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Paul Hooverson
Contributions
Homosexuality, Fornication, and Porneia
Often one hears an argument to the effect that "Jesus never talked about homosexuality; therefore, the Church should not be dogmatic on the issue of same-sex behavior." This brief document demonstrates that Jesus did in fact speak about homosexuality using the broad category of "porneia," a Greek word that includes such things as premarital sex, extramarital sex, bestiality, pedophilia, necrophilia, incest, and homosexual behavior.
 
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The Church of the Triune God: Unity in Community
The thesis of this paper is that the nature of the Christian Church can best be understood within a framework of three interlocking, interweaving, relationships, and that the purpose of the Church is to collectively embody, in proleptic fashion, God’s eschatological kingdom principles to the whole world during the specific period of time known as the “church age,” the time between the “already inaugurated” kingship and the “not yet consummated” full kingly reign of God
 
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Biblical Authority and Difficult texts
Wrestles with the question of how certain "difficult texts" in the O.T. prophets can be considered "authoritative" for us today.
 
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Reading "In Search of the Soul"
A summary and analysis of the book, "In Search of the Soul," wherein various writers argue for 1) substance dualism, 2) emergent dualism, 3) non-reductive physicalism, and 4) constitution(ism). At the end of the paper I offer my own analogy of the human body/soul as something akin to the computer hardware (the physical component) and the computer software & electricity (non-physical components).
 
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Reading "The Nature of the Atonement"
After first summarizing the four views of the atonement--Christus Victor, Christ the Healer, Christ the Penal Substitute, and the Kaleidoscopic view--as presented in the book, "The Nature of the Atonement" (Edited by James K. Beilby and Paul R. Eddy; InterVarsity Press, 2006), I offer my own "Computer Software/Malware" model of the atonement.
 
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The Nature and Destiny of Sin
This paper argues that God’s great cosmic drama presents sin beginning as an unreal potentiality, a necessary but shadowy flipside to a “very good” creaturely freedom. From there, sin morphs into its this-worldly status as an inescapable and overwhelming reality, a catastrophic consequence of creaturely ignorance and disobedience. Finally--as a result of the gracious Bridegroom’s costly saving work--sin will be finally and forever banished to the only sort of “perfection” that evil can have: the no-longer-real status of vanquished foe and never-to-be relived nightmare.
 
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Biblical Authority: Scripture as Soul Food
Attempts to understand the nature of Biblical authority through analogies to digital cameras, ethnic restaurants, and the "food pyramid" concept.
 
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Reading Robert Kegan’s "In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life"
Uses analogies and illustrations in an attempt to better understand and summarize the "Orders of Consciousness" discussed in Robert Kegan's book.
 
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