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, November 21, 2020

In Defense of Conciliar Christology, by Timothy Pawl


In Defense of Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay (Oxford Studies In Analytic Theology) Illustrated Edition, - March 10, 2016 by Timothy Pawl
This work presents a historically informed, systematic exposition of the Christology of the first seven Ecumenical Councils of undivided Christendom, from the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 AD. Assuming the truth of Conciliar Christology for the sake of argument, Timothy Pawl considers whether there are good philosophical arguments that show a contradiction or incoherence in that doctrine. He presents the definitions of important terms in the debate and a helpful metaphysics for understanding the incarnation.
In Defense of Conciliar Christology discusses three types of philosophical objections to Conciliar Christology. Firstly, it highlights the fundamental philosophical problem facing Christologyâhow can one thing be both God and man, when anything deserving to be called "God" must have certain attributes, and yet it seems that nothing that can aptly be called "man" can have those same attributes? It then considers the argument that if the Second Person of the Holy Trinity were immutable or atemporal, as Conciliar Christology requires, then that Person could not become anything, and thus could not become man. Finally, Pawl addresses the objection that if there is a single Christ then there is a single nature or will in Christ. However, if that conditional is true, then Conciliar Christology is false, since it affirms the antecedent of the conditional to be true, but denies the truth of the consequent. Pawl defends Conciliar Christology against these charges, arguing that all three philosophical objections fail to show Conciliar Christology inconsistent or incoherent.



In Defense of Extended Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay (Oxford Studies in Analytic Theology) Hardcover – March 10, 2019 by Timothy Pawl  (Author)

In Defense of Extended Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay examines the logical consistency and coherence of Extended Conciliar Christology-the Christological doctrine that results from conjoining Conciliar Christology, the Christology of the first seven ecumenical councils of the Christian Church, with five additional theses. These theses are the claims that multiple incarnations are possible; Christ descended into Hell during his three days of death; Christ's human will was free; Christ was impeccable; and that Christ, via his human intellect, knew all things past, present, and future. These five theses, while not found in the first seven ecumenical councils, are common in the Christian theological tradition. The main question Timothy Pawl asks in this book is whether these five theses, when conjoined with Conciliar Christology, imply a contradiction. This study does not undertake to defend the truth of Extended Conciliar Christology. Rather, it shows that the extant philosophical objections to Extended Conciliar Christology fail.


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Timothy Pawl, In Defense of Conciliar Christology

BIOGRAPHY

Timothy Pawl is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

He works on metaphysics and philosophical theology. In metaphysics his work focuses on truthmaker theory, modality, and free will. In philosophical theology, Pawl has published on transubstantiation, Christology, and divine immutability. His work has appeared inc: The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Faith and Philosophy, and Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion.

Pawl published a monograph in the Oxford Studies in Analytic Theology series, entitled In Defense of Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay.  In that book, he argues that the philosophical objections to the traditional Christian doctrine of the incarnation fail.


https://www.closertotruth.com/contributor/timothy-pawl/profile


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Dr. Timothy Pawl's In Defense of Conciliar Christology
Part 1 - trinities 143, Jun 13, 2016


Roman Catholic theology is officially committed to the teachings of 21 councils. Eastern Orthodox theology accepts only the first seven of these, called “the seven ecumenical councils.” While no Protestant accepts the authority of all 21 Catholic councils, Protestantism has been ambivalent about the first seven – with a few accepting all, many accepting the first four, some eschewing all such in preference for the Bible, and some accepting such teachings only insofar as they are in fact summarizing the teachings of scripture. In this book Dr. Timothy Pawl constructs a philosophical defense of the self-consistency of “conciliar christology,” meaning all that these first seven councils claim about Christ.

In this episode, Dr. Pawl briefly recaps the seven ecumenical councils, and then discusses some crucial definitions in his book: “supposit,” “person,” and “nature.” We then discuss whether or not catholic christology should be understood as God becoming embodied in a human body, or God coming to cooperate and live along with a certain man. Finally, Dr. Pawl explains why he discusses these issues in terms of incompatible predications (terms applied to Christ) rather than incompatible properties (attributes of Christ).

Next week we’ll hear about Dr. Pawl’s proposed solution, and what he thinks of other recent approaches in the literature, such as “kenosis” and “two minds” theories about the incarnation.


