Thursday, January 07, 2010
German is very difficult.
I highly recommend not ever learning a language alone. And if you want a doctorate the requires knowing German and French, learn them as undergraduate students, because in grad school you will not have time or money to take classes.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Review: Inhabiting the Cruciform God pt I
Michael Gorman. Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul's Narrative Soteriology. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Eerdmans, 2009.
Michael Gorman is professor of sacred at St. Mary's Seminary and Univeristy in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an able exegete of Paul, so proven in his book, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross. His willingness to not only be an exegete, but a theologian are evident in both texts, particularly the one under review, because Gorman looks at a theological concept (theosis), shows its utility for understanding Pauline soteriology(justification as co-crucifixion), and then to gives the concept Pauline meaning (justification by co-crucifixion means conformity to the character of the God of the cross). His intent is more modest though, “'Theosis' is not the only word to describe the full soteriological process in Paul, but, this book contends, it is both appropriate and useful...”(pp 8) Can such a case be made in four short chapters?
Chapter 1. Because/Although He was in the Form of God: The Theological Significance of Paul's Master Story (Phil 2:6-11)
Gorman does three things in this chapter: he exegetes Philippians 2:6-11, he explains the importance of kenosis for our understanding of Paul's doctrine of God, and he examines what this means for human behavior in conformity to this God. His exegesis of the text of Philippians is fairly intuitive, not that work is not put into it, it is just that he comes to the most obvious reading of the text. Especially his conclusion that Jesus' exaltation at the end of the passage is not a reward for being good, but recognition that his behavior was truly Godlike. (pp 30-31) This is the most likely use of the word διο in the text, meaning something like “as the only available consequence of he previous behavior God has exalted him.” Jesus, the self-emptying Son of God, displayed the character of God and so his resurrection and ascension was God the Father's bestowing of the name of Lord, which attributes he did display, upon him. Again, Gorman reads the text to say, that God the Father exalted the God-man Jesus, because his submission unto death on the cross, was truly divine behavior. Moving back a bit in the text, one might find his translation of υπαρχων in verse six to be an example of having your cake and eating it, but his linguistic and textual arguments hold up. The participle implies that Jesus did these things athough he was God, contrastive to the previous passages, and he did these things because he was God, prospectively with the following lines of the poem, though his case may be better made by arguing for the temporal use of the participle. “While he was in the form of God.” (pp 20-29) The point is that the ethic Paul espouses in Phil 2:1-5 is precisely the ethic Jesus Christ exemplified in going to the cross, and insofar as Jesus exemplified this perfectly humble humanity, Jesus revealed the character of God.
Chapter 2. Justified by Faith/Crucified with Christ: Justification by Co-Crucifixion: The Logic of Paul's Soteriology
This chapter is difficult to review because it is not only long, but very dense, there is an incredible amount of content squeezed into a short space, similar, one might suppose to Paul's letters. The chapter title is actually a good summary of its content, essentially Gorman argues that justification by faith is in no way an opposite soteriological model to Paul's paricipationist language elsewhere used. The one who is justified by trusting in Jesus Christ is exactly the one who is being conformed in this life to the cruciform character of God, dying to sin, and experiencing a new resurrection life in the present. Justification is by co-crucifixion with Jesus Christ, understood as participation in Christ's act of covenant fulfillment. (pp 43-44) Gorman seeks to fill the faith that leads to justification with all the content Paul gives to it in his letters. He seems to do so, but perhaps by taking an unnecessarily circuitous route. For instance, faith is seen as something other than mere trust of the God revealed in Jesus Christ, but instead it is the faithfulness in which one participates in being co-crucified with Jesus Christ. (pp 82-83) This leads Gorman to say that justification by faith alone is probably not a helpful articulation of the gospel, unless faith includes within its meaning the above participationist twist, imagine trying to explain this terminology to an unbeliever, instead of just saying, “trust Jesus Christ, all he promises you, and all he asks of you, and God will remake, replacing your destructive, sinful habits with gracious loving ones.” This is unnecessary for two reasons. Firstly, in Paul's letters, faith-as-trust includes trusting God to be who Jesus Christ says he is. This means that God is not only the God who is cruciform, but this God acted in history and my personal history (the hour I first believed) to transform me into his image. Secondly, if the result of faith (which is a result of God's grace anyhow) is justification, which is God's granting me an acquitted and righteous status and moved me into God's own triune life, then the participationist life is included in justification, and faith need not be made impossible to ever possess, due to immense conceptual difficulty. Faith is cruciform, because it is trust in the cruciform God and thereby results in cruciform life, not because it immediately carries the full results of justification in conceptual form. *Note: We probably agree fully on the issue, I think I just prefer different language. Finally, Gorman states that justification happens “by means of God's faithfulness expressed in love, demonstrated in Christ's act of faithfulness expressed in love, to which humans, enabled by the Spirit, respond in faithfulness expressed in love -i.e., in co-crucifixion.” (pp 104.) This is a good description of what one finds in Paul.
