The Elegance of God

God’s sustaining presence permeates the world, yet many people live as though it does not. “The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” and still countless lives are marked by quiet desperation, born of inattention to the comfort of God’s nearness. Post-Eden, this is the human condition—though it does not have to be. Even though people so often give in to anxiety, we can instead relax into a posture of listening and thoughtfulness that consoles the human spirit. By noticing God’s handiwork, we revere God more and find ourselves less defensive and able to believe His Word. In this contemplative study, theologian Sarah Sumner (PhD, Systematic Theology) invites readers to lift their eyes—to look at the stars, attend to the moon, and ponder the deep coherence of divine design: the structure of creation, the structure of salvation, and the structure of life with God. The result is a steadier vision of reality, a calmer trust in God’s Providence, and greater willingness to follow the narrow path that leads us home.

Every week you will be resourced with theological content to contemplate and add to your worldview. Worksheets and short readings are provided through our platform, “Populi.” Each session lasts a hundred minutes. Discussion time will be guided, so as to keep the subject on point. Participants are encouraged to use the Chat feature on Zoom for sidebar comments. You will always need your Bible in each and every gathering. At the end of each session, you be invited to share your Takeaway from the teaching. Sessions are not recorded for privacy reasons and for protecting the purity of our learning laboratory. For those who desire to do assignments and earn credit for their learning, that option is available through Right On Mission Tutorial Services.

This study is designed to help you get on mission and stay on course by:

Appreciating theology as queen of the sciences
Submitting to the authority of divine revelation rather than of society’s devices
Viewing creation with eyes that recognize God’s fingerprints
Seeing everything in context as part of the Meaning of Life
Trusting God with a rootedness that keeps them on mission in times of testing
Expanding their capacity to worship God more fully and spontaneously
Pursuing wisdom and valuing it more than silver or gold

Every month during this course, spend 20–30 uninterrupted minutes outdoors or looking out the window at the beauty of the stars, the sun, the moon, the clouds. Let go of your phone and computer. Exhale through your mouth. Engage the silence. Do not do any scientific analysis or research. Simply attend. Just be. Absorb the night time sky. Behold the daytime sunlight glimmering as it does; perhaps even see a rainbow. Don’t rush. Don’t try to be spiritually great—there is no need at all to supersede yourself. Relax. Let the scale of the cosmos reorient your sense of proportion.

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JANUARY - COMPLIMENTARY SESSION

Dates & Times =

Tuesday, January 20 at 4:00 - 5:30 pm PST
Thursday, January 22 at 6:00 - 7:30 pm PST
Monday, January 26 at 3:45 - 5:15 pm PST
Thursday, January 29 at 10:45 am - 12:15 pm PST

This introductory session is offered without charge. In this 90-minute discussion, we will review the syllabi for three upcoming studies, listen to each others’ initial response to the breadth of material being covered, then review what it means to think theologically about headship, self-respect, and the elegance of God. NOTE: Engaging in these studies requires us to commit to the authority of Scripture, the objectivity of truth, careful definition of terms, and a coherent theological framework.

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FEBRUARY

Dates = Tuesday, February 3, 10, 17, 24

Time = 4:30 - 6:10 pm PST

Cost = Without Subscription: $150/mo | Subscription: $99.99/mo (Gold) or $149/mo (Platinum)

Because theology is no longer regarded as “the queen of the sciences,” most educated people seem never to have constructed a framework for understanding the cosmos as a majestic system that demonstrates the artistry of God. Presupposing God as Creator frees us to define “theology” not narrowly as the direct study of God, but more broadly as the study of everything God has revealed. By what kind of approach can we reliably and responsibly apprehend the structure of reality from a theological perspective? In other words, what methodology is necessary for this sacred inquiry?

MARCH

Dates = Tuesday, March 3, 10, 17, 24, 31

Time = 4:30 - 6:10 pm PST

Cost = Without Subscription: $150/mo | Subscription: $99.99/mo (Gold) or $149/mo (Platinum)

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, “darkness” was over the surface of the deep. Today, cosmologists tell us that roughly 95 percent of the universe’s mass-energy is invisible—what we call dark matter and dark energy—unseen and only known by its effects. What does the presence of darkness—biblically, theologically, and scientifically—reveal about the structure of creation? What might it suggest about God’s self-restraint alongside His deliberate self-disclosure? How do light and darkness preserve human freedom? What if there were no such thing as darkness?

APRIL

Dates = Tuesday, April 7, 14, 21, 28

Time = 4:30 - 6:10 pm PST

Cost = Without Subscription: $150/mo | Subscription: $99.99/mo (Gold) or $149/mo (Platinum)

There is only one place for anyone ever to find God, and that place is reality. Is God confined by reality or is the nature of reality defined by God? How does truth correlate with reality, logic, and meaning? If God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness whatsoever, what does that imply about the safety of exposure before Him? Why does light feel unbearable when resisted? Why does darkness require maintenance—secrecy, silence, and avoidance—while light sustains itself? Is the structure of creation such that light naturally exposes, heals, and orders what darkness can only distort and conceal? How does Jesus’ self-attestation, “I am the Light of the world” authorize His claim, “You are the light of the world”? How might Jesus’ followers become far more courageous to stand in truth if they were convinced that light truly excels the darkness, not only in principle, but also in the lived pressures of everyday life?

MAY

Dates = Tuesday, May 5, 12, 19, 26

Time = 4:30 - 6:10 pm PST

Cost = Without Subscription: $150/mo | Subscription: $99.99/mo (Gold) or $149/mo (Platinum)

Through the disciplined use of mathematics, physicists have discovered that the universe is governed by four fundamental forces—gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force—and that if any one of these were missing or even slightly different, the universe could collapse or fly apart. Cosmic forces stabilize our time/space domain. What does the intelligibility of mathematical order reveal about the structure of creation? Is it reasonable to wonder if God is a mathematician? How does math inform technology? At what point, if any, does the language of mathematics conflict with the nature of reality?