pm

What are the odds? What would Jesus do?

Posting other people's cartoons is still easier than blogging

Toothpastefordinner.com

This one goes out to Paul

At the Risk of Being a Corporate Tool

My friend Molly argues that the commercials during the Olympics are better than the commercials during the Super Bowl. I'll have to take her word for it, as I think Regan may have been in office the last time I saw more than a snippet of the Super Bowl.

I do have to say that this may be the most romantic commercial I've ever seen.. Which, admittedly, there's not a big pool to draw from.

How (Not) to Speak of God, 11 of 23

"Revelation is often treated as if it can be deciphered into a dogmatic system rather than embraced as the site where the impenetrable secret of God transforms us."
17

-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

Trifecta

"A person who says he doesn't understand art doesn't know himself very well."
-Sophie's World


Art. Subconscious. Theism. 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

How (Not) to Speak of God, 10 of 23

"Revelation ought not to be thought of as either that which makes God know or as that which leaves God unknown, but rather as the overpowering light that renders God known as unknown. This is not dissimilar to a baby being held by her mother - the baby does not understand the mother but rather experiences being known by the mother."
17
-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

Global Warming: sign of the end times

How (Not) to Speak of God, 9 of 23

"Unlike those who would seek to offer a different set of answers to theological questions, those with the emerging conversation are offering a different way of understanding the answers that we already possess... This is not then a revolution that seeks to change what we believe, but rather on that sets about transforming the entire manner in which we hold our beliefs."
7
-Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God