Larry's Inklings

 The spiritual quest  is an awakening.  Most of the people you meet on the street, regardless of their status or achievements are asleep.  But the Christian spiritual life is about being awake –– about having a "dawn" within us. It is about being conscious of the numinous, aware and attentive to the mysterious presence of God –– to the poetic, or divine life.  This series of podcasts, concludes with this 52nd episode. I may come back later to answer some frequently asked questions at a later date, but that is by no means for certain. So, I conclude with what could also be a beginning –– "Awakening."

This  episode continues to explore Christian spirituality as a spirituality in which community is essential, and faces squarely the reality that there are times when the church is neither beloved nor community ––times in which the institutions church has, in the name of Christ, perpetuated  evil.  How are those consecrated to the Christ, the Sacred Page, and the Beloved Community to respond?

Looks at the church, when it is truly the church, as community –– The Beloved Community of Christ. Did Jesus intend to create a church? What about the terrible things done by the church as established authority? Can I just be a Christian at large? Was Thomas Merton, the modern Christian mystics correct in saying the church is the antidote to the sort of individualism that leads to human despair? 

Saint Paul speaks frequently of being led by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit. But what does Spirit walking mean when considered as a mark of Christ –– the stigmata of Christ?

This episode, number 48 of "The Quest / Claiming the Marks of Christ, looks at the marks of wisdom, listening, and knowledge of God's will (God's dream for humanity) as identifying marks of walking the kairotic path –– the "redeeming of the time."

Continues to explore Christian spiritual transformation –– what it means to bear the marks, or stomata, of Christ –– particularly in light of Jesus's saying: "You shall know them by the fruit they bear." The meaning of Galatians the fifth chapter "(the works of the flesh" and "the fruit of the Spirit") as it related to the Way of transformation.

Podcast 46  The Quest / Claiming the Marks of Christ continues the discussion of faith begun in Episode 45 as the Stigmate of Christ. Faith is considered not only as mental belief, but also as qualities that are beyond belief –– trust, surrender, knowledge or wisdom, a response to the goodness of God, and as a kind of force or energy.

Looks at the multiple meanings of faith (all of them necessary), and finds faith to be "beyond belief." Faith is the foundation that makes everything in life worthwhile. Like love it  is a way of insight and understanding; and, therefore,  is the path to wisdom.

This episode, number 44 in The Quest Series, continues to explore the question of what are the identifying marks, the "stigmata," of Christ that the Apostle Paul talks about in his letter to the Galatians. In doing so it notes that one need not be religious in order to be a "good person," or to do good.  It maintains that the primary and essential  identifying mark of the Christian is love for God and for others. In doing so it further explores the question: "What is love?"

Episode 43, "Claiming the Marks of Christ," begins a new chapter in The Quest series of podcasts. What are the spiritual marks, the stigmata, identifying the Christian –– the people of the Way? Can we make that determination or are we just being judgmental when we attempt to do so? What is the difference between claiming the stigmata of Christ in the sense of receiving the marks of Christ, and merely claiming to have received them.

42 The Quest / Meeting Jesus On the Road reflects on the resurrection of Christ as a reason for placing faith in him. There is also a brief summary outline of the various factors that lead to a reasonable faith in Christ––faith both as mental assent and as a giving of the heart in trust.

The is a reflection of beauty as a path to God. It reasserts the belief of the ancient philosophers that the true, the good, and the beautiful are one. We are mysteriously drawn to the source of beauty, and just as God is love, so God is the beautiful and Christ is the beauty of God incarnate drawing us into the beauty of God's truth, goodness, and love. 

Proposes that the Old Testament Scriptures (both as prophecy and Salvation History) communicate a consistent and coherent message from God which finds its culmination in Jesus Christ, and  that the teachings of Jesus are self-verifying.

This episode( 39 of The Quest) begins a statement of personal belief in Jesus of Nazareth as Christ and Lord –– "Why I Believe in Christ?" In doing so it also notes the different nuances of the one Greek word "pistes," as belief, as faith, and as a response to Christ in which your heart is given to God.

This episode presents those characteristics which indicate that the Gospels are based on "eyewitness testimony," that is, on what those who present for events and/or in close contact with those who were present report what they believe they saw and heard.