Links for this episode:


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Dr. Timothy Pawl's In Defense of Conciliar Christology
Part 2 - trinities 144, Jun 20, 2016


Is Jesus both mutable and immutable? In this second interview Dr. Timothy Pawl argues that he is both, once we get straight on the proper definitions of “mutable” and “immutable.” Similarly, he affirms that Jesus was both omniscient and limited in knowledge. In this episode he explains why, in his view, the bishops of the first seven ecumenical councils must have had such definitions in mind.

Dr. Pawl also explains why he doesn’t buy in to recent “kenosis” theories, and why he thinks the “two minds” idea is correct, although it doesn’t go far enough. He also explains his misgivings about what some call “the qua move.” For instance, some say not that Jesus was omniscient and limited in knowledge, but rather that he was omniscient as divine and limited in knowledge as human. Dr. Pawl explains several things those extra phrases might be doing, and why many of them seem unhelpful. Here, he shows what “analytic”means in “analytic theology.”

Finally, we discuss the objection to his view that it is “Nestorian” or nearly so. Dr. Pawl rebuts the charge of Nestorianism and explains why hedges like “or nearly so” are so annoying.

Has Dr. Pawl solved the problem of incompatible predications? Let us know what you think!


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https://readingreligion.org/books/defense-conciliar-christology


In Defense of Conciliar Christology
A Philosophical Essay

Date of Review: September 19, 2017

About the Reviewer(s): 
Joshua R. Farris is assistant professor of theology at Houston Baptist University.

About the Author(s)/Editor(s)/Translator(s): 
Timothy Pawl is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul.

Review

In Defense of Conciliar Christology is an exceptional explanation of conciliar christology (following the first seven ecumenical councils) and a response to the charge of incoherence that has been leveled toward it. Timothy Pawl advances another model of what it means to do analytic theology in what has become an important series, the Oxford Studies in Analytic Theology, edited by Michael C. Rea and Oliver D. Crisp. Like other volumes in the series, Pawl offers the reader a careful and articulate treatment of one doctrinal topic, representing the virtues of analytic philosophy for theology. What stands out about Pawl’s work from the others in the series is his ability to logically parse out the issues with impressive rigor. This is not to say that the other works in the series are not logically rigorous—they in fact are—but rather to say that Pawl’s work stands out as a representative of this virtue. His strength, however, is also his weakness.

Pawl is not concerned so much with advancing some novel constructive option to the christological literature, although a careful analysis of old problems and common solutions often yields several insightful gems worthy of reflection. His aim is more modest than that. He contributes to a set of growing literature on the incoherence charge to what is considered traditional, Chalcedonian, or conciliar christology. Some responses have been to give up traditional/Chalcedonian christology (John Hick’s approach), while others have sought to modify the claims of conciliar christology and offer up alternative models (Thomas Morris, Moreland and Craig, Andrew Loke, to name a few). As Pawl understands the charge of logical incoherence or incompatibility, there appear to be incompatible properties (or as he prefers, “predicates”) ascribed to the same person: Christ. The charge is that predication of properties to Christ end up amounting to Christ’s person instantiating incompatible properties or predicates. In Defense of Conciliar Christology is a response to this common charge.

In this short review, I will note the main ligaments of Pawl’s argument and leave it to the reader to explore its details. Pawl is convinced that the attempts thus far to make good on the charge of incoherence or incompatibility are unsuccessful. This is different than finding the traditional model plausible. Pawl’s argument does not take this additional step. His fundamental strategy is to articulate how it is that the reduplicative strategy (commonly used by traditionalists and Thomists) is able to predicate what are otherwise incompatible properties to two different natures. It is important to note that Pawl understands the framers of conciliar christology to explicitly endorse a concrete nature view, not an abstract nature view (following Oliver Crisp in Divinity and Humanity). In other words, Christ is one person, not two (contra Nestorianism); however, he has two distinct concrete natures. There are several reduplicative strategies that use alternative ways of modifying the claim that Christ can bear two incompatible attributes. Pawl uses a copula strategy (that is, Christ is qua-human passible and Christ is qua-divine impassible [121]), particularly what he calls the substitutional strategy (where the copula has built into it a place for persons with kind natures, construed concretely [145]), which he develops in chapter 7.

