Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Paradigm Shift

hey guys....i posted a link to a speech by Donald Miller - I would love feedback if you can ever find the time. It is on my blog - click on "here".
he seems to articulate so much of what i have been feeling - it made me uneasy a bit too...
anyway
thanks

5 comments:

Bethany said...

Oh, Donald Miller. It is not exaggerating to say he's changed my life. If you didn't like the floweryness of Blue Like Jazz, try Searching for God Knows What. It's a little more... scholarly I guess is the world.

I like his distinction between religion and spirituality.

As for not defending Christianity - This yells out strongly against this mindset I've had that Christianity needs to be defended. That we need to prove ourselves, prove we're not committing intellectual suicide. When was this taught in the Bible? Jesus just said to go do stuff, feed the poor, BE the church.

He talked about Wheaton College!! The big castle building is Blanchard Hall. (ironically, the Gospel and Culture class every freshman takes NOW teaches us how this withdrawal from culture was wrong) I simply love Donald's points about Christian subculture. You can go your entire life and never interact with anyone who thinks differently. And this subculture is largely irrelevant to everyone else. Where do we get this mindset that if someone doesn't agree with us we should leave them to die? Our country, our territory, you're not welcome.

Most feared people in America:
1. Evangelical Christians
2. Serial killers

ok, so that's more summary than "feedback"

Joe B said...

Yep, listened to it all. It was quite a nice talk. I'm surprised that you were so impacted, since he seems not far afield from your thinking.

Can I ask you 2 things?

One, how DO you see this speech differing from your locus of thought right before you listened to it?

Two, how do you see it differing from MY locus of thought, as you understand it?

Bethany said...

1. I've been a Donald Miller fan for about a year now. That's why my thinking is already similar. So I was impacted by him awhile ago, not particularly by this talk. Most of what he said in the speech I've heard before from other things I've listened to and read by him. Here's one new thing: to love people, liking them is a must. Simple, yet profound.

Locus is a cool word.

2. um... hard question. hmm. Don's funnier than you for one. :) He talks a lot more about people than theology. He does not defend Christianity, and would probably not be interested at all in apologetics, and because of that does not get into many of the conversations you do. So it's hard to compare because there's no specific issue I've heard yours and his views on. I suppose he presents a broader perspective of what Christianity is. He's one of them touchy feely poetry-loving authors who talks about the relational dynamics between us and God, rather than summarizing how conservatives and liberals might interpret the "humanness" of scripture, for instance.

Joe B said...

Hahahaha!

That's so uncool! This blog is ABOUT theology. If DM were over here he'd be saying theological things too. Usually I'm just telling dirty jokes!

You should hear me when I'm giving talks and writing books about fluffy stuff. I'd fluff the hair right off your head!

Perhaps you can read my memoir someday. It's called "Brown like Doo-Doo: A Thousand Pages of Introspection by an Even Worse Christian than Donald Miller."

(Hey, I'm just joking. DM would have laughed. A dry laugh, though.)

LOCUS!

LOCUS!

LOCUSLOCUS!!

scott said...

I need to hear this speech, but I can't get it at work. Guess I need to spend more time on this type of thing at home...

Also need to spend more time listening to dirty jokes from Joe.