Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Course 5 Week 5 Tyler's Topics

Tyler,

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11 comments:

Tyler Owens said...

The title of my book is THE BIBLE JESUS READ. The author is Philip Yancey. There are seven chapters in this book. I will be reading one chapter this week. The name of chapter five is Ecclesiastes: The End of Wisdom.

Tyler Owens said...

This chapter starts by talking about how the author would read other writnigs about why we are here. He would read from Hemmingway and Turgenev. He was starting to be an existentialist. Then he learned about the book of Ecclesiastes. He describes the "teacher" as the first existentialist.

Dr. Randy Carney said...

Hi, tyler,

I hope you had a great trip with the youth.

I used to know the meaning of the word, existensialist. Now I have a vague recollectin of it. Did the author give a definition?

Randy

Tyler Owens said...

The author kind of gave a vague definition of it. I think that it means an idea that we have know real reason to be on this earth and everything is meaningless. The difference, I think, is the book of Ecclesiastes says that all is meaningless-without God.

Tyler Owens said...

I hope that youg guys have a good new year. May God bless you double portions this upcoming year. I hope that your ministries really grow this year and you see souls won into the kingdom. Thank God for this time of renewel!!

sremery said...

I enjoy reading books from an author thats considered a christian existentialist. His name is Fyodor Dostoevsky, he's a russian that wrote books in the 1800's. He's very good at writing in a way of knowing the characters. I've never got an impression that he doesnt believe in God. So far I've read Crime & Punishment and The Brothers Karamosov (not positive on this spelling), in both books the main characters are christians. I would recommend them to anyone who likes to read. One interesting thing that happened in his life is that he was in prison and was sentenced to death by firing squad, but just minutes before he was to be shot, he was pardoned. He talks about how life slowed down in his last minutes before he thought he was going to die. Here is a description of "Christian existentialism" Kierkegaard proposes that each of us must make independent choices that will then comprise our existence. No imposed structures—even Biblical commandments—can alter the responsibility of individuals to seek to please God in whatever personal and paradoxical way God chooses to be pleased. Each individual suffers the anguish of indecision until he makes a leap of faith and commits to a particular choice. Each person is faced with the responsibility of knowing of his own free will and with the fact that a choice, even a wrong choice, must be made in order to live authentically.

Dr. Randy Carney said...

I am told that Soren Kierkegaard's leap of faith is one that doesn't require reason. While I believe everyone does have to take a leap of faith, I don't believe we have an unreasonable faith.

The fact that Christianity is a resonalble faith has caused people like C.S. Lewis to examine the reasonalbleness of the claims of Christ and move into faith, but it was not a blind leap of faith.

Also, the Biblical commandments, rightly understood, will not contradict a real leading of God (in my opinion), but it is true that we may have trouble with the right understanding of the commandments. The Pharisees understood the commandments very well in those days--yet they sometimes wrongly applied them.

Good comments. You've motivated me to read Dostoevsky.

Dr. Randy Carney said...

Happy New Year to both of you too.

Tyler Owens said...

I just finished reading a book called MORE THAN A CARPENTER by Josh Mcdowell. He talks about his choices when he did not believe in God. He decided to do some research on Jesus. In the beginning, he was trying to disprove some christian friends he had. By the time he was done with his research, he had no doubt that Jesus was who He claimed to be. The author became a christian shortly after that. All of our choices have consequences(good or bad). I am so glad for the choice that I made!

Tyler Owens said...

The author talks about how he sees the book of Ecclesiastes. Some look at it as mistake in the Old Testament. He thinks it is a reminder if the limits of being human. It shows how the height of power in Isreal was its downfall. We, as humans, are easily corrupted especially when we are "over blessed". God loves to bless us, but I think that He probably only gives us what He knows we can handle. If we get too much, like Solomon, we can start to think that it is us doing it by ourselves.

Tyler Owens said...

The end of the chapter about the meaning of the book of Ecclesiastes. The author talked about the how the Jews read it through once a year at the Festival of Tents. I guess it is a way to remember that without God, it is all meaningless. I think that we sometimes do that, too. Let us remember that wihtout God, all is vanity.