#Disinheritance Theology

[mt1820today]

Dr. Michael Vlach: Has The Church Replaced Israel? Part 5

In the fifth and last lecture, in which Dr. Michael Vlach, Associate Professor of Theology at the Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley/California/USA, deals with the unbiblical “Replacement Theology” (also known as Substitution Theology or Disinheritance Theology), he first deals with the role of the assembly (= congregation/church) in the Holy Scriptures. Dr. Vlach then explains why it is so…

[nakedpastor]

This cartoon is inspired by current events and informed by Howard Thurman's claim in "Jesus and the Disinherited" that Jesus lived as a member of an oppressed people under occupation, that his teachings should be understood as "survival techniques for the oppressed", and that Christianity has become, rather than a theology of the powerless, a religion of the powerful, the dominant, and the oppressor.

[thefirstwitness]

from “jesus and the disinherited”

[a-queer-seminarian]

I am trying to read more theology and I would love to know what texts have been most important to you? I am not a super academic person so things that are modestly accessible would be great, but also I am trying to push myself to read more challenging texts! ty so much!

Oooh what a fun question -- I’ve offered people book recs before, but never one that’s specifically the texts that have been most important to me.

To start, i recommend my #books tag on my other blog for way more books than the ones I’ll list here -- not every post in that tag is relevant to your question here, but some are. Here’s a list of the posts that are relevant to your request -- you’ll see that on most of them, I note how accessible vs academic or dense a text seemed to me. 

a list of recs for theology that’s helpful in this 2020 climate of pandemic and protest.

a list of recs for books about being queer and Christian

And now for a list of theological texts that have been most important to me -- deeply impacting how I read the Bible, how I relate to God or to other humans or to creation, etc.:

The basics

I have to include Christian Doctrine by Shirley Guthrie on this list...

simply because it was the first book I read when trying to figure out what Reformed Protestants believe after growing up Catholic. It’s actually a fairly easy read -- it’s longish, and not like the most riveting book you’ve ever read, but dang it has great stuff in it. It made me way more excited to enter the PC(USA) denomination than I’d been before reading it -- before, I felt like i was mainly running from the crappy parts of the Roman Catholic Church; after reading it, i realized i could also be running to the beautiful parts of Reformed theology!

But yeah, if you’re looking for a book that helps solidify in your mind concepts like the Trinity, or sin, or divine inspiration....this is a great book for that! (Assuming you want to learn about those things from a(n LGBT affirming) Reformed Protestant lens.

If you wanna read tons of excerpts from this text before deciding whether you want to read the whole thing, I posted a lot of passages from it in this tag over here.

Inspired by Rachel Held Evans

this is the best book I can think of for non-academics who want to learn about reading the Bible in a way that confronts rather than ignores/accepts its more disturbing passages.

If you need help figuring out how to read the Bible without a fundamentalist / literalist lens, this is the book for you.

Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others by Barbara Brown Taylor

Very important if you want to practice a Christianity that doesn’t pit you against people of other (or no) faiths -- and very easy to read

Books that helped me develop a liberationist + queer + disabled theology

Justin Tanis’ book Transgendered was super important to me when i was first getting into trans theology...

However, the language in it isn’t particularly accessible -- it’s not horribly dense but I would now recommend OtherWise Christian by Chris Paige instead. Paige quotes from Tanis -- and many other foundational trans theologians! -- and does a great job of making their scholarly language a lot more accessible to non-academics. Ach yeah, OtherWise Christian is what you wanna read to get deep into the academia of trans theology without having to wade through the denser older books yourself.

If you do want to read some of Tanis’ book, you can read my fave chapters as pdfs here.

I’d also recommend Austen Hartke’s Transgender and Christian YouTube channel and my website blessedarethebinarybreakers.com for more trans theology presented in simpler language!

Disability: The Inclusive Church Resource by John M. Hull

Nancy Eiseland’s The Disabled God is also, like, foundational to a lot of disability theology but it’s not the easiest read. The last two chapters are the best part in my opinion.

For more great resources on disability theology, including some of my own writing (which is, I hope, easy to read), see this Google Doc i compiled once and also my disability theology tag.

Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman.

It’s a bit more academic / written more formally than some of the books on here cuz it’s older, but it’s also short and if you can get through even just the first two or three chapters you’ll have absorbed material that i promise you’ll be thinking about for a long, long time to come.

God of the Oppressed by James Cone

So foundational. Another classic by him is The Cross and the Lynching Tree. These books are both more academic but yeah, foundational stuff.

The only full text I’ve read by Gustavo Gutiérrez is On Job but I’ve read a lot of excerpts from other stuff by him...

You’ve gotta read at least a little bit of this guy to help you understand liberation theology as it originated in Latin America. Unfortunately, I do think he’s much more academic so not an “easy” read at all -- you could try to find other authors who sum up his ideas and works and offer fundamental excerpts in his own words, if you try to dig into something he’s written and find it too tough

But yeah, his book On Job in particular really helped me start figuring out “theodicy” -- the question of why there is suffering in the world / what God’s role in suffering is. But I had a lot of trouble figuring out what Gutiérrez was saying at a lot of points in the book, and I’ve been reading academic texts for like a decade now!! So if you try to read it and find it’s just too much, don’t feel bad. I only was able to get a real handle on this book after discussing it in a seminary classroom with a teacher helping us.

