St Augustine says: ‘The soul becomes like that which it loves. If it loves earthly things, then it becomes earthly.’ We might ask: if it loves God, does it become like God? — Meister Eckhart Photo from today’s run along the beach at Glacier Bay
Like that which it loves
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Jonathan Erdman
Writer. In the summers, I live and work in the incredible state of Alaska, in the bush community of McCarthy, as the Executive Director of the Wrangell Mountain Center. When not in McCarthy, you'll typically find me in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, writing and working with local activists. My primary writing project right now is a novel set in remote bush Alaska, of the magical realism genre wherein an earnest and independent young woman finds a mysterious radio belonging to her grandmother, a device that has paranormal bandwidth and a disturbing ability to mess with one's mental stability. View all posts by Jonathan Erdman
If God loved earthly things, would he become more like them?
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Hhhmmm…presumably yes. Jesus certainly inverted the paradigm of those deemed “sinners” by attending their parties. That he was a “fried of sinners” was meant to count against him.
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For God so loved the world, he humbled himself, etc. Relatedly, I’ve been following the further adventures of a post-evangelical guy on whose blog I commented fairly frequently early in my blogging days. He’s now either rethought the texts or has finally acknowledged that he questions, on exegetical grounds, the creedal doctrine that Jesus is God. That might prove to be a significant doctrinal shift if it were to catch on more widely. A number of this guy’s commenters seem to agree with downgrading Jesus to human, though there’s less clarity about the ordinariness of his humanity. No one seems to see much difference in the way they live their lives or do worship.
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Oh yeah. I hear that. When I was at Grace, there was a prof. asking the question, on exegetical grounds mind you, of whether Jesus knew he was God. Obviously, the prof. assumed the diety if JC, but he couldn’t find evidence in the synoptic gospels that would support Jesus’ belief in and knowledge of his own diety….as for me, I think I’ll stick with the ole one god three persons formula. It gives me more options. =)
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