Theology Articles and Class Projects

Class is in Session! Here you will find a sampling of academic papers, articles and projects that I have written for various seminary classes.

Topics:

• Faith in Jesus as the Christ
  a paper for Systematic Theology class: With a Little Help from My Friends

More coming soon!

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With a Little Help from My Friends

Why can faith in Jesus as the Christ never simply rely on historical information?

Jesus was alright, but his disciples were thick and ordinary.  It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me. 

John Lennon

I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right.  It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.

John Lennon

Let It Be

            I find more satisfaction in John Lennon’s music than in his theology.  I do not think that the ‘translations have all gone wrong’ although I will concede that the accounts of Jesus’ life differ from one another.  Even the synoptics offer varying accounts of The Temptation: (Matt. 4.1-11; Mark 1.12-13; Luke 4.1-13) and The Stilling of the Storm: (Matt. 8.23-27, Mark 4.35-41, Luke 8.22-25), (Wan 2004) just to name a couple.              
            “David Frederick Strauss (1808-1875) among other things, suggested that the Gospels should be viewed not so much as the record of eyewitnesses to the facts of Jesus’ life but rather as narrative representations of the religious ideas and hopes of Jesus’ followers.” (Valentin 2005) “Thus the gospels are the church’s memories of the historical Jesus transformed by the community’s experience and reflection in the decades after Easter.” (Borg 10)
            Accepting the gospels as such, preserve its distinction as a sacred text while allowing us to celebrate the diversity of its stories and interpretations.

The Magical Mystery Tour

“What do we make of Jesus Christ in our time?” (Macquarrie 339)

            The Wesleyan quadrilateral invites us to recognize not only Scripture; but also tradition, the Holy Spirit and reason as equal authoritative sources. (McKim 229)  The Valentin triangle, as introduced in Systematic Theology I, also emphasizes the need for combining archival experience, reason and present experience. (Valentin 2004)
            Regardless of shape; it is necessary to acknowledge the emphasis on interaction with the text.  We must engage in a dialogue with the text that allows for our history, our experiences and our questions.  “We must also take into consideration that proper theological method in our time requires that we not merely repeat what tradition passes on to us but that we engage with tradition; reach our own conclusions about it; and seek to reconstruct it in order to make the tradition more responsive to new occasions and duties.” (Valentin 2005) 

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

 “For Christian faith Jesus is not just a figure of the past but a reality of present experience.”  (Macquarrie 9)

            Whether leading the high school youth group or speaking with my own young children, the challenge for me is the same: to introduce Jesus, the Christ, as a relevant concept in their everyday lives and not simply a historical figure that they read about in Sunday school.  Children of all ages seem to easily grasp (or at least accept) God as our omnipresent Creator.  The contemporary relevance and redemptive value of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, is usually where I loose them.
“If there is any truth in the idea of incarnation, then this must mean meeting people where they are, and in a secular age that means meeting them on the level of their everyday humanity.”(Macquarrie 343)

            During Advent, the students in my Senior High Sunday school class asked if we could watch Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer in class.  They challenged me to find religious significance in the cartoon; and they know that I never turn down a challenge.  I enlisted the help of my husband and children.  We compiled a list of the similarities between Jesus and Rudolf.  When I asked my three year old son what Rudolf and Jesus have in common he instantly answered:  “They are both my friends.”  I was thrilled to learn that in his limited experience, my son knows a Jesus that is real.  Well, at least as real as a cartoon reindeer with a red nose.

Why is historical information about Jesus nevertheless important for faith?

“Popular Christianity today tends to focus on the divinity of Jesus, often at the cost of his humanity…How can we strive to emulate someone who IS God?” (Valentin 2005)

Christianity will go.  It will vanish and shrink.  I needn’t argue with that, I’m right and I will be proved right.  We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first; rock-n-roll or Christianity.”
John Lennon

The Long and Winding Road

            In a career marked by controversy, the above quote was probably one of John Lennon’s most contentious.  In later interviews Lennon tried to clarify to his detractors that he was not claiming to be more important than Jesus; just more popular.  Was Lennon verbalizing his own skepticism about the truth in Christianity? Or was he speaking for a generation of youth disillusioned with philosophical answers to their concrete questions?
            My own knowledge of that era is limited to high school music history courses.  I would venture to guess, however, that Lennon’s off-handed remark was more characteristic of his own internal struggle with Christianity.  The idea that his statement caused such an uproar may speak to a society’s deep connection to the divinity of Christ and (acceptance of) the fallibility of John Lennon.   “Although Christianity has shown a steady decline in the two and a half centuries or so since the Enlightenment, there are still many people who think it is too precious to be abandoned and who look for ways of reconstructing belief.” (Macquarrie 340)
            When Christological trends emphasize the divinity of Jesus; Christians may struggle to maintain a meaningful relationship with their savior. “A theology that is too far removed doesn’t inspire.” (Valentin 2004) However, public outcry at the careless statement by John Lennon shows that this relationship with Christ is tangible; if tenuous, but certainly not up for debate.

Imagine

“The Christian life moves beyond believing in God to being in relationship to God.” (Borg 39) 

 “To say that a Christology for the present day must begin from the humanity of Christ is not to decide in advance that it can not go any further.” (Macquarrie 341)

            Faith in a divine Jesus begins with the acknowledgement of Jesus as a human being and a desire to emulate his work.  On more than one occasion we have heard in class “the closest thing to faith is hope”. (Valentin 2005) 
            I hope that Jesus is a divine omniscient being who knows the depths of my soul and has secured everlasting life for us all.   I hope that the vulnerable qualities he embodied in his human life continue to help me feel connected to him and inspire me to always do my best.  Sometimes when I call on Jesus it is when I am deep in meditation; in a quiet house, on my knees, with my eyes closed. I know He is listening.  Sometimes, when my children call Jesus it is from the payphone outside of our local Pizza Hut.  I know He is listening then, too.

Works Consulted:

Borg, Marcus J.  Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time.
            San Francisco:  Harper Collins Press. 1995.

Macquarrie, John.  Jesus Christ in Modern Thought.  Harrisburg: 
            Trinity Press International.  1990.

McKim, Donald K.  Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms.
            Louisville:  Westminster John Knox Press.  1996.

Valentin, Benjamin.  Systematic Theology I, Class Lectures.
            Andover Newton Theological School.  2004.

Valentin, Benjamin.  Systematic Theology II, Class Lectures.
            Andover Newton Theological School.  2005.

Wan, Sze-kar.  New Testament Foundations.  Class Handout.
            Andover Newton Theological School.  2004.

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