The Unorthodox Gatherings: Recent Episodes
Chris Brown
The Unorthodox Gatherings are a community of people who gather for conversation and connection around topics of faith, spirituality, deconstruction, social justice, community, and experiencing the Divine in one another and the world around us. Led by Pastor Chris Brown, these are the recordings of the gatherings that take place every Sunday at 11AM at Bethania Church in Solvang, CA
In antiquity, people were naturally able to understand the meaning behind all of Jesus' miracles, while believing in the miracles themselves. We've robbed ourselves of that ability because we've moved into a literalist mindset. Today we look at several of the miracle stories in Mark from the perspective of actions occurring, but miracles not taking place and perhaps reclaim the ability to see how radicle the miracle stories really are.
It should be shocking and frightening to learn how many people rely on poor biblical interpretation to create bad biblical prophecy, that then dictates a stance on foreign policy. Non-conservative Christians might typically discard this kind of thinking as fantastical and silly, but we're watching real time effects today.
In a complete about-face, John the Revelatory takes everything Jesus fundamentally teaches about wealth (it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle) and domination (love your enemy, bless those who persecute you), and not only repudiates it, but ultimately gives wealth and domination the divine endorsement they need for Christian kingdoms and nations to live contrary to Jesus' teachings while still claiming Christianity as their own.
Revelation is nothing if not tremendously violent. A massive, but seemingly inconspicuous departure from Jesus in the gospels, it's weird how accepting we've become of violence while also claiming to be followers of the prince of peace. Today we talk about this obsession we have with violence and the approval society has received from the Book of Revelation in utilizing it.
In our path to Deconstruct the Book of Revelation, it's important to do two things: summarize the plot of Revelation and point out explicitly why this is a commentary about Roman persecution at the end of the 1st century. Once we layout this baseline of understanding, we can see that treating it any other way is a creation of later generations with nefarious intentions.
The Book of Revelation was disliked vehemently first the first 300 years of Christianity and its first primary usage came at the hands of pettiness. John of Patmos wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Contextually, it's a commentary on the Roman Empire. And yet, today, it's thought of as the premier source of the Bible predicting future events. Today we look at the framework for how Revelation became popular and how it turned into an End-Times predictor, rather than the angry commentary of just some dude.
Our conversation in this episode is led by Trish Hecker, founder of Open Door Support. She has a Masters in Social Science with an emphasis on Human Development and is a certified Sexuality Educator. In our series we've been deconstructing the Bible as a source for creating sexual ethics today, but it's been Trish who has helped us understand what a healthy sexual ethics looks like utilizing modern research and information.
In this episode we do a short recap of what we've covered in our "Deconstructing Sexual Ethics of the New Testament" series and spend time thinking through the renegotiations that have been made for heteronormative relationships that have not been given to the Queer Community.
The Bible does not talk about homosexuality. What it does reference, only a small handful of times is same-sex sex and a modern, puritanical society has conflated the two. In this episode we look at several references to same-sex sex from Leviticus to the letters of Paul, to help understand how same-sex sex was thought about in antiquity so that we might help undo the harm to the LGBTQ+ community by grossly misunderstood biblical texts.
The letters of Paul have probably been more instrumental in creating a modern sexual ethics of the church than any other biblical source. Here's the crazy part: Paul has been vastly misunderstood. This episode we talk about the 2 primary ways Paul has been misunderstood and why this should stop us from using Paul to create sexual ethics for today.
The foundation for understanding and deconstructing a sexual ethics from the New Testament starts with understanding sexual ethics from the perspective of 1st century Judaism. The laws that come from ancient Judaism are the jumping off point for the conservative, puritanical sexual ethics that come over to the New World. The problem? They're all renegotiated to fit the context of whoever is using them. In our conversation today we look at the basics of these laws and their meaning to help us in our process of deconstructing them from being used by modern society.
