It was a simple invitation to the Eucharist. All was going apparently well, a stark contrast to what I had feared in light of the events two weeks earlier. An African Methodist Episcopal Church choir had been invited by one of my parishioners to worship with us on World Communion Sunday. I wholeheartedly encouraged the visit from the guests' choir, and related my enthusiasm to the rest of the congregation. However, after my announcement, one of the leaders of the Church came up to me afterwards and said with a smile: "You know, we never lynched a Preacher in this town before. Don't think you can't be the first one!"

The service for World Communion was packed; seventy-five people attended instead of the normal twenty-five. Apparently, news of the AME choir's arrival and the "hot-shot young Preacher" who invited them, had spread throughout the community. I had prepared a sermon on Romans 3:21-31, along with Galatians 3:28-29 for added emphasis, stressing the inclusiveness of all creation in God's actions through Christ. The choir then sang a beautiful and moving rendition of "Standing in the Light of God." The Eucharist was the culmination of the whole service, affirming the meaning of the Sunday celebration, participating in God's actions of grace, together as the body of Christ.

I never would have imagined that the Holy action of partaking in the Eucharist could be perverted into an opportunity for intimidation and overt racism. As I invited the congregation forward to share in the Eucharist, a large faction of the people led by the church leader who had threatened me, arose from their pews and marched to the back of the church. Standing with arms crossed and looks of hatred and imminent doom, they silently and ominously threatened any who would share in the Lord's Supper with the Black choir members. A few people courageously came forward and stood beside the choir in the face of overt evil and indignation; together they participated in God's indestructible love that was manifested in the Eucharist.

The event above is an example of systemic injustice, raising serious questions about Ecclesiology, the meaning of Sacraments, the nature of sin and evil, Theological Anthropology, and by implication, the nature of God, God's grace, and God's revelation in Jesus as the Christ. Three questions will form the framework for this Credo. What does it mean to be created in the image of God? What does it mean to be that image in this time? What will it mean to be completed/fulfilled/perfected as God's image?

It is my assertion that as created in the image of God, I am called to participate in God's radical love and radical inclusiveness in the in-breaking basilea⁽¹⁾ of God; a radical love and inclusiveness that is both the historical and ongoing redemptive actions of God to bring creation into a full and right relationship with God's dynamic perichoretic existence. Each person involved in the event above was influenced by and acted from his or her own perception of religious truth, some chose to participate, others chose to oppose. So then, how does one arrive at the "truth?"

It is my opinion that truth is subjective. What one person perceives as reality might not be the perceived reality of another person. One may evaluate truth in three ways: through ability, point of perception, or will. By ability, an individual's encounter with reality can be influenced and filtered through the mind's ability to perceive experiences; some chemicals have the power to alter perception influencing, impairing or enhancing the mind.⁽²⁾ By point of perception, the particular vantage point is also a determinant to perceive truth, anything from physical local, economic/social background, events in their lives, or other factors forming a person in any given place or time. By will, a person may "choose" to accept or deny a truth, based on preconceived ideas (paradigms) or a willingness to experience and encounter a differing point of view.⁽³⁾ So with religious truth, how can one truth be determined as valid over another, and what is religious truth? In my search for religious truth, I use the guidelines of Scripture, Experience, Tradition, and Reason. Here is how I see these at work.

As the vessel for the revealed Word of God, Scripture is the keystone for Christian faith and practice and is the guardian and transmitter of the Christian story from one generation to the next, a potent wellspring for instruction and model for/of the Christian life. Scripture is the divinely inspired manifestation of God's revelation (qeo<pneustoj - God breathed/God inspired)⁽⁴⁾, to guide people into a right relationship with God and each other. Inspired means that Scripture is the record of people's encounter with God's self-revelation in the past. That Scripture is alive when its word is received and experienced through life in community demonstrates how Scripture is not a "dead" revelation; it is the "criterion" to evaluate other revelations of the Divine.⁽⁵⁾ However central a place Scripture holds in the life of the basilea, it cannot stand alone; Scripture must be interpreted with the implements of reason, tradition, and experience, operating in conjunction to interpret Scripture to enhance and elucidate meaning.⁽⁶⁾

