God Changed Circa 1965

[Stephen Fox]

Became a God of Unconditional Love in America; Says the granddaughter of a Baptist preacher today on NPR Fresh Air. In context rang relatively true to me.
Vineyard Bible Study; When God Talks Back, by Stanford Proff, T. M. Luhrman

Randall Balmer blurbs for the book

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/26/149394987 ... -community

[Gene Scarborough]

I was at Emory and BSU President when Altizer did his "God Is Dead" stuff. It was blown out of proportion and far from what the title indicates.

Those who go all hyped up had a paga view of death = end / gone / finished.

What Altizer was citing was the transcendent God became totally immanent in Christ---so what was the problem with selling out that issue of Time based on a cover inciting a riot among fundies

[Stephen Fox]

Gene; you've mentioned your God is Dead Experience many times.

I do hope you can make time to listen to this interview and tell Dr. Lolley about it. This Stanford Proff is granddaughter of a Baptist Preacher.

And google the New Yorker article on her book.

Got two good laughs from Randall Balmer in phone call about the interview, not about the book which he endorses; but about my interpolation with an inflection of old Joe Kennedy himself.

[Stephen Fox]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 81316.html

I would find a conversation between these two women most interesting.

Talk about a break out session that would add luster to next CBF or Covenant Convo; this would do it; if somehow it didn't get sabotaged into another discussion of sexual orientation and politics.

Luhrman and Robinson are navigating the essentials here; I'd love to be in the room to hear them explore these matters.

[Gene Scarborough]

Of interest, Stephen, is the Emory Alumni Magazine did a follow up on Altizer and the crisis it generated. I suppose you could go to it via Google.

I have asked the Editor to give me his take on his interview with Altizer which happened in 1967. No word yet, since he is a most busy person. The article was worthy and Emory handled it straight up and in public IMMEDIATELY.

It was discovered that Altizer was a member of the College Philosophy Department rather than Candler School of Theology. The average Methodist breathed a sigh of relief on that one!

Nevertheless, the entire thing was a tempest in a teapot and Altizer was drunk as a skunk when he faced the full house at Glenn Memorial Sanctuary on the corner of the campus. The Methodist Chaplain did a superb analysis and it wasn't what the SBC fundies claimed!

If ignorance is bliss, then the average American believer is about as blissful as you get!

[Stephen Fox]

Gene, I don't think it is your intention to sabotage this thread, but unwittingly you may do so.
You have mentioned Altizer many times on this board and that is fine, but this Luhrman interview and the New Yorker article is a new twist on that era.
Let's give it some oxygen and pursue the Altizer matter in one of the many other arenas it has been explored here.
Thanks

[Gene Scarborough]

We will see, Stephen!

[Gene Scarborough]

Here is the heart of the article which you never bother to post and make us "go fishing:"

On the spiritual shift in America since the 1960s

"American spirituality has shifted since the '60s toward a much more engaged, responsive, intimately experienced sense of the spiritual. Every church is different. Every person within a church has a somewhat different experience of God. But I thought this represented something really important about American spirituality."

On how she got interested in this topic

"I went to the home of one evangelical woman, and she told me that if I wanted to understand, I should have coffee with God. She had coffee with God all the time, she hung out with God, she chatted with God and talked with God as if he were a person. And I was blown away. I was so intrigued by what that meant and how she was able to do that."

I'm not sure she was around during the Charismatic movement---which seems to be some of what she is citing. This era of "instant religion" just like "fast food," is a by-product of people wanting to get easy doses of what is a lifetime journey. The studies on Charismatic causes indicated the strange language had almost a 1:1 correlation to babies uttering their noises as they learned to talk.

I am not sure the babies have grown up yet despite all the talk. Otherwise, we might be coming out of this economic meltdown rather than got to another Mega Church for entertainment. The purpose of good religion---in my view---is to translate an exciting personal encounter with God into some kind of real help to our struggling fellow men and women. Getting high on religion and feeling good is little more than another drug experience for too many.

[Stephen Fox]

Now that you have dipped your toe into Luhrman's thinking, maybe a deeper immersion in the works of Marilynne Robinson and Charles Marsh's upcoming bio of Bonhoeffer is in order.
Tell Randall Lolley about both
He may also like the new book by R.A. Dickey, the last knuckleballer standing in MLB. He plays with the Mets and beat the Braves on opening day.