This is just some crazy stuff...I can't imagine how much time this took. Not sure if the guy broke the law or not, but his work is pretty creative stuff.
POC Blog
The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan
Christoga - What the...
OK, I was baited into this one by a good friend whose PR department would not permit him to blog it...and he figured I would be his huckleberry. Well, he guessed correctly. Christoga - a nice combination of YOGA and Christ - or is it? Now, I happen to have some dear friends who are committed Christians who were converted from Hinduism. It is interesting that Indian people who become followers of Jesus typically call poses dedicated to certain eastern gods...well...idolatry. Not us western, Oprah Winfrey watching, syncretism loving "Christians." We like our bodies to be filled with Yoga and our hearts with some person we vaguely call "Jeeezus."
Now, I am not going to get into a debate here on whether stretching is bad - of course it is not. Of course Yoga type stretching increases flexibility, strength and can make your body healthier. Yet if you want to stretch you do not need "Christoga" to do so. You certainly do not need yoga to "worship Jesus." Also, "getting centered" and eastern meditation are the antithesis of seeking the peace of God through meditation upon God's works, his Word and his attributes. Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46)...this is the result of something Yoga cannot offer, a relationship with the creator God who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble...yet we love to grab cool eastern stuff and mix it up without even knowing what it means.
OK, all the Yoga loving Christians can now send me your kind, loving, tolerant comments...
Sailing the Wine Dark Sea - Why the Greeks Matter - A Mini Review
Thomas Cahil, Sailing the Wine Dark Sea - Why the Greeks Matter, Audio book narrated by John Lee, Books on Tape 2003. Also available in hardback and paperback.
I just finished another installment of Thomas Cahil's Hinges of History series of books chronicaling the sources and influences of western culture. As with the Mysterious Middle Ages, I thouroughly enjoyed Cahil's work Sailing the Wine Dark Sea. Any student of the classical sources would find great enjoyment in Cahil's work; though it must be said that these works are not intending to trod new ground. What I have most enjoyed is that Cahil seems to be achieving his goals with these works. Rather than simply recount literature and ideas his goal has been to make the people of history speak to us once again; in this volume I heard the echoes of the ancients who ruled the Mediterranean and beyond.
In this review I want to highlight some things I enjoyed from the work and then comment briefly on a few glaring drawbacks to this work. I want to note that I read Cahil more as one interested in the history of ideas and cultures rather than a critique of his work as a classicist. I will leave that to others who share that field. On to the some highlights.
Highlights
Any history of ancient times, people and places has the great risk to be profoundly boring and the opportunity to launch a new adventure for the mind of the reader. Cahil's treatment of the Greeks was certainly the latter. His discussion of the epic stories of the Illiad and the Odessey brought renewed fascination for me of wars in Troy and wanderings with gods and men. For those unfamiliar with these epic poems Cahil will be a great introduction. Additionally at every phase of the work, whether art, politics, science. medicine or philosophy Cahil traces developments historically. This adds a great bit of perspective to the work which I highly appreciated.
The book begins with the two great poems of Homer and structures two chapters treating these works. The Iliad Cahil treats the great warrior culture that emerged from Greece and indeed has populated much of western thought and politics ever sense. Second the romance and longing for home is treated by looking at the plight of Odysseus. As mentioned before, if anything these chapters introduce these poems to a new generation. Yet they also bring some reflection on the western war machine and the desire for love, peace and home. Always relevant in a world of depravity where conflict and love both clamor for the soul.
