Inbox: The Book of Revelation as a Justification for High Church Liturgy

Over the years I have heard various appeals to the Book of Revelation as some kind of guide or normative template for New Testament worship. Usually those who appeal to this line of reasoning wish to move their particular congregation (or perhaps denomination) in a High Church direction. Revelation's liturgical imagery is certainly lavish and one can easily make a case for vestments, incense, candles and the like.

 

Trinitarian Nomenclature, Progressive Orthodoxy and the Sufficiency of Scripture (Part 1)

I have been challenged, rebuked and questioned about my recent comments with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity. The context was a critical article I wrote responding to a Reformed Charismatic attempting to critique the Watchtower Society.

In no way do I identify with the actual theology or Semi-Arian views of the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses and yet I have at the same time expressed some doubt with regard to the Nicene and Post-Nicene Trinitarian formulations. To be clear, I am a Trinitarian and have no difficulty in affirming the Trinity as One God in Three Persons and that each of the Persons are eternal and fully Divine.

The problems arise with regard to how these formulations are understood, what the individual terms mean and what role philosophy can play in helping (or hindering) the development of Trinitarian doctrine.

Further I noted a tendency among many theologians to acknowledge that in the end the Trinity results in mystery, in tensions unable to be resolved. Nevertheless many theologians believe it is their task to develop or push the concepts to the utmost, to the breaking point as it were. Since the language of Scripture is limited and since we all agree that some terms like the Trinity (for example) are valid extra-Biblical expressions then it is permissible (it is argued) to employ new terminologies and concepts and using Scripture – to forge paradigms and models that range far beyond the actual textual data. If they pass a series of coherence tests, then they can subsequently be spoken of as 'Biblical'.

This is what I'm challenging.

Inbox: What does it mean to speak prophetically in our day?

I believe special authoritative revelation ceased with the end of Apostolic Age. Christ himself was the Final Prophet as it were, at least according to the clear teaching of the book of Hebrews. And that's just for a start.

His Apostles by extension were specially commissioned to 'finish' (again, as it were) His ministry and bring out the full revelatory glory of His Person and work as well as provide us the authoritative foundations for the New Covenant era. They weren't just Prophets, they were akin to the Twelve Patriarchs, but this time of the New Israel.

Monistic and Dualistic Epistemologies, Consciousness and the Fiction of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is all the rage at the moment as the Computer Revolution prepares to take a leap into its next phase of development. However like the race for space exploration there are serious problems that have not been resolved, that will leave the quest for Artificial Intelligence (AI) much like the dream of manned deep space exploration... the realm of science fiction.

AI is predicated on a monistic view of consciousness and thus a rejection of Epistemological or Substance Dualism, the differentiation between brain and mind as well as subject and object.

Negativity and Relational Epistemology

In Epistemology we can speak of categories which help us to organize and identify both ideas and entities. These categories can be approached from several different vantage points and thinkers have differed over how to arrange them.