Selaphiel

Good evening Count and may I just take this opportunity to say "Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhh".

Anyway, things are a bit 'meh' here and unfortunately I haven't really found much new in the way of music that's grabbed my attention but I'm going to do a good search for some stuff tonight.

How are things with you?

:e4e:

lain:

:chuckle: I'll just start calling you old timer.

Yes, I think there is some truth in that. But I think some people interpret blessedness in the NT as including material wealth. Those who preach a prosperity gospel. But the lives of Jesus and the apostles don't speak to that. You have to look to the OT for material prosperity.

:e4e:

:chuckle: Yes, it may be a while before I let H&G get near my sister's child.

On Clayton, I agree with that.

On the last, I think I do agree and it goes in line with some of what I've been reading in Bauckham. I've also recently read 1 Cor 1-2 which talks about Christ crucified being a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. And I've been thinking a bit about why exactly it is a stumbling block and foolishness to them. I think you are right to talk about it being a scandal for God to be crucified and for the lowly to be glorified. One thing Bauckham talks about is how in some scripture we see that Jesus is glorified because of his sacrifice but then in John the glory is simultaneous with the sacrifice. I don't know to what degree I'd say that OT wisdom is overturned, but I do think Jesus provides a reversal in thought and expectation to some extent. Probably a significant one. Bauckham does point out some hints of God's lowliness and humility from the OT.

:e4e:

part 1...
Sounds like a good time. I'm still not a huge stout fan but I've had a few recently, at least a couple of them were coffee stouts, and I surprisingly quite enjoyed them. That cream stout sounds good. I don't know if St Peter's is something I can get around here. I'll keep my eye out though. There is a nice place near me that lets you create your own 6-packs and they have a very wide variety. Maybe they'd have it.

Sorry to hear about the sickness. Hope you recover quickly or are already recovered. Sore throats can be very unpleasant.

Hope the job search goes well. I saw you mention to anna that you are considering doing something in the military. That could be a good opportunity. I think churches have to maintain a delicate balance as it concerns military and wars. You'd probably be good in there.

Gotta love crazy facts like that.No you don't. :chuckle:

Sorry you have a cold, I hope you get well soon. You probably already get enough tea, so my advice is to drink lots of hot toddies. :cheers:

Feel better!

Hi Sela.

I got a B on the exam, and I'm happy with that; holding a B through the semester it's all I'm asking of myself. I have the concepts down so far, but messed up in a couple dumb areas. For example I totally forgot when calculating the standard deviation for a sample on one problem that I had to plug in n-1 instead of n into the formula to make up for the underestimation bias so I calculated for a population instead. That kind of thing. We've moved on to z scores now. lain:

I do so like words better than numbers.

How are you doing?

I heard something interesting at church today. A quote by Richard Rohr about reading the bible:
The Bible was written in faith and it can be understood only in faith. In other words, it cannot be read cynically (liberals) nor literally (conservatives), which are merely two different forms of rationalism to keep ourselves in control. Our faith is not in the words of the Bible. Our faith is in the Triune God who is very subtly and slowly revealing the Divine Mystery in space and time–and yes through words and stories, parables and biographies.

Just wanted to pass it along.

Hope you are having a good weekend. :e4e:

Wow, that's exciting, Sela. All those years of hard work, almost finished. You'll have to tell me when it's official so I can congratulate you.

I think that's very true about trouble engaging young men, and here too. It sounds very enriching, both for the young men and for you too. Maybe you'd be stationed somewhere you've never been before. That would add an extra element to the pastoral.

Took an exam in statistics today. I think I did all right. I'll find out soon enough.

I'm not too bad. Still very busy at work. Have had some good family news recently. My dad had his 2nd appointment about his potential blood disorder and this doctor is saying that he doesn't actually have PNH and there isn't really anything to do at this point (he says he has some PNH cells but doesn't actually have PNH, which is confusing to me). He just has to continue monitoring his blood every few months. That was a big relief. And I found out my sister is pregnant a couple nights ago. That was quite a shock! Reading wise, still working my way through the same stuff. I'm getting close to the end of The Brothers Karamazov. I might go for something lighter on the fiction side next. For Bauckham, the worship of Jesus might just be the most convincing factor in the argument for his divinity. :think:

How are you? I see I never followed up on your job search comment. How's that going? Is this your last semester then?

:e4e:

Yes, the insurance company wasn't happy. My rates will rise. :mmph:

I'd agree with you about infinity not being an enlargement of finitude. But I think I can still see reaching an idea of infinity from finitude. But it is interesting to think about what comes first. I'm a bit confused in what Clayton says though. If we're talking about concepts and thoughts, how could infinity be primordial and presupposed in thinking about finitude, if we think about finitude first (first in sequence of discovery)? That seems backwards to me. Though if you're talking about actuality, and not just conception, then perhaps infinity is prior, and finitude is a lack of something. Like you say, and how evil is the privation of good.

