{"id":1097,"date":"2012-10-11T02:10:21","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T02:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/overwhelmed-by-overwhelmings\/"},"modified":"2012-10-11T02:10:21","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T02:10:21","slug":"overwhelmed-by-overwhelmings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/overwhelmed-by-overwhelmings\/","title":{"rendered":"Overwhelmed by Overwhelmings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0David Ford opens his book, Theology: A Very Short Introduction<\/em> by writing about overwhelmings. As I understand it, overwhelmings describe various human conditions and experiences (love, war, poverty, joy, suffering) that are readily present in the human life and which require appropriate reflection and response. This reflection and response can easily be described as theology.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

I like Ford\u2019s approach to theology for a couple of reasons. First, it begins with God\u2019s initiative.\u00a0 God creates a world that points back to him, but yet doesn\u2019t answer all the questions that arise from the world. God leaves room for questions, thought and creativity. I can\u2019t help but think that when we ask good questions and think deeply God is pleased because we\u2019re responding to the complex universe that he has created. When we stifle questions and thought (which come from overwhelmings), are we possibly hindering someone from coming to faith or experiencing a deeper level of faith? After all, without questions would we even realize we\u2019re in a situation where we need to think or search for God? The overwhelmings of God require reflection and response.<\/p>\n

Secondly, I think being overwhelmed by God encompasses the totality of an individual\u2019s experience (heart, mind, body, soul). There isn\u2019t an aspect of us that is free from God\u2019s overwhelmings. God is constantly drawing us to him. Yet, I don\u2019t think being overwhelmed necessitates a 5-point hyper Calvinist approach to theology.\u00a0 The choice is ours to decide how we respond to the overwhelmings, and why some respond and others don\u2019t is a mystery.<\/p>\n

Later in the book Ford writes about soteriology and the journey of intensification. He points out that historically there isn\u2019t an official church soteriology. God saves, but how we understand salvation changes depending on the time and place. Christians have held a myriad of atonement theories and beliefs about the scope (particular vs. universality) and nature of salvation. Many of these soteriologies have undergone a journey of intensification and have been faithfully thought through to their logical conclusions. There are even soteriologies that are undergoing that intensification in our current time and place.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I found Ford\u2019s explanation of salvation and it\u2019s journey of intensification helpful.\u00a0\u00a0 The deceleration of the early Christians was that Jesus is Lord and Savoir and everything related to that seems to be less than primary. That certainly isn\u2019t the case in today\u2019s society.\u00a0 Today, many are certain on every aspect of salvation. From who\u2019s \u2018in\u2019 and \u2018out\u2019 to exactly how the death of Jesus solves the human dilemma.\u00a0 I think Ford is adding humility and mystery back into a theology that we so desperately want to have completely figured out and placed neatly on the shelf in our brain.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Overall Ford\u2019s book is a great read I recommend to those who want an easier but non-shallow intro to Christian Theology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0David Ford opens his book, Theology: A Very Short Introduction by writing about overwhelmings. As I understand it, overwhelmings describe various human conditions and experiences (love, war, poverty, joy, suffering) that are readily present in the human life and which require appropriate reflection and response. This reflection and response can easily be described as theology.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,197],"class_list":["post-1097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-ford","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}