Chesterton talks about how hard it is to love one’s neighbor. They’re so weird. Its fashionable and It’s far easier to connect with someone likeminded in the city, or in our time, on the internet, than to genuinely know and love the weird quirky humanness of one’s neighbour. Ditto for one’s own family.
@@neiltristanyabutWe have this tendency to view God as a divine vending machine. We insert our money and pull the lever and get what we want. It's all about us getting what we want. But what if God is something other than that? What if he is more akin to the vending machine, the items within it, the coins we insert, the floor on which it and we stand, the elevator that gets us there, the building that holds the elevator, the land upon which the building sits, the city that encompasses that plot of land, the country where the city is located, the planet upon which that country resides, and the universe which contains that planet and a billion-trillion others? What if God is like that? How, then, would that alter our concept of prayer? Can we honestly say it "works" or "doesn't work"? The apostle Paul had such a view of God, I think. He writes in Acts 17:28, "For 'In him we live and move and have our being'."
i've never been more moved by someone's thoughts. since watching this video, i read a bit on Bonhoeffer's 'discipleship' and his views on ethics. the points he makes, about holy language being misused in other settings, to in some ways sanctify matters of the state by propping up people as Messianic saviors, it all feels all too similar to the concerns Anscombe had about the misuse of language. how having secular moral philosophies that still clung onto terms like "good" and "bad", "wrong" and "right", could eventually render those notions meaningless. such were her concerns about the direction moral philosophy was heading by being more and more centered around consequentialism. how talk about the 'greatest good possible' opened many doors to the most despicable and monstruous means, that were granted their justification to be enacted based on this usurped principle of 'greatest good'. i've got to admit, i had left the faith for a while. for much of the same reasons Bonhoeffer pointed out. all the pain and suffering going on, the careless and sometimes ruthless attitude people had towards other people dying. but this. this gave me hope. hope that i was in dire need of. i still wouldn't call myself religious, but i have a hope that the best direction we can take is the simplicity in discipleship that Bonhoeffer advocated for. that we all see each other under that 'proximus' light. all made on the image of God. all deserving of dignity and love.
Did Bonhoeffer repent of rejecting certain essentials of the faith as myth- like the Virgin Birth and Bodily Ressurection? Those are requirements of the Christian faith from the beginning. Without believing the creedal essentials of the faith one is not a Christian.
Bonhoeffer is suggesting a way between myth and history--between fundamentalist and liberal. Of course the creeds are central to the Christian faith, and as a Lutheran he situated himself within these creeds. But creeds are linguistic expressions that are culturally conditioned. Doesn't mean they are untrue, but we spend so much time trying to prove either events happened or didn't happen we neglect to focus on what they mean! The resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than a resuscitated body--it's an event that transcends mythical and historical categories. The point Baonhoeffer is making is Jesus Christ is not a doctrine, an idea, an abstraction, or a principle--Jesus Christ is a person, fully God and fully human. Who is Jesus Christ for us today? - that's his question.
I agree. Bonhoeffer was a Liberal theologian, which is why his friend Hermann Sasse eventually rejected his ideas. He really wasn't a true Lutheran. He was originally ordained in the Prussian Union, a monstrosity of a church that combined Lutheran and Calvinist ideas, but was really Reformed. Bonhoeffer was right to stand against Nazi interference in Christian churches, but that dosen't absolve him of being a crappy theologian.
When are we just going to allow ourselves to admit the great pillars of our cultural foundation centuries BC in Classical Greece? Science - 585 BC. Democracy - 525 BC. "Wokeness" - 306 BC. And then the parable of the sheep and the goats. We do our neighbours and selves terrible harm to ignore this.
Interesting post, Jason. Bonhoeffer will make you think, if nothing else. He certainly underwent his own theological transformation, whether for good or bad. But, don't we all? I may consider myself a Nicene Christian, but there's a lot of wiggle room to explore and question my current beliefs and practices.
Christ vs religion in Galatians.
Chesterton talks about how hard it is to love one’s neighbor. They’re so weird. Its fashionable and It’s far easier to connect with someone likeminded in the city, or in our time, on the internet, than to genuinely know and love the weird quirky humanness of one’s neighbour. Ditto for one’s own family.
You can pick your friends but not your family!
Of course! That's why love cannot be reduced to sentimentality! I tell students all the time--loving your neighbor is the hardest thing we can do.
