DOCSLIB.ORG

Enjoying God and Neighbor: Cultivating Desire for the Presence of the Other

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Enjoying God and Neighbor: Cultivating Desire for the Presence of the Other Please HONOR the copyright of these documents by not retransmitting or making any additional copies in any form (Except for private personal use). We appreciate your respectful cooperation. ___________________________ Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) P.O. Box 30183 Portland, Oregon 97294 USA Website: www.tren.com E-mail: [email protected] Phone# 1-800-334-8736 ___________________________ ATTENTION CATALOGING LIBRARIANS TREN ID# Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) MARC Record # Digital Object Identification DOI # Ministry Focus Paper Approval Sheet This ministry focus paper entitled ENJOYING GOD AND NEIGHBOR: CULTIVATING DESIRE FOR THE PRESENCE OF THE OTHER Written by JOSEPH STANLEY WILSON and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Ministry has been accepted by the Faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary upon the recommendation of the undersigned readers: _____________________________________ Alan J. Roxburgh _____________________________________ Kurt Fredrickson Date Received: April 30, 2015 ENJOYING GOD AND NEIGHBOR: CULTIVATING DESIRE FOR THE PRESENCE OF THE OTHER A MINISTRY FOCUS PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY JOSEPH STANLEY WILSON MARCH 2015 ABSTRACT Enjoying God and Neighbor: Cultivating Desire for the Presence of the Other Joseph Stanley Wilson Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2015 The goal of this study is to explore the cultivation and diffusion of new habits of engagement with neighbors through experimental actions and the introduction of four bodily practices: Lectio Divina, daily prayer, weekly Eucharist, and inhabiting a third place. It is argued that the introduction of bodily practices within a praxis form of theological reflection can alter the habitual engagement of a church with its neighbors. The thesis was tested at Northside Baptist Church in Clinton, Mississippi. Through an examination of ecclesial formation, the study identifies desire as central to spiritual, congregational, and missional formation, and it argues that in order to cultivate or transform desire, a congregation needs new bodily practices coupled with receptive presence in their neighborhood. In order to test this hypothesis a missional action team was formed at Northside Baptist Church and led through an examination of their congregational praxis of neighborly engagement. The team took up the four bodily practices and met to explore neighborly engagement in light of Scripture and theological resources. The team was then led to create four short experiments of receptive engagement with neighbors and finally gathered back to reflect on their findings. The entire process was framed within the liturgical seasons from Epiphany to Pentecost. The study concludes that habits of paternalistic engagement can restrict the capacity of a church to recognize its neighbors as ends unto themselves to be enjoyed for their own sake and that congregational formation cannot be separated from receptive missional presence among neighbors. It commends an experiment aimed at neighborly presence. It recommends further work in spiritual formation through a process of Appreciative Inquiry, participation in a broad-based community organizing effort, and partnership with a neighboring church in its exploration of missional praxis. Content Reader: Alan Roxburgh, DMin Words: 288 To my father, Roland Wilson, who knew the Church must change, and allowed himself to be changed TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE: DISCOVERING DESIRE AS A MINISTRY CHALLENGE Chapter 1. FRUSTRATED INNOVATION AND THE PROMISE OF CHANGE 5 Chapter 2. TOWARD THE TRANSFORMATION OF DESIRE 18 PART TWO: EXPERIMENTING WITH NEIGHBORLY PRESENCE Chapter 3. DESIRE IN LENT AND JOY IN EASTER 34 Chapter 4. RESULTS OF THE PROJECT 48 PART THREE: REFLECTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Chapter 5. TOWARD A LOCAL THEOLOGY OF DESIRE 78 Chapter 6. DIFFUSING DESIRE AND THE VIRTUES OF LEADERSHIP 107 Chapter 7. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 124 APPENDICES 138 BIBLIOGRAPHY 148 iv INTRODUCTION Northside Baptist Church (hereafter, Northside) has a history of servant ministry, but has often engaged its community as a benefactor working for the good of others less fortunate.1 Its members have not fully recognized their neighbors as ends unto themselves, to be enjoyed for their own sake. As a result they suffer from an “impoverished social imagination,” and it is not clear what they want for or from their neighbors, or that they see themselves in need of anything from them.2 In this study a missional action team will be formed and led to create experiments in neighborly presence among families involved in three different Northside ministries. The experiments will attempt to shift missional practice from primarily “working for” to “being with” neighbors3 and to help a liberal Baptist church break out of habits of internal reflection into a praxis model of action and learning.4 The objective is to learn whether and how a congregation can come to recognize and cultivate desire for its neighbors. This project is vitally important because Northside is a predominantly white church in an increasingly diverse community, and church members do not know how to break out of historic patterns of engagement into new ways of thinking, feeling, and 1 For a discussion of the implications of engaging our community by “working for” those in need see Samuel Wells and Marcia A. Owen, Living Without Enemies: Being Present in the Midst of Violence (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2011), 20-47. 