I’ve got a fair amount of homework so I will make this quick.  Earlier today I had the pleasure of attending an event where Bishop N.T. Wright spoke on Paul.  I’ve got some thoughts, and they will show up here at some point.  But for the time being, suffice to say that it was a wonderful expierence to hear, see, and interact with a theologian who has made a profound impact on my own life.

I should get back to work, but I have two quick thoughts about theology.

1. It’s often insisted that a way in which the scientific process is unique from religion/theology is that science is a field that is continually developing and changing the rules.  There is an open spirit of inquisition that allows scientists to continually reevaluate and change their conclusions if new data emerges.  Thus, it is insisted that religion closes itself and maintains that certain principles must be true, while science embraces the academic freedom to be open if new data emerges.  While there is something to this proposition, namely that it is true that religion insists on certain things, I do not believe it is an adequate treatment of the relationship between science and religion.  First, while religion has certain statements that are held to be true, it is not a frozen grid that does not allow for new interpretations of the data.  One only needs to look to endeavors like the New Perspective on Paul, or the First, Second, or even Third Quest for the Historical Jesus to learn that theology is constantly changing.   People continue to endeavor to discover what the Biblical authors intended, and while they believe that the Bible is the Word of God, they continue to try to understand what the text of the Bible communicates.  This is because interpretations will continue to change as people become aware of new historical facts, or are even alerted to a new section of the text that other generations have overlooked in interpretation.  Thus, while the text is held to as the source, the interpretation changes to better understand the text.  I would argue that science works in a very similar way regarding the natural world.  Science attempts to discover the truth about the natural world.  But, our theories about what is true continually undergo revision as new evidence is discovered, and simpler hypothesis are introduced.  Thus, for science the natural world is the source, but our endeavor is continually changing to understand what is really true about the natural world.  For theology, the Bible is the source, and our endeavor is continually changing to understand what is really true about God’s narrative.

2. I’ve often held that the thing that distinguishes between those who hold to either a.)young earth creation b.)old earth creation or c.)theistic evolution from those people who hold to purely random Darwinistic mechanisms is the principle of purpose.  Those who believe in options a-c hold that the universe is purposeful, namely that it is not just something that exists, but that it has an reason for existing.  Whereas, those who hold to random chance Darwinistic mechanisms hold that we just need to see the universe as a brute fact.  It does not have an explanation for its existence; it just is.  This is a view that I have believed for a while about the key philosophical difference between atheists and Christians when it comes to questions about the world.  It is not that Christians break the rules of science, or can’t do it; it is that the Christian believes that the universe has a purpose.  Now the reason for mentioning this, is that while I was reading my Philosophy of Religion reader and discovered the section on the General Cosmological Argument, I realized I wasn’t too far off in my own thoughts.  There, the author discussed a debate between Bertrand Russell and Frederick Copleston SJ where Copleston held that the universe can be explained, namely that it is purposeful, and Russell held that we have to accept the universe as  a brute fact, namely that the universe has no explanation.  Upon reading this, I realized that my own independent idea isn’t too shabby, and might actually have some truth to it.  Anyways, I thought that was cool.

Ok, I’m going to get back to work.

1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
–Ephesians 2:1-10…All Scripture is ESV and found at biblegateway.com

For most Christians, and specifically Protestants, these ten verses lie at the heart of Christianity.  They are the formative and foundational verses upon which our religion rests.  One of the two great mantras of Protestant doctrine, Sola Fide, comes from this passage.  And because of the foundational nature of these verses, any commentary or interpretation of them that varies from the orthodox norm is thoroughly questioned and intricately investigated.  With that being said, I am going to provide an interpretation of these verses that differs from how most Protestants think about this doctrine, but I hope that my interpretation will actually reinforce our traditional doctrine that salvation is by grace through faith alone.  This interpretation came to me this morning while sitting at church and listening to the preacher preach on this passage, but the uniqueness of my interpretation is a not a rephrasing of his.  I should also add that I’m just an undergraduate college student who does not have any extensive training in Greek; I’ve just read commentaries, my Bible, and attempted to provide the most coherent read of the text that I know.  Thus, take my thoughts and words with a grain of salt.

