• Archive of "narrative theology" Category

    Restoring Hope to the Church in Western Culture

    December 15, 2006 // 1 Comment »

    This is the title of my masters thesis.  The subtitle is, “Exploring the Relationship Between Culture, Theology, and the Church.”  It is divided into 3 main sections – the first with regard to the relationship between God’s people and the idea of culture, a second on narrative approaches to theology, and a third on missional understandings of the church.  In the conclusion I suggest how these three sections come to bear on the three church practices of preaching/teaching, baptism, and Holy Communion.

    In the paper I didn’t include any acknowledgments, so allow me to do so now.

    I have benefited greatly through my family – my parents, grandparents, brothers, and sister, my extended and blended family.  Thank you all for the role you have and continue to play in my life.

    Deep thanks and appreciation goes to the teachers, professors, pastors, and mentors who have taken a unique interest in me and shared their lives, experience, and giftedness with me – John Toth, PJ Meduri, Shane Minne, Andy Bennett, John Geib, and Steve Moroney, though not alone, come to mind.  Thanks to Malone College and Fuller Theological Seminary, two of the finest Christian schools I am aware of.

    To say that my community of friends has been a blessing in my life would be the largest understatement I have ever made.  I am who I am today because of the love, grace, forgiveness, humility, and commitment of the friends who have shared their lives with me for almost ten years now.  They have seen me at my best, and more importantly at my worst and yet they love me still.  These are the people that give me life.

    I must note the profound impact my girlfriend Maria Bjordal has had on me.  Everything I have written in this thesis is colored by the presence of Maria in my life.  Her constant encouragement and the conversations we return to time and time again have been invaluable.

    Though it sounds common to place it at the beginning, and perhaps foolish to place it at the end, the fact of the matter is that nothing is more important to me that God’s presence in the world, and consequently, in my life personally.  As one being saved by grace and learning anew each day that the Triune God is the beginning and end of all things, I am both humbled and thrilled.  Humbled by my weakness and inability in comparison – thrilled by the mere though of being included in His plan for the world and even within the very life of the Trinity.  To God be all praise forever and ever, Amen.

    To each and all – thank you for your part in the story which has been unveiled as my life.

    All that being said…

    You can get the entire thesis (375 pages, including appendices) here.

    You can get just the thesis (70 pages) here.

    Here is a zip file with all the appendices so you can pick which ones to read.

    I would love to hear any thoughts or remarks. I do not fear criticism, in fact, I encourage and welcome it. Actually, come to think of it, it is vital to the aim of my project, so let fly!

    Posted in church, community, culture, family, friends, Fuller Seminary, Jesus, kingdom, love, malone, maria, missional, modernity, narrative theology, postmodernity, stories, theology, western culture

    Very Big Day!

    December 9, 2006 // 6 Comments »

    Ok, I know I promised an apology and explanation. Believe me, it’s coming. In fact, it’s half written – I just had to get this on there first.

     
    Today was a monumental day in the life of JR Rozko. With the push of a (send) button, a project, quarter, school year, degree, and season of life was brought to a close. Told you it was big!

    I finished my masters thesis this morning and sent it off to the professor who mentored me through the process, Dr. Ryan Bolger. The writing process was a good one for me. As I read and researched, my topic seemed to get bigger and bigger – making it harder and harder to narrow it down, but also more and more interesting.

    It was only today that I finally decided on a title, “Restoring Hope to the Church in Western Culture: Exploring the Relationship Between Culture, Theology, and the Church.” The paper ended up being divided into three main sections – one on the Church and culture, one on narrative theology, and one on missional ecclesiology. The main authors I interacted with in the thesis were Nancey Murphy, Lesslie Newbigin, James McClendon, and Darrell Guder as the editor of Missional Church. As I was writing I realized that the direction I had decided to go intersected at many major points with the rest of the work I have done throughout seminary. So, I decided to choreograph the thesis in such a way that I could reference all my other major writings as appendices.

    All said and done I have a 374 page project (including 17 appendices) which represents a compendium of my integrated thought on a missiology of Western culture. I’ll try to get it uploaded soon and provide links for anyone who wants to give it a glance. The actual thesis (minus appendices) is only 70 double-spaced pages.

    What now? I get to relax and enjoy the next 10 days with family and friends while I am in Ohio. On Dec. 18th I’ll be heading back to California to celebrate Christmas with family out there. Maria returns from Norway just before New Year’s and we’re excited to be reunited and celebrate the new year together (guess this paid off!).  In January she will be continuing her MDiv program at Fuller and I will have the opportunity to partner with my good buddy Wess as TA’s for Ryan’s class, Church in Mission.
    I’ll be looking for work on top of that, so if anybody who reads this knows of anything interesting in the Pasadena, please let me know.

    Posted in church, culture, decisions, family, friends, Fuller Seminary, love, maria, missional, modernity, narrative theology, school, theology, western culture

    Narrative Theology

    June 9, 2006 // No Comments »

    Narrative Theology: A Literature Review

    This quarter (which officailly ends today!) I have been doing a directed study with Dr. Ryan Bolger.  I have had a growing interest in the field of narrative theology (an ok definition) and am planning on doing my masters thesis with regard to this field (stay tuned for more info. on that).  However, before getting to that point, I though it would be a good idea to get a good undersanding of the main books and authors who have been primarily influential.  The link above is to my final project, a review of 8 books and their importance for the idea of narrative approaches to theology, specifically with regard to where I might be heading with my masters thesis.

    I’ll try to write more on this topic later, but for now, enjoy!

    Posted in Fuller Seminary, narrative theology

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