Etcetera Whatever

An End & A Beginning

2005-05-26T15:22:00.000-04:00

Click the link in the post title above to be taken to the new home of Etcetera Whatever. Hope to see you again very soon. And to hear what you think.

Richard

Men at Work

2005-05-26T09:07:00.000-04:00

Hopefully in the next few hours, I will unveil my new blog. I understand the anticipation might make it difficult for people to get any work accomplished today. But that is a chance I am willing to take. Updates soon.

In the Meantime

2005-05-25T09:02:00.000-04:00

I am currently working on some changes to the blog, which are taking too much time. So, in the meantime, I offer you this little song, "In the Meantime," written by Terry Scott Taylor of Daniel Amos and performed by Taylor and Mike Roe of the 77s. Occasionally Terry and Mike team up with Derri Daugherty of the Choir. At such times, they masquerade as the Lost Dogs, perhaps the greatest non-band of all time. Enjoy.

"Grace has brought us here
because nothing comes by chance
Believers, friends, companions come
to sing, to laugh to dance

It's a little glimpse of Heaven
A peek and whats to come
Where broken things are mended
Every daughter, every son

In the meantime
Let's drift upon a summer breeze
In the meantime
Hang the stars upon the trees
Catch some sunshine in a jar
Drink a glass of latter rain
Though we still remain
We'll imagine Heaven in the meantime

There will be a wondrous day
When we will all be home
The way is through this darkened glass
We'll know as we are known
So let's eat and drink and celebrate
and thank the Lord for friends
Though it is a shadow of a banquet without end

In the meantime
Let's drift upon a summer breeze
In the meantime
Hang the stars upon the trees
Catch some sunshine in a jar
Drink a glass of latter rain
Though we still remain
We'll imagine Heaven in the meantime

We'll forgive as we're forgiven
and embrace as we're embraced
We'll try to love as we are loved
Seeing Jesus in each face
And though we say goodbye today
I'm sure we'll meet again
Here or there, that perfect place
thats just around the bend

In the meantime
Let's drift upon a summer breeze
In the meantime
Hang the stars upon the trees
Catch some sunshine in a jar
Drink a glass of latter rain
Though we still remain
We'll imagine Heaven in the meantime"

Reviving Rebecca and Her World

2005-05-24T12:32:00.000-04:00

Jon F. Sensbach, Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.

In a world dominated by white men, Rebecca Protten transcended many of the boundaries society had fixed around her. In his engaging Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World, Jon Sensbach recovers the nearly erased life of a major figure in the emerging black Protestant Christianity of the eighteenth century, demonstrating how black women and men, like Rebecca, “began to blend Christianity with the religions they had brought with them from Africa, creating a faith to fortify themselves against slavery” (3). In the end, Sensbach not only provides a fascinating story about an equally fascinating woman, but he also illustrates the flexibility of “boundaries between slavery and freedom, whiteness and blackness, male and female activity” (233).

Rebecca Protten, known as Shelly to her biracial parents, was born on the island of Antigua late in the second decade of the eighteenth century. As a young girl, Shelly, like many other non-whites, was forcibly removed from her family and sold into slavery on the nearby island of St. Thomas. Purchased by the prominent van Beverhouts, Shelly, a mulatto, was assigned to the household staff. This assignment provided the young girl with many opportunities that field laborers did not enjoy. Shelly made the most of such opportunities. She learned, for example, to read and write. Perhaps the most significant of these prospects, though, was that Shelly was exposed to the Dutch strain of Reformed Christianity at a relatively early age. By the time she was twelve, in fact, Shelly had been baptized by a visiting Roman Catholic priest and christened with the name Rebecca. Ultimately, this exposure did more than simply give her a new name. Rebecca used her new faith to negotiate a place for herself not only in America, but also in the larger Atlantic world.

When Moravian missionaries arrived in St. Thomas in 1732, it did not take long for them to hear about the piety and ability of Rebecca. They quickly seized the opportunity and put the eager young woman to work in their mission. Rebecca, as Sensbach argues, used the occasion to invent (or re-invent) herself as a teacher and a leader in the Moravian work (65). Her ability, and perhaps the fact she acted “like a white,” prompted the mission’s leader, Friedrich Martin, to arrange Rebecca’s marriage to another of the missionaries, Matthäus Freundlich (89). Already troubled by the Christianization of their human property, St. Thomas’s planters saw this interracial marriage as yet another threat to social order. So, they quickly moved to quell the progress of the Moravians, which lead to the imprisonment of Martin and the Freundlichs in 1738. While Martin was released due to health issues, Rebecca and Matthäus remained in custody until Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, the founder of Moravianism, arrived early the following year and interceded for the couple. Freed from imprisonment, Rebecca continued to teach St. Thomas’s population of enslaved Africans. The white planters, or Blancken, did not make her task any easier, however. In 1741, a respite was needed. Thus, Rebecca, Matthäus, and Friedrich Martin left for Germany. Their trip did not go as planned.

Only Rebecca, in fact, arrived safely to their destination of Marienborn. Following the death of his replacement, Martin returned to St. Thomas. Matthäus became ill and died. Rebecca arrived a widow. Her grief, however, did not keep her from laboring within the Moravian community in Marienborn. Aware of her abilities as a teacher from reports made by Martin, the leaders in Marienborn and nearby Hernnhaag quickly put the gifted woman to work. They also labored to find a suitable husband for the gifted missionary. In the end, they chose Christian Protten, an mulatto preacher from Africa. Following their wedding in 1746, Rebecca and Christian worked in various capacities and with varying approval in Europe until 1763, when the couple decided to return to Africa to establish a Moravian work at Fort Christiansbourg on the Gold Coast. They finally arrived in Africa on May 10, 1765 and established a school for the region’s mulatto children. Their work suffered one of its greatest setbacks when Christian died in 1769. Again alone, Rebecca refused to return to St. Thomas or America, opting instead to remain in Africa until her own death in 1780. “She lived,” as Sensbach so powerfully writes, “as a kind of reverse cultural bridge across the Atlantic during the period of the overwhelming one-way flow of Africans to America” (233).

Aside from the story of Rebecca’s life and the groundwork laid by religious women and men of color for the antislavery movement of the nineteenth century, Rebecca’s Revival reveals much about the flexibility of identities within the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. Rebecca inhabited a tenuous position between freedom and servitude. While she only lived part of her life enslaved, she was never able to escape the stigma of bondage attached to the color of her skin. She “belonged to that small class of free people of color, found in every New World society, dangling between slavery and freedom” (41). This was seen clearly when she was threatened with enslavement during her imprisonment on St. Thomas. She knew “that liberty in a slave society was ephemeral, easily and legally retracted by the authorities” (121). Christianity could not secure the liberty of believers. Rebecca’s story also demonstrates the flexibility of “race” in the eighteenth century. A mulatto, Rebecca lived caught between two very different worlds. She was never truly “black,” but her “whiteness” could never go beyond her actions. Even her migration to the Continent could not remove her difference. As Sensbach shows, Moravians, like Europeans in general, tended to lump together all non-Europeans in categories that stressed the differences in their outward appearances, despite claims to spiritual and social equality (178). Christianity could not erase the “race” of believers. Finally, Rebecca stepped outside the traditional activities assigned to women, illustrating the flexibility of gender roles. While clear expectations for men and women existed, Protestantism, especially in the earlier stages of sect development, afforded many women, both black and white, occasions to serve in ways that were off limits a few years earlier. Such a situation would not last, though. As Moravians, and other Protestant groups, struggled for respectability in ensuing years, they inevitably “scaled back controversial practices such as the prominent leadership role of women” (236). Christianity could not rescue believers from the negative effects of patriarchy. The ministry of Rebecca Protten, recovered by Sensbach in Rebecca’s Revival, delineates the strengths and weaknesses of Christianity in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. Though she could never escape the confinements of her day, Rebecca “had a way of turning up in unexpected places at important times to help conduct social experiments that challenged strictures of race, religion, and gender” (7). Christianity, white and black, remains indebted to the labors of Rebecca Protten. So do the multi-racial societies of the twenty-first century.

Template Trials

2005-05-23T20:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I thought I would give it a go at working on my own template design. Let me know what you think. I aim to keep working with it until I find something I really like, but who knows how quickly I'll make those changes. So, let me know what really stinks and I'll at least work on those things.

Semper Reformanda and the “Fiddler on the Roof”

2005-05-23T10:09:00.000-04:00

Since Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400--c. 1580 recently was released in a second edition, I decided to post a review I wrote several years ago for the first edition of this significant contibution to the literature on early modern England.

Semper Reformanda and the “Fiddler on the Roof:” A Review of Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400—c. 1580

Along with the solas of the Reformation—sola fide, solo Christo, sola scriptura, sola gratiae, and soli deo Gloria—Protestants adopted another slogan, semper reformanda. By this axiom, they meant that the “one holy catholic church,” to quote the Apostles’ Creed, should constantly evaluate itself and make changes as demanded by their respective authorities. This concept of “always reforming” protected the church from getting trapped by its own traditions. In The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400—c. 1580, a masterful revision of English religion before and during the Henrician Reformation, Eamon Duffy argues that the Protestant Reformation decimated the vibrant and living Catholicism of late medieval England. Ultimately, while his analysis leads one to think in new and challenging ways regarding the extent of religion in pre-Reformation England and the image of several key English leaders, namely, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, Duffy overstates the dichotomy between traditionalists and religious radicals.

To grasp the significance of Duffy’s revision of late medieval England, a brief survey of the literature is helpful. One of the principal ways scholars treat the Reformation is by focusing on the importance of the ideas and ideological systems of the period, specifically those of the major reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin. Taking a different route, denominational historians interpret the subject in light of their respective denominations, with their personal religious convictions normally providing the impetus for their studies. Additionally, materialist historians following the lead of Karl Marx stress the class conflict evident in the religious battles of the Reformation. Possibly influenced to some extent by each of these methodologies, Duffy writes largely from the perspective of a new social and cultural historian. Due to this social and cultural influence, he concentrates on the ordinary and extraordinary participants of the various reform movements. Combined with his argument regarding the viability of medieval English Catholicism, this focus on the ordinary layperson allows him to revise the standard interpretation of Reformation England.

In light of this scholarship, Duffy paints his portrait of England’s religious landscape, demonstrating the vibrancy of religion in late medieval England. He emphasizes the hold that Catholicism had over all of society, arguing that “late medieval religion was both enormously varied and extremely tightly knit: any thread pulled from the multicouloured pattern will lead us eventually to its centre” (Duffy, 6). The threads he pulls are the medieval understandings of the liturgy, the church’s communal atmosphere, prayers, and death and the afterlife. In each of these areas, Duffy’s approach demands a reevaluation of many common assumptions concerning English religion.

First, he illustrates that the church’s liturgy was more than merely a plan for worship. It was also “the key to the meaning and purpose of their lives” (11). By this he means that laity as well as clergy used the liturgy of the church to make sense of both their religious and regular lives, countering Charles Phythian-Adams’s argument that time was strictly divided between sacred and secular. In his sketch of medieval England’s average men and women, Duffy clearly shows the priority of religion in their lives. In so doing, he begins to dispel the myth that the Roman Catholic faith of the age was on the wane. Instead, he proves that “the rhythms of the liturgy on the eve of the Reformation remained the rhythms of life itself” (47-52).

