IV Creator Day 7

"O thou who coverest thy high
places with the waters,
Who settest the sand as a bound
to the sea
And dost uphold all things:
The sun sings thy praises,
The moon gives thee glory,
Every creature offers a hymn to thee,
His author and creator, for ever."
--Eastern Orthodox Prayer


This is my Father's World

All Creatures of our God and King

IV Creator Day 6

If God is truly the creator of heaven and earth, how ought a believer relate to the physical creation?

IV Creator Day 5

John 1:1-18 TM;
RSV
Romans 8:1-27 TM

Sallie McFague faculty page,
theology

Korean Methodist Creed

reading 51 from

IV Creator Day 4

Isaiah 40:12-41:20RSV, TM

C S Lewis

Langdon Gilkey wiki, U.Chicago

reading 47 from

reading 48 from p. 7

IV Creator Day 3

Psalm 8; 18; 29RSV, TM

Heidelberg Catechism

Susanna Wesley

reading 45 p. 385

reading 46 from

IV Creator Day 2

Job 36:24-41:34 RSV, TM

Francis of Assisi

reading 43 pp. 226-227

IV Creator Day 1

Genesis 1-3 RSV, TM

Irenaeus

reading 41 from

III Scripture Day 7

"Father of mercies, in thy Word
What endless glory shines!
Forever be thy name adored
For these celestial lines.

O may these heavenly pages be
My ever dear delight,
And still new beauties may I see,
And still increasing light."
Anne Steele 1716-1778

O Word of God Incarnate

Break Thou the Bread of Life

III Scripture Day 6

What is your greatest struggle in accepting the Bible as the Word of God?

When has the Bible spoken to you in such a way that you have felt it is inspired of God?

How would you define "inspired of God" in reference to the Bible?

What authority does the Bible have in your life?

Seeking More Understanding
Bible

III Scripture Day 5

2 Timothy 3:10-17 RSV , TM

Peter 3 RSV , TM

Letty M Russell article (Theology Today)

reading 37 from
reading 38 from

reading 39 from

III Scripture Day 4

Luke 4:14-30 TM
RSV
Acts 8:26-40 TM

The Articles of Religion, 1784

reading 36 pp. 15-16

III Scripture Day 3

Psalm 119:1-24, 89-112 RSV , TM

Formula of Concord

Philip Jacob Spener

John Wesley

reading 32 p. 60
reading 34 from

III Scripture Day 2

Ezra 7 TM
RSV
Nehemiah 8 TM;

Thomas a Kempis

Ulrich Zwingli

reading 30 from

III Scripture Day 1

2 Kings 22:1-23:25 RSV, TM, ESV

Origen

Jerome

















reading 27 pp. 349-353 vol. IV
reading 28 p. 50

II Revelation Day 7

Prayer

Lord God, I find prayer hard and constraining.
I have little devotion,
But afterwards, with your help,
I will have devotion,
And it will become restful and easy for me,
Though it was hard before.
Then I shall have very little labour,
Or none at all.
For then, Lord God,
You will work as you please;
Not always,
Not even for a long time together,
But as you please.
And it will seem a joyful thing for me
To leave you to do it.
Perhaps it will be your will
To send out a ray of spiritual light,
Piercing this cloud of unknowing
Between you and me;
And you will show me some of your secrets
Of which a person may not, or cannot, speak.
Then I shall feel my affection all aflame
With the fire of your love,
Far more than I know how to tell.
--The Cloud of Unknowing, 14th century

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise

II Revelation Day 6

What has Jesus Christ revealed to you, personally, about God that you would never otherwise have understood or appreciated?

definitions: Revelation, Anthropomorphism, Nature

If you want to delve further into how we can be more open to divine revelation, I suggest Frost's book.

II Revelation Day 5

RSVRomans 1:14-32 TM; Hebrews 1:1-2:9 TM;

World Council of Churches; Second Vatican Council(wiki)

Daniel L Migliore ; Theology Today article


reading 26 p. 20.

II Revelation Day 4

RSVPsalm 19The Message; John 1:1-14 The Message;

Karl Barth

reading 21 p. 301 and reading 23 p.111 came from
reading 22 comes from

II Revelation Day 3

Psalms 105-107 (RSV, The Message)

Emil Brunner

Georgia Harkness (wiki), (gbgm umc) theology today

reading 18 comes from...
reading 19 comes from pp. 19-20 of

reading 20 comes from pp. 73-74 of

II Revelation Day 2

Job 38-41(RSV,
The Message,ESV)

Reinhold Niebuhr (wiki) (theo. dict.)

H. Richard Niebuhr

reading 16 comes from...
reading 17 comes from ...

II Revelation Day 1

Genesis 1:1-2:3 TM, ESV, TNIV;

Exodus 3:1-15 RSV, ESV, TM

Irenaeus, Martin Luther

reading 13 comes from p. 126 of...

