How Does Jesus Save mp3

For anyone who prefers mp3 to wma here is another link. The sound is slightly louder on this link.

How Does Jesus Save?

How Does Jesus Save Us? Audio File

Here's the audio file for our event.

How Does Jesus Save Us?

Can we move a discussion about this event to that blog: www.socraticclubtwoviews.blogspot.com. I'm curious about reactions.

Theology Talks

For those of you interested in listening to the theology talks, please follow the following links and you should be able to listen to and/or download the talks.

Fulkerson on Schleiermacher

Freeman on Barth

Verhey on Niebuhr

Please leave a comment if you have any trouble with these links.

Duke Theology Series - Verhey on Niebuhr

Duke Theology
Intro – Dr. Verhey

Announce: How Does Jesus Save Us?
Feb 26 @ 7:00-8:30 PM
Dr. Randy Maddox & Dr. David Hogg (SEBTS)
www.socraticclubtwoviews.blogspot.com

Welcome to the third lecture/discussion in our Duke Theology series co-sponsored by the Duke Socratic Club and the Women’s Center. If you haven’t been here before and this is your first time, I’d like to direct you to our Duke Socratic Club Blog: dukesocraticclub.blogspot.com. There are at least two reasons that all of you will want to take a look at this:

First, it explains what this series is about and how it is organized. You’ll find opening comments from earlier lectures that describe the assumptions of the planners.

Second, many of you have asked me if these are being recorded. Well, I am recording them, and I don’t know how great the recording is, but the links to those recordings are posted on our blog. A big thanks to Tim Otto, an MTS student who graduated last year and moved back to his community in California. He is making those online postings work for us. Socratic Club now reaches all the way across the nation (and the world…).

I’d like to answer publically a question that was asked me recently. One of you who have been attending this series pointed out to me that the integration of each theologian lectured on with Duke theology has come more in the Q&A time than in the lecture time. This is true, but it will, I think, begin to be more integrated the closer we get to today and living theologians (or recently living). Also, the professors we have asked to do these lectures may not necessarily buy into our conversation assumptions about a convergence of voices here at Duke that we are describing as a Duke Theology. In fact, none of them have even been in the conversation until this point. So one further assumption that the planners of this series hold is that the speakers may or may not agree with our assumptions. And that is fine. Socratic Club exists to bring together different views in various forms of dialogue for the sake of the gospel.

The lectures are intended to give a basic vocabulary and language to help carry the conversation. Many of us third years experienced this phenomena: in our classes we heard Barth mentioned, we heard Schleiermacher mentioned, we heard Niebuhr, Frei, Linbeck, Childs, and so on mentioned but we hadn’t actually read or discussed any of them. Another way to think of this series is as Church History 15. What happened between Schleiermacher, the last lecture given us by Dr. Steinmetz, and Systematic Theology with Dr. Wainwright or Dr. Carter?

That the integration of a particular lecture’s topic with Duke doesn’t happen until the Q&A is just fine at this point in the game. We hope the series as a whole will be more helpful than any one lecture specifically. Stick it out with us.

So enough about that…On to Dr. Verhey and the “good Niebuhr” as he referred to him last time. Dr. Verhey…

Invisible Baptism!

I just came across this quote in the Ancient Christian Commentary.

"It has happened that an unbaptized person has received the forgiveness of his sins. Was such a person invisibly baptized, considering that he received the gift which belongs to baptism?" - Ambrosiaster

This reminds me of Tom M.'s comment - "If you want an invisible church then you can have an invisible Eucharist." Well, Tom, now we can add to that list an invisible baptism as well. Full speed ahead for the invisible church!

Theology Talks

For those of you interested in listening to the theology talks, please follow the following links and you should be able to listen to and/or download the talks.

Fulkerson on Schleiermacher

Freeman on Barth

Please leave a comment if you have any trouble with these links.

No Title

What makes for a good theologian?

"It is living--no, rather dying, suffering, and facing damnation, not reading, thinking and speculating, that makes a theologian" -- Luther

Barth & Race?

So here's an impression I have. It could be wrong. My impression is that generally people who are interested in Barthian kind of interests (Trinitarian studies, etc.), tend not to be very interested in contextual kind of interests (race, gender, etc.). I see this in myself even at times. Here's my question: Why is this the case when Barth's entire theological project was done in the context of issues of race (i.e. German, Arian race) and conflict (WWI & WWII)? Are these just caricatures?

Recommended Books Feature?

Dear Friends,

In anticipation of so many of us moving into parish and academic life beyond the Triangle area in coming months (and some of us are already part of the Duke diaspora), I wonder if we might be able to add a feature to this blog to share news of books/resources that we feel are worthy of sharing for each other's attention. I know that sharing with several of you has been a huge part of my Duke education. I have bought countless books because some of you have suggested them to me and I hope that will continue.

To that end, I want to share the news of a new commentary that I appreciate: The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter.

I became a big-time fan of Robert Alter as a result of Ellen Davis' having us use his Five Books of Moses in our 2005-6 OT survey class. He is a great resource for literary analysis of the OT and especially for David.

