A History of Christian Thought by: Justo L. Gonzalez
“In short, from its very beginning Christianity has existed as the message of the God who ‘so loved the world’ as to become part of it. Christianity is not an ethereal, eternal doctrine about God’s nature, but rather it is the presence of God in the world in the person of Jesus Christ. Christianity is incarnational, and, therefore, it exists in the concrete and the historical.” (29)

Timaeus by: Plato
“We must, then, in my opinion, first of all make the following distinction: What is that which always is and is untouched by becoming? — and what is always in a state of coming-to-be but never is? Now that which intelligence grasps by way of a rational account is what always is self-identically; while that which is the object of belief by way of non-reasoning sense-perception is that which is coming into being and perishing but never in the proper sense is. Everything, though, that is coming into being must necessarily come into being by the agency of some cause; for it is absolutely impossible that anything should be in a state of coming-to-be apart form some cause.”
huh? Isn’t this fun!

A History of Christian Thought by: Justo L. Gonzalez
I know some of this stuff is common sense, but it is always good to be reminded. Plus, I like the way he puts things – to me he is very clear and concise.
“The task of the historian does not consist in mere repetition of what has happened – or, in this case, of what has been thought. On the contrary, the historian must begin by selecting the material to be used, and the rules guiding this selection depend upon a decision that is to a considerable degree subjective… This selection depends in good part upon the author, which means that every history of Christian thought is of necessity also a reflection of the theological presuppositions of the writer, and the historian of Christian thought who suggests that such work is free of theological presuppositions is clearly deluded.” (23)
“The presuppositions and value judgements of the historian determine the selection of the material, the bridging of gaps in the sources, and the very manner of presentation, which may appear so objective as to beguile the reader.” (25)
“Faced by these two positions,” (Docetism & Ebionism), “Christianity affirms that the truth is given in the concrete, the historical, and the particular, contained and hidden within it, but in such a way as never to lose its veracity for all historical moments.” (26-27)
“THE truth of doctrine will never be such that we can say: here is the eternal and incommutable truth, free of any shadow or conjecture of historical relativism. The truth of doctrine is only present to that degree in which , through the various doctrines, the Word of God (which is the Truth) is able to confront the church with a demand for absolute obedience. When this happens that doctrine indeed becomes the standard of judgment of the church’s life and proclamation.” (27)
“Are all doctrines then equally valid? Certainly not. Moreover, no doctrine is valid in the sense of being able to identify itself with the Word of God.” (27)

A History of Christian Thought by: Justo L. Gonzalez
“Just as the Israelites, when they escaped from Egypt, carried off some of the gods of their oppressors, so the Christians utilized the ideas and intellectual methods of their opponents in fashioning their replies. Broadly speaking, the intellectual concerns of the Christians, although theological rather than philosophical, placed them in the tradition of Greek philosophy, and even those Christians who, like Tertullian, decried the use of pagan learning , nevertheless in the acuteness of their reasoning were heirs of the classical heritage. But there was also a background in Judaism for intellectual pursuits. The synagogue was unique in the ancient world, a church without an altar, only a desk for the reading of the Law. And after the reading came the exposition, for the Law was to be interpreted. The desk in the synagogue was the lectern of a professor as well as the pulpit of a prophet. The rabbi was both. Significantly the first churches were modeled after the synagogue.” (14)
“The incarnation of God in the man Jesus involved another affinity of Christianity with Judaism and a divergence from the Hellenic approach to religion, because Judaism and Christianity see the primary self-disclosure of God to man in the events of history. The Eternal breaks into time. This is supremely the case with the incarnation, itself an event in time… The Word became flesh at a point in time. Therefore, Christianity must always be historically oriented. This also means that God in Christ was disclosing himself to man. This is revelation.” (15)
“This is essentially true of the Stoic and Aristotelian approaches and largely also in the case of the Platonic, where, form the shadows that he sees, man infers the realities that he does not see. In such a case, revelation, if such it can be called, proceeds from the ground up. It is not a deposit, but the object of a quest…. There need be no anchorage in the past, and there is nothing once and for all delivered.” (15)
This last sentence reminds me of the attitude among most of the Evangelical, and especially Pentecostal, Christians I know. The knowledge of history among most in the Church is atrocious. Historical ignorance is an American phenomena, so this characteristic isn’t something particular to the American Church. All the while many religious-right political leaders like to harken back to different periods in history to justify their political stands or their theological dictates, their use of history is often so selective as to render their pronouncements null and void. Of course, we find liberals doing the very same thing. Yet, if we are to be a church, a people, rooted in the historic understandings so to better understand the place of faith in our own time, we need to be well versed in history.
This seems to be such a common sense notion, but it is lost on most of us. Especially within Pentecostalism, where the idea of God doing new things through the Holy Spirit is so engrained that every whim of excess can quickly sweep through whole denominations and church-groups. It is a pop-theology, a pop-expression of Church, and the very thing we want – the one and forever Truth – can be quickly lost in the urgent and the now. If God truly is the same yesterday, today, and forever, world without end, then the one and forever Truth is there to discern and understand, but we have to be open to understand, even if the understanding completely upturns our clenched current beliefs. As Father Wright writes, “If one is to avoid becoming a mere prisoner of present perspective, then one must transcend the conventional wisdom of the immediate past, avoid the tyranny of the ‘tract-rack’ theology, for the past must be surveyed before it can be surmounted.” and “Participation in the future by interpretation of the past.”