We have a huge homeless population where we are. Time to pray and seek justice, Amen.
Yes!
prayer doesn't work
@@neiltristanyabutyou doing it wrong.
@neiltristanyabut Actually it does, even in a psychological sense.
@@neiltristanyabutWe have this tendency to view God as a divine vending machine. We insert our money and pull the lever and get what we want. It's all about us getting what we want.
But what if God is something other than that?
What if he is more akin to the vending machine, the items within it, the coins we insert, the floor on which it and we stand, the elevator that gets us there, the building that holds the elevator, the land upon which the building sits, the city that encompasses that plot of land, the country where the city is located, the planet upon which that country resides, and the universe which contains that planet and a billion-trillion others?
What if God is like that?
How, then, would that alter our concept of prayer?
Can we honestly say it "works" or "doesn't work"?
The apostle Paul had such a view of God, I think.
He writes in Acts 17:28, "For 'In him we live and move and have our being'."
(SIGH) YESSS!!!
i've never been more moved by someone's thoughts. since watching this video, i read a bit on Bonhoeffer's 'discipleship' and his views on ethics. the points he makes, about holy language being misused in other settings, to in some ways sanctify matters of the state by propping up people as Messianic saviors, it all feels all too similar to the concerns Anscombe had about the misuse of language.
how having secular moral philosophies that still clung onto terms like "good" and "bad", "wrong" and "right", could eventually render those notions meaningless.
such were her concerns about the direction moral philosophy was heading by being more and more centered around consequentialism. how talk about the 'greatest good possible' opened many doors to the most despicable and monstruous means, that were granted their justification to be enacted based on this usurped principle of 'greatest good'.
i've got to admit, i had left the faith for a while. for much of the same reasons Bonhoeffer pointed out.
all the pain and suffering going on, the careless and sometimes ruthless attitude people had towards other people dying.
but this. this gave me hope. hope that i was in dire need of.
i still wouldn't call myself religious, but i have a hope that the best direction we can take is the simplicity in discipleship that Bonhoeffer advocated for. that we all see each other under that 'proximus' light. all made on the image of God. all deserving of dignity and love.
Thanks for your comment - I think Bonhoeffer resonates with so many questions people are asking today.
Jesus said that thought and action meet at the cross. We must die so that we can be rrsurrected.
Did Bonhoeffer repent of rejecting certain essentials of the faith as myth- like the Virgin Birth and Bodily Ressurection? Those are requirements of the Christian faith from the beginning. Without believing the creedal essentials of the faith one is not a Christian.
Bonhoeffer is suggesting a way between myth and history--between fundamentalist and liberal. Of course the creeds are central to the Christian faith, and as a Lutheran he situated himself within these creeds. But creeds are linguistic expressions that are culturally conditioned. Doesn't mean they are untrue, but we spend so much time trying to prove either events happened or didn't happen we neglect to focus on what they mean! The resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than a resuscitated body--it's an event that transcends mythical and historical categories. The point Baonhoeffer is making is Jesus Christ is not a doctrine, an idea, an abstraction, or a principle--Jesus Christ is a person, fully God and fully human. Who is Jesus Christ for us today? - that's his question.
I agree. Bonhoeffer was a Liberal theologian, which is why his friend Hermann Sasse eventually rejected his ideas. He really wasn't a true Lutheran. He was originally ordained in the Prussian Union, a monstrosity of a church that combined Lutheran and Calvinist ideas, but was really Reformed. Bonhoeffer was right to stand against Nazi interference in Christian churches, but that dosen't absolve him of being a crappy theologian.
@@professorlief4804
Creeds? Goood grief!
@@CornCod1Jesus calls us not to religion but to life Dietrich Bonhoeffer
@@grahampaice6914 Pure liberal gobbilty-gook that no Christian prior to the late 19th Century would regognize.
When are we just going to allow ourselves to admit the great pillars of our cultural foundation centuries BC in Classical Greece? Science - 585 BC. Democracy - 525 BC. "Wokeness" - 306 BC. And then the parable of the sheep and the goats.
We do our neighbours and selves terrible harm to ignore this.
Interesting post, Jason. Bonhoeffer will make you think, if nothing else.
He certainly underwent his own theological transformation, whether for good or bad.
But, don't we all?
I may consider myself a Nicene Christian, but there's a lot of wiggle room to explore and question my current beliefs and practices.
What is a Nicene Christian ? Are you referring to the council of Nicea ?