First, I hope to break down what I see as a basic structure of this passage…

Verses 1-3: The church under the domain of Satan.
Verses 4-7: God rescues His people from this domain.
Verses 8-10: God as the one who can rescue His people from Satan’s domain.

Now to the more detailed breakdown…

Verses 1-3:  These verses clearly describe that we as human beings are held captive by those desires within us that arise from our allegiance to the “prince of the power of the air.”  They don’t speak so much to some sort of pit within us where a great mass of evil dwells, but rather to an overarching rule over us that deceives us and causes us to pursue those desires that come from our identity within the world of sin and death.  Now at this point, one could argue that the text does seem to support a great mass of evil within us, our mind and body.  I believe that this reading of the text assumes that if the passions of the flesh come from our mind and body, then there must be something wrong within our mind and body.  This might lead us to believe that we are naturally (and by naturally, I mean “that which makes us human”) sinful.  However, I think a more reasonable interpretation given the previous wording, that we followed the rule of Satan, is that the thing that is wrong with our mind and body is that they are under the dominion and control of the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.  Therefore, they need some way to be broken free from the captivity of the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.  I think this reading should be preferred for two main reasons.  First, it alleviates an apparent contradiction in these verses.  The contradiction comes from the question “Where does our propensity to sin come from?” At first it looks like it comes from the action of Satan, but then it looks like it comes from some great mass of evil within us.  But given this interpretation, the contradiction is resolved because it comes from Satan’s power to deceive our minds and bodies to live in the passions of the flesh.  Second, it makes the overall flow of the passage more natural and convincing.  Notice that the next section of the text deals with God’s rescue of His people in the person of Jesus Christ, and their transportation from the earthly realm into the heavenly realm.  With this interpretation we now understand why Paul talks about this transportation into God’s realm.

Verses 4-7:  Here, God steps into the mess and the muck of our world, rescues us by His love, and makes us alive in Christ Jesus, sits us down in the heavenly places, and prepares blessing for us. The part of these passages I want to focus in on is the phrase, “made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved.”  What does the phrase, “made us alive together with Christ” mean?  Well, I want to suggest that the passage is not speaking to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which surely is the “giver of life,” but that the passage is speaking to the fact that while we were still under the dominion of the evil one, God made us alive by giving us a new ruler that when we bow the knee to him, we are made alive.  In other words, what the words “made us alive together with Christ” mean is that God’s defeat of the evil one makes us alive with the first born from the dead.  We are made alive with Christ because Christ rescued us from Satan, soemthing that we could not do.

Verses 8-10:  Here, I want to focus on what has been traditionally been critical for Protestant theology.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Traditionally we have understood this to mean that by God’s gift of faith in us, God does the thing we cannot, that is save ourselves.  Here, I would like to introduce another reading of this passage.  I think that the passage is referring to the faith of Jesus Christ that allowed him to remain faithful to the Father and defeat the power of Satan.  I know this is unconventional and controversial, so I shall try to defend it here.  Just before we get this passage, the focus is on the things that we are given in Christ.  Well the question here is, how did we acquire such things?  The most reasonable answer is that if we are given these things in Christ Jesus, then Jesus must play a critical role in the how.  And that is what Paul turns us to focus on.  He says, “for it is by grace you have been saved through faith.”  It is through God’s rescue, which arose through the faithfulness of Jesus to be willing to suffer all the might of Satan’s power, and to destroy that power.  Thus, it cannot be through ourselves that we are saved, because we cannot do any work that can break Satan’s hold over us, we need the faithful servant of God.  Paul’s answer is that it was not our own doing; it was God’s doing.  This interpretation makes more sense of the feel of the passage because we now know how Christ Jesus fits into the picture of our salvation.  It is through his faith, and not some implantation of faith within us.  Then Paul closes this section of the letter by reminding us that the church as an entity is God’s workmanship because the church was made by Him.  Without his action in Jesus, the church would not exist.  Thus, we (which I interpret to be the church, not you and I as people, but the church as a metaphysical entity) arose out of the action of Jesus Christ who established the church as the place where Satan’s power is defeated so that good works can be done because the people within the church listen and follow a new master, the true Lord of the world Jesus Christ.

