In Reply to: Re: first attempt... posted by Farmer on January 12, 2009 at 10:31:45:
Not bad for a first attempt.
The first place I paused to stop & reflect was on the link and comments around monarchism. "Oh, well," I concluded, "who the heck can explain the mystery of the Trinity? You either experience God in this way, or you don't, but you sure as heck can't explain it with a great deal of logic." I realize I made a jump from your discussion of Christology to Trinitarian theology, but the two are difficult for me to separate because of my own path of studies.
My next pause to think came with the stuff by Missler. OK, very interesting. I'm not really into the Bible code stuff, but I do acknowledge that it exists and that it's mysterious. I see some epistemological problems with interpreting prophetic scripture in this way, but I do not think these problems are insurmountable. The code/cypher approach to Biblical prophesy and the presuppositions associated with it simply have not been an area of interest and study for me. The expression "arcane knowledge" comes to mind.
OK, now I'm moving into multi-syllable words, and I feel the need to move back to a more simple dialog. I understand better where you are coming from in your Christological thinking, so this was a helpful exchange.
I'm not sure I have the time or skills to respond with my own approach to Christology...if I could sustain this thread, I would begin by discussing the differing phenomenological/cultural origins of the Logos/Christ versus Messiah/Son of Man constructs. There are scholars who spend a lifetime working out this stuff, and I am not one of them.
Like you, I spent time studying after leaving COG/TF. I was more focused on learning ways to interpret sacred scripture that are based in a philosophical understanding of language and knowledge. Many theologians who write on this topic are believers, or at least, those I was exposed to in college were such, including my instructors. No way the nuns at a Catholic women's college were going to have us reading the scholarship of atheists! (BTW, Catholic scripture scholarship is very much like that of mainstream Protestants like the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Methodists.)
I'm feeling a bit exhausted at this point. Perhaps there is a way to move the thread back towards a discussion of polytheism?