-
I recently began reading "The Way Forward? : Christian voices on Homosexuality and the Church."

It has been very interesting, to say the least. It is a collection of articles by various authors, from differing positions. So far they have all been pro-homosexuality; some of them I have found very interesting, others very weak, and some so wishy-washy in the air that I wondered how they got into the volume.

The last one I read had a quote from a brazilian theology, Maria Clara, which I don't quite follow. "If Christians wish to assert that God is love then, in the beginning God can only be object of desire - not of necessity nor of rationality. Theology - which seeks to be reflection and talk about God and God's word - must therefore be moved and permeated in its entirety by the flame of desire... Born of desire, theology exists as theology only if it is upheld and supported by desire."

Now, I am well aware of the mysticial tradition within Christianity, but I feel like some kind of essential step has been skipped in the use of this quote (having not read the brazilian theologians work myself, I can only comment on the author who used the quote). Exactly what kind of desire are we talking about? and what is desire's place in love, most especially and pertinently 1 Cor 13 kind of love? Furthermore, exactly what does it mean, semantically and philosophically, when the bible says God is love? It seems that to jump from love to desire in a generalized, though specifically non-lustful (but still romantic), context without any explanation or defense seems rather hasty. Which is not to say romantic love is not part of Love, simply that there is more to it than that.

So I ask my nearly non-existant readership :) any thoughts on Love and desire?

Comments

Anthony said…
there is this thought, that we are required to be active particpants in gods creation, and i think that sometimes that particpation can have the passion and complicated working out of a lover or a husband.

i have a t shirt that says jesus is my boyfriend, and i feel that--i mean its a nice fuck you pithy aphormism but its also--the feelings i have for my boyfriends are often the feelings i have for my god--the good ones: ecstacy, joy, devotion, fondness, affection, eroticism, tenderness, creation the neutral ones:boredom, exhaustion, banality. the hard ones: anger , frustration, abuse.

but all of those feelings--from the beginning to the end come from her creation, come from her asking me to be part of that creation--come from her penis or her vagina.

i am sorry if this offends, ive been really praying and meditating about this for a long time, and i find myself working lately on litrugical work to reclaim my sexual self in a sense of creation, for the scm conference in victoria in may and for myself.

i can give you a reading list from mainstream to weird, if you want me to.
3:32 AM
Anthony said…
when i talk about penis and vagina, i mean metaphoric engines of creation of course--but also in the terms of christ, literal ones.

christ was incarnated as a full man. (i am not making a statement about his sex life--i dont think he had one) but that he had the body the rest of us do.

did you ever read my poem about this?
3:33 AM
Anonymous said…
Andrew,

Thought I would check out your blog after you commented on Jason's "A Time Less Objective". Still not very knowledgeable on bloggins, so I had to post as "other;" hope that's okay.
I did have one question: Speaking in Christological terms, what would be some implications of Jesus having a sex life?
8:03 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgiveness: A Hard Word From Luther

-
"Those who follow Christ grieve more over the sin of their offenders than over the loss or offense to themselves. And they do this that they may recall those offenders from their sin rather than avenge the wrongs they themselves have suffered. Therefore they put off the form of their own righteousness and put on the form of those others, praying for their persecutors, blessing those who curse, doing good to the evil-doers, preparing to pay the penalty and make satisfaction for their very enemies that they may be saved. This is the gospel and the example of Christ." - Martin Luther (Quoted by Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, pg. 161-162)
Read more

A Good Tree Bears Good Fruit....

-
Image
"Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." - Matthew 7:17-18 "One of the most powerful ways to influence the behavior of a system is through its purpose or goal. That's because the goal is the direction-setter of the system, the definer of discrepancies that require action, the indicator of compliance, failure, or success toward which balancing feedback loops work. If the goal is defined badly, if it doesn't measure what it's supposed to measure, if it doesn't reflect the real welfare of the system, then the system can't possibly produce a desirable result. Systems, like the three wishes in the traditional fairy tale, have a terrible tendency to produce exactly and only what you ask them to produce. Be careful what you ask them to produce." - Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems. 
Read more

A Gracious Reading of Rob Bell

-
The Journey So Far The controversy rages on over Rob Bell's upcoming new book. No matter what happens now, this controversy has effectively guaranteed that 'everyone who is anyone' will need to read this book. Either to find out what is wrong and bash it, or because someone we generally disagree with also disagrees with the book so it has to be good stuff! Then, because 'everyone' is reading it, people like me will 'have to' read it to. After all, I am a pastor, and if many of my people are reading and being influenced by a book, don't I need to know what is going on as well?  Or so the reasoning will go... and perhaps I will read it, who knows. In the meantime, none of this will stop me from continuing to join this fray which I probably ought to have stayed out of in the first place. Onwards, Christian... :) The Latest Salvo The latest salvo has been fired by DeYoung  claiming that not only do we not need to talk with Bell but, more importantly, it...
Read more