Perhaps the most enjoyable part of work for me was the treatment of philosophy. Comprised of two Greek words phileo (love) and sophia (wisdom), western philosophical reflection found deep percolation in the minds of the Greeks. Cahil's treatment is brief but thoroughly traces thought through the pre-Socratics, to the looming figure of Plato's Socrates, the ideas of Plato himself and his greatest student Aristotle who would one day be known in medieval Europe merely as "the philosopher." A friend once said to me "philosophy is flashy, but theology nourishes the soul" - I confess this to be true. The wrestling of the Greeks with the nature of everything is a contagious pursuit in the West. I too find the art of questioning to be a pleasurable pursuit. Yet when philosophy does not meet its proper object - reflection can only go awry. Thinking and meditation with God and after God is fruitful indeed. Speculation and pondering as aimless wandering apes has lead only to postmodern uncertainty and deplorable despair. Yet anyone who wants to reason well can learn much from our Greek friends. In fact, I did some small work tonight with my six year old which was first formalized by Aristotle. Indeed, the Greeks matter. (For those interested we discussed these laws: A is, A=A, A or nonA=True, A and nonA=False)
Lowlights
Cahil's book also had some shocking weaknesses which almost ruined the book for me. One chapter is subtitled "How to Party" - indeed a lesson we learn from the Greeks but one presented by Cahil in brash and at times lewd form. In treating the proclivities of the Greeks it is expected that wine, sexuality and song should be a part of the story, but how that story is told can bring unfortunate baseness. Cahil chooses some profane language to interact with the Greeks, dropping the f-bomb on several occasions. In one instance he was perhaps attempting to be true to the translating a poem by using the meaning of the modern f-word, yet at times it appeared almost as if he wanted to shock sensibilities. Certainly the Greek attitude about sex would on its face offend many today. Yet in whatever the case, the language was offensive and in my opinion highly unnecessary. Additionally the treatment of pederasty occupied too much space and was presented as a cultural norm without any harsh criticism from Cahil. The discussion of the sexual escapades and drunken debauchery may be too much for some who take up this book. Readers be strongly warned - this was a major drawback for me.
Conclusion
In reading Sailing the Wine Dark Sea I again was taken deep into the heart of a people which lay in the past of western culture. I learned much, enjoyed Cahil's historical writing and engaging prose and heard again why I am glad the Christ overcame both Dionysus and Apollo. I look forward to reading the rest of the series on road trips in the car...perhaps next will be The Gift of the Jews.
Controversial Dutch Film...
Dutch Politician Geert Wilders' controversial 15min short film Fitna (a word which means discord or strife) is causing quite a stir. The film features readings from the Koran accompanied by quotes from Islamic teachers along with some disturbing images. Of course Wilders has had too many death threats to count and the film is causing debate about speech that offends.
What is lacking in the commentary I have read is a discussion of the truth of these matters. Anyway, it is a pretty shocking film - available here on Google Video.
I love the cross, but will keep my iPod
I am really not so sure why we take an ancient instrument of execution upon which God incarnate gave his life in sacrifice for sin and make it into trinkets. Here is another installment in the history of Jesus Junk - a Cross shaped MP3 player. I guess this is supposed to make a statement but I do not know what statement. Here is how this one was reported on Engadget:
Good lord. No, really. Good lord. The TEO MP-301 MP3 player from IceTech USA crams 1GB of media storage into -- as you can see -- a very Jesus-friendly form factor. The $49 player features a built-in microphone with voice recorder, mirrored front panel, and even a little speaker. According to reviews, the player has some serious interface issues and a weak screen, but if crucifixion is your thing, you can't go wrong with this necklace cross-cum-MP3 player. Or is that the other way around? Is this an MP3 player that's also a cross? Anyway, there you have it: the cross-shaped MP3 player, indeed.
My small counsel to the kind souls which produce this sort of thing - STOP IT. OK, now podcasts of Christ centered preaching are really great on iPods. That is how I would rather experience "Cross" and "MP3 player" in the same sentence. But maybe its just me...
Where art thou Pessimism?
John Mark Reynolds has a refreshing dose of optimism online with his essay Great News Today! Or Despist Us the Church is Winning! OR Ten Reasons to be Happy! over at the Scriptorium. If you are typically found hanging out with Chicken little, lamenting how bad everything is or just tend towards a modicum of moribundity this little piece will be good reading for you. Of course, you will simply want to refute his post and tell us how bad it really is...but hey, it is worth a try to look on the bright side every now and then...no? Of course John Piper will tell you that our joy is in God and not simply good goings on in the world or culture...but if and when both may be true it is a day for smiling is it not?
Personally, I love Chesterton's exhortation for Christians to be irrational optimists. At that I will leave you with one of my very favorite sections of Chesterton's book Orthodoxy...I find very few write like this today:
This at least had come to be my position about all that was called optimism, pessimism, and improvement. Before any cosmic act of reform we must have a cosmic oath of allegiance. A man must be interested in life, then he could be disinterested in his views of it. "My son give me thy heart"; the heart must be fixed on the right thing: the moment we have a fixed heart we have a free hand. I must pause to anticipate an obvious criticism. It will be said that a rational person accepts the world as mixed of good and evil with a decent satisfaction and a decent endurance. But this is exactly the attitude which I maintain to be defective. It is, I know, very common in this age; it was perfectly put in those quiet lines of Matthew Arnold which are more piercingly blasphemous than the shrieks of Schopenhauer --
"Enough we live: -- and if a life, With large results so little rife, Though bearable, seem hardly worth This pomp of worlds, this pain of birth."
I know this feeling fills our epoch, and I think it freezes our epoch. For our Titanic purposes of faith and revolution, what we need is not the cold acceptance of the world as a compromise, but some way in which we can heartily hate and heartily love it. We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre's castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return at evening.
No one doubts that an ordinary man can get on with this world: but we demand not strength enough to get on with it, but strength enough to get it on. Can he hate it enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing? Can he look up at its colossal good without once feeling acquiescence? Can he look up at its colossal evil without once feeling despair? Can he, in short, be at once not only a pessimist and an optimist, but a fanatical pessimist and a fanatical optimist? Is he enough of a pagan to die for the world, and enough of a Christian to die to it? In this combination, I maintain, it is the rational optimist who fails, the irrational optimist who succeeds. He is ready to smash the whole universe for the sake of itself.
DWELL Confernce NYC 2008
We just finished up a two day urban church planting conference in Manhattan...a great few days connecting with some Jacob's Well guys and meeting some men from the Acts 29 network. The event was held in an old cathedral (now a Unitarian Universalist church) on 76th avenue right adjacent to Central Park. New York is a great city and we enjoyed staying in NJ and feeling the commuter lifestyle taking the trains into Manhattan. Spending time with five of the single men who are a part of the Jacob's Well team was the main highlight for me. The teaching at the conference was great and sitting in a cathedral setting at tables was a cool vibe.
Mark Driscoll was passionate, Tim Keller genius-like, Darrin Patrick helpful, Eric Mason off the chain with theology, passion and a tight flow...and Ed Stetzer managed to offend just about everyone (Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Unitarians...brought helpful kingdom theology and made me laugh out loud). CJ Mahaney humbled us in a exhortation to watch both life and doctrine - an ever present need for pastoral ministry. I don't ever want to get in any cults of personality or become fanboys of guys I respect...I find that goofy and strange. Yet I am thankful for these guys' faithful ministry. Apparently audio/video will be up at some point at www.dwellconference.com - I recommend checking that out.
On the family front Kasey joins me in NJ today to finish (we pray) our house search. We are thankful for the quick and profitable sale of our home in Tennessee and hopeful that the other part of the equation - namely, having somewhere to go, will come together in due time.
Finishing a race...
Last night was my final night teaching at the Inversion Fellowship. This has been my post the last 3.5 years and most every Thursday night from Fall 2005 until last night have been spent with my friends there. We are finishing a series entitled Walk On - A Call to Endurance in 2 Timothy and last night I preached from chapter 2 Timothy 4:1-8.
My message was entitled Endurance has an Ending (Don't Punk Out) and treated the beginning of Paul's last words to his padawan learner Timothy. It was a fun night, an emotional night and a night in which I pray Christ was honored. Throughout the evening my inverted friends brought some special blessings to my soul.
First, some fun knuckleheads wore some Jesus Junk t-shirts in solidarity with me. I have been wearing this sort of shirt and mocking them this semester to have a little fun. Well, three Inversion folks showed up last night wearing their own. You know the shirts - the ones who take the John Deer logo and make it say "John Three" or take a Starbucks logo, change it around a little and the quote a verse from the book of He-Brews. Well intentioned gear that I find profoundly stupid. Well meaning Bible belt youth groups tend to dig this stuff as creative outreach. As you know Jesus died for "MySpace" in heaven - good grief. But I felt the love to have some peeps join in the fun.
Additionally, this crazy bunch of folks have been training to run in the Music City 1/2 or full marathon coming up this weekend here in Nashvegas. These guys have made "Team Inversion" shirts with the cause they are running for being "Jacob's Well" - the shirst are killer and I was super humbled by their raising funds as a team for our little church plant heading to New Jersey. Team Inversion - I've got big love for you. Here's a picture - that sweet baby blue has both Jacob's Well and Carolina on my mind.