Today marks the beginning of a new series that will deconstruct the sexual ethics from the Bible that are used to try and create a "Biblical" sexual ethics for a modern day. Today's conversation is more about creating a foundation for the rest of the series, but it's an important conversation as we'll be using this information throughout.
There are a lot of words that Christians use for granted, words they know because they've been raised with a cultural understanding of them, not a contextual one. However, words like gospel, salvation, saved, Son of God, Christ, are not words meant to be used by a powerful church, but by the powerless followers of the historical Jesus who believed they were taking a non-violent, compassionate stance against all empires and power. In this episode we discuss the evolution of some of the most misused words and their contextual background.
In this conversation we go over a recap of our Slow Church series and try to think of a vision for both our Bethania and Unorthodox community that can incorporate a way of being a church centered in this slower method, a way that rejects the hold consumerism has on our community and lives, and a way of being more present with our neighborhood in general, and with the vulnerable among us in particular.
Everyone would like to be a hospitable person. The problem is we live in a consumeristic world where if we can't even afford more and more material possessions, our smart phones are still consuming our time, attention, and energy. Genuine hospitality cannot come unless we center ourselves in abundance and gratitude, values that are antithetical to consumerism.
Gratitude may seem like a value we try to instill in our kids and don't realize the radical effect it can have in our lives. Our conversation today is centered in the idea that people genuinely have enough, but we live in such a consumerist time that we are tricked into believing we don't have all we need. Gratitude is that value that helps us remember each day that we have enough so then we can then be the hands of justice for those around us.
God has created life and instilled a theology of Abundance. Think of the manna in the desert, the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, the feeding of the 5,000, the pooling of resources and distribution as there was need. Yet, we have a created a society, not just of scarcity, but one that benefits off of scarcity, and thus, will inherently oppose abundance. But if God calls us to something different, perhaps the best place to start is a small, neighborhood, church community.
I have to apologize, we've had technical difficulties with our last two episodes and they weren't recorded. It's been an amazing series and we have our newest episode on Sabbath. One of the most radical notions in the Bible, and yet, because of our values as Americans, we've completely sanitized it. We discuss the radical nature of Sabbath in this episode and try to consider how Sabbath can offer us a response to such a fast-paced, consumerist world.
We continue our series on Slow Church, which is a response to the consumerist model of church that has developed in America over the last century. Today's conversation focuses on the ethical value of stability. To think of it better, stability is experienced when a person or a church establish roots and are able to experience the rhythms of the neighborhood in which they're in. To do this one must be open to both the environmental and cultural rhythms that are present, both something that consumerist church rejects.
We're starting a new series on a concept called Slow Church. It is a response to the consumerist, individualistic life of America in general, and the replicable, consumerist, American Church in particular. Slow Church calls us to understand the unique characteristics of the neighborhood in which our church is a part of and try to respond in that neighborhood primarily through love, service, and joy, as a opposed to works that almost solely focus on butts in pews and more dollars in offering plates.
Most of us grew up in the church being told to do what we're supposed to as Christians, without a second thought, almost as though the Church was banking on us not questioning who was telling us what the Bible said. Today we're going to ask the question, Why?, and ask it authentically.
Communal Intimacy is a phrase that is among the most oxymoronic with regard to the White American identity. As Americans we praise our individualism and encourage people to learn how to take care of themselves. However, research is pointing to the devastating affects this has on the human brain and psyche. Today's readings point at communal intimacy not only as a response to our rugged individualism, but as the norm for the Jesus movement--a way to participate in life that Jesus calls Heaven.
Christianity is not, and has never been, a religion centered in worship or a personal self-help guide. Today we hear a parable from Jesus directed at the Temple leaders for neglecting their responsibilities and the harsh consequences of that neglect. Ultimately, this points the finger at us and all Christianity today. Our conversation is centered in the implications of this parable both theologically and politically.
