If you’ve ever heard the word “theology” and thought it sounded like something reserved for pastors, academics, or monks in ancient libraries — you’re not alone. But theology is actually a deeply human pursuit. At its core, theology is about asking big questions:
Who or what is God?
Why are we here?
What does it mean to live a good life?
How should we respond to suffering, love, and injustice?
But what does Christ do? In obedience to and partnership with his Father, he overthrows the wickedness of their sacrifice by offering himself as the Father’s agent of redemption, extending forgiveness to all. Thus his blood comes to represent the self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love of God–and not the inherent need for appeasement through violence.
Much freedom came to me as I anchored myself in Gen. 1 as my most original story. This enabled me to celebrate the beautiful truth that God likes me and calls me good. Instead of thinking that I need to get back in His embrace, I have this deep sense that I have always been in the hands of God.
I have since expanded my understanding of the “God of Love.” Instead of thinking that I need to get back in His embrace, I have this deep sense that I have always been in the hands of God.
This leaves me to wonder how Jesus would have ended his sermon if he had to preach the story of David and Goliath today. I wonder if Jesus would have endorsed the killing of Goliath. Would Jesus have celebrated or condemned David’s slingshot?
“I recall, on Christmas day, sitting under the Beach Umbrella in our swimsuits, with our feet and hands sunken in the warm white-colored beach sand, listening, as my dad shared the Christmas story from Luke Ch 2.”
“My father introduced me to Wynkoop in 1980, during the Nazarene General Assembly, which was held in Kansas City that year. Meeting Mildred & Ralph at the early age of 21 was a delight. I recall a gracious and humble lady who was very present at the moment. Had I known at that time that I would spend six years researching her life and writings (almost 30 years later), I would have asked her lots of questions.”
Read the full interview…
The temptation to control the conversation or try to “fix” the patient by giving advice is ever before me. Voices from my embedded childhood theology of a “controlling” God is ever present in my inner dialogue tempting me to control the conversation. The temptation to pre-construct opinions rather than to construct them in the present shows how difficult it is to be a true active listener.
If I was to describe reality beyond postpositivism, through a constructivist paradigm, I realize that we change each other as we interact with each other, and meaning is dynamically fluid, on the move, and co-created as it meets the need of the local hour.
If I was to describe reality beyond postpositivism, through a constructivist paradigm, I realize that we change each other as we interact with each other, and meaning is dynamically fluid, on the move, and co-created as it meets the need of the local hour.