Second, he explores the ways in which Christians in late medieval England fostered a sense of community. Since the “liturgy lay at the heart of medieval religion, and the Mass lay at the heart of the liturgy,” Duffy initially centers on the communal aspects of participation in the Mass. While he does not claim that every Christian experienced the Mass in the same way, he clearly demonstrates that the laity actively participated in a sacrament characterized by “dynamism and zest,” not dullness and apathy (91, 129). The willing participation in confraternal organizations represented another manner in which ordinary men and women took part, both physically and financially, in medieval religion. In fact, belonging to a confraternity was “more often than not simply one of the conventional ways of being an active parishioner” (154). Moreover, the cult of the saints provided another means of lay participation. Viewing the saints as exemplars, helpers, and healers, the medieval laity constructed a community that extended beyond the limits of earthly life. In short, whether through the sacrament of the Mass, confraternal societies, or the honor paid to the saints, ordinary people lived and moved within the community of believers (178).

Third, in order to stress the vitality of their faith, Duffy analyzes the way the laity of late medieval England prayed. Appealing to valuable primary sources, such as the writings of Margery Kempe and Richard Rolle, he illustrates the ways in which the exercise of prayer pervaded nearly every aspect of life (211). Perhaps the most striking feature of Duffy’s discussion of prayer is the instrument the laity used to teach themselves how to pray—the primer. By revealing the ways “devout, literate, lay people” used primers, he amends the work of many earlier historians, demonstrating the importance of the print culture to the Catholic community (265). Catholics, similar to Protestants, employed printed materials to educate and to further the church’s cause. While this alone is useful, Duffy goes even further, claiming that devotional primers fostered the democratization and social homogeneity of the medieval Catholic world “in which religion was a single but multifaceted and resonant symbolic house, within which rich and poor, simple and sophisticate could kneel side by side, using the same prayers and sharing the same hopes" (298).

The final way Duffy recasts the image of medieval religion in England is his treatment of the cult of death (301). Following the lead of Johan Huzinga, he claims that the people of the late Middle Ages were obsessed with the topic of death. This preoccupation with the danse macabre helped make the doctrine of purgatory the crux of the matter for the laity. The novelty of Duffy’s analysis is how he interprets this fascination with death and purgatory, namely, “as a means of prolonging the presence of the dead within the community of the living, and therefore as the most eloquent of testimonies to the permanent value of life in the world of time and change” (303). In short, death mattered because life mattered.

In addition to his treatment of the various ways ordinary men and women lived in light of their religious convictions, Duffy also strives to correct the way earlier scholars, such as A. G. Dickens, portrayed several of England’s extraordinary leaders, specifically Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. He prefers to render Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth as revolutionaries rather than reformers. In his estimation, these despotic leaders and their subordinates attacked the dynamic, traditional piety of Catholicism. His revision does not stop there, however, as he suggests that Mary Tudor should not be seen as throwing the English church back into the arms of an unwanted, outdated Catholic faith. Instead, her creative efforts to reconstruct the church met with popular enthusiasm. While he refuses to do away with “Bloody Mary” completely, Duffy contends that Marian Catholicism was a religiously progressive program “at one with the larger Counter-Reformation” (564). The reigns of Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth, on the contrary, forced a radical, new religion on an unwilling community, eventually contributing to the rise of a generation “which had known nothing else, which believed the Pope to be the Antichrist, the Mass a mummery, which did not look back to the Catholic past as their own, but another country, another world” (593).

As this brief assessment of the strengths of The Stripping of the Altars makes clear, Duffy adds much to the historiography of late medieval England. His brilliant revisions of the pervasive nature of Catholicism and the Tudor rulers lead to a startlingly new image of the world of late medieval England, not to mention the religious milieu of the period. His analysis suffers, however, from his penchant to overstate the dichotomy between religious traditionalists and radicals. The notion of traditional religion, “the shared and inherited character of the religious beliefs and practices of the people,” drives his argument (3). In the end, though, Duffy misunderstands an important quality about tradition. He fails to recognize that tradition often changes over time. His examination of this period, spanning nearly two centuries, assumes that what ordinary people thought and experienced underwent little to no change, despite the fact that this era was characterized by technological, political, economical, and ideological changes. Duffy overlooks the fact that religious convictions could have changed as well. Instead, he consistently argues that religion remained “traditional.” This conviction leads him to stress a drastic and constant distinction between traditional religion and radical religion (and the respective adherents of both). Consequently, this strict dichotomy weakens the overall feasibility of his argument. In short, the vibrant “traditional religion” of The Stripping of the Altars seems more like the author’s creation than the lived religion of late medieval English men and women.

On the whole, Duffy certainly makes important contributions to the study of the Reformation, particularly its development in England. He casts new light on the extent to which society was concerned with the religious world, which he argues was very much a Catholic world. Moreover, he dispenses several myths of the reign of Mary Tudor and of the glorious reforms of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth. His rigorous definition of tradition and “traditional religion,” however, leads to the volume’s major weakness. Duffy refuses to see any evolution in tradition. In his estimation, it appears that tradition is what it is because it does not change. This tendency to overlook the mutability of England’s given tradition causes him to overstate the dichotomy between the period’s religious traditionalists and radicals. Perhaps Duffy could learn a valuable lesson about tradition from Tevye, a fictional Jewish dairyman in 1905 Russia. As implied by the motto semper reformanda, a life without the existence of hard and fast traditions is not necessarily “as shaky as a fiddler on the roof” (Joseph Stein, Fiddler on the Roof , 9).

A Jazz Club in Louisville

2005-05-21T22:30:00.000-04:00

This evening, Leanne and I went to the Jazz Factory in Louisville to hear Sarah Stivers, a friend from Heine Brothers, perform. It was really good. About a year ago, I heard about thirty seconds from some of Sarah's studio time for her forthcoming cd. So, when she mentioned she was singing a few sets there tonight, I knew I wanted to go. The Jazz Factory is a pretty cool venue. The funny thing is that no more than a week before Sarah told me about her upcoming gig, I had read about the club in the recent issue of Louisville Magazine. Then, last Sunday as Leanne and I enjoyed our routine post-church coffee time, another friend praised the Jazz Factory. So, we both looked forward to it all week long. We weren't disappointed. In the end, we had a nice evening out in a great environment with some great music.

A New Hope

2005-05-20T08:51:00.000-04:00

Though I haven't seen the newest episode in the Star Wars mythology, this seems a timely link. Maybe it will hold me over until I see the real thing next week. Or at least make me hungry.

Louisville's Greatest Institutions

2005-05-19T12:06:00.000-04:00

As I sat here this morning working on chapter four of the dissertation, I looked down and noticed that on my little desk sat artifacts from two of Louisville's greatest institutions--cultural, religious, social, historical, or otherwise. Sure, Louisville is home to a great orchestra, a pretty decent racetrack for horses, a rather reputable university with a presentable basketball team and mediocre coach, two celebrated and historic theological seminaries, a boxer who shook up the world, and a big baseball bat. But, arguably, Louisville's most significant offerings for society are on display in the following photo. Whenever Leanne and I leave Louisville, we will likely miss these two institutions most.

As Good a Place as Any

2005-05-19T09:36:00.000-04:00

Since I said I was going to post book reviews, I figured I ought to go ahead and start doing so. I decided to post a review essay, recently published in Fides et Historia XXXVI:2 (Summer/Fall 2004): 130-132, that has already garnered several useful comments from friends and colleagues. So, here's my first such review.

"Baptists in the South Battle for America"

Willing to throw caution to the wind, Barry Hankins tackles two subjects that prudence demands be left alone—religion and politics, specifically the intertwining of the two themes in the last twenty years within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The result is Uneasy in Babylon: Southern Baptist Conservatives and American Culture. In this insightful examination of the conservative leadership of SBC, Hankins analyzes “who Southern Baptist conservatives are, how they became evangelical culture warriors, and what they intend to do with their considerable influence” (2). Ultimately Hankins’s careful use of personal interviews elicits a fair evaluation of how the conservative evangelical theology of current SBC leaders prompts their forays into American culture.

In the late 1970s, Hankins argues, these conservatives grew concerned over what they saw as the inability and the unwillingness of a more moderate SBC leadership to engage American society. The only hope to redeem America from this serious moral crisis, in the eyes of these Southern Baptist conservatives, was to wed theology and culture. By emphasizing the ways in which their conservative theology was able to speak to larger issues, this new wave of SBC leaders waged an all-out war on American culture. This war was to be fought in three waves. First, these conservatives were convinced that they must regain a “theological foundation for resistance” (10). Then, they must oust the more moderate SBC leadership, replacing them with conservative men who shared their theological vision. Finally, such SBC conservatives planned to assume the mantle of the Old Testament judges, engaging the Babylonian culture around them.

In his first four chapters, Hankins treats the historical narrative of the first two stages of this theological-culture war. Non-Southern experiences (intellectually, geographically, and culturally) prompted SBC conservatives, such as R. Albert Mohler and Richard Land, to adopt the neoevangelical strategies of Francis Schaeffer and Carl F. H. Henry in their attempts to engage and critique America culture. With the exception of Paige Patterson, “the neoevangelical influence became attractive to Southern Baptist conservatives because of its emphasis on cultural engagement” (39). Once these conservatives grasped the importance of such a version of evangelicalism, they began to work from several different angles, namely, intellectualism, activism, and populism, to reestablish the theological foundations of the denomination and its institutions, such as Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Hankins’s focus on the tumultuous years at Southern Seminary following the 1993 appointment of Mohler as the school’s ninth president illustrates well the conservative insistence to purge what they perceived as theological infidelity within their own ranks. As the seminary moved further to the right theologically under Mohler’s tenure, Southern Baptist conservatives engaged American culture even more strongly. In the process, SBC leaders, according to Hankins, had to revisit a fundamental Baptist doctrine—religious liberty.

The conservative Southern Baptist way to address religious liberty was to espouse a brand of “Baptist accommodationism,” which allowed them expect the government to “take a friendly stance toward religion, accommodating it wherever possible” (140). As Hankins demonstrates in the second half of Uneasy in Babylon, this approach to religious liberty provided the foundation on which conservatives Southern Baptists have built their program of cultural engagement. To demonstrate this engagement, Hankins analyzes the SBC conservatives’ views on church and state, abortion, the role of women in the church and home, and race. In these four chapters, he clearly shows the coherency of the SBC conservatives, despite the different approaches of specific leaders. As a rule, SBC conservatives assume a countercultural stance in their battles with Babylon. The exception, however, is the issue of race. “Race is the one issue where Southern Baptist conservatives want to be progressive,” regardless of the alliances such a progressive position entails (270). In the end, this cultural program, birthed from a concern for theological conservatism, unites SBC conservatives and demands that they live uneasily in the Babylon that is America.

While a conservative Southern Baptist might want to find much in Uneasy in Babylon difficult to swallow, Hankins ultimately convinces due to his outstanding scholarship. Effectively using personal interviews, he allows Southern Baptist conservatives to speak for themselves, weaving their accounts into his narrative. These interviews also reinforce the coherency of the conservative position, demonstrating where theology and culture interacted. Perhaps the greatest strength of Hankins’s study is his evenhanded evaluation of a generally contentious topic. While admitting that he sides with moderate Southern Baptists, he is fair and respectful to both moderates and conservatives in his analysis of their interviews and the facts. Unlike the majority of recent works that have dealt with the SBC controversy, Uneasy in Babylon is not a polemic for one or the other group of Southern Baptists. Rather, it is a book about Southern Baptists conservatives and their attempts to engage American culture.