If you wander through my #theodicy tag, you’ll find my own understandings of suffering as shaped by On Job without having to read the book yourself! You also might like Everything Happens by Kate Bowler for a great look on suffering. 

Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God by Kaitlin B. Curtice (progressive Christian + citizen of the Potawatomi nation)

This book is truly incredible in that its language invites you in and reads like a devotional while making powerful statements about settler colonialism and assimilation and stuff. So so so good. 

When it comes to books that have deeply enriched, like, my “personal” prayer life / relationship with God:

Learning to Walk in the Dark and An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor (Episcopal background)

This author’s books are all so easy to read, and so so so full of wisdom. If you want your theology served to you in a less “so this is theology” kind of way and more of a devotional kind of way, this is the author for you.

Also she’s super popular among non-academics and academics alike so it’s easy to find people to discuss her work with!

An Altar in the World is about finding God outside of church, in the everyday, in the “secular”...

Learning to Walk in the Dark is about forming a faith that can survive and actually nourish you during the struggles of life (as opposed to what she calls a “full solar Christianity”)

A Tree Full of Angels by Sister Macrina Wiederkehr (Catholic nun)

this one is a little bit more formal in style, but not bad if you read it like i did, which was as a devotional where i’d only read a section or two each evening. It focuses on finding the divine in the most mundane of things -- see here for some posts sharing short excerpts from it.

Wow this got long....sorry about that! And if you were hoping for more shorter works, like articles instead of whole books, let me know and I can dig through my seminary stuff and share my faves!

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

do you have any resources on christian speakers of color? im reconnecting with my faith after years of negligence and with knowledge of social justice acquired in recent years ive sought to hear out their perspectives as well. thank you kindly & i hope you have a wonderful day!

Hello, yes!! Hearing from Christians of color is essential to any Christian’s theology, so good on you for seeking them out. 

First off, there are the amazing folks at the Black Trans Prayer Book, who have an event coming up very soon that i am super pumped for:

On Saturday, January 16, 4 - 6pm EST, the co-directors of the Black Trans Prayer Book are holding a workshop on the direct connections between white supremacy, transantagonism and religious violence -- learn more and register here on eventbrite. (It’s free if you’re a TQPOC, pay as you can if otherwise)

Alongside those folks, below are some more of my faves. You’ll notice that the majority are Black Christians -- so I could use more recs for Christians of color who are Indigenous, Latine, Middle Eastern, Asian, etc....

Christians of color who are no longer alive:

Howard Thurman (highly recommend Jesus and the Disinherited)

James Cone (highly recommend The Cross and the Lynching Tree, God of the Oppressed, or shorter essays)

Pauli Murray

Delores Williams

Gustavo Gutiérrez (one of the founders of liberation theology in Latin America)

I’ve read an essay by Arvind P. Nirmal, a Dalit theologian, that was transformative for me

Richard Twiss (Native American -- Sicangu Lakota Oyate. One Church, Many Tribes is one of his books; you can also find lectures and stuff from him on YouTube)

Christians of Color who are alive and active WITH BOOKS:

Wil Gafney (A Womanist Midrash)

Kaitlin B. Curtice (her book Native brings me so much life)

John Swinton, Black Scottish disability theologian

Pamela Lightsey! (Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology)

Dominique DuBois Gilliard (see Rethinking Incarceration)

Drew G.I. Hart (Trouble I’ve Seen)

Esau McCaulley (Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope)

Michael Ray-Mathews and Marie-Clare P Onwubuariri (Trouble the Waters)

Patrick S. Cheng (Rainbow Theology)

Jione Havea (Pacific Islander. I’ve only read this one essay on Jonah but i think about it all. the. time.

Christians of Color with lots to say on social media, or with videos, podcasts, etc. (some of these folks also have books btw)

Enrique Cintrón!  (Social media; podcaster; find my interview with them here)

Rev. Broderick Greer (queer Black Christian)

Rev. Jacqui Lewis - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, website

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II - Twitter, Facebook 

Judy Wu Dominick 吳曉青 - Twitter, website

Jeff Chu 朱天慧 - Twitter, Facebook, website

Angie Hong - Twitter, Website

Bree Newsome Bass - Twitter, website

Adrian L. H. Graham - Twitter, Facebook 

Crystal Cheatham - Twitter, website

Austin Channing Brown - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, website

Daniel José Camacho - Twitter, website

Rev. Dr. Neichelle Guidry - Twitter, Facebook, website

Dr. Monica A. Coleman - Twitter, Facebook, instagram, website

Finally, some more resources from my masterpost of resources for white Christians (and others) who want to be anti-racist:

This list of 5 podcasts by and for Christians of color

List: Womanist Theology books

List: of Asian American Theologians - links to their blogs, books, and more

List: A Latinx Theology Reading List

List: “23 Latin American Women and USA Latinas in Theology and Religion You Should Know About”

Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women, and Queer Christians Are Reclaiming Evangelism

Anyone have other recs?