Michael Gorman is professor of sacred at St. Mary's Seminary and Univeristy in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an able exegete of Paul, so proven in his book, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross. His willingness to not only be an exegete, but a theologian are evident in both texts, particularly the one under review, because Gorman looks at a theological concept (theosis), shows its utility for understanding Pauline soteriology(justification as co-crucifixion), and then to gives the concept Pauline meaning (justification by co-crucifixion means conformity to the character of the God of the cross). His intent is more modest though, “'Theosis' is not the only word to describe the full soteriological process in Paul, but, this book contends, it is both appropriate and useful...”(pp 8) Can such a case be made in four short chapters?
Chapter 1. Because/Although He was in the Form of God: The Theological Significance of Paul's Master Story (Phil 2:6-11)
Gorman does three things in this chapter: he exegetes Philippians 2:6-11, he explains the importance of kenosis for our understanding of Paul's doctrine of God, and he examines what this means for human behavior in conformity to this God. His exegesis of the text of Philippians is fairly intuitive, not that work is not put into it, it is just that he comes to the most obvious reading of the text. Especially his conclusion that Jesus' exaltation at the end of the passage is not a reward for being good, but recognition that his behavior was truly Godlike. (pp 30-31) This is the most likely use of the word διο in the text, meaning something like “as the only available consequence of he previous behavior God has exalted him.” Jesus, the self-emptying Son of God, displayed the character of God and so his resurrection and ascension was God the Father's bestowing of the name of Lord, which attributes he did display, upon him. Again, Gorman reads the text to say, that God the Father exalted the God-man Jesus, because his submission unto death on the cross, was truly divine behavior. Moving back a bit in the text, one might find his translation of υπαρχων in verse six to be an example of having your cake and eating it, but his linguistic and textual arguments hold up. The participle implies that Jesus did these things athough he was God, contrastive to the previous passages, and he did these things because he was God, prospectively with the following lines of the poem, though his case may be better made by arguing for the temporal use of the participle. “While he was in the form of God.” (pp 20-29) The point is that the ethic Paul espouses in Phil 2:1-5 is precisely the ethic Jesus Christ exemplified in going to the cross, and insofar as Jesus exemplified this perfectly humble humanity, Jesus revealed the character of God.
Chapter 2. Justified by Faith/Crucified with Christ: Justification by Co-Crucifixion: The Logic of Paul's Soteriology
This chapter is difficult to review because it is not only long, but very dense, there is an incredible amount of content squeezed into a short space, similar, one might suppose to Paul's letters. The chapter title is actually a good summary of its content, essentially Gorman argues that justification by faith is in no way an opposite soteriological model to Paul's paricipationist language elsewhere used. The one who is justified by trusting in Jesus Christ is exactly the one who is being conformed in this life to the cruciform character of God, dying to sin, and experiencing a new resurrection life in the present. Justification is by co-crucifixion with Jesus Christ, understood as participation in Christ's act of covenant fulfillment. (pp 43-44) Gorman seeks to fill the faith that leads to justification with all the content Paul gives to it in his letters. He seems to do so, but perhaps by taking an unnecessarily circuitous route. For instance, faith is seen as something other than mere trust of the God revealed in Jesus Christ, but instead it is the faithfulness in which one participates in being co-crucified with Jesus Christ. (pp 82-83) This leads Gorman to say that justification by faith alone is probably not a helpful articulation of the gospel, unless faith includes within its meaning the above participationist twist, imagine trying to explain this terminology to an unbeliever, instead of just saying, “trust Jesus Christ, all he promises you, and all he asks of you, and God will remake, replacing your destructive, sinful habits with gracious loving ones.” This is unnecessary for two reasons. Firstly, in Paul's letters, faith-as-trust includes trusting God to be who Jesus Christ says he is. This means that God is not only the God who is cruciform, but this God acted in history and my personal history (the hour I first believed) to transform me into his image. Secondly, if the result of faith (which is a result of God's grace anyhow) is justification, which is God's granting me an acquitted and righteous status and moved me into God's own triune life, then the participationist life is included in justification, and faith need not be made impossible to ever possess, due to immense conceptual difficulty. Faith is cruciform, because it is trust in the cruciform God and thereby results in cruciform life, not because it immediately carries the full results of justification in conceptual form. *Note: We probably agree fully on the issue, I think I just prefer different language. Finally, Gorman states that justification happens “by means of God's faithfulness expressed in love, demonstrated in Christ's act of faithfulness expressed in love, to which humans, enabled by the Spirit, respond in faithfulness expressed in love -i.e., in co-crucifixion.” (pp 104.) This is a good description of what one finds in Paul.
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