My name is Chikara Saito and I am a Senior at Hope College who dabbles a bit in everything — Christian dogmatics, Reformed-Catholic dialogue, moral theology, philosophical theology, political theology, metaehtics, metaphysics, modal logic, philosophy of language, Medieval philosophy, and — most prominently — the work of Søren Kierkegaard.
Despite all of these interests, I had never set out to master all these streams of thought. Each time I would be reading and writing on a topic and a professor or peer would remark about the work being part of some particular field of inquiry; all the while I had thought I was asking the same question in different ways.
At the heart of all these interests is one question that feeds all of these tributaries: “What does it mean to confess to Christ with the apostle Peter, ‘You are the Christ. The Son of the living God.’?” Put another way, I wrestle with how the triune God has answered His own question to the prophet Ezekiel — “Son of Man, can these bones live?” — in life, person, and work of Jesus Christ. The answer is ‘Yes,’ but there’s a lot more to flesh out (excuse the crude play on concepts). This act of fleshing out these connections, it seems to me, is a starting point when thinking about what it means to love God with one’s mind.
Given these questions of mine, I have decided to work on a couple interrelated but distinct topics in my last semester as an undergraduate. The first part of the project will concern itself with the nature and role of analogical speech in Christian theology. The second part will be concerned with the relationship between metaphysics and dogmatics. I will devote a post for each of these topic to both introduce the topic as well as the significance of the concepts at hand. While these ideas sound rather opaque and obscure, it’s my hope that this blog will serve both as an organic resource to point toward where the conversation is happening as well as help introduce you to these knotty questions that come with the faith. Consider this blog as a table in which the communion of the saints come together to deliberate on these questions of the faith. Traversing all these fields entails that this blog may, at times, get a bit complicated. But always remember that everything ties back to reflecting on how the triune God answers His own question to the prophet: “Son of Man, can these dry bones live?”
One last note about this blog, and it makes sense to make the note through a story. Several years ago I had the once-in-a-life-time privilege of dining with Makoto Fujimura. At the dinner, I had asked him what he would recommend for someone like myself to cultivate an aesthetic eye. Mako took off with an off-handed remark I made about about artists he thought I should pay attention to. We had been talking about how the Christian community has too often ignored the artistic talent in our midst, so I asked him if he knew any Christians engaged in art that had caught his eye. “He’s one of the most interesting Christians who is engaged in art,” Mako began. Mako kept lavishing praise on this illustrator by the name of John Hendrix, so I decided to check out what all the praise was about.
Ever since I went home that evening and went through John’s Drawings in Church, I have continually found his drawings to help me to re-encounter Scripture in a richer way. When I decided to start this blog, I knew that I needed to have his drawings help accentuate the concepts I’m engaged in. After an email exchange with John, he has agreed to allow me use his drawings as the banners for these posts. All the drawings in the banners (unless otherwise noted) are from his extraordinary portfolio.
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