Believing Day 7

Prayer

“Lord, I seek you with all my heart, with all the strength you have given me. I long to understand that which I believe.
You are my only hope; please listen to me. Do not let my weariness lessen my desire to find you, to see your face.
You created me in order to find you; you gave me strength to seek you. My strength and my weakness are in your hands: preserve my strength, and help my weakness. Where you have already opened the door, let me come in; where it is shut, open at my knocking.
Let me always remember you, love you, meditate upon you, and pray to you, until you restore me to your perfect pattern.”
---Augustine of Hippo, 354-430

Open My Eyes, That I May See

Be Thou My Vision

Believing Day 6

What Beliefs are most important to you?

Definitions: Theology (Quotes); Doctrine; Dogma; Belief

Council of Nicea history -

quick overview or Wikipedia

Believing Day 5

Acts 17:16-34;
-RSV- The Message;
Jude
The Message;

Edward Schillebeeckx

Jaroslav Pelikan reading 11 comes from pg 3 of...

Donald G Bloesch reading 12 comes from Donald's book...

Believing Day 4

Hebrews 11:1-6 The Message;
-RSV-
Matthew 13:1-23 ; The Message;
Clown Version , recap from Darwin

John Wesley reading 8 came from pg 30 of...

Albert Schweitzer reading 9 came from pgs 399-401 of...

Believing Day 3

Mark 9:14-29

John 20:24-31

Anselm

Thomas Aquinas

Reading 7 came from p 148 of...

Believing Day 2

Job 42:1-6 (Job acknowledges God) Habakkuk 3:10-19 (in awe of God)
Augustine, 354-430
Apostles' Creed
Here's a decent book on the Apostles' Creed though I'm partial to the Luke Johnson book mentioned on day 1.

Reading 3 comes from pg 45 Vol. I of...

Believing Day 1

Genesis 12:1-9 ; Exodus 3:1-17

Cyril of Jerusalem ; Nicene Creed

One of the best books on the Creed is by Luke Timothy Johnson --

Reading 1 came from pg 32 of Vol. VII….

With Heart and Mind

Doctrine moves from head to heart

When praise of God becomes more important in worship than “what we get out of it.”

When we say the creeds with conviction because we are confessing the faith fo the church – though our own faith may yet have to grow into it.

When we pause when starting to discount another person because we remember each human being carries the image and likeness of God.

When we look around us and declare that everything in God’s creation – rocks and stars, birds and trees, humans and dandelions, waterfalls and whales – is praising God.

When we watch a baptism and see a new creation.

When the hymns we sing become confession instead of words and notes.

When the words we say on Sunday shape the things we do on Monday.

When a way opens for us where we thought there was no way, and we breathe a prayer of thanks to God the Holy Spirit.

When we eat the bread and drink the cup and feel forgiven.

When at the center of our sorrow in facing death we experience peace and assurance in God’s promise that we will be raised to new life.

When our world falls apart and we sense God’s presence with us in the rubble.

When we open the Bible alone or with others and expect to meet the God who is revealed there.

Faith Asks Questions

“Faith Asks Questions” is the believing community clarifying its own understanding of what the church teaches.

In teaching doctrine, we get into trouble when we teach answers without questions. So the group is routinely asked to identify abiding, recurring life questions to which the church has given an answer in doctrine.

Perhaps the most difficult question in this section is the question, what is at stake in accepting or rejecting this doctrine? That is, why is this doctrine important, or is it? What is in this teaching that we are willing to stake our lives on? What would the church lose in giving up this doctrine?

In studying doctrine we learn to acknowledge mystery; some question we must continue to live with.

Different and Difficult

What makes this study different? It is about doctrine, which has many voices and views. The aim of the study is to understand the tradition first – not to talk people into it. Doubt is natural and perhaps inevitable. “I believe; help my unbelief” is part of the Christian life; and what one accepts, doubts, or denies varies throughout life.

What makes this study difficult? It is not foremost a sharing of opinions, but what the church teaches, which requires moving from what “I believe” into the “we believe” of the Christian community. In some cases participants may discover that some of their personal beliefs are outside ‘classical’ Christian teaching.

What makes this study hard is that it first asks the question what do we teach ‘church universal’ before looking at our own beliefs.

Taking Notes

Notes made during reading of Scripture and the readings will be the means of making sense of the parts, of bringing the bits and pieces together into a whole.

Reading Scripture in relation to doctrine involves looking at the Scripture on two different levels: the first, to know what the passage says generally; the second, to look at the passage from the perspective of doctrine.

The pattern for taking notes on readings includes these steps: 1) identifying key terms or phrases, 2) listing main ideas in the reading, 3) indicating points of difficulty or questions, 4) writing a sentence that summarizes the main ideas, and 5) preparing a statement of the doctrine based on the week’s readings.