Reason is the capacity to comprehend, discern, and make meaning. Reason analyzes the current situation and makes meaning in a theological sense, approaching but not answering the question "why." Alone, reason yields nothing; knowledge is attained through experiences of events and information outside us, and through reasoning, meaning and understanding can be realized. Dr. Beverly Harrison puts forth that knowledge is based upon "sensuality," meaning that people interact with the world and environment through senses and feelings, which are the root for an intellect and value system.⁽⁷⁾ Therefore, reason interprets the information gained through the senses and develops meaning. As Scripture is the foundational theophany for Christianity, reason functions to understand and communicate the message found in Scripture. However, sin permeates every aspect of human existence, including reason. Therefore, reason may lead to false conclusions or false understanding of Scripture, perhaps to justify an evil act.⁽⁸⁾ Aided by experience, reason understands and communicates the wisdom and guidance of Scripture.

Experience is encountered in two distinct ways: individually and communally. As an individual matter, experience functions as an internal response to an external event. To illustrate, a believer knows they are loved by God because through God's grace and the indwelling Holy Spirit, God's action of love is communicated to the individual. In other words, a believer becomes affected by God's love through God's grace communicated by the Holy Spirit indwelling in the believer. In the hymn "He Lives," the final phrase of the refrain states: "You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart."⁽⁹⁾ Thus, experience serves as a foundation to understand God's love in the presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit. As a communal matter, experience is the combined history and understanding of a people, shared through communication, story telling, and collective remembering; communal experience is a "dialogue partner" in understanding. A society may be understood as a social group shaped by a collective conscience, formed by shared experiences and emotions creating a sense of belonging.⁽¹⁰⁾ The collective conscience results from the interactions within social groups through individual participation in events that focus ideas and experiences held in common which influence human behavior by fostering a sense of social unity.

Tradition is the final contributing element in understanding truth through two avenues: orthodoxy and orthopraxy, by setting boundaries for what is appropriate and acceptable belief and practice for Christianity. Tradition provides guidance in passing on the body of knowledge and belief through the generations, while at the same time informing the practice and participation in those beliefs.⁽¹¹⁾ Thus, tradition serves as a model for living out an authentic Christian praxis with the rule of faith as outlined in Scripture and as a discipline shaped by the wisdom of previous generations.

What does it mean to be created in the image of God? To understand what the image is, first let me discuss what the thing itself is that is being reflected in the image, namely God. It is my belief that God is a Triune God, existing as a perichoretic union of mutuality. To define perichoretic: from a compound Greek word perichoros (peri<xwroj ), peri (peri<) meaning around, and choris (xwri<j) which can convey separateness. Therefore, perichoresis is together-yet-separate-ness, describing the being of God as Triune. Literally, perichoresis is a "neighboring," and in this way, a concept of together yet separate can be understood.

God is beyond all creation, not before or proceeding creation but beyond creation. In God's existence as a relational being, God longed to be in relationship with God's self. The "longing for" was a desire and need to be, a longing for which was love itself, for love is the move of the separated toward union.⁽¹²⁾ Therefore, in God's longing for knowing God's self, or being in relationship with God's self, God created as a self-expression, a self-exertion against non-being.⁽¹³⁾ The creation itself reflected God as Creator, and creation became the instrument/medium through which God knew God's self as God stood outside of God's self, yet remained a part of God. This "standing outside" is the Christ, the Wisdom of God, Jesus the Christosophia of God.⁽¹⁴⁾ The "longing for" in love is the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God. Therefore, God in the perichoretic existence of God's being created the kosmos as a divine act of self-expression through which God is completely God.

