To Do

Sunday June eighth, I will leave my university’s campus and move to the city of Toledo, in northwest Ohio. Then for the following thirteen weeks, I will be working forty hours a week as a Supply Chain Intern with Owens Corning, and using the rest of my time to read, think, write, and pray.

There are several things on the immediate writing agenda:

• In December of 2006, at the conclusion of a class on Comparative World Religions, I wrote an essay about Christianity’s place among other religions. I plan to revise this and expand upon it.
• In a Philosophy of Religion class which I took one year ago, I encountered John Hick’s “soul-making theodicy.” My final paper for the class presented a more Christian, more biblical adaptation of Hick’s general thesis which I’ve since dubbed a “saint-making theodicy.” Since then, I’ve realized that this idea echoes more and more scripture, and I’ve continued to refine it. I’ll commit the current version to paper over the summer.
• I want to write my take on the argument from morality for the existence of God, with a focus on what can be properly grounded only in belief in God; or, what must be abandoned along with abandoning belief in God.
• I plan to clearly and concisely articulate my main criticisms of the American Church.
• I’ll write my understanding of how Christians are to see the Old Testament.
• Lastly, I have a larger project on soteriology, or the theology of salvation. I’ve done a lot of thinking and questioning on this, culminating in carefully reading straight through the New Testament with soteriological questions in the very front of my mind, and recording every scripture which seemed to speak to them. This blog has certainly reflected this studying, but largely in short polemics. I want to pore over my lists of verses, and articulate my conclusions more fully.

Then come the questions which I hope to answer over the summer:

• Given the criticisms of the American Church which I mentioned above, what should the disciple’s relation to this Church be?
• There is much talk among Christians of the goodness of the created order, and of the human body, and of other such natural things. But I’m more inclined to focus on things the New Testament says about the flesh, worldliness, self-denial, and self-mortification. But then again, I do realize the New Testament’s affirmations of things like family, and honest work. How do all these things work together? How can we embrace those affirmations of certain “natural” things without diluting the radical denunciation or transcendence of other “natural” things?
• Art.
• What should a Christian’s political involvement be? I’ve heard much talk of fighting systemic injustice, and defending the rights of the oppressed – but in the New Testament this talk is strikingly absent, and I see instead commands to submit to authorities, even evil ones, and to feed the hungry, rather than try to change the system which leaves them hungry. But are these things absolute, or should they still be coupled with some political action? And what of a situation like mine in America where I’m simply handed the political clout of a vote, at the very least?
• Christians should look different from the world. Besides avoiding pharisaical showmanship, are there any limits or qualifications placed on Christian differentness?

Stay tuned.