Pentecostal Discussions

Bernard Lonergan on faith

by Shane Clifton
I have heard a number of people criticize Bernard Lonergan for, supposedly, being dry and methodological.  Here is an extract from his Method in Theology that is, perhaps, devotional:

"Without faith, without the eye of love, the world is too evil for God to be good, for a good God to exist.  But faith recognizes that God grants men their freedom, that he will them to be persons and not just his automata, that he calls them to the higher authenticity that overcomes evil with good.  So faith is linked with human progress and it has to meet the challenge of human decline. For faith and progress have a common root in man's cognitional and moral self-transcendence.  To promote either is to promote the other indirectly.  Faith places human efforts in a friendly universe; it reveals an ultimate significance in human achievement; it strengthens new undertakings with confidence.  Inversely, progress realizes the potentialities of man and of nature; it reveals  that man exists to bring about an ever fuller achievement in this world; and that achievement because it is man's good also is God's glory.  Most of all, faith has the power of undoing decline.  Decline disrupts a culture with conflicting ideologies.  It inflicts on individuals the social, economic and psychological pressures that for human frailty amount to determinism.  It multiplies and heaps up the abuses and absurdities that breed resentment, hatred, anger, violence.  It is not propaganda and it is not argument but religious faith that will liberate human reasonableness from its ideological prisons.  It is not the promises of men but religious hope that can enable men to resist the vast pressures of social decay.  If passions are to quiet down, if wrongs are to be not exacerbated, not ignored, not merely palliated, but acknowledge and removed, then human possessiveness and human pride have to replaced by religious charity, by the charity of the suffering servant, by self-sacrificing love.  Men are sinners.  If human progress is not to be ever distorted and destroyed by the inattention, oversights, irrationality, irresponsibility of decline, men have to be reminded of their sinfulness.  They have to acknowledge their real guilt and amend their ways.  They have to learn with humility that religious development is dialectical, that the task of repentance and conversion is life-long. (MIT, 117)"

Theology & Film - Podcast Lectures 4 & 5

Well… the theology and film podcast lectures have certainly been an interesting ride so far. To start with, we looked at the medium of film quite broadly and discussed how a theologian might go about reviewing film.  Now, in these latest lectures, we begin to look at some of the more specific issues raised by particular films or groups of films.

In lecture four, Dr Shane Clifton discusses Christ films and the cultural influences which have impacted the way in which Christ has been portrayed. Following this, lecture five presents Shane, together with Dreu Harrison, engaging in discussion surrounding the Nietzschean influence on contemporary culture and subsequently on modern and postmodern film. In this discussion they focus specifically on the 1957 classic, The Seventh Seal.

In addition to these podcast  lectures there are also film reviews available for you listening pleasure. All of the above lectures and reviews can be found here. Enjoy!

Theology & Film - Podcast Lecture 3

In this lecture Dr Shane Clifton looks at reviewing film by using Bernard Lonergan's eight functional specialities.

To download the podcast and view comments please go to
http://scc.typepad.com/theology_and_film

Theology & Film makes iTunes

from incompetent to technological genius!  I have managed to get the mp3 feed onto itunes - so those who want to listen to the lecture on their ipod, follow the link below:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=260260394

If you don't want to use itunes - scroll to the post below to download the mp3 directly (and to look for the podcast assignment, which i forgot to put on the audio).

To make this podcast more accessible to the public, i need to improve the itunes art and provide more info on the itunes podcast page - but i really need some help.  I have tried to review the itunes instructions (here), only to discover i am incompetent again.  Any student who knows computers and itunes who would like to volunteer some help (stephen wall perhaps?) - please let me know.

Theology & Film - Podcast Lecture 1

by Shane Clifton

As you may have heard, I am teaching a new unit this semester, theology and film.  Students will be watching a series of films in class (listed below), and i will be delivering the lectures via this podcast.  If you are not a student - please feel free to join us and listen in (apart from these lectures, i will be posting a series of mp3 film reviews which should stimulate some interest).

Download film_lecture_one.mp3

For those of you who use itunes and ipod, I am trying to get this mp3 audio into the itunes podcast feeder. I am somewhat technologically incompetent, so give me a few days.

Finally, everything that is good about this podcast, is the work of Kate Tennikoff - who had to sit through my initial recording disaster, and then edit the current version.  Everything that is tacky about this podcast is my fault.  Feel free to leave whatever feedback you deem appropriate on the comments below (students - that can be your first podcast assignment - since i forgot to include one in the lecture).