[catboysooyoung]

No one will ever understand my obsession with the concept of rosakaebedo being roommates/housemates in university/graduate school. I'm just gonna dump this here

Rosaria is a theology major who hates her major and spends most of her time dodging the faculty choir club and only barely passes her classes somehow while having the worst attendance record there is. She's only doing this major bc her super religious foster dad told her to. She ditches most of her classes and gets around anywhere riding a big bulking motorbike she snatched up from the junkyard. She didn't want to dorm cus they got a lot of restrictions and also she just didn't want to be accessible to her classmates and juniors so she wants to stay somewhere off campus that's still within a reasonable distance

Kaeya does pre-law and is severely regretting it. After an Incident, he got disowned & disinherited by his own brother and basically was cut off of financial support. He almost had to drop out, but was lucky to have his old mentor/uncle figure varka backing him and supporting his education. Still he wants to be financially independent pronto so he does a lot of part time work, among them being a barista, TAing and tutoring. He and varka agreed kaeya can handle his own personal expenses. Since the dorm had a curfew he was looking for accomms either on or just off campus. Goes around riding a cute icy blue moped complete w the matching helmet.

Albedo is a severely overworked biochemistry & molecular biology student. He's the one who (kinda) owns the place. He's actually looking after the house for the real owner, his adoptive aunt Alice, who was out traveling the world for her job. He also looks after her daughter Klee sometimes, though she mostly stayed with her relatives bc of albedo's busy schedule. Alice entrusted everything to him, bills included, but he hadn't got much time for part time work outside of tutoring and TAing and the pay is meh too. So he decided to put up an ad.

Kaeya noticed it right away after taking one glance at the notice board, immediately saving the contact number on his phone. Rosaria immediately snatched it off the board as soon as she sees it.

Albedo didn't really expect either of them as roommates, but they surprisingly worked well together. The rent was really affordable because albedo really was just looking for housemates to split the bill with. None of them mind each other coming in and out at odd hours because they're all like that. Albedo often stay up late to work on his research. Kaeya comes home from late shifts a lot. Rosaria just likes going around and walking at night.

They have. An Arrangement. Kaeya handles most of the cooking, albedo is kind of a pescatarian so he can handle cooking veggie dishes fine. Rosaria wasn't allowed in the kitchen ever since The Incident. Rosaria's responsible for the grocery runs most of the time. Everyone pitch in to handle cleaning and laundry. Albedo can't drive so he relies on kaeya and rosaria for transport. He goes with whoever is awake first that day.

[dwellordream]

An intellectual heiress of Catholic leanings joined with a careerist courtier in a Protestant court, Elizabeth Cary lived with her husband twenty years, during which she bore eleven living children, and was nearly always either pregnant or nursing. Her intellectual and artistic talents found their only outlet in religion. During her marriage, she continued to read theology and discussed religious doctrines with noted prelates. At the same time, she acted out her ideals of wifely behavior. She taught her children to love their father better than their mother. She acceded to her husband’s wishes that she become a fashionable dresser and an accomplished horsewoman, despite her indifference to clothes and terror of horses. She mortgaged her jointure to advance her husband’s career, whereupon her father promptly disinherited her in favor of her oldest son. No wonder she had periods of depression severe to the point of mental illness.

Nancy Cotton Pearse, “Elizabeth Cary, Renaissance Playwright.”

[st-just]

I've seen you post a few times some interesting world building snippets, is there a setting your working on at the moment, or are they unrelated? (Feel free to use this an invitation to talk about the world, I'd love to hear about it)

Well, since you did ask for it!

They’re mostly theoretically written to be in the same setting, with a sort of acceptance that when put together it’ll probably be a bit incoherent around the edges. Given that it started as the setting for a D&D game that ended like a year ago and has just stewed and metastasized since then, that’s kind of a given, really.

But honestly, the initial impetus was reading...I think it was Strangers Drowning?, anyway, there was a discussion of how rather than just ‘selfish versus selfless’, a more useful distinction is how people distribute moral weight between themselves, their friends/family/close circle, and the general public/world at large. And, being an utter nerd, my second or third thought was “huh, that’s a pretty decent chassis for an alignment system that’s meaningfully distinct from good vs. Evil”.

So then I ended up working out three Great Powers for a world as sort of ideal types/expressions of each extreme, and then coming up with cultures and aesthetics that seemed kind of fitting after the fact, which I’m fairly sure is not how you’re supposed to do it, but anyway.

So on the one extreme you’ve got the Sublime Commonwealth, called the Esheri by everyone without a government job. A universalist, bureaucratic state, governed by Janissary-technocrats plucked from orphanages and schools, without family or property or the right to any sort of legacy beyond what they can contribute to the Common Good. Mandatory public education, but it’s solely in the equivalent of Esperanto. Religious freedom, as long as the temples accept state funding and choose their preachers and officials from government-approved seminaries and madrassas, with the more or less explicit goal that after a few generations of modernist theology and Higher Criticism the whole thing will be unnecessary. Family ties considered broken at the age of majority, or when the parents are deemed negligent, with newly formed households encouraged to take their name from some civic virtue or geographic feature rather than anything related to their cultures or ancestries. Public sanitation and healthcare and food relief, but also if the Committee on Strategy determines that they really need a new naval port you might find out you’re moving in a month, all your sacred rites and trade secrets will be carefully recorded for inclusion in the next edition of The Encyclopedia, and so forth. Titles like “Empiricist.” “Special Adviser to the Secretariat,” “Alternate Member of the Committee on Industry and Progress”.

