Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
I.
Week 5
How can an immaterial God be experienced as a real person who has demonstrable
effects on peoples lives?
a)
2.
3.
Week 5
(a) For God to be present to the believer, she must accept that God is not
present with her as her best friend could be. Therefore she must imagine
God to be with her to have this God available to relate to. But its those
who are good (the play frame conflates into the reality frame) at this
serious play actually experience God as if God really were there with
them.
1. Developing the Heart, i.e., experience Gods unconditional love
a) The feeling/experience is cultivated through a series of tasks/practices (111-23).
(1) Think Meisner Theory
A. Experimentations
1. Confirmed and developed her understanding of Inner Sense Cultivation: seems to
make that which is imagined more real in experience, especially when all the senses
are engaged (think of her cataphatic exercises). It appears to make what is imaged
feel more substantial, more present (185).
2. This comes more natural to others indicated by how they scored on the Absorption
Scale.
3. Prayer is the primary space/way for inner sense cultivation, i.e., an intimate
relationship with God.
A. Other Conclusions
1. Incorporating spiritual warefare into these practices leads to an unhealthy obsession
with demonic, requiring exorcisms.
2. There are significant differences between Schizophrenia and these christians
(notwithstanding the psychotic characteristics of some).
3. This kind of faith is sustained by sustained by a theodicy that transforms harsh reality
into contexts that catalyze ones relationship with God (284).
4. Ambiguity Abounds
I.
Review Symposium
A. Barbara Newman: Reflects on the ways Luhrmann book reminds us of how ancient and
traditional some the Vineyard Christians practices are, from understanding Gods
personhood through prayer to the practice of cataphatic prayer.
B. Bruce Hindmarsh: Hindmarsh reads us that Luhrmann comes to the phenomena of
Christian experiences in the Vineyard churches with psychological-anthropological
framework. In other words, her framework we could use to begin to make sense of
things. By using von Balthasars metaphysic-theological framework of analogy of being
and Gods image he demonstrates that hearing/discerning Gods voice in everyday life is
what humans were naturally made for.
C. Candy Gunther Brown: While Brown admires Luhrmanns work and describes it as a
thick description of a christian experience, she does not believe that Luhrmanns data
Week 5
warrants the claim of the subtitle of the book. She notes that Luhrmann is unhelpfully
selective in both her historical accounts of the Vineyard movement and the aspects of
Charismatic Christianity she focuses on.
D. Todd Johnson: In light of Bergers work, Johnson has pointed out that Luhrmanns
study demonstrates that the Vineyard church produces results identifiable in the
spiritual marketplace. By noting the disparity between her statements about her own
belief in the preface and the final chapter, Johnson also encourages us to ask if her
whether or not Luhrmanns project covers and makes sense of all of the data. Even
Luhrmann is apprehensive about what to say toward the end.
A. Luhrmann seems to believe, based on what her responders have said, that in the end her
conversations with the theologians and liturgy scholars will, more often than not, consist
of people talking past each other. For her, whether or not you are comfortable with
what she argues depends on your own theology and the theological tasks you are engaged
in. However, it seems that Luhrmanns responders have influenced her enough to
consider how her own theological-ecclesial past experiences influence what she
says/does now
I.
Week 5