Experience

5.4.14

– Culture = religion + philosophy + arts

– Maturity – what are the hallmarks (distinguishing features) of an adult?

– Psychotherapy, religious beliefs & moral values

– Is curiosity a virtue or a vice?

– Can we understand perfection without falling into the trap of legalism?

6.4.14

– Marriage is made (by GOD) for man, not man for marriage!

– Life-skills

– Self-help

– Wellness/health/fitness coach

– First-aid

– Tracklist

– Mentor ~ monitor ~ trainer

– Physical education

– Social & emotional learning

– Personal management

– Resource stewardship

– Erotica – “Ching, ching, ching!”  😉

– “Make available offline”

Free download!

– Preventive lifestyle design

– ALL we have to do is receive & allow!

– Theodicy, spiritual warfare & the final vindication.

– Meditation, proclamation, adoration & celebration of the mystery of Christ!

– Jn.11:21-27

Ordet!

– Charisms – tongues, knowledge, wisdom, interpretation, prophecy, discernment, healing, miracles, faith, raising the dead, exorcism.

Charisms – gifts, fruit of the Spirit, & answer to all your intentions!

– To be anointed:

Repentance, faith, reconciliation & prayer.

– Pray for:

Personal salvation, local community needs & world peace

– “This is Jesus Christ, who came into this world to make you happy, & to be your best friend, forever!”

– Put all your sins, problems & sufferings into His chalice!

– Good Shepherd, Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy

– Divine Mercy:

A – ask for Mercy – pray the chaplet.

B – be merciful.

C – complete trust in the Lord.

– GOD allows Satan to run amock, so that he can later turn it around – in response to our prayers – for his (greater) glory!

– “The LORD is plenteous in mercy, & with him is fullness of redemption.”

– Profound, irreverent & delightful

– Intentionality, improvisation & inter-dependence

– In my dream, I had a mystical experience…!

– Movies:

Mr. Nobody

Is there life BEFORE death?!

Finitude, fallibility & frailty

Choice, time & fantasy

Notes

3.4.14

– Fascinated with the irrelevant!

– Faith IN action

– Lackadaisical

– The sexual mafia & the hijacking of youth!

– Journal of Adolescence

– Persistent spiritual youth – is immaturity necessary for virility?

– Suicidology

– Deception, manipulation & coercion

– Emotional blackmail

– Psychological struggles » existential crisis » escapism!

– Preventive, educative & supportive counseling

– Learn the ‘language’ of your audience/clientele

– Successful suicides

– Accidents > homicide > suicide

4.4.14

– Green cabs

Why don’t you consider investing in this novel & noble venture?!

– Dr. Emma Gonzalves

She is a spiritual-psychologist, but not a philosophical-theologian.

– “But HOW can we cut ourselves off from GOD??”

The mystery of original sin!

– Analogies of Sin

1. The uprooted (& decaying) plant

2. The falling plates.

– Sin cannot be understood apart from Law (condemnation/curse) & Death (ultimate destruction).

And Salvation cannot be understood apart from Grace (forgiveness & reconciliation) & Resurrection (abundant & everlasting life).

– Uprooting & rerooting

The ground of being ~ the sustaining soil!

– Comparing the story of ‘The Fall’ to the parable of the Prodigal Son.

– Judgment as offence-retribution

Vs.

Judgment as choice-consequence

– The unique role of revelation & faith in spiritual truth, as opposed to physical reality…

– The Cross of Christ » our conversion/baptism » cosmic renewal!

– Tree of life (faith/spirituality/religion/theology)

&

Fruit of Knowledge (reason/science/culture/politics)

Adulthood is NOT growing out of childhood, but building upon it!

DON’T hurry/skip the transition phase – adolescence is crucial!

– Pastor: I hate to go after people & drive them, I would rather that each person takes more initiative, but since that is not the case, I have to use more of the rod-&-staff approach!

Jottings

1.4.14

– Capital-ize

– The Century of the Self – Happiness Machines

– Indexicals

– Scripture » interpretation » commentary

– What is the ideal ideal?!

– “The matter & form of Maimonedes’ Guide” – Josef Stern

– Astropsychology

Oooh!

– Belief & knowledge

Understanding & explanation

– Truth-claims

2.4.14

– How is parenting to be done when the child is 18-25 years old – when he/she is legally a major, but psychologically not yet an adult??

– Spiritual ~ ultimate ~ metaphysical/ontological

– Eccl.11:9-10 – Oxford Annotated Bible: “GOD calls people to account for failure to accept the gift of enjoyment.”

WOW!

A new definition for “the dangerous duty of delight”.

“GOD will bring you into judgment” ~ the threat of a meaningless life for those who do not learn from their youthful vanities.

– Capitalism (Devil/Money)

Vs.

Materialism (GOD/Man)

– Eccl.2:24-26; 3:10-15; 5:18-20; 9:7-9

– Abortion & break-up

– Is ‘enjoying oneself’ a good/noble/holy/godly thing?

– Nostalgia (Eden)

Vs.

Hope (Heaven)

– Past-Law, present-pleasure & future-consequences

– Time (experience) & space (context)

Matter (body) & energy (psyche)

– Possibilities – the inevitable, the probable/potential & the desirable

– How can legal/executive measures resolve personal/relational problems?!

Force will only make things worse……

– “Enjoy your toil”

…be satisfied (occupied/fulfilled) with your busyness!

THIS is your (divinely ordained) portion……

– Biopsychoecological ethic

Vs.