It cannot be said that there ever was a time in which God was not completely God, for God is beyond time and space; time itself is bound to creation. Therefore, God has been, is, and always will be God in fullness, active as completeness in union by relationship through mutuality.

I understand that Christian Tradition and Theology (represented here by Wolfhart Pannenberg) holds that God is the origin of creation, "a free act of God, it does not emanate by necessity from the divine essence or belong by necessity to the deity of God."⁽¹⁵⁾ I would agree that creation is a free act of God, creating as a free expression. But at that point, I diverge from the rest of the quote. In my belief, God needed creation nonetheless in order to be fully God. Creation does, in my belief, belong to the deity of God, as Christ is very much manifested within creation; Christ would not be Christ without standing within creation as a creature. Creation was therefore necessary because God would not be God unless Christ was fully Christ. To claim that Christ is adscititious to creation would be to diminish the wholeness of the Trinity and the importance of Christ as a mutual participant in the perichoretic relationship of the Trinity. The relevance of the implications for this will be discussed below with Atonement and Sacrifice.

The foundation for the Triune God is relationship. In a perichoretic view, the Trinity is not three beings having relationships; the Holy Trinity is the relationship itself, a relationship of love where all three persons interrelate with the other.⁽¹⁶⁾ Love itself is the binding force within the relationship of the Trinity, culminating in the fullness of the Triune God with the three personas of the Trinity mutually relating to each other as the primary and one ousia (being) of God.⁽¹⁷⁾

Out of a divine act of love, God created all things. For I believe that God's immanent nature (God's interrelatedness) is demonstrated through God's actions toward creation as God's actions manifest God's nature.⁽¹⁸⁾ The presence of God is "in, with, and beneath" the experience of creation.⁽¹⁹⁾ All things gain shape and meaning through God, who is the proverbial canvas of the kosmos, all of creation is the artful paint. God is entwined in creation in as much as an artist is present in her painting yet she is not the painting itself.

That God created all things means that creation is "the triumph of order over chaos," for the Breath of God swept over the waters of chaos to create a place of stability.⁽²⁰⁾ God created all things, and pronounced it all "good" (Gen. 1:31). The biblical narrative of Creation (Gen. 1:1-31) holds that nothing can stop the creative force of God's love, not even the waters or darkness of chaos. In God's act of love, God did not destroy the water or darkness; instead God brought them both into the fold of order, making them the sea and night, and likewise pronouncing both as "good."⁽²¹⁾

The created humans hold a special place within the scheme of God's Creation, for humanity has been created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-30). Being created imago dei (image of God), humanity has been endowed with the image and likeness of God. This means that humanity has a special relationship with Creation, as stewards entrusted with the care of and for Creation, to be in fruitful relationship with God, Creation, and each other. The image of God does not mean that humanity has free reign over all things to use and abuse as if Creation was humanity's play room to be demolished with the destructive force of a three year old's temper tantrum. Creation does not "belong" to humanity, but humanity has been entrusted with the care of Creation. Therefore, humanity as stewards have a responsibility to care for Creation.⁽²²⁾

As God is truly God by perichoretic relationality, in a similar way, as created in the image of God, the fullness of humanity is realized when each person is in relationship with others (be it God, other humans, or creation). The inborn need for relationality is the direct result of being created in the image of the perichoretic Trinity.⁽²³⁾ Paul Tillich explicates that "man [sic] becomes man in personal encounters."⁽²⁴⁾ To explicate, it is only in relationship that are based on love and justice that true fullness and true relationships are encountered. As Tillich states, "injustice towards the other one is always injustice against oneself."⁽²⁵⁾

The model for humanity as the image of God is fully exemplified in Jesus as the Christ. It is my belief that Jesus is the prime example of what humanity's telos or destined is to be and how humanity is meant to lead a life devoted to the will of God.⁽²⁶⁾ In other words, Jesus embodies the destiny of humans.⁽²⁷⁾ In life, Jesus lead his whole existence for the fulfillment of God's plan for salvation (Mt. 1:21, 23), a life lived in praise of God. In death, by God's gracious act of resurrection, Jesus as the Christ overcame death, so that Christ is now unified in an authentic relationship with God for all time. So to is the destiny and calling of humanity: to lead a life devoted to God to "praise and honor God" (Ps. 19:1) for the continuance of God's plan of salvation, with the assurance that not even death will be able to separate us from God (cf. Rom. 8:38-39) through God's graciousness.

