On Sunday, my pastor mentioned "preterism" in his sermon. After the sermon was over, Adam Clark (black theo prof) and I talked about it. I was vaguely familiar with the ideas and the term but not fluent by any means in what that theological stream meant to evangelical Christians. I had a sense that this term might be connected with N. T. Wright. I suppose I could have Googled the term and Wright's name, but I didn't even think of that. I knew I had recently become connected to the emergent world through twitter and knew they'd know.
So I sent out a little tweet and back came a 100 character message from the owner of a website that my FB friend linked to me at the same moment in a response to the same question. Virgil not only owns the site, but runs an emergent cohort in Dayton... like, up the freaking road from me! He and I got to emailing and the next thing you know, my paper on Genesis 3:16 from the Society for Biblical Literature is now posted to the site. I always wanted to share it here but it's too long for that. Now you can read the whole thing here:
All About Eve and Me: Genesis 3:16
I'll be attending that cohort on Saturday. If you're local and want to come, call me! (Hint: Margaret, Ed, Adam...)
4 comments:
Julie,
I have been following Virgils Blog for many years and just found yours recently. First century judgment and past fullfillment answer so many issues for me and allow me to live hopefully in the present. I read your article not realizing your connection.
Don in AZ
Fun! I love the Internet. I only know Virgil as of a couple days so he's new to me too.
Great to meet you too! Thanks for speaking up.
I enjoyed reading your piece on Genesis 3:16. Your comment about supplanting one fundamental tendency with another gave me pause. That is something I see myself doing. Looking at the Bible, theology, doctrine through my lens is quite a challenge as I have, for as long as I can remember, accepted the authority's interpretation and closed the door on my own experiences. It's a hard thing to learn to trust yourself, or at least, for me, it is proving to be so.
Searching, I have a hunch the hardest thing in the world is to learn to trust the depths of your own experience. One of my professors put forward the idea that the Holy Spirit, as expressed by Paul in the 1st century, was expressing that very thing - that God indwells us at that deepest level. It is in community with other similarly in-dwelt people that we navigate what it means to be relevant, moral and compassionate (each epoch, each community is responsible to re-ask these questions - not a once for all time answer).
Ha! I think this may be worth a blog post. Your comment got me thinking about it again. ;-)
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