The one glaring weakness, however, has to do with the treatment of race and race relations. With very few exceptions in the book, race relations only involve white and black Americans. This limitation disappoints for at least two reasons. First, it allows a portrayal of SBC conservatives as decidedly progressive on the question of race. Hankins is certainly correct in his treatment of SBC efforts to foster racial reconciliation between blacks and whites, though it is accurate to wonder what has been done in this area outside the few examples of such efforts that he mentions. Furthermore, these actions alone do not make the SBC leaders progressive. What about their relationships with other racial groups? If one looks at the ways in which Southern Baptist conservatives have related to other groups, such as Asian Americans in the recent controversy over a children’s curriculum program titled “Rickshaw Rally: Racing to the Son,” they do not seem nearly as progressive as their relations with African Americans might suggest. Second, and more importantly, portraying race relations as primarily between blacks and whites ultimately reinforces racial insensitivity to other peoples. Race is not simply a black or white issue. While Hankins does not say it is, his discussions of SBC conservatives and race implies that this is case. A more explicit statement of why he deals specifically with blacks and whites within the SBC to the exclusion of other groups (a logical focus given the legacy of the SBC’s attitudes toward African Americans) would avoid any such tendency to forget about the injustices other peoples might be experiencing at the hands of these “progressives.”

This potential shortcoming, however, does not lessen the importance of Hankins’s fine study. His use of oral interviews demonstrates clearly the ways in which SBC conservatives fuse theology and culture to address what they perceive as problems in American society. Uneasy in Babylon: Southern Baptists Conservatives and American Culture is a must read for students of Southern Baptist history, as well as twentieth-century evangelicalism and fundamentalism.

reviewing my view

2005-05-19T09:14:00.000-04:00

in an attempt to answer some criticisms that friends and i have made of some of my previous posts, i decided to consider the format and content of my pages. so, much to heather's delight (and perhaps to the delight of a critic on another site), i am ready to make a slight change to the format of my blog. namely, i am going to stop pulling an e e cummings. in other words, i plan to use proper capitalization in my posts. I do this now for a few reasons. The primary reasons are my own struggles with not typing properly and the difficulty such a style has caused some friends whose readership I appreciate. Also, I plan on using something like a blog format in an upper-lever course I am teaching on Colonial America in the fall. So, I don't want students developing any bad habits. Though I found the discipline of writing sans capitalization somewhat cathartic (as I expressed on another site), I think it gets in the way for some people. So, time for a change (probably a permanent one).

Also, in reviewing the content of previous posts, I realized I have really not posted any substantive book reviews. Well, that's something I would like to do. So, I plan on posting critical book reviews from time to time. Not only will I offer comments on relatively "new reads," but I also plan on making available various published and unpublished reviews I have written over the past few years. Perhaps such postings will generate more interaction by my readers. Perhaps I'll help sell a few books. And maybe even make these pages a bit more useful.

a song for stillness

2005-05-18T09:41:00.000-04:00

for some reason this morning, stillness has been a desire. maybe it's my toothache, forcing me to long for a few moments free from any distracting sounds or pains. or maybe it's fatigue from the silliness of life and the routine of writing. or maybe it's something else entirely. regardless, this hymn written by catharina von schlegel has occupied my thoughts, though i know i could have worse songs stuck in my head--like "bust a move" from the recent old navy "bust a tunic" ad. yes, this is better.

"Be still, my soul; the Lord is on your side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to your God to order and provide;
In every change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; your best, your heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul; your God will undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and wind still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul; though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then you will better know his love, his heart,
Who comes to soothe your sorrows and your fears.
Be still, my soul; your Jesus can repay
From his own fullness all he takes away.

Be still, my soul; the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last."

(lutheran hymnal, 651)

a looming transformation

2005-05-17T09:56:00.000-04:00

as leanne and i walked to church recently, she noticed caterpillar after caterpillar. i wonder if we'll notice all the butterflies when they emerge? for some reason, i was thinking of those little caterpillars this morning. then, i remembered this poem by emily dickinson.

"A fuzzy fellow, without feet,
Yet doth exceeding run!
Of velvet, is his Countenance,
And his Complexion, dun!

Sometime, he dwelleth in the grass!
Sometime, upon a bough,
From which he doth descend in plush
Upon the Passer-by!

All this in summer.
But when the winds alarm the Forest Folk,
He taketh Damask Residence--
And struts in sewing silk!

Then, finer than a Lady,
Emerges in the spring!
A Feather of each shoulder!
You'd scarce recognize him!

By Men, yclept Caterpillar!
By me! But who am I,
To tell the pretty secret
Of the Butterfly!

At last, to be identified!
At last the lamps upon thy side
The rest of Life to see!

Past Midnight! Past the Morning Star!
Past Sunrise!
Ah, What leagues there were
Between our feet, and Day!"

(complete poems of emily dickinson, 82-83)

some thoughts (organized and random) from pentecost sunday

2005-05-16T10:53:00.000-04:00

yesterday, charles preached a very encouraging sermon about the church, using john 20:19-23. in this text, we see the disciples huddled together behind locked doors. they had watched the crucifixion of their leader only a few days earlier. now, they likely awaited the sounds of soldiers' feet coming to arrest them. in this moment of fear, though, the resurrected jesus made himself known to them. standing among then, he ministered to their fears, saying, "peace by with you. peace be with you. as the father has sent me, even so I am sending you. receive the holy spirit. if you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld." in this room where fear weighed heavily in the air, the church began as christ came and fellowshipped with his disciples. charles's words reminded me vividly of similar words from the writings of d. b. knox. in his essay, "the church, the churches, and the denominations of churches," knox also locates the church within the presence of christ and the fellowship believers share with each other as a result of this presence. "Being in Christ's presence, through his Spirit present in them, naturally draws Christians into each other's company," writes Knox. "They meet together in his name," he continues, "and Christ is there in each. Thus the local church forms spontaneously as an expression, in the sphere of time and space, of the eternal reality of fellowship with God which each has, and who is in each. Christians are never exhorted in the New Testament to become members of the church, for that is synonymous with being Christ's. But they are exhorted to give expression to their membership by being present in the local church, or gathering, of Christ round himself." gathered round the resurrected christ, the disciples, despite their fear, experienced the communion only found in christ's church.

randomness sets in. a few statements charles made yesterday remain with me. a first statement: when explaining the state of the disciples hiding in their little room, he compared them to the church. "Without the presence of God," he remarked, "this [a frightened group of disciples] is all we are." a second comment: "Left to our own devices all of us churches are nothing."

more randomness. from the first of last night's two new episodes of "the simpsons." as the simpson clan (sans maggie) leaves the showing of a foreign film, bart proudly displays the ponytail he snipped from the 30-year-old grad student seated in front of him. correcting her son, marge chides, "bart, don't make fun of grad students, they just made terrible life choices."

a cool little box

2005-05-14T20:35:00.000-04:00

having only recently returned from our visit to my parents in columbus, indiana, i must post a brief comment about the mac mini my mom bought my dad for his birthday and father's day (yeah, i know he got it a little early, but i won't be around on his birthday, so he benefits from that). and, well, the title says it all. a cool little box. now, i don't need one. my imac works fine. i have no need to hook a mac mini up to our television and sit at my desk in the living room with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard so that i can finish my dissertation. no need really, but i wouldn't mind experiencing such a thing. at least for a chapter or two.

those of you even remotely considering the jump to a mac should take heart. you can use your current vga monitor (by means of the supplied dvi to vga adapter), as well as any usb mouse or keyboard. with such a setup, you too can experience the stable life of "tiger." so, be daring. switch. you won't regret it. i mean, it's such a cool little box.

a plea for grace

2005-05-13T09:27:00.000-04:00

i came upon this prayer this morning and considered it a wonderful way to begin the day. perhaps you will as well.

"BUT, O God, who knowest the weakness and corruption of our nature, and the manifold temptations which we daily meet with; We humbly beseech thee to have compassion on our infirmities, and to give us the constant assistance of thy Holy Spirit; that we may be effectually restrained from sin, and excited to our duty. Imprint upon our hearts such a dread of thy judgments, and such a grateful sense of thy goodness to us, as may make us both afraid and ashamed to offend thee. And, above all, keep in our minds a lively remembrance of that great day, in, which we must give a strict account of our thoughts, words, and actions; and according to the works done in the body, be eternally rewarded or punished, by him whom thou hast appointed the Judge of quick and dead, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
(1789 book of common prayer)

beddome: reprise

2005-05-12T15:04:00.000-04:00

a friend let me know that he and his family enjoyed the previous posting of a hymn by benjamin beddome. so, on what has turned into a short day, another set of beddome's verses:

"Great God! my Maker and my King,
Of thee I'll speak, of thee I'll sing;
All thou hast done, and all thou dost,
Declare thee good, proclaim thee just.

Thy ancient thoughts and firm decrees;
Thy threatenings and thy promises;
The joys of heaven, the pains of hell,--
What angels taste, what devils feel;

Thy terrors and thy acts of grace;
Thy threatening rod, and smiling face;
Thy wounding and thy healing word;
A world undone, a world restored;

While these excite my fear and joy,
While these my tuneful lips employ,
Accept, O Lord, the humble song,
The tribute of a trembling tongue."

another child in the kingdom

2005-05-11T10:47:00.000-04:00

roughly three and a half years ago, i did something i never really thought i would do. i bought an apple computer. an ibook to be exact. some ten months later, i then replaced my trusty desktop pc with a fancy imac. now, this might not seem like that big of a deal. but, for someone who spent a good bit of time building windows-based machines, including three of his own, it was quite an occasion. since shifting my computing paradigm, i have convinced a few people (and tried with several others) that they ought to make their next computer a mac. the most recent of these converts was my father. now, to be fair, he doesn't know that his new mac mini is sitting in my living room. my mom bought it for his upcoming birthday and father's day. leanne and i will take it to him this weekend, hopefully after his broadband connection is operational at their house. i am actually rather thankful i do not have the necessary adapter to hook it up to our television or i would already have it out of the box and set up for him. i am not saying i will not go purchase said adapter before friday, but i am trying to restrain myself so that i can spend the time setting it up showing him things about the mac os (it shipped with tiger, which after installing on my imac i think rocks).

why do i mention this? two reasons. (1) i want to take this opportunity to point out a link in my sidebar. see it over there? that delightfully attractive mac mini? go ahead, click it. or click here. sign up and complete an offer. help me get a mac mini and work on one for yourself. i have read several articles about this program. it's legitimate. leanne and i chose the blockbuster offer and watched quite a few dvds in the month we paid for the subscription. i haven't bothered friends with this offer yet, but for those of you who read this please feel free to check into it. i have had two people sign up and complete an offer. i need eight more. (2) as any of you begin looking for a new computer (which happens to us all from time to time), lets talk. for most of us, there really is no good reason not to get a mac. prices are comparable. software is compatible. malware is curbed. plus, macs are cooler. 'nuff said.

go: chapter 2: god not of our choosing

2005-05-11T09:17:00.000-04:00

after a rather extended hiatus, i want to return this morning to my reflections on brian mclaren's a generous orthodoxy. in his second chapter, bdm tries to answer the question "why do christians emphasize jesus so much?" in the end, i think he fails to do so. now, he suspected as much and already conceded that point. but, i don't think he failed the question for the reason he gave, namely, jesus is "so much more wonderful than i will ever be able to say" (go, 71). while this is true for all of us, bdm failed to answer the question because, in my opinion, he never got to it. he did talk about jesus as the "son of god." and he made some useful and edifying comments in that discussion, though i am not certain he ever really talked about what it means for jesus to be the son of god. in fact, he spent roughly half of his time explaining why masculine pronouns for god are inadequate, which while useful doesn't get at the question he posed to begin the chapter. so, what can we say about this "jesus and god b?"

