Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Studies on the New Testament Canon, Manuscripts, & Textual Transmission. Part 2



Studies on the New Testament Canon,
Manuscripts, & Textual Transmission
Part 2

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT


Important References to Read - Part 2:










A Short Note

Below is a sampling of videos on the construction of the New Testament (including a couple on the Old Testament). The last video re "The History of Christianity" may help place the writing of the New Testament into perspective.
Our aim is to come to understand how the church came to use the current New Testament collection of extant manuscripts as an extension to the Hebrew bible of Israel.
I have included several videos from Bart Ehrman who himself has been central to the overall discussion re the use and transmission of the New Testament to the church. Though Bart does not claim to be a believer, as I get to know him I am coming to believe that he may be more simply saying he doesn't chose to believe the traditional church's beliefs on God, Jesus, and the bible as it has come to preach and develop it's dogmas.
In a sense, I have come to disagree with the church's general approach as well and am using process theology to recover God, Jesus and the bible from it's eclectic philosophic and theologic antecedents.
So let's use Dr. Ehrman's videos to balance off any of the "rah-rah" videos by traditional Christian apologists who are unable to look outside of their Christian faith. We want truth not brainwashing.
Lastly, do not forget to read or review the five references listed above to help even out all the videos below.

Blessings,

R.E. Slater
January 18, 2025

Select Videos


52:00Now playing
Bart D. Ehrman
In this episode, Megan and Bart discuss the "origin of the canon," meaning: who chose the books that made it into the Bible, and ...


The history of the English Bible is an amazing story. Explore with us "How We Got the Bible!" This is a celebration of the inspired ...

24 chapters
Welcome | Intro | The Targum | What is the Bible? | The Septuagint | The Christian Bible | New Technology: The Book | Origen’s Hexapla | The Shift to Latin | Preserving the Hebrew | The Great Schism | The Beginnings of a Printed Bible | The First English Bible: Wycliffe | Guttenberg Press | Tyndale Bible | Greek over Latin | Coverdale Bible | Matthew Bible | Great Bible (1539) | The Bible Gets Verses | Geneva Bible (1560) | Catholic English Bible (1582) | Bishop’s Bible (1568) | King James Bible (1611)


How many books are in your Bible? Do you know why? The history of the biblical canon is a long and very interesting story -- at ...


Have you ever wondered why we trust the New Testament canon? Join us on a journey into the origins of the Bible with renowned ...

13 chapters
Introduction and Purpose of the Talk | The Story of Muhammad Ali and the Gnostic Gospels | Understanding the Concept of Canon | Misconception 1: Early Christians Didn't Expect a New Canon | Misconception 2: New Testament Authors Didn't Think They Were Writing Scripture | Misconception 3: Early Christians Widely Disagreed on the New Testament Books | Early Christian Consensus on Core Books | The Spread and Recognition of Smaller Books | Misconception: No Canon Until the 4th Century | Misconception: Apocryphal Books' Validity | Misconception: Popularity of Apocryphal Books | Misconception: Church Picked the New Testament Books | Conclusion and Q&A Introduction


Title: Unveiling the Origins: How the New Testament Was Created with Bart Ehrman and James Tabor

5 chapters
The Scribal Corruption of Scripture | Understanding Manuscript Evidence | New Covenanters Before Jesus | Dead Sea Scrolls As New Testament Basis | Audience Questions



11 chapters
Introduction | Quran vs Canon | Council of NAA | Top Down Approach | Elite Voice | Canonical vs NonCanonical | The Codex Anticus | Why Canon | Exclusivity | Varieties of Christianity | Authorship



7 chapters
Torah | Prophets | Writings | Apocrypha | Gospels | Epistles | Revelation


Complete History of the Bible in Under 30 Minutes! Join us for a fast-paced journey through the fascinating history of the Bible!


Christian Video Vault
Manuscript Evidence for the Bible - See the best and most ancient manuscripts of the Bible and hear from the many scholars that ...


Compass Bible Church
From the writing of the Law of Moses to the present, this episode follows the Old Testament manuscript line from the earliest ...


The church went through a process of recognizing which books of the apostles and their followers were to be considered as ...
Concluding Note

As follow up to the past two articles on the "New Testament's transpiring Collection and Christian Following" I have put together another two articles entitled, "What to do with Sacred Texts and Evolving Faiths" of not only Christianity, but of the major religions of the world.

My initial title for these next two articles were entitled, "The Shape of Things to Come"; or perhaps, "The Shape of Faiths to Come." Overall my intention was to ask the broader Christian question of "Inspiration" - whether God's Word (known as the Bible) is God last and final Word to humanity?
  • If it is, then how might a process approach to the Scriptures aid in understanding the ancient stories and beliefs collected in ancient times into the church's Christian dogmas and faiths today?
  • And if not, then in what way is the bible (small "b", rather than capital "B") a construction in time displaying the variety of thoughts the ancients held about God and God's activity in creation and the world? Here, I posit how humanity's evolving consciousness (spiritually, psychologically, and sociologically) affects it's religious faith and beliefs.
For the devout, these thoughts may all seem like hogwash or heresy, but for many of the Christianity's "Nones and Dones" this is a very real and timely question. That the bible is more an evolving story of faith than it is the "last and final word" on faith. Thus my preference for the title, "The Shape of Things/Faith To Come."


R.E. Slater
January 18, 2025

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