2 Willie James Jennings, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 6. 3 Wells and Owen, Living Without Enemies, 23-26. 4 Thomas H. Groome, Sharing Faith: A Comprehensive Approach to Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 135-145. 1 acting among their neighbors. The church has an important history of progressive social ministry and advocacy, but it does not recognize the deep challenge and opportunity to join with what God is doing in its very own neighborhoods. The project is interesting to me because I have been pastor of Northside for twelve years, but I have not been able to lead the congregation into a new awareness of racial division, much less into new commitments of engaging neighbors as ends unto themselves. Through this project I hope to grow in my own capacity to lead my congregation, and I hope to diffuse a new way of missional action that springs from a desire for the presence of neighbors. Part One of this doctoral project will describe previous attempts at missional innovation. It will explain why the failure of these attempts points to a lack of desire for the presence of the other. It will then describe how experiments in neighborly presence might expose this lack of desire and cultivate a new desire within the congregation. Part Two of the paper will follow the project in full. The project embedded the “Missional Change Model”5 within the liturgical seasons from Advent to Pentecost. Participants met weekly for Eucharist and established a daily practice of prayer, thus intentionally creating opportunities to explore bodily desire in both worship and mission. They were also introduced to the practice of indwelling a “third place.”6 The experiment in enjoying the presence of neighbors took place in the fifty days of Eastertide. Part Three of the paper will suggest the contours of a local theology of bodily desire. Examining theological and cultural challenges and pointing to new social 5 Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, The Missional Leader (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass), 79-108. 6 Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of Community (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1999), 14-19. 2 imagination in light of the experiments, this section will consider how bodily desire for God and neighbor can be locally embodied in Clinton, Mississippi. This section will show how missional, congregational, and spiritual formation are finally inseparable, and it will focus on the importance of receptive engagement with neighbors to missional formation. Part Four will conclude with recommendations for further missional innovation in light of the project. It will offer practical suggestions for a project of Appreciative Inquiry aimed at spiritual formation. It will propose that Northside join in a local effort of broad- based political organizing in order to unlearn habits of paternalism. Finally, the doctoral project will conclude with an argument for the importance of acting and reflecting within a multi-cultural congregation, and it will recommend a project in historical memory in partnership with a local black congregation. 3 PART ONE DISCOVERING DESIRE AS A MINISTRY CHALLENGE CHAPTER 1 FRUSTRATED INNOVATION AND THE PROMISE OF CHANGE Northside is a predominantly white church in an increasingly diverse neighborhood, and its members have indicated a desire to know and be known by their neighbors. This opening chapter will compare the racial homogeneity of Northside to the racial diversity of its neighborhood, the schools, and the city of Clinton at large. It will then describe signs of awareness among the membership that Northside has become estranged from its neighborhood as well as signs of a shared desire for the presence of neighbors. After identifying signs
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Creation and God As One, Creator, and Trinity in Early Theology Through Augustine and Its Theological Fruitfulness in the 21St Century
    Creation and God as One, Creator, and Trinity in Early Theology through Augustine and Its Theological Fruitfulness in the 21st Century Submitted by Jane Ellingwood to the University of Exeter as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology in September 2015 This dissertation is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the dissertation may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this dissertation which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: _________Jane Ellingwood _________________________ 2 Abstract My primary argument in this thesis is that creation theologies significantly influenced early developments in the doctrine of the Trinity, especially in Augustine of Hippo’s theology. Thus this is a work of historical theology, but I conclude with proposals for how Augustine’s theologies of creation and the Trinity can be read fruitfully with modern theology. I critically analyse developments in trinitarian theologies in light of ideas that were held about creation. These include the doctrine of creation ‘out of nothing’ and ideas about other creative acts (e.g., forming or fashioning things). Irenaeus and other early theologians posited roles for God (the Father), the Word / Son, the Spirit, or Wisdom in creative acts without working out formal views on economic trinitarian acts. During the fourth century trinitarian controversies, creation ‘out of nothing’ and ideas about ‘modes of origin’ influenced thinking on consubstantiality and relations within the Trinity.