Using the historical data from the Book of Acts argues that Acts was composed between 62 and 64 C.E.; and, that  the Gospels, which were written earlier than Acts must be given an early date of composition. This episode also very briefly notes some of the early sources outside the Bible which reference the Gospels.

One of the most frequently  strategies used today for denying the truth claims of the Gospels is to argue they were written long after Jesus's death, and so are full of fables and tales of things that were never said and never happened, but rather which developed or manufactured and inserted slowly over time. This episode, therefore, takes up questions like: "When were the four Gospels composed?" "How can we know when they were written?" "Does the date of their composition make any real difference?"

Reflects on Christ as the Pantokrator –– the Cosmic Christ who cannot be separated from Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified under Pontius  Pilate on a hill just outside Jerusalem in the year 33 of the Common Era.

This sixth podcast from Chapter Three , "Meeting Jesus On the Road," focuses on what the Second Coming (Parousia) of Christ, as well as judgment, or accountability for what we do with the gift of our life, and our state beyond death have to do with our ethical, moral, religious, and spiritual formation here and now.

This episode continues to explore the question "What Did the Cross Accomplish?" Specifically it looks at the atonement as the way in which whatever is wrong between us and God is set right by Christ's death; and, how the ascension is about our experience of the power and presence of God through Christ; that is that both the crucifixion and ascension ultimately have to do literally with our experience of "at-one-ment" with the Holy Trinity.

This episode asks the question "What did the cross accomplished? What is it? this episode asks, that really killed Jesus. Was Jesus's death somehow an atonement for humanity's sins? Using N.T. Wright's metaphor of a suitcase. He says words and expression like the cross, atonement, sacrifice, forgiveness, and ascension are not things. They are stories. They are stories than can be folded up and packed together, like folding our clothes and packing them together in a suit case for a trip. Or, changing his metaphor somewhat, Wright suggests that words like atonement, or I think even more clearly expressions like the cross, are like a suitcase itself into which the longer biblical story is folded up.

Continues to consider what we can know about Jesus by listening to the impression, observation, and experiences of his closest follower and friends. Specifically it deals with their  perception of Jesus as a healer and exorcist. This episode then looks at the titles they attributed to Jesus and what those titles meant to them prior to Easter ––Jesus, Christ, Messiah, Lord, Son of God, Son of Man, and King. It ends with the question: "Was Jesus conscious of being the Son of God?"

Continues to look for the most common characteristics of who Jesus was by considering the beliefs, perceptions, impression, feelings and thoughts of Jesus's friends and followers. Here in this episode their perceptions of Jesus as a "miracle worker" are considered. The difference between modern definitions of miracle and those of the first century are considered. Jesus is further considered here not only as a teacher, but as a teacher whose central theme was the Kingdom of Heaven.

Episode 29 begins a new chapter in "The Quest." This study of Jesus (Meeting Jesus on the Road) begins not by attempting to prove anything as to who the "real" or "historical" Jesus was, but by asking the simpler and more manageable question, "What did Jesus's earliest friends and followers think about what they saw and heard of him––what were their perceptions, impressions, and interpretations of their experience of Jesus?" Accordingly, this episode examines their perceptions of Jesus as a first century peasant Jew and therefore one of them, as a wisdom person or Hebrew sage, prophet, teacher, and as holy (or spirit) person.

Podcast 28 (incorrectly identified as 27 in the audio) is the final episode in a set of four dealing with questions frequently asked regarding the trustworthiness of the Bible and its transmission. Here, the question as to when the composition of the books of the New Testament took place, and why it matters, is explored. Particular attention is given to the Fall of Jerusalem and the Destruction of the Temple as a historical reference point.

This is the third of four podcasts dealing with frequently asked questions about the trustworthiness of the Bible –– "The Book God Breathed." This episodes responds to the question "What Can Be Said About the Dates for the Composition of the New Testament?" And, "What Does It Matter?"

This is the second podcast in a series of four responding to frequently asked questions regarding the chapter "The Book God Breathed."  The questions dealt with here are: (1) Who chose the books of the Bible––the canon. And, (2) Were the Gospel's written by diverse communities with their own unique understanding of Jesus and their own theological agendas.

