Hopeful Christianity by David Artman
These days if you ask people what Christianity means a lot of them will say something like, "Christians think God is sending everyone but them to hell for ever and ever." Increasingly Christianity is seen as a religion which divides humanity into "keepers" and "expendables". Christianity is seen less and less as being about grace and restoration, and more and more as being about judgment and eternal rejection. Phillip Yancey, in his book Vanishing Grace, writes about this phenomenon. At the beginning of his book Yancey writes:
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Punisher or Pushover? How is Wrath “God’s” by Brad Jersak
As we continue to preach and teach the NT message that “God is Infinite Love,” embodied in Christ and revealed on the Cross, it is right that we should continually challenge and be challenged by “the wrath of God.” That challenge requires us to keep returning to the Scriptures and to the Lord for greater clarity, because such great potential for error persists. We dare not slander God, either as a violent punisher or a spineless pushover, because such images serve as stumbling blocks, especially to those suffering under the consequences of their poor choices or those of somebody else.
SOURCE: Christianity Without Religion
PODCAST: Learning How to See with Brian McLaren — Episode: “Find the Flow” (feat. Jacque Lewis)
What would it mean for us if we happened to live during the decline of the old humanity when a new humanity is in the painful, fragile process of being born? What if some of us are in the process of trying to resuscitate the old, while others of us are conceiving, gestating and giving birth to the new? What if the growth of the new movement, the new humanity, the new social creation or construction depends on the old one losing its hegemony? As I write those words, I can’t help but feel a flood of resonances with the Hebrew scriptures. I feel echoes of Isaiah speaking of God doing a new thing. Something fresh springing forth so that there will be good news for the poor, recovery of sight for the blind, freedom for the incarcerated and oppressed. Oppression of the poor is one of the hallmarks of the old humanity.
Doug King - “Spiral Dynamics, Deconstruction and the Future of Faith”- Presented by NOMAD PODCAST
From the Nomad Podcast Crew: We speak with Doug King about the evolution of his faith, progressing from Christian fundamentalism to a post-Christian identity. At the heart of Doug’s understanding of this journey is the historical framework of Spiral Dynamics, a model that illuminates the evolution of worldviews across cultures worldwide. This model reveals that the journey many of us have been on - from fundamentalism, through deconstruction, to a more expansive, inclusive spirituality - are not isolated personal experiences, but an integral part of the collective evolution of the human race.
“The Evolution of Atonement Theories in Western Christian Theology: Where they Have Been and Where They are Going” by Madeleine Rebouché
ABSTRACT
There are three main ways of viewing the atonement that have dominated Western Christian Theology in the past: the classic view, the Latin view, and the subjective view. Each of these views were important in their time and place within history, but it is time that we begin to search for a new way of viewing the atonement in order for the gospel to remain a viable narrative for Christians to connect to in contemporary thought. I argue that the God must be nonviolent and that divine justice should follow a restorative versus a retributive model of justice. It is through these new understandings of God’s character, agency, and justice that the atonement must be understood.