I'm leaving the name alone for now...
I thought about renaming it "Theoloblog" but it turns out that's already taken.
I'm going to turn this into the site for my musing on matters theological and philosophical. I do a lot of listening to other people's opinions and nodding my head, uh huh, uh huh. It's hard for me to put forth an opinion verbally. I can do it in writing. But matters theological only make their way obliquely into my emails. I don't want to step on toes, hurt feelings, whatever. I keep a running commentary in my head.
Like tonight, I got invited to this thing, I thought it was going to be a birthday party. It turned out the first part was, well, not a Bible study exactly...a study on the topic of peace, and at the end everybody usually prays for world peace. Yeah, THAT'LL happen. It turned into a party later, and that was good. But I was kind of annoyed to have not been forewarned. It is hard to muster enthusiasm for a study of this kind when you are taking 19 frikin hours of theology already. What, more? Between chapel and classes I am doing "God stuff", so to speak, all day long. I have no objection to a free-flowing discussion- they happen naturally around here- but something organized annoys me.
I confess I was also annoyed by the opinion of the, er, sponsor of the evening. She seems to believe that all religions have functional equivalence. I don't agree. I think that Christianity is the best of all religions and that Orthodoxy is the best of Christianity. If I didn't believe it, I would be neither Christian nor Orthodox.
There was a discussion on another blog recently on the question of whether unbaptized babies go to hell. Interestingly enough, we discussed that in Dogmatic Theology class recently. The Orthodox viewpoint is that baptizing babies isn't freeing them of any 'original sin'-- we don't hold with that Augustinean concept--because a baby hasn't sinned yet. Baptism serves the function as initiation into the Church, into the kingdom of God. A person is only responsible for the sins that that person, personally, commits. A baby can be baptized because it is God who does the baptizing, ultimately...it does not depend on human reason but on the grace of God.
And now a true confession...my prayer life has been wretched lately. I am having enough trouble just dragging myself to church. We are supposed to go twice a day, Matins (7:30 am!) and Vespers (5 pm) on weekdays. I've only made it to Matins twice so far this semester. Missed Vespers tonight (but I had a good excuse, I was picking up an antibiotic for my sinus infection). I have to really push myself to get myself to go. But once I'm there, I like it. They are really meaningful. And aside from the whole corporate prayer thing, my personal prayer life is pretty darn lousy at the moment. It's another case of making myself carve out time and make myself do it. UGH! Time management1
I invite your comments!
I'm going to turn this into the site for my musing on matters theological and philosophical. I do a lot of listening to other people's opinions and nodding my head, uh huh, uh huh. It's hard for me to put forth an opinion verbally. I can do it in writing. But matters theological only make their way obliquely into my emails. I don't want to step on toes, hurt feelings, whatever. I keep a running commentary in my head.
Like tonight, I got invited to this thing, I thought it was going to be a birthday party. It turned out the first part was, well, not a Bible study exactly...a study on the topic of peace, and at the end everybody usually prays for world peace. Yeah, THAT'LL happen. It turned into a party later, and that was good. But I was kind of annoyed to have not been forewarned. It is hard to muster enthusiasm for a study of this kind when you are taking 19 frikin hours of theology already. What, more? Between chapel and classes I am doing "God stuff", so to speak, all day long. I have no objection to a free-flowing discussion- they happen naturally around here- but something organized annoys me.
I confess I was also annoyed by the opinion of the, er, sponsor of the evening. She seems to believe that all religions have functional equivalence. I don't agree. I think that Christianity is the best of all religions and that Orthodoxy is the best of Christianity. If I didn't believe it, I would be neither Christian nor Orthodox.
There was a discussion on another blog recently on the question of whether unbaptized babies go to hell. Interestingly enough, we discussed that in Dogmatic Theology class recently. The Orthodox viewpoint is that baptizing babies isn't freeing them of any 'original sin'-- we don't hold with that Augustinean concept--because a baby hasn't sinned yet. Baptism serves the function as initiation into the Church, into the kingdom of God. A person is only responsible for the sins that that person, personally, commits. A baby can be baptized because it is God who does the baptizing, ultimately...it does not depend on human reason but on the grace of God.
And now a true confession...my prayer life has been wretched lately. I am having enough trouble just dragging myself to church. We are supposed to go twice a day, Matins (7:30 am!) and Vespers (5 pm) on weekdays. I've only made it to Matins twice so far this semester. Missed Vespers tonight (but I had a good excuse, I was picking up an antibiotic for my sinus infection). I have to really push myself to get myself to go. But once I'm there, I like it. They are really meaningful. And aside from the whole corporate prayer thing, my personal prayer life is pretty darn lousy at the moment. It's another case of making myself carve out time and make myself do it. UGH! Time management1
I invite your comments!
posted by Hira Animfefte at 2/10/2006 10:53:00 PM
3 Comments:
Well, peri, you don't understand what the kingdom is if you think you get to be a part of it by virtue of having a private experience. The kingdom of God is a public entity. The citizens of the kingdom know each other through visible signs, because we are visible people who serve a God who has become visible to us. That is why we use visible signs like baptism and the Eucharist to commute from ourselves to God through the miracle of tangible, mystical Christian fellowship.
seminary chick,
don't feel too bad. i live literally right behind my church and i rarely get up for matins. trying a little more during lent, especially on saint's day that i really like.
good luck and keep truckin
Peri, I'm not saying that, not being in the Church, you're not able to communicate with God. I'm not saying that at all.
God's grace reaches everyone who reaches out for it.
*hugs* to Peri.
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