    [Show full text]
  • 2020-CV-Sonderegger.Pdf
    CURRICULUM VITAE Katherine Sonderegger Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology Virginia Theological Seminary 3737 Seminary Rd. Alexandria, Va. 22304 703 461 1746 [email protected] Education: Brown University, Department of Religious Studies; PhD 1990 Western Religious Thought Dissertation: Karl Barth's Dogmatic Interpretation of Israel Wendell S. Dietrich, advisor Yale University Divinity School; M.Div (Biblical Studies) 1976; STM (Theology)1984 Smith College; AB, 1972 Medieval Studies Professional Experience: Virginia Theological Seminary Professor of Theology, 2002- Named William Meade Professor, 2014, Distinguished Professor, 2020. Middlebury College Department of Religion Visiting Instructor, 1987-90 Assistant Professor, 1990-93 Associate Professor, 1993-98 Professor, 1998-2002 Bangor Theological Seminary Hanover, NH Instructor in Theology, 1993-96 Chaplain Intern, Yale New-Haven Hospital, New Haven, Ct. 1980-82 Minister of Education, United Church of Christ, Milford, Ct., 1976-78 Ordained, United Church of Christ, 1977; Confirmed in the Episcopal Church, 1993; Ordained Deacon and Priest, 2000. Resident in the Diocese of Virginia. Administrative Experience and Institutional Service: Virginia Theological Seminary: Faculty Representative to Trustees Admissions Committee Curriculum Committee Library Committee Book Review Editor, Virginia Seminary Journal, 2007-09 Masters Committee Worship Committee Faculty Representative, Buildings and Grounds Seminary Representative to the Anglican Theological Review Middlebury College: Appeals
    [Show full text]
  • Reflections on Thomas F. Torrance's Theological Science
    FEATURE ARTICLE A MANIFESTO FOR INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT: Reflections on Thomas F. Torrance’s Theological Science (1969) Alister E. McGrath, DPhil, DD, DLitt, FRSA Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion University of Oxford [email protected] This lecture was given to the T. F. Torrance Theological Fellowship at the 2016 meeting of the American Academy of Religion. It focuses on my own multiple readings of one of Torrance’s best-known works, Theological Science (1969), exploring its strategy for encouraging and informing intellectual engagement between theology and other disciplines, most notably the natural sciences. The lecture locates Theological Science within the context of Torrance’s overall theological project, and considers its distinct approach to theological rationality and its wider implications. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Let me begin by expressing my delight at being able to honour the memory of Tom Torrance in this way. There is no doubt in my mind that Torrance is one of the most interesting and engaging British theologians of the 20th century, and it is quite likely that he’ll be one of the relatively few such theologians to find a readership in the next generation. Nobody really understands the mechanisms and factors governing the reception of the theological past. We can certainly try to make sense of why some writers continue to be read today where others have been discarded and forgotten. But we cannot predict whom the future will value and remember. Nevertheless, it seems to me that a core criterion is that a writer must continue to be useful; that is to say, a future generation must find a theological writer to engage meaningful questions in a manner and with a quality that seem to outshine more recent alternatives.