And since infinity is in another logical category then reaching that idea may not be inevitable from projecting from our finitude. Maybe, to go on your language of perfection, the difference between maximal duration, size, etc and the boundless.

Are you finishing up your studies then? Almost time for the shepherd to take up his staff?

(Or steering wheel? For some reason James Herriot comes to mind. )

An army chaplain... That sounds like an excellent idea. What led you to consider it?

Yes, I'm two weeks in and loaded down with work. I thought I'd left the dreaded math behind but I had to take a behavioral statistics course along with my research methods course. Even though I'm swimming in frequency distributions and standard deviations, I'm really happy to be learning what I'm learning and I have a new appreciation for the scientific method. The next two years I'll be required to be a research assistant even though I'm going for the applied.

The crazy dial has spun off into the universe somewhere, no doubt about it.

And it could never be you.

Things are tough. But I'm too stubborn to give up.

I hope you're doing well. I've wondered - did you get your license and get out on the road?

http://www.ibtimes.com/pulse/watch-game-thrones-hafthor-bjornsson-break-1000-year-old-viking-record-lift-1400-1805624

H&G saw this video and decided to cut down a tree in my yard and try to carry it. :Plain:

:chuckle: I wouldn't expect you to keep up with American football. It was New England vs Seattle. New England won, which I was happy about. :banana:

Yes I've been going back and forth between Bauckham's Christology book and the Paul/Stoicism book. Making slow progress. In a section about the worship of Jesus right now, talking about doxologies and hymns devoted to Jesus.

That does sound interesting. I can understand how someone could take that view of a theology of perfection. Is it possible to say that while God actually does embody absolute values we approach God by looking at the world and ourselves and expanding from there? And it seems like infinity could also be a projection of the finite.

I like that.... " stuck in some abstract theological cloud..." :chuckle:

:idea: Hey... you can practice distilling it down for me. I'll be the guinea pig for your eventual flock.

I do think both are necessary, so they can speak to the needs of their particular audiences. I'll try to get back to more videos as I'm able, and maybe I'll have some psych-based thoughts to share, or maybe I'll run into trouble and I'll just send you a and no further words will be necessary. :chuckle:

:wave2: How are you doing?

H&G are getting ready for the Super Bowl and played some with a neighborhood kid. It didn't go too well for him. lain:

:e4e:

I think that God must be considered eminently real in the sense that he is the source of being (not just as a cause in the past, but at all moments). I would also advocate that for a classical conception of omnipotence, so God can ultimately bring creation to its fulfillment.I would agree with you on that. And truthfully, the rest is at a level beyond my ability to grasp more than the very basic concepts which you've conveyed very, very well. So I have enough to understand what you're saying on the surface, but not enough to go deeper to a level which would be satisfying to you, and it would be silly for me to pretend that I could.

I saw what I thought was an interesting commentary on Is 9:5. It says, "'The Mighty God....ruler': This long sentence is the throne name of the royal child. Semitic names often consist of sentences that describe God; thus the name Isaiah in Hebrew means 'The Lord Saves'; Hezekiah, 'The Lord Strengthens'; in Akkadian, the name of the Babylonian king Merodach-baladan (Is 39:1) means 'the god Marduk has provided an hear'. These names do not describe the person who holds them but the god whom the parents worship. Similarly, the name given to the child in this verse does not describe that child or attribute divinity to him, contrary to classical Christian readings of this messianic verse."

I'm sure you've seen that in your studies and reading but I had never seen that as an explanation of those verses.

I hadn't thought about that. I don't remember him addressing Ex 3:14 directly. There is a section where he talks about John giving Jesus the divine name with the 'I AM' passages, but he lists other OT passages, the "I AM HE" verses. Deut 32:39, Is 41:4; 43:10,13; 46:4; 48:12; 52:6

But I do agree with you that 'I am who I will be' would work with what he's proposing, where we relate to God through who he is and what he does.

I did a quick look of that book on Amazon. Looks interesting. It would be nice to get a survey type look at those philosophers. Looks way over my head though. :chuckle:

:e4e:

"However, if the patristic development of dogma secured for a new conceptual context the NT's inclusion of Jesus in the unique divine identity, the Fathers were must less successful in appropriating the second key feature of NT Christology to which I have drawn attention: the revelation of the divine identity in the human life of Jesus and his Cross. Here the shift of categories of divine nature and Platonic definition of divine nature which the Fathers took for granted proved serious impediments to anything more than a formal inclusion of human humiliation, suffering and death in the identity of God. That God was crucified is indeed a patristic formulation, but its implications for the doctrine of God the Fathers largely resisted."
(a footnote to this quote mentions Moltmann).


How have you been?

:e4e: