Downtown Kansas City has been transformed into this wintry wilderness. If you don't believe that, then just think of climbing a snowfield as a metaphor for completing a very difficult essay.
There are downsides to having a foot of snow fall on your city in just over eight hours. Like when you drive home from work and the ten minute trip takes you 45 minutes. But there are benefits too, like getting snowed in the next day and finishing the research paper that has haunted your life for the past month.
That’s right. My scintillating essay, The Validity of Petitionary Prayer in Three Models of Providence; The Search for a God We Can Take Seriously is now complete. YES! Since I know you are dying to read the paper, here’s a quick excerpt.
Nearly everyone prays. In practice, asking God for specific provisions and outcomes is so ingrained a spiritual reflex that it is difficult to conceive of “prayer” without it. This sterling fact, a derivation of the idea that there are no atheists in foxholes, creates an atmosphere of religious expectation sure to be exploited by any God who can. Any God who can; appearances aside, the phrase is not so much flippant as analytic: Is God able to hear and respond to our requests? Can he be expected to do so? The answer depends on who you ask.
In the course of the paper, I examine three theological systems (the Semi-Deist Model, Process Theology, and Karl Barth’s work) and disparage two of them as inadequate because they don’t let us ask God for help. We humans are ultimately very simple in our hopes for prayer:
William James, attempting to debunk petitionary prayer, suggested stingingly that to ask God for specific amounts of money (as in George Muller’s case) or ask him to help you win a violent battle (as in the case of Robert Lyde, an English sailor) was extraordinarily narrow-minded, “crass” and "primitive." Ironically, a God who could win a bloody skirmish is just the type that most people would prefer to pray to; and if I can ask God for money, I will take him seriously.
We want to believe that God can intervene and help us, and the Bible says this is a reasonable—essential, actually—expectation. The Creator is able to give aid to his creation.
At the moment, I am very appreciative of this fact. Now that I’ve finished this paper, I will start praying for God to help me write my fourth and last one.
::
Like what you see? Go vote for BitterSweetLife in the 2005 Weblog Awards.
4 comments:
While you are at it (recalling God is indeed God of the mundane) pray for my car; she is sick and this is not the time for her to be.
Also, thanks for the reminder. I often forget to pray while working on papers, especially theological ones. The poetic justice cuts a bit deep when I do not pray and attempt to rely on simply my own facilties to write a exigetical paper on Phillipians 2.
I asked God to maintain your car, for the time being. Hopefully you've been changing the oil as well?
Good luck on the paper! You're right about the poetic justice, as I can also attest.
We're also in the KC area and experienced some snow-related hysteria. Saw your blog and Relevant and thought I'd check in. Keep up the good work.
Oh, the oil has been changed: I am serious about taking care of my car. It turns out to be a problem with the fuel lines, they are taking in oxygen. My car will stil run but with minimul fuel effciency and I am having it taken care of when I go back to the Garden State (home, sweet, home)for New Years so that I do not have to bum rides. Alas, the mechnics fee is not cheap (but discounted for seminary students!), such is the nature of car repair.
Thanks for your prayers
Post a Comment