In or Above the Tension?

I was reading "A New Kind of Christian" the other day and again thought about what it might mean to be "intensional." If you have read the book, you may recall that Neo at one point draws a line in the sand and uses the line to describe the polarities that exist within the church (Calvinists vs. Arminians, Catholics vs. Protestants, etc.). I guess I had been thinking of intensionality as being OK with the polarities, indeed embracing them. Neo goes on, however, to say that what we need to be focused on isn't on the line, but above the line. I'm not quite sure what to do with that. Does that mean we should be supra-tensional? I don't think he is trying to convey that we should ignore the tensions, rather that we need to keep our eyes on whatever it is that is really important. And so much of what we get "tense" over is pretty unimportant ....

By the way, I thought that ANKOC was a great book. I must get the second one in the series soon because I must hear what happened to Neo and the book's other characters. Maybe it will tell me a bit more about where I might end up on my journey.

I spoke with someone tonight who may be leaving his church because he feels that they don't celebrate communion often enough. This bothers him because he feels that communion is one of the best ways for non-believers to experience the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives (ie., he thinks that non-Christians should be encouraged to take communion). Recently someone left that same church because he felt that they didn't warn non-believers to not take communion. AAAGGGHHH. But both of these people were also outraged that their church didn't have altar calls on a regular basis. What is hard for me to understand in all this is that I could care less about how often my church or theirs has communion or altar calls! Every time I have a meal with a fellow believer, I am -- at least in some sense -- celebrating the communion that we have with each other through Christ Jesus and the power of the Spirit. And every time I share a meal, or coffee, or a beer with a non-believer, the Holy Spirit is also free to act in, through, and/or despite me in the life of the non-believer (AND IN MINE!). And altar calls? There is nothing inherently wrong with them, but why can't relationships and conversations eventually get to a point where people can experience a point of decision (if that is the path that the HS leads them on).

Any thoughts out there?

A Note From My Dad

> Dad, do you know anything about "intensional" logic or
> semantics? I don't.

Yes, I know about intensional logic/semantics.

I guess for a Platonist, an intension is a projection from an
expression into the space of meanings, whereas a cognitivist
would probably call it a mental representation. The basic idea
is to distinguish the realm of expression from the realm of
semantics/meaning (and a far cry from approaches like Lakoff's
Philosophy in the Flesh, which anchors meanings more closely to
our physical makeup).

Intensions are distinguished from expresions by putting an
apostrophe after the expression, so _dog_ is an expression and
_dog'_ is the corresponding intension. Nothing exciting there.

The payoff comes from "intensional predicates" like _believe_.
For example, in _John believes he is president._ what John
believes is an intension (I am president') for which there is no
corresponding reality.

Various theories of syntax assume that as expressions are
"composed" by rules of grammar, there is a parallel composition
of intensions. E.g., _I like vanilla icecream_ would start by
syntactically composing the adjective _vanilla_ and the noun
_icecream_, simultaneously composing the intentions vanilla' and
icecream' into something like vanilla'(icecream'). [Read" the
intension of vanilla is predicated of the intension of
icecream.]

OR SOMETHING LIKE THIS.

> I want to explore the potential use of the word "intensional"
> as a "pomo" contrast to "intentional." -- along the lines of,
> we should live intensional lives (we need to live in the
> tension of life). Have intensional faith ... and be an
> intensional church ... etc.

I don't think it has anything to do with "tension." Rather, it
is probably cognate with Spanish "entender".

The expressions you mention would, for me, mean something like
"we should be conscious about how we live (rather than just
coast along without giving things due thought)."

> I didn't realize that the word was used in
> mathematics/linguistics. Any thoughts?

You can probably think up a much better way to get your
important point across.

Best, --Dad

Keeping On

Ironically, I have just survived a few of the most tension filled days of my life. Sadly it is not the sort of tension that I want to embrace. And frankly, it is really hard right now to see God's hand at work in the tension that surrounds me. There is tension within my family and tension within my church. Although I am torn up inside about both situations, I think that I have some sense of peace about both situations. Or maybe I just want to think that I am trusting God to handle both situations. One of the hardest things to do is to trust God. I think that is a true statement for everyone. But I know that is a true statement for me. An absolute, if you will. I generally feel like I can handle most circumstances that come my way. I trust my ability to deal with life's curveballs, hardballs, and changeups. But this week I feel like I keep getting beaned by the pitcher. It's not that I have struck out -- I simply feel that I have been hit in the head, or maybe three feet lower, and I don't even know if I can walk to first base. But what good is first base? I don't even know who is up to bat next. I don't know if there is anyone else on base. I don't know how many outs there are or what inning were in! Frankly I don't even know what game I'm playing. Maybe the game I'm playing involves hitting each other in the head and I just didn't know it. Maybe I shouldn't be crying foul play! Can I really embrace tension when the tension is causing me such pain? Can I really love people that I no longer like? How many times must I forgive 77 times or 70X7 times? Either way, part of me wants to keep score! Well ... as you can see, I have got issues! Someday I will look back on these days -- I hope -- and have some sense of what happened and why. What is God doing with, to, for, through, in, without, ... me right now? What am I supposed to be doing or not doing? Do I really trust God to help me "live in the tension." Wouldn't life be easier right now if we could just play nice ...

On a separate note: Happy Birthday to my one and only little sister! 32! Wow we are getting old!

Getting Started

I must start with a confession. I have never blogged before. Worse yet, I haven't read many bloggs either. But for some reason today I must become a blogger. There is nothing special about September 19, 2004 for me. But today I will blog. Will I blog tomorrorw? I don't know!

So what do I want to blog about? For starters, I want to explore (with anyone out there who is interested in joining in) what it might look like to "Be Intensional". I am most interested in what this might mean within the context of the Christian Faith (I don't want to over-define this and certainly am interested in the perspectives of others who consider themselves alongside or outside of whatever they consider Christian Faith to be).

I know that "intensional" is a term used in mathematics, logic, and I believe linguistics. But I don't know anything about how the term is used in those fields. Maybe somebody out there can educate me. Maybe there is a connection. So many people, motivational speakers, authors, and preachers talk about our need to be "intentional." Most of us know what that means. But what might it look like to be "intensional?"

Face it, we live in tension! The world is full of it. Some of it is wonderful and some of it is absolutely terrible. Our churches are full of tension. Our families are full of tension. And we ourselves, as individuals, are full of tension. Or am I the only one to observe this? Modernism taught us to try to eliminate tension, I think. Abosolutes have very few tensions -- at least if you really believe in them. Paradox is all about tension -- the tension of accepting two or more apparently contradictory or competing absolutes. But what if we were to really embrace tension? What if, instead of fleeing tension, we sought to actually live in the tension of life?

Any thoughts? I would like to collect any thoughts that emerge from this conversation. If the discussion proves fruitful, I would like to use the discussion as the basis for a class I am taking at Biblical Seminary (www.biblical.edu). The course is called "Leadership in Emerging Culture." You can learn more about this course and the etrek program at www.theooze.com.

Intentional vs. Intensional -- are they contradictory or compatible or both? What would an intensional church look like? Or maybe an intentionally intensional church? What would intensional faith or an intensional life look like? Are these even relevant questions? What questions, or even answers, would you propose