Make sure to add to your reading list The Bible as Improv: Seeing and Living the Script in New Ways by Ron Martoia (March, 2010, Zondervan). Here is an honest, creative, and challenging presentation of good, bad, and inconsistent ways of living in conversation with the Bible. Like Scot McKnight’s The Blue Parakeet, Martoia reflects [...]
Archive for the ‘PhD work’ Category
25 Nov
How NOT to Write
Part of what it means to work on a PhD is to read some pretty dense essays and books that are attempting to communicate profound things. Here is one example from my reading today:
We are concentrating on the fundamental paradox that both things are unveiled in my own presence-to-myself: namely, the absolute incommunicability of my [...]
23 Nov
How Free Are We?
When you start thinking about Christian living, one of the most central issues is freedom. To what extent are we free to make ethical choices? If God is sovereign, then how does my freedom action square with his sovereignty? In my exploration of Christian ethics as improvisation, the question could be rephrased as follows: what [...]
19 Nov
Directors of the Theodrama
In the theodrama, God as Triune is author, main character, and director. The Holy Spirit is the Director of the theodrama in the sense that he enables our participation through the gift of faith and union with Christ. In addition, the Spirit also directs our participation in the theodrama by giving us gifts and by [...]
16 Nov
Dissertating
I have to admit that I am nerdy enough that I signed up to receive the word-a-day from Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary. Basically, they send an interesting word a day via email, and it’s always interesting to see what words they pick and if they are in any way part of my regular vocabulary.
Today I received [...]
11 Nov
What Does a Big French Word Have to Do With Christian Living?
The word is disponibilité. Yes, it is a French word, and one that is really hard to translate into English and maintain the fullness of its meaning. That is why many people involved in dramatic improvisation (even those that speak English!) still use this word that was introduced by the French dramatist Jaque Lecoq. Basically, [...]
10 Nov
How Can We Be Ready?
In an earlier post, I asked the question of what it would take for us to be, as Paul says in Titus 3:1, “ready to do good works.” What sort of things prepare us for improvising our role in the theodrama?
First, I think it is important to point out that unlike actors preparing for a [...]
6 Nov
And By Ethics, I Mean Theology
People ask what I am studying a lot, and I always have to decide in the moment if I am going to say the short or long version. My short version has been going like this: “I am studying Christian ethics as improvisation with a particular emphasis on poverty.”
But I don’t really like having to [...]
4 Nov
Ready to Live Well
In Titus 3:1, Paul exhorts Titus to remind his people to “be ready for every good work.” Similarly, he writes to Timothy that he wants those in the household of God to be “ready for every good work” (2 Tim 2:21). In other words, Paul desires this community of Christians to display a readiness to [...]
7 Oct
Ethics as Improvisation
Part of my PhD research is to show that improvisation is a fitting way to talk about Christian ethics. What do I mean by this?
First, we can see history as revealed in Scripture as a drama of God’s action towards man. This is a real, historical drama in which God is both author (Father), director [...]
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