Bible Study This Friday: An Invitation to Doxologize

Sleeping Bears Dunes on Lake Michigan (Michigan)

Over the years I have taught many classes and seminars on The Nature of God. This Friday, May 1, at 11 AM EST, I'm doing a Zoom Bible Study on The Nature of God. If you want to join send me an email, and I'll send you the link.  johnpiippo@msn.com

I'll especially follow Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, using his distinction between God's incommunicable attributes (those belonging only to God, such as his aseity and eternality) and God's communicable attributes (e.g., God power-shares with us; his love; and so on). If I have time, I may teach on the triunity of God (God's complex unity, in his being).

Whenever I study the attributes of God, I have moments where I am inwardly moved. I feel emotions of awe that lead me to worship God. My study turns into doxology.  

Marva Dawn writes:

"The word doxology comes from two Greek words meaning "glory" (doxa) and "word" (logos). Thus, defined simply, doxology is words about the Glory, words that express praise, true praise. It is important to define praise carefully at the beginning of the twenty-first century because there exists in worshiping groups massive confusion between praise and happy songs. Praise is not merely something uplifting or upbeat. Rather, it is the naming of attributes, character, and/or actions of the one being praised." (Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson, The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call, Kindle Locations 409-411. Emphasis mine.)

Dawn writes that "Doxology is praise that names the Glory and helps those who hear to see it." (Ib.)

Simply naming and defining the attributes of God leads God-believers to doxologize.

We'll see what happens this Friday as we go deep into the being of God!

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For more see chapter 2 of my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God, "Praying and the Nature of God."