If it is at all possible, enjoy,

Initial Evidence

by David Parker

Either side of Pentecost similar Spirit activity occurs, for example, Zechariah the priest prophecies (Lk 1:67) as does Agabus (Acts 11:27), and the 12 (new leaders in Israel: Lk 22:30) ^[1] heal and exorcise (Lk 9:1) as does Philip (Acts 8:7). Such duplication raises the question as to what distinction Pentecost introduces. My contention is that prior to Pentecost, periodic and ethnocentric salvation-historically significant individuals (eg. Zechariah the priest) are Spirit inspired for specific tasks, whereas post-Pentecost the Spirit is universalized (eg. Cornelius and Philip’s daughters). This is best expressed in Peter’s polemic citing Joel’s prophecy, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…and they will prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18). “All flesh” is unpacked as, all genders (“sons and daughters” 2:17), all ages (“young men… old men” 2:17), and all status (“my slaves” 2:18). If we add the promise of 2:39 and understand “those who are far away” as a reference to Gentiles (cf. Acts 22:21; Eph 2:13, 17), ^[2] then a further democratization includes all nations or ethnicities.

Lets talk about sex

by Shane Clifton

Next week in my ethics class, i am addressing the topic of sexuality.  What you might expect in a lecture on human sexuality is a list of “thou shalt nots”; of restrictions, of sexual sins etc. You expect this because ‘restriction’ has been the almost exclusive focus of the church in its discussion of human sexuality, a discussion which is essentially negative, which limits sexuality to genital activity, and which has resulted in people being manipulated by guilt and repression. Indeed, the history of the church's perception on these issues makes for interesting read

• Origen castrated himself, since he believed that prayer and sex were self-contradictory
•  St Anthony had a vision in which the devil took the shape of a woman and imitated all her acts simply to beguile him. His response was to repress his body and kept it in subjection.

Diving in the Pneumasphere II

This combination of reference points necessarily takes the Christian life out and beyond the ‘statusphere’. Physical life, which we share, is supported and implied by the biosphere. The discursive, cultural life implied by being a living human is described by the statusphere – and indeed, much of the biblical record is dedicated to dealing with the problems which arise when one places physical life in culturally charged settings. But the biblical record also deals with the interactions of physical and humano-cultural life with a higher sphere, that of the spiritual order. Coming from a Pentecostal worldview, one could look at much of Jesus’ earthly ministry as being dedicated to the declaration of a ‘pneumasphere’, a ‘third economy’ where the actions of physical and enculturated life take on new meanings because they are submitted to the will of God. Jesus calls this state ‘the Kingdom of God’. Like the biosphere, it is coextensive with the statusphere (ie., one must be physically alive to be a subject within the statusphere, and likewise, ‘it is given unto man to die once’ – one must also be physically and culturally located for the Kingdom of God to come among amongst us, ‘Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.’ The Kingdom includes those who are disembodied, but their fates with regard to the Kingdom are not the business of those who are embodied – it is among those who are embodied participants of the three spheres that the Kingdom is coming, as opposed to having already come.) And like the statusphere, the function of the pneumasphere constrains the range and quality of choice and self-construction. Dogs struggle for priority in the barking order in order to maximize their chances of survival; humans struggle for priority in the statusphere, in order to maximize their opportunities for self-actualisation; seekers embrace disciplines in the pneumasphere because ultimate actualization is not actualization of the self, but of finding fulfillment of the self in the Other. In the statusphere, I judge my own liberty, in the pneumasphere, my liberty is judged by others: ‘Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?’ (1 Cor 10: 29) In the Christian view, we cannot simply choose to be like God. Humanness is embedded in bodies; Godlikeness is imbedded in Personhood – and Personhood implies otherness. We must choose Him who first chose us. In the statusphere we wrap who we are in the products of the biosphere so that who we are might be reflected in ways which are then reflected back to us. In the pneumasphere we are reflexively made by our experiences of projecting the ‘will of God in us” into the statusphere. We wrap ourselves in revealed knowledge, in prayer, in spiritual disciplines, song and sacred hymns, so that we are likewise reflexively made by the rules of that sphere. And thereby are we citizens of both, made by choice and desire of the things of God: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.” (1 Cor 10: 23)

Diving in the Pneumasphere - part I

by Mark Hutchinson

This blog, I am told, is a place to do our ‘stream of consciousness’ stuff – you know, the ideas we have when we are not really thinking about anything, the things which just drop into your head while reading a book and looking out a bus window. Me, I am an Australian-born, Christian social scientist who is married to someone from an infinitely older culture than my own (Italy). As I teach and think, I am a reticulating experiment in observing myself – my life regards my faith and my discipline, my faith my undisciplined life, and my discipline my living faith. It constantly escapes nice dualities, logical dialectics. And that is how I started following this particular idea by one of America’s (many, various and seemingly omnipresent) public intellectuals, Tom Wolfe. As a church historian interested in Italy, I was reading on Savonarola and the Bonfire of the Vanities, a term which I knew had been used by Wolfe as a book title. It seemed an apposite thought in a religious tradition (Pentecostalism) more marked by shiny new PDAs than Franciscan apostolic poverty. And so the ideas come together and spark off one another…

Korean Trip & Dr Cho on Ecotheology

by Shane Clifton

For those of you who followed my previous posts, I thought you would be interested to know that i have arrived in Korea.  My flight went well - if not relatively long and boring.  When i arrived i was rushed from the airport straight to dinner.  The meal was a seafood spread - including shellfish (of a myriad type), squid - live and wriggling, raw fish, fish soup!!!!!!   I was impressed with myself, because i ate the lot - including putting the squid into my mouth while it was wriggling.