Then, what does it mean to be in the image of God in this time and place? Unfortunately, the historical reality of humanity has shown that creation itself has fallen away from its created purpose. The kosmos is in a state of rebellion and evil, contradicting God's plan for creation. Evil is defined as a "violation" of the divine intent, providing a counter structure for the kosmos.⁽²⁸⁾ The powers and principalities, vested by God with the authority to maintain God's creation, have become suffused with evil, now participating in their self-serving disobedience from God. Institutions and structures of societies that participate through sin in defiance of God's love (such as a Church that fosters racism) have become a tool of the fallen powers and principalities.⁽²⁹⁾

Evil and sin are similar in nature, but differ in actuality, in that both are "anti-creation" (against right relationship with God), yet sin is contained in evil, as evil is anything that goes against God's goodness. Evil can be identified in two areas: natural evil, such as natural disasters or diseases, and moral evil, which has an agency of humanity. Moral evil is sin, where humanity acts "inhumanely" towards others, or humanity acts against their own created being, surrendering their destiny to be in relationship with God.⁽³⁰⁾

As sin is rebellion against God, and an abrogation of our created being, any action that separates us from being in a right relationship with God is sinful. Humanity participates in sin by two overarching ways, through individual and/or corporate sin. Individual sin can be encountered in three ways.⁽³¹⁾ First, through unbelief, a person turns away from God by no longer placing God at the center of his or her being. This notion of sin is similar to not trusting God, replacing God with ones own self, and positing an individual's will before God's will. Second, through hubris, an individual is self-elevated to the level of divine as if they were God. Hubris as sin is sin in its fullness, for a person becomes obsessed with his/her own self in an inordinate way so that he or she is oblivious to the others around him/her and to God. A person becomes insensitive to others, becoming a narcissistic self-encapsulated being, a complete turn inward, sinning by shutting others (including God) out. The third form of sin is through "concupiscence," by desiring to possess things by any means possible, even to the point of devaluing and using others to attain the goal of the desire. This is the hunger for acquisition and greed, an unquenchable fire of possession only to be possessed by the desire itself.

Corporate sin is engaged by all people in any given society, transmitted through social relations. By participating in society, each individual contributes to the sins of the community, either overtly or through a lack of knowledge.⁽³²⁾ Examples of corporate sin are many, such as banking with a company that invests in a mutual fund investing in weapons manufacturers that destroy innocent people, or by purchasing clothes from a department store that were obtained from sweat shops, or by a church's continuation of racism and segregation even at the Eucharist. Corporate sin is so prevalent in culture and society, and is so ingrained in individuals and communities that in my belief even Jesus participated in corporate sin. In Matthew 15:21-28, a Canaanite woman came to Jesus and begged for mercy for her daughter. Jesus refused her for one reason alone: the woman was not an Israelite. The woman counters with a sharp saying: "even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." At this, Jesus had been called for his lack of action, and his participation in the covenantal nomistic practice of not interacting with another race; Jesus acted in racism.⁽³³⁾

By my stating previously that God created all things, I do not mean that God created evil itself. But then, from where did evil and sin come? If evil is a counter order to God and sin is humanity's participation in evil and turning away from God in rebellion, then how did humans who were created good become sinful? Does the fault for evil's existence fall on God?

