Re-Formation
What do we mean by "Re-Formation?"
We are all enculturated into a means of understanding the world and our place in it - we are "formed" from birth knowingly or unknowingly. We experience both positive and negative influences at work in our lives as we mature within our current social context and as we engage with the world around us. The consequences of enculturation, both positive and negative, effect us as individuals, our families, and our society generally.
In this formative enculturation process we acquire many attributes that work contrary to a Life of Christ -- Christ's teachings playing out in our lives. Our ability to understand God's desire for us and for all of His Creation is then limited severely . As a result, we tend to not realize the restorative and creative possibilities available to us. In many ways, we live deficient Christian lives. We come to live far below our potential for creativity, freedom, peace, and significance.
When we make a decision to turn and follow Jesus Christ, we begin a process of "re-formation" out of the way we were earlier malformed - a moving out of the way we previously felt and thought and did as God renews our minds, hearts, and ambitions. This process of re-formation takes tenacity and persistence. It takes time and effort and is a community undertaking. As someone said, "There are no Lone-Ranger Christians."
In this effort of ours, we wish to establish a means of giving ourselves to a process of Christian formation to be "re-formed" out of the old ways that hinder a good life of peace and freedom and into ways that enable us to discover what it means to love God with all of our lives and to love our neighbor as we learn to love ourselves. In many ways, it is coming out of the "City of Man" and into the "City of God," as St. Augustine might emphasize. Our hope is that as we move more fully into life as God intends for all of His creation, we will become the image of God (the imago Dei) as a people and as individuals for the sake of those who wish to know God and draw closer to God.
Two possible means of doing all this revolves around the proposals currently being considered. See the "Red Hook Space" and "ImagoDei" found in the menu above for a couple ideas of how we are trying to encourage re-formation.
We are all enculturated into a means of understanding the world and our place in it - we are "formed" from birth knowingly or unknowingly. We experience both positive and negative influences at work in our lives as we mature within our current social context and as we engage with the world around us. The consequences of enculturation, both positive and negative, effect us as individuals, our families, and our society generally.
In this formative enculturation process we acquire many attributes that work contrary to a Life of Christ -- Christ's teachings playing out in our lives. Our ability to understand God's desire for us and for all of His Creation is then limited severely . As a result, we tend to not realize the restorative and creative possibilities available to us. In many ways, we live deficient Christian lives. We come to live far below our potential for creativity, freedom, peace, and significance.
When we make a decision to turn and follow Jesus Christ, we begin a process of "re-formation" out of the way we were earlier malformed - a moving out of the way we previously felt and thought and did as God renews our minds, hearts, and ambitions. This process of re-formation takes tenacity and persistence. It takes time and effort and is a community undertaking. As someone said, "There are no Lone-Ranger Christians."
In this effort of ours, we wish to establish a means of giving ourselves to a process of Christian formation to be "re-formed" out of the old ways that hinder a good life of peace and freedom and into ways that enable us to discover what it means to love God with all of our lives and to love our neighbor as we learn to love ourselves. In many ways, it is coming out of the "City of Man" and into the "City of God," as St. Augustine might emphasize. Our hope is that as we move more fully into life as God intends for all of His creation, we will become the image of God (the imago Dei) as a people and as individuals for the sake of those who wish to know God and draw closer to God.
Two possible means of doing all this revolves around the proposals currently being considered. See the "Red Hook Space" and "ImagoDei" found in the menu above for a couple ideas of how we are trying to encourage re-formation.
Comments that help define or refine the concepts presented here are welcome...
No TrackBacks
TrackBack URL: http://redhookproject.org/cgi-bin/MT/mt-tb.cgi/3
Leave a comment