Comments on: pondering pragmatists http://www.somestrangeideas.com/2004/12/09/pondering-pragmatists/ theophile | bibliophile | technophile Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:51:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Jason http://www.somestrangeideas.com/2004/12/09/pondering-pragmatists/comment-page-1/#comment-676 Jason Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:47:21 +0000 http://www.subvergence.org/wordpress/?p=144#comment-676 I have often said to people that I did not go into ministry because I secretly harbored an ambition to become an accountant. The point is that there are a great many things which militate against a growing life of the mind and spirit as a priest/pastor, most of which clamor for attention as being rather urgent, and which, I suspect, will kill your soul in the long run. Bishop Tom is certainly (w)right that there is a false dischotomy between pastoral work and scholarship, spirit and mind. My worry is that in the church we might be tempted to choose neither. I have often said to people that I did not go into ministry because I secretly harbored an ambition to become an accountant. The point is that there are a great many things which militate against a growing life of the mind and spirit as a priest/pastor, most of which clamor for attention as being rather urgent, and which, I suspect, will kill your soul in the long run. Bishop Tom is certainly (w)right that there is a false dischotomy between pastoral work and scholarship, spirit and mind. My worry is that in the church we might be tempted to choose neither.

]]> By: david http://www.somestrangeideas.com/2004/12/09/pondering-pragmatists/comment-page-1/#comment-675 david Fri, 10 Dec 2004 19:02:15 +0000 http://www.subvergence.org/wordpress/?p=144#comment-675 it does really seem that in pastorship one is suppossed to figure out his theology and then 'go get it done' and not spend his life swining back and forth (teatering on the fault-line). Im no fan of allowing oposing truths to coexist as truth, but it does me good to here a model of teaching that says after it is all done there are two eighty year old dudes siting on either side of most issues, both of whom have studied, pastored, loved, and prayed more than most likely i ever will. This doesn't lead me to pointlessness, but it helps me remember that wisdom and temperance and grace and curiousity ought to be in the mix and as a teacher one is only ever answering the best he can up to that moment, very rarely definitively. sense? it does really seem that in pastorship one is suppossed to figure out his theology and then ‘go get it done’ and not spend his life swining back and forth (teatering on the fault-line).

Im no fan of allowing oposing truths to coexist as truth, but it does me good to here a model of teaching that says after it is all done there are two eighty year old dudes siting on either side of most issues, both of whom have studied, pastored, loved, and prayed more than most likely i ever will. This doesn’t lead me to pointlessness, but it helps me remember that wisdom and temperance and grace and curiousity ought to be in the mix and as a teacher one is only ever answering the best he can up to that moment, very rarely definitively. sense?

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