Episode 25 is the first of four podcasts dealing with questions related to the chapter "The Book God Breathed" which itself explores the reliability and trustworthiness of the biblical texts. This particular podcasts responds to two questions: (1) Given how frequently the Bible has been copied can we be confident it reflects the original authors' thoughts?" And, (2) Is the Bible about things that really happened; or, should it be understood as a kind of extended metaphor, myth, or instructive fable?

This episode is a personal expression of why I believe it is possible to have a reasonable confidence in the basic, or essential, trustworthiness of the Bible. It briefly explores the three New Testament Greek words for "seeing," and suggests that while historical, archeological, literary, and grammatical studies are of help in grasping its reliability, confidence in the Bible as God-Breathed or Sacred Scripture,  and as "Word of God," comes as we learn to read for "formation" rather than merely  "information." 

This episode concludes the direct critique of the historical-critical method as employed by non-confessing scholars  before moving on to questions more directly related to Scripture and spirituality. It looks at literary criticism through the lens of C. S. Lewis's "Fern Seed and Elephants" –– noting that Lewis was perhaps the world's greatest expert in literary criticism. It also maintains that literary criticism along with the whole historical-critical method is fatally flawed in that it can never know all the variables, including that of pure accident, that need to be accounted for in any given study.

This episode continues to critique and challenge the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation with special attention to the question of the authorship of the Pastoral Epistles and whether the Exodus was an actual event or a metaphor for the human desire for freedom.

In exploring the trustworthiness and integrity of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures this episode looks at three  of the presuppositions of the historical-critical method, and the challenge presented by non-confessing scholars. 

A brief summary of higher criticism or the historical-critical method as now known, its presuppositions, and its challenges to the trust worthiness of the Biblical Text. 

19.1 The Quest / The Book God Breathed proposes that if God is in any way actively involved with humanity, if God has in some mysterious way  and to any degree whispered  unutterable  realities of truth, beauty and goodness into the soul of a biblical writer, then God may be affirmed, contrary to Marcus Borg, as the ultimate source of Scripture.  The meaning of inspiration and its significance for the spiritual life is examined and the modern fundamentalist doctrine of inerrancy critiqued.

This is a meditation on freedom, fear, and hope as elements of the human condition. Freedom is understood as resting more in our ability to choose than in or ability to control, manipulate, or dominate other people or events. Fear is seen as "the little death" which is overcome by love. And hope is located in our openness to be surprise.

The human condition ("Being Human") is one in which death is always at our heels. We can, and most people do, deny that death has any relevance for us personally, but that denial only turns death into a source of psychological and spiritual pathology. In dismissing the Christian hope of life, postmodern thought is left with no basis for asserting any enduring or universal meaning or purpose to life. Nothing is left but a vague and unreassuring notion that all will be well beyond death for no reason other than wee think that would be nice.

Our existence does not take place in a vacuum but in a particular kind of habitat or environment. One way of describing the environment in which being human takes place is as a sea of values. This episode maintains that the human condition is one in which we  can ignore certain universal moral principles, like love and justice, only at our own great peril. Rather than seeing these principles as being arbitrarily imposed on life, this reflection understands them to run through life and to be part of the very nature of reality. It is further asserted with E. Stanley Jones that: "We are evidently free to choose, but we are not free to choose the results of our choosing;" and, that spiritual transformation is possible only when we grasp  the metaphor of sin as a power taking up residence in out lives and controlling us.

This short podcast continues to explore the human condition in our experiences of happiness, joy, and gratitude. It is appreciative of modern Cognitive Therapy as a help in working out negative emotions;  indeed, it finds the basic precepts of Cognitive Therapy to be present in ancient Greek philosophy, folk wisdom,  and biblical wisdom stories.  At the same time, it is noted that the experience of real joy (mystical joy) has its source in something still deeper than any psychological technique.

We are all in a very real sense philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and anthropologists, for we all want to know what it means to be human. Are we here on this earth for a purpose, or are we merely the product of some bo-chemical accident? Is the ultimate nature of reality hostile and angry? Is it cold, blank, and indifferent? Or is it warm, loving, benevolent? There just certain basic questions that are a part of what it means to be human.