positively, i think bdm's brief comment regarding the way that many believers invoke the name of christ too loosely and vainly is not far from the mark. we generally do fail to revere christ as we ought. his name is too easily on our lips. perhaps we as believers would be better off if we used the name of christ with more care and attention. such would honor christ more than attaching his name to every t-shirt, cd, book, notepad, or action figure that will sell.

negatively, three things bothered me in this chapter. (1) for all the talk one hears (and bdm makes) about jesus being one "whose life and message resonated with acceptance, welcome, and inclusion" (go, 70), where is the jesus of the gospels? you know that jesus, right? the jesus who pronounced judgment on the unrepentant cities of chorazin, bethsaida, and capernaum for rejecting him, the way, the truth, and the life. the jesus who chastised the pharisees, scribes, and lawyers for searching after a false righteousness rather than the righteous one. sure, the jesus of the gospels was accepting, and welcoming, and inclusive. but only of those people who looked to him as a means of restoring their communion with the father. anyone could experience that restored communion, but only through christ who has the words of eternal life, the holy one of god. (2) bdm seems to build his vision of jesus on his experience and not on scripture alone. "This is why," he writes, "for starters, I am a Christian: the image of God conveyed by Jesus as the Son of God, and the image of the universe that resonates with this image of God best fit my deepest experience, best resonate with my deepest intuition, best inspire my deepest hope, and best challenge me to live with what my friend, the late Mike Yaconelli, called 'dangerous wonder'" (go, 76-77). okay, this sounds nice and pious, but why should bdm's experience (or mine) define the image of god? god doesn't have to fit my idea of him. he has spoken. he has revealed himself. and even if said revelation doesn't resonate with my best experience, god remains the same. (3) building on the previous criticism, bdm's last few paragraphs in this chapter are the most disturbing. in these paragraphs, he imagines two gods, a & b. god a is "a single, solitary, dominant Power, Mind, or Will." god b is "a unified, eternal, mysterious, relational community/family/society/entity of saving Love." he decides he'd rather worship this second picture of god, because his universe would be one "of interdependence, relationship, possibility, responsibility, becoming, novelty, mutuality, freedom" (go, 76). well, isn't that nice? the problem is simple, though. god is god. he has revealed himself in ways that include elements from both of bdm's constructions of deity. god defines godness. not the creature. so, what bdm (or i) want god to be like doesn't matter. god the father, god the son, and god the holy spirit are a god not of our choosing.

dead weight

2005-05-10T08:29:00.000-04:00

this morning, while editing chapter 3 of the dissertation and listening (as usual) to over the rhine, their song "dead weight" from the album besides shuffled through the ipod. though i have listened to this song literally hundreds of times previously, a certain phrase really stood out on this occasion. "We know good enough is a thousand miles from grace." once again, in over the rhine's generally subtle way, i am reminded on the futility of goodness and my need for grace.

anyway, here's "dead weight."

"Sometimes I like to stick my fingers
where they don’t belong.
Sometimes I like to fake a fever
and just stay home.

‘Cause we smile in here
we don’t get too close to sadness.
‘Cause what’s holding us
is just about to break.
Ain’t it funny how life can drag behind us
just like so much dead weight.

Sometimes what feels like pretty good music
is just the same old song.
Sometimes we deal with bygone bruises
and find it’s been too long.

But we laugh in here
we don’t get too close to sadness.
We know good enough
is a thousand miles from grace.
Ain’t it funny how life can drag behind us
just like so much dead weight.

And my hometown train
is pulling from the station.
And I know for once
I really will be late.
And I’ll dream that we can leave the past behind us
just like so much dead weight.

Sometimes I like to stick my fingers where they don’t belong.

our few troubled days

2005-05-09T10:19:00.000-04:00

yesterday, i came to this poem in wb's a timbered choir. i look forward to spending more time this week thinking about it.

"I go from the woods into the cleared field:
A place to human made, a place unmade
By human greed, and to be made again.
Where centuries of leaves once built by dying
A deathless potency of light and stone
And mold of all that grew and fell, the timeless
Fell into time. The earth fled with the rain,
The growth of fifty thousand years undone
In a few careless seasons, stripped to rock
And clay--a "new land," truly, that no race
Was ever native to, but hungry mice
And sparrows and the circling hawks, dry thorns
And thistles sent by generosity
Of new beginning. No Eden, this was
A garden once, a good and perfect gift;
Its possible abundance stood in it
As it then stood. But now what it might be
Must be foreseen, darkly, through many lives--
Thousands of years to make it what it was,
Beginning now, in our few troubled days."

(wb, a timbered choir, 16)

idiot, part two

2005-05-06T11:28:00.000-04:00

about a month ago, some friends from seminary days made a visit to louisville on behalf of their local baptist assocation. while they were in town, i got to catch up with steve and joe (no, they're not the idiots) for pub grub at the irish rover. i mention this now for two reasons. one, since it has been a month, i feel confident they both would like to recall their latest visit to the rover, including its delicious scotch eggs. two, over dinner that evening steve and joe talked about an album they had listened to on their drive south. their comments were overwhelmingly positive, so a few weeks later i followed their recommendation and picked up a copy of the latest green day release, american idiot. after getting the chance to listen to it from start to finish a few times now, i must concur with their assessment. all in all, this is good stuff. perhaps even a bit prophetic in places. at the moment, i'll leave it to my readers to find those places on their own. for those interested, though, you can find some decent reviews of the album here and here and here. political...prophetic...punk...pop...idiotic...perhaps these guys are theologians.

idiot, part one

2005-05-06T10:28:00.000-04:00

well, i finally ponied up the money to order a copy of rachel wheeler's dissertation on the congregational and moravian missions efforts in eighteenth-century western massachusetts, "living upon hope: mahicans and missionaries, 1730-1760." i kept hoping that rachel had a contract and i would see the revised book form on the shelf at my local book store. in fact, i am still hoping for that scenario. until then, though, i needed to spend a little time with a few sections of her diss as i am thinking through a few of my own chapters. yesterday, i came across a phrase in her discussion of the history of moravians and count nicholaus ludwig van zinzendorf that i found rather interesting. in her discussion of moravianism's tendency toward anti-rationalism, rachel offered the following: "Zinzendorf believed philosophical reasoning was all well and good, but in order to become theologians, 'they must become children and idiots'" (wheeler, "living upon hope," 81). anyone who has spent any time on most seminary campuses should, i think, appreciate this statement. certainly anyone who has roamed the theological mindfields (wasteland?) of the blogosphere will recognize the truth in this sentence. everywhere one turns, she sees another theologian. and we wonder about the state of american evangelicalism. it's simple--there are too many idiots.

curses to the denomination

2005-05-05T09:46:00.000-04:00

several months ago, i posted an entry here that seemed to ruffle a few feathers, though it elicited no responses. despite the facts that (1) the point of the post really had nothing to do with what caused concern to some and that (2) i simply followed the example of "blogging-with-a-hook" set by some of the very people whose feathers ended up mussed, i have to admit my blog has rarely seen as many hits as in the days and weeks following that post. so, given what my religious heritage sadly sees as proof of diligent and faithful service, i am compelled to post yet again with the hope of seeing the numbers rise.

as i pointed out in my post from late february, the weblog and commentary of al mohler, the president of southern seminary, is generally a great read. today is no exception. tackling the tendencies of graduate schools to hire people who have little to no practical experience in their disciplines, mohler sounds a clarion cry to theological seminaries to exercise diligence in their hiring practices.

"It should be unthinkable," writes mohler, "that the faculty in a theological seminary would include professors of such limited experience in church life. And yet, I have interviewed applicants for faculty positions who, when asked about their church involvement and ministry experience, have virtually nothing to offer." i do not doubt this final sentence one bit. and, given the relative inexperience, practically speaking, of more than a few faculty members southern has hired during the time and since i attended the school from 1997 to 2000, such a claim is even more frightening. "The task of seminary leaders," mohler continues, "is to make certain that persons of such minimal church experience and commitment are not offered faculty positions in our schools." from repeated conversations with pastor-friends (graduates from southern as well as other baptist and non-baptist seminaries), it seems that in modeling and teaching the nut-and-bolts of practical ministry, seminary educations in general fail their graduates. such practical areas, it seems, can best (if not only) be taught by men and women who have actually spent time in the trenches and muck of pastoral ministry.

so, i think mohler is absolutely correct in issuing a "wake-up call" to the administrations of theological seminaries, especially those of his own denomination. i find it providential that this commentary arrives when it does--on the heels of hiring and promotion announcements at the sbc's seminaries. a quick glance at baptist press releases from this year and previous years reveals, sadly, that the convention's hiring and promotion practices may need such an alarum. as thrilled as i am that personal friends from sbc, and other evangelical, seminaries are getting tenure-track jobs and promotions within the denomination's theological institutions, i have to admit that, given mohler's commentary, some (by no means all) of them "have virtually nothing to offer." this is a problem that one hopes the various seminary administrations will continuously strive to rectify. "Otherwise," as mohler contends, "the theological seminary will be more of a curse than a blessing to the local church and its denomination."

one caveat: i am still wrestling a bit with a sentence in al's next to last paragraph, namely: "True Christian scholarship, dedicated to the training of Christian ministers, must be devoted to and measured by what actually happens in the local church." what bothers me here? well, is scholarship dedicated to the training of christian ministers the only true christian scholarship? is that even what mohler is saying? or must true christian scholarship primarily be devoted to and only measured by what actually happens in the local church? i suppose the answer depends on one's definition and understanding of "true christian scholarship." i would not say (and i am not absolutely certain mohler is saying) that true christian scholarship is defined and limited by such motivations and effects, so that any scholarship that occurs for different reasons or with different ends is, by default, not true, or authentic, christian scholarship. to say "true christian scholarship" can only look like this, can only come from these motivations, and can only have these effects seems a bit arrogant, which i don't think is mohler's intent. again, just a caveat.

a tribute to a former slave trader

2005-05-04T09:49:00.000-04:00

recently i secured a copy of amazing grace: an anthology of poems about slavery, 1660-1810. the poem (or hymn actually) from which the volume receives its name is, of course, included in the collection. so is the following poem written in honor of the eighteenth-century slave trader turned evangelical minister, hymn-writer, and anti-slavery advocate. newton's conversion and subsequent ministry greatly influenced a number of significant anti-slavery men and women, such as william wilberforce, hannah more, and william cowper, in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. newton's life, i think, illustrates the difficulty of appealing to the "man of his times" argument to excuse one's sinfulness. the story is simply more complex. for, in newton's case, god's amazing grace extended well beyond the blind wretch delivered from the sinfulness of the slave trade to other men and women of their times who similarly questioned the morality of the increasingly peculiar institution.

"Like Jonah, on the mighty deep,
He strove to fly from God;
But fled, alas! to sin, and weep
Beneath his chast'ning rod.
A wretch upon a wretched shore,
A slave by slaves confin'd,
A doubly galling yoke he bore,
Of body and of mind.

In deep distress, and bitter woe,
Corruption's rankling smart,
Mysterious Wisdom made him know
His own rebellious heart!
Unconscious of the future sphere
That he was form'd to fill,
With application most severe,
He sought for knowledge still!

