At leat in Orthodoxy, John is awarded the title of Theologian. The only others to be so honoured are St Gregory the Theologian (who set out the Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity) and St Symeon the New Theologian.
Theology permeates the New Testament, explicit or implicit. Lieteralism is a modern invention.
Last edited by BrendanMark; 6th November 2009 at 11:22 PM.
Reason: spelling
1. If you want to know what somebody believes, read what they wrote in full, not somebody else's soundbite of what they wrote. You cannot do theology by soundbites.
2. Either way read it properly: "It is not clear what happens during this state. We will be with God and with Christ, resting and being refreshed, we will be conscious, but compared with being bodily alive, it will be like being asleep.
3. (slighly off the track) who gets to decide "soul sleep"is a heresy. It's not something the creeds or the ancient and collective church has ever pronounced on. Heresy does not mean "something I think is wrong" and to reduce it to such is pathetic. Docetism and gnostism, say, are heresies rife in our age - not least among those least comfortable with Tom Wright. 'Soul sleep' (whatever one might mean by that) is not.
Tom Wright writes 20 books a year, I will judge him by what he says.
If you actually follow what happened instead of more soundbites, Steve Chalke rather ambiguously had a go at some common characatures of atonement, Tom Wright confirmed what Steve Chalke had actually meant and supported that.
If you actually read Tom Wright's theology you will find that he affirms atonement, but has some challenges for the way it is often understood. But if you keep trying to do theology by soundbite you won't understand that.
__________________ "Goodness is stronger than evil,
love is stronger than hate,
light is stronger than darkness,
life is stronger than death,
victory is ours through him who loved us."
(+Desmond Tutu)
Tom Wright writes 20 books a year, I will judge him by what he says.
Not quite, but I'm insisting you read everything he's written - just that you read or listen to some of it instead of someone else's summary because what you are doing at the moment is condemning somebody largely for views they do not hold, and to continue to do so now that has been pointed out would hardly be Christian, would it?
__________________ "Goodness is stronger than evil,
love is stronger than hate,
light is stronger than darkness,
life is stronger than death,
victory is ours through him who loved us."
(+Desmond Tutu)
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