The second power would be the Holy Ilyrin Empire, or possibly Ilyrin-Belthaya, depending on who you ask and where you’re standing. Not so much a unified ‘state’ as a vast and sprawling collection of crown in personal union, sworn vassals, various sorts of tributaries and protectorates, and a thousand other sorts of distinctions fit to make any central administrator cry. The Empire’s exceptionally big on tradition, you see and while the Queen-Empress is clearly the Heavens’ chosen Vicegerent, she and her court have no special authority to meddle in the natural and organic constitutions of her various subjects, save to defend them from unnatural innovation or outside influence. Family, lineage, and inheritance  are all exceptionally important, with infertility being treated like a malignant tumour that’s too humiliating to discuss in public, and disinheriting a child or repudiating ones family being more or less unthinkable, though the particulars of just who counts as your ‘family’ or ‘children’ can vary quite a bit, depending on location and circumstance. Regardless, nepotism and patronage are so widely accepted there’s barely words for them, and certainly no stigma attached-really, not going out of your way to help out distant relatives or family friends with any jobs or trading tips you happen to be able to hand out is what would get you ostracized and looked down upon. Religion is everywhere, and all-encompassing, but despite what the Hierarch in Imir might desire, most minority faiths have sort of official compact with their lords and ladies mandating toleration as long as they keep to themselves and know their limits. Education is handled through guilds and churches, without any sort of central organization or certification scheme, and the vast majority of really useful or impressive knowledge is hoarded by particular sacred orders or guilds or family lines. Absolutely all relief against misfortune relies upon your local churches and notables and whether your family or social circle can support you, but on the other hand if you’ve got a good thing going there’s essentially zero chance someone is going to come in from on high and destroy it, and if some system works then it’s going to be allowed to keep working. Titles like “Earl Marshal,” “Lady Protector.” “Witchfinder-General”

Third and the Free Cities, or the Federal Republic, or the Unconnected Collection of City-States Who Share Many Prominent Citizens And Trading Interests. Words are wind, and honour is an affectation, duty and loyalty are chains the cunning try to fasten around the necks of the strong. Notably, the only democracies-in a somewhat Athenian sense, with crimes against the City being tried before an assembly of citizens and determined by popular vote, without reference to written law, and open campaigning for command of armies and bidding for the right to exact tribute from the various hinterland tribes. As a matter of principle, there is no obligation that is not freely accepted, whether to family or faith or sovereign. The great and good of the Cities enrapture the masses with their feuds and romances, and a vital part of any political career is providing grand spectacles and public feasts to entertain and sustain the masses living on the street, the vast majority of whom can rely upon no other source of charity. Religion is commonplace, though objectively a large fraction of them are probably better called ‘cults’, sustained by direct sponsorship or force of personality, feuding with all the other street gangs and syndicates in bloody, shadowy affairs, each sect rising and burning out like a seasonal fashion, though each City has something like an official patron and a few festivals widely observed enough to have the mob firmly behind them. As the City Assemblies assign duties or assignments and not occupations, there’s officially speaking no title higher than the elected captain of a ship or mercenary company. Not allowing this to humble them, it’s an accepted practice for the famous and important to take various grand sobriquets and epithets-”The ingenious,” “the magnificent,” “Maestro of Falling Stars,” “Weaver in Blood and Bone,” and so on.

....I can keep going on pretty much indefinitely, but I’ll stop writing their in the interest of actually posting this relatively soon after receiving it.

[mediaeval-muse]

Academic Book Review

Rebel Angels: Space and Sovereignty in Anglo-Saxon England by Jill Fitzgerald. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019. Pp. xiv + 319. $115.

Argument (from Manchester Press’ site):  Over six hundred years before John Milton's Paradise Lost, Anglo-Saxon authors told their own version of the fall of the angels. This book brings together various cultural moments, literary genres and relevant comparanda to recover that version, from the legal and social world to the world of popular spiritual ritual and belief. The story of the fall of the angels in Anglo-Saxon England is the story of a successfully transmitted exegetical teaching turned rich literary tradition. It can be traced through a range of genres - sermons, saints' lives, royal charters, riddles, devotional and biblical poetry - each one offering a distinct window into the ancient myth's place within the Anglo-Saxon literary and cultural imagination.

***Full review under the cut.***

Genre: literary criticism

Theories/Methodologies: spatial theory (Lefebvre, Le Goff, etc), historical approach, comparative studies

Chapter Breakdown

Chapter One: “Lands Idle and Unused” Argues that the poet of the Old English poem Genesis A uses the “replacement doctrine” to dramatize legal codes regarding land and compensation. Land charters contain references to the rebel angels and Genesis A uses legal language when describing Satan’s rebellion.Thus, the poem is partially a story about land forfeiture and disinheritance, which structures divine and earthly socio-political hierarchies. Special emphasis is placed on the words “idle” and “unused,” particularly as they pertain to loyal subjects populating and using space given to them by a lord or sovereign.

