I feel hopeful
so... ethics was super fun today... we talked about natural law, and created order and whether Christian Ethics arises from some kind of reality within the world, completed and redeemed in the incarnation/crucifixion/ resurrection/ascension of Jesus Christ or whether they are based upon a nominalist emotivism... etc etc.
And my professor is a student of a Dr. O'Donovan, and they both are students of Augustine... and he compares them to Aquinas primarily. So we really look at these questions from a rather orthodox point of view. And I discuss them with my friends at Garrett... for whom liberation theology tends to be the norm, which places us again in the happily rather orthodox camps. God is omnipotent, but self-limited. Christ actually was raised from the dead (in body) and all creation will be resurrected in body... that creation is broken (not just people, but all things) and will be perfected and redeemed in some amazing redemption at the fulfillment of time. Yep... most of us at Garrett are that orthodox, or are willing to talk that we for now.
And then I call a great friend who is studying with process theologians at another seminary. And my happy assumptions... which I had even forgotten were there... are broken to pieces. So much fun to have to defend the idea of an essentially omnipotent God... great challenge to explain why I believe creation IS essentially broken (broken in that it does not always nurture or orient toward the Good, which is designed by God) Such fun to seriously consider if procreation is a necessary telos (goal) of sex or whether the bonding due to the intimacy witnesses sufficiently to God's love and therefore is the actual goal of sexuality... procreation being a secondary or contingent effect due to the mortal nature of our present existence. I discovered there is a bit of anti-materialism (heaven will be spiritual only, not resurrected and perfect material bodies) in my friend... something I had not expected... (something I had forgotten is common... Garrett's assumed traditional constructions include the new heaven and new earth being material...)
so much fun. how I love conversations that keep me on my toes. And how I love bringing Augustine and Suchoki into conversation as mediated between two goofy seminarians. Thank God for amazing people.
And my professor is a student of a Dr. O'Donovan, and they both are students of Augustine... and he compares them to Aquinas primarily. So we really look at these questions from a rather orthodox point of view. And I discuss them with my friends at Garrett... for whom liberation theology tends to be the norm, which places us again in the happily rather orthodox camps. God is omnipotent, but self-limited. Christ actually was raised from the dead (in body) and all creation will be resurrected in body... that creation is broken (not just people, but all things) and will be perfected and redeemed in some amazing redemption at the fulfillment of time. Yep... most of us at Garrett are that orthodox, or are willing to talk that we for now.
And then I call a great friend who is studying with process theologians at another seminary. And my happy assumptions... which I had even forgotten were there... are broken to pieces. So much fun to have to defend the idea of an essentially omnipotent God... great challenge to explain why I believe creation IS essentially broken (broken in that it does not always nurture or orient toward the Good, which is designed by God) Such fun to seriously consider if procreation is a necessary telos (goal) of sex or whether the bonding due to the intimacy witnesses sufficiently to God's love and therefore is the actual goal of sexuality... procreation being a secondary or contingent effect due to the mortal nature of our present existence. I discovered there is a bit of anti-materialism (heaven will be spiritual only, not resurrected and perfect material bodies) in my friend... something I had not expected... (something I had forgotten is common... Garrett's assumed traditional constructions include the new heaven and new earth being material...)
so much fun. how I love conversations that keep me on my toes. And how I love bringing Augustine and Suchoki into conversation as mediated between two goofy seminarians. Thank God for amazing people.