For Adam Caldwell

Holy crap I'm a Calvinist!!

So, AC, I took your little quiz things I think they may be flawed a bit. I am Chalcedon compliant, no surprise there. I am tied for being Wesleyan and Liberal theologically, again nothing of note. But, then, I take the Which Theologian Are You? quiz and JOHN FREAKIN' CALVIN narrowly beats out mister Paul Tillich. And, I say it's flawed because John Wesley is not a choice for a theologian but Wesleyan is a choice for theological world. How can Wesleyan be a theology if Wesley wasn't a theologian.

Anyway, I'd like to take this oppurtunity to give you all a sample of Bryanian Theology. Now, understand, Barth wrote Dogmatics for about 40 years and never finished it and I have about 15 minutes before I have to go. Here we go.

Doctrine of God: Truly, Wholy, Wonderfully in love with ALL OF CREATION.
Human Condition: Separation. We were created to be with God, our choices separated us.
Christology: Reunion. God became fully human to reconnect the creation with the creator.
Soterilogy(doctrine of salvation): Salvation ultimately rests in the grace of God, nothing we do can save us.
Doctrine of Sin: That which separates us from God further than we are. Choices.
Ecclesiology(doctrine of the church): The church exsists to expose people to the grace of God in Jesus Christ and to actively work towards the social, political, educational, economical, racial, sexual, orientational, and environmental justice of all creation.
Old Testament: Mostly metaphorically, not literally, true in nature, meant to instruct and reveal God's active presence in creation.
New Testament: Meant to first and foremost be seen for its original meaning to its original readers, THEN read for us today. A human product, which in turn makes it seem more real and true to me.
Eschatology(doctrine of End Times): I have no freakin' clue and I don't think we're supposed to know and i don't think it matters one bit to what the church does in this world.


So, there you have it. That's what I think. However, I also think that no human being has ownership of the truth. We won't know for sure until we're on the wrong side of the grass and by then it'll be too late. Conversation and dialogue are key for world religions to bring about the justice that we all seek.

All I have to figure out now is whether it should be BRY-n-e-n (say the letters) or BRYAN-ee-n.

Thanks for the inspiration AC, I'd be interested if you my cohorts in the theological realm of things or any other of my readers would offer similar synopses of their theological stances.

See you in the next world, (except you, lynz I'll see you today, and you andy I'll see you thursday, and you AC/dru/dennis/mustoe i'll see you at graduation, and you mom and dad I'll see you soon, and you tom, i'll see you this summer sometime) But, eventually, I guess, I'll see you in the next world, whatever that might be.

B. James Bryan (my theologian moniker)