Chapter Two: “The Anxiety of Inheritance” Argues that Satan’s crime in Genesis B is imagined as a failure to accept limits placed on his power and territorial ambitions. Genesis B is compared to the apocryphal text “The Life of Adam and Eve” and its derivations in the Irish Saltair na Rann and Lebor Gabala. Special emphasis is placed on Satan’s desire to build a “rival kingdom” in hell and Adam and Eve’s eventual inheritance of Satan’s former territory in heaven.

Chapter Three: “Rebel Clerics, Monastic Replacements” Argues that the “New Minster Charter” uses the narrative of the rebel angels to legitimize the expulsion of “sinful clergy” during the Benedictine Reform. Special emphasis is placed on the way secular clergy is likened to the rebellious angels.

Chapter Four: “The Angels’ Share” Argues that saints in hagiographical poems such as Guthlac A, Elene, Juliana, and Andreas use the story of the Fall of the Rebel Angels to protect themselves from demons. Applies speech act theory and likens the Angels’ narrative to charms.

Chapter Five: “A Homeland and a Possession” Argues that Christ and Satan can be better understood through the lens of Rogationtide. The command that Satan “measure hell with his hands” is a parody of the “beating of the bounds” ritual, and draws attention to Satan’s lost inheritance and lordlessness as it reminds readers to consider their future inheritance of heavenly spaces.

A New Praedestinati in Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi ad Anglos?” Argues that Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi represents invading Danes not as forerunners of the Antichrist, but as possible inheritors of the heavenly homeland. English Christians, therefore, are cast in the role of rebel angels who will “fall” and lose their “heavenly seats” if they don’t commit to reform.

Reviewer Comments: I’m a bit biased when reviewing this book because I know the author personally and have great respect and admiration for her work. I had been looking forward to her book release for a number of years, and when it finally arrived at my doorstep, I wasted no time in reading it. Overall, it’s a valuable contribution to early medieval scholarship, and it’s especially helpful for thinking about my own projects (I work on space and language in early medieval English literature). Fitzgerald takes a recurring image - the fall of the rebel angels - and traces its appearance through a number of texts which vary widely in genre. She covers charters, narrative poetry, letters, homilies, and hagiographies, showing that the story of the rebel angels structures much of early medieval English conceptualizations of space and sovereignty. I very much appreciated this wide range because Fitzgerald effectively demonstrates not only that the story of the rebel angels made a profound impression on early medieval English literary culture, but also, the story’s apocryphal nature proved no barrier to its use, thereby complicating ideas of “orthodox” Christianity (for lack of a better term).

My favorite part of the book was the fifth chapter on Christ and Satan and Rogationtide. This chapter fundamentally changed the way I understand Christ and Satan, and Fitzgerald offers a clear, convincing analysis that likens the poem’s bizarre image of Satan measuring Hell by hand to the “beating of the bounds” ritual in medieval liturgy.

Fitzgerald’s prose is very clear and makes complicated ideas such as patristic studies accessible to a reader. While I would not recommend this book if you’re new to medieval studies (particularly the history of the Benedictine Reform, how charters work, or the relationship between theology and literature), I don’t think you need to be an expert in any particular sub-field to follow Fitzgerald’s arguments. If I had any criticism, it would be that I would have liked to see more engagement with the spatial theorists Fitzgerald cites; while she does overview their significance for her arguments in the introduction, I think elsewhere, the theory could have been integrated and interrogated more. Of course, this book isn’t heavy on the theory, and it already does so much good work in advancing our understanding of the rebel angels narrative, so I’m hesitant to say the theory should have taken center stage. I would also be interested in learning how Fitzgerald’s analysis of the talismanic use of the Rebel Angels story in Andreas contributes to discussions of the Mermedonians’ use of phylacteries (literal words used as magic charms). But as everything stands, Rebel Angels is a wonderful book and a brilliant example of rigorous, thoughtful medieval studies scholarship.

Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re working on

patristic theology in early medieval England

biblical apocrypha

land tenureship (especially charters)

space and sovereignty

Replacement Doctrine

Major texts: Genesis A and B, Christ and Satan, Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, Elene, Juliana, Andreas, Guthlac A

Major authors: Bede, Wulfstan

[mt1820today]

Dr. Michael Vlach: Has The Church Replaced Israel? Part 4

This lecture by Dr. Michael Vlach, Associate Professor of Theology at the Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley/California/USA, is the fourth part of a five-part series in which the theologian and author deals with and refutes the unbiblical “Replacement Theology” (also known as Substitution Theology or Disinheritance Theology). In this lecture, Dr. Vlach looks at God’s promise to Abraham and his…

[lepreuxchevalier]