The cause for evil does not rest with God. Sin is rebellion against God, but God did not create the rebellion. That sin is present and that individuals can choose to rebel against God demonstrates that God created humanity with free will. Therefore, through free will, a person can choose to participate in relationship with God, or choose to replace God with his/her self as his/her center of being. If God did not create free will in God's creation, then relationship between God and creation (the true telos of creation) would not be authentic or possible; relationship is entered into by others through an act in freedom and love. Otherwise, a relationship becomes a narcissistic control of others.

In my belief, the myth of Adam and the first rebellion against God is the ontological point of sin. In God's commandment to Adam forbidding him to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge was not so much a prohibition, meaning you shall never eat from the tree of knowledge. Rather, God's commandment to Adam was a prevention of harm. As the second century Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons has articulated that when humanity was first created, it was merely an infant, not yet capable of receive the fruit of the tree of knowledge, just as an infant is not yet ready to eat solid foods.⁽³⁴⁾ However, in an act of humanity's free will (and in my opinion curiosity), Adam as a representative for humanity took the fruit in opposition to God's caring directive. Thus, the weight of sin clearly falls upon humanity. That God created humanity with free will, curiosity, and the insatiable quest to know is evidence of the goodness of God's creative act in the image of God, for without these characteristics, humanity would indeed not be the imago dei.

Since God's plan (telos or oikodomios) for creation is the consummation all things, and as sin is the separation of relationship from humanity against God, then God has acted to bring about the possibility for being in right relationship. This joining of creation back to God is the salvific act of atonement extended to all creation. Atonement is the description of the effect of reconciliation and reunion, a process that is both an act and a reaction. It is divine act to overcome the brokenness of the relationship and the human reaction to participate in the relationship now made right. My view of Atonement is influenced by Paul's letter to the Romans, 3:21-26.

The act and effect of atonement has as its source the covenant between God and God's people. From the post exilic document of the Pentateuch comes the story of how God liberated the outcasts (abiru) to form God' people and how God and that people entered a covenant together. Before the time of the Bible in the ancient Middle East (prior to 539 B.C.E.), covenants were treaties or pacts between two people or groups, either as equals (parity) or between overlord and vassals (suzerain).⁽³⁵⁾ The covenant between God and God's people was the foundation for all aspects of life, including religious, social, and political areas. This binding agreement between the people and God meant that as long as the people upheld their part of the covenant, the people would have God as their suzerain, and be in the "sovereign care of their covenant God."⁽³⁶⁾ The covenant meant life in relationship with God and with each other; to violate the covenant meant death (as a stipulation in the formation of the covenant, cf. Abraham's covenant story).

Human sin is the breaking of the covenant with God. Therefore, as payment for the broken covenant, death must be paid as reparations. But therein lays the dilemma. As stated before, God created humanity in an act of love as the image of God, an image founded in relationship. God enacted the covenant to be in relationship with humanity (I will be your God, you will be my people). So, how can God be both faithful to the covenant and continue to be in relationship with humanity? The answer: Jesus as the Christ.

In God's great mercy, God became human to make reparations for humanity's act of breaking the covenant. As Irenaeus asserted, God became human so that humanity could be completed as the image of God in full relationality with God.⁽³⁷⁾ Jesus as the Christ was both completely human and completely God, the unique one in whom the possibility for reconciliation could occur between humanity and God.⁽³⁸⁾ It is for this reason most of all that the necessity for Christ to be intertwined with creation for God's salvific work to be complete. As a human, Jesus as the Christ represented humanity before God. As divine, humanity can participate in the divine act of being reconciled to God through Christ.

Therefore, the effect of atonement has both an objective and subjective dimension. Objectively, God's action of reconciliation is effective for all creation for all time previous or subsequent. Subjectively, God's action requires human response, for through Christ's death humanity was graciously made righteous. Christ died to the power of sin; in participating in Christ's death (accomplished through baptism, to be discussed later) humanity is freed from the power of sin for new life in the Holy Spirit, able to be once again in full relationship with God (Rom. 6:7-11).