    [Show full text]
  • John Bainbridge Webster MA, Phd (Cantab.), DD Hc (Aberdeen) 20 June 1955 – 25 May 2016 One of the Most Distinguished Anglican Theologians of His Generation, the Revd
    1 John Bainbridge Webster MA, PhD (Cantab.), DD hc (Aberdeen) 20 June 1955 – 25 May 2016 One of the most distinguished Anglican theologians of his generation, The Revd. Canon Professor John Webster served both church and academy internationally, and played a substantial role in the revitalization of the discipline of systematic theology. Born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, he was brought up in West Yorkshire. Educated at Bradford Grammar School, he specialized in languages and literature, going up to Clare College, Cambridge as an Open Scholar in 1974. He read English initially but switched to Theology at the end of his first year. An outstanding student, he graduated with a First and the Burney Prize and proceeded to PhD study at Clare as Beck Exhibitioner. His doctoral research was on the demanding work of the German theologian, Eberhard Jüngel (b. 1934), whose repertoire, then little known in Britain, traversed New Testament studies, systematic theology, ethics, and the history of philosophy, with major debts to existentialist Lutheranism as well as to the work of the great Swiss theologian Karl Barth. Through Jüngel Webster moved on to extensive critical and constructive interpretation of Barth himself, becoming one of Barth’s foremost analysts in English. But it was as a theological thinker in his own right that Webster would shine. After Cambridge, he held a one-year research fellowship at the University of Sheffield before being appointed in 1982 to his first teaching position at St John’s College, Durham. Ordained priest in the Church of England in 1984, he served an assistant curacy in County Durham and as Chaplain at St John’s.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    INTRODUCTION During the latter part of the 20th century and early into the 21st century, Colin E. Gunton (1941–2003) was an important voice in the contempo- rary theological dialogue, especially in the area of trinitarian studies. He has been heralded as a key figure in the “renewal of systematic theology in Britain” and is credited with contributions that led to a resurgence of trinitarian theology in both Britain and the United States.1 Gunton’s most well-known and discussed aspects of his work revolve around his concep- tion of the Trinity and how the Trinity acts as a hermeneutical key that shapes the content and nature of theology. While Gunton is well known for his work on the doctrine of the Trinity, he has also crafted a trinitarian account of the doctrine of creation that is, according to Alan Spence, “a rich and complex body of constructive theology.”2 John Webster notes that, “along with T.F. Torrance, Gunton is one of the few theologians in Barth’s tradition to devote serious thought to the theological description of the created order.”3 Even though there is agreement that Gunton’s doctrine of creation is a significant aspect of his work, there remains relatively little research available on his constructive views of creation. Furthermore, no full-scale study has attempted to expli- cate his doctrine of creation and locate the significance of the doctrine of creation within the wider spectrum of his theology. This volume proposes a reading of Gunton’s work that takes his theolog- ical description of creation as an integral aspect of Gunton’s theology, and argues that his doctrine of the Trinity cannot be read in abstraction from his doctrine of creation.
    [Show full text]
  • Jesus Christ and the Church in the Theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Stanley Hauerwas
    For the Life of the World: Jesus Christ and the Church in the Theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Stanley Hauerwas by Robert John Dean A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Wycliffe College and the Theology Department of the Toronto School of Theology In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology awarded by Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto © Copyright by Robert John Dean 2014 For the Life of the World: Jesus Christ and the Church in the Theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Stanley Hauerwas Robert John Dean Doctor of Theology Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto 2014 Abstract The church-world problematic has occupied a prominent place in modern theology and church life. However, the anemic ecclesial imagination of much of modern Protestantism has left it ill- equipped to engage the issue. This dissertation proposes that the theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Stanley Hauerwas provide a rich and complementary set of resources for aiding the contemporary church in negotiating the complexities of its relationship to the modern world. Through their de-theorizing of Christology and focus upon the particular identity of Jesus Christ, both Bonhoeffer and Hauerwas are able to recover the ethical and political character of the Christian faith. The apocalyptic and participatory character of their Christologies provides the grounds for the recovery of a robust conception of the identity and mission of the church. The church is not an add-on or afterthought for either man, but rather is internal to the Gospel itself. The ecclesiological density of their thought, which stems from their radical Christological concentration, allows for a different orientation to the church-world problematic than the predominant approaches to the problem in modernity.
