Mark A. Woeltge

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Thinking About God
Thinking the Faith for Today
Session I

• Mark A. Woeltge

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Tough Situations

• What are some difficult life situations that you
  have had to face?
• How did you go about making sense of these
  situations?

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Worldview

• Is the model by which we evaluate, interpret,
  and explain reality and allow it to inform our
  actions within this world

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• Where is God in all of this?

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Objective Of The Course

• To learn to intentionally Think About God in
  light of our daily life experiences.

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Overview

1. What does it mean to Think About God?
2. Why do we Think About God?
3. How do we Think About God?
4. How does what we Think About God inform our
   decisions and actions?

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• What does it mean to -
• Think About God?

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Thinking about God
Theology

• A fundamental attempt to make positive and
  constructive statements about who God is and
  who we are in light of who God is
• Michael Jinkins

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Thinking about God
Communal Activity

• We can only fully understand who God is and
  who we are in light of who God is - in community
  in conversation with the other.

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Thinking about God
Relevancy

• Theology, when intentionally done within the
  community, and not secluded in academia, will
  inherently be contextual addressing the
  communities realities and therefore have a
  higher degree of relevancy.

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The Trap of Measurability

• Separates into opposing spheres the spirit and
  the flesh, the intelligible and the sensible and
  only acknowledges the authority of the material
  and sensible and consigns the spirit and
  intelligible to the realm of opinion and values.

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The Trap of Utility

• States that value is measured by a things
  utility if it brings us personal gain, then it
  is of value to us.

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Critique of Measurability and Utility

• Measurability assumes a separation between what
  is spirit and what is flesh that is unfounded,
  particularly in light the incarnation.
• Utility There are some things that transcend the
  merely useful.

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Summary Thinking About God means

• Our attempt to know who God is and who we are
  in light of who God is.
• A communal event in that we can only truly know
  God and ourselves in Community.
• Necessarily contextual and relevant - when done
  in community

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Thinking About God
Thinking the Faith for Today
Session II

• Mark A. Woeltge

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Overview

1. What does it mean to Think About God?
2. Why do we Think About God?
3. How do we Think About God?
4. How does what we Think About God inform our
   decisions and actions?

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Thinking About God means

• Our attempt to know who God is and who we are
  in light of who God is.
• A communal event in that we can only truly know
  God and ourselves in Community.
• Necessarily contextual and relevant - when done
  in community

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Why do we Think About God?
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Why do we Think About God?

• To make sense of our lived experience
• We Think About God in order to
• not only better evaluate, interpret and explain
  our lived experience
• but also in order to inform our response to our
  particular experience

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Why do we Think About God?

• Christian thinking is a dimension of Christian
  being
• Christianity isnt a veil to shield us from
  the world, but rather a way to think through the
  world

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Why do we Think About God?

• Christendom in America is no longer a reality
• Christianity can no longer claim an exclusive
  or even privileged position in a postmodern
  American society

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Summary - Why do we Think About God?

1. To make sense of our lived experience
2. Christian thinking is a dimension of Christian
   being
3. Christendom in America is no longer a reality

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How do we Think About God?
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• Tell me about God

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Tell me about God

• How do we know these things about God?
• From where did we get our information?
• How reliable are your resources?
• Which resources do we assign greater authority?

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How do we Think About God?
Scripture

• Historical
• Older and Newer Testaments
• Received by Faith
• It is learned
• Authoritative
• Reveals the God of faith

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Scripture

• Christianity contains a vital and indispensable
  historical component - The Bible. It is of
  immediate and primary significance because it is
  the sole witness to this foundational history.

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The Role of Scripture and Thinking About God

• The Secularist View
• The Fundamentalist view

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The Secularist Charge

• The Bible cannot claim Ultimate Truth because it
  was written by human beings and therefore is
  relative by very nature

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A response to the Secularist Charge

• We can insist that the Bible, being the only or
  the primary testimony to occurrences which we
  believe to be ultimately significant, is
  indispensable to our faith and Thinking About God
  
• 
  Douglas John Hall

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The Fundamentalist Charge

• Insists that the Bible be accepted literally and
  uncritically elevates the Bible to the level of
  absolute

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A response to the Fundamentalist Charge

• The Bible points to the absolute God and is
  not an absolute itself.

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How do we Think About God?
Tradition

• Doctrinal
• Creeds and Confessions
• Domestic
• Received from church
• and family

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Tradition

• Tradition means to hand over. Christian faith
  is an historical faith which is handed over not
  only from the early church but also from our
  parents and grandparents

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The Role of Tradition and Thinking About God

• The Modernist/Individualist view
• The Traditionalist view

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The Modernist/Individualist agenda

• The modernist seeks to minimize, and in
  extreme expressions, to eliminate the regulative
  role of tradition in Thinking About God. The
  modernist feels free to eliminate anything from
  the past that does not seem readily applicable to
  the present.
• Douglas John Hall

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A response to the Modernist agenda

• It is impossible for one to escape the
  informative and influential character of
  tradition upon all of our long-held assumptions.