They also made us a nice collage with the graphics of each teaching series we have led here over the past few years. Can't wait to hang that on a wall in my dark basement office somewhere in Jersey! Finally, to all of you Inversion people - thank you for you love, your spontaneous words of encouragement, your notes and your care for our family. Most importantly, we thanked Jesus last night. The crucified and risen one who calls us to live revolutionary, upside down lives as we struggle forward in his mission for his glory in the world. I will close with a few challenging words from the greatest person who ever lived.
Matthew 10:38, 39 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 23:11, 12 The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Mark 9:33-35 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
Mark 1:14,15 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Blogging, Schlogging...
A friend just asked why I wasn't blogging so much these days...I sent him this reply that I thought I would share. Unless I decide to Liveblog the DWELL Conference (not going to happen) the POCBlog may be a little slower than usual.
I had a friend in Fri/Sat, preached twice at a church in Louisville Sunday, had seminary Monday, preach my last message at Inversion this Thursday (you should come), have the Jacob's Well send off gathering Sunday, final exam Monday, fly to NYC Monday night, at a conference for a couple of days, then house hunting through the weekend and back on May 4 with my tongue hanging out...and I have a wife and three kids who I want to know me. So blogging, Schlogging...the POC Blog may be a bit fallow for a bit
So that is how life is rolling right now - please pray for us if you think about it...we still need a place to live in NJ.
The Nine
During the summer of 2004 our family moved to the Nashville metro area to begin to walk towards the beginnings of a work with young adults in that city. In October 2004 we held our first public gathering for the Inversion Fellowship - a group of young adults that I have walked with over the past 3.5 years. In this first short years of Inversion’s existence we wanted to create a culture that wrestled openly with the issues of life, theology and mission – living very much on the ground of contemporary culture. We didn't hire the coolest band in Nashville, we didn't have laser light shows and we didn't call people to simply get married, be happy and settle down with a little Jesus on the side. Our hope and prayer was to find life and satisfaction in the goodness and greatness of God and then to give our lives together for the Kingdom.
We also thought it wasn't "cool" to not read or think deeply about the issues of truth and life. We value laughing deeply together but not remaining ignorant about the intersection of truth and life. One of the bi-products of this turned into a series of short booklets (some are a bit more bookish) that we just finished and have "self-published" for our peeps in Inversion.
The following is from the Inversion web site where the booklets are available as free downloads for anybody who might be encouraged by these works...sample covers are below. There are nine books covering various subjects. You can see the complete listing here.
We want to thank the many upside down people of Inversion as love for them was a huge part of this work. Most importantly we thank Jesus – our God and Savior - whose love, fame and mission gave meaning and hope to the work of our hands. We pray these are of some use to him and his continuing work in the world in the days to come.
OK, I'm a bit giddy
Despite the fact that all three of my kids are sick today...despite the fact that my property taxes next year will likely be as much as my current house payment...I am a bit jovial today.
The ESV Study Bible Web site just went live - and man they are doing this thing right. Props to the moms and pops at Crossway and the team putting this together. A few highlights.
- Pub date is October 2008
- The page layout looks great. Single column reading of the text...
- There will be an online edition launched along with it - you buy the book, you get web site access as well.
- Full color illustrations/maps - see sample image here
- Eight formats including an affordable hardback at just over 32 bucks
- Greg Allison, my good friend and member of an advisory council for Jacob's Well wrote one of the articles. See all contributors here.
Getting Expelled
Hey guys, I am getting Expelled on Friday night 7:45 show at the Franklin Thoroughbred Theater. Just got my tickets and would love to hang with any/all in the area who want to go. Maybe we can hit some appetizers at Jonathan's Grill afterwards and discuss various models of knowledge/faith
Grabbed my tickets already through Fandango.
The Mysterious Middle Ages - A Mini-Review
I just finished reading (rather listening to the audio book) Thomas Cahill's work Mysteries of the Middle Ages - The Rise of Feminism, Science and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe. The work's tag line certainly reflects the actual eclecticism of this volume as it does attempt to trace the roots of Feminism, Science and Art in Western Culture. Cahill is upfront about the rather disparate themes taken up in this volume - a patchwork he calls it, but one that rightfully reflects the various cultures morphing and shaping during the middle ages.
