have a coffee

This already dates from June, but I just discovered it and figured it was still worth mentioning: Google Video has Earl Creps on Pentecostal ministry in the post-secular university.

Svensvensven, of "Are you a heretic?" fame, has been active at the QuizFarm again. His new question is, "Which theologian are you?" Naturally, I couldn't resist taking the test. To my surprise I turned out a "Wesleyan holiness-evangelical" -- would you believe it? I had hoped to get a couple of points more on Pentecostalism! Of course, this started my thinking, and here's what's come out of it so far:

 1. Even while I greatly appreciate my theological heritage and I am well aware of the context that it puts me in, I am trying to think beyond traditional boundaries, as I think all honest theological reasoning has to. That makes my theological outlook somewhat eclectic -- from my point of view, the best of all worlds.

 2. Of course, part of the explanation is -- surprise! -- that the quiz itself is put together from a subjective point of view, too. While I am not aware of what exactly svensvensven's background is, at least one question seemed quite strange to me. On a scale of agreement from 0 to 5, I had to rate the statement, "Speaking in tongues is the most important element of salvation" [Unfortunately, I lost my page cache and the questions are changing each time, so, forgive me if the quote isn't guaranteed to be literal.] I gave this phrase a 1, because I don't agree. I love speaking in tongues and greatly appreciate this gift God has given to me. But, "the most important element of salvation?" That's way overrated. Still, I guess, picking a five would have given me a lot more points on Pentecostalism. Is this how Pentecostals appear to the outside?

 

Ben Finger, "Anglican, charismatic" and ex-Pentecostal (according to his blog site), has five points of criticism toward Pentecostals. Without commenting on the first four, here's what he has to say in his last point.

Now, if that would be entirely true, then for me and many others, there would be no point in remaining Pentecostals. Fortunately, this is not the case any more. While some retain a marked anti-intellectual stance, I find Pentecostalism opening to theological reflection. Of course, this is just the beginning. But with more and more Pentecostals getting higher academic degrees and actively engaging in theology, we might see quite some things changing here. At least I hope ...

Interesting thoughts on the relationship of faith and reason, as well as the rationality of God, by none other than Benedict XVI. In his speech at Regensburg University on September 12, 2006, the pope lectured on the God, reason, and jihad in the 7th dialog of Byzantine emperor Manuel II. Paleologos (dated 1391).
With the emperor and against medieval nominalism (Duns Scotus, et. al.) as well as modernist attempts at dehellenization, Benedict maintained that God is bound to reason ("Vernunft&quot and always acts "????????" (i.e. in accordance with the logos, which is both "word" and "reason&quot.
The full text of the pope's speech (in German) is here.
On a side note: Of course, immediately after, Benedict was criticized by Muslim's around the world for quoting passages of the dialog that are supposedly condemning Islam and it's concept of jihad. If only they had listened to what he said in its context.

Maxim Online has put up a browser game where you have to distinguish between images of homeless people and depictions of Jesus. From the introduction:

Although this is harmless fun, it makes me think ...

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