Religiopoliticocultural morality

– Legislating on emotion

Moralizing about affection

– Dreamer ~ visionary ~ prophet

– Adolescent spirituality

Rantings

31.3.14

Personal theology
Life-view

Strategic Intervention (S.I)

Idea + energy + skill

Intentionality, improvisation & inter-dependence

Personalisation & adaptation

Limiting beliefs & self-reinvention

Interactional & systemic studies

Baal Shem Tov
Hasidism

Menschlikeit

Shul Shabbos

Shabbat

Goral

Makor hayiim

Rambam & Rashi

Autodidact

Hanukkah

Jewish & gay!

Havdalah

Davening shacharit

Minyan

Siddur

Quorum

Isness
Suchness

Mitnagid

The consensus of authoritative opinion

Malka Drucker

Wisdom of the elders – the living way!

– Is theocracy just anarchy?

– Grace – our greatest task IS His surest gift!
Faith as the embrace of death, in hope……

– puerile

– whippersnapper

– Piped up

– Yammer ~ grizzle
Shamble ~ scuffle

Thoughts

27.3.14

– “Miserando atque eligendo”

– Should I (be willing to) go to the SFG members’ houses for the counseling meetings, or ask them to come & meet me instead?

Do BOTH (alternately)!

– The Gospel according to Baz Luhrmann!

– Download Jesus movies:

Son of GOD

Son of Man

– Journaling – the opposite of film-making – movie » script!

29.3.14

– Movies:

Melancholia

What about Prozac??

The psychotic as prophet!

Religion/faith as ‘magic cave’ – why is apocalypse (unveiling of ultimate reality/Parousia/ushering in of the New Age) always associated with cosmic/global catastrophe?

– I am like my mother:

1. Care-free/laid-back

2. Unperturbed/tough

3. Insensitive/apathetic

I am not like my mother:

1. Intellectual

2. Introverted

3. Organized/focused

– Maybe ‘sublimation’ is just a euphemism for ‘repression’……

– Movies:

Noah

GOD’s will IS human choice!

Mercy IN judgment.

Humanity

Vs.

Humanism

Divine silence & religion/theology

Divine sovereignty & human value

Guidance & mystery

Theology as (resulting from) the interpretation of religious experience…

Words

25.3.14

– Renaming ‘lust’ – whatever happened to ‘passion’?!

– “Aankhon Dekhi”

Flying or falling?

Philosophy – the contemplation of freedom in the light of death, & vice versa.

Finitude & creativity

Imagination & inquiry

NOT afraid to make a fool of myself!

Bringing that something extra-special – a vital nuisance – to those I live with!

Being consistent, no matter what the cost……

– “The Third Testament for the Third Millennium.”

– naff

– “lobbyist briefings dressed up as scientific research”

– Detritus

– Conviction without certainty

– Re-enchantment without supernaturalism

– Empathy & rage

– Desire without cruelty can never be called ‘lust’!

– Inter-religious theology

Wow!  🙂

– Interlopers

– Subtext

– Parvenu

– Authoritative commentary

Expository explanation

– Dharma – cosmic, moral & social order

– Hymns, proverbs & parables to doctrine, philosophy & ethics

– Metaphysical ~ spiritual ~ divine

– ALL revelation is both natural & supernatural!

– Karma (ritual), jnana (knowledge) & dharma (morality)

– Cosmos, matter & consciousness

Self, man & GOD

– Dvaita, Visishtadvaita & Advaita

– Indenture

– Exposé

– Fructuous

– Riposte

– Space law

– Warrior-saint

– Logophilia

Post-liberal, post-evangelical, post-theist, post-Christian, post-secular – can I be all at once?!

Realism/crisis & idealism/irony

Free, open-ended enquiry, autonomous value judgments & openness to divergent views

Contemporary credibility

Meaning + purpose = value
Ultimate orientation

Nihilism is ALSO a way of making sense of things!

The interaction of religion, culture & personality in (dynamically influencing & determining) one’s faith is fascinating!

Philosophy is basically our attempt to face & cope with the contradictions (intellectual), tensions (existential) & conflicts (relational) common to the human condition. And theology is doing this with reference to a transcendental/eternal/ultimate framework…

Self-centredness & the impersonal universe

Intentionality, improvisation & inter-dependence

Green governance
Environmental rights

Scribbles

24.3.14

Moving from the permissible to the possible!

Grace – order & freedom, openness & diversity!

The theological virtue of fuzziness

Liberal – modest, generous & progressive; inclusive, dialectic & existential (empirical, rational & contextual)

Apostles of political correctness

Liberal orthodoxy

Certainty >> arrogance
Fear >> aggression

The Creator is also the destroyer,
The Redeemer is also the ruler,
And the Sustainer is also the reviver.

GOD creates,
Man innovates, repairs & develops…

Celtic Christianity & revivalist hymns

Liberal, secular & humanistic Christianity

Etiolation

Haulm

Limpid ~ luculent

Recondite ~ abstruse

Revision, reconstruction & emancipation

“Reaping the whirlwind”

Postmodern Neo-orthodoxy

Axiology

Liberal, progressive & constructive
Vs.
Orthodox, conservative & systematic

Reflective, imaginative & relevant faith
Existence, faith & values

Unitarianism

“In the love of truth, and in the spirit of Jesus, we unite for worship of God and the service of man.”

Internal authority – reason, conscience & intuition

Transcendentalism

Realism, historicism & pragmatism

Industrialisation, capitalism & globalisation

The discourse of experience & tradition

Liberal ~ reformist; Liberation ~ revolutionary
Not radical enough?

Fundamentalism, evangelicalism & confessionalism

Post-theistic religious/mystical naturalists

Relativity & relationality
Wholeness & flourishing