overheard
“i use these words pretty loosely...
there's so much more to life than words” ~OTR, latter days
“tell mr. man with impossible plans to just leave me alone
in the place where i make no mistakes
in the place where i have what it takes” ~elliott smith, waltz #2
"there are two kinds of people:
sinners who think they are saints
and saints who know they are sinners" ~pascal, pensees
Dwight’s Top Ten Books of 2024
4 days ago
5 comments:
Ok, totally unrelated to your post but I would love to see your thoughts on forgiveness as a speech act. And part of our being created in God's image is the ability to forgive others maybe?
peter,
thanks for the request. it's always encouraging to know that someone is reading.
that being said, i don't have any particular thoughts on the topic at the moment, but maybe some of our esteemed colleagues do. any thoughts sinners and saints?
if being created in the image of God includes forgiving others, would the implication be - and i don't really have a problem with this - that in order for us to fully express the image of God, the fall is necessary? and your falleness provides me the beautiful occasion to outlive my imago dei?
in this way, community is necessary and artful not only in its good days but in its dark, painful, dysfunctional days?
then too, when the church injurs the world, we ought not rob them the opportunity of truthful forgiveness - the world acting in the image of God -but, as Christians, we ought to humbly draw repentant attention to our missteps.
imagine how church history would be different if forgiveness was as cherished a part of the imago dei as rationality is!
Good Grief Charlie Brown! I had no idea my comments could sound so intelligent! Wnfortunately then I realized that Becky wasn't me...
becky bear meet becky ahbahsean. ahbahsean meet becky bear. between the two of you, and kellie's good friend becky in columbus, we've got a lot of becky's in our lives. and all of you are magnificent.
becky bear, i dig what you're saying. i don't know if i would say that the fall was necessary for us to incarnate the riches of God's character. however, i do think that the grandeur of God's character has been amplified in the way that his people respond to the dark consequences of the fall. it seems to me that God has fashioned reality in such an intricate way that every circumstance has the potential to reorient us to his beauty, goodness and truth. may the Spirit continue to make our hearts soft and our minds open to such re-orientation.
thank you for collaborating with me in answer to peter's question. i think communal responses are always more perspicacious and helpful than individual responses. as i've said before, i truly believe that "all of us are smarter (and more beautiful, good and true) than any of us."
i'm still thinking about the forgiveness thing,
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