Some of the group involved in the discussion are pictured with our conference banner: Front row, left to right – Dong Soo Kim, Kim Sunghae Cho (President Hansei), David Kwon Back row, left to right – Ki-Seong Lee, Hung Geun Im, Gwi Sam Cho, Bruce Stephens, Shane Clifton, Hanna Kwon, Jennie Stephens, Mun Chul Shin

Anyway, as you know i am here to present a paper to the Hansei University / Southern Cross College theological symposium, on pentecostals and ecology.  As part of my responsibilities, i am responding to a couple of papers written by Hansei faculty.  In the process of reading the paper by Dr Hyung Geun IM ("Some Thoughts for an Ecological Pentecostal Theology"), i came accross a transcript of a sermon by Dr Yonggi Cho (pastor of the worlds largest church - the Full Gospel Church).  I thought it might interest you, and have set it out below (ps - sorry to interrupt Jacqui's discussion of princess theology - i am sure we shall hear more from her)   

Pentecostals and Ecology - part 4

by Shane Clifton

We need to note in the conclusion to this series that theological reflection about ecotheology represents only a small componant of a full-blown ecotheology.  Beyond the transformation of the culture of pentecostalism is the task of infusing its social structures with an ecological ethos.  There is also the need to address the very practical questions relating to the identification of environmental issues (what actually are the global and local problems facing the earth) and deciding how the church can participate in their healing.  Answers to these questions entail much more than theological reflection, but requrie broad dialogue with scientists, politicians, environmentalists etc.  It will also be necessary to work out how to translate global ecological concerns into the practical mission of the local church.  The task is potentially overwheliming, but a church empowered by the Spirit sees, not impossibility, but the premonition of God's possibility (citing Lyle Dabney).

Pentecostals and Ecology Part 3

by Shane Clifton

I am going to conclude this first series on Pentecostals and Ecology with a brief discussion (below) on the implications of the movement’s soteriology for its ecological ethos. As your excellent replies to my previous posts have indicated, there are many other topics that might be discussed, some of which I have addressed in the full paper I am delivering in Korea. These include a discussion of healing, baptism in the Spirit, eschatology and prosperity, and their implications for ecotheology. Those wanting to see a copy of the full paper can email my assistant, Joohee Lee, at jh.lee@scc.edu.au. In my next post I want to move from theology to practice – and get you all to suggest some practical ways in which Southern Cross College might model an ecological ethos. But first, let’s think about the implications of the declaration, “Jesus saves.”

Pentecostal Soteriology and Ecology:

One of the major reasons for the failure to develop an ecological theology is (as a number of people have suggested in response to my previous posts) that Pentecostals tend to understand salvation solely, or at least primarily, in relation to salvation of the human soul.

Pentecostals and Ecology Part 2

by Shane Clifton

Eschatology is only one aspect of Pentecostalism’s theology of creation, which is often framed at the other end of history with six day, young earth creationism. This understanding of creation finds its theological impetus in literalistic readings of the Scripture, but it finds its emotional support in the affirmation of the uniqueness of humankind; the complete distinction between intelligent humanity and the “dumb” ape.  Without wishing to enter into the hermeneutical and scientific debates surrounding this fundamentalist understanding of the beginnings of the universe, the ecological problem relates to the explicit setting of humanking above nature.

Pentecostals and Ecology - part 1

by Shane Clifton

For the last two years, Southern Cross College and Hansei University (associated with Dr Yonggi Cho) have joined together for an Aussie/Korean theological symposium.  Last year the Korean professors travelled to Australia, and in the first week of June this year Mark Hutchinson, Bruce Stevens, David Kwon and myself get to travel to Korea.

Hansei set the topic this year; Pentecotals and Ecology, and I must confess to some degree of surprise and anxiety. My first thought was that such a topic would be impossible – what more is there to say but that Pentecostals have not really expressed any interest in environmental matters? I almost suggested a change of topic, but ended up deciding not to take the cowards way out. After all, how would I deal with my conscience if I refused to consider such an important topic. So, I have drafted a paper, and I thought that, over the next few weeks, I might share a few sections, and get your comments and feedback to see whether I can develop it further. Below is an extract from my introductory section – more will follow