Cut off from ev'ry human aid,
On Afric's burning sand
The depths of science he essay'd,
And mystic Euclid scann'd;
While o'er the liquid way he mov'd,
He studied many a tome;
With Tacitus and Livy rov'd,
To scenes of ancient Rome.

Almighty grace the rebel tam'd;
And deep contrition drew
The wand'ring prodigal, reclaimed,
And form'd his heart anew!
No more on grov'ling themes confin'd,
His ardent spirits soar'd,
With ready gifts and soul refin'd,
To glorify his Lord!

(amazing grace, 639-640)

a hymn read during a break

2005-05-03T10:45:00.000-04:00

as i take a few minutes from pecking my keyboard through a chapter of the dissertation, i read this hymn by benjamin beddome. reminded me of some things a friend is going through currently as he ministers to his congregation in the wake of an accident that seriously injured a church member.

"God's are just, his counsels wise;
No darkness can prevent his eyes;
No thought can fly, nor thing can move,
Unknown to him that sits above.

He in the thickest darkness dwells;
Performs his works, the cause conceals;
But though his methods are unknown,
Judgment and truth support his throne.

In heaven, and earth, and air, and seas,
He executes his firm decrees;
And by his saints it stands confessed,
That what he does is ever best.

Wait, then, my soul, submissive wait,
Prostrate before his awful seat;
And, 'midst the terrors of his rod,
Trust in a wise and gracious God."

fully updated and a new cousin

2005-05-02T10:22:00.000-04:00

well, the computers at our house are fully upgraded and running smoothly. the imac gets to run "tiger," while the ibook can clip along at breakneck speed running "panther." perhaps, as leanne often argues, it is the little things. though, in general, my little things are different (read: bigger and more expensive) than her little things.

also, my cousin, kelly, and her husband, john, recently returned from china. their mission: to bring home their little girl, emma. now, i haven't met emma yet, but she already has more hair than her dad (and almost more than her second cousin) and from the pictures i have seen she looks to be having a wonderful time with mom and dad. if they are smart, they'll keep her away from the rest of the family as long as they can. those people are frightening. below is a photo shortly after they returned home.

new toys at the bailey house

2005-04-30T13:22:00.000-04:00

yesterday my friendly neighborhood fed-ex delivery person dropped off a much-anticipated package. the new mac os, tiger. so, i am making this blog entry from "dash blog," one of the already numerous offerings of widgets available for the new program dashboard. if you are completely clueless as to what i mean, then visit tiger and have a little fun.
i did say toyS, though. leanne decided she wanted an ipod shuffle. those of you who know leanne will understand how odd such a request might sound. so, leanne is now the proud owner (maybe not as proud as i am of her) of a 1gb ipod shuffle. i must admit that the thing is pretty cool. but i think i will have a tough time getting it away from her.

only one hero

2005-04-29T09:08:00.000-04:00

early last week, i had the privilege of lecturing for my friend, sean lucas, at covenant theological seminary in st louis. perhaps the best part of the time was standing beside sean fielding questions following my little talk. sean, the author of robert lewis dabney: a southern presbyterian life, is one of the brighter people i have the privilege of knowing. he is something of a walking bibliography on almost any topic historical or theological (not to mention the crazy things he knows about baseball, nascar, and indiana basketball). so, the opportunity to speak in one of his classes and, then, to bumble through answers beside him was quite the honor. anyway, i make available our time of q & a via podcast. a word or two about the files: i had to split the hour long discussion into two files in order to upload them to my host. i apologize for the hisses, pops, and bloops in the audio, but (1) i am new to this type of audio editing and (2) i don't have the time to waste fooling with figuring it all out. finally, a word about the content: the last few minutes of part two are definitely worth hearing. as sean closed class for the day, he passionately pointed out something of his philosophy of history in the life of the theologian-minister. it was quite amazing. enjoy the posts and buy sean's book (he has kids to feed, clothe, and send to college).

Jonathan Edwards in Black and White and Red, Q & A, Part 1

Jonathan Edwards in Black and White and Red, Q & A, Part 2

soldiers of christ

2005-04-28T09:13:00.000-04:00

yeesterday, the same friend who prompted some remarks about the magicbike pointed me to the may 2005 issue of harper's magazine. specifically, this unnamed-and-therefore-protected friend mentioned an article by jeff sharlet, "inside america's most powerful megachurch," the first of two articles discussing "soldiers of christ." while i aim to make some comments on this article later, the second of these pieces, "feeling hate with the national religious broadcasters," grabbed me, as well. the author, chris hedges, closed with several paragraphs that were striking and haunting. i include them below and encourage you to visit your local book store (mine is carmichael's books on frankfort) to secure a copy.

"I can't help but recall the words of my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, Dr. James Luther Adams, who told us that when we were his age, and he was then close to eighty, we would all be fighting the 'Christian fascists.'

He gave us that warning twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other prominent evangelists began speaking of a new political religion that would direct its efforts at taking control of all major American institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government, so as to transform the United States into a global Christian empire. At the time, it was hard to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously. But fascism, Adams warned, would not return wearing swastikas and brown shirts. Its ideological inheritors would cloak themselves in the language of the Bible; they would come carrying crosses and chanting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Adams had watched American intellectuals and industrialists flirt with fascism in the 1930s. Mussolini's 'Corporatism,' which created an unchecked industrial and business aristocracy, had appealed to many at the time as an effective counterweight to the New Deal. In 1934, Fortune magazine lavished praise on the Italian dictator for his defanging of labor unions and his empowerment of industrialists at the expense of workers. Then as now, Adams said, too many liberals failed to understand the power and allure of evil, and when the radical Christians came, these people would undoubtedly play by the old, polite rules of democracy long after those in power had begun to dismantle the democratic state. Adams had watched German academics fall silent or conform. He knew how desperately people want to believe the comfortable lies told by totalitarian movements, how easily those lies lull moderates into passivity.

Adams told us to watch closely the Christian right's persecution of homosexuals and lesbians. Hitler, he reminded us, promised to restore moral values not long after he took power in 1933, then imposed a ban on all homosexual and lesbian organizations and publications. Then came raids on the places where homosexuals gathered, culminating in May 6, 1933, with the ransacking of the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. Twelve thousand volumes from the institute's library were tossed into a public bonfire. Homosexuals and lesbians, Adams said, would be the first 'deviants' singled out by the Christian right. We would be the next."

(hedges, "feeling the hate with the national religious broadcasters," harper's magazine May 2005, 61)

for quiet confidence

2005-04-27T10:04:00.000-04:00

as i wait for the two-part audio series of questions and answers from my time at covenant seminary to be posted to the host i am using for such things, i offer the following prayer:

"O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou are God; through Jeus Christ our Lord. Amen."
(book of common prayer)

look ma, no....

2005-04-26T09:32:00.000-04:00

...wires. a friend recently pointed out this site. combining the best of two rather different worlds, the magic bike is a portable wifi, bringing the internet to "yet unserved spaces and communities." sign me up. i'd gladly perform my duty to my neighborhood and pedal the alleys and streets of louisville on a magicbike.

go: chapter 1: the jesuses i have known, part four

2005-04-25T09:40:00.000-04:00

in my final post interacting with this chapter of mclaren's generous orthodoxy, i want to reflect briefly on a final jesus i have known. yet another jesus revealed in scripture.
jesus 7: while teaching those following him about the life he offered them, jesus was accused of claiming to be greater than abraham, the father of the jews. "if i glorify myself," he answered, "my glory is nothing. it is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'he is our god.' but you have not known him. if i were to say that i do not know him, i would be a liar like you, but i do know him and i keep his word. your father abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. he saw it and was glad." this dumbfounded the jews even more. this jesus wasn't even fifty years old. how, they wondered, could he have seen abraham? jesus replied to them in a most striking and dangerous way: "truly, truly, i say to you, before abraham was, i am." with these simple words, jesus declared his divinity. the jews understood this. they knew who "i am" was. thus, they picked up stones intending to kill him for what they took as blasphemy in his claim to be god.

"We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father."
(Nicene Creed)

certainly a jesus worth knowing.

songs and a collect from 5 easter

2005-04-24T19:04:00.000-04:00

today our congregation celebrated st. mark's day, which means that among other things we sang the st. mark's church hymn. we had a wonderful time of worship and communion with brothers and sisters in christ. so, i want to share a few hymns and the collect from the day.

St. Mark's Church Hymn
by J. Scott Henderson

Lord we pray you lead us teach us with your word.
As we strive to heal and share, love thru Christ our Lord.
Glory, Glory, Glory be to God.
As we strive to heal and share, love thru Christ our Lord.

Lord we pray you guide our steps with your Holy word.
Still small voice within our hearts, be forever heard.
Glory, Glory, Glory be to God.
As we strive to heal and share, love thru Christ our Lord.

Lobe den Herren
by Joachim Neander

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation;
O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation:
join the great throng, psaltery, organ, and song,
sounding in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord; over all things he gloriously reigneth:
borne as on eaglewings safely his saints he sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen how all though needest hath been
granted in what he ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy way and defend thee;
surely his goodness and mercy shall ever attend thee;
ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
who with his love doth befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath life and breath come now with praises before him!
Let the amen sound from his people again;
gladly forever adore him.

Collect
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life:
Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

"the soule's paradise"

2005-04-22T21:05:00.000-04:00

"to love and live beloved is the soule's paradise both here and in heaven" (model of christian charity).
so proclaimed john winthrop in his now famous address about the colonial venture in the new world. a few weeks ago, i commented on francis bremer's john winthrop: america's forgotten founding father. this afternoon, i finished my relaxed read of this wonderful volume. echoing my previous post, i wholeheartedly recommend bremer's book. he does a masterful job portraying the early modern world, as well as winthrop's place in it. plus, he tells a great story.

bremer ended his account of winthrop's life with a appeal for the significance of the on-again/off-again governor of the massachusetts bay colony. the following sentence in the epilogue particularly grabbed my attention, seeming especially appropriate to my reflections on life in american evangelicalism. "Zealous, but not a zealot, he strove always to include as many as possible in his journey toward a better world, and to teach them to love one another" (john winthrop, 385). winthrop's significance, in my opinion, extends beyond the scope of american history to include the contemporary american religious scene.

the "race" is on

2005-04-22T09:22:00.000-04:00

as per the request of joe, i have made a rather crude attempt to podcast my talk from covenant theological seminary last monday. if this seems to work, then i will also post the q & a time that sean lucas and i shared with his class. the last five minutes or so of that is really good as sean passionately explains to his students the necessity and benefit of studying history--despite all the flaws of its figures. anyway, we'll see how this works. i may still work on including rss feeds, but the audio should be available. my only caveat: don't blame me for the boredom that will accompany listening or the drool on your desk.

update:if you use a dedicated program to download podcasts, my feed is "http://feeds.feedburner.com/EtceteraWhatever"
i know that it works in ipodderx for the mac os.

