25.5.14
– The lawless Law-giver
– Turnstiles
– Love = attention
– Tinsel
– KFI, Shantiniketan, Vidya Vanam
– DUB
– So you are taking full advantage of their unconditional acceptance and therefore you’re gonna push the limits of tolerance… Right?!
– Independent education
Distinguish:
Casual
&
Informal
– Stay young @ heart, forever!
– Enquire, examine, explore, experiment, evolve!
– Movies:
Zodiac
Was his investigation worth it, especially because of what he had to do to his family?
Sometimes you just MUST do something, irrespective of the pros & cons!
27.5.14
– The eternal-universal-essential
– Critical ~ vital
– Reactualize!
– Comic theory, tragic subjectivity & theological revolt
– Revolutionary ~ subversive ~ transgressive!
– Genealogical approach
– Metacritical history
– Doctrine of univocity
– Theory, ideology & culture
28.5.14
– Distinguish:
Detachment
&
Indifference
Is it possible to be impassive & compassionate?
– Gen.17:17 – the Father of Faith!
– The basic skeletal structure must be maintained even on the (alternate) freak-out days. But on the 1 out of 7 days (weekly Sabbath) – even that can be discarded and you can experience total chaos!! 😉
– The doctrine of divine sovereignty & the scandal of match-fixing
30.5.14
– Why/how are some persons entirely different from their background?!
ASHOK
– Gentle, pious & lovable father. Inspiration in music.
– Liked Chemistry & Physics
– Worship music
Youth ministry
– Reserved person
Stage fear
– Rich Mullins
Steven Curtis Chapman
Impressed by personal testimonies
– Gaining confidence, developing skill, new exposures
– Gospel of Grace
– Abelraj & Epistle to Romans
– Passionate about reading Bible
– Martin Luther biography
– Parenting & theology
– My response – when you pursue any desire or goal beyond a certain extent (extreme), it becomes dangerous & destructive – that is called passion or excellence!
Balanced people maybe healthy, but they are also mediocre…
31.5.14
– “I just wanted to make things better between us.”
– Nobody knows just how close we both came to divorce and this retreat might never have happened!
Maybe even we both don’t know……
– The spectre of embarrassment
– Carlo & Gracie
Sharyl & Joel
– Why does he want to kill her? Because he hates her.
Why does he hate her? Because she hates him.
Why does she hate him?
– Can one be asexual and fully human?
– Is the Cross the glorification of ignominy?
– I’m gonna write my own marital vows. I’m gonna make a new religion for myself……
– Etiquette
Vs.
Ethicality
– Even in this retreat, what would happen if each of us let go of our usual inhibitions and freely expressed our feelings?
– Into the Wild
– The desire for happiness/meaning
&
The pursuit of truth/GOD
– The bio-psycho-spiritual (individual/internal/subjective) – the GOD within
Vs.
The religio-moral-cultural (social/external/objective) – the GOD without
– What is the right balance between:
What you ought to do now (to get to where you ultimately wanna be)
&
What you would like to do now (for its own sake)
– How can the certainty of death help us to live well now? How does this affect how we answer the previous 2 questions?
– The kingdom of God IS withIN you!
– Eastern religions are better for individual spirituality, & the Judeo-Christian tradition is better for public theology. So how does one handle this problem?
– I think I should make the SFG meeting & online conference once a month. Informal one-to-one mertings can be encouraged. Continue the annual (3-day) retreat.
Any (formal) ministry activity over & above this would be shit. I should also start visiting people (annual) in my inner circle, especially those in the mission field.
2.6.14
– Saving the world
Vs.
Not killing people
Becoming the evil we fight!
– GOD in the other is the counterpoint to the GOD in me! Objectivity through dialogue.
– Person > life > things
Things » life » persons
– Materialist spirituality
Secular theology
– Supposit
– Explananda
– Movies:
X-men – Days of Future Past
Eternity, atonement & Parousia – the Coming One! Since there is One who comes to us from the Future, we are delivered from being controlled by the Past…
If you only knew what kind of future this way leads to, then you would repent & change the past!
Identify GOD, Satan, Christ, Church, World, etc.
– A fortiori
– Civil religion
– Compare:
The false,
The ugly
&
The evil
– Michael Card
– Books:
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
3.6.14
– How contemplatives can contribute to activists, & vice versa?
– Distinguish:
Speculation
&
Contemplation
– Intuition, instinct & impulse
– All theology is contextual (personal & social), including biblical/canonical theology!
– Cash for votes
– Mmm… Coercion can be internal (sex drive) or external (peer pressure), for (hypersexual culture) or against (conventional morality). But it is always bad!
It is amazing how the line between freedom & slavery is so thin/blurred!!
– When 2 (or more) adults use each other mutually, voluntarily & occasionally for pleasure (sexual, psychological, etc.), is it ‘loving’ (to oneself & the other)??
– The problem of pleasure is no less serious than the problem of suffering! Both have to be made meaningful, if they are to be kept from ‘breaking bad’…
4.6.14
– Searing
– Undersecretary
– There are realms of human life (like sex, business, politics, etc.) where words like “love” (which are more personal & relational – family, marriage, fellowship, friendship) become irrelevant. In such cases, the word “justice” is more appropriate & effective in ensuring moral conduct.
