Was Jesus a Deontologist or teleontologist?

Given that a deontologist is concerned with right or wrong given a set of rules  and a teleologists is concerned with the outcome I would say Jesus was a teleogist. I say this because he was breaking or moving beyond the rules that was in his background. He was concerned that everyone knew about the love of God and learned about the kingdom of heaven being upon them.

Divine Order and Free Will- Anyone up for baseball?

The question is usually posed Is it Divine Order or Free Will? Divcine order then can be transformed into predestination and all hell breaks loose. Is Divine order and free will mutually exclusive? I suppose it depends on how you  define Divne order. Can Divine order be the laws set in motion at the time of the Big Bang? I look at how magnificent creation is and the order within it. Has to be some Divine order at work. Our bodies are truly amazing. There has to be divine order at work there. This divine order does not invalidate the existence of free will within humans. We have the power to choose.  Maybe it is like a professional baseball game. Both teams agree to play within a set of rules/laws. They get to decide whether to bunt, swing away or hit a ball at a specific area on the field. The defense gets to choose how they are going to play each play also. Free will/choice operating within a set of given rules/laws. Both make up the game. Play Ball!

Is Unity part of the Church?

By Church are we saying the body of Christ? Well, yes we are people who have the Christ within.  We gather to empower ourselves and each other to live out of the true nature of who we are. I think as a Unity minister it is wise to be connected with the other ministers in the area that we live in to make connections. It is wise to know what is happening in other churches and their "service" projects and possibly get congregants that are interested in community projects connected.When a tornado went through North Minneapolis we were asked to go and be present to people during the dinner meal at another church. We were there to listen and be present to people. Connections are important. You never know where you will find a kindred spirit.

Is salvation for the living or the dead?

As I read the chapter on sorteriology I came up with the question: Is salvation for the living or for the dead? As I typed the question for the title of this post the thoughts came to me: What do you mean dead? By dead do I mean the soul? If I mean the soul is not that the Divine nature of me? If it is the Divine nature of me, then it never  dies. So, salvation must be for the living. Which living? Well, I don't think the Divine nature needs saving.It is of God now and ever will be. What is left is my human living being right here and right now. So, what saves me right here and right now? What do I need to be saved from? Do I miss the mark? yes. Does missing the mark mean you are separate from God? What can ever separate us from God? God is always present. Does God turn away from us if we screw up? I think not. I feel that Divine urge within urging me back to center time and time again. What saves me? God urging me back to center. Or, God urging me back to live out of God. So, I might be leading towards the reconciling theory or the process theology point of view. Well, at least for this moment.

What to do with Jesus

I find it interesting that Unity is a Christian denomination and yet there is the question posed What do we do with Jesus? I suppose some of this comes from the fact that most of us in Unity are coming from other denominations or religions. I think some of it comes from seeing the Bible as myth and then what does that do to our Jesus. Seeing the Bible as myth does not negate that Jesus existed. It does not negate that he shifted the way to look at things at his time. It does not negate that he touched and affected people. We seem to grasp the Christ and let go of the human Jesus. Why is it hard to believe and claim that he really did do the miracles? Who is to say when you are vibrating at a higher level that you can't walk on water or heal people. Why is it that we have the SEE course Teachings of Jesus and the only thing said was that he taught by principle, precept, miracles and action. We never really touched on the actual teachings. Unity says that Jesus is our wayshower. If Jesus is our wayshower we have to embrace the stories we have of Jesus  and make sense of them in our time and in our context.

Is Panentheism trinitarian?

How does one define trinitarian? Does that mean that there are three facets of God that make up God in totality? I don't know if this is the proper definition but it will be the one I use. Given the definition of monistic panentheism as: God includes all the principles and laws of existence, as well as physcial matter and energy and any spiritual realms which may exist. So, we have principles, physcial and spiritual. If you look at it in this basic framework it would seem that  monistic panentheism leans toward being trinitarian. It could be the embedded theology of the writer of the definition of monistic panentheism coming through. I also realize the basic framework is lumping together things that may or may not fit together in order to get to three "facets." I also realize when talking about God we are dealing with mystery which can not be defined.  Maybe God can only be experienced.

My Buttons were pushed

I must admit my buttons were pushed today in class. Red flags were waving for me. When I read in the summary :
A society which functions harmoniously (with a minimum of maladaptive behavior) displays Cultural Integration, which is another way to say its practices are adaptive to the circumstances and provide for the health, well being and competitive success of the larger group.
I ask the following questions:
From what perspective are you judging the amount of maladaptive behavior?
Is it from the large group that is in power?
What about the oppressed minorities that don't fit the norm? What about the community that has 66% unemployment rate  and a large % living in poverty.  I am talking about the community of people with disabilities. This community deals with inaccessibility to society; whose quality of life is  called into judgement in matters of who gets health care and euthanasia.  Is our society functioning harmoniously? By the way, the Chuch lobbied and succeded to be exempt from the ADA. Businesses only need to prove undue financial hardship to not meet reasonable accommodation requests.  What happenned to: If one person is oppressed all are oppressed?