Cahill, unlike many post Enlightenment scholars, is not a despiser of Western culture and therefore his histories read as one who actually appreciates his subject matter. One gets the sense he is actually intrigued by the cradles of Western identity, giving them all a fair hearing on their own terms. In his other volumes he has taken up the role of the Irish, the Jews, the Greeks and Jesus himself as he has waded through the many streams of western identity and influence. This book takes up the developments in Catholic Europe from roughly the 12th through the early 14th century.
His subjects for feminism were a combination of nun, queen and virgin. Hildegarde, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Catholic veneration of the Virgin Mary. I found the chapter about the mystic nun Hildegarde to be interesting but it could have lost some of its girth. The history of Eleanor and her husbands and sons was interesting history but the transition material about the lusty sexual escapades of the medieval castles could have been omitted. It seems however that Cahill wanted to see the sexual liberality in the post enlightenment west as an outflow of the free woman of the castle. I found it a bit tiresome. Of course the veneration of the virgin extended a high view to certain virtuous and saintly women in the middle ages but I found its connection to feminism slightly strained.
There were histories of men such as St. Francis that those who love justice today will certainly take delight in - I loved hearing the story of Francis showing up naked in court when his father was suing him over material possessions. There were also several gems from his writing that I scribbled down in a moleskin while at a stop in the car. Francis was an important figure on the road to a more gentile Europe breaking with the Rome of its past and helping the same people become the Italians.
The segment of the book I enjoyed most was the focus on two thinkers and philosophers of the academic seedbed which was medieval France. Both the accounts of Peter Abelard and Thomas Aquinas were brief but interesting stories into the lives of two very different men who struggled to use reason to understand the world. Thomas is one of the philosophers my son is named after, mainly for his foundational role in shaping the world in preparation for modern science. It was good to see Cahill reject the caricatures of the period between Aristotle and Enlightenment as "the dark ages" as indeed there was much light to be found in Christian thinkers such as St. Thomas. No, his theology is not my own, but his example of using reason in service of the gospel is one for which I am grateful. The developments in England under Bacon were of interest as well but I will let the interested wander into the halls of Oxford if they so choose to read this book.
Finally, I was delighted with the histories of art given in this book. As one who has studied very little in this field I was just captivated by treatment of the painters and poets of Florence. In particular, this brief biography of Dante and the love the authored showed for his work The Divine Comedy was a pure joy for me as I listened over the distant hum of my lawn mower. I don't have time to take us this poem - one that I shamefully have not read. Yet I do hope to take it up at some point - perhaps even as an audio book to take with me on some journey in the car.
Overall, Cahill's works reflect the mind of a modern historian looking back at chapters of our history. He is appreciative of his subjects and does not belittle things such as the Christian contribution in our heritage. In fact, there are times when he feels very at home in Christianity. However, his thoughts reflect very modern sensibilities and not a gospel worldview as found in the New Testament. Yet I am still very thankful for his writing as he takes you on a journey into Western ideas that is not ashamed our Christian past. He even recommends Bible reading and has a high respect for the Bible. His treatment of the incarnation and its effect on Western intellectualism is quite favorable towards this central Christian teaching. I am not sure that his treatment of Jesus in Desire for the Everlasting Hills will be something I will enjoy, but it may be my next Cahill installment. The final two installments in the series were revealed by Cahill in a Q&A on his web site.
Each volume of the Hinges of History® is intended to be read with pleasure and even surprise; it is not a series of academic obligations. Thus, in the past I have refrained from talking about the books to come, as if I was creating a syllabus. But now that there are just two volumes left to write, I imagine many readers can see where I am headed. So I will come clean: Volume VI will treat the Renaissance and, especially, the Reformation, thus tracing the Protestant contribution; Volume VII, tracing the secular-revolutionary-democratic contribution, will begin with the Enlightenment and go to . . . Well, I think that's enough to say, for now.
I will look forward to his interpretation of the Protestants and some of my theological fore bearers; perhaps he will see how law and liberty actually flowed from those who did Protest with courage enough to stand for freedom of conscience with life and limb on the line.
For those interested in Cahill's work, I would recommend you begin with the Irish and then meander along as you so choose. He also has an extensive page of discussion questions which serve as a helpful readers guide for the journey.
Dick Dawkins in the hizzouse...
OK, the style and flow of this may be a bit raw for some...but it is quite creative. This video is apparently being debated on the net - Is this a slam against atheists or believers? One cannot know, but one can laugh. Rated POCBlog PG-13.
