The Best of 2007

I began this blog in March of 2006 which means this coming New Year will mark the first full calendar year of writing, with posts having come weekly from January 2007 to December 2007. So, to commemorate and to join in with all the other Top 10 end of the year lists, here is a list of what I consider to be Experimental Theology’s Top 10 Posts of 2007:

#1: The Voice of the Scapegoat series
I began the year in the middle of my review of S. Mark Heim’s book Saved from Sacrifice which gives the church a Girardian reading of the cross. At the conclusion of that series I received the following e-mail from Mark Heim:

Dear Richard,
I'm writing with appreciation for your series on Girard and my book--one could not hope for a more graceful and thoughtful summary of Saved from Sacrifice, and I think there was much significant value added in your own reflections. It's wonderful to see such a response, and encouraging to think that there are others who find this as helpful as I do. It's a bonus also to discover your site and your other work there. I've known ACU only by my friend Doug Foster who is on the faculty of the Graduate School of Theology: now I'm glad to have this connection as well.
Under the Mercy,
Mark

For this gracious e-mail alone I vote this series The Best of 2007. Thank you, Mark, for your kind words. Keep the books coming!

#2 The Christ and Horrors series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
This was a review of Marilyn McCord Adams’s wonderful book on Christology and theodicy. The critical feature of McCord Adams’ position is that God will be good to all horror participants. This leads to a universalist position which, in my opinion, is the only coherent move a Christian can make in confronting the problem of horrific suffering. This series got a nice plug from Keith DeRose at the Generous Orthodoxy Think Tank.

#3 Summer and Winter Christians
This was a single post summarizing a published paper of mine. The main thrust of the paper is to get Christian communities to reject simplistic polar models of faith (where doubt/negativity are antithetical to faith) and adopt a circumplex model where doubt/negativity can co-exist with faith.

#4 The Ecclesial Quotient
This was a quirky series where I try to create a mathematical formula to calculate your contribution to the Kingdom of God. I even graph the function. I like this series because it got noticed by a Network Theory class at Cornell University. When a theology blog shows up in a math class at Cornell you’ve got to be doing something right.

#5 Toward a Post-Cartesian Theology (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7)
In this series I review and interact with Harry Frankfurt’s book Taking Ourselves Seriously & Getting It Right. It is my best attempt (supplemented by my The Cartesian Race post) in grappling with the free will versus determinism debate. My work on these issues got noticed by Bob Cornwall who solicited an article from me on this subject for the pastoral journal he oversees, Sharing the Practice. The paper came out in the fall and was entitled “Ministry in the Post-Cartesian World.” Thank you Bob for asking!

#6 Theology and Evolutionary Psychology (Prelude, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8)
I don’t think Christians should be afraid of evolution. In fact, if you look at the Sermon on the Mount through the lens of evolutionary psychology you come away thinking that Jesus was a Darwinian genius. In this series I show how evolutionary psychology makes the Christian moral witness seem extraordinarily prescient, deep, and powerful.

#7 My Bible Class about Bob Sutton's Book
No retrospective on 2007 would be complete without facing up to my Most Controversial Post of the Year. I did a bible class at my church on Dr. Sutton's book and then followed that post up with a series. That post was picked up on by Dr. Sutton (initially here on his personal blog and then later in The Huffington Post where he mentions his changing attitudes about Christians in two features found here and here). Which pleases me in that, if you look at his remarks, it seems I helped dismantle some stereotypes about Christians and Christian intellectuals.

These gains aside however, because I didn't euphemize and took Dr. Sutton's language as-is (following the lead, as a scholar would, of the Harvard Business Review who first published Dr. Sutton's idea), some conservative readers have been offended and have written my employer about my Christian commitment. The disappointing part for me is that none of these complaints have been taken directly to me per Jesus' instructions in the Sermon on the Mount. Which means that the complaints are not Christian, honest, and truth-seeking in intent. They are, rather, attempts to use my post as a political tool against my university. Which is sad. To those offended by this blog, please e-mail me directly for conversation. Also note that my discussion of Dr. Sutton's book had nothing to do with my university as it was a bible class for my church, populated with adults and not college students. Thus, if you have any spiritual concerns with me on this topic please contact my spiritual overseers, the elders of the Highland Church of Christ. They are the ones accountable for both my spiritual journey as well as any teaching conducted under their oversight.

As a final thought on this subject, a part of the reason (other than its clear gospel message) I took up Dr. Sutton's book was to explore what "Christian language" can and should look like. What are the discernment issues involved? How do we adjudicate? Is propriety and politeness the main concern? But what if, as Dr. Sutton's book shows, cultural mores are changing? Is this a generational issue? If so, should language change to connect with the young even if the older (and most established in faith) are offended? These are challenging and important issues. How shall we speak to our world? Is the world a homogenous crowd allowing only a single form of Christian discourse? Or is the world heterogeneous, diverse, and ramified, requiring multiple languages each unique given context and audience? In short, all readers here--offended or not offended--should pitch in and discuss rather than gripe and complain. There is work to be done for the Kingdom! Let's find out how best to do it and support each other in a process--being in but not of the world--that necessarily creates different modes of missional living.

#8 Ghostbusting
For some strange reason I love this post from my Walk with William James series. (See the sidebar for all the installments. I would have listed the whole series but it's very long.) In this post I tell the story of my one paranormal adventure with some of my students.

#9 Everyday Evil (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)
Lots of people seemed to really enjoy my Everyday Evil series where I show how the potential for evil is just around the corner for ordinary people. I have this series so low in the rankings because the YouTube clips that made the series so enjoyable keep getting taken away or moved.

#10 Why the Anti-Christ is an Idiot
The funniest post of the year.


So there it is, The Best of 2007. Thanks to everyone who has visited, read, linked to, and commented here in the past year. Look for more theological adventures in 2008. I have some fun stuff planned. See you after the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Richard