Coming to Terms

Pressed metaphors and other signposts
at the intersection of positive and negative theology

Poppies 2013, à la Monet


Sunset Gate Montpelier

Sunset Gate


Montpelier


A better view of the Potomac.

A better view of the Potomac.


“ Beauty is goodness made manifest to the senses.
Dallas Willard, a Man from Another ‘Time Zone’ | Christianity Today
“

As Dallas taught so many, the Sabbath and Sabbath moments like the ones he described are ways of acknowledging who is in charge of the world and who is not. It reminds us that we are dependent on God and not ourselves. Our activity, our work, our intensity are not god. And by resting from those things, we acknowledge who is.

By giving away money we at once blaspheme the god of Mammon and worship the true God. By giving away time we at once blaspheme the god of Activity and worship the true One.

IVP - Andy Unedited - Remembering Dallas Willard

RIP, Dallas. I am honored to have known you.



reblogged from
nathanschock
“ Just what sort of animal is pictured when contemporary philosophy of religion talks about “believers”? Do the believers countenanced in contemporary philosophy of religion ever kneel or sing? Do they ever pray the Rosary? Do they ever respond to an altar call, weeping on their knees? In fact, do believers ever really make an appearance in philosophy of religion? Is it not most often taken up instead with beliefs? Judging from the shape of the conversation in contemporary philosophy of religion, one would guess that “religion” is a feature of brains-in-a-vat, lingering in a particularly spiritual ether but never really bumping into the grittiness of practices and community. Indeed, one wonders whether such “believers” really even need to go through the hassle of getting up on Sunday morning. Once the beliefs are “deposited,” it is hard to see what more is needed to be faithful.
James K.A. Smith, Epistemology for the Rest of Us, Philosophia Christi, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2008. (via nathanschock)


reblogged from
giftsoutright
“ E.O. Wilson recently complained that the humanities offer an “incomplete” account of culture, ethics and consciousness (and kindly offered to complete the account by removing the humanities from the picture completely). What Wilson sees as a bug is in fact a feature. The humanities are and should be incomplete by design—that is, there should be no technology or methodology which we might imagine as a future possibility that would permit complete knowledge achieved via humane inquiry nor should we ever want such a thing to begin with.

More from Timothy Burke.

This whole post is gold, really.

(via giftsoutright)


A natural seat in Muja village, DRC (by nivalis)

A natural seat in Muja village, DRC (by nivalis)


A prayer by the widows of Goma (by nivalis) This lady prayed for me and my colleagues.

A prayer by the widows of Goma (by nivalis)

This lady prayed for me and my colleagues.


reblogged from
mshedden
“ Liberals are right that the language we use as Christians is not “literally” true; rather, it is figurative, poetic, imaginative language. But the orthodox are right in a more profound way: for the language of imagination – which is to say, biblical language – is the only language we have for thinking and speaking of God, and we receive it as the gift of the Holy Spirit. Theology deceives itself if it conceives of its task as translating the figurative language of scripture and piety into some more nearly literal discourse about God. The theologian’s job is not to tell fellow believers what they really mean; rather, it is to help the church speak more faithfully the language of the Christian imagination. The theologian is not a translator but a grammarian.

Richard Bauckham and Trevor Hart, ‘The Shape of Time’ in The Future as God’s Gift: Explorations in Christian Eschatology (ed. David Fergusson and Marcel Sarot; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), 86.

The theologian as grammarian | Per Crucem ad Lucem (via mshedden)