Nathan Amerson

Drawing upon Sebastian Junger’s 2016
book Tribe, this article attempts to illustrate a
correlation between the need for belonging which is
experienced by members of today’s Western
postmodern societies and the mission of the church
to fill that need. God’s people are called to a
lifestyle of love and acceptance, and to point people
both inside and outside the church community to a
new life of acceptance and health which may be
found in relationship with each other and with God.
That is not to say that love implies unqualified
acceptance because God Himself calls believers to
give up much to be a member of His family. This
new “tribe” to which believers belong forms the
foundation of societal change but only when
members of that community give up themselves in
the interest of promoting Christ. Each one’s identity
must be sacrificed to the calling of God, and in so
doing each believer may be brought into a new
family, a new tribe which reaches out with love to
the larger community.

Any discussion of the person of God must first deal with the two aspects of His divine nature which are the starting point for theology proper: transcendence and immanence. God's transcendence is what ultimately separates God and humanity; God exists outside our limited dimensionality. God's immanence is His self-revelation in an understandable way. Transcendence refers to the "wholly otherness" of God, whereas His immanence is what allows us to approach the throne of grace, particularly through the highest revelation of His immanence in the person of Jesus Christ. This article will follow these two themes, specifically as they are demonstrated through St. Matthew's employment of the word oros (Koine Greek, usually translated "mountain" but sometimes best seen as representing "hills").

Aidos, a demigod of Greek mythology, was the personification of modesty, shame, reverence, and respect. As such her name became synonymous with showing honor or respect. In this work we explore the concept of employing aidos in our Christian conversations around race.

This work explores the writings of three great medieval theologians, all doctors of the church, and all enormously influential not only within their time but for centuries to come. Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Thomas Aquinas all held positions of significant sway within their monastic circles and their writings have continued to be points of reference, both for Catholic and Protestant theologians to this day. Simultaneously, a development of the twin themes of God’s attributes of transcendence and immanence is an appropriate starting point not just for theology proper but for theology in general, and these three writers each contributed to an orthodox position which keeps a balanced position of these attributes in mind.