Further Up/Further In

A blog about faith, spirituality, and the Kingdom.

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Athens Trip 2012: Day Six

Posted 2 months ago
I feel like I have been lying to my journal. For the last three days I have been saying that I was going to the museum and have yet to do so. We got so close today! After breakfast we walked across part of Athens and went to see Hadrian’s Gate and the Temple of Zeus of the Olympians. They were even better sights than last time seeing as I have a better understanding of the history. Afterwards we went to Syntagma square to watch the changing of the guards at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

            The rest of our afternoon was spent visiting the last of the historical sites that we had missed out on: Hadrian’s Library and the Roman Agora. A long walk back to the hotel included visits to no less than three old Orthodox churches. We spent the rest of the afternoon napping and reading in the hotel; our legs were in much need of rest.

            Our evening was a simple one; James, Brandon, Matt and I ate a very long dinner at the Byzantine Tavern down in the Plaka. The food was great and the conversation even better. We talked for hours before retiring to the hotel to get ready for bed. In all actuality today was pretty relaxing. Tomorrow will be a full day with our island excursions so I’m glad today was a little less planned. Though we walked well over ten miles today, it has been by far one of my favorite days in the beautiful city of Athens, Greece.

3-14-12

            Today went so much better than I expected. To be completely honest, I was not all that excited for today’s island excursion. I came to Greece to visit historical sites, to read, and to wander the streets; I had no desire to visit islands. It’s the end of winter/beginning of spring and I did not think that the weather was going to be conducive for a day like today. I was gladly mistaken.

            While others in our group spent much of the trip lounging in cafes and walking through shops (nothing wrong with this, just not my cup of tea), the gang and I decided to explore as much of these towns in these harbors as possible while seeing as many Orthodox churches as possible. We were not disappointed at all. These were the kinds of things I have wanted to everyday and we got to do them even today. It was a full day of fun times wandering the streets of these island towns and hanging out on the boat.

            After getting back to Athens, the gang and I went back to the Byzantine Tavern for dinner. Conversation was light but as we made our way back to Tony’s our talk took a turn for the serious. One of our group, while thinking the Byzantine-style churches were beautiful, was not awed in the same way as the rest of us; we found an intensely holy place while he saw just an old church with some distracting pictures. While walking and talking about these ideas we found ourselves at the foot of the Areopagus; seeing as we were discussing the need for Christian holy places we thought it fitting to continue our conversation at its top. While the discussion never really ended, something more profound took place up on that hill. It seems that we all had this moment of clarity wherein the story of Paul’s travels in this area became all the more real and how that still impacts us even today.

            I am looking forward to tomorrow. A day trip out the village of Sounios accompanied with a good lunch and possibly a church visit or two. What more could I ask for?
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Posted 4 months ago
..people like Jesus and Paul were not executed for saying, “Love one another.” They were killed because their understanding of love meant more than being compassionate towards individuals, although it did include that. It also meant standing against the domination systems that rule their world, and collaborating with the Spirit in the creation of a new way of life that stood in contrast to the normalcy of the wisdom of this world. Love and justice go together. Justice without love can be brutal and love without justice can be banal. Love is the heart of justice and justice is the social form of love.

Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon p.205
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- john dominic crossan
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Posted 4 months ago
get Paul and his letter to the Romans out of the sixteenth-century polemical Reformation world and back into the first-century imperial Roman world.

Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon p. 157.
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Posted 4 months ago
Caesar not only proclaims but incarnates peace through violent victory, just as Christ not only proclaims but incarnates peace through nonviolent justice. There will be peace on earth, said Roman imperial theology, when all is quiet and orderly. There will be peace on earth, said Pauline Christian theology, when all is fair and just.

Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon p.121
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Posted 5 months ago
Part of the difficulty with reading Paul is that the church easily lapses into reading with nineteenth century eyes and sixteenth century questions; and it’s time to read with first century eyes and twenty-first century questions.

N.T. Wright
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Posted 6 months ago
The gospel - the announcement of the lordship of Jesus the Messiah - reveals G-d’s righteousness, his covenant faithfulness, his dealing with the sin of the world through the fulfillment of his covenant in this Lord Jesus Christ. He has done all this righteously, that is, impartially. He has dealt with sin, and rescued the helpless. He has thereby fulfilled his promises.

N.T. Wright, on Paul’s usage of the word “Gospel”, in What St. Paul Really Said, p.126
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Posted 6 months ago
If you understand dikaiosune theou in the way I have suggested, you cannot play off justice and love against one another. God’s justice is his love in action, to right the wrongs of his suffering world by taking their weight upon himself. God’s love is the driving force of his justice, so that it can never become a blind or arbitrary thing, a cold system which somehow God operates, or which operates God. Because the gospel reveals this covenant love, this covenant faithfulness, of the living God, Paul knows that whatever happens the future is secure. He can announce the gospel in the face of the powers of the world, and they can do their worst to him. The death and resurrection of Jesus have unveiled the faithful love of God, and nothing can separate him from it.

N.T. Wright, What St. Paul Really Said, p. 110-111
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Posted 8 months ago
The past is history, the future is prophecy, and the present is experience. To claim that G-d has already begun to transform this earth into a place of divine justice and peace demands that you can show something of that informative activity here and now. To which Paul would have replied unabashedly: To see G-d’s transformation in process, come and see how we live.

John Dominic Crossan, In Search of Paul p. 175.
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Posted 8 months ago
The Roman eschaton was peace through victory while the Jewish utopia was peace through justice. A shalom from the heart of the Jewish tradition opposed a pax from the core of the Roman Empire.

John Dominic Crossan, In Search of Paul, p. 129.
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Posted 9 months ago
(in reference to Paul) the radical apostle who was there before the reaction, revision, and replacement began. He did not think in terms of political democracy or universal human rights. He only said what Christianity has never been able to follow, that within it all are equal and this is to be its witness and challenge to the world outside.

John Dominic Crossan, “In Search of Paul”
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