This thirteenth episode of The Quest  (Chapter Two: The Mystery We Call God) focuses on the essence of Christian spirituality as encounter with the mysterious and personal presence of God. The Trinity is seen as giving concrete reality to the precept of love and the reality of God as personal. While there is an attempt to explain somewhat about the Trinity, it is asserted that it is better to experience the Trinity, the Three Personal God, than to be able to explain the doctrine. 

In this podcast I share those times and ways in which my own faith has been shaken, and what I have discovered in that shaking. The honest struggle with doubt and uncertainty is seen here as a means to spiritual progress. Specifically, the questions raised by biological evolution and human suffering are at the forefront here. 

This episode begins by looking at belief in God and what Glenn Chestnut calls "the mysterious X factor. It goes on to explore the four classical evidences for the reality of God: (1) the cosmological or first cause argument, (2) the teleological or argument from order, purpose and design, (3) the ontological argument or the evidence from the being of God, (4) and the moral argument of Kant and C.S. Lewis. Where did the universal human sense of right and wrong come from? What is its source?.Reason and science are seen as complimentary. Both, at their best, share a passion for knowledge and an enormous sense of awe and wonder. Ultimately each of these arguments is seen as best understood from the perspective of sacred mystery.

This reflection asks two questions: "What do I mean when I say God?" and "When, if ever, did God become  more than  just a word for me?" It is noted that the Bible offers no metaphysical, philosophical, or academic definitions of God; in fact, "The god that can be defined is not God." God is a mystery and only those who are open to life as poetic mystery and pay consecrated attention see.

This is the final episode on the chapter "How Do We Know?" It looks at five additional elements of postcritical thinking: (1) The appreciation of myth, symbol, and poetry. (2) Authoritative sources of knowledge. (3) The knowledge of living into.  (4) The debatability of everything. 

This ninth episode on epistemology, or how we know, looks at a number of characteristics of post-critical thinking and finds: (1)Post-Critical Thinking Requires Critical Thinking.;(2) There Is No 42 Like Answer; (3) The Knowledge In Your Guts Is Real; (4) Honesty Is Preferable to Militant Doubt; (5) Knowledge Is  Systemic and Non-Linear; (6) Post-Critical Thinking Is Able To Tolerate Ambiguity; (7) Appreciation For Other Ways of Knowing.

This seventh episode of The Quest / How Do We Know? asserts that the postmodern world has split off the conscious mind from its roots in the unconscious, so  that those ways of interaction  between the conscious and unconscious ––dream, vision, ritual, and religious experience, or revelation-- have largely been lost.  It maintains that revelation is and reason are not antithetical, and that the purpose of revelation is not to convey a body of information, or to function as the infallible communication of concepts, doctrines, or formulas, but rather to disclose the reality of God. The Bible is not itself revelation but rather the witness to revelatory events.

This episode continues to explore the question "How Do We Know?" by considering Martin Buber's "I –– Thou" knowing or encounter as a fourth way of knowledge–– relational knowledge as epistemology. In doing so it raises the importance of the question of whether we see reality as essentially a physical process or relational. It also looks at the difference between treating others as  "things" rather than "persons."

Episode 5 of The Quest / How Do We Know? considers the ancient and contemporary concept of the "sensus divinitatis"  (sense of the divine) as an innate faculty of spiritual knowledge––knowledge of and about God.

This fourth episode in "The Quest / How Do We Know?" series, proposes that love is not only a biblically, philosophically, and spiritually, but also  a scientifically legitimate way of knowing –– of epistemology. The reader will recognize the strong connections between tacit knowledge  discussed in the third episode and love knowledge here in this fourth episode.

This episode looks at tacit knowledge as a valid and verifiable way of knowing.

This episode of "The Quest / How We Know," explores the great French Philosopher Paul Ricoeur's idea of a of knowledge that moves through three stages, or what I see as three levels of spiritual thought––precritical, critical, and postcritical. The third stage leads to what Ricoeur intriguingly called "the second naiveté" and what I refer to as "the second innocence" or "the second simplicity." The place of knowledge through authority is explored here. It is also proposed that Ricoeur's work leads to the reasonable conclusion that there are multiple ways of knowing.