    [Show full text]
  • God, Christ, and All Things in 1 Corinthians 15:28 David E
    Luther Seminary Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary Faculty Publications Faculty & Staff choS larship Summer 1998 God, Christ, and All Things in 1 Corinthians 15:28 David E. Fredrickson Luther Seminary, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/faculty_articles Part of the Biblical Studies Commons Recommended Citation Fredrickson, David E., "God, Christ, and All Things in 1 Corinthians 15:28" (1998). Faculty Publications. 72. http://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/faculty_articles/72 Published Citation Fredrickson, David E. “God, Christ, and All Things in 1 Corinthians 15:28.” Word & World 18, no. 3 (1998): 254–63. https://luthersem.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0001003088&site=ehost-live&scope=site. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty & Staff choS larship at Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Word & World Volume XVIII, Number 3 Summer 1998 God, Christ, and All Things in 1 Corinthians 15:28 DAVID FREDRICKSON Luther Seminary St. Paul, Minnesota I. TRINITY AND CREATION N A RECENT ESSAY CONCERNING THE DEARTH OF TRINITARIAN INFLUENCE ON THE Itheology of creation, Colin Gunton argues that the only way of adequately ar- ticulating the relation of Creator and creation is to speak about Trinity and crea- tion.1 Since in the west the doctrine of creation has generally been formulated without the notion of personal relation on which the doctrine of the Trinity rests, the relation between God and cosmos has inevitably been misconstrued in one of two forms, both of which have unacceptable consequences.
    [Show full text]
  • LEANNE VAN DYK, PH.D. CURRICULUM VITAE Columbia Theological Seminary 701 S
    LEANNE VAN DYK, PH.D. CURRICULUM VITAE Columbia Theological Seminary 701 S. Columbia Dr. P.O. Box 520 Decatur, Georgia 30031 404-687-4514 (O) Education 1992 Ph.D. Princeton Theological Seminary Systematic Theology, magna cum laude 1987 M.Div. Calvin Theological Seminary 1985-6 Theologische Hogeschool van de Gereformeerde Kerken in het Nederland, Kampen, The Netherlands (non-degree scholarship year of study) 1982 M.A. Western Michigan University Early Childhood Education 1977 B.A. Calvin College Music and Education Ordination Ordained by the Lake Michigan Presbytery of the PC(USA) in 2007 Teaching and Administrative Experience 2015-present President and Professor of Theology, Columbia Theological Seminary 2006-2015 Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Western Theological Seminary (WTS) 2005-2006 Academic Dean, WTS 2002-2005 Dean of the Faculty, WTS 2000-present Professor of Reformed Theology, WTS 1998-2000 Associate Professor of Reformed Theology, WTS 1995-1998 Associate Professor of Theology, San Francisco Theological Seminary, Member of the Core Doctoral Faculty, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California 1992-1995 Assistant Professor of Theology, San Francisco Theological Seminary LEANNE VAN DYK/2 Professional Activities (Selected) 2016 Vice-chair of the Board of Commissioners of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). 2014-present Member of the Board of Commissioners of ATS. 2011-2014 Member of Wabash Center’s Colloquy for Theological School Deans. Director of follow-up grant from Wabash. 2006-2014 Multiple activities with the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) on academic administration – conferences, speaking at conferences. 2004-2009 Re-Forming Ministry: an Office of Theology and Worship project of the PC(USA).
    [Show full text]
  • Colin Gunton
    chapter 3 Colin Gunton At the time of his sudden death in 2003 at the age of 62, Colin Gunton was a leading Protestant, British theologian within the larger scholarly community making connections between trinitarian theology and its practical implica- tions for life. To fully comprehend Gunton’s gradual embrace of the doctrine of the Trinity, we must consider the various contexts and influencing figures in his life and throughout his career. At the start of this chapter, Gunton’s his- torical embrace of trinitarian theology will be examined, and his lasting legacy in contemporary theological discussions will also be considered. A thorough exploration of Gunton’s trinitarian theology will follow. Colin Gunton was born on January 19, 1941, in Colchester, Essex. He was the eldest of three sons born to Herbert Ewart Gunton and his wife, Mabel Priscilla [Bradley].1 After attending Nottingham High School, he won a scholarship to Hertford College in 1960.2 On August 8, 1964, he married Jenny Osgathorpe, a Nottingham schoolteacher who had attended the same Reformed church.3 Gunton went on to Mansfield College, a constituent school of the University of Oxford, where he earned two degrees (Bachelor of Arts—Theology in 1966 and Master of Arts—Theology in 1967).4 Starting in 1967, Gunton began a six year project to complete a Ph.D. de- gree in theology at Mansfield. There, as a graduate student, he came under the 1 Michael Stringer, “The Lord and Giver of Life: The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit in the Trinitarian Theology of Colin E.