Celebration of Discipline by: Richard Foster
“…if we can quite ourselves enough to listen.” (25)
“Whereas the study of Scripture centers on exegesis, the meditation of Scripture centers on internalizing and personalizing the passage.” (26)
Chapter 3: The Discipline of Prayer
“Prayer catapults us onto the frontier of the spiritual life. It is original research in unexplored territory.” (30)
“The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ.” (30)
“But when we pray God slowly and graciously reveals to us our hiding places, and sets us free from the.” (30)
“…we should remember that God always meets us where we are and slowly moves us along into deeper things.” (31)
“It is Stoicism that demands a closed universe, not the Bible.” (32)
“Sen Kierkegaard once observed: ‘A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized that prayer is listening.” (34-35)
“The prayer of guidance constantly precedes and surrounds the prayer of faith.” (35)
“If we are still, we will learn not only who God is but how His power operates.” (35)
“Coincidence? Perhaps, but as Archbishop William Temple once noted, the coincidences occurred much more frequently when he prayed.” (38)
“Units of prayer combined, like drops of water, make an ocean which defies resistance.” (39)
Chapter 6: The Discipline of Simplicity
“Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear.” (69)
“The Christian Discipline of simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward life-style.” (69)
“Experiencing the inward reality liberates us outwardly.” (70)
“Inwardly modern man is fractured and fragmented… He has no unity or focus around which life is oriented” (70)
“Asceticism and simplicity are mutually incompatible.” (74)
“Asceticism renounces possessions. Simplicity sets possessions in proper perspectives.” (74)
“The central point for the Discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of His kingdom first – and then everything necessary will come in its proper order.” (75)

Testing – okay, is this one working?