Leopold III, König von Schönbrunn. Nicknamed "Der Vergoldete Adler" or "Der Prätor von Schönbrunn" by his contemporaries, Leopold III is the current and reigning king of Schönbrunn and a prince-elector of The Empire of Mankind. While it is generally considered both customary, if not traditional for both royal and aristocratic households to make their head, or otherwise eldest son and on rare occasions, firstborn daughter the heir to their realm or estate. The rightful head of House Luxembourg of Schönbrunn, Karl Von Luxembourg, had elected to disinherit his birthright to The Kingdom of Schönbrunn in favour of his younger brother in order to pursue a doctorate in theology at The Imperial Academy at Nymphenberg in the Reichstadt, or the sovereign realm of The Emperors of Mankind within The Empire Proper. Amongst the ranks of both the great vassals to The Emperor of Mankind and The Prince-Electors of The Empire, The Luxembourg Kings of Schönbrunn have historically been both the wealthiest and most powerful princes in The Empire of Mankind after The Emperors themselves. The historical wealth and power of The Kingdom of Schönbrunn were largely due to being the site of the richest deposits of gold, silver, and gems within the boundaries of the civilized world as defined by the clergymen of the church of the new gods. Though in recent decades, through the stewardship of both Leopold III and his predecessor, King Leopold II of Schönbrunn, has the wealth and prosperity of "Das Königriech von Schönbrunn" been augmented by both the successful cultivation of winemaking and silk farming as well as the subsidization of the more urban, municipal industries rooted around the manufacturing of both consumer goods and military equipment such as weapons, armour, and uniforms for the growing professional army of The Kingdom of Schönbrunn. Karl Von Luxembourg, as the official head of House Luxembourg and the older brother of Leopold III, has devoted his life's work to lecturing on matters of theology at The University of Wörtzburch in The Duchy of Solingen, or the realm of House Buchenauer within The Empire of Mankind Proper, ancient enemies of House Luxembourg through a blood feud lasting several centuries. Due to the radical reforms being taught by Karl Von Luxembourg at The University of Wörtzburch, as well as Duke Conrad Von Buchenauer of Solingen's willingness to provide political asylum for both Karl Von Luxembourg and the followers of his "reformation." Leopold III has decided to remain faithful to both The Emperor of Mankind and The "Conservative" Church of The New Gods due to his family's ancestral oaths of fealty to The Imperial Household for their royal title and station, despite, or rather because of his blood ties to the greatest religious reformer in The Civilized World. The gilding featured on this suit of armour is known as "Orange Gold," or Gold smelted with copper and nickel to create an imperishable "bronze" effect.

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/united-states-of-america/howard-thurman-the-overlooked-civil-rights-hero/

Howard Thurman: The overlooked civil rights hero

“Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it,” Thurman told him. “Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”

Thurman’s response went viral before the term was invented. It’s been cited by everyone from cultural icon Oprah Winfrey to countless inspirational speakers. It’s even become an internet meme. But what makes those words stick is that Thurman validated them by the way he lived.

Thurman forged a connection between Mohandas Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that gave wings to the civil rights movement. He wrote a bombshell of a book that revolutionized the traditional portrait of Jesus. And he still inspires leaders as diverse as civil rights icon John Lewis, the Democratic congressman from Atlanta, and Barbara Brown Taylor, a celebrated author and speaker.

“Howard Thurman was a spiritual genius who transformed persons who transformed history,” is how Luther E. Smith, Jr., author of “Howard Thurman: The Mystic as Prophet,” once described him.

Now a broader audience is being offered their own chance to meet Thurman. Starting Friday, PBS stations will air “Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story.” The 55-minute film explores how Thurman went from a lonely African-American boy who talked to an oak tree for companionship to a man who still speaks to spiritual seekers nearly 40 years after his death.

Martin Doblmeier, the film’s director, said Thurman’s voice is needed even more today because of pervasive political and religious tribalism. Thurman constantly sought common ground with people who were different.

He calls Thurman the “patron saint of those who say I’m spiritual not religious.”

“He can put angry hearts at ease,” he says. “You can’t read Howard Thurman and come away with an angry heart.”

Thurman’s deep connection with MLK

He also took risks.

He was the first pastor to co-found an intentionally multiracial and multifaith church in the United States.

He was the first African-American pastor to travel to India and meet Gandhi. (Gandhi ended their meeting by asking Thurman to sing a Negro spiritual).

And he was one of the first pastors to inspire King to merge Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance with the civil rights movement.

Thurman’s connection with King went way back. He was a classmate of King’s father, “Daddy King,” at Morehouse College. And he became dean at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel while King was enrolled at the university. While King was studying for his doctorate at the university, he would attend chapel service and take notes while Thurman preached.

King would often stop by Thurman’s house on Sunday afternoons for another ritual: watching Jackie Robinson play baseball on TV.

“There’s this fatherly sense, this spiritual mentorship that Thurman provides to Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Doblmeier says.

King quickly got a chance to apply the lessons he learned from hearing Thurman preach. Six months after earning his doctorate, he led his first nonviolent mass protest in Montgomery, Alabama. Thurman’s concepts about nonviolence and Jesus are peppered through some of King’s writings.

“One cannot understand King’s philosophy and theology without first understanding Thurman’s work and Thurman’s influence on King and other civil rights leaders,” says David B. Gowler, co-editor of “Howard Thurman: Sermons on the Parables.”

Gowler called Thurman one of the overlooked heroes of the civil rights movement. Yet he wasn’t a traditional preacher-activist. One pastor in the film quipped that many expected Thurman to be a Moses, but instead they got a mystic.

The essence of Thurman’s message

Thurman embodied what some call a “prophetic spirituality.” He talked constantly about the “inward journey.” But he wasn’t interested in any theology preoccupied with the self. He thought personal transformation should be accompanied by a “burning concern for social justice.”

