Finding Faith - More Selected Quotations
These are quotations (with some commentary by me) from Brian McLaren's book, Finding Faith - A Self-discovery Guide for Your Spiritual Quest. I have previously review it here and here.
"They say that the opposite of love isn't hate; it is rather indifference. And I have to think the same is true if faith. Doubt isn't a spiritual danger sign as much as indifference would be."
I think there's a lot of truth in that, what do you think?
"There's something else I've learned. Doubting my faith isn't the same as doubting God. … When I doubt my faith (in other words, my own understanding of God, life, the universe, etc.), when I can't lean on it because I'm not sure it will hold my full weight, then I can paradoxically more fully lean on God with my whole heart."
A very good thing to keep in mind.
"That's the real goal of tradition and dogma: not to impose a bunch of meaningless rules on you, not to oppress you or make you feel stupid, not to put you through meaningless exercises or assign 'busywork' to keep you out of trouble, but to help you learn. The goal is for you to get it yourself, so the lights will one day come on, so you can do work on you own…"
A similar analogy could be made to learning music or painting or football. To learn you must enter the tradition (Bach, Rembrandt, Vince Lombardi). You must master the dogma (key and time signature, perspective, offensive strategy). You must associate with those who know more than you (music teachers, art teachers, coaches). The goal is not that you become a clone, but that you become a creative participant in the tradition - playing and composing and creating with your own style, contributing, receiving, and giving. You associate with the teachers and other students so that you can learn, know what they know, become like them, maybe even teach others someday, passing on the tradition and dogma yourself."
This reminds me of when Jesus said, "go and make disciples." A process, I believe, that is much more involved than many Christians today practice.
I also thought this was an interesting way of looking at tradition. Can those within a tradition make legitimate expansions and/or changes without threatening the tradition itself? Offensive philosophy in football has advanced from the 1930's when the T-formation was newest thing to numerous variations of the west coast offense. Can an analogy be made from this to something that we may do as participants in Christ-following tradition?
Or would the rise of zone blitzing to combat the west coast offense be a better analogy for how Christ followers can advance the tradition (that is, using new tactics when faced with something different).
Technorati tags: Finding Faith Brian McLaren Faith Doubt Spirituality
Tradition Football Terminology
"They say that the opposite of love isn't hate; it is rather indifference. And I have to think the same is true if faith. Doubt isn't a spiritual danger sign as much as indifference would be."
I think there's a lot of truth in that, what do you think?
"There's something else I've learned. Doubting my faith isn't the same as doubting God. … When I doubt my faith (in other words, my own understanding of God, life, the universe, etc.), when I can't lean on it because I'm not sure it will hold my full weight, then I can paradoxically more fully lean on God with my whole heart."
A very good thing to keep in mind.
"That's the real goal of tradition and dogma: not to impose a bunch of meaningless rules on you, not to oppress you or make you feel stupid, not to put you through meaningless exercises or assign 'busywork' to keep you out of trouble, but to help you learn. The goal is for you to get it yourself, so the lights will one day come on, so you can do work on you own…"
A similar analogy could be made to learning music or painting or football. To learn you must enter the tradition (Bach, Rembrandt, Vince Lombardi). You must master the dogma (key and time signature, perspective, offensive strategy). You must associate with those who know more than you (music teachers, art teachers, coaches). The goal is not that you become a clone, but that you become a creative participant in the tradition - playing and composing and creating with your own style, contributing, receiving, and giving. You associate with the teachers and other students so that you can learn, know what they know, become like them, maybe even teach others someday, passing on the tradition and dogma yourself."
This reminds me of when Jesus said, "go and make disciples." A process, I believe, that is much more involved than many Christians today practice.
I also thought this was an interesting way of looking at tradition. Can those within a tradition make legitimate expansions and/or changes without threatening the tradition itself? Offensive philosophy in football has advanced from the 1930's when the T-formation was newest thing to numerous variations of the west coast offense. Can an analogy be made from this to something that we may do as participants in Christ-following tradition?
Or would the rise of zone blitzing to combat the west coast offense be a better analogy for how Christ followers can advance the tradition (that is, using new tactics when faced with something different).
Technorati tags: Finding Faith Brian McLaren Faith Doubt Spirituality
Tradition Football Terminology
posted by Freethinker at 5:22:00 PM
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