Celebration of Discipline by: Richard Foster
I’m reading this book along with the other members of our TSP group. We plan on continuing to meet together this term and to go over this book. It has been around 20 years since I last read this book. So far, it is as good as I remembered it to be!
Chapter 1: Door to Liberation
“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” (italics mine)
[ This is so applicable to our situation here and now in seminary. We can learn so much and experience so much, but without the work of discipleship – of the disciplines – the deepness of life and the formulation of meaning of all the learning and experience can be for nothing. ]
“In fact, the Disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our normal daily activities. If hey are to have any transforming effect, the effect must be found in the ordinary junctures of human life.” (1)
“The Disciplines are ‘classical’ because they are central to experiential Christianity” (1)
“Joy is the keynote of the Disciplines. The purpose of the Disciplines is liberation from the stifling slavery to self-interest and fear.” (2)
“The primary requirement is a longing for God.” (2)
“As Thomas Merton said, ‘We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners all our life.'” (2)
“Psalm 42:7 reads ‘Deep calls to deep.'”
[ I know this can sound, or even be, exclusionary, but their is a recognition that is present between those who find themselves in the ‘deep.’ There is always the danger of pride and haughtiness, yet deep does call to deep. It can be seen in another, just like one who has gone through horrific times in life can discern the same path of experience in another who has gone through horrific experiences. ]
“One word of caution, however, must be given at the outset; to know the mechanics does not mean that we are practicing the Discipline. the Spiritual Disciplines are an inward and spiritual reality and the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than he mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life.” (3)
“The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over our sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshiping the will.” (4)
“Heinri Arnold concludes, ‘As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own will power, we will only make the evil in us stronger than ever.'” (4)
“By dint of will people can make a good showing for a time, but sooner or later there will come the unguarded moment when the ‘careless word’ will slip out to reveal the true condition of the heart.” (5)
“It is not that we intend to be that way. We have no intention of exploding with anger or of parading a sticky arrogance, but when we are with people, what we are comes out… Willpower has no defense against the careless word, the unguarded moment.” (5)
“The needed change within us is God’s work, not ours.” (5)
“Once we clearly understand that God’s grace is unearned and unearnable, and if we expect to grow, we must take up a consciously chosen course of action involving both individual and group life. That is the purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines.” (7)
“We must always remember that the path does not produce the change; it only puts us in the place where the change can occur. This is the way of disciplined grace.” (7)
“We did no more than receive a gift, yet we know the changes are real. We know they are real because we find that the spirit of compassion we once found so hard is now easy… No longer is there the tiring need to hide our inner selves from others.” (7)
“The Spiritual Disciplines are intended for our good. They are meant to bring the abundance of God into our lives. It is possible, however, to turn them into another set of soul-killing laws. Law-bound Disciplines breathe death… When the Disciplines degenerate into law, they are used to manipulate and control people… Once we have made a law, we have an ‘externalism’ by which we can judge who is measuring up and who is not… When we genuinely believe that inner transformation is God’s work and not ours, we can put to rest our passion to set others straight.” (8-9)
[ This is very good! I have experienced so often the legalization of our life with God. This can be found in all forms throughout the whole Church, but some traditions are more adept at it than others. Legalistic righteousness is found alive and well within the “conservative” Church. “Conservative” is a bad word to use because of the baggage it brings, but I just don’t have a better descriptive word at this point. Then, of course, we judge one another in order to prove our own self-righteousness. We judge in order to make ourselves feel better. Read Romans chapter 2! ]
“In these matters we need the words of the apostle Paul embedded in our minds: ‘We deal not in the letter but in the Spirit. the letter of the Law leads to the death of the soul; the Spirit of God alone can give life to the soul.’ (2 Cor. 3:6, Phillips)” (9)
Chapter 2: The Discipline of Meditation
“In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness’ and ‘manyness,’ he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist C. G. Jung once remarked, ‘Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.'” (13)
“They call us to the adventure, to be pioneers in this frontier of the Spirit.” (13)
“It is a sad commentary on the spiritual state of modern Christianity that meditation is a word so foreign to its ears.” (14)
[ I think this has been changing since this book was first published (the ’70’s). Of course, for me, it could be that I moved from Pentecostalism and into Anglicanism, which has an ancient history, along with all the Churches within the Catholic tradition, of meditation. ]
“Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it. The two ideas are radically different.” (15)
“Detachment is the final goal of Eastern religion… In its popular form, TM is meditation for the materialists.” (15)
“Christian meditation goes far beyond the notion of detachment… The detachment from the confusion all around us is in order to have a richer attachment to God and to other human beings. Christian mediation leads us to the inner wholeness necessary to give ourselves to God freely, and to he spiritual perception necessary to attack social evils.” (15)
“If you believe that we live in a universe created by the infinite-personal God who delights in our communion with Him, you will see meditation as a communication between the Lover and the one beloved.” (18)
“The history of religion is the story of an almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a go-between. In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves. Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change. It is very convenient this way because it gives us the advantage of religious respectability without demanding moral transformation. We do not need to observe the American scene very closely to realize that it is captivated by the religion of the mediator.” (19)
“This is why meditation is so threatening to us. It boldly calls us to enter into the living presence of God for ourselves.” (19)
[ It is an experiential action. It is coming to know God. ]
“We must come to see, therefore, how central the whole of our day is in preparing us for specific times of meditation. If we are constantly being swept off our feet with frantic activity, we will be unable to be attentive at the moment of inward silence.” (20)
[ How many people have I known who cannot go a moment with silence. They always have to have a radio playing or television droning in the background. How many people never let themselves sit still for more then a few moments. With some of my friends, and even one relationship, I know it is because they cannot let themselves dwell in themselves – they are afraid to focus on the inner self. ]
“…we would do well to cultivate ‘holy leisure.’ And if we expect to succeed in the contemplative arts, we must pursue ‘holy leisure’ with a determination that is ruthless to our datebooks.” (21)