Jonathan Edwards in Black and White and Red, Part 1
12 min. / 6.5 MB

Jonathan Edwards in Black and White and Red, Part 2
25 min. / 14.2 MB

Jonathan Edwards in Black and White and Red, Part 3
8 min. / 4.5 MB

Jonathan Edwards in Black and White and Red, Part 4
27 min. / 15.6 MB

Jonathan Edwards in Black and White and Red, Part 5
12 min. / 6.8 MB

go: chapter 1: the jesuses i have known, part three

2005-04-21T09:21:00.000-04:00

after a rather busy week of finishing and delivering my talk for covenant seminary, working on textbook selection for an upper-level course on colonial america i get to teach in the fall, and trying to work on the dissertation, i now have a few minutes to return to my "walkthrough" of mclaren's generous orthodoxy, recasting it as gracious orthodoxy. so, three more jesuses i have known.
jesus 4: having received the news that his friend and disciple, lazarus, was mortally ill, jesus waited a few days before making his way to bethany to visit the grieving family. and what a visit it was! following a confrontation with martha, lazarus's sister, jesus proclaimed to her, "your brother will rise again." confused yet faithful, martha responded. then, jesus moved to clear away any remaining confusion, insisting, "i am the resurrection and the life. whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." he then called the dead-and-buried lazarus shrouded in burial cloth from his tomb. a man who has power over the forces of life and death. a god who has compassion on sinful men and women. that is a jesus worth knowing.
jesus 5:as jesus instructed his disciples hours before his betrayal and crucifixion, he encouraged them with a promise that though he would be away for a time, he would certainly "come again and will take you to myself, that where i am you may be also." "lord," thomas quickly pushed jesus, "we do not know where you are going. how can we know the way?" jesus aimed his reply at the very faith of his disciples. "i am the way, and the truth, and the life," he said, "no one comes to the father except through me. if you had known me, you would have known my father also. from now on you do know him and have seen him." jesus, as he presented himself in the gospels, is the only way for fallen men and women to know and to see the father. only through him can the way, meaningful life, and the truth be known.
jesus 6:in his continued teachings to his disciples on the night he was betrayed, jesus assured them that his father was preparing them for their future lives and ministries. "i am the true vine," he proclaimed, "and my father is the vinedresser. every branch of mine that does now bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." "i am the vine; you are the branches," he continued, "whoever abides in me and i in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." one who supplies and supports his children in their faithful ministry on his behalf. a jesus that must be known.

rejoice in hope

2005-04-20T09:38:00.000-04:00

all too often, we hear about dissension and discord within the body of christ. radios, televisions, newspapers, and blogs alike tell this common story. this denomination attacks that denomination in "defense" of the the gospel. this baptist becomes convinced that other baptist has given up the faith. i suppose such concerns might be valid from time to time. but i suggest that more often than not the validity of these "defenses" is suspect at best. a concern for the church is often confused with a concern to be right. maybe instead of more defenses we need more pleas like the following:

"O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen" (book of common prayer, 818).

back east

2005-04-19T19:39:00.000-04:00

today i returned home from my brief trip to st. louis, where i spent some valuable time with my friend, sean lucas, and lectured to his class at covenant theological seminary on jonathan edwards and "race." i am currently trying to podcast that lecture as well the q & a time sean and i shared with the class. it really was a great trip.

on the way back, i stopped in francisco, indiana, to see my maternal grandparents. unfortunately, they were not at home. come to find out, they were in the nearby town of princeton at the hospital with my cousin, keith. keith has been experiencing quite a few health problems recently. today, he decided to drive to his parents' apartment a mile or so away. on the way there, he took out a telephone pole. due to the various and sundry medications he is on, he doesn't remember making this trip. thankfully, the doctors are scheduling more tests and feel they might have an idea regarding his health problems.

westward

2005-04-17T08:34:00.000-04:00

this morning i leave for st. louis. this evening, then, i will be worshipping with my friend, sean lucas, and his family. tomorrow, i have the opportunity to lecture for sean's class at covenant seminary. my subject--jonathan edwards and social issues. more specifically, je and "race." should be a lot of fun. on the way home tuesday, i'll be able to stop in francisco, indiana, and visit with my grandparents for a few hours.

on a side note, sean recently saw the publication of his robert lewis dabney: a southern presbyterian life. i read the volume several years ago in manuscript. it is certainly worth the read--even if you arent'a big fan of dabney. i can't promise it will make you his fan (it didn't me), but it is a wonderful analysis of the life of this significant leader in the life of the southern, if not american, church.

clicking more than my heels

2005-04-15T09:09:00.000-04:00

as i came home from lexington and yesterday's talk about microhistory, i stopped at compusa to pick up a light for some presentations, i, of course, spent a little time in their apple section. ok, i spent more than a little time. i also spent a little money. and wanted to spend more. but they only had the air click for the ipod, not the air click usb. so, i could only get what they had. i tried to order my air clicks from griffin a week or so ago once they started shipping, but they were backordered. so imagine the pleasant surprise to see it on the shelf.
what is an air click? it is one of the latest really cool apple accessories from griffin technology. more specifically, it is a wireless remote that atttaches to the top of all dockable ipods. so far, i like. even comes with a "dock" that can be strapped to a steering wheel or bike handlebars.

a "little" history

2005-04-14T11:17:00.000-04:00

as i sit in the "fishbowl" on the 17th floor of the pot (patterson office tower), i am looking forward to the time i get to spend today with richard and irene brown. they are on campus giving a talk about their latest book, the hanging of ephraim wheeler. a wonderful example of microhistory, the hanging of ephraim wheeler tells the story of a massachusetts farmer convicted of rape and incest--a crime that ended with the public spectacle of his hanging.
i was looking forward to this talk even before being asked to join the browns for lunch at dudley's on the department's dollar (another wonderful thing about state university education). while i have never met richard brown, i had quite a lengthy conversation with him some four years ago as i was in the application process for phd programs. actually i was in the waiting-for-the-big-or-little-envelope stage of the application process. anyway, i had applied to uconn (mainly because my friend ken minkema of the jonathan edwards center at yale university earned his phd there, working with brown). out of the blue, professor brown called and talked with me as he tried to fit me in with what his department needed and offered. in the end, i ended up at uk. but i really appreciated and was encouraged by the time he spent on the phone with me. he is a good historian. and, by all counts, a good man.

go: chapter 1: the jesuses i have known, part two

2005-04-13T07:50:00.000-04:00

a few evenings ago, i had the opportunity to break bread (literally) with three friends at the irish rover. these three friends are all pastors. two of them were in louisville on mission, representing their local baptist association as it seeks people interested in and equipped for planting churches in northern illinois. both of these guys are making it a point to participate in the emergent church conversation (in fact you can find some of their attempts at dialogue here and here). during our time over scotch eggs, coffee, tea, and libations of various sorts, one thing that really struck me was the fact that, despite the claims of many "prominent" evangelical leaders, it seems that more than a few people in the ec are genuinely concerned with the truth claims of the gospel. in fact, as i thought of bdm's chapter 1 from a generous orthodoxy and my reflections on it, i felt (and still feel) fairly certain that both these young pastors are as concerned with the jesuses of the bible (i so want to add "maybe even more so") as the ec's loudest critics. all of this, of course, brings me back to the second of four parts contemplating the jesuses i have known.
jesus 1: shortly after walking out on the water to join his frightened and amazed disciples in their boat, jesus was forced to rebuke and to instruct those people who were following him. "you are seeking me," he said, "not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of loaves." jesus then implored with them to seek food that lasts, namely, himself. for later he told them, "i am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." all the spiritual sustenance men and women need--that is a jesus worth knowing. no. it is a jesus that must be known.
jesus 2: plagued by divisions and indecision, the pharisees struggled to find a way to end jesus' earthly ministry. one might think that since danger was imminent, jesus would lay low for a while. one would be wrong. instead, he spoke to the crowds following him, including some pharisees. "i am the light of the world," he claimed, "whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." he then proceeded to prophesy concerning his death and the benefits that such would offer to those who knew him. the light of the world. a light that exposes sins and makes it possible for men and women to know the father. a light that must be known.
jesus 3: after healing a man blind from birth (who, along with his parents, has an interesting conversation with jewish leaders), jesus assured his disciples that they have spiritual sight. he then taught them what it meant to be counted among his sheep. in spite of their guilt and sin, he will protect them as his own. because they are his own. given to him by the father. "i am the good shepherd," he proclaimed, "i know my own and my own know me, just as the father knows me and i know the father; and i lay down my life for the sheep." one willing to die for stupid, guilty sheep. again, a jesus that must be known.

a sabbath poem

2005-04-12T08:48:00.000-04:00

for the last quarter of a century, wendell berry has spent his sunday mornings walking, observing, and meditating through verse on the world around him and its relationship to its creator. the fruit of these walks can be found in a timbered choir (with even more poems to be published later this year in given). i try to spend some time with a different poem each sunday and then reflect on it throughout the week. i find this exercise a good one. not only is it spiritually beneficial, but it also makes wb's poetry (of which we have far too little available) last longer. what follows is one of his sabbath poems from 1979.

"What stood will stand, though all be fallen,
The good return that time has stolen.
Though creatures groan in misery,
Their flesh prefigures liberty
To end travail and bring to birth
Their new perfection in new earth.
At word of that enlivening
Let the trees of the woods all sing
And every field rejoice, let praise
Rise up out of the ground like grass.
What stood, whole in every piecemeal
Thing that stood, will stand though all
Fall--field and woods and all in them
Rejoin the primal Sabbath's hymn."
(a timbered choir, 13)

o kinky turtle, part ii

2005-04-11T09:02:00.000-04:00

unlike an earlier post with this title, this entry really is about turtles. while my mom, leanne, and i pedaled the columbus people trail on saturday, we came across a bale of turtles sunning on some logs. seeing the three of us (especially leanne) at the end of our 22 miles, you might suspect we had spent the day reclining in the sun. unlike the turtles below, though, we had been moving right along. well, except for our stops at hungry howie's pizza (for a jalapeno pizza with cajun-style crust) and dq (for a blizzard).

for the good use of leisure

2005-04-08T15:44:00.000-04:00

leanne and i leave in an hour or so to drive about 65 miles northward to visit with my parents. pre-anniversary dinner tonight at the keystone crossing location of pf chang's china bistro; followed by a trip to indy's apple store. two businesses that really need to make their way to louisville (preferably while we live here). tomorrow, then, we will ride the columbus people trail with my mom. they've recently opened what looks like another 8 or so miles of trails so there's almost a complete loop around the city now. so, we are looking forward to a pleasant day of pedaling.

the prospects of such a weekend reminded me of this selection from the 1979 book of common prayer:

"For the Good use of Leisure
O God, in the course of this busy life, give us times of refreshment and peace; and grant that we may so use our leisure to rebuild our bodies and renew our minds, that our spirits may be opened to the goodness of your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

the puritan dilemma

2005-04-08T09:10:00.000-04:00

in 1958, edmund morgan (author of the much-praised benjamin franklin) penned the classic biography of john winthrop, longtime governor of colonial massachusetts, puritan, and influential leader of the great migration. by any account, morgan's the puritan dilemma remains an excellent volume. in 2003, though, francis bremer gave us john winthrop: america's forgotten founding father, another treatment of the puritan-governor. since the volume was released recentely in paperback, i took advantage of the opportunity to pick up a copy. i am fairly familiar with some of bremer's earlier writings on english and new english puritanism--of which he is a first-rate scholar. so, i was excited to secure john winthrop. thus far, i have not been disappointed. bremer's analysis of the religious and social climate of early modern england is brilliant. plus, he is a wonderful writer. if you have read the puritan dilemma or if you enjoyed marsden's jonathan edwards: a life, then you'll really be glad of the time you spend with bremer's attempt to remind the american public of john winthrop and his world.

go: chapter 1: the jesuses i have known, part one

2005-04-07T10:31:00.000-04:00

as i return to my interaction with bdm's generous orthodoxy, i come to his second introductory chapter in which he focuses on the seven jesuses he has met throughout his life. each jesus comes from a different christian tradition. while i found some value in bdm's discussion of what he learned from these different takes on jesus, such an understanding is, of course, fraught with difficulties and dangers. can evangelicals learn from other traditions (and other religions)? i would tend to say yes--with some reservations and qualifications to be certain (as an aside, one evangelical who has dealt with this topic fairly well is gerald mcdermott, especially in his can evangelicals learn from world religions?). those reservations and qualifications, however, perhaps move the benefits of such thinking beyond the limits of the blogosphere.
so, instead of such a discussion, i'd like to spend the next few entries semi-imitating bdm and think about the jesuses i have known. to do so, i'd prefer to investigate what jesus said about himself, rather than dance around caveats to understand what others have said about him. for, while i agree with bdm that "Christians of each tradition bring their distinctive and wonderful gifts to the table" (go, 67), i also think the feast of gracious orthodoxy must begin with the spritual food that christ himself provides. let's eat.

a morning prayer

2005-04-07T09:05:00.000-04:00

the following is a selection from the "forms of prayers to be used in families" included in the 1928 book of common prayer. what a wonderful way to contemplate and to prepare for the beginning of a new day.

"Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being; We, thy needy creatures, render thee our humble praises, for thy preservation of us from the beginning of our lives to this day, and especially for having delivered us from the dangers of the past night. For these thy mercies, we bless thee and magnify thy glorious Name; humbly beseeching thee to accept this our morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; for his sake who lay down in the grave, and rose again for us, thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen."

the beautiful drunkard

2005-04-05T15:46:00.000-04:00

no, i am not talking about myself. instead, i am listening yet again to the newest album by over the rhine, drunkard's prayer. now i was one of the lucky few (or that's how i like to think of it) who ordered my copy directly from paste music. thus, not only did i receive my disc a few days before the official release date, but i also had linford's and karen's drunken scribbles on my liner notes. furthermore, i also got some cool postcards from l & k, which i ought to post at some point. but enough about me. this album is wonderful (as usual from these two). according to l & k (and you can believe them), these songs tell of redemption--"the story of two people finding their way back home after almost losing everything, each other included." paste still has signed copies available. so, either buy it there or support your local music dealer. but not having a copy is really not an option.

fbc america

2005-04-05T09:19:00.000-04:00

leanne and i had some three-year-old (at least) film developed this past weekend. in addition to some photos of my '66 mustang and some shots from the 2001-2002 ncaa regional in lexington, one roll also contained some pictures from my first visit to america's oldest baptist church in providence, ri. since i will be spending about a third of my summer a few blocks away, i thought more than a postcard might be necessary.

jesus, the master thief

2005-04-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

one of my dissertation committee members (who has written a brilliant religious/intellectual treatment of elizabeth cady stanton, mrs. stanton's bible emailed me earlier to cancel a meeting we had scheduled for later in the week. she was forced to do so because her mother passed away this morning. so, professor kern is traveling to be with family in pennsylvania. consequently, i offer up the following verses, written by emily dickinson in 1860, as a prayer for the kerns, as well as a reminder for all about christ's power over death.

"Dust is the only Secret--
Death, the only One
You cannot find out all about
In his "native town."

Nobody knew "his Father"--
Never was a Boy--
Hadn't any playmates,
Or "Early history"--

Industrious! Laconic!
Punctual! Sedate!
Bold as a Brigand!
Stiller than a Fleet!

Builds, like a Bird, too!
Christ robs the Nest--
Robin after Robin
Smuggled to Rest!

(the complete poems of emily dickinson, 72)

a baptist (sort of) in rhode island

2005-04-02T11:52:00.000-05:00

"She came from Providence, the one in Rhode Island
where the old world shadows hang heavy in the air.
She packed her hopes and dreams like a refugee,
just as her father came across the sea.

She heard about a place people were smilin',
they spoke about the red man's way, how they loved the land.
And they came from everywhere to the Great Divide
seeking a place to stand or a place to hide."

the eagles's "the last resort" will be my theme song of sorts from july 11 to august 12. why? well, during those five weeks i will be a member of the 2005 neh summer institute at brown university. so alongside the other selected applicants, i will spend about twelve hours a week in seminars on "british and indigenous cultural encounters in native north america: 1580-1785." i'll pack up the bike friday, read and discuss the primary and secondary materials from the seminar, hobnob with john carter brown fellows, and conduct some "gap-filling" research on my dissertation. throw in a weekend with leanne in the berkshires and it sounds like a great summer. and i get paid for all of this! the academy can be grand.

so nearly four hundred years after roger williams, another would-be baptist will reside in paradise. since southwest flies into providence, some of you should join me there for worship in the first baptist church in america, founded in 1638.

a pox on the "timely man"

2005-04-01T08:35:00.000-05:00

a few nights ago, i had the occasion to attend a lecture given by this year's recipient of the grawemeyer award in religion, george marsden of the university of notre dame. as a historian studying the religious, cultural, and social contexts of the united states, i admire marsden's work. to be fair, though, with the exception of his latest volume on jonathan edwards, which earned him the grawemeyer award, most of his historical scholarship has focused on periods later than those on which i concentrate. his biography of je, however, is a great book (evidenced by the many awards it has earned, not to mention the overwhelmingly positive reviews in many of the nation's most prestigious newspapers and magazines).

i really like george marsden. not only did he write the foreword for the salvation of souls, but he also spent several hours on the phone with me one evening as i was contemplating ph.d. programs. the advice he offered that night was very helpful as i filled out applications and, later, made my decision regarding the department that was best for me. furthermore, at the several conferences we have mutually attended in the last few years, he has remained gracious and enthusiastic about my work. he really is an outrageous christian scholar.

all that said, though, one answer marsden gave really irks me--an answer he is by no means alone in giving. an answer that deserves a pox. for the sake of context, his talk earlier this week, which i have heard at least once before, addressed his book by means of two questions. first, what was je's world like? and, second, what can be learned and appropriated from je? while his second question allowed him to wax spiritually about je's legacy for christians and the church, his first demanded that he talk a bit about the eighteenth-century climate of colonial new england and the english place in the world. thus, he painted a picture of a world fraught with controversy. controversy between protestants and catholics. controversy between french and english. controversy between english and native americans. and he set this context rather well, i must admit. one controversy that he omitted, however, was brought up by an elderly woman in the audience during the time set aside for questions. this presbtyerian lady, who had come to appreciate je while studying with richard and reinhold neibuhr (both big fans of je), wanted to know how marsden might address the fact that je owned africans as slaves--human property. marsden's reply, "edwards was a man of his times."

now, this explanation for a person's faults has always infuriated me. what does it mean exactly? what does it explain exactly? this answer is no answer. and any historian (theologian or philosopher) who falls back on such a reply is failing at his task. generally speaking, i usually hear this response from christian scholars hoping to defend their "heroes," which really grieves me. of all people, christian academes ought to grasp at least some of the effects of sin. effects that often show up in the areas that make people men and women of their times. why can't we say that? we can, even, should the situation not allow, without delving unnecessarily into theology and morality. what we must never say, though, is "he was a man of his times." as if that somehow lets him off the hook for his ethical failures. think about it. in his attitudes toward the ninevites, jonah was a man of his times. look where it got him. as a man of his times, peter had no desire to share the gospel with cornelius. but god convinced him otherwise. standing tall before an idol, shadrach, meshach, and abednego refused to be men of their times. for their faithfulness, they walked in the flames alongside the son of god.

after the lecture, i spoke briefly with the lady who asked the question, trying to explain a little more about issues of race and slavery in colonial new england (the subject of my dissertation and my last few publications and conference presentations). i also spoke with marsden and, after relating a bit of my conversation with her, he said, "it's simply such a complex subject." then, say that. at least that's an answer that opens the door for continued dialogue.

drawn by the spirit

2005-03-31T17:08:00.000-05:00

d. b. knox's understanding of the church as fellowship, "the unselfish giving of ourselves to one another in the common task which for Christians is sharing together with God in God's work of bringing blessing to our fellow men" (works, ii, 59) is quite refreshing. as is the following lengthy quote about why christians go to church.

"Consider further for a moment why we come to church, why we put aside the time, and in the old days put on our best clothes. Why come to church? The universal answer amongst evangelicals is 'to worship God,' and we call the service a 'worship service.' But this is quite out of line with the New Testament. In the New Testament, worship is a moment by moment, daily activity. What we do is our worship of God, for we do everything, without exception, for him, for his glory, that is, to show forth his character (Rom 12:1; 1 Cor 10:31). So it cannot be to worship God that we come to church, for we are doing that every moment of the day. Such language betrays an inadequate concept of our daily life. The reason for coming to church cannot primarily be in order that we might pray, for normally we pray privately, entering into our room and closing the door, as Jesus told us to. Nor can it primarily be to hear God's word, for we read and meditate on it at home, where these days we may also listen to tapes of the world's best preachers and expositors.

So why go to church? The reason is that we are drawn into each other's company by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. We are drawn together to give expression to the reality that we are all in Christ's presence" (works, ii, 75-76).

gleanings from gilead

2005-03-31T08:55:00.000-05:00

finishing marilynne robinson's gilead last evening, i came across two selections that demanded further reflection. gilead is a letter written by an aged iowa pastor to his pre-adolescent son as a way for the child to remember his father after he dies. it really is a delightful and thoughtful book. many thanks to paul for the recommendation. now, on to two selections at which i either paused or laughed.

"Cataract that this world is, it is remarkable to consider what does abide in it" (gilead, 193).
on a morning like today with its fresh breeze, blue sky, and the chorus of birds outside the window, i am amazed by the truth of this statement. images of the divine all around me in this fallen world.

"Two or three ladies had pronounced views on points of doctrine, particularly sin and damnation, which they never learned from me. I blame the radio for sowing a good deal of confusion where theology is concerned. And television is worse. You can spend forty years teaching people to be awake to the mystery and then some fellow with no more theological sense than a jackrabbit gets himself a radio ministry and all your work is forgotten. I do wonder where it will end" (gilead, 208).
sad. but true.

dickinson 5

2005-03-30T08:08:00.000-05:00

"I have a Bird in spring
Which for myself doth sing--
The spring decoys.
And as the summer nears--
And as the Rose appears,
Robin is gone.

Yet I do not repine
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown--
Learneth beyond the sea
Melody new for me
And will return.

Fast in a safer hand
Held in a truer Land
Are mine--
And though they now depart,
Tell I my doubting hear
They're thine.

In a serener Bright,
In a more golden light
I see
Each little doubt and fear,
Each little discord here
Removed.

Then will I not repine,
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown
Shall in a distant tree
Bright melody for me
Return."

