I'm trying to pick up the blogging slack this week...so if this is not particularly interesting (or understandable) please forgive me for the copy & paste from the intro section of my dissertation on the doctrine of angels. --DPClear evidence exists throughout Christian history that one branch of the faith tends to be preoccupied with developing a theology of power while another remains equally committed to a theology of weakness. Both expressions are justifiable interpretations of the faith and are often predicated upon the assumption that they have either inherited or duplicated the quintessence of early Christian practice. Power theology is what figures like Luther referred to as a “theology of glory” due to the disproportionate amount of attention given to issues that reside beyond the cross. Those who resonate with power Christianity imply that a faith without strength is a faith not worth having. This dichotomy between power and weakness intermittently rears its head throughout the history of the Church: from monasticism to inquisition, iconography to iconoclasm, pietism to quietism. The disputes between the Antiochene and Alexandrian schools during the Patristic Age were effectively in relation to the difference between a theology of power and that of weakness. The Alexandrians emphasized the power of Jesus’ divinity, whereas the Antiochenes stressed a theology of limitation found in the humanity of Jesus. Both were correct according to Chalcedon’s viewpoint, but not to the exclusion of hypostasis. A theology of weakness, on the other hand, could also be understood as a theology of the cross. Weakness, or cruciform theology insists that the spotlight ought to be thrown upon the landmarks of low anthropology and high Christology.
It is not unfair to suggest that much of today’s Pentecostal and Evangelical witness tends to focus upon power Christianity. Their language is rife with the subject of miracles, salvation, the life to come, and victory over everything from singleness to Satan. It is a very hopeful expression of the faith, but tends to minimize the already in anticipation of the not yet. Mainline liberal Christianity, in contrast, tends to identify more closely with a theology of weakness by caring for the downtrodden and sympathizing with the ostracized, but often expresses this activity in a theologically fuzzy rehashing of social justice issues. Fuzziness aside, their kindness in response to the face of human need reveals that natural theology is not something that can only be understood from the inanimate sectors of creation, but that it may be comprehended by merely looking 
at our own species. The reformed churches also tend to lean to the side of weakness theology due to their focus upon human depravity but they are not known for their ability to translate that focus into a theology of liberation. Their interest in progressive sanctification also reveals the remnants of power Christianity residing in their dogmatics. No one is safe because rarely, if ever, does any Christian movement succeed in discovering the sweet spot between orthodoxy and orthopraxy. It is the ever longed-for, but seldom realized homeostasis of theological utopia.
Accordingly, angels tend to be the darling of power Christianity, but in situ, they are revealed as agents of both expressions of the faith. This leads to the possibility of discovering a sort of angelic Christianity that reflects the testimony of Hebrew and Christian Scriptures where angels act as powerful, yet ever-dependent agents of God, whose insatiable appetite for goodness is as frightening as their helpless captivity to a higher nature is mystifying. Angelology has generally been considered a minor doctrine of tangential importance when compared with the central canons of theology proper: Christology, salvation, worship and ecclesiology. Due to the enormous pressure that theologians face to contribute original, creative ideas to the discipline, not a few have overstated the significance of their contributions for the sake of humanity’s insatiable desire to hear something new (Cf. Acts 17:21).
Creativity is a communicable attribute that we share with God himself but its role as servant to the interests of the individual is only a handmaiden to its role as servant to God and truth. This is to say that a stentorian defense of adiaphora only serves to obscure rather than disclose the centrality of decidedly Trinitarian scholarship. Therefore it would be reckless to suggest that angelology represents the Gründung (foundation) of what it means to be a theologian; at best angelology is an overlooked complement to the essence of the Christian faith as revealed in the challenging simplicity found in the message of Jesus.
Here's a little excerpt from Wikipedia on Durian --- The durian (IPA: [d̪uˈɾi.ɑn]) is the fruit of trees of the genus Durio belonging to the Malvaceae, a large family which includes hibiscus, okra, cotton, mallows and linden trees. Widely known and revered in Southeast Asia as the "King of Fruits,"[1] the fruit is distinctive for its large size, unique odour, and a formidable thorn-covered husk. The fruit can grow up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 15 centimetres (6 in) in diameter, and typically weighs one to three kilograms (2 to 7 lb).[2] Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the colour of its husk green to brown and its flesh pale-yellow to red, depending on species.[2] The hard outer husk is covered with sharp, prickly thorns, while the edible flesh within emits the distinctive odour, which is regarded as either fragrant or overpowering and offensive. The odour of the ripe fruit is very strong and penetrating, even when the husk of the fruit is still intact.
After hearing about the fruit for about a year (through TV documentaries, and his wife and mother-in-law), Dylan finally agreed to give this well known fruit a taste. Verdict - happy to announce that he liked it (or does not have an adverse, gagging reaction to it--he was just 'hamming it up' for the photos below). Just in case you want to take the plunge as well, Durian can easily be found these days in Chinese grocery stores all over the United States as well as Scotland (so I discovered)! It is quite often in a frozen state rather than fresh because it is a tropical fruit thus freezing is required to be transported to these non-tropical countries quite naturally. I hope you'll get a chance to try it someday for those of you who have never tried or even heard of the fruit!