As Americans, many of us have been raised with the frame of mind that Christianity has an inward focus. It's about becoming personally okay with God so that I can go to heaven after I die. This mirrors the values we were raised with as Americans. Our readings today will not only challenge this notion, but point us to a simple, yet difficult frame of mind that ultimately would be the best thing for us individually.
Forgiveness is one of the most associated concepts with Christianity. Yet, by looking at today's text, we can see how forgiveness not only has the potential to be used abusively, but we'll talk about how the Church has done that very thing, time and time again. We'll deconstruct some of this, and try to think about forgiveness in a more radical and liberating way.
We don't realize that Jesus was the primary deconstructionist of his time. He was consistently looking at the emphasis of his religious system and critiquing it, trying to point people to something more essential. Today we hear a conversation that does this very thing between Jesus, the Pharisees, his disciples, and the gathered crowd. It helps us wonder about the question: what's more important, the traditions and ideologies we grew up with, or this way of life to which Jesus calls us? NOTE The recording cuts off early, but the presentation and most of the questions and answers are still there.
We treat the "Feeding of the Multitude" miracles as just that. It's an amazing miracle that displays Jesus' power. However, in each Gospel's telling of the story there's a lot more going on. In Matthew's version, he's connecting Jesus to Moses and the multitude to the Exodus. Matthew is intentionally helping people see a story of liberation, while at the same time giving this same meaning to the practice of communion.
Matthew's Kingdom of Heaven of parables are explicitly not talking about an afterlife experience, but also give the aura of something bigger and more mysterious that can be experienced in this lifetime. Today we talk about these meanings and consider what they say about our life today.
Another parable in Matthew's Kingdom of Heaven discourse, the Parable of the weeds among the wheat has often been used to describe individuals and the status of their "souls". However, when looked in it's historical context, we see that this parable is one of tremendous hope for people wrestling with how to respond to Roman persecution, which for today's audience, could still powerfully help us break the cycles of violence and polarization.
A parable that has often been utilized to compartmentalize the quality of people or even the quality of ourselves, the Parable of the Sower can be a parable that beats us over the head (or allows us to beat others over the head). But what if this parable is meant to describe each of us at different moments in our lives, not in a linear progression, but in an ongoing cycle? Perhaps with this perspective we might understand the generosity (or craziness of the sower?) of the divine towards humanity.
We talk about two points in this episode, one explicit and one implicit. The explicit, which is still often missed by the Church today, is the missional identity of Jesus followers. Jesus explicitly commands his followers to do what he does, which is not centered in worship, or evangelism, but the work of compassion. But the implicit point for us in the progressive church is that we don't often see ourselves on the healing side of the stories in the gospels. What does it look like for us also to consider ourselves from the perspective of the crowd who receives the good news? Today we talk about hope from both perspectives.
In today's Gospel text we see Jesus reach out to people on all sides of the spectrum of his day; from the most despised to the most powerful, from the most profane to the most righteous, and he seems to be inclusive and compassionate to all. We discuss the meanings of these identities and what it looks like for us to be both inclusive, while also making sure we continue to stand up and speak for the marginalized.
The vast majorities of Christians do not grow up with a contextual understanding of the Bible and how to interpret it and make decisions about it for our time today. One of the biggest obstacles that has prevented this has been Church Dogma. The vast majority of Christians have grown up having their church's dogma not only memorized, but ever ready to employ it both defense of life-decisions, and condemnation of others. Today we talk about the dangers of Dogma, and how looking at both our experience and the experience of others as a response.
The story of Pentecost, or the beginning of the Church, has had a dual affect in our society today. First, it has allowed the Church to say that it's decision making is ordained by God and others cannot question that decision making. And second, it has moved much of that decision making into activities that end up excluding people from being in. When we look at the story of Pentecost in context, especially its usage of the prophet Joel, we find that the story was indeed meant to be the ordination of the Church by God, but the activities the Church was always meant to engage in was radical inclusivity.