Therefore, from Romans 3:21-26, in God's righteousness (faithfulness to the covenant) God put forth Jesus as the sacrifice of atonement, effective through faith (human response to God's act), as God passed over the sins previously committed, and has justified those who have faith in Jesus.

Having the possibility of reconciliation now open to all creation, what will it mean to be completed in the image of God? The answer is found within the community and relationships formed around God's reconciliation, namely the in-breaking basilea of God, the basilea that has already begun with the advent of the Christ, but has not yet been completed.

In Christ, God established the Church as the central element for humanity to engage in a community where Christ's presence is manifest. The Church is the Body of Christ on earth, collectively comprised of individuals whose lives have been transformed by God's grace. The Church is intentional community; God intentionally calls groups of people together (cf. Jesus says two or more****), and people intentionally come together choosing to participate in God's activity. Therefore, to be a Christian means to be a participant in a community. The idea of a Christian individualist flies in the face of what a Christian is called to be: a fellow participant in community. Within the Church is found the formation, education, worship, care, and love conveyed in the relationships around which God nourishes and guides God's people.

Lately I have been very troubled and hurt by the church. The church itself is also a fallen institution, established by God ideally for the continuation of God's plan and will for salvation. However, at times, the church and its people fail in their mission and calling to live out God's commandment to love. Despite all the pedagogical support from Scripture and tradition, despite all the foundations for moral guidance to live a life in a Christian ethic of love, the church and its people (including myself) have often a misguided piety that continues to misrepresent Christ in the world, and continues to not reciprocate the love God has graciously given to us.⁽³⁹⁾

But it is also my fervent belief that God works despite our best intentions (ironically as that may sound). As St. Paul has stated, God's wisdom is greater than human foolishness; God chooses the most unlikely people to carry out and fulfill God's will (1 Cor. ?). Therefore, God's grace can even be encountered in the most unlikely churches, for the Holy Spirit dwells within the lives and communities God has formed.

As the Church is an intentional community, the means of membership and sustenance are contained within the Sacraments. Along with the Word of God, the Sacraments disclose God's grace. By participating in the sacraments, the Church participates in the theophanic encounter of God.

The two sacraments of Eucharist and Baptism correspond to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ. In Baptism, the believer is initiated into the death of Christ, being submerged under the waters of chaos only to emerge as a member of Christ's body, washed of all sin (cf. Paul - you have been baptized into Christ's death???). The believer is marked with the indelible stamp of Christ, a mark given by God and entered into by the believer.⁽⁴⁰⁾ Through baptism, a believer becomes a citizen of the basilea and a member in the Body of Christ, able to partake in the other sacrament of Eucharist. I have used "believer" deliberately, for although baptism has been forced on people in the past (an example: on Jews in times of persecution in Europe such as during the Inquisition and Crusades), a baptism is enacted by person who responds to God's grace; baptism is meaningless for people who do not wish to participate in the Body of Christ.

Eucharist corresponds to the life and resurrection of Christ. In the act of the Eucharist, the bread as the symbolic body of Christ is broken while the congregants partake of this broken body, symbolizing their union together as Christ's body. With an ironic twist, the broken body of Christ is made whole in the wholeness of the congregation, a corporate participation in Christ's victory over sin and death in the resurrection. A religious symbol is defined as an object that points beyond itself by participating in the power of the divine.⁽⁴¹⁾ The Eucharist is the divine eschatological feast, a foretaste of the heavenly banquet filled with the promise, expectation, and hope of God's fulfillment of complete recapitulation of all things back to God (apokatastasis panton - a]pokatasta>sij pa<nton).

