In which Sarah Louise looks at theology...

Well, dear Internet, tomorrow I'm going to a day conference at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary on the Emergent Church. The key note speaker is John Franke, and I've spent the earlier part of the evening reading a six-part synopsis of Franke's latest book, The Character of Theology, as blogged by Scot McKnight.

It's fascinating stuff. A few highlights:

• Theology, which is often the conversation about God and his/her attributes, can be as flawed as the person spouting it.
• Dictionary definition of theology: the study of the nature of God and religious truth; a system or school of opinions concerning God and religious questions.
• Franke writes great goop: "God unveils (reveals) himself in and through creaturely veils and that these veils, although they may be used by God for the purposes of unveiling himself, remain veils" (76).
• Scot so endorses this book that he says if he was the Prez of an Emergent Church Seminary (what would that look like?) he'd make everyone buy a copy and have Franke come and teach a whole semester on the book.
• Franke talks about context, how there is no "pure gospel" (my brother would dig this) because the gospel is historical and therefore has cultural biases. Side note: here's something I learned while studying Luke this week: did you know that in Jesus' time a man could divorce his wife (and it was acceptable practice) for cooking a bad meal or talking too loud? Women were refusing to get married, causing a breakdown of family structure, and so that's where Jesus' polemic on adultery and divorce comes from in the Sermon on the Mount.
• Scot talks about his own issues concerning the school of thought that the Bible has "authority." His take is that "Scripture is divine communication with humans, the covenanted people." He goes on to say that "Authority comes in when the genuine relationship is under threat. Instead, I'd prefer to see Word as divine communication to which I listen and which I follow, not because it is authoritative but because I'm in love with the God who is speaking in that Word." Wow. I love the poetry there. That's the way I see the Bible--I was drawn to it by the poetry. While some came to Christ through a study on Romans, I came to Christ through Psalm 139:9-10 ("If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.") and a study on the Old Testament names of God (Jehovah Jireah, Jehovah Rophe, Adonai, Elohim...) Rules and authority do not speak to who I am. I go where the poetry feeds my soul. (Which is where I can get into trouble, big time!) I am, and ever will be, the square peg that does not fit into the round hole.

There's a lot more there, but that's the gist. And this gist is only based on blog entries on the book, not on the book itself. So hopefully tomorrow I will have more clarity--I so hope that Franke speaks in layman's terms, although most folks at the conference will be seminarians or practicing clergy.

What I'm hoping to come out of tomorrow with is a sense that the Emergent Church believes strongly in the truth of the Bible and the poetry of tradition.

Stay tuned...