Classes/Books

What classes are you in right now? What books are you reading?

An idea crystallizing

Without specific aims, this blog will inevitably lapse into intellectually base flummery. To prevent that, here are a few purpose statements:

Ends

1. Above all, to become more like Jesus (any project without this as its ‘cornerstone’ fails without even having begun)
   
2. To—by means of rebuke, criticism, and affirmation—lay the gospel demands heavily upon each other.
   
3. To create, develop, and refine our ideas about God that our joy in him might strengthen, that our hatred for sin might deepen, and that our (resultant) service of him might become more effective.
   
4. To—in the creating of proper theologies and the removing of ‘bosom sins’ by the power of the Spirit—remain sleepless and anxious until our King comes and to be unashamed at his return.
   
5. To liberate one another from the chains of intellectual ignorance and/or servitude.
   
6. To aid the Church by protecting one another through camaraderie in the gospel from disconnection from the Body of Christ.
   
7. To honor Christ, for whom we study, write, and vocally propositionalize.

Means

1. Cooperative study – sharing the fruit of our individual academic labors with each other
   
2. Corporate awareness – sharing significant contemporary information pertaining to the Kingdom with each other
   
3. Devotional contribution
   
4. Pursuit of the truth through critical exchange and examination of ideas
   
5. Toiling for one another in prayer
   
6. Open dialogue about our current conditions before God
   
   (thanks for the many and helpful additions, David)
   

An idea

Wolfhart Pannenberg was a mid-20th century German theologian who came to Christ in his teen years, and made Christianity his life's work. He and a group of like-minded theologians formed what came to be called the "Pannenberg Circle" - a group of friend-scholars who met regularly to cooperatively tackle the most important issues in Christianity. Their combined efforts, under W. Pannenberg as the general editor, enabled them to produce six books between 1968 and 1972.

Look, here's a blog I made. I think this blog will help us write 6 books over five years.

Just kidding. So what's the point of this? Wes and I have joked for awhile about making a modern Pannenberg Circle - a group of like-minded, gospel-centered, missional, critically-thinking, truth-loving, pontification-hating guys who could rip off Pannenberg's idea and engage issues we think are important. It's hard to find time to talk, it's hard to find enough time to achieve anything when we can find time to talk. Yet I suspect we all wish we could.

So maybe we can use this, since we don't have the South side basement anymore. If we don't use this, who cares. This blog was free. But maybe this could be a tool to sharpen us individually and corporately.