Gowler calls Thurman a “spiritual activist.” So was Thurman’s wife, Sue Bailey Thurman,

“He was fundamentally both a teacher and pastor to others in the civil rights movement,” says Gowler, a religion professor at Oxford College of Emory University in Georgia.

Thurman was also another type of pioneer, the film shows. Long before the term “interfaith dialogue” became common, Thurman worshiped with people of other faiths and warned about the dangers of religious fundamentalism.

He once told the BBC that “theologies are inventions of the mind” designed to “imprison religious experience.” But the religious experience itself will always be one step ahead of dogma because it is “dynamic and fluid.”

“Whether I’m black, white, Presbyterian, Baptist, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim — in the presence of God all of these categories by which we relate to each other fade away,” Thurman says during another interview in the film.

The film also explores Thurman’s best-known work, “Jesus and the Disinherited,” which was published in 1949. The book was a condemnation of an “otherworldly” Christianity, which Thurman said was far too often “on the side of the strong and the powerful against the weak and oppressed.”

A person can’t grasp Jesus’ message without first understanding the anger and fear that he grappled with as a member of a despised minority under Roman occupation, Thurman argued in the book.

“Jesus was a Jew. Jesus was a poor Jew. Jesus was a poor Jew from a minority group. Thurman makes the point that if Jesus were kicked into the ditch by a Roman soldier, he would be just another Jew in a ditch,” Gregory Ellison II, an activist who is working on a book on Thurman, says in the film.

The ‘sound of the genuine’

Thurman knew what it felt like to be despised. He was born in 1899 in Daytona Beach, Florida, during the “nadir” of race relations in post-Civil War America. Lynching was common, discrimination legal and the Ku Klux Klan was so popular it held a massive march on Washington when he was a young man.

He was 7 when his father died. He was raised in part by his grandmother, Nancy, who had been enslaved. She was illiterate, but he saw her as his first spiritual genius.

“I learned more, for instance, about the genius of the religion of Jesus from my grandmother than from all the men who taught me all … the Greek and all the rest of it,” he once said.

Despite Thurman’s influence, he’s not commonly known today. Many classic civil rights books and documentaries fail to mention him. Part of that may be because Thurman was so hard to define. Even his preaching style was unconventional. He didn’t throw down like a traditional black pastor with foot-stomping and shouting.

In the book, “Howard Thurman: Essential Writings,” Smith describes Thurman’s peculiar preaching style:

“He was a master in the use of silence. At times, he would be so overwhelmed by an understanding that he seemed to be in a trance.”

Thurman’s relative obscurity is part of what drove Doblmeier to make his film.

“My big fear is that Howard Thurman’s name might get lost in history,” he says. “We want to use this moment in history to get the word out.”

Others are taking up Doblmeier’s cause. The director Arleigh Prelow is nearing completion of another film on the minister and mystic entitled, “The Psalm of Howard Thurman.” And a biography, “Against the Hounds of Hell: A life of Howard Thurman,” is set to be published next year.

Thurman may finally get mass recognition. Not that it would matter to him, though. He was interested in something else.

In 1980, a year before he died, he gave a commencement address at Spelman College in Atlanta, where he talked about what he called “the sound of the genuine.”

He described it as something that “flows through everyone” but can be rendered mute by ambition, dreams and the daily tumult of life.

“You are the only you that has ever lived; your idiom is the only idiom of its kind in all of existence,” Thurman said. “And if you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.”

So what is the sound of the genuine? The meaning is elusive but tantalizing, like much of Thurman’s work. Ask four Thurman scholars and you’ll get four different answers.

But virtually all of Thurman’s devotees agree on one point. The Rev. Otis Moss Jr., a civil right activist, says it best near the end of the film.

“If you are a serious person about your own journey,” Moss says, “especially if you are in the struggle for human rights, then you’ve got to meet Howard Thurman.”

[nononsenseherbalismblog]

Herbalists Gone By: Mr. Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654)

[ "In Effigiam Nicholai Culpeper Equitis," portrait of Nicholas Culpeper, etching, by printmaker Richard Gaywood. 126 mm x 90 mm. Courtesy of the British Museum, London.]

Mr. Nicholas Culpeper was a herbalist born is 1616 in Isfield, Sussex. His father and maternal grand-father were ministers. Upon the death of his father he was taken into the care of his maternal grandparents, His grand-father ensured he was educated in Latin, Greek and English. His love for herbs was sparked by his grand-mother’s used of them during his childhood. He was of a puritanical mind, in this he was a devout Christian, and had little respect for the crown nor the church. And translated many works from the aristocratic Latin to the common-man’s English.

