Wednesday, October 10, 2007

THOUGHT BUBBLE--transitioning from rubric to articulation

As the researching and writing of my ThM thesis continues, I will be posting some "thought bubbles" for the purpose of critique and clarification. Questions, comments, and corrections are welcome.

I have officially arrived at a transition point: inputs for the rubric are done (via Clowney, Barth, Berkhof, Brunner, Berkouwer, and Hammett) and I move on to processing the ideas and producing the actual rubric.

The next input phase involves EC practitioners and thinkers, accessed via books, articles, blog posts, and a survey (TBA, pending PHRRC approval). Here I move to a definite sack and pillage methodology, gleaning from the vast supply a distillation of EC answers to two questions (What is church? and What is its purpose?).

Funny, as much as I've read, I'm not sure what I'll find in this phase. It is possible that the variety in perception will require a change from singular (ecclesiology) to plural (ecclesiologies). Not sure what I'll do with that. But then, that is the nature of discovery: you can only find what is there.

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

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2 comments:

  1. I'm a bit puzzled by what you mean by "rubric" and "articulation". Could you clarify?

    They may be technical terms used in some academic institutions but not others. Rubrics to me mean instructions on how to say the printed text, as in "Then the minister standing at the door of the church shall say in a loud voice". That's a rubric.

    And articulation -- do you mean clearly spoken, or jointed? It tends to be ambiguous.

    I hope you don't mind m,y asking these questions -- your project looks interesting, and I'd like to be able to understand it.

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  2. Steve, thanks for asking for clarification. The term "rubric" refers to an instrument used by educators, usually when grading writing assignments. (My Master of Divinity is in Christian Education, which is where I get the term.) I am creating a rubric to provide a bit more objectivity when evaluating emerging church ecclesiology.

    As for articulation, I am using it to mean "clearly spoken." Whether or not the term lasts through the first reading is another thing altogether. Given its ambiguity, I may reconsider.

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