Links Roundup …

March 16, 2011

On women in the church … a beautiful piece by Dr. Serene Jones.
You’ll find a truly unflattering statistical portrait of American Evangelicals – in graphic form – here. If this isn’t a call to action for mainstream Evangelical leaders, I don’t know what is.
For a beautiful portrait of an Evangelical Christian’s response to the recent rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric, here is Lynne Hybel’s recent blog. And here’s a great short interview with Jay Bakker.
Bill McKibbin gets it right as usual, on the Kochs and the CoC, here. And Bill Moyers/Michael Winship also get it right, on NPR, here.
This excellent piece deals with an emerging generation of young theologians and theological reflection in our multi-faith world … Quotable:

Spiritual, not religious. One should not be too quick to condemn the “I’m spiritual, not religious” mantra of many students, for it may express a desire for more depth than they are being fed in mainstream religious education.
Two dimensions of Christian faith have deep appeal to many of these students. First is their discovery that faith is not the same thing as assent to dogma or adherence to religious duty. Religion in these senses attends faith but does not describe it. Rather, faith is the acceptance of the gift of God’s love in the person of Jesus. It is a relationality “more intimate to me than I am to myself,” to quote St. Augustine. When shared and communicated, that relationality establishes a community of faith. When students see it this way they are freed to focus on the heart of the matter and to appreciate the classical expressions of faith, like the creeds and council teachings.
The second dimension is the notion of God as mystery: God as incomprehensible, ineffable, endlessly knowable and lovable yet not possibly contained or summed up within a single doctrinal formulation. God is not an object alongside others. This too is freeing. It allows students to discover how their search for the spiritual dovetails with the deepest parts of their religious selves. The choice is not between atheism and faith but between simplistic formulations of faith and a journey through life into their own transcendent depths. Many students seek to be religious with spiritual depth.

This beautifully captures the relationship between “religious” and “spiritual” that I’m working with in Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in Twelve Simple Words.
If you live in the DC area, you can hear one of our best contemporary theologians, Dr. Michael Gorman, this weekend … I wish I could be there. Here’s info:

ANNOUNCING
THE 30th ANNUAL G. ARTHUR KEOUGH LECTURESHIP 2011
FRI., MARCH 18 (7:00 p.m.) & SAT., MARCH 19 (10:00 a.m.; 3:30 p.m.)
DEPARTMENT OF RELIGION, WASHINGTON ADVENTIST UNIVERSITY
Dr. Michael Gorman (Professor of Sacred Scripture and Dean of the Ecumenical Institute of Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary & University, Baltimore) will be our G. Arthur Keough Lecturer in the Department of Religion at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, MD, on March 18 and 19, 2011. Dr. Gorman has written numerous books (see below or reverse) on the Apostle Paul, on theology and hermeneutics, on ethics, and most recently on the Book of Revelation. He will lecture on “Reimagining Justification According to St. Paul,” and two distinguished scholars will respond to his lectures: on Friday evening Fr. Frank Matera from Catholic University of America and on Saturday afternoon Dr. Stephen Fowl from Loyola University in Maryland. The overall theme and the three titles of Dr. Gorman’s lectures for this year’s G. Arthur Keough Lectureship 2011 program are:
Reimagining Justification According to St. Paul
DR. MICHAEL J. GORMAN
1. The End of Justification as We Know It
Friday, March 18 at 7:00 p.m., Richards Hall Chapel
Response by Fr. Frank Matera, Catholic University of America
Q&A
2. Justification as Resurrection from the Dead (with Special Reference to Abraham)
Saturday, March 19 at 10:00 a.m., Sligo Church Fellowship A
3. Justification and Justice (with Special Reference to the Corinthians)
Saturday, March 19 at 3:30 p.m., Richards Hall Chapel
Response by Dr. Stephen Fowl, Loyola University in Maryland
Q&A/Panel