(HT - Uncommon Descent)
ESV News
A few interesting details on the English Standard Translation of the Scriptures. First, Mark Driscoll gives a short description of the long...looooong awaited ESV Study Bible. It sounds like they took the time to do it right...really right. Looks to be a very important publication. Additionally, the translation is up to #4 in unit sales in data from February (see this pdf). I think the addition of a full study Bible will only continue to help the adoption of the ESV.
I came to the ESV dance back in 2003 - it is fun to see the translation continuing to gain traction. I was never able to switch from NIV to NASB...but the ESV was able to pry me from the translation I first read as a new Christian. I have enjoyed being an undercover ESV evangelist over the years. I introduced it to our two teaching pastors at Fellowship in 2004 and then witnessed the conversion of our church from NASB to ESV in early 2006.
My Bible Translation page has stuff on the ESV as well as the TNIV (me not like so much).
RU into Philosophy?
There is an article in the New York Times about the rising interest in studying philosophy as an undergraduate. Much of the article focuses on the highly rated philosophy department at Rutgers University - right in the backyard of the place we will soon call home. I hope the Philosophy club will let me hang out with them - maybe they will think I am fresh meat...a willing friend on the journey perhaps. I really look forward to it - I love the love of wisdom.
Here is the link.
(HT - Owen Strachan)
The Unsettling of Sir Richard...
It appears that Richard Dawkins, the high priest of all the people who are smarter than all of you, seems to be quite unnerved by the the coming documentary Expelled. On his site he has written a diatribe of sorts about all the stupid people who made the documentary Expelled. It is interesting to observe Dawkins' tone. He describes all involved with the project as untalented ignoramuses, who should be embarrassed to be breathing. It is quite remarkable the arrogance that oozes from his writing.
Perhaps he simply does not realize that telling everyone: 1) I'm starter than you 2) You are an idiot 3) You have zero talent, just might not be the most effective method of persuasion. Of course, this is not his play in life as he and the new atheist crowd do not desire dialog, only ridicule. Quite frankly, it appears that he thinks all believers in God should be lobotomized. The choir of the high priest certainly loves to sing when Dawkins preaches.
The post's commentary on the film Expelled is also quite revealing and shows that Dawkins is obviously threatened by the documentary. He goes to great length to interpret his role in the film so to ameliorate his role in a certain segment of the film. Apparently, he wanted to give his own spin on the scene where he declares that life could have been intelligently designed by ET.
One final note of comment to engage one of the philosophical points he attempts to levy against the film. In the documentary, the filmakers apparently examine the application of Darwinian survival of the fittest to social theories and practices of the early 20th century. Apparently the Nazi philosophy is focused on heavily in Expelled whereby the Nazi's wanted to eliminate the weak so that the fittest could survive and create a superior, more evolved humanity.
Dawkins then goes on to explain this is a commitment of the is-ought fallacy. Simply because nature IS a certain way - survival of the fittest, red with tooth and claw, does not mean that it OUGHT to be that way. In other words, Dawkins explains to us that all that nature is, all reality is for that matter, is a complex evolution of matter/energy. There is simply nothing else. Yet then he goes on to say that we OUGHT to create a society that is the exact opposite of Darwinian reality. Let me say that I agree with him - I want no Darwinian society; I agree with him that we ought care for the poor and live for the good of all not simply the strongest, most fit among us. However, my question for Dawkins is precisely from where does he derive his OUGHT. If nature all there is, there is nothing else here. No moral universe, no higher truths, no reason beyond practicality to dictate what anyone OUGHT to do. So I think he is massively missing the point. I thank God he, unlike the Nazis, is living a contradiction. He is living inconsistently with his own view of the world.
Dawkins simply has no reason for not wanting his Darwinian world to be society's reality. Believers in a purposed creation, a moral universe where we OUGHT to live in accord with what is good, right and true. He is smuggling beliefs which do not flow from his deepest convictions. He is stealing his OUGHT from other places because it is simply not found is his IS. We have a reason for desiring a world contrary to the doldrums of Dawkins' Darwinian reality...for we know that his world is an impostor. For this universe does indeed have purpose, meaning, a moral law and its correlative lawgiver. It is to him that we all must give an account...
