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If you'd like to follow the search for wisdom, sign up. I'll log in several times a week to publish thoughts and ramblings. Some will reflect books I'm reading, sermons on which I'm working, and even ask for help with the above. --GW

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Enlightenment

We can talk while the coffee's brewing. Not quite a century later Peter Abelard objected to Anselm’s 12th century interpretation of how it is that Jesus’ death saves the world. Abelard thought he had a better idea and believed what Jesus did was show that we could live at a higher level of human kindness than previously accepted. The love of Jesus portrays not only the supreme love God has for us but becomes the inspiration for the love we can have for God and for our neighbor. Abelard’s “moral influence” theory has been judged by history as being a bit too optimistic as the following centuries did not produce the inspirational change in lives it proposed. So even though Anselm’s theory of Jesus being our substitute was slightly wounded it lived on as the most prevalent view of how Jesus saves. Not until the 19th and 20th century when cultural influences from the enlightenment spurred renewed debate have other weighty theories begun to emerge. Swedish theologian Gustaf Aulen challe...
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This Should Come With A Warning Label

Ummm. That coffee really smells good this early in the morning. Grab your cup. Let’s take a new look at that old adage, “Jesus Saves”. You realize, of course, my reason for writing is to see how my understanding works with those of you who are involved in the same search for making sense of this in a fast changing world of reason. I should warn you that in no way am I in the same game with some of the theologians and writers I’ve cited. In fact, most of my own understanding has come from reading and hopefully absorbing a tiny amount of their wisdom. And, I keep reading and searching for better ways to understand and express my faith. My understanding is in a constant state of evolution. Along the way I realized that the expression, “Jesus Saves” was raising other questions for me: “From what exactly is it that Jesus saves?” And, “What does Jesus provide that makes this happen?” Other issues and questions surface as well but these will likely take us to the bottom of this pot of cof...
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If I Had A Hammer

Wow, that's a big cup you have? Okay, back to the why question. Darwin’s theory identifies in the evolution of species the idea that suffering is an integral part of creation’s development. We know that when DNA replicates there often occurs gene abnormalities and mutations referred to as “errors”. From these, amounting to no more than slight differences, comes either better fitness for survival or lesser fitness prone to extinction. The better fitted characteristics survive, the lesser suffer against their environment and eventually perish. The evil we call suffering is literally part of the process of survival. It is important to make note of this insight because it negates a long standing, primitive human trait to feel that when a disaster happens it is because some deserving judgment has been rendered on the guilty. Knowing suffering is part of the process of life refutes the assumption such suffering is the result of mistakes in a previous life, a parent’s sins becoming the ...
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