Week 3

This evening we will explore Chapters 2 and 3 referring to the outline and questions accompanying it.

But First : A Review

Chapter 1:

Focus on page 12-13 and ground rules in page 17-21

Summary:

(1) From the beginning:  History shows that human beings are naturally religious; that is, the record shows that humans have always sought (and are still seeking) the transcendent dimension of life.

(2) Peoples of the Book:  Jews, Christians and Muslims have shown, through their history and sacred texts, that their people have always sought to experience the Holy.  The scriptures of all three traditions also describe a God who continually seeks for them.

(3) Why the search?  The living God is beyond description, and thus can never be wholly captured in words, but the human search for God goes on because the human heart is insatiable – and constant change in human culture mean that our experiences of God are always mediated through new realities. Thus new attempts to articulate ideas about God are to be expected. Christianity is now living through a new chapter in this quest.

(4) Modern theism:  Western culture has inherited an inadequate idea of God; this makes it difficult for us to understand God’s transcendence (always beyond us) and God’s immanence (always with us).  New theologies are trying to expand our understanding of God, and of God’s relationship to the world.

(5) Ground rules for the journey:  There are three guidelines for this theological journey: first, God is always a mystery beyond telling; second, no expression for God can be taken literally; and third, God has many names.

(6) High stakes:  Ideas of God can become obsolete. As the future continuously arrives, only a living God, who spans all times and all cultures, can relate to new circumstances.”

Considerations for Chapter 2

Things to consider:

• What are your reactions to chapter 2?  What challenged you?  What made you think in new ways?
• What do you think “faith stripped down to its bare essentials” looks like? How do you interpret this “winter season” in the church?
• How to do experience God’s “infinite holy mystery” ?
• How do you experience “loving the world” in the experience of loving God?

I thought it would be help to first watch a short video entitled 

Quest For The Living God in NYC

 This may help give some context what we already know about peoples' view on God as well as the culture context that Dr. Johnson offers in Chapter 2 when speaking about Rahner's idea of "winter" and "withering self-transcendence."

Next, I would like for us to watch part, if not all, of an interview with Dr. Elizabeth Johnson. What is her experience of God? faith" culture?

The"Winter?"

Leonard Cohen - "The Future"

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
I've seen the future, brother
It is murder

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it has overturned
The order of the soul
When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (repent)
I wonder what they meant
When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (repent)
I wonder what they meant
When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (repent)
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
You never will, you never did
I'm the little Jew
Who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
But love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
To say it clear, to say it cold
It's over, it ain't going
Any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
You feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future
It is murder

Do Not Stifle The Spirit!

“What is needful in order for the Spirit not to be stifled is a true and bold interpretation of what obedience to the church really means. It is a holy virtue. The Spirit of Christ in the church manifests itself in obedience to the established authorities of the church. That is no true Spirit of Christ which leads us outside the church of the bishops, the pope, the official ministers of the church. But it is important to recognize the truth that the work of the Spirit in the church takes effect not only through these official ministers, but through those over whom they preside as well; that the Spirit’s influence also extends in the inverse direction, from the ministered to the ministers. And if this is true, then the individuals upon whom God bestows the grace, and also the burden, of charisms (and it would be better if more of the church’s members would commit themselves to accepting that the Spirit might be entrusting them with such gifts and such responsibilities) have also a right and a duty to avoid simply hiding behind an attitude of dumb obedience — in truth not in the least because it is a humble attitude, but because it is a comfortable one. Rather they must speak out — proclaim what they believe to be true, for it is quite possible that this may be the truth of the Spirit of God. They must be tireless in testifying to it even in the presence of the established authorities in the church, and even when they themselves have to endure the sufferings of the charismatic for doing so, in the form of misunderstanding and perhaps even disciplinary action on the part of the authorities. The spirit of true obedience is present not so much where the official machinery of the church is running smoothly and without friction, not so much where a totalitarian regime is being enforced, but rather where the nonofficial movements of the Spirit are recognized and respected by the official church in the context of a universal striving for the will of God, while the “charismatic” for their part, while remaining faithful to their task, maintain an attitude of obedience and respect toward the official church. For it is God and God alone who builds the one church, shaping the true course of its history as God will out of the materials of the multiplicity of spirits, tasks, and ministries in the church, and out of the ensuing tensions and oppositions which are so necessary. And further this course may seem quite different from the one thought out and planned in the official councils of the church’s ministers, even though these are quite right and are only fulfilling their bounden duty in so planning a course for the church.”
Karl Rahner, Do Not Stifle The Spirit, 248-249

Closing Prayer - Words by Karl Rahner