Celtic Odyssey

In this series, we’re reviewing the book, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity , by David M. Felten and Jeff Procter-Murphy. In this post, we’ll be reviewing chapters 17-18. Chapter 17: Incarnation — Divinely Human While this chapter is title “Incarnation,” Felten and Procter-Murphy start out unraveling the birth stories we have about Jesus. They start by saying, “We really don’t know the what, where, or how of Jesus’s birth” (pg. 175). And while that’s true in one way, it’s definably untrue in another. That is, if we take the biblical record into account and hold that it matters. For example, on the next page, Felten and Procter-Murphy state: We haven’t even begun to consider the multitude of other Gospels that didn’t make the cut into the canon of scripture. Some were left out for theological reasons, some for political reasons, but most were dropped when the church was trying to develop an identity and, in modern terms, spin the story of Jesus in th...

John 9.1-41 (CEB): As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who was blind from birth. Jesus’ disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind, this man or his parents?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents. This happened so that God’s mighty works might be displayed in him. While it’s daytime, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After he said this, he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and smeared the mud on the man’s eyes. Jesus said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (this word means sent ). So the man went away and washed. When he returned, he could see. The man’s neighbors and those who used to see him when he was a beggar said, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is,” and others said, “No, it’s someone who looks like him.” But the man said, “Yes, it’s me!” So they asked him, “How are you now able to see?” He answe...