The Fourth Way

I spent a year working through the Bible with a particular eye for passages dealing with government. I share some of my observations, as well as a living document for the community to work on together.

This episode is a bridge between the next episode and the previous ones. In order to recognize how we have misread the Bible, it's important for us to evaluate our lenses and take a look at familiar stories anew. In this episode we will evaluate a number of familiar biblical stories which, when evaluated more closely, bring us to some different conclusions than we generally tend to draw. Understanding the way we misread scripture will help us to look at the Bible anew when it comes to government - putting aside some of our cultural misconceptions.

This episode zooms in on how the Bible portrays government in the Epistles.

This episode zooms in on how the Bible portrays government in the Gospels.

This episode zooms in on how the Bible portrays government in the Old Testament.

I discuss the circumstances which caused me to take a fresh look at my views on government, and outline where I'm going with this season.

We take one final look at the incarnation by exploring a beautiful concept from the Letter to Diognetus which discusses the body and soul.

I explore how the nonviolent position and our call to incarnate provides us with the opportunity to value others who many may feel have nothing to offer us - like little children, individuals with disabilities, and enemies.

I recap and conclude our season on incarnation.

The content in this episode is based on an article I wrote a few years ago as this idea of incarnation became more and more powerful to me. It was the first piece I wrote which encompassed most of the ideas on this episode, and it was largely what I used for this season's outline. I think it's a good piece to present because it will help you to see my thought process and to see incarnation contemplated in the real world.

We continue our discussion of incarnation by looking at how Jesus embodies all of the incarnations we've discussed in this season.

We continue our discussion of incarnation by discussing an often overlooked aspect of the incarnation, which I call "reverse incarnation." Becoming incarnate does no good to those you seek to help if you have no hope which to offer them. Here I discuss the way Jesus was a reverse incarnation, and how we as the church need to incarnate in the same way.

We discuss Keith Giles's new book, "Jesus Unarmed." 0:00:00 - Introduction 0:07:43 - Why should we care about the early church? 0:11:48 - How do we pick and choose what we draw from the early church and what we leave behind? Why nonviolence but not misogyny? 0:16:43 - How do we pick and choose what is literal from the words of Jesus? Why nonviolence but not gouging out our eyes? 0:25:08 - How was Constantine so effective at overhauling the church so quickly? 0:32:58 - What is the relation of nonviolence to poverty? 0:39:23 - Discuss how Constantine split society into a sacred and secular one, and how he divorced orthodoxy from orthopraxy. 0:43:38 - What is the importance of incarnation and discipleship to nonviolence and the Christian life? 0:53:13 - How is understanding mimesis helpful for the Christian life? Is the church failing because the world is so alluring to mimic, or because the church is failing to offer a counter-mimesis? 1:00:48 - If mimesis is so important, then protecting the purity of the church is important. How do we balance church discipline with inclusivity and acceptance? 1:08:23 - Protecting the reputation of the church is loving one another. 1:12:08 - Do you have any insight on how we determine what we should consume and be influenced by? 1:22:13 - Closing remarks

We continue our discussion of incarnation by looking at the final type of incarnation - volitional incarnation.

This Veteran's Day I want to honor Veterans by acknowledging all of their sacrifice, while encouraging future veterans to not become veterans. Rather than using my words, I will use decorated war hero and Major General Smedley Butler's words from his letter to mothers.