Preparing for May 11

We enjoyed our discussion of Catholicism (and catholicism) with you all this week and look forward to continuing next Sunday, May 11 (Happy Mother's Day!). We began our discussion this week by discussing a few different quotes from the Pope. We then moved on to discuss Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Our take away from the discussion is that there are strong opinions on this issue, but that we already have a class that is committed to listening to one another and learning from one another.

We then moved on to begin to discuss postmodernism. For those of you who were not able to join us the link to the video on postmodernism and Judaism is below. Keep in mind that we just watched the first segment but the link will give you the entire piece. If you just want to see what we discussed, you can cut it off after the first couple minutes.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=97ekq9v8cak&feature=related

We will continue our discussion of postmodernism this week. We will emphasize the way Methodists have been taught to think about tough issues by using the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of scripture, tradition, reason and experience. We'll consider whether Wesley was a postmodernist ahead of his time. The article we posted last week on the topic will be helpful in this discussion. We'll also take some time to talk about future discussion topics (watch for a discussion of Mary in a few weeks after we do some research) and to lift up any prayer concerns we may have so that we may be in prayer for one another during the week to come.

Since liberation theology has been at the forefront of election coverage here for the past month or so, we thought this might make an interesting topic for May 18. While we have heard the term in election coverage in this part of the world lately, it has also been a significant influence in Catholic theology in places like Brazil. The following articles will illustrate the way this theology has been addressed by both Pope Benedict and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/world/americas/07theology.html?scp=1&sq=black+liberation+theology&st=nyt

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/weekinreview/04powell.html?scp=1&sq=black+liberation+theology&st=nyt


For those of you joining us for the first time, we are meeting in the fellowship hall under the sanctuary. If you need to leave early for choir or other obligations we understand, please don't let that stop you from joining us. And for those of you that travel, join us when you can and stay in touch via the internet when you can't. We are glad to be in conversation with all of you!

Peace be with you until Sunday,
Deb and Bryan