What does this mean for Protestant doctrine?  Well, I still think that the doctrine of faith alone can be held to with fervor.  In fact, I think it adds a greater fullness to this doctrine, because we haven’t just said that it is by our faith alone, but it is through Christ’s faith alone that we are saved.  Without his faithfulness, we would have no message to preach, and we would have no other way to enter into salvation.  Thus, while the following interpretation is different than previous interpretations, I believe it only supercharges the importance of the Protestant doctrine, by faith alone.

“Yet men, bowed down by the pleasures of the moment and by the frauds and illusions of the evil spirits, did not lift up their heads towards the truth.  So burdened were they with their wickednesses that they seemed rather to be brute beasts than reasonable men, reflecting the very Likeness of the Word.”  –St. Athanasius

“What, then, was God to do? What else could He possibly do, being God, but renew His Image in mankind, so that through it men might once more come to know Him?  And how could this be done save by the coming of the very Image Himself, our Saviour Jesus Christ?  Men could not have done it, for they are only made after the Image; nor could angels have done it, for they are not the images of God.  The Word of God came in His own Person, because it was He alone, the Image of the Father, Who could recreate man made after the Image.” –St. Athanasius

Thus Athanasius beautifully exposes the true reason for the Incarnation of the Word.  We have reversed our right course.  We have searched for life in all the wrong places.  We have searched for it in things; we have searched for it in other people; we have searched for life in ourselves.  And what we have found is that in all those places, we are mildly successful at discovering life, but in those places we are routinely dissapointed.  Things are subject to entropy, people disappoint, and we know that in ourselves, we can recount multiple failures that we would perfer to hide.  We have not found life because where we think we find life, sin rears its ugly head, and instead we find death.  Thus as Paul says, “The wages of sin is death.”  We find that this world is not as it should be, sin reigns, death abounds, and we, the images of God, are powerless in ourselves to reverse the trend.

But thanks be to God, who in the Incarnation, breaks the power of sin in the life of Jesus, so that he might be the final victor over death in the ressurection of the dead.  And thus, we can be set right before God.  We are no longer captive: though the transition from the kingdom of sin to the kingdom of God is certaintly not easy.  There will be pain; there will continue to be days of failure; but we believe that He who began a good work within us, will not fail to bring it to completion.  For He did not give up on the world and unleash the forces of chaos again, as he had done in the flood, but God the Father sent the Word, to be Incarnated, so that the Image of God would not waste away, and so that we might find life in his death.

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”–Romans 5:3-5

Why is it that Romans is a part of a post about II Corinthians? Well, the truth is that I think this passage of Romans epitomizes the 2nd Letter to the Corinthians. In II Corinthians, Paul deals with the already but not yet aspect of the Christian life. We still suffer, but we rejoice in our suffering because we know that our suffering brings about the hope of our salvation and incorruptible bodies. This already but not yet aspect permeates the text of II Corinthians. Paul even fine tunes his introductory blessing to God with a deep reflection of the Comfort God provides.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”–II Corinthians 1:3-5

We are comforted in our afflictions. We still suffer, but our comfort reveals that God is at work, and the battle has been one. We are already experiencing what it means to be children of God, but not fully. In Chapter 2, Paul turns to the reality of our changed status; we belong to God. We are forgiven because of our status, and we are to forgive others because our allegiance is with the victor, Christ Jesus. He leads us; he is our king; we serve a new master. Our master has changed. We have a new identity. Our identity and person is in Christ. And our king is redeeming us and transforming us into His likeness.