Sending Text Messages
OK, that title could easily have been a technology entry here at POC...but instead of speaking about the weakness of text messaging on the iPhone, I wanted to put you on to a debate about the textual manuscripts of the New Testament.
There is an excellent summary online at Parchment and Pen of the recent debate between New Testament scholars Bart Ehrman and Daniel Wallace. You may interact with Ehrman's ideas if you ever talk to thoughtful non Christians as his book MisQuoting Jesus has sold quite well over the last few years.
I interacted a bit with a bit of Ehrman's argumentation a few years back when reading his book Lost Christianities. You can read that here - Kind of Ironic.
Renewal as a way of Life
On Wednesdays in this interim season between Inversion and moving to New Jersey I am trying to slow down the soul a bit on Wednesdays for some time dedicated to my growth and development as a man. One of things I am doing is reading slowly through the book Renewal as a Way of Life by Richard Lovelace (I forgot to put this one on the "books I am currently reading" below). I am about 1/3 of the way through the book and it has been very good, humbling and quotable. So, I thought I would share some quotes today which encouraged me...and by typing them out hear perhaps provide some light for others.
Here is one on the relation to using God to get stuff...a mixture of Lovelace/Augustine:
On the other hand, evangelical religion as an aid to self-assurance, health or wealth really short-circuits the soul's path toward contact with God, which is the heart's deepest desire. As Augustine observes, "Many cry to the Lord to avoid losses or to acquire riches, for the safety of their friends or the security of their homes, for temporal felicity or worldly distinction, yes, even for mere physical health which is the sole inheritance of the poor man...Alas, it is easy to want things from God and not to want God himself; as though the gift could ever be preferable to the giver." Or as he says elsewhere, "The soul cannot rest save in that which it loves. But eternal rest is given only in the love of God, who alone is eternal." Lovelace, 31
The next one was his commentary on the soul's search for a sense of value and identity apart from God - I think many of us, Christian and not, live here often.
They must get a black market substitute for God's love from psychiatrists or other human beings. But this need for love and dignity is so great that self-admiration and the love of others cannot begin to satisfy it. We can cheer ourselves up only so long by repeating the pitiful fiction "I'm OK - You're OK." Then we begin to check our own credentials, and our therapist's, for making such judgments. Lovelace, 36.
In reflecting on the outflow of the love of God through his people he makes a rather dogmatic claim which I found very true.
Spirituality which neglects the love of neighbor, and which fails to seek justice for the neighbor, is simply not biblical. Lovelace, 37.
He has an interesting metaphor for the reality of human enterprise on the earth. We can be about building the Kingdom or simply go on building Babel.
In the Old Testament, God warns Israel that most human kings will not hallow life, but will turn it into building materials for the Tower of Babel (he includes here the text of 1 Samuel 8:11-18)...Things have not changed since biblical times. Building Babel is still an expensive business. Lovelace, 43.
Indeed, it costs us our very selves as we become cogs in the machine rather than sons and daughters with a purpose in the universe. Finally, in a bit of meddling he comments on the focus of upwardly mobile Protestants in New England after the influence of dying religious formalism (in our day we might as well apply it to upwardly mobile atheological evangelicals).
The real goals of upwardly mobile Protestantism can be seen in Lisa Birnbach's humorous volume entitled The Official Preppy Handbook, which idealizes the semi-apostate New England family, still glumly going through the motions of "the Puritan ethic" in a sort of twilight zone between Christianity and secularism in order to facilitate its summers on Martha's Vineyard. Lovelace 52-53.
Lovelace's book so far has been a great refresher - a call to God-centeredness and then to living under the rule and reign of Jesus - working, laboring, fighting for...a Kingdom of peace, justice, truth and beauty in this present age as we await the renewal of all things.
Poetry - Modern Sex
Church Historian Michael Haykin is also a poet as well as a writer about all things in the Puritan era...I really found his poem entitled Modern Sex quite interesting:
No metaphysical union here
Nor majestic ontology—
Only animal pairing
That come break of day parts,
Not to share a glance again.No talk of Love,
nor Companionate meeting of flesh—
Only business
That ploughs the field
For lucre and gain.Embodièd worship
And Glory gone—
The squalid alone is left,
Confusion, chaos, and coal
Without regal Fire.Michael A.G. Haykin
Modern Sex ©2008.