User:Chrismon
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[edit] Chrismon Who?
My main interests in Wikipedia are entries on cultural and geographic history (particularly of the Western Primeval and Medieval sort) and the development and history of Christian theology, as well as Christian ethics. As someone with a degree in Medieval Studies (and another Computer Science), as well as having two decades worth of reading and discussion within the interests mentioned above, I hope I actually have something worthwhile to contribute on these topics - at least to help clarify what's been said already if not even to imagine I could have an original and worthwhile idea of my own. Some of my favorite authors in history, theology and ethics are Tertullian, Eusebius of Caesarea, St. Augustine of Hippo, Karl Barth, C. S. Lewis, Jaroslav Pelikan, John H. Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas, among others.
I tend to make Wikipedia edits and then delete them before even posting them. I realize that sometimes I just like to hear myself "speak". This is wisdom that only comes with age... well, at least for me.
I also like to browse Wikipedia for its content on music, television and movies. I tend to shy away from articles on current events, and especially current violence, as it is hard for me to contribute in a way most see as productive. After all, most of my contributions to such articles have something to do with the question: "What if we decided to love our enemies?". As you might imagine, this doesn't go very far with most people and tends to get quickly edited out. I also enjoy reading about all sorts of scientific discovery, particularly space exploration.
And, after all, what is a "chrismon"? Not surprisingly, my first, original Wikipedia article explains just that! Check it out... Chrismon
Demographically speaking, I'm a married, bearded, white, just about to enter middle-age, father of one, beautiful little daughter. I have lived in San Francisco, California, USA for over a decade. My socio-political views are not defined by Left or Right, Conservative or Liberal, Republican or Democrat, but by learning to ever more deeply center my life upon the things that serve the realization of purposes of God in Jesus Christ in his world.
[edit] My Sandbox
[edit] Criticism of Christian ethics
The perpetual and easily perceptable gap between Christians ethics and Christian praxis has led to unfortunate, yet justifiable, criticisms of Christian ethics. However, such criticisms are usually reactions to praxis and do not adress the philosophical ethic directly. For example, some Roman Catholic philosophers debated or deplored the rape, extermination and enslavement of the peoples of the New World especially in South America, often with the active participation of the Roman Church. In later consideration Friedrich Nietzsche, called Christian ethics a "slave ethics" for counselling submission to the authority of invaders/enslavers. However, rape, extermination and enslavement are not positive parts of the Christian ethic of any mainstream and historical sect of Christianity. While the Christian scriptures and the Churches' historical writings, with large and dubious efforts in adaptation, have often been used to justify unethical behavior, this practice has historically pitted one interpretation of Christian ethics against another. The aforementioned justification of the slave trade was not a universally accepted argument and caused wars within Christendom and strife within the Church itself[citation needed] . As well, we can see this dynamic in the American Civil War as both, majorally Protestant, sides claimed a Christian ethical justification for owning and not owning slaves.[citation needed] .
[edit] Narrative perspective
Narrative theology describes the kingdom of God as present and future, not through a tension between "the now and the not yet", but as the overlapping of eons. The present eon ends at the return of Christ, while the future eon begins with the birth of Christ. So currently, human history enjoys a taste of the reality of the kingdom of God, initiated by the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and maintained by his Church. In this understanding, the Church is God's witness to the new reality of the kingdom of God which will come in its fullness at the parousia, or "day of the Lord"....
