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Thinking About God

Thinking About God. Thinking the Faith for Today. Mark A. Woeltge. Session I. Tough Situations. What are some difficult life situations that you have had to face? How did you go about making sense of these situations? . Worldview.

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Thinking About God

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  1. Thinking About God Thinking the Faith for Today Mark A. Woeltge Session I Thinking About God

  2. Tough Situations • What are some difficult life situations that you have had to face? • How did you go about making sense of these situations? Thinking About God

  3. Worldview Is the model by which we evaluate, interpret, and explain reality and allow it to inform our actions within this world Thinking About God

  4. Where is God in all of this? Thinking About God

  5. Objective Of The Course To learn to intentionally Think About God in light of our daily life experiences. Thinking About God

  6. Overview • What does it mean to Think About God? • Why do we Think About God? • How do we Think About God? • How does what we Think About God inform our decisions and actions? Thinking About God

  7. What does it mean to - Think About God? Thinking About God

  8. Thinking about God = Theology A “fundamental attempt to make positive and constructive statements about who God is – and who we are in light of who God is” Michael Jinkins Thinking About God

  9. Thinking about God = Communal Activity We can only fully understand who God is – and who we are in light of who God is - in community; in conversation with the other. Thinking About God

  10. Thinking about God = Relevancy Theology, when intentionally done within the community, and not secluded in academia, will inherently be contextual; addressing the communities realities – and therefore have a higher degree of relevancy. Thinking About God

  11. The Trap of Measurability Separates into opposing spheres the spirit and the flesh, the intelligible and the sensible and only acknowledges the authority of the material and sensible and consigns the spirit and intelligible to the realm of opinion and values. Thinking About God

  12. The Trap of Utility States that value is measured by a things utility; if it brings us personal gain, then it is of value to us. Thinking About God

  13. Critique of Measurability and Utility • Measurabilityassumes a separation between what is spirit and what is flesh that is unfounded, particularly in light the incarnation. • Utility There are some things that transcend the merely useful. Thinking About God

  14. Summary – Thinking About God means: • Our attempt to know who God is – and who we are in light of who God is. • A communal event in that we can only truly know God and ourselves in Community. • Necessarily contextual – and relevant - when done in community Thinking About God

  15. Thinking About God Thinking the Faith for Today Mark A. Woeltge Session II Thinking About God

  16. Overview • What does it mean to Think About God? • Why do we Think About God? • How do we Think About God? • How does what we Think About God inform our decisions and actions? Thinking About God

  17. Thinking About God means: • Our attempt to know who God is – and who we are in light of who God is. • A communal event in that we can only truly know God and ourselves in Community. • Necessarily contextual – and relevant - when done in community Thinking About God

  18. Why do we Think About God? Thinking About God

  19. Why do we Think About God? • To make sense of our lived experience We Think About God in order to not only better evaluate, interpret and explain our lived experience but also in order to inform our response to our particular experience Thinking About God

  20. Why do we Think About God? • Christian thinking is a dimension of Christian being Christianity isn’t a veil to shield us from the world, but rather a way to think through the world Thinking About God

  21. Why do we Think About God? • Christendom in America is no longer a reality Christianity can no longer claim an exclusive or even privileged position in a postmodern American society Thinking About God

  22. Summary - Why do we Think About God? • To make sense of our lived experience • Christian thinking is a dimension of Christian being • Christendom in America is no longer a reality Thinking About God

  23. How do we Think About God? Thinking About God

  24. Tell me about God Thinking About God

  25. Tell me about God • How do we know these things about God? • From where did we get our information? • How reliable are your resources? • Which resources do we assign greater authority? Thinking About God

  26. How do we Think About God? Scripture • Historical • Older and Newer Testaments • Received by Faith • It is learned • Authoritative • Reveals the God of faith Thinking About God

  27. Scripture Christianity contains a vital and indispensable historical component - The Bible. It is of immediate and primary significance because it is the sole witness to this foundational history. Thinking About God

  28. The Role of Scripture and Thinking About God • The Secularist View • The Fundamentalist view Thinking About God

  29. The Secularist Charge: • The Bible cannot claim Ultimate Truth because it was written by human beings and therefore is relative by very nature Thinking About God

  30. A response to the Secularist Charge: We can insist that the Bible, being the only or the primary testimony to occurrences which we believe to be ultimately significant, is indispensable to our faith and Thinking About God Douglas John Hall Thinking About God

  31. The Fundamentalist Charge: • Insists that the Bible be accepted literally and uncritically; elevates the Bible to the level of absolute Thinking About God

  32. A response to the Fundamentalist Charge: The Bible points to the absolute – God – and is not an absolute itself. Thinking About God

  33. How do we Think About God? Tradition • Doctrinal • Creeds and Confessions • Domestic • Received from church • and family Thinking About God

  34. Tradition Tradition means to “hand over.” Christian faith is an historical faith which is handed over not only from the early church but also from our parents and grandparents Thinking About God

  35. The Role of Tradition and Thinking About God • The Modernist/Individualist view • The Traditionalist view Thinking About God

  36. The Modernist/Individualist agenda: The modernist seeks to minimize, and in extreme expressions, to eliminate the regulative role of tradition in Thinking About God. The modernist feels free to eliminate anything from the past that does not seem readily applicable to the present. Douglas John Hall Thinking About God

  37. A response to the Modernist agenda: It is impossible for one to escape the informative and influential character of tradition upon all of our long-held assumptions. Thinking About God

  38. The Traditionalist agenda: • Sees its primary responsibility that of upholding in all of its purity the orthodox doctrinal teachings of their particular tradition Thinking About God

  39. A response to the Traditionalist agenda: Unquestioning preservation of a given tradition not only discourages original reflection upon our present context but also fails to recognize that even tradition itself is contextually informed Thinking About God

  40. How do we Think About God? Experience • Personal • Individual Experience • Communal • Cultural Experience Thinking About God

  41. Personal Experience Experience is something that we do not receive from others but rather something we gain for ourselves Thinking About God

  42. Personal Experience and its relation to Thinking About God • Middle Ages – universal categories of Man • Renaissance– the “re-birth” of the individual • Reformation – transfer of authority to scripture opens door to personal reception and interpretation • Enlightenment - made an absolute of the human intellect, reducing essential humanity to sheer mind • Romanticism - point of departure for faith is not reason nor authority but experience, the feeling of absolute dependency • Post Modern - Thinking About God is not rational thought but broad experientially based intuition or “feeling” Thinking About God

  43. Assessment of Personal Experience Positive – A touch stone for truth; What corresponds to human experience is acceptable, what does not should be discarded as irrelevant Negative - experience becomes the primary canon of authenticity in theology – leaving no vantage point upon which to reflect upon… experience Thinking About God

  44. Communal Experience Is a society or community structured by mutually accepted and agreed upon values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Thinking About God

  45. How do we Think About God? Scripture Older Testament & Newer Testament Thinking About God Tradition Doctrinal & Domestic Experience Personal & Communal Thinking About God

  46. How do we Think About God? Scripture Older Testament & Newer Testament Traditionalist Modernist Thinking About God Tradition Doctrinal & Domestic Experience Personal & Communal Secularist Thinking About God

  47. Thinking About God Thinking the Faith for Today Mark A. Woeltge Session III Thinking About God

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