“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” –II Corinthians 3:3-6

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”–II Corinthians 3:18

But, that is not the whole the story. We are not perfected yet. We do not fully see that Christ is king and Lord over all. Paul has not touched on the not yet aspect of our lives. And this part of the Christian life employs suffering. In just the next verse, Paul deals with that suffering.

“Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.”–II Corinthians 4:1

Therefore, since we have a New Master, with a new identity, we do not loose heart in our sufferings. For Paul, since we have been redeemed, the God of all Comfort, becomes OUR God of all comfort.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”—G.K. Chesterton

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”—Romans 5:3-5

The Christian life is a hard life. Not only because we will be ridiculed in the public sphere for our beliefs but also because following the in footsteps of Christ is difficult. We are called to pick up our cross every day and obediently strive to attain the Christian ideal.  This is no mere walk in the park.   We question whether or not we are chasing a fools hope.  And yet, we are promised that our sufferings are worth it in the end. We are promised that our endurance in the face of difficulty and suffering will lead to a renewed character that gives us hope that God will renew our person with an incorruptible body that is whole and unshattered. Rejoicing in our sufferings prepares us to hope for a day when the world is made new and pain and anguish will exist no longer. Our hope is assured by God’s love given to us through the Holy Spirit. In times of suffering, we can call upon the Spirit to give us endurance so that we may be prepared for every good work. But this brings up an important question regarding the type of suffering Christians endure. Is our suffering just like the suffering we watch our fellow humans endure? Obviously, there is at least some similarity because we are all human, but the suffering that prepares us for the hope of an incorruptible body is unique to our desire to love God with every fiber of our being, and our desire to love each other as ourselves. It is this desire to be little Christs that will cause us to endure in a way that will lead us to eternal joy.

Prayer: Father, I pray that you would give me the strength to endure through the struggle of being patient, loving, graceful, kind, joyful, peaceful, gentle, and faithful. Help me to rejoice in the difficulties of following your Son. Continue to conform me into Your image. Amen.

I have not done a successful job keeping up with my blog is a long time, but I hope to change that this semester.  Before I begin writing in earnest, I think it is time to write an update about some life highlights.

1. I took my first philosophy class last spring.  It went well considering the fact that I had never had a philosophy class, and it required me to bridge the gap between science and philosophy.

2. I began dating an incredible girl that I cannot speak more highly of.

3. I participated in a summer research program at the University of Pittsburgh.  It went well, and I was offered a position in the lab if I would like to attend Pittsburgh for grad school.  Also, my research should get published…sweet!!!!

Now, I am getting ready for a semester that will see me finally attempt the plan I have been working on for a year.  A full fleged multi-subject education with 10 units of science/math and 4 units of philosophy.  I hope that I can bridge the gap well, and succeed in both areas, but that remains to be seen.  That’s all for now folks.

Well, it’s been quite a while.  It is interesting that at the point in the semester when I need to be studying most I am writing a quick blog entry.  The semester has been quite an interesting one.  I don’t know how to quite organize it, or define it.  I think that will come over Christmas break.  Hopefully I will be blogging more in the near future.

Don’t continue to read if you are afraid of spoilers… I just wanted to post some interesting quotes and comments related to the ongoing discussion regarding HP and Christianity. I have left out some of the more generic stuff, like, Harry must be Jesus because of his Christ like resurrection. Obviously, I think there are definitely Christian overtones going on here. However, some people have retorted that since a lot of cultures have the resurrection myth, Harry cannot be Christian on this account. Naturally, I would disagree, but rather than get involved in that mess, I just wanted to put up some quotes and evidences that are hard to explain with different cultures and their resurrection myths.

