[Oe List ...] order songs

[KarenBueno at aol.com]

Thanks, Dean Johnson, for your work toward renewing theology!  I don't  know 
how I, personally, could help with any publishing, but I sure would be  
interested in reading your work!
 
I hope others on this list can be helpful in pointing you toward a  
publisher.  Have you read Bishop Spong's work, and checked with his  publisher?
 
Karen Bueno
 
 
 
In a message dated 8/19/2008 4:43:45 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
deananna2662 at COMCAST.NET writes:

Greetings:
I doubt that anyone remembers me now, but  my wife and I had been sojourners
with EI twice, at Rockford House,  Rockford, Illinois, and at Atlanta House
several years later.

I am a retired Episcopal priest, and over the years had implimented  EI
ideas and programs I had experienced in my parishes since then.   Even though
I had not become as adept in these skills as most of the  members of EI were,
I believe these methods made a significant impact in  each parish I had
since.

I am now retired in the  Diocese of Atlanta. My wife and I are both
psychotherapists, and we have  had a small counseling practice in this area
for the past 25 years.  I  am also in close association with many of the
local clergy in this area,  and have had some of them as counseling clients.
But the most significant  accomplishment, I think, is the completion of two
books that deal head-on  with the theological issues of the modern church.
Much of Christendom is  mired in the theology of the Middle Ages.  While not
espousing it,  most skirt around issues in order not to rock the boat.
Meanwhile, the boat  is sinking.  Traditional Christianity is having a
difficult time  evading the unpalatable distortions of Christianity, because
it has been  cast in concrete --- in sentimental themes of hymns, in
scriptures, in  creeds.  There seems to be no way to shed the heavy burden of
outmoded  theological propositions, without destroying the church and
alienating the  faithful --- or so it would seem.

I have written a couple  of books, as yet unpublished, exploring how the
more egregious aspects of  Pauline theology have dominated the church.  I
also illustrated how  his pharisaic attitudes contradicted the teachings of
Jesus, why Paul  thought as he did, and why his ideas  have virtually
eclipsed Jesus  himself.  The thinking of Paul seeped into nearly every book
of the  New Testament, and hence also creeds and doctrines.  I think if  we
continue dancing around this dilemma, Christianity will die.  But I  also
think that a Christianity according to Jesus would be infinitely  superior to
any of Paul's theories of redemption, retribution, judgment,  etc.

We all know how important nutrition is to our  physical health, which is
also true of spiritual nutrition.  But we  also know how important it is to
expel what we have ingested.  The  church seems to have no way to expel what
is now recognized as  contradictory to the thinking of Jesus, and we are
weighted down with  medieval concepts and archaic theology that undermines
the dynamic purposes  of Jesus, to enlighten his people to become a light to
the world.  I  think what most traditional religion needs, therefore, is a
good  enema.  Jesus intended us to start fresh.

I'm having  difficulty finding a publisher.  Most religious publishing
houses are  committed to the status quo, so I need to look elsewhere, but I
don't want  to be outside the house of faith.  I want to find a way to
rejuvinate  religion -- such as EI did after WWII so effectively.
It occurred to me  that people who understood and worked for that goal would
be potential  friends and colleagues, and I believe would be enthusiastic
about this  work.  I have been doing research for it since 1954, when a
classmate  and I in seminary made a startling discovery regarding a major
tenet of  faith.  We concluded that the early Church had it wrong.   Missed
the point. The Dead Sea scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library shed  light on a
theory, and pursuing this insight has led to a paradigm shift  for me that I
believe could transform a dying church.  I feel the need  for colleagues, to
be guided in how to make my contribution to theology  positive and helpful,
rather than negative and destructive.

I don't know who I am writing to, but am in hopes you might pass this  along
to whoever might be interested in this undertaking.  I am also  in need of a
copy of some of the order songs.   I've been helping  a Unity Church struggle
to find meaningful music for their services.   They are committed to
fostering spiritual awareness, but are hampered by a  hymn book that seems to
have originated in the 19th century, and is very  out of touch with
contemporary needs.

Please let me  hear from you,
Sincerely,  R. Dean  Johnson


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