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    valedictory style is influenced by this aesthetic. In conclusion, I hope that I have expressed sufficiently the immense importance of this book from the point of view of a genuinely positive relationship between theology and the Church. Whilst in terms of the broad sweep of Rowan Williams’ own work, these essays are perhaps sparsely spread, their true strength resides in their attempt to take Williams’ theology and apply it to their own ecclesiological situation. Thus, for any minister, church leader or pastor who is interested to know how theology fits into the broader work of the Church, this book is invaluable: a concrete example of putting into practice that which is preached. Furthermore, if this were not enough, the bibliography pertaining to the incalculable material produced by Williams’ is arguably worth the price of the whole book! Jon Mackenzie, University of Cambridge Public Theology in Cultural Engagement, ed. Stephen R. Holmes, Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 200, pp. xiv, 96 T ISBN 97-227529. £9.99 Answers are increasingly sought and given for the relentless onslaught of problems in the world. But what voice should Christians – unashamedly committed to the Bible’s authority – have in this arena? Rather than shying away from culture into separatist isolationism, as sometimes marks the Christian position; and rather than resigning itself to a feeble neutralized assessment of world phenomena, this volume displays a serious ‘theological’ engagement with culture. It asserts that Christian theology, which is ‘universally – and so
    [Show full text]
  • METAPHYSICIANS of MODERNITY: COLIN GUNTON and GEORGE P. GRANT CONFRONT the ZEITGEIST by Arthur Gregory Daggett Th.B., Kingswoo
    METAPHYSICIANS OF MODERNITY: COLIN GUNTON AND GEORGE P. GRANT CONFRONT THE ZEITGEIST By Arthur Gregory Daggett Th.B., Kingswood University, 2010 Submitted to the Faculty of Theology at Acadia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Theology) Acadia University Spring Convocation 2013 © 2013 Arthur Gregory Daggett This thesis by ARTHUR GREGORY DAGGETT was defended successfully in an oral examination on 3 April 2013. The examining committee for the thesis was: Dr. Jody Linkletter, Chair Dr. James Perkin, External Examiner Dr. Carol Anne Janzen, Internal Examiner Dr. William Brackney, Supervisor Dr. Craig Evans, MA Director This thesis is accepted in its present form by Acadia Divinity College, the Faculty of Theology of Acadia University, as satisfying the thesis requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Theology). ii I, ARTHUR GREGORY DAGGETT, hereby grant permission to the University Librarian at Acadia University to provide copies of my thesis, upon request, on a non- profit basis. Arthur Gregory Daggett Author Dr. William Brackney Supervisor 3 April 2013 Date iii Acknowledgements While I take credit as the author, I do not consider this project a solitary endeavor. Friends, family members, and colleagues who contributed in some way are too numerous to mention, but I would like to acknowledge several people for their help in making this thesis a reality. Dr. Kennth Gavel’s mentorship during my first few years as a student of theology helped lay the foundation for this work, for which I am forever grateful. Blaine Hanna has been a great friend and conversation partner, tolerating my late-night rants through many years of study together.
    [Show full text]
  • How Is Robert Jenson Telling the Story?
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE http://scriptura.journals.ac.za/ provided by Stellenbosch University SUNScholar Repository Scriptura 98 (2008), pp. 231-243 HOW IS ROBERT JENSON TELLING THE STORY? Anné H Verhoef Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology Stellenbosch University Abstract This essay focuses on how the well-known Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson is telling the Christian story. It gives an introduction on Robert Jenson as a person and then shows how his theology can be summarised with reference to three interrelated themes, namely: Trinity, Time and Church. Jenson is a trinitarian theologian. In his understanding that cannot be separated from being a narrative theologian. According to him, the Christian story is a story of hope and its eschatology must be able to survive any criticism – such as the Marxist and the ecological ones. If Jenson thus asks how the End will be, he does not see it as a repristination of the beginning, but as a sublimation – our end is inclusion in God’s life. The article concludes his sort of ‘theology of hope’ is one that can help Christians against the threat of nihilism. Key Words: Robert Jenson, Church, Time, Trinity Introduction To answer the question of how Robert Jenson is telling the story, is a challenging task because of the style and complexity of Jenson’s theology. In this essay I will nevertheless attempt to give an indication of the main thread of the storyline in his theology. I will start by giving an introduction to Jenson as theologian and to his major theological works.
    [Show full text]