1. Bible verses…

a. (Written on the graves of James and Lily Potter, page 328, US Edition) “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
KJV, 1 Corinthians 15:26, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

b. (Written on the graves of Kendra and Ariana Dumbledore, page 325, US Edition) “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
KJV, Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

2. King’s Cross, chapter 35, compared to The Great Divorce- When Harry arrives at King’s Cross, he finds a “baby” thing with him.

a. “He recoiled. He had spotted the thing that was making the noises. It had the form of a small, naked child, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough, flayed-looking, and it lay shuddering under a seat where it had been left, unwanted, stuffed out of sight, struggling for breath. He was afraid of it. Small and fragile and wounded though it was, he did not want to approach it. Nevertheless he drew slowly nearer, ready to jump back at any moment. Soon he stood near enough to touch it, yet he could not bring himself to do it. He felt like a coward. He ought to comfort it, but it repulsed him. “You cannot help.” He spun around. Albus Dumbledore was walking toward him,”
i. The analysis here is that as Dumbledore and Harry continue to talk, he begins to ignore the screaming. He begins to forget about it. It becomes unimportant.

b. (I wish I had my copy handy for some quotes, but I am pretty sure I have the gist right.) In chapter 12 and 13, the Lewis encounters the tragedian, the joyful lady, and the Dwarf Ghost. In the exchange, the joy of the lady attempts to break through to the Dwarf Ghost. However, the tragedian eventually swallows up the got. When this happens, the lady walks off. Lewis asks MacDonald what has just happened. MacDonald replies that if her joy was to be held captive to the tragedian, then it would not be true joy.
i. The analysis here is that unwillingness to love or be joyful, to feel joy, destroys the soul of the Dwarf Ghost and he becomes the tragedian.

The connection. Harry has Dumbledore, Lewis has MacDonald. Both seem to be in heaven. There is something repulsive that is beyond their help in both. One piece of the of voldy, the other is what the soul of the Dwarf has become. In both cases, the guide convinces the reader that there is nothing that can be done and nothing should be done. The soul has gone past disrepair. Now, this is not a direct connection, but still interesting all the same.

3. Something deeper than magic…

Many anti-HP people out there find fault with the way magic is construed in HP. They are argue that unlike LOR and Narnia, magic in Harry Potter is the key and is not something that is secondary. They argue that Christians should read LOR and Narnia, because magic is something that is not foundational the the world in which the story was created. They argue that magic is the key in HP. A quote for your troubles…

“And his knoledge remained woefully incomplete, Harry! That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and children’s tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped. (pg. 710, US Edition)

4. Christian themes…

“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those without love. By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families are torn apart. If that sees to you a worthy goal, then we say good-bye for the present.” (pg. 722, US Edition)
“Do not pity the dead.” -Their fate has already been decided. “Pity the living, and, above all, those without love.”- Pity those who fear death, and can control the side they stand on. They are without love. 1 Corintians 13 anyone, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

5. It’s all inside your head…

This one is a really cool little tidbit. As Harry prepares to leave King’s Cross, he asks Dumbledore if what he has just experienced is real Dumbledore says, “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” Now, this is a classic Christian response to the scientific age where our experiences of God have been reduced to brain scans. In fact, in Simply Christian, N.T. Wright gives the same response. Furthermore, Francis Collins, the scientist who lead the Human Genome Project, gave the exact same answer during questions from, what I remember to be Time.

So what’s the verdict on this short look at some of the Christian themes in Harry Potter?

Well, the themes do not allow us to decide that JK is a Christian. For that we must decide whether or not she was being genuine in her 2000 interview in Vancouver and her interview on Dateline. (For more info, see Wikipedia) What we do know is that JK knows her Bible, knows her Christian literary works, knows apologetic answers, and says many things that are consistent with biblical principles. Her consistency revolves around loving and being brave when facing death. So while it might be hard to say that JK is an Christian writing a clearly Christian work; it is clear that she is not afraid to champion biblical values. And for that, Christians should not be at war with Harry Potter, but emphasizing the good in him.

Hopefully I will write some thoughts on Theology and Science, Postmodernity and Christianity, and Pauline literature.