Week 1 – Creeds, Catechisms, and Culture – a placeholder for what?
Opening Prayer: Who You Are (Dave Lubbin)
Intro: Gary invalidating others’ grief vs. Church as Pilgrimage
Question: How has your understanding of God (and life of faith) changed significantly in your life?
Apostles Creed – mandated unity skips Christ’s life (look at difference in the Nicene and Constantinople Creeds)
Creeds and Faith Affirmations from the United Methodist Church Hymnal
Trinity and God as community (Elohim = God of gods; “let us make…” from Genesis 1:27)
What fundamentalists and atheists have in common (defining Christianity dogmatically – oversimplifying faith)
God is watching us from a distance? (Midler and Bonhoeffer)
For Your Journal: Write your personal Creed (I believe…)
Closing Blessing: Agnus Dei (Rufus Wainwright)
Some of our comments:
We all have different perspectives of God
Dealing with this question invites me to struggle and grow (vs. the comfort of being told the answer)
God of the Old Testament…
One size does not fit all
We all come to God individually
In this day and age – who is God? – we’re in a very different worldI don’t know any of you – that’s why I’m joining the group
Interested because I couldn’t answer the question
I’m out here – Sunday School doesn’t seem to be enough
Re-exploring my faith journey – I have more questions than answers
This topic came up a few years ago in a Sunday School class with lots of different answers (which surprised me)
There are many concepts of God – I’m interested in how may own understanding of God has changed
Is God “out there”? Or “right here”? Or both? In the history of Christianity, there are two primary ways of thinking about God and the God-world relationship. In common with many others, I call these two concepts of God “supernatural theism” and “panentheism.”
“The usual antonym for the word “spiritual” is “material.” That at least is what I believed when I began this inquiry—that the whole issue with spirituality turned on a question of metaphysics. Now I’m inclined to think a much better and certainly more useful antonym for “spiritual” might be “egotistical.” Self and Spirit define the opposite ends of a spectrum, but that spectrum needn’t reach clear to the heavens to have meaning for us. It can stay right here on earth. When the ego dissolves, so does a bounded conception not only of our self but of our self-interest. What emerges in its place is invariably a broader, more openhearted and altruistic—that is, more spiritual—idea of what matters in life. One in which a new sense of connection, or love, however defined, seems to figure prominently.”