You can find a review of Alter's latest commentary here.

NT vs OT

Dear Socratic Scholars,

I came across an interesting passage in Hays’ Moral Vision of the NT and wanted to know what you made of it: “The NT’s witness if finally normative. If irreconcilable tensions exist between the moral vision of the NT and that of particular OT texts, the NT vision trumps the OT.”

Some how I don’t see Davis conceding such a point, ever.

What are your thoughts?
-Steve

Duke Theology Series...Or How Did We Get Here?

Here's the intro I put together and presented at our first lecture in the series. I thought since I took the time to write it, I'd put it up here for comments.

Duke Theology Series – An Introduction

Welcome to the first of the Duke Socratic Club and Women’s Center series on Duke Theology…or How did we get here?

If you do not attend Socratic Club regularly or have not been involved in the planning of this event, then you are joining into a conversation that is already in progress. There are several assumptions that this conversation has developed. I want to share those with you up front so you are not entirely lost. While you may not agree with the assumptions, they are important to understand because they guide the way this series is put together. Let me share those assumptions by telling the story of how this came be.

The seed of thought for this series began several months ago in a weekly Socratic Club meeting and then continued thereafter for many weeks on our Socratic Club blog (all of you are welcome to read through that discussion: www.dukesocraticclub.blogspot.com and join in). Every week at Socratic Club, students come together to ask one another questions and discuss them. That week’s question was: Is there a Duke theology? And if there is, what are its contours? Another way to ask the question in a somewhat more sarcastic manner is this: What is considered “orthodox” (small “o”) here at Duke and what is considered “heresy” (small “h”) here at Duke?

Let me give you a small example of what we mean by this. One day in Dr. Wacker’s American Christianity class, Dr. Wacker was describing all the different denominations that exist in the United States. The chart was breathtaking. One student raised their hand and asked, “Do you find all these denominations disturbing?” Dr. Wacker responded, “No. Not a bit. I have no problem with it at all. Actually its great. Because what it represents is the rainbow of Christian expression.” There was an audible gasp in the room. At Duke, one isn’t allowed to think that the variety of denominations is a good thing. Ecumenical dialogue on unity is the major voice or major stream of thought at Duke. But how did we get to this place? Is it possible for the fish to examine the stream within which it swims?

This conversation and this series work under the assumption that the answer to the question of whether there is a Duke theology is, “Yes.” This is not to suggest that there is an entirely homogenous or unified voice at Duke (or that there ought to be). But rather that there is a major voice and several minor voices. Or to put it another way, there is a broad stream or current of thought. Alongside this broad stream of thought are certainly several smaller streams or currents. The goal of this series is to understand the major voice of theology at Duke or the broad stream of thought so that we might better engage it both appreciatively and critically. By studying these major voices we also have the opportunity to understand why some other voices are minor. None of this is to suggest that the major voices are better. We’re trying to describe what we see here at Duke. Hopefully this will help everyone better engage, again, both appreciatively and critically, the air that we breathe and the water that we swim in here at Duke.

The second assumption we hold about Duke Theology is the course of this current over time. The source of the stream begins with Schleiermacher. This is not necessarily because Schleiermacher is generally greatly appreciated here at Duke. In fact, Schleiermacher and other “liberal protestants” as they are sometimes referred to, often seem to be what the major voice at Duke is speaking against. Schleiermacher is considered the father of liberal theology. And so our conversation and exploration begin with him. Following Schleiermacher the stream runs through Barth. Barth appears to be the primary foundation upon which much of the major voice of Duke Theology is based. Surprisingly, I will have graduated in May without having Barth assigned to read in any of my classes! Following Barth, the stream jumps the pond to the Niebuhr brothers in America and then travels through Yale divinity school’s George Linbeck and Brevard Childs which is sometimes referred to as “post-liberalism” or “post-critical.” From there the stream flows down south to Duke with Stanley Hauerwas and his sometimes larger than life presence and influence at Duke. Along the way we will take some time to explore some of the minor voices at Duke to understand why they are “minor” here but “major” in many other seminaries around the country.

My description of the stream of thought leading up to Duke is a greatly over-simplified description. Actually, I don’t know it well enough myself. That’s why I’ve helped along with many others (including Phil Anderas, Christa Mazzone, and Leah Welch) to put this series together. If my description of this phenomena of Duke Theology has in some way not been true to your experience here, then I ask you to forgive me and to help me and others see things through your eyes over the next several months. This isn’t a one time event. The Socratic Club and Women’s Center are taking a risk to try to understand and describe more fully the air we breathe and the water we swim in so that we might ultimately be more faithful to the Gospel we are called to preach and the Kingdom of God that has drawn near.

Today we begin with Schleiermacher. Dr. Mary McClinton Fulkerson, professor of Theology, has graciously agreed to begin our series by helping us understand this seminal figure. She will be back again to help us explore womanist theology later in the series. I think you all know her well enough, and she needs no further introduction. Dr. Fulkerson…