We’re in March already but it still feels like 2015 has only just begun! For those of us with temporal parts, time flies. The blog is a bit on the slow side just now, but sit tight. My writing time has been reduced of late because of a couple of things I have been working on. These are:
Lent series
For the five weeks prior to Easter I have been (and still am) writing and preparing a lent series for a study group that will be meeting until the week before Good Friday). The theme of the series is “Alpha and Omega: Beginnings and Endings.” Questions of beginnings and endings, construed in various ways, are some of the biggest questions that Christians – and people generally – grapple with. This series covers (although only briefly) the doctrine of creation, the human person, eschatology, heaven, and hell.
This is the main short-term writing project that has been occupying my time.
The Hope project
The Hope project is an outreach project that you can learn more about here. It was created in part to commemorate 200 years of the Gospel arriving in New Zealand. One of the things featured in the hope project is a set of very short videos (called Faith Q & A) answering common question that people might have about the Christian faith, many of which are of an apologetic nature, addressing things like the reliability of the Gospel accounts, the harm done by religion and so on. I was pleased to take part in a number of these a while back, and currently I’m working on four more: These will be recorded on the 29th of March.
Along the way there are always other projects that come and go, writing a contributing article for another blog, for example. But once Easter 2015 is behind us my biggest on-going commitments will be over for now and my writing time will be freed up somewhat – until something else comes along of course! After Easter I’ll be trying to live a bit more regularly. Rhythm is good for you. The plan is that I’ll be writing a substantial blog at least once a fortnight (and writing unsubstantial blogs in between!), producing a podcast episode at least once every 2-3 months (I’d like to do this more often, but realistically it is time-consuming so every 3 months is most likely), and committing to a slightly more physically active lifestyle, getting back into judo.
What about that book, you ask. I’m starting a new full-time job in mid-April. I did float the idea of raising support to work on my book project on the moral argument for theism, but this is a very uncertain prospect, and I am risk averse because my family depends on me. So among my regular writing, I’m going to chip away at this project too. I have no doubt that this will feed into some of the content here at Right Reason, so you’ll be able to see a preview of some of that material as I am working on it.
So, that’s the course I’m charting, writing-wise, for this year.
Glenn Peoples
Richard
You’re involved with the Hope Project, Glenn?
> A place where we can all come together to help, make New Zealand a more hope-filled place.
Please advise them on the proper use of commas.
Glenn
I’m just the hired help, Richard. 🙂
James
In the process of entering the Orthodox Church, I have adopted some profound theological insights that I think relate well to your Lenten topic.
God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” Genesis then says that man was made in the image of God, but the likeness was not mentioned. The fall, quenching the Holy Spirit from man, prevented early man from reaching that. The Word became incarnate in order to finish the Genesis creation, and bring humanity into the likeness of God. During the temptations of Christ, He was wrestling to straighten out the corruption of humanity. He took on the corruption of Sin, even its the fullest extent-death. He overthrew Sin and Death in the human person by the resurrection. It had to be the God the Word, through Whom all things were created and through Whom life came to be, to finish the creation project and overcome death.
You will notice in this hymn and iconography Christ bringing Adam and Eve out of their graves in the resurrection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9aFb7iOTtI&t=266
Heaven is not just a hedonistic pleasure palace. Salvation is, by definition, attaining the likeness of God- being like Christ, attaining union with the Holy Spirit, and becoming the humans that God has designed us to be. It is obvious that Christ does not want to be any other way than He is, and we will not want to be any other way if we become like Him.
Penal substitution is not present in Orthodoxy, if you did not notice already. This is why the Orthodox heavily emphasize and celebrate the resurrection, while the West tends to focus on the death of Christ. What N.T. Wright is working to bring back in the West is already taken for granted in the East.
Another thing connecting Christ and Genesis:
St. Ambrose of Milan taught that Christ begins preaching and healing on the Sabbaths to show that “the new creation began where the old creation ceased.”