The strength of Pawl’s work is quite clear, but there is one drawback to his style of writing and this is arguably his weakness. Pawl is clear that he wants theologians to draw from his work (3). The style of the book, however, is written for technicians in philosophy. While Pawl is at pains to spell out the logic clearly for those not trained in logic, the mathematical precision with which he writes remains unappealing to most systematic theologians. I say this not so much as a critique, but to point out the apparent stylistic differences at work in the philosophical literature compared to the theological literature. In light of this, it is important to point out that Pawl offers one example of how do analytic theology, but it is not the only model of analytic theology on offer. Not every systematic theologian utilizing analytic tools must follow Pawl in his approach to analytic theology or his style of writing.

There is another question that arises upon reading Pawl’s work that remains important for analytic theologians. What is distinct about analytic philosophy of religion as compared with analytic theology? I take it that analytic philosophy of religion is interested in defending religious beliefs or justifying specific religious claims, which is precisely what one finds in Pawl’s book. But beyond mere interpretation of dogmatic symbols (e.g., Chalcedon), what is it that sets apart Pawl’s work as a piece of analytic theology? Some would argue that it is indistinguishable from philosophy of religion.

With all that said, I do hope theologians will pick up In Defense of Conciliar Christology. It is an exceptional defense of conciliar christology that deserves serious consideration. Minimally, those theologians inclined to the traditional conciliar stance must take seriously Pawl’s careful analysis, for it is now a go to resource on conciliar Chalcedonian Christology.


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CHRIST AMONG THE DISCIPLINES
CONFERENCE NOTES
 https://www.christamongthedisciplines.com/
by R.E. Slater
November 21, 2020


Please note: I write these notes to myself. They are not intended to be exact transcriptions from the speakers themselves. What I have written are not their words but my own thoughts. - res

Please note: All panelists provided textual statements for comments to attendees. These are not allowed to be publically published as they are intended to form to the moment-in-time not replicable beyond the panel discussions themselves as very specific conversations to one another in the AAR setting


Panelist's Bios:

Richard Cross is the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, a position he has held since 2007. Between 1993 and 2007 he was fellow in theology at Oriel College in the University of Oxford. He has written extensively on medieval philosophy and theology, with a particular emphasis on Duns Scotus, and on the broader history of Christology and the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Revd Dr James M. Arcadi is an Assistant Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, USA. Prior to this, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Analytic Theology for Theological Formation Project at Fuller Theological Seminary and a Research Fellow in the Jewish Philosophical Theology Project at the Herzl Institute. His first book, An Incarnational Model of the Eucharist, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018 and he is presently co-editing (with Dr JT Turner) the T&T Clark Handbook of Analytic Theology. 

Ben Whittington is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Birmingham. His main research is on the Philosophy of Mind, Free Will, and Analytic Theology. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the College of DuPage.

After completing his undergraduate degree in both biblical studies and Christian theology at Judson University, Mitch Mallary became a PhD candidate at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. His dissertation seeks to bring Karl Barth’s doctrine of revelation into dialogue with the historical scholarship of N. T. Wright. In the project he ‘zeroes in’ on precisely how and in what manner the two diverge from one another regarding the question of the relationship between history and revelation within the sphere of Christology. Apart from his doctoral studies, Mitch is under contract for a manuscript tentatively titled, Bifocal Vision: Christology for the Church. He has also served as the research assistant for helping bring Professor N. T. Wright’s Gifford Lectures on natural theology to publication with Baylor University Press. Along with Hannah James, Preston Hill, and Shane O’Leary, Mitch is also one of the organizers for this year’s conference who graciously stepped in to write an essay on Dr. Pawl’s book on short notice after a panelist had to withdraw from the event.


Observation by James Arcadi 
see online statement

Observation by Shane O'Leary 
see online statement

Observation by Richard Cross 
see online statement

Observation by D.T. Everhart 
see online statement

Response by Timothy Pawl 
see online statement


Friday, November 20, 2020

Image and Presence, by Natalie Carnes




Natalie Carnes, Ph.D.

Natalie Carnes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Theology

Associate Professor of Theology

Education:
  • Duke University, Ph.D. (Christian Theological Studies)
  • University of Chicago, M.A. (Religion)
  • Harvard University, A.B. (Comparative Religious Studies)
Biography:

Natalie is a constructive theologian who reflects on traditional theological topics through somewhat less traditional themes, like images, iconoclasm, beauty, gender, and childhood. For this work, she draws on literary and visual works as sites of theological reflection, and her interest in doing so takes her into questions of religious knowledge and authority. What are the possibilities and limitations of different theological genres?

