Summer @ Regent: How to Think Christianly in Pomo Context
This class is being offered this spring @ Regent, taught by John Stackhouse: Make Up Your Mind: How to Think as a Christian:: Regent College Summer Programs. Hmm. Sounds like an intriguing class. I’m wrapping up a paper now on this subject; how to do Christian theology in the presence of so great a pluralism and difference; is there any way we can navigate a theological unity again? Hence my intrigue at the recent Anglican concession… And is it possible – even conceivable – to find a Protestant Catholicity? What are the non-negotiables and what are the things we can hold loosely? What place does Christian charity have in the matter? The pietists reacted against Scholasticism – but is a dichotomy created in the process between thinking and feeling? I don’t know how Stackhouse is going to approach it but I’d be interested to hear more. And no I can’t take the class.
I need to say one more thing. It’s not just about thinking Christianly, but how we conduct ourselves in the act. The pietists avoided polemics and quarrelsome postures. I think there’s a lesson there. We can believe in something, maybe even die on a hill for it. But do we have to drag as many down with us as we can? Does it have to get messy? And if I may extend the rant a bit further…
Seminaries might want to (re)consider their pedagogical method a bit further. When we give students Plato and Aristotelian philosophy we’re giving them heady ammo to play with; the thing is we’re not teaching people how to play with fire rightly - in other words, brandishing one’s knowledge to win – this is not the right way to use Christian theology.
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