When doing theology look at the R.E.S.T. of it!

In order for me to remember the four components we use when doing theological reflection I had to make a word out of it... REST: Reason, Experience, Scripture, Tradition. From my previous seminary experience it was pounded into my head that when we do theological reflection we must be aware of  the context we do it from. On page 63 Stone and Duke state:
"Äll theology is context related in the sense that its understanding of faith reflects conditions in the life of the theologian."
In this regards experience seems to be the underlying component when we do theological reflection. It helps to be aware of one's context and the other's context to engage in dialogue. This is important as we will be starting from different starting points. Doing these blogs we get a taste of each others context. For this I am grateful.

Lenses, Paradox and More!

Besides the corrective lenses I have worn since I was a young child, the lenses that I view the world through are those from my experiences. I am a white woman who has post graduate education. I was brought up in a middle class, democratic political bent and small town. I also have and grew up with a visible physical disability. I am also a spiritual being whose light and force are infinite! All of this is going to shape how I view things. Being an infinite being in a finite body I have come to really appreciate the paradox that I am. Actually, I am a multitude of paradoxes. Claiming and acting out of both the infinite and finite being that I am gives me the power, the hope and the love that is needed to live my life in this world.

Some Theological Beliefs Of Mine

Theological Assumptions Paper

By

Melody Martin

As I think about my spiritual journey I can say it has been quite the ride! For this paper I will look at three subjects: God, salvation and being made in the image of God.

God
I grew up in the Catholic faith. I was taught that there was a God who created everything.

God was white, male and was keeping tabs on what I did or did not do. Going to confession was important to being ok with God. God was in heaven, supposedly he was a loving God and we prayed to him for whatever we needed. As I got older I did have a relationship with this God. God as calling and I was yearning for more. I experienced God as compassionate. My seminary experience encouraged me to broaden my perspective on God. It wasn’t politically correct to have God as he or she or any particular color. So, what made sense to me was to think of God as life force, Spirit or energy. This God was the life force behind creation and was in all living things. After being run over by a truck I came to know of this God more personally. I was wiped out physically, mentally, emotionally and I used to say spiritually. I need to say this was on the conscience level of being wiped out. On a deeper level within me there was a force within me that kept on choosing to live and there was a force outside of me that was encouraging/empowering me to continue to live. God as loving life force became real to me in the years following the truck encounter. I also need to mention having met Pam in seminary and developing a friendship based on unconditional Love gave me a reference point to thinking of God as unconditional love. In the years since, I continue to experience God as life force, unconditional love and mystery. God is oh so intimate with me and oh so beyond me.

Being Made in the Image of God

Being made in the image of God was always something important yet something that was mysterious to me. When I was young it meant you had a soul. Humans had souls and animals did not. When I was in my thirties I learned that some ordained ministers did not believe people with disabilities were made in the image of God. After seminary Pam and I had a business doing disability awareness within churches. We called our business Made In the Image. It was our declaration that people with disabilities were indeed made in the image.

It wasn’t until I started going to Unity churches that I got a clearer understanding of being made in the image of God. It was at Unity, the question was posed: Are you a spiritual being here for a human experience; or a human being here for a spiritual experience? It was the firsts time I thought of myself as a spiritual being. It has been at Unity that the emphasis is on the divine presence within each one of us. This has given me a better understanding of being made in the image of God. Yet God is beyond understanding so I guess this subject is beyond total understanding too.

Salvation

My thoughts on salvation have changed as my thought on God has changed. As a child, I had a trust in God. If I died I was going to be in heaven with God. As I got older I went through my “fundamentalist” years and I was saved because I accepted Christ as my savior. My fundamentalist years were when I was in college and I got involved with a group called Intervarsity Fellowship. I went to a big conference in Urbana Illinois. It was fashioned like Billy Graham’s revivals with thousands of people in one space singing and praying. One night they asked people to stand if you wanted to accept Jesus as your savior. I stood and accepted Jesus as my savior. It felt good. Eight years later I am a novice to be a Sister of St. Joseph. The easy black and white lines of my beliefs became gray and murky. A CSJ asked me if it was important if Jesus actually arose from the dead. My response was an immediate yes. I was given the time and space to broaden my thoughts and beliefs. Twenty some years later, it doesn’t matter whether Jesus physically rose or not. Something shifted at that time and that is what is important to me.

Now, I believe and trust in the unconditional love of God and my own divine spirit being part of God now and evermore.