Blessing the Curse?

Оглавление

Ksenija Magda. Blessing the Curse?

Blessing the Curse?

Contents

Introduction How the Church Makes the Gospel Bad News for the World

Reservations

Blessing the Curse. Genesis 3: A Curse or a Blessing?

The Contemporary World from the Perspective of the Curse

The Curse as a Male Problem

The Curse as a Female Problem

The Goddess

The Matron (Holy Mother)

The Dragon Woman

The Curse as a Problem of the Earth

Church Structures as Structures of Sin

Hierarchies as Sanctifying the Curse

Sustainability & Migration

Sustainability & Gender Equality

Sustainability, Equality & Legislation

Church Hierarchies as Systems of Abuse

Confronting Spiritual Abuses within Church Hierarchies

Confronting Abusive Hierarchical Family Structures

Male Hierarchy with Limited Transfer of Power

Male Hierarchy with No Transfer of Power

Hierarchies as Systems of Ecological and Economic Abuse

Ecological Abuse: Blessing the Exploitation of the Earth

Economic Abuse: the Privatisation of the Common Good

The Solution to the Problem of Sin

Looking at the Curse with Paul’s Eyes. The Story of Genesis 1–2

Reading Romans as a Reflection of Genesis 3

The Curse of Genesis 3

Understanding the Curse through Romans 1

How Hierarchies of Sin Ruin Life

Envisioning a New Structure

Christ Takes the Curse of the Body upon Himself

Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

Galatians 3: Christ Redeemed Us from the Curse by Becoming a Curse for Us

Galatians 4–5: Adopted as Children and Heirs of God

Patriarchal Language and the Marginalisation of Women

Resurrected Heirs of the Kingdom of God

Bearing Fruit: The Sarks and Soma Dichotomy in Paul

The Works of the Flesh, the Spirit of Resurrection and the Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5: the Works of the Flesh (Sarks)

Romans 7–8: Resurrected by the Spirit

The Fight between the Flesh and the Spirit: The Suffering of These Times

Coming Together under Christ: The Lord’s Table

Christ, the Head of a New Body: Global Christianity

Women and Bible Study

Reading Ephesians 5:22 in Context

Being Subject to One Another: A Paradigm for the Church

Submission and the Family

Love as Submission

Christ as Head of All

The Church as New Creation

A Biblical Word to Men

Meek Is Not for the Weak: Mark 10

Embracing Women as People

Using Eve as a Femme Fatale

Leadership in the Old Testament: Deborah

The Radical Inclusion of Jesus

Marginalizing Women in the Early Church

Paul’s Affirmation of Women Who Minister the Gospel

Understanding the Role of Women in Philippi

Understanding the Role of Women in Corinth

Understanding Paul’s Teaching about Household Codes

Expanding Paul’s Teaching to Women in Ministry

Equally Created to Do Good Works in Christ

A Biblical Word to Women

What Is Your Primary Response to the Structures of Sin?

Goddesses: Embrace More than Your Physical Beauty

Holy Mothers: Stop Being a Victim

Dragon Women: Challenge Ungodly Structures

Epilogue Next Steps

Combatting Slavery and Human Trafficking

Women’s Ministries in the Church

Challenging Hierarchical Church Structures

Incarnating the Good News in the World

Coming Together in Solidarity, Equality, and Unity

Bibliography

About Langham Partnership

Our ministry

Introduction How the Church Makes the Gospel Bad News for the World

Blessing the Curse

Church Structures as Structures of Sin

The Solution to the Problem of Sin

The Church as New Creation

Epilogue Next Steps

Index

Отрывок из книги

One of the most attractive aspects of this outstanding book is how Ksenija Magda very thoroughly examines Scripture and lays out the foundations carefully. From these foundations she challenges our views on male-female relationships throughout history and up to today. She convincingly points out how these views have had severe defects and have hindered the spread of the kingdom of God through his church. She goes on to explain how in fact the church is responsible for many of the negative effects and reactions in society.

.....

In the Balkans, for example, there is a war approximately every fifty years. The real surprise is that whatever “peace” is negotiated holds for fifty years! But it takes time to build a new generation of indoctrinated innocents who will act upon the myths of the holy sacrifices that were made in the past to preserve their happy youth.

An old woman who used to live with us after the Croatian war told us stories about her life between the two World Wars amidst a family of nineteen children in what was then First Yugoslavia. She started working as a servant in a well-off family when she was ten, as did her other siblings. When one of the kids became sick (and some did in fact die at a young age), her father would just say, “Oh wouldn’t I be so lucky . . .,” meaning, if the kid dies, he could get drunk for free! Some human gods do not have high standards for satisfaction and are happy with a small entourage and resources to support their own little pleasures – such as alcoholism. In those times, having children meant having more work power to manage more land and get more crops. To work more land meant to have more influence, or in the case above, to be able to get drunk when one of those children died.

.....