Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Master of Divinity! project

I am two thirds of my way to becoming a superhero. In second semester next year we get to chose whether we do a project/thesis or two regular subjects. I've been hanging to do the project since I began my studies, and I think I've finally worked out some sort of a topic . . .

I want to look at what the Bible says about the importance and effect of physical closeness on relationships. I don't particularly have romantic relationships in mind, but of course it will play into that. The sort of situations I'm thinking of are those of friends (or missionaries) who are living in distant places, friendships between people on the net who have never met in person, and the relationship between Christians today and the Father, Son and Spirit who we can neither see nor touch.

I'm interested in this stuff largely because of me! I'm as much a dancer and aesthete as I am a writer and thinker, and, for some reason, (because I'm a thinker no doubt) I'm not satisfied to just let myself be, but am always wondering about how these things should play out. I'm also interested because I observe physical absence having curious effects in the situations described, but can't quite put my finger on the effects or say if they're good, bad or merely neutral.

I can think of all sorts of biblical passages and angles to take on this subject - the goodness of physical creation, the indwelling of the Spirit in us, Jesus' incarnation, why Jesus went to people to heal them when he could've done so at a distance, what 1 John 4:20 means etc etc. I'm going to try and work it out in January. But please do let me know if you have any suggestions :-).

2 comments:

lukeisham said...

What an interesting MDiv project topic. You do have those examples where Jesus does heal at a distance but generally physical proximity seems to be important. There also seems to be a 'tension' in Scripture between the idea of being united with Christ and worshiping an invisible God. This is partly resolved by realising this is a spiritual dimension to the world. Furthermore what does it really mean to be "in Christ," if his physical body is heavenside? (There are interesting cross-overs to the prescence of Jesus in the Lord's Supper.)

Looking forward to reading about your thoughts and connections.

fional said...

Thanks Luke.