Actually, I'm sure the dialog will be cordial and doubt any punches will be thrown, but the theme for this years national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society will be the doctrine of justification. The meeting will take place in Atlanta this coming November. John Piper and N. T. Wright are plenary speakers and will sit together for a panel discussion. You can read more about it here.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
ETS Meeting, November 2010: Piper VS Wright
Actually, I'm sure the dialog will be cordial and doubt any punches will be thrown, but the theme for this years national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society will be the doctrine of justification. The meeting will take place in Atlanta this coming November. John Piper and N. T. Wright are plenary speakers and will sit together for a panel discussion. You can read more about it here.
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If it did happen to come to blows, who do you think would win? I think Piper would; he seems to be in far better shape. If so, then he would have beaten Wright in both the theological and MMAs domains!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of your facination with MMA ;), Justin Taylor had a blog about evangelicalism's increasing facination with MMA with specific reference to the use of MMA in ministry and outreach. Any thoughts?
ReplyDeletehttp://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/02/02/jesus-didnt-tap/
Your question regarding the use of MMA in ministry evoked images of Kimo, the Hawaiian Tae Kwon Do-er, during the infancy of the UFC. Kimo would come out of the locker room donned in a purple robe and bearing an 8 ft. solid-wood cross. At cageside, the robe and cross would be dropped to reveal a full back tattoo of the crucified Lord, with JESUS inscribed across the lower arch of his ribcage. Whatever witness this may have provided, Son, Kimo’s trainer, quickly quelled with his cageside manners.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, my “fascination” with MMA has waned much over the years. With the neck injury I sustained (which is really giving me a fit right now!), a more intense focus on studies, and reading the patristics, who were fairly uniform in their opposition to the games (though those of their context routinely ended in deaths; and much of their opposition was in reaction to the overt idolatry involved of course), I’m not exactly comfortable watching two men ‘ground-n-pound’ the image of God out of each other. Moreover, if, as Carson puts it, we’re to be sign-posts pointing toward the new creation, and violent blood-sports are not fit for the venue of new creation, well then, I don’t believe that such sports represent a viable pastime for believers. I think of Cain and Able. The fall is the necessary condition for MMA ;). So, in this respect, I stand somewhat with Tertullian, who said, “The Lord, in disarming Peter, unbelted every Christian” (AH 4:14:3).
I’m not positive what you mean by the use of MMA in ministry. I’m sure it’s not exactly like the Kimo example. I don’t believe believers should hold some pietistic ignorance about such things either. We know Paul alluded to various fighting sports in his epistles. Boxing (no doubt at the Isthmian games in Corinth, see 1 Cor 9:26), wrestling (Eph 6:12), and possibly pankration (Phil 1:27—30?). Pankration is what Kerry Dale’s team regularly competed in at Kansas City; it’s a combination of striking and grappling—only without strikes to the face. Fanny was even entertaining the idea of competing in the women’s division (years ago); she’s a devastating grappler.
Just some thoughts...random as they may be;)
Had you visited the link I provided, you would have known what I meant by the use of MMA in ministry. :) It's basically like a basketball or vollyball ministry in a church. Guys get together, spend some time in the word and in prayer, and then beat the tar out of each other (probably a bit of a mischaracterization, but nevertheless...).
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