Moving from mere sentimentality to genuine ethicality…!
Priorities in tension:
People
Vs.
Principles
Interconnected, but not identical. Converging, but also diverging!
– Grape juice, milk & honey
– Creative ~ traumatic ~ subversive!
– It is amazing how the same action could come out of either spiritual liberty or bondage!
– I think the main point of the movie “Between Us” is the fact of human brokenness, & the real challenge is not to overcome or conquer sin/evil (pride, bitterness, failure, etc.), but to stay human in the midst of the Fall!
Religion/wealth (Joel), family/marriage (Sharyl), career/success (Carlo), service/morality (Gracie) are all failed saviours! But it takes guts to realize & accept this truth, only then can we survive ourselves…
– Eleazar – martyrdom, not for the sake of certain ancient laws & ancestral customs (against paganism), but for the fundamental human right/freedom of faith & conscience (against tyranny)!
– Is your philosophy able to face & survive the horrors of this world??
– Exhortation to apostasy!
– Is (your) life beautiful, terrible or bland?
– Encomium
– Should I rebuke Vivi for discouraging my mother from attending the retreat?
– If we maintain our humanity in the Fall, then we will become divine when GOD finally annuls the Fall!
– What does hagiography have to do with erotics?
– De-tabooing sexuality & thereby liberating man!
– I don’t like people who drag their feet while walking
– Is it possible that one achieves more through one’s death than through an entire lifetime of work?
– Just stop thinking/reflecting, & start sensing/perceiving for a while!
– When someone compels you for anything, that means they need you. So GOD never nags!
– Religion & culture
Morality & the brain
Philosophy & economics
5.6.14
– Red letter day
– man Friday
– Evince
– “Theory praxis” – that’s a good name for what I (try to) do!
– Living > loving > knowing
– Distinguish:
Anarchist
&
Anti-social
Personalist
&
Individualist
– I need to sharpen the general norm by being the exception (‘rarest of the rare’) !
– Individualism:
Selfishness & originality
Creativity & immorality
– Is sexual freedom essential for spiritual growth?
– How do you approach ‘constitutional problems’?
6.6.14
– The selfishness in altruism &
The altruism in selfishness.
What is love??
Is it to sacrifice your own desires for the sake of the other or to unite your will with another’s?
7.6.14
– Concept & reality
– Elide
– The Protestant impulse & the postmodern spirit
Anti-theological theology!
– Curry (v.)
– Vernacular
– Knowing who GOD is
Vs.
Getting as much as we can from GOD
Vs.
Doing as much as we can for GOD
– The never-ending exploration of, & fascination with, the divine mystery, as worship.
– No Son, no Father.
No Father, no Son.
– Rev.3:12 – tridimensional identity – Naming!
– If identity is radically & totally relational, then isn’t the individual held hostage to historical-social dynamics? And without individual freedom how can there be any (cultural or political) reform/progress?
I am a medical doctor » I am Salome’s husband » I am Immanuel Joseph!
– The diversity within unity – radical otherness IN the self!
– Ps.27:1 – academics & faith
– Particularity & universality
– The eternal implications of historic encounters
– Designer GOD
– “Who does this man think he is?”
– The humour of Jesus
– A lay person who teaches seminarians!
– Gradually & stutteringly coming to faith
– The son is equal to the father!
– The Father is the God OF Jesus.
The Christ is the son OF God.
The Holy Spirit is the spirit OF GOD (the Father & the Son)
– The stone is rolled away, not to let Jesus out, but to let us in!
– The new/higher dimension includes the old/lower, but not vice-versa!
– “The clouds”
– Pneumatology is the key to contemporary theology!
– The Spirit upon, with & in the faithful
– Distinguish:
Chastening
&
Retribution
– The 2 persons united as one composite unit by the 3rd entity – Love!
– Uncomprehension & misapprehension
– In the name (not names) of (the triune) God
– Mas. » Dr. » Mr.
– Jesus spoke much more to GOD than the other way around!
– Personality includes relationality, but exceeds it!
– 1Jn.1:1-3
– Shared life/being/substance
– The Athanasian Creed
– Eternal generation/procession
– Planting sublime desires
– (Spiritual) identity:
Personal, relational & public
– Ubuntu
– One what & three whos
– The Church (& marriage/family) as the best illustration of the Trinity!
– Good theology & bad grammar!
– Godhead ~ mankind
– Woman – an after-act, not afterthought!
– Trinity, gender & sexuality
– The Christian community has abdicated its role in the process of legislation to the secular state
– The revelation of the personal nature of entities usually considered to be impersonal!
– Univocity, equivocity & analogy
– Does (the reality of) GOD overflow the (concept of) Trinity?
– GOD is known partly & unknown largely
– Worshipping the transcendent & loving the immanent GOD
– Before the creation of the material world, there is no time.
– Freedom:
Voluntarism
Vs.
Essentialism
– Is GOD completely/absolutely ‘free’?!
– Sevenfold
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