TW: This can be a challenging episode for some listeners because it's going to challenge a lot of the concepts of the origin of God from the narratives a lot of us grew up with. I want to say that even though I know the information I'm presenting in this episode, I still consider myself a believer in the divine and a devout follower of Jesus. I share this information, not to harm anyone's faith, but rather to help it grow and evolve.
Modern Christian thinking would have us believe that idolatry is constrained to not worshipping other gods or participating in rituals/practices that come from different spiritual backgrounds. However, when we look at idolatry through the context of the Hebrew Bible, the Gospels, and Paul's authentic letters, we get a different definition of idolatry; one that would even shine a light on how Christianity has made idols of God, Jesus, the Bible, national symbols, etc.
You simply can't read the Bible in your native language and know what it means. There are so many layers to interpreting the Bible, yet so many pastors and churches treat it this way. Even more frightening, Christian groups try to create policy based on their interpretation. Today we talk about this one-way interpretation, how we can look at texts from multiple angles, and a rough methodology for lay folk to engage the Bible.
When we remove from ourselves the need to think about or experience Christianity as a system of beliefs to get to an afterlife destination, then Jesus' words and actions shine in a new light. We find that Jesus invites us to participate in a value system that is markedly different than the world's. One of the primary value systems of the Jesus movement is radical inclusivity. Today we look at references to being radically inclusive throughout the Gospels, Paul's letters, and the Acts of the Apostles and discuss the difficulty we have in living this out today.
To be a parable, a story does not have to be untrue. The character of a parable is that the meaning of a story is more important than its factuality. When we treat stories in antiquity this way it helps us to understand their meaning in ways that their original audience naturally would have understood. In this conversation we look at the story of Jesus' resurrection as a parable, not to claim it's untrue, but to help us understand its meaning better.
Our stories of The Last Supper and Good Friday are almost entirely theological. The gospel writer is departing from trying to simply convey the chain of events and rather are focusing on conveying either theological or geopolitical statements to readers. Unfortunately, later communities renegotiated the theology in favor of a more individualistic and salvific understanding. Today we look at the theology behind Mark and his first community to help us understand these two events and their relevance better.
Another common story around Lent is what many Bibles call "The Cleansing of the Temple". Understood as removing ritualistic impurities, this aggressive moment by Jesus has always been excused without looking (intentionally or unintentionally?) at the context of Jerusalem's geopolitical climate in this time. In this episode, we not only talk about what the historical Jesus was doing, but also how Mark's gospel makes sense of this story for it's own audience. We find that this is not a story of Jesus being angry at ritualistic impurities, but rather Jerusalem's religious leaders cooperation with Roman oppression.
The story of Jesus' last week of life is treated without context. It's understood as Jesus going to Jerusalem to die for this sins of humanity and resurrecting so believers go to heaven after death. No context needed. However, when context is added we see that there's a lot more to Jesus' presence in Jerusalem and perhaps even more to his death and resurrection.
The Gospel story of The Woman at the Well features two people (Jesus and the Samaritan Woman) who grew up hearing stories of why they should hate each other. Yet, both create a bridge of unity that becomes a story of love. How can this help us understand the stories we've been given that tell us to hate or fear others and turn them into stories of love?
Thought of as a time to reflect on our own individual brokenness, does Lent today compare to Lent among the first communities? Today we take a look at how Lent was understood in the 1st century and what implications on our theology this might have.
Dr. Brad Onishi joins us as our guest speaker to talk about his new book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next. This was a riveting presentation highlighting statistics of Christian Nationalism in America and it both views and tries to shape our world a national standpoint all the way down to a municipal one. Dr Onishi captures the present risk i that most people are not yet aware of, but thanks to his book and his work is helping people understand the very real effects of Christian Nationalism in our communities and country.
Care for Creation has led us to primarily understanding ourselves as an interdependent part of God larger creation. Today we talk about that larger creation, the global climate. A relatively new, and complex science, it's been described as a system of systems, which then becomes difficult to explain to the larger population. However, measurable data is vast as well as the consensus by scientists that it's a problem and we're seeing more extreme weather events because of human activity. Today we talk about the origins of climate science as well as a base understanding of what's going on with global climate change.