In addition to authoring articles in Modern TheologyJournal of Religion, and Scottish Journal of Theology, among other journals, Natalie has published two books. The first is Beauty: A Theological Engagement With Gregory of Nyssa, and the second is titled Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia.

Her third book, forthcoming spring 2020, is a theological narrative entitled Motherhood: A Confession. It mirrors the structure and themes of Augustine's Confessions to offer a different story, that reflects on different flesh as to consider what it means to be human in the face of the divine.

Currently, she is working on a new project, co-authored with Matthew Whelan, that explores intersections of poverty, aesthetics, luxury, and art. In it, they pursue the question: What is the place of art in a world of poverty and suffering?

Natalie lives in Waco with her husband and three children. You can find a recent essay on beauty and affliction here, a blogpost on Confederate monuments here, and a blogpost on Rihanna dressed as a pope here. For more information on events, blogposts, and other writings, you can visit her website www.nataliecarnes.com.

Academic Interests and Research:

Systematic theology, Christology, theological anthropology, theological knowledge, theological aesthetics, images, iconoclasms, children, childhood, feminist theology, patristic theology.

Books:

Motherhood: A Confession. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2020.

Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017. 

Beauty: A Theological Engagement with Gregory of Nyssa. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014.

Peer-Reviewed Articles:

“How Love for the Image Cast Out Fear of it In Early Christianity.” Religions. Special issue on Platonism and Christianity. J. Warren Smith, ed. 8.20 (2017): 1-15. 

“Embracing Beauty in World of Affliction.” Republics of Letters: A Journal for the Study of Knowledge, Politics, and the Arts. Forum on Beauty and Form. Thomas Pfau and Vivasvan Soni, eds. 5.1 (January 2017): 1-14.

"That Cross’s Children Which Our Crosses Are’: Imitatio Christi, Imitatio Crucis.” Scottish Journal of Theology 69.1 (January 2016): 63-80.

“Receiving the Fragments of Balthasar: Critique and Community in Christian Theology.” Pro Ecclesia 24.4 (Fall 2015): 432-38.

“We in Our Turmoil: Theological Anthropology Through Maria Montessori and the Lives of Children.” Journal of Religion 95.3 (July 2015): 318-336.

“A Reconsideration of Religious Authority in Christian Theology,” The Heythrop Journal 55.3 (May 2014): 467-480.

“Prelude to a Theology of Iconoclasm: Making, Breaking, Loving, and Hating Images.” LOGOS: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 16.2 (Spring 2013): 15-32.

“Possession and Dispossession: Wittgenstein, Cavell, and Gregory of Nyssa for Life Amidst Skepticism.” Modern Theology 29.1 (January 2013): 104-123.

“The Mysteries of Our Existence: Estrangement and Theatricality.” Modern Theology 28.3 (July 2012): 402-22.

Courses Taught at Baylor:
  • REL 1350 Introduction to Christian Heritage
  • REL 3351 Introduction to Theology
  • REL 3397 Gender, Feminism, and  Theology
  • REL 4300 Theological Language, Theological Silence
  • REL 4300 Images and Idols
  • REL 4355 Salvation
  • REL 5363 Christology





Natalie Carnes, Image and Presence

Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia
(Encountering Traditions), 1st Edition, by Natalie Carnes (Author)

~ The Construction and Destruction of Images ~

Images increasingly saturate our world, making present to us what is distant or obscure. Yet the power of images also arises from what they do not make present―from a type of absence they do not dispel. Joining a growing multidisciplinary conversation that rejects an understanding of images as lifeless objects, this book offers a theological meditation on the ways images convey presence into our world. Just as Christ negates himself in order to manifest the invisible God, images, Natalie Carnes contends, negate themselves to give more than they literally or materially are. Her Christological reflections bring iconoclasm and iconophilia into productive relation, suggesting that they need not oppose one another.

Investigating such images as the biblical golden calf and paintings of the Virgin Mary, Carnes explores how to distinguish between iconoclasms that maintain fidelity to their theological intentions and those that lead to visual temptation. Offering ecumenical reflections on issues that have long divided Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions, Image and Presence provokes a fundamental reconsideration of images and of the global image crises of our time.


Natalie Carnes - Image and Presence
Jan 15, 2019


Episode: Welcome to the inaugural episode of OnScript's new Theology Stream. OnScript's newest co-host Amy Brown Hughes talks with Natalie Carnes of Baylor University about icons, iconophilia, iconophobia, and iconoclasm. This topic has loomed large in church history, and carries important theological implications.

