Tuesday, December 6, 2005

Am I emerging? Monday's post...

Gosh you woulda thought by the size of my belly that–yup something shoulda been emerging outta me by now but…
Class with Dale Dirksen on Emerging Church issues (essentially post modern effects on the church)
First of all it already has been a blast being together with Mo my brother. We form an army of two in the class. We’re not totally sure our enemies are yet but you gotta know that two two hundred pounders are gonna take on any acid dropping po-mo’s or even the annoying guy who grunts at everything the prof says. It’s funny cause we totally got jammed into the front row of the class within spitting distance of the prof and his regalia of techno gadgets – so if you can catch “emergent” like the flu you gotta know that mo an me are gonna come outta here inoculated or infected…
Actually the class has been good so far. Kinda laying down the basics of the where we are at in the context of philosophy. So history and comparison and all that jazz. You know the basics but we were able to wander down a few rabbit trails that I think were intriguing. Of course there were those who obviously were rocked out of their chairs when Dirksen said stuff like: “the Bible and the Word are not eh same thing.”
There was a moment of clarity that brought me back to two summers ago when I read Brian mcLaren for the first time. Basically it was this: when the church functions in community not avoiding conflict but living through it (not ignoring it or pretending it doesn’t exist) then it is the most powerful gospel for humanity. It is so hard in all this pomo discussion to not criticize what has come before and I find myself gravitating to that (criticism). But we need to acknowledge that the ideas, methods and ideologies that preceded us were struggled through with the intention of coming up with the best possible stuff for their time. We need to do the same. Building on the strengths of the past and avoiding its destructive excesses.
Of course I am going to have to keep working through the whole truth question. So Ryan wind up your fingers…
Here is something Dirksen said, Post Modernity sees truth as ahistoric. I don’t know what I think about that. In some ways you have to see how truth is bound to historical context (flat earth etc). Maybe the question is if reason can transcend the historical boundaries.
It was a good day.
I miss my family a lot
Char, I hope today was productive for you.
Tomorrow it looks like we might get into music. Yup yup can you see me cheer!
Gil, Ryan, and Mark I wish you boys were here with me. We are gonna have to set things up to attend a class together some time. Maybe a few other of you would like to come along.
Peace out children
Mo has bad gas and I must go beat him up…

1 comment:

Gil said...

Sounds like some interesting conversations Dale. Did you beat the gas out of Mo? Did it 'emerge'?