We know there's a climate crisis. We know human activity is contributing to massive changes in our climate affecting life all around us and our own sustainability. Most people don't know Christian Theological contributions that have justified these actions. We need to take seriously our mandate to be stewards of our earth and we need to repent of destructive and incorrect theologies that have led to this and think in new language.
If there is anything the modern church does that is NOT a reflection of what's referenced in Scripture, Baptism might be at the top. In this episode we're going to look at how Baptism was understood in the Gospels, through John and Jesus, and by the authentic Paul, which are our earliest writings in the New Testament. Afterwards we'll wonder, "Have we gotten Baptism wrong, and is there a way to redeem this meaningful ritual?"
It was banned in British-colonized India and in the dictator periods of Guatemala and Argentina, yet the image we have of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a timid, dutiful virgin. Imagine instead a 15 year old, brown skinned, Palestinian girl with fist raised, singing this song at Herod the Great and Caesar Augustus - then you might understand Mary a little better. Today we talk about this powerful song, the Magnificat, as well as the use of shepherds in the Christmas story.
People typically treat the Christmas Story like a news report, as though its simply reporting the events of Jesus' birth as it happened. However, when we look at other writings in the Greco-Roman world, we can see the Christmas story wasn't just an accounting of Jesus' birth, but was responding to Jesus' world. This episode looks at what this still celebrated story was responding to in it's original time in the hope that modern audiences can understand what the message of this story can be today.
Christ the King has become a ubiquitous title in many Christian circles today. The festival of Christ the King was created in 1925 as a response, not to the rise brutal dictators like Caesar Augustus, but to the rise of secularism by Pope Pius XI. Today, proclaiming Christ as King has become a way for people to insulate their own power, but when we look at the historical context, we find that Christ as king was meant to be a radical response to anyone who would claim allegiance to any kind of power, especially over the weak.
On All Saints Sunday, I gave a presentation on finding hope in the midst of going through grief or loss. I also discussed some of the ways modern Christian Theology has really screwed up the grieving process.
Most of our Unorthodox folks didn't grow up celebrating Reformation Sunday, so in this episode we went over a snapshot of Luther's reformation, and then looked at some current statistics to wonder both, are we in a new reformation, and if so, how might we be a part of it.
This is a bit of a convoluted episode as we had a handout to follow along with, but we were utilizing Spiral Dynamics as a way to help us understand the progression of culture throughout time. In such a polarized day, this can be a tool to help us see varying perspectives of people we might disagree with, as well as find hope that we are progressing into a sustainable place. Spiral Dynamics is not without criticism, but it can be a useful tool.
This series was a pivotal one to understanding the central idea of the historical Jesus movement as a "kingdom" movement. We didn't have a lot of time to think about the implications of trying to live this out so we took some time in this episode to summarize what we went over and to have a conversation about what the challenges are in living this way of life out.
I've been doing this work for a while and I feel like I've come up with a good definition for what the Kingdom of Heaven is, especially as the Gospels uses the phrase. The Kingdom of Heaven is not about an after life destination, but it's about God's value system breaking into the value system of our world. When Jesus says "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand", he's saying that God's value system is breaking into our world and we are called to participate in it. Today's conversation covers what this looks like.
Jesus often speaks in parables to both convey a truth he believes in and challenge the current system in which he's working. His parables about the Kingdom of Heaven not only disrupt this idea that the Kingdom of Heaven is not about an afterlife destination, but are a direct challenge to the religious system of his day, as well as our own.
The Kingdom of Heaven is mostly assumed to be referring to an afterlife destination...however, that's not what's meant when it's used in the Gospels. The best way I've found to define the Kingdom of Heaven is it is a representation of the value system of God, and when Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand he's saying God's Value System is breaking into the value systems that dominate our world and offering us something radically different. Today we get our first look at what God's value system is through the Beatitudes.
