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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 5h

Genesis 15 (the covenant with Abram), especially with what happens in verses 10-12 and 17!

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 5h

Thank you! ❤️ Apologies for replying, but some of my narthex friends might find these helpful - tagging them here ⚓️

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Reposted by Christopher West

Karen O’Donnell @karenod.bsky.social · 5h

It’s Baby Loss Awareness Week.

After losing multiple pregnancies in my 20s, I eventually wrote The Dark Womb about theology and pregnancy loss. Part of that was a selection of prayers & liturgies - available here
@scmpress.bsky.social #babyloss #babylossawarenessweek #theology #prayers

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Reposted by Christopher West

Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 1d

Am actually quite moved to read the thoughts of the actors and director about Leonard and Hungry Paul.

I honestly never expected any of this. I was just typing away for my own entertainment and a book popped out.

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

Leonard and Hungry Paul cast and Director on telling a story about kindness, friendship, and the quiet heroism of everyday life -

The feel-good series stars Alex Lawther, Laurie Kynaston and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, with Julia Roberts as narrator

www.bbc.co.uk

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 1d

My brother is currently working on an architectural project inspired by an installation by the French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, and I must say, I’m absolutely obsessed.

L'installation de Céleste Boursier-Mougenot « clinamen » à la Bourse de Commerce

YouTube video by Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection

youtu.be

Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 1d

You're far too kind! Thank you for your encouragement 😊

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 2d

Would that it were not for my ornithophobia!

Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 2d

Our perhaps more reflective of the heartbeat of my reflection: “Gratitude is not a condition for God’s love – it is our right response to grace.” ⚓

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 2d

Bonus points for anyone who can spot the typo! (Hint: check out my enthusiasm for the definite article!)

Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 2d

Such a privilege to be asked to contribute notes on Sunday’s readings for this wonderful project. You can read my reflections on idolatry and ingratitude here: “The wounds of our world are the very wounds of Jesus to us. We love him only as much as we love our neighbours in creation.” ⚓

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – Preaching for God's World

www.preachingforgodsworld.org

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

It is a specific way of dealing with the ethical element in the human constitution, not necessarily a different set of instructions. It is the courage to ask (Ricoeur): what does the good life, with and for others, in just institutions, look like concretely, in action, within particular contexts?

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

Considering distinctiveness in approach to ethics as a human response to God, MJK says: what is specific to the biblical, including Christian, particularity is sought in the approach to ethics, not first of all in a totally different content from surrounding cultures.

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

Back to MJK: ethics is therefore best understood as a human response to God’s action – which is, in some way, codified (both God’s action and human experience, however falteringly) in Scripture.

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

... One could answer what is distinctive about biblical morality by briefly saying that it regards human behaviour as the direct and immediate response to God’s will.’

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

... Such a use of the Bible in theology seems to me best to take account of its historical and time-conditioned nature, on the one hand, and yet accept its normative value as God’s word for the Church of every age, on the other…

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

... How much better off were they than their neighbours in discovering how one should lead the good life and what that good life consists of?…

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

And finally, to Seán Freyne: ‘What was distinctive about the approach of the people of the Bible to morality? How did faith determine and enlighten their conduct?...

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

‘We are left with mere fragments and abstractions, meaningless apart from the entire fabric of life to which they belonged. A unique but docetic Jesus; a unique but fantasised community.’

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

Next, to Wayne Meeks, who writes, against the ‘criterion of dissimilarity’, which isolates what is apparently distinctively Christian from the surrounding culture:

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

... or by arbitrarily privileging one particular mode of biblical discourse over all others (“norm reductionism”)… typically accompanied by the conviction that the Bible is the sole authority in ethical matters… ethical vision [is] narrowed down to scattered biblical prescriptions.’

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

MJK then turns to a few prescient quotations to give substance to this.

First, to Tom Deidun: ‘People who see the Bible as a repository of divine commands run the risk of trivialising it by isolating elements of it at whim,...

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

It is not a misrepresentation of MJK to say that she regards the extent to which attentiveness is given to the hermeneutical enterprise as directly indicative of the ethics of approaches to ethics.

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

The bottom line, MJK says, is that the reconstruction of the traditions of Jesus and their critical contemporary appropriation go together. Hermeneutics is needed for theological reasons; in fact, MJK argues, ethics is fundamentally hermeneutical.

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

MJK says that the first step is being attuned to the fact that, instead of a steady process of linear unfolding, we have to reckon with processes of translation, experience, and transformation – processes which we try, and fail, to identify from the vantage point of the Church’s present faith.

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Christopher West @christophernwest.bsky.social · 3d

Recently, I have been wrestling, accompanied by Maureen Junker-Kenny’s work (especially Approaches to Theological Ethics: Sources, Traditions, Visions), with the ways in which Scripture is used in ethics. Sharing MJK’s insights below, just in case others find them useful: ⚓

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