Guest: Natalie Carnes is a constructive theologian who is interested how Christian doctrine can speak to modern life in the world. She draws on literary and visual works to interpret traditional theological ideas through somewhat less traditional themes, like childhood, beauty, art, iconoclasm, and gender. She trained at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Duke before coming to Baylor, where she is currently an Associate Professor of Theology. In addition to a number of articles, she has published two books, Beauty: A Theological Engagement with Gregory of Nyssa, and Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia.



On Beauty by Dr. Natalie Carnes
Nov 2, 2017, @ Dallas Theological Seminary


Dr. Natalie Carnes, Assistant Professor of Theology, Baylor University in Waco, TX, talks about beauty as one of the names of God and its healing quality. The opinions expressed by guest speakers do not necessarily reflect the positions of Dallas Theological Seminary.


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Books by Natalie Carnes


                  




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In praise of (imperfect) images

Depictions of Jesus reveal God - but never adequately.


Short Book Review by The Christian Century

"When we interact with religious images—from an icon of Christ to a pixelated picture of Jesus on a computer screen, from the plastic bobble-head Jesus on the youth pastor’s desk to a famous medieval altarpiece—what do we experience? Revelation, longing, closeness to God, danger, mystery, hope, disappointment, peacefulness, fear?

"Theologians have long understood that when we talk about God, we need to be aware of language’s limitations, lest we turn our theological concepts into conceptual idolatry. Our relationship to even our most cherished images needs to include critical suspicion of what those images can and cannot do."


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Image and Presence

by Natalie Carnes
9.3.19 | Jack Pappas

Symposium Introduction

It is perhaps inevitable that the question of images, that is, the question not only of their value but their power to simultaneously represent and conceal, to seduce and to deceive, to make holy and to profane, would emerge as a primal locus of both theological and philosophical reflection in recent decades. Indeed, we (post)moderns live in an age which is, perhaps more than any other, saturated by and fascinated with images. Enraptured by our screens we increasingly inhabit a world of mediated immediacy, where the virtual is interwoven with the real so thoroughly and so intimately that the line separating these two poles of experience becomes ever harder to distinguish. Nonetheless, the questions which arise out of our peculiar contemporary relationship with images are themselves hardly new (as any reader of Plato is likely to observe) and have served as persistent points of theological controversy and confrontation for centuries, especially within Christianity, a fact reflected by the historical upheavals of Byzantine iconoclasm and the Reformation. The resulting divisions between those who would name their opponents “idolators” and those who would name them “iconoclasts,” suggests an incommensurable opposition between two utterly contradictory ways of conceiving the possibilities of imagining (and imaging) the Divine, and of how images in general operate. They either tell the whole truth or they lie.

Natalie Carnes in Image and Presence insists on the other hand that this familiar either/or is ultimately but a Manichean binary which misunderstands the phenomenality of images in such a way that occludes a proper understanding of their very efficacy altogether. In place of this false dichotomy, Carnes offers a conciliatory both/and, pressing in on an uncomfortable paradox at the very heart of images themselves: images only tell the truth when they admit of their own falsity, and they only lie when they purport to be identical with the truth. That is, the very difference between a true image (an icon) and a false image (an idol) is marked by whether or not the image admits of an excess beyond itself through its own self-negation (iconoclasm), or whether it occludes this excess by deceptively insisting upon its own comprehensiveness. Ultimately then, an icon is differentiated from an idol only insofar as it bears within itself a moment of iconoclasm which manifests precisely the excess which the icon analogously depicts. In Carnes’s own words, “The negation at the heart of imaging is not an eradication or an erasure . . . it is a breaking open that leads to greater revelation, it is a way of saying images mediate presence-in-absence and likeness-in-unlikeness. When absence and unlikeness are elided, the image becomes an idol” (7). Far from being incommensurable, Image and Presence instead supposes that iconoclasm and inconophilia are rather two dialectically interwoven expressions of fidelity which must be held together in revelatory tension.

