In “Religion in the Making” Whitehead defines Religion as “world-loyalty.” There is a good deal more in the book to discuss at a later date (like after I get a new copy of it because all the pages fell out today!), but there is something important here.
Why? One could assume that Religion is, or at least has become, part of the world’s problem yet Whitehead is insistent that true religion in its various expressions shares a commitment to the world we live in. As a Christian who believes that God is with us, in Christ and in life, I want to echo his claim that religion is world-loyalty. Not only does a healthy expression of the Christian religion have a strong world-loyalty, but we believe God does.
I have been thinking a bit about what I should do with the blog in 2009. I had a bunch of ideas but decided that I would pick a few things and try to post on them 20 times during the year. Who knows how this will work out, but in my head it is a good idea. So here’s the year long topics in the best of all possible blogging worlds.
1. Question of the Year: What is Religion?
2. Gospel of the Year: Matthew
3. Theologian of the Year: Paul Tillich
4. Doctrine of the Year: Ecclesiology
Well that would be 80 posts of seemingly decent content. In addition I will post on current events and not just think ‘that would be a funny blog post.’ I am going to be intentional about using the “posts brewing elsewhere” sidebar to point toward cool posts out and about, so check them out.
As for media posts, I am thinking of posting a new song each month. I have received a couple requests of covers, so maybe I will give that a try. If I can think of something to blab about I want to try to video blog. I envisioned a little video post where I try to spin an idea around and see what kind of response I get. Maybe I could even do it as a character or something. Who knows if that will happen or go anywhere
I am going to aim for 42 episodes of the Homebrewed Christianity Podcast this year. Just how the time investment necessary will work while being in the middle of a PhD program is anyone’s guess, but Chad and I will do our best. As for just what the HBC will do stay tuned for 09 hype, but you are welcome to send us topic or guest suggestions. I have five goals for the podcast this year.
1. Create a small\house\pub group or sunday school class curriculum and test it out with some HBC deacons in their faith communities. Holla if you are interested. I think this format might get the HBC word out to more people.
2. Do at least one podcast with Chad in person while drinking his Homebrew.
3. Expand the theological diversity of our guests. For some reason more conservative theologians and biblical scholars reject Chad and I. I don’t know if it is because we use the metaphor of brewing or because we have had plenty of more progressive guests. Well some have said the second in email, but none the less, I will try.
4. Continue to attempt to get NT Wright on the podcast. Perseverance of invitation. For some reason 20k podcast listeners and a read-up fan to interview you just doesn’t get the Bishop of Durham to bite. Maybe I should move on to Rowan Williams?
Well there are my Blog-o-lutions. As for my resolutions, I have two.
1. Get to my high school graduation weight. The last two degrees I earned brought with them plenty of excess weight. Since graduating Divinity school I have managed to loose 65 pounds. If I can keep it off and drop 25 more pounds this year I will be back to my high school size with just enough on the love handles for Alecia to pull me in for a big smooch.
2. Ween Elgin and let him hangout with his grandparents for a whole week while Mom and Dad go somewhere with shotty cell phone reception, no internet, only one theology book (to read while Alecia is sleeping) and a fireplace for cuddling.
One of my assignments before PhD classes start up in a couple weeks is to figure out where Alecia and I’s retirement money from church is going to go. I have been looking around the internet and reading articles on just what choices we have to make and such, but the tenor of most ‘investment’ talk makes me suspicious. It is as if the entire goal is simply profit, even if it is at the expense of other people’s well-being.
As a minister I would hate to find out that I invested people’s tithe in sweat shops, child labor violations, slash and burn farming, or some other human or ecological nightmare just to make sure I visit Europe a few more times in retirement. It is weird thinking that most of us invest in all kinds of companies who may be diametrically opposed to our ethical sensibilities and religious convictions, but it appears that there isn’t many options for the ethical investor. DanielRadosh pointed me to some more disturbing news, the real money makers are the vice-based stocks. Ugh.
Who knows if I will be spending extra time in purgatory for my retirement investments, but considering the time I have already racked up for my taxed income that went to our most recent military debacle I guess I should do my best and hope God weaves something redemptive out of my portfolio.
The best resource I have found for ethical investing is the Social Fund web page (ThanksEd). Hit me up with more if you got’em.
