The Worst Theologian

What do these readings have in common? On the surface level, it seems as only the Epistle and Gospel have anything in common: The disappointment in the Followers of God to live out their life with peace, love, and holiness. The third reading is about the inauguration of the Levitical Priesthood. And all these readings seem to be misplaced in connection to the Feast celebrated this Sunday, Pentecost. Pentecost, a time were God made holy the diversity of Babel and, in a sense, inaugurated the church. Where's the connection? There's a possible connection between the three readings and the Feast: Sound. Pentecost and the "tongues of fire", Aaron with the golden bells as a reminder to the people, the words spoken by Jesus and the gossip about Paul by the Corinthians (and his response as "speaking in Christ before God"). These are the reminder to the Church of God's absolute calling to us: to be a holy House of Prayer in the mist of our many-tongued life ...

I initially started this post a few weeks ago on certainty and how atheism could be seen as more of a box than (classical) theism. I could still write that post, but now is not the time. Instead, we're going to read a story, retell it, and then explain it. Icon of Christ healing the demon possessed boy http://www.uncutmountainsupply.com/icons/of-christ/his-miracles-and-parables/christ-heals-the-demon-possessed-boy-11l54/ A Story: The Healing of a Boy When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them.  When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him.   He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”   Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak;    and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; a...

"1. Is what you're saying helping anyone?" - The first rule in Everson Guild's Guide to Being Awesome (2002-2017) Death and the Question of Evil This year, on July 24th, my 14-year-old brother, Everson Guild , passed away unexpectedly. My whole family was in shock. He was too athletic, too outgoing, and too healthy to die so soon. There were no signs of any disease or defect and no drugs in his system according to the autopsy. So, how did he die? We don't know and may never know. My family (and loads of his friends) is content without knowing the cause of his death. But, they certainly would love to know why  he died. What purpose did it have? Why, when one of my family member's prayed and longed for him to live, did he still lay cold? These questions have haunted my family for the last 5 months like Halloween was going out of style. They linger in my family's heads and hearts as if the questions themselves were trapped in a tomb. And yet, every ...

You know, I'm bad at this blogging thing. I don't write regularly and I definitely haven't been keeping to the promises I've made. I hope you can forgive me. Because even though there's a dam along the river, it still flows. Introduction This blog series, which I'm calling "Union with Christ: Two Views", is going to be based on a paper I wrote, titled, Two Views on Mystical Union: An overview and comparison between Perfected (or Perfecting) Unity and Distinctive Unity. Though that paper's title seems very complex (and contrived), these blogposts will hopefully be less so. I would really like everyone to be able to understand this topic, so my writing style will be less formal than in my paper - just as it should be! And I say should be because theology and academia should be easily accessible to seekers of all levels of education - not just those with a college level or even postgraduate level of education. "Union with Christ: Two Views...

Thursday night, I went to the Michigan State library to meet my girlfriend. She watched a vegan Youtuber, I read a book. We're two different types of people, yet we still make it work somehow. It's seriously weird. She's almost the complete opposite of me in every way! She's the embodiment of Beauty, Love, and everything nice. But, now I'm sidetracking. After I took her back to her dorm, I decided to stay in the library and write my paper for my Western Religions class. My paper's title (right now) is, "Three Views of Mystical Union: Engulfed Unity, Perfected (or Perfecting Unity) and Distinctive Unity". In this paper, I try to compare and contrast three seemingly different articulations and argue that they are expressing the same thing in different words.  In the middle of writing the paper, around 4:30 am, I fell asleep. I woke up three hours later at 7:30. As I woke up, I decided to walk down the stairs, looking the Thriller music video, to ...

In my last blogpost, I mentioned that I wanted to start relationships with 4 others. I gave two of them: God and you, the readers. At the end of the post, I said that I hoped for the two others to show up in the next post, which is this one. However, I took on a way bigger task than I had initially thought. And because of it being larger than my life at the moment, I have to postpone naming those 2 others until I'm comfortable doing the task. With that in mind, let me start this blog off right! Name of the blog "The Worst Theologian" is the personal blog of Christian Guild (me). It's given that title because I'll never be a good theologian. I know that sounds self-critical, but I don't think I'll ever be a "good" theologian. I say that because God is so unknowable, yet knowable at the same time, that I'll never be ably to study the Divine, in the truest sense. The only way to really express the Divine is through metaphor - whether tha...

Although I am not Troy or Gabriella , I am on the verge of a new relationship. This relationship will hopefully take the form of agape love, which our dearly beloved Wikipedia defines as, "[embracing] a universal, unconditional love that transcends, that serves regardless of circumstances." And who might this relationship be with? Well, there's 2 (or 3 or 4) people/groups I am willing to show an unconditional love. 1. God, of course! Having a relationship with reality itself better be unconditional. I mean, the only reason I, or you, or anything, exists is because of this immanent Being . Being  as in Being Itself  or, in other worlds, Reality, The Ground of Existence, existence itself.  That is what God is. God is all-in-all, and yet unknowable. Transcendent, yet immanent. And this guiding force, acts out of love, and is love itself. Therefore, the Ultimate , not only includes our own ideas of agape, but transcends it. 2. You, the Readers! As a newer blogger,...