While this rather radical thesis about images and their paradoxical nature is developed with a stunning multivalence which considers everything from political cartoons, pornography, to religious art, the central axis of this rewarding and challenging book is fundamentally ecumenical and explicitly christological. Indeed, Carnes prepares a veritable feast for the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic “iconophiles” as much as for the Protestant “iconoclast” which is sure to simultaneously delight, scandalize, and provoke all parties into revisiting (and rethinking) a central locus of differentiation across the plurality of Christian traditions (and indeed, across Abrahamic faiths more generally). Drawing on the classical Chalcedonian formulation of the union of Divine and human natures in the person of Christ, Carnes overcomes the oppositional dichotomy between seen and unseen, by recovering a view of Christ himself as the prototypical icon, the visible form which manifests the invisible God.

In the coming days, this symposium will continue to probe and to challenge the boundaries of Carnes’s project, bringing it into conversation with a variety of perspectives. Andrew Prevot wonders about the potential and inherent limitations of encountering the suffering and the oppressed as embedded within an analogical relationship between the face of Christ and the face of the other. Both Kathryn Reklis and Amaryah Shaye Armstrong seek to challenge the hidden power relations which underly not only much of our modern fascination with images and aesthetic categories but also the limitations of the Christian tradition itself for confronting the legacies of coloniality, slavery, and the oppression of indigenous communities. Jennifer Newsome Martin interrogates the relationship between an ontological conception of the image and the constitutive role of an apprehending subject in order to further elucidate the philosophical dimensions of the theological-aesthetic claims at the very heart of Image Presence. Taken together, this cacophony of voices, each with their own concerns and insights, as well as Carnes’s own thoughtful engagement with them, undoubtedly reveals the rare richness and complexity of this exciting book which surely invites ever greater conversation.


Andrew PrevotAndrew Prevot
Prosoponic Likeness



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CHRIST AMONG THE DISCIPLINES
CONFERENCE NOTES
 https://www.christamongthedisciplines.com/
by R.E. Slater
November 20, 2020

Please note: I write these notes to myself. They are not intended to be exact transcriptions from the speakers themselves. What I have written are not their words but my own thoughts. - res

Please note: All panelists provided textual statements for comments to attendees. These are not allowed to be publically published as they are intended to form to the moment-in-time not replicable beyond the panel discussions themselves as very specific conversations to one another in the AAR setting

Panelist Bios

Matthew Novenson: Matthew Novenson is Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh, where he is also director of the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins. He has been visiting professor at Dartmouth College and Duke University Divinity School and visiting research fellow at Durham University. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Biblical Literature, Journal for the Study of Judaism, New Testament Studies, Novum Testamentum, Scottish Journal of Theology, and elsewhere. He is the author of Christ among the Messiahs (Oxford University Press, 2012) and The Grammar of Messianism (Oxford University Press, 2017) and editor of Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Brill, forthcoming) and The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).

Makoto Fujimura: Fujimura is also an arts advocate, writer, and speaker who is recognized worldwide as a cultural influencer. A Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts from 2003-2009, Fujimura served as an international advocate for the arts, speaking with decision makers and advising governmental policies on the arts. His book “Refractions” (NavPress) and “Culture Care” (IVPress) reflects many of his thesis on arts advocacy written during that time. His books have won numerous awards His books have won numerous awards including the Aldersgate Prize for "Silence and Beauty" (IVPress).  In 2014, the American Academy of Religion named Fujimura as it’s 2014 “Religion and the Arts” award recipient. Fujimura currently divides his time between Princeton, NJ studio and Pasadena, CA studio.  A popular speaker, he has lectured at numerous conferences, universities and museums, including the Aspen Institute, Yale, Princeton and Oxford Universities, Sato Museum and the Phoenix Art Museum. Fujimura founded the International Arts Movement in 1992 and Fujimura Institute in 2011. In celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible, Crossway Publishing commissioned and published The Four Holy Gospels, featuring Fujimura’s illuminations of the sacred texts which was featured at the inaugural exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. He holds four honorary degrees, most recently from Roanoke College.  He also serves on the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, Bucknell University. 

Brian Lugioyo (Lu-hee-you-hee-yo) is a professor of Theology & Ethics at Azusa Pacific Seminary. He is a Cuban-American theologian whose research interests are in theological anthropology and neuroscience, liturgical theology and ethics, and 16th-century theology, focusing on the work of Martin Bucer. He is the author of Martin Bucer’s Doctrine of Justification (Oxford University Press, 2010), co-editor of Reconsidering the Relationship between Biblical and Systematic Theology in the New Testament: Essays by Theologians and New Testament Scholars (Mohr Siebeck, 2014), and recently the chapter “Martin Luther’s Eucharistic Christology” for the Oxford Handbook of Christology (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). He is also ordained in the Free Methodist Church.