In the community I serve, racism as a faith is very active, in that racists have devotion and commitment, affirmation and justification, for a belief system that other races are inferior.⁽⁴²⁾ It is very telling that the point of interruption of the World Communion Worship Service by the racists did not occur until the act of sharing the Eucharist. The choir members were allowed to enter the church, and even permitted to sing. The sermon was allowed to proceed, despite its focus on the inclusiveness and universal action of God's grace. At any time, the racists in the congregation could have attempted their intimidation and overt evil. In a sense, the racists attempted to protect their sacred ritual and belief that the Eucharist is for whites only, claiming God created an inferior race of humans - a mistaken image of God, a belief however contrary to God's creative and inclusive love.⁽⁴³⁾
 
 
 
 
 

1. Basilea (Greek basilei<a) meaning the rule of God. Some have translated this word as "kingdom," but the Greek conveys the notion of a rule or dominion rather than a certain place or time. An example of this is Mt. 8.12 - "but the ones who should be God's people or the ones over whom God should be ruling will be thrown out into the darkness outside."

oi[ de> ui[oi> th?j basilei<aj e]kblhqh<sontai ei]j to> e]cw<teron:

2. Examples of mind altering chemicals are alcohol, caffeine, LSD, cocaine, carbon dioxide. Ability to perceive is also related to physical function. For some people, a mental disorder or disability may allow the person to see a reality that others can not. However, I must state that one person's disability may be another person's great attribute. Case in point: Native American spirituality with ritual use of peyote has been called by outsiders as an attempt at religious hallucinations and not truly a valid spiritual experience.

3. Examples of the will in choosing a truth: there is a religious/political movement to deny the Holocaust ever happened. As Alice and A. Roy Eckardt have stated that "denials [of the Holocaust] kill the sufferers a second time, by taking away the victims' first death. . . They avow that the event never occurred, yet the rationale of that event is the very thing that impels their efforts, the same rationale that impelled the first Nazis. As one of these reincarnations of the Nazis has said, 'All the stories about Auschwitz aren't true, but I wish they were.'"

Alice L. Eckardt and A. Roy Eckardt, Long Night's Journey into Day (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1982), 64, 200.

4. pa?sa grafh> qeo<pneustoj kai> w]fe<limoj pro>j didaskali<an, pro<j e]legmo<n, pro>j e]pano<rqwsin, pro>j paidei<an th>n e]n dikaiosu<n^, i!na a@prioj ^# o[ tou? Qeou? a]nqrwpoj, pro>j pa?n e@rgon a]gaqo>n e]chrtisme<noj.

5. Paul Tillich, Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955), 3, 4, 22.

6. W. Stephen Gunter, et al., Wesley and the Quadrilateral: Renewing the Conversation. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997), 42, 60.

7. Beverly Wildung Harrison, Making the Connections (Boston: Beacon Press, 1985), xviii - xx, 11, 13.  Additionally, Dr. Tex Sample has fervently claimed that all knowledge is socially constructed, which is a view I will discuss further in reference to relationality and the human condition.

8. Gunter, et al., Wesley and the Quadrilateral, 98.

9. Alfred H. Ackley, "He Lives" in The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), 310.

10. The view of society as shaped by a collective conscience has been formulated from Emil Durkheim's work, in Randall Collins and Michael Makowsky, The Discovery of Society, Sixth Edition (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), 102, 104-5.

11. e]gw> ga>r pare<labon a]po> tou? kuri<ou, o{ kai> pare<dwka u[mi?n, o!ti o[ ku<rioj I]hsou?j e]n t^? nukti> ^$ paredi<deto e@laben a@rton . . .

For I received from the Lord, that which I also hand down/pass on/transmit to you all, that the Lord Jesus on the night which he was betrayed he took bread . . . (1 Cor. 11:23)

12. Augustine of Hippo, "On the Trinity: Book 9," in William G. Rusch, The Trinitarian Controversy (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980), 179.

Paul Tillich, Love, Power and Justice. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), 25.

13. Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology: Volume 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), 20-21.

Also on the power of being over non-being, cf. Tillich, Love, Power and Justice, 37-38.

