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Here I am. I am one of the pastors at The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Damascus, MD They are both member congregations of the ELCA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. If you think you can identify the baby in the picture, leave your guess on our guest book. |
I would like to offer some of my devotional like writting. Click here for a list of available meditations. They are from my regular Pastoral Letters that are published in the monthly Feagaville Parish Newsletter. Check back here regularly for new additions, as I will be updating the index as the newsletter is published.
There is something else y'all should know about me! Click HERE to find out.
| I wrote a project paper a while back when I was still in Seminary that had to do with the thinking of two 19th century giants. (Do you recognize them?) Here are some introductory thoughts. If this piques your interest, look for the link to the rest of the paper at the end of these few paragraphs. |  |
| It is not possible to come into possession of the independent, objective truth of Christianity, "absolute" in the literal sense... For if truth resides in appropriation, the objective validity of Christianity merely shows that it is indifferent to the subject, to me as a person. |
The last several years of my life experiences and learnings have brought about a full fledged epistemological shift for me. I have long been a self motivated learner who has prized the accumulation of knowledge but within a metaphysical framework that would place any truth in that knowledge firmly in the realm of the spiritual. There could, then, be an objective truth to which I could aspire, for which I could diligently seek, but in which I could not fully stand as long as I was bound to this life, "...for now we see in a mirror, dimly..." Truth was that to which one was to conform rather than that which allowed one the freedom to be.
Upon my arrival at Seminary, readings frequently led me to new and interesting perspectives, many of which spoke of truth in relational terms that I found strangely appealing. I began taking note of names which were vaguely familiar to me, names that came up again and again in lectures and discussions, names like Barth, Bultmann, and Bonhoeffer. I took note of "classics" that were mentioned in class (Christ and Culture, Dynamics of Faith, Wisdom in Israel) and set out to find ways to incorporate these readings into my seminary studies. I would have to admit that in many cases my interests exceeded my abilities to pursue them, but I did manage to spend some significant time with Bonhoeffer.
I found in Bonhoeffer startling statements that piqued my interest "The knowledge of good and evil seems to be the aim of all ethical reflection. The first task of Christian ethics is to invalidate this knowledge." as well as a sense of piety with which I could identify but that was argued in more of a relational way than a deontological one. Not only that, I found significant references to a pair of names with which I was again vaguely familiar. My limited knowledge of these people provoked a sense of incongruity in having found them referred to by one such as Bonhoeffer. I accepted that my knowledge of them and their thought was too limited and I determined to remain ignorant no longer.
As plans were set for the task to which I was about to surrender myself, there was a growing sense of trepidation inspired by the smirks that inevitably creased the faces of anyone familiar with the precipice to which I had come. The repeated recurrence of the names, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, in the writings of Bonhoeffer and others had driven me to embark on the most daunting exercise of philosophical erudition I had ever attempted. I set out on my journey with Fear and Trembling upon a path that, at times, I found to be difficult to discern, but by no means impassable. The terrain changed noticeably once I had reached the Nietzschean Way, whereupon I found the path easy enough in appearance, but I discerned that the footing was indeed quite treacherous.
Five Kierkegaard volumes and two Nietzsche volumes later I stood at the bottom of the valley of the shadow of uncertainty looking up at the heights from which I had come, wondering why from my new perspective my former location seemed so fraught with complacency. What was I to do now? How do I continue on from here? Can I deny what I had read? Or would I be able to use the process of questioning presuppositions which had brought me to this place to inform my subsequent journeys so that the new heights towards which I now move might be characterized by a rejuvenated passion for the subjectivity of truth.
