Progressive Books Group Study Guide #6
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Books / Material Covered in this Study Guide:
The Once and Future Faith by the Jesus Seminar
Emptiness & Brightness by Don Cupitt
Honest to God by John Robinson
Honest to Jesus by Robert Funk
The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg
Excerpt:
The Once and Future Faith
Jesus Seminar
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What author or essays did you like best? With what did you disagree? Any new insights? Anything you would like to discuss?
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What do you think of the “Quest for the Historical Jesus”? Do you agree that the church needs to be changed? Do you think that the Jesus scholarship alone could change the church from a “salvation machine” to the church of the future? If not, what is needed to change the church? How can it change if it should?
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Did you find anything new in Karen Armstrong’s suggestions? Is there anything you feel strongly about? She said we should abandon the doctrines of Original Sin, Incarnation, Trinity, and Atonement OR find what is at the heart of these doctrines. Funk said much the same thing (p. 17). Spong also said that we have to distinguish between the experience and the explanation. What are the age-old topics and themes central to the human condition? In other words, what should the faith address or do for humans?