14. The Christosophia - the Wisdom of God, the Word of God. As the Gospel of John begins: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and God was the Word. This (word) was in the beginning with God. All things through him became, and apart from him not one thing became." (John 1:1-3). Therefore, it is not only Jesus as the Christ that manifests God in creation. I would assert that Wisdom itself as part of God is manifested within creation. cf. Proverbs 1:20-3; 9:1-6. The Wisdom and Word of God, as is the Christ, are manifestations of God's continual presence in and with creation.

15. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology: Volume II, (Grand Rapids: Williams Eardmans, 1994), 1.

16. Mary Ann Fatula, The Triune God of Christian Faith (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1990), 22, 67.

Similarly, Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society (Maryknoll NY: Orbis, 1988), 157.

17. Augustine of Hippo, "On the Trinity: Book 9," in William G. Rusch, The Trinitarian Controversy (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980), 179.

Similarly, Fatula, The Triune God of Christian Faith, 22.

18. Ted Peters, God as Trinity (Louiseville: Westminster/John Knox, 1995), 96-7.

19. Jurgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), 34.

20. Janet Martin Soskice, "Creation and Relation," in Robin Gill, ed., Readings in Modern Theology: Britain & America (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 63.

21. R. J. Clifford, "Genesis" in Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990), 10,11.

22. Mark Allan Powell, God With Us: A Pastoral Theology of Matthew's Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), 90-1.

23. Dorothee Soelle, Thinking About God (Philadelphia: Trinity Press, 1990), 42.

24. Paul Tillich

25. Tillich

26. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology: Volume II, (Grand Rapids: Williams Eardmans,

1994), 23-24.

Also with a similar notion: Graeme M. Griffin, Coming To Care (Melbourne: Ormond College, 1995), 22.

27. So also Romans - on Jesus as the new Adam. LOOK UP SCRIPTURE REF. AND GIVE SHORT DESCRIPTION OF COMMENTARY.

28. Stephen Charles Mott, Biblical Ethics and Social Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 16.

29. Mott states that "in a society which tells blacks in countless ways that they are not accepted in equality or association with whites, [the churches of God] must take the initiative if they are to be any different from other white institutions in this respect" of continuing the discrimination and segregation that goes against God. Ibid., 13.

30. Patricia L. Wismer, "Evil," in Donald W. Musser & Joseph L. Price, eds., A New Handbook of Christian Theology (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992), 173.

31. All three forms of sin have been influenced by Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology: Volume 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), 44-55.

32. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology: Volume II, (Grand Rapids: Williams Eardmans,

1994), 255-6.

33. On covenantal nomism: explicating the phrase from E. P. Sanders by James D. G. Dunn, "The Theology of Galatians, The Issue of Covenantal Nomism" in Jouette M. Bassler, ed. Pauline Theology, Volume I: Thessalonians, Philippians, Galatians, Philemon (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 126-8.

34. Irenaeus, "On Human Progress: Adversus Haereses, IV" in Alister E. McGrath, ed. The Christian Theology Reader (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1995), 212.

35. Anthony R. Ceresko, Introduction to the Old Testament (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992), 80-1.

36. Ibid., 84.

37. Irenaeus, "Against Heresies, Book 5, Ch 36" in Peter C. Hodgson & Robert H. King Readings in Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985), 325.

38. On Christ as completely human and completely divine from the Council of Chalcedon (451 C.E.) in Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity: Vol. 1 (New York: HarperCollins, 1984), 256-7.

39. Similarly, Robin Gill addresses the difficulties the Church has had in fulfilling its mission to live out God's love in her article "Churches As Moral Communities," in Robin Gill, ed. Readings in Modern Theology: Britain & America (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 357.

40. Paraphrased from Laurence H. Stookey, Baptism: Christ's Act in the Church (Nashville: Abingdon, 1982), 34.

41. Paul Tillich, "God as Being," in Mark Kline Taylor, ed., Paul Tillich: Theologian of the Boundaries (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 166.

42. George D. Kelsey, Racism and the Christian Understanding of Man (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1965), 23, 24, 28.

43. Ibid., 25, 27.