What do you get if Deacon Parker of Pop Theology and MarjorieSuchocki of the WhiteheadInternationalFilm Festival talk film and theology? A great conversation! I hope you enjoy this final episode of Homebrewed Christianity Season 1. If you live in SoCal you should think about joining Marjorie, Ryan, and myself at WIFF in Claremont California. Should you decide to come give me a Homebrewed Holla so we can hang out between films.
Here are some short videos I made of Marjorie talking about the WIFF.
Marjorie Suchocki discusses Sin, Salvation, and Creative Transformation in Film: Homebrewed Christianity ep.39 [47:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
David Sloan Wilson’s book and article in the NYT has initiated an important discussion for the church - namely how are we to understand God, creation, biological life, and religion in dialogue with the best contemporary scientific thought. Wilson, a biologist and atheist, describes how he understands religion within the evolutionary process and while I enjoyed the interview and the question being posed I found his answer as reductionistic as many from various theological streams. For example, certain Barthians will understand religion as a category to be reviled and rejected as the product of human projection (via Feuerbach) but the Christian faith to be exempt to this criticism due to the self-revelation of God in the person and work of Jesus. At first it could be odd to think Wilson’s conclusions about religion to be similar to those of certain Barthians, but both use a very narrow definition of religion in order to reject it and assert their own interpretation of reality. Of course both could respond and say, “It’s not my interpretation, it is the revealed truth of God in history” or “It’s not my interpretation, it is the most valid construction of the empirical facts.”
I agree with Barthian’s who confess that there is something particular in the revelation of God in Christ, but not in the rejection of religion as a whole - even Wilson notes some of religion’s important functions in human history. I also agree with Wilson that religion has and will continue to change or transform through human history, it is indeed (at least in part) a construct of human existential needs and desires that is described and practiced through human communities and with human language. That religion is really human however, shouldn’t be a threat to religion and our response as a people of faith doesn’t need to be either a rejection of the scientific endeavor nor a blanket acceptance of a scientific interpretation that we try to cram God into. All truth is God’s truth and all our claims to it - scientific and religious - are partial and more or less functional. A more functional religious interpretation of the world will engage and be transformed by the best science but in doing so I think we will find there is much we can say about religion than Wilson imagines.
Elgin did not want to leave my lap last night so we read through a favorite Paul Tillich book of mine from undergrad. It is a short book, 85 pages, based on a lecture series he gave where he connected the philosophical quest with the heart of Biblical religion. He concludes the last lecture by saying, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God of the philosophers is the same God. He is a person and the negation of himself as a person.” The discussion that arrived there is a good one and a fun read for the interested, but everyone will probably enjoy this one:
The basic error of fundamentalism is that it overlooks the contribution of the receptive side in the revelatory situation and consequently identifies one individual and conditioned form of receiving the divine with the divine itself.
John Cobb joins us this week for a fun and fascinating conversation on the incarnation, Christology, consumerism, philosophy, and advent. Cobb is one of the premier theologians of the 20th century with interests ranging from Christology to sustainable economies. He is the most noted voice in Process theology and is invested in articulating a constructive postmodernism for the church. This conversation continues what we started last week with Leron Shults, so hopefully you will enjoy both episodes and find a friend for a good Homebrewed conversation on the incarnation this season.
Chad is offically a heretic. One of the emergent heresy head hunter blogs have deemed Chad’s invitation for congregations to become “COOL,” aka energy efficient and green, to be a distraction from the gospel. Hopefully Chad will still be able to sleep at night. If you want to join the heretical movement and help congregations do a better job caring for the earth God gave us, then visit the regeneration project. Here’s the EV post. If you are worried about the state of Chad’s heretical soul, I suggest you call and leave him a message on the HBC podcast hotline: 210-787-1057
UPDATE: Chad is been identified as a hairy-tick by another heresy hunting website. The comment section is funny or very scary.
The Whitehead International Film Festival is coming up in January and since I actually live in California I will be able to go this year. It is unique in that it combines the power of film with group theological reflection. Marjorie Suchocki lectured on the Gospel of John and led a theological discussion on eschatology based on a film at my church back in NC a couple years ago. Her choice of film and conversational luring skills was amazing and since then I have wanted to attend the festival - Now I Will. If you are in the SoCal area I hope you will consider it and let me know so we can hangout between films.
January 6, 2009 
Posted in books, philosophy, quotes, theology 
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