I can well imagine that ‘the other way was mentally exhausting’, Lee. James entitles this Part One as “Starting Human, staying human”, by which he means that while theology is the academic discipline of making sense of who God is and what God is about, ‘Jesus the Forgiving Victim’ from the very beginning makes us realise that theology is also an anthropology, it is God speaking with us on a very human level. James explains that God is communicating as someone who appeared in the middle of history, but who is also involved somehow in the creation of the world. In other words, God is communicating through Jesus. And yes, the quote about ‘grasping onto a theory about what God has done for us’ with which you began this post, is very familiar to most of us. James takes us on a journey which explains Christianity as the process of finding ourselves on the inside of an act of communication that is leading us into a new set of practices. This results in our discovering from within what Jesus is saying, which has the power to transform us into becoming something, or someone we did not know before. And to understand how God is speaking to us through Jesus and the Bible is a formidable journey of self discovery.
And yes, Lee, do feel free to send me posts whenever you like. We may even be able to have three-way conversations with Rich who wrote a little time after you and to whom I will respond very soon.