I first encountered this term in my long over drawn out study of the providence debate. Certainly its use is usually in a much different manner than I intend to do in what follows, yet the premise in a very small way, is much the same.
I think about soteriology quite a bit and probably more so lately because I’m going to re-explore “The Great Divorce” with the good people at UBC this semester. Anyhow, one of the issues that inevitably comes up in the soteriology discussion is heaven…and hell for that matter and their relationship to epistemology.
Here’s my point. I once heard a professor say that heaven is probably nothing like we think it is. For example, my professor loves golf yet he maintains that even if he could play golf for eternity, it would turn into hell. For some reason the one thing I’ve never grown weary of is playing ultimate Frisbee. I get really frustrated doing it sometimes, but every time I get a chance to play I love the experience. I really think that if I had to choose one thing to do for all eternity though, it would be playing baseball. I absolutely love the game. One of my favorite kinds of fun is the feeling of the baseball hitting the sweet part of the bat. Yet if I were to do this for eternity, one thing would have to be true. I would need to have something to work towards. I would hate it if I batted 1.000 ever year I played and hit a homerun every time I batted. What is much more exhilarating is the idea of improvement, getting better. A non-perfect batting average would be a necessary evil if you will for an eternity of fun.
What do you think?
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4 comments:
Would we call this a necessary evil? Does a perfect batting average have to be part of perfection? In other words, if the good is that feeling of getting better, than perfection would be a state of existence in which there would be infinite improvement. So, batting less than 1.000 would not be imperfect, but part of the state of affairs in which perfection obtains, and thus not a necessary evil, but a necessary part of perfect existence.
that's a good point, I'll have to think about that.
Well Clive Staples is certainly all about the "further up and further in". And I also like what that would mean to my journey now. I would not tend to seperate the here and now from the by and by so quickly.
dear carn-dog: I just read some of your comments about life and death. Sometimes we can become so captured by the moment that we lose sight of His greatness. He is never limited by the limitations of this life. I believe and have learned through 60 year of living that His life is ready to invade each and every situation we come up against. Unfortunatly the church has spent more time and engery trying to theologize why things are the way they are insteady seeing Him and His Kingdom of eternal life explode upon our landscape. God is all about the infusion of His life and goodness into our world. The Kingdom is so very much about the Now, He is all about radical faith, and radical life. The older I get the more I want His life and power, to live is Christ. He came to destroy the works of the devil, He went about doing good, healing the bodies, souls and spirits of those who He loves and died for. Our calling and passion must be the same. May His glory, honor and power be forever and ever. Love you, dad of carn-dog
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