I am so relieved

Relieved that I score so low for Augie and Edwards. Hmm, I took this a few hours ago and my Tillich was higher than Luther but as I was trying to post this my whole system crashed. Oh well. The main result remains the same: Moltmann. No surprise to me.

Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Jürgen Moltmann The problem of evil is central to your thought, and only a crucified God can show that God is not indifferent to human suffering. Christian discipleship means identifying with suffering but also anticipating the new creation of all things that God will bring about. Jürgen Moltmann 67% Martin Luther 53% Paul Tillich 53% John Calvin 47% Friedrich Schleiermacher 33% Charles Finney 27% Karl Barth 27% Anselm 13% Augustine 13% Jonathan Edwards 7%

Just for the record, I know that Augie said some really good things about God and love and grace and all. He was also one hella effed up chap--too much the Manichee and twisted on sex. Then again, the poor chap had Monica in the background screeching, "Augie! When you gonna dump that trollop and come home to live with your mother and be a good Christian boy?" Sheesh.

You may well guess that Monica is not on my calendar: chiseled from the diptychs permanently. I just don't need to celebrate the patron of nagging mothers, thanks.

I like Moltmann. He makes sense to me. What does not make sense is splitting the First and Second Persons of the Trinity and calling Patripassionism a heresy. How can you read the Bible and its tales of a passionate God and decide that God cannot suffer? That is just not a biblical idea. Give me the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which I believe is also one with the Heart of God (it's all metaphor folks, so chill). A God who feels what creation feels is a God I can, will, and do worship.

I have seen too much of the dark side of "traditional" theories of atonement not to consider most of what is claimed to be codswallop. Sin: real. Redemption: crucial. Vicarious sacrifice to placate an angry deity: horsefeathers, as my mother would say. Christ's obedience: very important, though less so than its ground, his union of love with God. The Cross: absolutely central. The devil's role in all this: irrelevant. When God is at work, everything else shrinks in significance.

Glory to God who has not abandoned us in our sin and folly, nor is untouched by our pain and sorrow, nor unmoved by our lostness and confusion, but who comes to us in grace and power and mercy to bring us back to Godself!
--the BB