Theology Bites 3 - Jesus thinkings

 Theology around Jesus is a whole discipline in itself, in fact called "Christology" - I can only dip into the ocean of words and thoughts on the subject, but even then (at about 8 minutes a video) I will have to divide these thoughts up into about three or four parts. So here's the first one relating to Christology - particularly to the ideas around what we call 'Incarnational Theology'



Comments

Bob MacDonald said…
Thank you for your ramblings so far. Lots of helpful thoughts. One aspect that is a challenge to think about is the massive foundation of the Hebrew Scriptures that the story of Jesus sits on. Equally huge is the literature leading up to the writing of the New Testament. I find most Christian scholars concentrate on Greek and the ideas that were emerging in Jewish apocalyptic reflections in the centuries surrounding the life of Jesus. This has not been my study. In true fundamentalist fashion I decided to study the Hebrew background - running the risk of using words too rigidly. I wonder if you have thought about the relationship between Jesus and the name that comes first after the expulsion from the garden from the mouth of Eve. I referenced a Torah commentary on this in my last post.

The great background question for me as for many growing up in the shadow of the Shoa is - what do we make of this vast tradition of writing that we used against the community that has been dedicated to copying it? How in other words, to return to the theology question, does the 'Christian' Jesus relate to the Hebrew Yeshua reflecting the name of 'the LORD'? So much confusion. I read a Jewish commentary on this years ago Jesus and Yahweh, by Harold Bloom - perhaps more of a literary critic than a theologian. I am unconvinced by his portrait.

This longer podcast on the book of Jonah (I confess I only read the transcript) suggests a use of the names of God in this little book that I find convincing. But I must make the connection between Jesus and Jonah (the only sign...) on the way to connecting Yahweh, the means of salvation, with the one we follow. Yes - in spite of my now 16 year intensive study and translation of Tanakh for its word recurrence patterns and its embedded music, I am still a follower of Jesus. If he had let me go my own ways I would not be here to follow.
8:12 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trying to connect the dots, unnecessarily

Image
Another sermon - as seems to be the way of this blog at present! Life is busy and complicated, and good, and bad, and exciting, and challenging, and (in short) not conducive to getting Blog posts written! So, here's my thought for today taken from these passages (Click for details): Exodus 16:1–5, 9–15,  Psalm 78;18–29 Mt 13.1–9 Grace and Meaning In the words of St Paul, or perhaps St John, or maybe St George, or even St Ringo “When I was younger, so much younger than today.” Ah, sorry, couldn’t resist!  No, it’s not a tubby boy story – but just a general reflection that today’s story from the book of Exodus used to cause me great consternation.  Or at least was one of those parts of Scripture that didn’t seem to fit… I knew the story, the mythological story I am now convinced, of the temptations in the wilderness when Jesus proclaims, quoting Deuteronomy 6 ‘you shall not put the Lord your God to the test’. As I moved into the Anglican Church and got to kno
Read more

A Sermon which upset someone

So, I'm not a theological conservative.  That probably comes across in pretty much everything I write, but I thought I should say it.  I believe myself to be orthodox, however, and hold to those things which the Church expresses in the catholic creeds.  I also have a relatively 'high' theology regarding the inspiration of Scripture. But I am not a Biblical literalist, nor do I hold to a doctrine of the infallibility of Scripture. I can't.  The Bible is too rich, too deep, too difficult, too flawed for that.  And by flawed I mean I understand it to be the record of human beings trying to make sense of God at work.  It has the breath of the Spirit blowing through it's words and on every page, but when we try and make sense of God there is a chance we will go awry.... 'Hey lets condemn (and or murder) pretty much everyone who isn't in our tribe, that's obviously what God wants' kind of awry.  And if we study this book carefully then we see that ideas
Read more