on today's topic

This announcement just popped up on the Div school website and it seemed like they over heard fight club

Dedicated with Water from the Jordan River

Dear Socratics,
I had a startling revelation today. My dad made me a series of tapes when I was born and began giving them to me recently. I was listening to one yesterday where he describes my dedication service. He says that the pastor used water from the Jordan River to dedicate me and then he slips and says "baptize." Now none of this would be very startling if I had not also been baptized at 13. So I called my dad and asked what was going on. He said he really couldn't remember but thought I had been dedicated and baptized at the same time as an infant. I had never heard of this kind of a practice. So I called my mom. She didn't remember what happened at the dedication but said the Nazareens (whom we were at the time) don't baptize infants. Then what was water from the Jordan River doing at my "dedication"?! So there you go. I have been thinking that two baptisms would resovle a number of issues we've been having, and to my own surprise, I may have been baptized twice! Stick that in your theological pipe and smoke it.
Tom

The East Still Beckons: On Redemption, Sanctification, Perfection, Deification, etc.

Well, since the baptism thread seems stalled at 30 comments, I'll transition the discussion via a new post instead - the record stands.

I just finished Sarah Coakley's (Oxford/Harvard philosopher/theologian) Powers & Submissions. Among other things, she compares Nyssan with (late) modern theorists and analytic philosophers. Some of her remarks are germane to our discussions about responses to the gospel. She argues for a Nyssan (Cappadocian) account of redemption on the grounds of its superior explanatory power with respect to varied responses to the gospel (the resurrected Christ), even within the Church. Her treatment of the Eastern paradigm seems to strike a better balance of divine/human agency than Wesley or Calvin, including both decisive divine action and meaningful ongoing human action yielding some sort of virtue epistemology correlative to the ontological transformation of deification. In other words Coakley (Nyssan) links the decisive divine action of redemption to human actions of obedience within the process of deification.

I'd be curious if anyone else is familiar with her argument. I'd be especially interested in our esteemed advisor's reading on her reading of Nyssan.

Duke Conversation Society

I saw posters up for this today. I thought it looked interesting. I emailed them to see about whether we might engage one another in some way. It might be worth checking out: www.dukeconversations.com

Mr Wesley on the P-word

I was reading some sermons (I still have to preach two more times this summer, all you boys (and Sarah Kerr sometimes, I think she has been the only female to post on here so I assume she is the only female who reads it. Prove me wrong) basking in vacations) by Wesley and I came across this line that I found amusing for a lot of different socratic club thought trains.


"I know it is commonly supposed that the place of our birth fixes the Church to which we ought to belong; that one, for instance, who is born in England, ought to be a member of that which is styled the Church of England; and consequently, to worship God in the particular manner which is prescribed by that Church. I was once a zeolous maintainer of this; but I find many reasons to abate of this zeal. I fear it is attended with such difficulties as no reasonable man can get over. Not the least of which is, that is this rule had took place, there could have been no Reformation from Popery; seeing it entirely destroys the right of private judgment, on which that whole Reformation stands." Sermon XXXIV

The title of the sermon is "Catholic Spirit." And I didn't know abate was a transitive verb. You learn new things every day.

Baptism Again

This post makes public an ongoing email exhcange with reference to the earlier discussion(s) of baptism that Matt and I have been having:

Matt,


Thanks for your email. Apologies for the tardy reply; I was in Pittsburgh for ordination process stuff. I am regrettably unfamiliar with Beasley-Murray and McClendon - though I recall Freeman mentioning that McClendon was not adamantly opposed to pedobaptism (or something like that). With respect to the text and the tradition, I think both modes of baptism enjoy substantial warrant.

This being the case, I approach the question/debate from a missional perspective. That is to say, given the contextual setting of the Church/a congregation, which form/practice performs and proclaims the gospel "more effectively" (for lack of a less utilitarian phrasing)? As my earlier post indicates, infant baptism seems to enjoy more warrant on these grounds.

But, I'd like to hear a little bit more about how you (and B-M/McC) think about the missional sensibilities of believers baptism. I'd also be interested in a thick description of the actual difference (missionally and theologically) between "dedication" and "baptism." Though the sacramental character and liturgical actions differ, it seems to me that in many (most?) cases the dedication-baptism and baptism-confirmation practices are functionally equivalent.


Your turn,

DWL

David Bentley Hart

I figured I would link to that article Phil mentioned a few weeks ago, since I've gotten around to it. And so here it is, Christ and Nothing. I've decided to try and write up all of the notes I've made on some books I have read in the past year as an excercise (I've gotten through two so far) and I am working on The Beauty of the Infinite right now. Man, is that a good book. I haven't gotten to the part I don't like yet so I am still in good spirits about it, and when Hart is on, by George he is on.

Socratic Club Time Change

Dear Socratics,
Looking over my schedule this Fall I realized that I (and Phil) have a class on Fridays that begins at 1PM! :( I have emailed the prof (Portier-Young) to see whether there is any flexiblity in when that class begins. But assuming there is no flexiblity, I wonder whether others have a similar problem and whether we might consider another day. If we are not able to find another day, then Phil and I will just have to join for the first 20-30 minutes and then leave for class. I believe Friday was a good day because there were no other lunch meetings that we wanted to go to on Fridays. So given that thought, I wonder what Mondays looks like for people? I have a class on Monday at 1:30, but we could meet on Mondays at noon for lunch and the Socratic Club. Other thoughts/ideas?
Tom

In Christ?

OK, the rubber meats (no pun intended) the road next Sunday. I'm preaching on the Second Coming and judgment from 1 Thess 4:13-18. I'm pointing out that those who are "in Christ" are those who will be raised with Christ just as Paul says in v16. So if this isn't explaining what a Christian is, then I don't know what is. Who is "in Christ" and who is not "in Christ"? How do I summarize that briefly in a way that a bunch of lay people can understand? Wilson? Others?