If you had to ask a random person on the street what they thought the kingdom of heaven meant, they would likely say it has to do with this place that exists after death. We've been so engrained to understand this phrase in this way. But here's the thing: this is absolutely NOT how Jesus or the gospels mean this phrase. Today is part 1 of a new series in which we'll deconstruct the kingdom of heaven and discover this central idea of the historical Jesus movement.
The concept of demons is largely utilized by Evangelical Christianity, but without a contextual understanding of demons and evil in the New Testament. Today we look at the story of the Gerasene Demoniac in Luke 8 as a tool to discuss how demons were understood in antiquity. We touch on the difficulty we have today with our emphasis on literalism to arrest such a human desire on knowing whether or not something is true in order to see the truth being revealed.
Koinonia has become an esoteric word a lot of churches like to use for various types of ministry. It's translated as community, however, most churches today are near perfect reflections of the individualism that has come to dominate American identity. As one of the 3 primary tasks of a faith-centered community, koinonia is essential. Today, we look at koinonia as it's informed by a collective of people centered in service, the community it creates with them, and the community it creates with those served.
Continuing our 3 part series on the 3 Primary Functions of a Jesus-Centered Faith Community, today we talk about the Greek word, kerygma, which is translated as proclamation. For many, if not most, churches, this has become the primary function of church. It is proclaiming what Jesus has done for the world and us, and what Jesus promises to do. However, what we say Jesus has done and promises to do is different depending on the community talking about it. We discuss today how the content of what we say Jesus does and promises to do is shaped when a faith community is centered in diakonia, or service. When looked at this way, what we end up is radically different than what most churches are proclaiming about Jesus today.
We're starting a 3-week series on the 3 primary tasks. This might seem mundane, but considering most churches don't engage in this paradigm, it's quite radical, especially because it's centered in radical service to the other. So we go over "service" for our first week.
It seems almost offensive to simply suggest disconnection to a secure future causes increases in depression and anxiety, yet our society is structured to keep people in these liminal spaces, and solutions are touted as fantastical. This episode not only explores the commonality of this disconnection among so many people, but also the plausibility of some responses that we've been raised to think are impossible.
Today's episode focuses on the human need to have a connection to the natural world. We explore not only this evolutionary need, but how becoming more and more detached from the world has led to the complicit attitude in the destruction of our planet. Renewing connection to the natural world not only helps us individually feel better, it can also have larger ecological benefits.
In today's episode we talk about the human need to be connected to meaningful values, more specifically to intrinsic values versus extrinsic values. We also discuss how society is specifically geared toward extrinsic values and how this is having harmful affects on people.
We're starting a new series on connection, utilizing Johann Hari's bestselling book, "Lost Connections". The book explores systemic causes of depression and anxiety. The Unorthodox Gatherings is using the book to understand how our Western Society facilitates these disconnections and how we as humans and faith communities can facilitate more meaningful connection. Today's episode looks at the value of meaningful work.
In this conversation, we wrap up our series on Empire with a discussion on the modern day Christian's response to Empire in our society. We start with a comparison to the empire of Rome as a comparative lens for seeing similar attributes today and then discuss what it looks like to incorporate the responses we see in the New Testament from Jesus, Paul, and apocalyptic literature.
We were blessed to have the presence of Professor Kelly Dagley, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, who presented an excerpt of her dissertation on Women's experience of migration with an amazing comparison to the Book of Ruth. This gave an incredibly humane look at the experience of migration and the dangers women face. Media, and especially our politics, negate these experiences and Professor Kelly's presentation really helps understand the Christian calling to care for all people, but refugees and immigrants especially.
While being perhaps the most influential writer within the library of the Bible, Paul is probably also the most misunderstood. This is because Paul is the author of only 7 of the 13 letters attributed to him. Also, for centuries Paul has been read through this Augustinian-Lutheran lens, rather than a Jewish lens. Today's conversation centers on the 7 authentic letters of Paul and the egalitarian communities he was trying to set up across and in repudiation to Rome. While subtle, he was a staunch anti-imperialist whose work eventually got him killed.
