"Towards an Advent theology"
I put a rather pretentious sentence in the description of the blog: towards an Advent theology. It's only fair to justify it - especially as it's June and about as far from Advent as you can get!
Advent has always been my favourite season. I've always preferred anticipation to actually getting to wherever it is I'm going. And when I was in my teens, the church notice sheet for the first Sunday of Advent included a picture that has stayed with me. A cloud was split by lightning and the text, in capitals, read "O that you would tear the heavens open and come down!"
That has become the idea which sums up Advent for me. It's a longing and an impassioned plea for God to appear in power, to come into the world and bring healing and hope.
That shapes my approach to Advent but also my whole theological standpoint. I am drawn to liberation theology with its argument that God wants the poor and oppressed to flourish; to Niebuhr's Protestant argument that the world is comprehensively fallen and that we can do nothing without the help of God; and to the post-Holocaust and post-Bonhoeffer theologies of God sharing our suffering and calling us to share the suffering of the world. An Advent theology which calls on God to be present in power and bring healing and hope is my attempt to work within all these theologies. It allows me to pray that God's will is done through my actions and through God's direct work in the world.
Advent has always been my favourite season. I've always preferred anticipation to actually getting to wherever it is I'm going. And when I was in my teens, the church notice sheet for the first Sunday of Advent included a picture that has stayed with me. A cloud was split by lightning and the text, in capitals, read "O that you would tear the heavens open and come down!"
That has become the idea which sums up Advent for me. It's a longing and an impassioned plea for God to appear in power, to come into the world and bring healing and hope.
That shapes my approach to Advent but also my whole theological standpoint. I am drawn to liberation theology with its argument that God wants the poor and oppressed to flourish; to Niebuhr's Protestant argument that the world is comprehensively fallen and that we can do nothing without the help of God; and to the post-Holocaust and post-Bonhoeffer theologies of God sharing our suffering and calling us to share the suffering of the world. An Advent theology which calls on God to be present in power and bring healing and hope is my attempt to work within all these theologies. It allows me to pray that God's will is done through my actions and through God's direct work in the world.
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