This is a tape set that I got from the Teaching Company. If anyone is interested it’s web site is teach12.com. It started out very very slowly and I’d just about decided that I didn’t like it. However, I really started liking it and ended up getting two more tape sets by the lecturer. A Dr. Phillip Cary. It seems to me that he is a believer and lectures in that way. Also, he is an Augustine scholar so I got his tapes on Augustine, and his tapes on Philosophy and Religion in the West.
He really presents the ideas of different theologies very well. Ive had problems determining exactly what kind of a believer he is, although I’m pretty sure that he’s a believer. I find these kinds of tapes sets and books about theology fascinating. The thing that I’m especially fascinated by is the way Christian theology is totally separated from the scriptures.
For example Jesus says that He and the Father are one. OK. That is an “a priori“ statement by Jesus so it has to be true. Then the early Christian Theologian/Philosophers assume the neo-Platonist view of God and for the next 700 years try to describe how the neo-Platonist Prime Mover fits with the Jewish Scriptures. Here’s the thing that kills me about this. One of the neo-Platonist views of God is that he is impassionate? Where in the scriptures is God described as being impassionate? See the Greeks realized that we as humans can at times be completely controlled by our passions, and often when that happens we do stupid things. Thus they decided that a perfect being would never have passions that would cause them to do stupid things. However how can a God that says things like
How exactly is a “jealous God” impassionate? God is constantly described in the Jewish Scriptures with very strong emotions, and the last days of Christ’s life are described as The Passion. I’ve never understood why Christians accept this classical description of God. Don’t get me started on the rest of it.
Besides the fact that I think it’s totally missguided I still find the process of theology fascinating. Also, I do think that they have very deep insights at times. The really funny thing is that when I start to try and describe what others accept as classical theology, or their denominations accept and teach, they don’t seem to believe it at all.
He really presents the ideas of different theologies very well. Ive had problems determining exactly what kind of a believer he is, although I’m pretty sure that he’s a believer. I find these kinds of tapes sets and books about theology fascinating. The thing that I’m especially fascinated by is the way Christian theology is totally separated from the scriptures.
For example Jesus says that He and the Father are one. OK. That is an “a priori“ statement by Jesus so it has to be true. Then the early Christian Theologian/Philosophers assume the neo-Platonist view of God and for the next 700 years try to describe how the neo-Platonist Prime Mover fits with the Jewish Scriptures. Here’s the thing that kills me about this. One of the neo-Platonist views of God is that he is impassionate? Where in the scriptures is God described as being impassionate? See the Greeks realized that we as humans can at times be completely controlled by our passions, and often when that happens we do stupid things. Thus they decided that a perfect being would never have passions that would cause them to do stupid things. However how can a God that says things like
9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, (Deut 5)
How exactly is a “jealous God” impassionate? God is constantly described in the Jewish Scriptures with very strong emotions, and the last days of Christ’s life are described as The Passion. I’ve never understood why Christians accept this classical description of God. Don’t get me started on the rest of it.
Besides the fact that I think it’s totally missguided I still find the process of theology fascinating. Also, I do think that they have very deep insights at times. The really funny thing is that when I start to try and describe what others accept as classical theology, or their denominations accept and teach, they don’t seem to believe it at all.
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