Group Discussion Continued
We began the discussion below by looking at the Kingdom of God. In the comments posted under that discussion, different views about this concept emerged. Some of us felt that the Kingdom of God is represented here on earth by following what Jesus taught as a way of life, accomplishing God's will on earth. Some felt that the Kingdom of God was accomplished through salvation and, therefore, eternal life with God in heaven. This led to a discussion about postmodernism and the Emerging Church.
I consider myself to be part of the Emerging Church, and explained that we're really all just a bunch of different groups trying to work together and build on our similarities, despite the fact that we also have differences. We want to hold on to our differences, but we also want to work toward the good that is found in our similarities. Our goal, (in my opinion) is mostly about having a conversation about who God is, and how we can act to make this world a better place, based on Jesus' life teachings.
Both my oldest sister, and an Air Force Chaplain who had joined the discussion explained the history of postmodern thought and how it was formed when "WWI made (everyone) take stock of what they were teaching as the kingdom seemed to be coming apart a lot faster than it was being built" (Chaplain). Because of these tragic historical instances, people began to realize their idea of who God was was wrong, so they started searching to find where they went wrong and to learn more about who God really is. So, Postmodernism was born "in rejection of the god of (people's) imaginations, which was caused by 1) a lack of unification in the church, 2) bad training and a bad explanation of substitutionary atonement, 3) a misunderstanding of the real message of the Bible, which caused us to 4) shy away from the biblically accurate terms and descriptions and explanations" (older sister).
Then, my "middle" sister joined the discussion by bringing up a television show she had recently watched about how the books of the Bible were selected. She "was surprised about the process and criteria used to select the books, but even more surprised about where the rejected books went," mentioning that she thought those books may have been adopted by other religions. I had heard these ideas as well and was interested to hear that my oldest sister has been researching the original documents of the bible herself (she is a very ambitious researcher).
And this leads back to Postmodernism and a search for the true God, in a sense. . .If people feel there is something missing or wrong in the current/most popular line of thinking, they're going to start searching.
So, that's where we are at in our discussion. It's been interesting, and fun so far. What further thoughts or input does everyone have?
I consider myself to be part of the Emerging Church, and explained that we're really all just a bunch of different groups trying to work together and build on our similarities, despite the fact that we also have differences. We want to hold on to our differences, but we also want to work toward the good that is found in our similarities. Our goal, (in my opinion) is mostly about having a conversation about who God is, and how we can act to make this world a better place, based on Jesus' life teachings.
Both my oldest sister, and an Air Force Chaplain who had joined the discussion explained the history of postmodern thought and how it was formed when "WWI made (everyone) take stock of what they were teaching as the kingdom seemed to be coming apart a lot faster than it was being built" (Chaplain). Because of these tragic historical instances, people began to realize their idea of who God was was wrong, so they started searching to find where they went wrong and to learn more about who God really is. So, Postmodernism was born "in rejection of the god of (people's) imaginations, which was caused by 1) a lack of unification in the church, 2) bad training and a bad explanation of substitutionary atonement, 3) a misunderstanding of the real message of the Bible, which caused us to 4) shy away from the biblically accurate terms and descriptions and explanations" (older sister).
Then, my "middle" sister joined the discussion by bringing up a television show she had recently watched about how the books of the Bible were selected. She "was surprised about the process and criteria used to select the books, but even more surprised about where the rejected books went," mentioning that she thought those books may have been adopted by other religions. I had heard these ideas as well and was interested to hear that my oldest sister has been researching the original documents of the bible herself (she is a very ambitious researcher).
And this leads back to Postmodernism and a search for the true God, in a sense. . .If people feel there is something missing or wrong in the current/most popular line of thinking, they're going to start searching.
So, that's where we are at in our discussion. It's been interesting, and fun so far. What further thoughts or input does everyone have?
posted by Danielle | 10:05 AM
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