:: St. Stephen's Musings ::

:: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 ::

Atonement, Death, Prenatal Technology, and Non-Denominations: Random Wednesday Musings

*Orthodox truism of the day: "There's no such thing as a dead Christian." Discuss!

* Michael Spencer writes about what he sees as a problem of "transactionalism" in modern Christian thought. Although I think he needs to expand and clarify his definition of "sacrament", his critique of the inevitable consequences of an over-active penal substitution theory of atonement mixed with self-centered religious consumerism is spot on.

Along the same lines, this philosophy paper fleshes out what the authors call "the participatory model of atonement." Their thesis is that sin is a relational and ontological problem fundamentally, not merely a deontic (or moral) problem. Interestingly, not a single Orthodox author is referenced ...

* "From 12 weeks, unborn babies can stretch, kick and leap around the womb - well before the mother can feel movement." My wife is entering her 12th week of pregnancy so this article was particularly interesting to both of us. The pictures are amazing!

* "No, they don't worry about the continuous liturgy that has reached so many different cultures throughout the ages, they worry about whether the strobe lights are going to malfunction."
Bunnie Diehl, with a biting critique of "non-denominations", is in fine form.

* Some of you may have noticed the number of posts has dropped off of late. Instead of the usual 4-5 posts a week, I'm down to 3 and I plan on keeping the Mon/Wed/Fri schedule for a while. A less prolific but steady regiment will keep blogging from taking over my life and it has the added benefit of drawing out longer discussions in the comments, because posts stay up near the top a bit longer.

:: Karl :: 7:27:00 AM [Link] ::