Joanna Leidenhag joined the School of Divinity in 2018 on a project in Science-Engaged Theology, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. She completed her PhD in systematic and philosophical theology at the University of Edinburgh (2019), focusing on discussions in analytic philosophy of mind and the doctrine of creation. She graduated with a joint Honours degree in Modern History and Theology from the University of St Andrews (MA 2013), and went on to complete a MA in Theological Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary (MA 2014). She also holds an Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts, and specialises in oil painting.

Author: Natalie Carnes is a constructive theologian interested in how Christian doctrine can speak to the complexities of modern life. Drawing on literary and visual works, she interprets theological ideas together with a range of themes, including images, iconoclasm, beauty, gender, and feminism. In addition to Image and Presence, she's published two other books, Beauty: A Theological Engagement with Gregory of Nyssa and Motherhood: A Confession. Natalie trained at Harvard, University of Chicago, and Duke before coming to Baylor, where she is an Associate Professor of Theology in the Religion Department and an affiliated faculty member of Women’s and Gender Studies.


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Observation by Matthew Novenson 
see his statement

Matt had many astute observations. Too many to write down.

Observation by Makoto Fujimura (Reknown Artist)
Introduction - We create false dichotomies, demonize the opposing view, and create a wasteland between either poisoning the very soil of future discussion.

NT Wright quote- "I'm learning to lean into the theology of the New Creation" - MK

This means my new aim is to "Invoke the abundance of creation and to learn to journey into this New Creation". Thus I am working with colors of interdependence rather than colors of independence. Mixing binary, opposing colors bears this out. Whereas if we learn to use these binaries as complements to one another like Matisse did than we have a whole other result. One of intended beauty. Similarly with jazz, music, etc. An intentionality to create in oppositions bring out powerful, dangerous images into another reality of new creational beauty.

Wikipedia - Woman In A Purple Coat or The Purple Coat is a painting by Henri Matisse from 1937. It depicts Matisse's assistant Lydia Delectorskaya. This painting is an example of Henri Matisse's mature decorative style. Matisse depicts his model and companion of many years, Lydia Delectorskaya, in an exotic Moroccan costume, surrounded by a complex of abstract design and exotic color.[1] This is an example of one of the final groups of oil paintings in Matisse's career, in 1950 he stopped painting oil paintings in favor of creating paper cutouts.

Learn to affirm differences while learning to co-create with one another. This is my advice for ours and future generations. - MK

MK had many, many, many excellent observations. very helpful. paper statement is ok but not as full as the presence of the artist's verbal statements

Observation by Brian Lugioyo 
see his statement

Brian remembers his Los Angeles protests for BLM this past summer and its meaningfulness to him as a tangible presence of God in his individual and social experience as well as with those he was surrounded by in similar protests. Presence makes speaking of God/Christ less abstract. Being in the moment brings Christ into the moment too in the experience of mankind. Not as an abstract spiritual force but as well as a visible, living, breathing, vernacular presence that is not transcended to the experience of the moment.

What is the role of liturgy in transforming presence in our Christian lives? Worship + the mediating presence of the Spirit creates powerful moments of godliness, inspiration, bonding, healing, etc, with one another.

Observation by Joanna Leidenag
Excellent insights - See her extensive statement

Response by Natalie Carnes
see her astute statements online

MY last thoughts: I found the discussion on "image and presence" of great interest to myself. I loved the complexity of how God is expressed artistically, architecturally, scientifically, medically, publically, socially, personally, anthropologically, economically, industrially, in literature, poem, music, etc. How does one express process based images of biblical statement, assumption, ideology, theology, philosophy, etc, in profound ways. One thing which stuck with me came from the reknown NYC artist  Makoto Fujimura who spoke today. He mentioned he is struggling to learn how to lean into New Creation personally and as an artist when taking opposing societal ideations and repurposing those iconoclastic juxtapositions into subjects of beauty, healing, bonding together, solidarity, etc. One simple example is the falsities that conspiracy communities hold on to as opposed to known facts and truths. Similarly with destructive images of justice as opposed to reconstructive images of restorative justice. The question of tying to blend (but not syncretise) opposing images into images of godly new creation is something we should all pursue. Matisse had done this in Paris using garish colors which clashed with one another to produce pleasing images to the eyes (thoughts, settledness, relaxation, reaffirmation, etc.) - re slater