Reading around the blogosphere today and curious about 'Open-theism'. Curious partly because it throws so many people into such a stink and also because it has informed some of the second years at college when they come to writing about whether God suffers and how he allows evil to happen. So I came across a writer who is 'purging his soul, one blog at a time'. He describes his conversion to Open-theism which makes for interesting reading.
I can hear Packer and Carson and Brian MClaren arging in my head, yes, I know, I am a bit weird....but anyway, I found this reflection deeply engaging and it is always a good idea, when you dabble your toe in church politics to make sure the feet are actually soaking in something very much lovelier:
God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Before the creation of the world, God interacted within his own persons, giving and receiving from each part in communion and unity, expressing the reality of his nature: love (1 John 4:7-11). Scholars (Jenson or Fiddes are good places to start) call this concept perichoresis: the equal interpenetration and mutual indwelling of divine persons. Trinitarian theology in this regard is still making its way into the popular religious mind. Due to subordinationism’s subtle influence on Protestant theology, perichoresis may sound strange to you...
God is “playful” in the way he relates to each person of the Trinity and how he relates to us. He’s dynamic, social, interactive, and above all, recreational. That’s the word I like to use. He draws significance from interaction and co-habitation. He seeks relationship for relationship’s sake. As such, humans, made in the image of God, are meant to be social, recreational, and interdependent upon one another as well. We are called to be more than human – we are called to be co-human: humans in communion with God and each other. That’s why God created the world – so he could interact with it, affirming its significance. God is the essence of loving community…and draws us to share in his goodness.
For the rest of the article click here.
I also want to say that if this is the God we worship and if this is true to the way that God communicates with us through Scripture, reason, tradition and experience, is this not then the same God who would want women and men to work alongside each other as servant-leaders of his church (as Bishops)?
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A little background reading so we might mutually flourish when there are different opinions
4 comments:
I like what you have written. One thought about "Before the creation of the world" - there is, of course, no "before". Time is a creature, time was created at the moment of "the creation of the world" - so to speak of "before creation" may have some metaphorical value, but we need to take care with it.
Blessings
Yes you are right
Very edifying
Please drop by more often
very helpful
bless you
'....is this not then the same God who would want women and men to work alongside each other as servant-leaders of his church (as Bishops)?'
So churches that don't have Capitalized Bishops are not real churches?
And churches that don't have female Bishops are disobeying God? How do you know the mind of God so clearly?
...but it was a question, not a statement...
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