A Word on Reading

Read first to make sense o the words on the page. (words, concepts, in context)

Read second to learn the extent to which the passage will require more attentive reading. (understanding, comprehension)

Read third to gain understanding by asking questions of the passage (first try to answer from the passage itself)

Read fourth to compare one passage with another.

Thought Preparation

Think long term. 30 weeks of preparation and participation.
Think discipline. 30-45minutes each day for reading, study, notes, and prayer.
Think commitment. Preparation, attendance, participation, and commitment.
Think accountability.
Think faithfulness. Pray faithfully for each other, your congregation, pastor(s), and for yourself that you might be open and expecting God to work in you.

Daily Preparation
Read Scripture daily and write notes in the study manual.
Read assigned readings daily and write notes in the study manual following the steps outlined on Readings page 6.
On Day 6 read the study manual and write responses called for.
Complete study daily in order not to be overwhelmed at the end of the week by an enormous amount of reading—and often difficult reading.
Listen to the language. Look at the symbols.
Come to the weekly group meeting prepared, expecting to participate fully and to grow in understanding the Christian faith.

Tests of Doctrinal Faithfulness

Ten commonly applied tests of doctrinal faithfulness used by Christian communities

1 Continuity with apostolic tradition
Is the claim being made continuous with what is apostolic in the tradition?
2 Congruence with Scripture
Is it congruent with what the Word of God in Scripture is speaking?
3 Consistency with worship
Is it consistent with the community’s prayer and worship?
4 Catholicity
Is it truly catholic, meaning true for the church everywhere, and not just in one place?
5 Consonance with experience
Is it consonant with experience; that is, does it ring true to life in faith?
6 Conformity with conscience
Is it in keeping with a good conscience?
7 Consequence
What are the effects or consequences?
8 Cruciality
Is the spirit that is being advocated pertinent to, or an evasion of, what is crucial, what matters most, in the situation at hand?
9 Coherence
Is it coherent in relation to contemporary modes of thought?
10 Comprehensiveness
How comprehensive is the particular teaching with respect to the full range of Christian confession?

“Theology as the Task of Disbelief” by Christopher Morse, Circuit Rider, July/august 1995; pp. 8-9. 1995. Abingdon Press.

Teaching Doctrine

We start with the classical doctrines – those teachings the church has said are the essential and has continually taught as essential.

Our purpose is to understand the faith we already have. (won’t touch every subject nor have all answers)

We study doctrine as a community of faith. (we are asking the question. What do we (church) believe? Not what do I believe? We acknowledge that doctrine is what the church teaches and believes and that we who make up the church can believe it or not. Our personal beliefs do not define what the church teaches. Doctrines are the basic convictions or confessions of the church.

We recognize that for every belief of the church there is a corresponding disbelief – what the church refuses to believe.

Doctrines are what the church argues about. This ongoing conversation about beliefs is within the Christian community and the differences in points of view are part of life in the community of faith.

There is no one cource for doctrine as there is for Bible study.

Teaching doctrine emphasizes the place of the mind in our believing.

While our conversation about believing goes on within the Christian community, it does not stay there; for Christian must live in a larger world. And at some point, if not almost constantly, we must be able to say what we believe and why we believe it.

Ministry and Doctrine

The fullness of God’s identity and activity will always exceed our comprehension. We can know truly without knowing fully. (But the majesty of God, the greatness of God will always elude our grasp. Even though God reveals much about himself, much remains hidden.)

Mystery is embraced by faith. Doctrine is that faith seeking understanding. Doctrine is the attempt to formulate in rational terms the great mysteries of Christian faith. Ex. Atonement; Jesus Christ has somehow been an instrument of reconciliation between God and sinful people. Yet there is considerable disagreement and lively debate about which theory of Atonement best describes the mystery proclaimed by faith.

The mystery of which we speak in Christian tradition is not irrational but transrational. It is not a puzzle to be solved but a profound reality to be embraced. This sort of mystery grasps us rather than our grasping it. And having been grasped by God’s truth, our lives are changed.

Scripture and Doctrine

Scripture is the starting point of doctrine, and Scripture is the judge of doctrine. (The church looks to scripture, which testifies in myriad and unsystematic ways to what God has done and is doing, to what God has communicated and continues to communicate. Doctrine attempts to bring order to that testimony, to present in a systematic way what is most important.)

The great teachings of the church are not based on a single passage of Scripture in isolation from the larger canon. Doctrine must resonate with the broad testimony of Scripture. Doctrine deals with themes from scripture implicitly and/or explicitly.

There has been no attempt here to provide a comprehensive rehearsal of all of the scriptural roots of every doctrine covered.

Christian Believer

For more information on where Christian Believer comes from http://www.umph.org/christianbeliever/components.html