Thank you for this. It's a truly encouraging reading of what has been turned into a burdensome passage.
Question: Do you see "joy" as falling under the same "non-emotional" (or at least, not primarily emotional) category as blessedness? Is it proper, based on the way the words are used, to view them as overlapping?
Well, minimally, the command to be rejoice always or rejoice while persecuted cannot mean primarily a feeling of elation, such as when someone gives you a present or a slice of cake or even the celebration of a wedding. To rejoice while tortured is possible, but then it cannot mean we "feel great."
So I think of joy as having an emotional and character referent. Someone who is joyful will regularly break out in the emotion that we call joy. But we can be joyful during cancer but feel physically terrible.
Is anyone aware of any catechetical resource that uses the Apostles Creed, Lord's Prayer and the Beautitudes (instead of 10 Commandments) as a teaching structure?
In regards to your first point; Way 1: A Righteousness Impossible to Reach, and the use of the word, ‘perfect’…
The Geneva Bible notes on Matt 5:48, “We must labour to atteine unto y perfectiō of God, who of his free liberalitie, doeth good to them that are unworthie.”
(Lat. perfectio: perfection; viz., the highest or most complete condition of any thing or attribute)
Thanks for this challenging comment. I am reading Willard now. And I think I can see your point, although I am not sure I am in his crosshairs either. He wants to say that all the typical people who seem "out" of the kingdom are actually in; I am saying that the Beatitudes are for all AND that they satisfy our deepest longings for joy.
Thank you for this. It's a truly encouraging reading of what has been turned into a burdensome passage.
Question: Do you see "joy" as falling under the same "non-emotional" (or at least, not primarily emotional) category as blessedness? Is it proper, based on the way the words are used, to view them as overlapping?
Well, minimally, the command to be rejoice always or rejoice while persecuted cannot mean primarily a feeling of elation, such as when someone gives you a present or a slice of cake or even the celebration of a wedding. To rejoice while tortured is possible, but then it cannot mean we "feel great."
So I think of joy as having an emotional and character referent. Someone who is joyful will regularly break out in the emotion that we call joy. But we can be joyful during cancer but feel physically terrible.
Excellent summary.
Is anyone aware of any catechetical resource that uses the Apostles Creed, Lord's Prayer and the Beautitudes (instead of 10 Commandments) as a teaching structure?
I am not, but I think by the 16th century, moralities of obligation had taken over as the normal way to do moral catechesis.
In regards to your first point; Way 1: A Righteousness Impossible to Reach, and the use of the word, ‘perfect’…
The Geneva Bible notes on Matt 5:48, “We must labour to atteine unto y perfectiō of God, who of his free liberalitie, doeth good to them that are unworthie.”
(Lat. perfectio: perfection; viz., the highest or most complete condition of any thing or attribute)
Fascinating!
Thanks for this challenging comment. I am reading Willard now. And I think I can see your point, although I am not sure I am in his crosshairs either. He wants to say that all the typical people who seem "out" of the kingdom are actually in; I am saying that the Beatitudes are for all AND that they satisfy our deepest longings for joy.