Moreland on Anxiety, Depression, and Meditation Pt 2

JP Moreland recently finished his two part series on how to deal with depression and anxiety as they relate to obsessive thinking. 

The idea that the heart “has a brain” is pretty radical, but i must say that i am encouraged by Moreland’s willingness to share his personal pain and how he found peace.  Also, Morelands cares deeply about having a well-formed Christian mind, so i doubt he made this up for the heck of it. 

I hope that it is a blessing to you. 

Meditation on Hope #2

God hasn’t given up on man (me) or the world in which he lives:

“The Christian view of history is essentially salvation history, centered on the person and work Jesus Christ.  At the 1st point, the death and resurrection of Christ stretches back to the beginning of creation and makes clear that God has not ceased creating, despite the fall, sin, evil, suffering, wars and injustice.  In other words, what is promised and implicit in God’s initial creation to accomplish what is good continues to be the will of God in history (emphasis mine).” 

 God, thank you for your relentless pursuit of our restoration.

[Source: Yeo Khiok-Khng "An Eschatological View of History in the New Testament: Messianic and  Millenarian Hope," in
Asia Journal of Theology 15 (April 2001), 38-51]

Anxiety, Depression, & Meditation

Christian Philosopher JP Moreland has a post at the Talbot Professors blog about the role of meditation when dealing with depression and anxiety.  Moreland does an amazing job i think.

One reason for this is that he allows you to see that this isn’t theory for him; he has dealt with these issues before.  As someone who has (and still does at times) struggle with this, i appreciated his authenticity and honesty.

The other reason why i enjoyed this post was b/c he does a great job of weaving biblical, scientific, and personal insights together.  I believe that this post was only one of two, so i’m excited to see what he talks about in his next post.

Meditation on Hope

“All the loneliness, angers, hatreds, envies, and itchings that [this world] contains, if rolled into one single experience and put into the scale against the least moment of the joy that is felt in Heaven, would have no weight that could be registered at all.”

 -C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

The Faith of Jesus

Here is a brief nugget to chew on from my professor’s most recent book:

“In Hannah (a character in a woody allen  movie), the hypochondriac demands absolute certainty in order to believe in God.  but Jesus does not.  The faith of Jesus is the kind of faith that is able to live with ambiguities of our world rather than to bow to the outdated Gods of modernity that demand certainty without paradox.  His faith is a genuine faith because of the cry of abandonment (pg 143, author’s emphasis).”

While from there he gets into his view of the “vicarious Humanity of Christ,” i’m not wanting to explore that yet.  I’m curious to see what everyone thinks of this idea.  He’s saying that Jesus’ faith was genuine (we have to affirm that if we take his humanity seriously), and he saw no need to figure out paradox.  He was able to leave things unexplained, like his unanswered prayers, when the consummation of the age would occur, etc.

Here is the rub: if Jesus showed us what it is like to be truly human, then shouldn’t our faith look like His?  If so, does that critique our philosophical/theological work, and if so how?  I know some say that we should avoid mystery, but Jesus didn’t seem to.

Any thoughts?

My Team!

Here are the wonderful people i will be doing ministry with!  Can you guess which one i am? 

On Writing Well

I recently came across a site that i think that i am going to get a lot out of.  This post summarizes George Orwell’s 5 simple rules for writing well.  I figure that those of us going to school write quite a bit, so hopefully you’ll appreciate it like i did.

[HT to Matt for linking it before me.]

Youth and Apologetics

I recently picked up a copy of the Christian Research Journal.  It is basically an Evangelical apologetics periodical.  While i’m not quite the Evangelical i used to be, i thought it was worth looking at.

I was particularly interested in an article about youth and apologetics by Sean Mcdowell.  If the name sounds familiar to you, Mcdowell is the son of the American Evangelical apologetics superstar, Josh Mcdowell. 

One of the most fascinating/provocative parts of his essay, Sean cites sociologist Christian Smith, who conducted at that time one of the most extensive research studies of culture and contemporary youth.  Smith’s findings suggest that youth today are not in need of a great new ‘postmodern’ approach to ministry, but rather they need to have an intellectual undergirding for their beliefs. 

Smith’s research is now in book form.  I actually read it a couple years ago, and i loved it.  I think that i will read it again soon now that i’m actually doing ministry to youth.  Here is a helpful discussion of his research.

Smith’s research found that the most common reason why kids with a religious upbringing later became ‘non-religious’ in their teens was because they didn’t believe it was true.  Mcdowell’s conclusion of this evidence is that “young people are leaving faith behind because the Christian community is failing to engage their minds as well as their hearts.”

Mcdowell proposes that youth pastors should engage their student’s minds.  Apologetics is a vital part of this process, because mcdowell believes that once youth know why they believe, they will be enboldened to live for Christ.

I find this article interesting.  I find the idea that what sixth graders crave isn’t a snickers bar & a dodgeball, but an explanation of the anselmian proof for God’s existence laughable.  Strawmen aside though, i find the study’s findings fascinating, and challenging.  Should one teach apologetics to youth?  Is the need that vital?  If so how do we do it? 

Anyone have any thoughts? 

Theological Lip-Locking

Ben over @ Faith & Theology has a hilarious post regarding what several great theologians would say about kissing.  Be sure to read the comments there as well; a few of them are hilarious.

 Enjoy!

[Source]

An Insightful Critique

Here is a post by one of my favorite scholars.  He is no stranger to controversy, and in this post on his blog he offers an insightful critique of the traditional view of God.

I don’t want to spoil his point for you, so let me generalize. His point has to do with the implications of how God experiences time affects our relationship with Him (God).  For my two cents i think that he is on target for the most part.  However,  i’m hoping to examine Barthians more on this, who have argued that what is needed to overcome the classical view of God is not philosophical precision but a more robust Christology, involving taking his humanity seriously.  I think that they might be onto something, but at the present time i’m with the author of the post.

Enjoy!