When he came of age his grandfather enrolled him in Cambridge University to study theology as he was to become a minister like his father and grand-father. But between him dotting his time as university with anatomy and medical lectures and his growing love for a Miss Judith Rivers, his time at university came to an end when they decided to elope, sadly on the way to the meeting point from which they would set out to elope Miss Judith’s carriage was struck by lightening and she was killed, because of his leaving university to elope, he was disinherited by his mothers family. The shock from the tragedy contributed to the death of his mother. Leaving him shunned and heart broken for some time afterwards. He found employment working as an apprentice for a apothecary in exchange for teaching the him Latin. This task took only a year and upon the apothecary’s death Culpeper was able to keep up the practice himself. He was always thoughtful of the poor and thus would often charge little or nothing to his impoverished patients. Resulting in him seeing up to 40 patients a day. A fact probably contributing to his popularity. Earlier in his life he fought in a war first as a field surgeon and then as a captain. He was wounded in the shoulder and taken back to him home by carriage. Years later he found love again in a young Miss Alice Field and they married conceiving of 7 children though only one, his daughter Mary outlived him. He translated and wrote a total of 79 books some of which are still in print today. He was also an avid astrologer and often wrote his books with a foundation in astrology as a system for diagnosis and treatment. He died at the age of 38 of Tuberculosis, which he supposedly contracted from the bullet injury during the battle in which he was a field surgeon. I hope you enjoyed this abridged article on Nicholas Culpeper. Below are a few links to some of his books as well as an in-depth biography. Thanks for reading!

Culpeper’s Books

A Biography on Mr. Nicholas Culpeper

P.S. Here are some places where you can view his material FREE online! Culpeper’s Complete Herbal (Archive.org) Culpeper’s Complete Herbal Online Thought you might wanna poke around the book a bit before you think about buying a hard copy. Enjoy!

[positive-living-4-all]

saint of the day - st john of the cross

saint of the day – st john of the cross

Founder (with St. Teresa) of the Discalced Carmelites, doctor of mystic theology, b. at Hontoveros, Old Castile, 24 June, 1542; d. at Ubeda, Andalusia, 14 Dec., 1591. John de Yepes, youngest child of Gonzalo de Yepes and Catherine Alvarez, poor silk weavers of Toledo, knew from his earliest years the hardships of life. The father, originally of a good family but disinherited on account of his…

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Thank you for all you do! I was wondering if you have any suggestions for books on theology (especially liberation theology) that might be inspiring and comforting in these times?

Heck yeah!

For comfort

Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor offers a lovely exploration of what faith brings us in times of grief, pain, and a sense of God’s absence. You can read one of the chapters online here, and hear me read a passage from it here.

Everything Happens for a Reason - and Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler is a fantastic exploration of how the prosperity gospel doesn’t help us through catastrophes like illness and death. Check out her spin-off podcast, too. 

My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer by Christian Wiman: a prose-poetry story of seeking and struggling towards the ineffable Divine

For Understanding

Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman is a small little book that everyone should read -- it’s about how God always puts Herself alongside those with their backs against the wall

On Job by Gustavo Gutierrez: a small but dense text, very academic language, on the question of where God is in suffering

The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone: connects the lynchings of African Americans to Jesus’ crucifixion and otherwise explores how Christ is Black 

Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology by Pamela Lightsey 

For Motivation to act up against injustice!!

Rethinking Incarceration by Dominique DuBois Gilliard

explores the history and foundation of mass incarceration, examining Christianity’s role in its evolution and expansion. He then shows how Christians can pursue justice that restores and reconciles, offering creative solutions and highlighting innovative interventions. 

Good White Racist? Confronting Your Role in Racial Injustice by Kerry Connelly 

Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene A. Carruthers (this one’s “secular,” but so super good)

“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (also “secular”)

Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism by Drew G.I. Hart 

theologian and blogger Drew G. I. Hart places police brutality, mass incarceration, anti-black stereotypes, poverty, and everyday acts of racism within the larger framework of white supremacy. He argues that white Christians have repeatedly gotten it wrong about race because dominant culture and white privilege have so thoroughly shaped their assumptions.

Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the US by Lenny Duncan 

Part manifesto, part confession, and all love letter, Dear Church offers a bold new vision for the future of Duncan's denomination and the broader mainline Christian community of faith. Dear Church rejects the narrative of church decline and calls everyone--leaders and laity alike--to the front lines of the church's renewal through racial equality and justice.

Trouble the Water: A Christian Resource for the Work of Racial Justice by Michael Ray-Mathews and Marie-Clare P Onwubuariri 

Trouble the Water is a resource for individuals and congregations endeavoring to take seriously the ever-increasing necessity of work toward racial justice while attending to the intersections of our identities and the intersecting nature of oppression, injustice, and violence. Trouble the Water is shaped by a multitude of voices that make it unique among resources for individuals and congregations working toward racial justice. The authors address theory and theology that is foundational to the work of racial justice, provide praxis-oriented chapters helping readers conceive of ways to engage in the work of racial justice as individuals and as congregations, and render inspiring narratives from churches that have been doing the work of racial justice for many years.

For more stuff:

This is a fabulous list of various important liberation theology texts

I’ve got a google doc full of resources for white churches and Christians who want to start holding antiracist discussions and the like

My theodicy tag has a lot of stuff about God’s place in suffering

Anyone else have recs?

[urbanchristiannews]

Christian Collins Winn on Jesus and the Disinherited: How Howard Thurman Still Speaks to the Church Christian Collins Winn is associate professor of theology at the Global Center for Advanced Studies, Dublin, Ireland and Teaching Minister at Colonial Church in Edina, Minnesota.