Western Christianity has framed Jesus' purpose as one of getting individuals to an afterlife paradise. However, when read in context, we see the gospels are these radical anti-imperialist commentaries against Rome and Roman values. The Empire of God was meant to be a stark contrast to worldly empires and the task of the Christian is to bring God's Empire to earth.
Plainly put, one cannot understand Christianity, nor the Jesus movement without understanding Rome. The Jesus movement was centered into responding to this massive empire in a transcendent way that is a commentary against all empires. Yet, Western Christians weren't raised with this background. This episode begins a 4 part series on empire, with the focus of this one on the Roman Empire that completely dominated the world of Jesus and his followers.
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Hermeneutics is a fancy way of saying how we interpret ancient texts. For pastors who go to seminary, hermeneutics involves learning the languages the texts were originally written in, the history of that time, the support of anthropologists, etc. Most of the people who attend churches don't have that educational background, so in this episode we discussed the various hermeneutical models with which we approach ancient texts.
Idolatry is one of those concepts that is rarely talked about in mainline churches, but regularly addressed in Evangelical ones. Today we go through its meaning in the Bible and look at how it's been misused in our own modern times to help understand how not only that some of the biggest perpetrators of idolatry are the Church and Christians, but some of the biggest idols are Christianity, the Bible, and Jesus.
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In this episode we discuss the biggest mistranslation in the Bible, and here's the crazy part: it's only a preposition. Entire theologies and doctrines have been based on this mistranslation, some of the worst abuses committed by the Church were based on this mistranslation, and entire political blocs are based on this mistranslation. We go through not only what the mistranslation is and how it occurred, but also its implications in our world today.
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Today's conversation focuses on Cornel West's essay, The Crisis of Christian Identity in America. He presents two perspectives of Christianity that he calls Constantinian Christianity and Prophetic Christianity. We talk about the differences between the two and their implications in our lives.
This is Part 1 of our 3-week series on Liberation and we're working with Dorothee Sölle's 3 Frameworks of Christianity. There's a handout for this conversation that would be really helpful if you're listening to this.
Click here to look at the handout.
As a prime for our 3 week series on Liberation coming up, the conversation today was centered on what the purpose of faith is. We talked about personal experiences, how purpose of faith has been viewed in the mainstream, and ultimately tried to create a contextual purpose of faith. The conversation might be a bit muffled because we're abiding by the county's mask mandate, but next week I'll have a decent recording device. Still, hope you enjoy!
Belief has been framed as the foundational condition of Christianity. Few, if any, other religions have this condition, and frankly, neither does Christianity - at least not the way it's understood today. This conversation was a deconstruction of belief. We looked at the Greek text of the New Testament and talked about both belief misuse and hopefully positive attributes.
It's interesting to look at a timeline of Christian development. In this gathering we looked at some of the hallmark moments in this timeline to understand better what informed Christian dogmas and doctrines that were created and see how little was developed from the first 3 centuries of Christianity when it was a religion of the persecuted. We used a graphic in this conversation, which I forgot to take a picture of for future use, but hopefully the conversation is enough to gather what's being said.
We had a really powerful reaction to our conversation on Historical Criticism; so much so that it was hard to realize how much church doctrine was created outside of the context in which the Bible was written. In this gathering we look at the positives of Historical Criticism and why it's so needed for faith communities today and in the future.
Historical Criticism is a fancy way of describing the process of looking at an ancient text in the context in which it's written. While it might seem like the most obvious way to understand any ancient texts, most are not read this way. Historical Criticism is such a controversial topic that more conservative religious institutions have called it a heresy and have put significant resources in trying to repudiate its scholastic role in understanding texts like the Bible. In this episode our gathering discusses the significance of Historical Criticism today.