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The Traditionalist agenda

• Sees its primary responsibility that of upholding
  in all of its purity the orthodox doctrinal
  teachings of their particular tradition

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A response to the Traditionalist agenda

• Unquestioning preservation of a given tradition
  not only discourages original reflection upon our
  present context but also fails to recognize that
  even tradition itself is contextually informed

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How do we Think About God?
Experience

• Personal
• Individual Experience
• Communal
• Cultural Experience

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Personal Experience

• Experience is something that we do not receive
  from others but rather something we gain for
  ourselves

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Personal Experience and its relation to Thinking
About God

• Middle Ages universal categories of Man
• Renaissance the re-birth of the individual
• Reformation transfer of authority to scripture
  opens door to personal reception and
  interpretation
• Enlightenment - made an absolute of the human
  intellect, reducing essential humanity to sheer
  mind
• Romanticism - point of departure for faith is not
  reason nor authority but experience, the feeling
  of absolute dependency
• Post Modern - Thinking About God is not rational
  thought but broad experientially based intuition
  or feeling

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Assessment of Personal Experience

• Positive A touch stone for truth What
  corresponds to human experience is acceptable,
  what does not should be discarded as irrelevant
• Negative - experience becomes the primary canon
  of authenticity in theology leaving no vantage
  point upon which to reflect upon experience

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Communal Experience

• Is a society or community structured by mutually
  accepted and agreed upon values, beliefs,
  attitudes, and behaviors.

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How do we Think About God?
Scripture Older Testament Newer Testament
Thinking About God
Tradition Doctrinal Domestic
Experience Personal Communal
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How do we Think About God?
Scripture Older Testament Newer Testament
Traditionalist
Modernist
Thinking About God
Tradition Doctrinal Domestic
Experience Personal Communal
Secularist
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Thinking About God
Thinking the Faith for Today
Session III

• Mark A. Woeltge

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Overview

1. What does it mean to Think About God?
2. Why do we Think About God?
3. How do we Think About God?
4. How does what we Think About God inform our
   decisions and actions?

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Thinking About God means

• Our attempt to know who God is and who we are
  in light of who God is.
• A communal event in that we can only truly know
  God and ourselves in Community.
• Necessarily contextual and relevant - when done
  in community

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Why do we Think About God?

1. To make sense of our lived experience
2. Christian thinking is a dimension of Christian
   being
3. Christendom in America is no longer a reality

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How do we Think About God?
Scripture Older Testament Newer Testament
Thinking About God
Tradition Doctrinal Domestic
Experience Personal Communal
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Thinking About God the textbook model
Scripture
has priority over
Tradition
has priority over
Experience
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Thinking About God in reality
Experience
has priority over
Tradition
has priority over
Scripture
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• How Does What We Think About God
• Inform Our Decisions and Actions?

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A Method for Thinking About God
We begin to engage God through our lived
experience and it is those experiences that
initiate our reflecting upon where God is in all
of this.
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Thinking About God A Method

• Articulate
• Define what the issue is that you are seeking
  to explore
• What took place?
• When did it take place?
• Where did it take place?
• Who was involved?
• How did you feel?
• How did you react?

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Thinking About God A Method

• Attend
• Begin to retrieve elements from your
  religious tradition related to this experience.
• Scripture Bible, Commentary, Concordance,
  Dictionary, and Pastor/Professor
• Tradition Doctrinally (Creeds and Confessions)
  Domestically (family and church)
• Experience What has been your personal
  experience and what does your social context have
  to say

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Thinking About God A Method

• Assert
• honestly and openly engage all other voices
  through the process of attending in order to
  challenge and be challenged correct and be
  corrected.

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Thinking About God A Method

• Agree
• Attempt to reach some agreement on your
  assertions is there some common ground which you
  can explore?

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Thinking About God A Method

• Act
• Establish an action plan upon which you will act
  out your decisions based on Thinking About God

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Thinking About God A Method

• Assess
• After a period of time, assess your progress
  towards making positive and constructive
  statements about who God is and who you are in
  light of who God is within this current
  experience. This should lead you into further
  Thinking About God.

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Thinking About God A Method
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Review
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Thinking About God means

• Our attempt to know who God is and who we are
  in light of who God is.
• A communal event in that we can only truly know
  God and ourselves in Community.
• Necessarily contextual and relevant - when done
  in community

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Why do we Think About God?

1. To make sense of our lived experience
2. Christian thinking is a dimension of Christian
   being
3. Christendom in America is no longer a reality

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How do we Think About God?
Scripture Older Testament Newer Testament
Thinking About God
Tradition Doctrinal Domestic
Experience Personal Communal
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Thinking About God A Method
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Thinking About God

• A life long process of intentionally Thinking
  About God who God is and who we are in light of
  who God is - in all of our daily life
  experiences.

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Thanks Be To God!
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Thinking About God
Thinking the Faith for Today

• Mark A. Woeltge