(the complete poems of emily dickinson, 7-8)

spring in the river city

2005-03-29T12:40:00.000-05:00

well, it appears that spring is finally making its way to louisville. today is the first of what appears to be a string of nice days in the city. leanne has been ready for this for some time now. we've been faked out on a few occasions, but this looks likes the real thing. saw one of our little finches yesterday, even. i must get some pictures of them, but the little things are so dang quick.

off to enjoy the weather. taking the bike friday to our local whole foods market for breads and yogurts. then, i think i'll stop at heine bros. for some tea and editing time on chapters one and two. sounds like a delightfully splendid afternoon.

go: chapter 0: mature foundations, part three

2005-03-29T08:06:00.000-05:00

it seems one of the loudest complaints that critics are raising against bdm and that portion of the emergent movement he represents has to do with his stance on religions other than christianity. specifically, whether adherents of other faiths can be saved in ways other than through the atoning life, death, and resurrection of christ. since i feel certain this will come up again in my extended evaluation of generous orthodoxy, i opt to leave it alone for now. but i do want to interact with what i think might be at least part of bdm's problem on this subject--a part that shows up in the chapter about which i am currently thinking. "A generous otrhodoxy of the kind explored in this book," writes bdm, "while never pitching its tent in the valley of relativism, nevertheless seeks to see members of other religions and non-religions not as enemies but as beloved neighbors, and whenever possible, as dialogue partners and even collaborators" (go,35). perhaps a generous orthodoxy can do this. a gracious orthodoxy, though, can not. a gracious orthodoxy can think biblically of its neighbors in other religions and non-religions as loved, but only counts other believers who have called on the name of the lord as members of the beloved. there is a difference. motivated by love, christians ought to introduce their friends of other religions and non-religions to the beloved community of faith, welcoming them into that community only based on the spilled blood of the only sacrifice for sin, jesus christ. that is gracious orthodoxy, right thinking brought about by the grace of god reaching out to others in the same spirit of grace.

the danger of denominationalism

2005-03-28T09:36:00.000-05:00

in my reading of d. b. knox, i have been encouraged, amused, and frightened at his analyses of centralization in denominations and "conventions." he is clearly a proponent of the autonomous, free church. perhaps a surprise given his anglicanism. furthermore, his insights on these issues are something from which most baptists could learn a great deal. for example, from my and my close friends' experiences, the sbc would do well to hear knox's warning:

"Centralized control outside the congregation extinguishes the gospel within the congregation in due course. History confirms this truth abundantly. Even the smallest degree of control has this effect in the long run, for experience shows that the centre, when given a control of the congregation, over the decades increases it, aiming at uniformity and obedience. But the gospel rocks the boat of the denomination! The centre finds this uncomfortable and increases its power until it controls the boat, not by the word of God and prayer, but by organizational rules backed by secular sanctions, so that the word of God and the Spirit of God will hardly be found any more in that denomination, for it will not create nor hold spiritually-minded members" (works, ii, 96).

collect for the day

2005-03-25T10:25:00.000-05:00

the following is a collect included in the 1552 and 1559 editions of the book of common prayer. seems a fitting way to reflect on "good Fryday."

"ALMIGHTIE god, we beseche thee graciously to behold this thy famely, for the which our lord Jesus Christ was contented to bee betrayed, and geven up into the handes of wicked men, and to suffre death upon the crosse: who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy ghoste now and forever. Amen."

seriously

2005-03-24T08:52:00.000-05:00

"By taking oneself too seriously one is prevented from being serious enough" (standing by words, 85).

experience assures me of the truth of this statement by wendell berry in his "notes: unspecializing poetry." isn't it a good thing to be able to laugh at oneself. i mean, face it, i do and say some stupid and hilarious things. we all do. most people could stand to lighten up a bit. i have seen this all too often with preachers for instance. if you treat everything as serious, then how will the people around you know when something really serious is being addressed. or something joyous. or something grievous. perhaps a little satire or levity is a good thing. i am grateful for close friends who won't let me take my life or myself too seriously. ultimately, neither it nor i am worth it. seriously.

go: chapter 0: mature foundations, part two

2005-03-23T08:49:00.000-05:00

"Citizen's arrest! Citizen's arrest!" these words, with the accent of one gomer pyle, echoed through my head as i read a paragraph in bdm's generous orthodoxy. "In that traditional setting," writes bdm, "orthodoxy could be articulated and debated by scholars or officials who had little responsibility to actually live by or live out the orthodoxy they defended. Defenders of orthodoxy were seen more like referees than basketball players; nobody cared if they could pass, dribble, or shoot, as long as they could blow a whistle and name an infraction in their black-and-white striped shirts" (go, 30-31). now split infinitive aside, i think bdm is correct here. all too often, we become so enamored with defending the faith, that we forget the scriptures insistence that we have been given an active faith. "By this," jesus taught, "all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (john 13:35). nothing here about chasing down the one making a u-turn and screaming at the top of our lungs (though paul does make it clear that such actions are needed at times if we aim to love our neighbors). in part, bdm's point is made as the "gomer pyles" of the evangelical world shout after him.

this isn't to say that referees aren't useful to make certain the rules are enforced. though from my playing days, there were very few that could be trusted. maybe that's why i am so hesitant to trust the evangelical zebras. the fact is, in the end, the game can be played without referees, but not without players. furthermore, we are not left without such enforcers. by grace, we have been given the rules of the game (found in the old and new testaments). the holy spirit, through the writings of the prophets, jesus, and the apostles, is our referee. finally, one that can be trusted. so, let's stop whining about the calls and get to what is fun. let's play.

d. b. knox and church membership

2005-03-22T08:33:00.000-05:00

for the past two weeks i have been reading some of the writings of d. b. knox (1916-1994). knox served the church in australia for the majority of his life, holding the position of principal of moore theological college from 1959 to 1985 and founding george whitefield college in south africa in 1988. i have found knox's writings, especially about the church as "the fellowship which God has with us and which we have with one another" (works, ii, 22), extremely encouraging. in the essays comprising the section on "the church," he says things that i have been thinking about for the last year or so while considering biblically the doctrine of the church. below is a brief selection from knox's brilliant essay, "church, churches, and denominations:"

"The unity of the visible church consists of accepting into full membership of the congregation all true believers who happen to be in the congregation at the meeting of the congregation. It is Christ's church; he has gathered all its members. Every one who is Christ's and has been gathered by him is as true a member of that congregation or church, though it may be the first time he has been present at that particular gathering, as those who have met in the same place before and are the usual members of that visible church. Since the visible church has no purpose or mission beyond being the church, that is, being the fellowship of Christ's people, there is no need for any further qualification for membership at that church than being one of Christ's people and being present. Thus the unity of the heavenly church is expressed in the unity of the visible church by the complete acceptance into full fellowship of all who call upon the name of the Lord.

Of course, if members of the visible church wish to club together to transact business beyond being a church (which has no business apart from fellowship with Christ, and with one another in Christ), then explicit membership or a membership roll may be necessary. But it is not a church roll, but a roll of persons with certain qualifications who are also church members. But membership of the church, that is, of the congregation, and participation equally and fully in all the activities of the congregation (which consist only of fellowship with Christ and with one another) must not be restricted to those on a membership roll, or to those who have been immersed, or to those who have been confirmed, for these are not requirements of God for membership of the body of Christ" (works, ii, 94-95).

more to follow...

go: chapter 0: mature foundations, part one

2005-03-21T09:03:00.000-05:00

"Orthodoxy in this book is similarly caught up in the practice (orthopraxy) of love for God and all God's creations" (go, 33). is bdm implying that "other" orthodoxies aren't concerned with practice? if so, then of course he is correct. sometimes people do get more concerned with what they believe and neglect how these beliefs influence their lives. but the opposite is also true. sometimes people get so concerned with how they are living that they neglect any serious consideration of the convictions that lead to their actions. neither way is right. thus, neither way is orthodoxy or orthopraxy. but bdm offers nothing new here. james said much the same thing in the mid-first century. "What good is it, my brothers," he wrote, "if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (james 2:14-17). so, yes, bdm is correct. we must "celebrate orthodox doctrine-in-practice." but, according to james, the two, if held rightly, cannot be separated. gracious orthodoxy not only believes properly because of the grace of god, but, by god's grace, it also demonstrates the mark of jesus, loving god and all god's creations.

prayers of the people

2005-03-20T17:45:00.000-05:00

as part of the prayers of the people, form one in the book of common prayer, the congregation petitions for "the aged and infirm, for the widowed and orphans, and for the sick and suffering" (book of common prayer, 384). this morning during the prayer, i was especially reminded of my friend greg's father, john thornbury. john thornbury had emergency bypass surgery late this week to clear six blockages. the last news that was forwarded along from greg was that his father was recovering from the operation. mr. thornbury has pastored the same church in winfield, pennsylvania for the past forty-plus years. he has written several wonderful biographies published by evangelical press, including god sent revival: the story of asahel nettleton and the second great awakening , david brainerd: pioneer missionary to the american indians, and a pastor in new york: the life and times of spencer cone. several of my closest friends count john thornbury as a model of the pastor-teacher. as he and his family labor and pray for his strength and encouragement, the response in the liturgy is very appropriate: "Lord, have mercy."

palms and the cross

2005-03-20T17:39:00.000-05:00

as the offertory anthem this morning, the choir at st mark's sang watts's beautiful hymn, "when i survey the wondrous cross." how fitting a song to sing on palm sunday. also, a rather fitting way to begin thinking about holy week.

"When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.

See! from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?"

know when to fold 'em

2005-03-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

my friendly ups driver carey just dropped off a wonderful package for me. so, between putting together my new bike friday, having lunch with a friend who has a birthday today, and watching ncaa games, i don't think there will be much posted today. well, except for pictures of my bike in its various stages.

shortly after arrival

unpacking and assembling

ready for the maiden voyage

what a blockhead

2005-03-17T08:47:00.000-05:00

upon our arrival in louisville in january 1997, i enrolled in hebrew exegesis of the book of deuteronomy. the professor was daniel block. my first class meeting at sbts was dr. block's deuteronomy course. his was the only course in which i ever experienced the "syllabus shock" so glibly spoken of at seminary. outside of the three exegesis courses i took with block, in fact, i never had a syllabus that shocked me in anyway. his classes, it must be said, were another thing entirely. he expected students to work. no small task at an institution plagued by open enrollment. dr. block, though, was nearly always up to the task. it seemed that people desired to complete the work he assigned. he is a wonderful teacher of the word who is passionate about the gospel.
last week while in birmingham, i heard some saddening news. dr. block and ellen, his wife, have decided to leave his endowed chair at sbts to take a position in wheaton college's biblical and theological studies department. now, i knew that the last few years at sbts had not been the kindest to dr. block, but i was floored nonetheless. when i returned home and shared the news with leanne, she too was grieved by the news. we both really care for the blocks. we have been church members with them, been challenged by his preaching, shared meals with them, and attended october costume parties at their home--dressed in successive years as an old woman and kojak, agents mulder and scully, and scooby and shaggy (pictures may come later). the thought of louisville and sbts without them is painful. but after stopping by dr. block's office and talking with him earlier this week, the pain was confirmed. they are moving to wheaton. and he seems excited--always looking ahead at future possibilities. the wheaton community is gaining an incredible couple. seems there are too few people like dan and ellen block in the world. i am grateful to know them. always grateful to be a blockhead.

waiting

2005-03-16T10:12:00.000-05:00

waiting--waiting--
listening for the tone
that lets me know the day
you are on your way
home.

bb and bdm

2005-03-15T21:15:00.000-05:00

my comments on mclaren's a generous orthodoxy are really not an attempt to make any sort of evaluation of the emergent church movement. as i mentioned in a previous post, i know very little about the movement. i feel fairly certain that anyone looking for that kind of evaluation can find persons much abler than myself to assist them in thinking through the pros and cons of the emergent church. today, i noticed one such evaluationdue to my lack of interest, i personally found the discussion of the new "loonatics" more exciting. but, as i remember, i also liked "new coke," which is quite possibly heretical i know. but i also prefer pepsi, so i suppose there is no going back. anyway, for those of you looking for something i neither can nor care to give, namely a more in-depth evaluation of the emergent movement, perhaps you should begin by looking here. if nothing else, it might make you want to catch some old looney tunes cartoons on cable. it stirred that desire in me.

go: introduction, part two

2005-03-15T09:57:00.000-05:00

invoking an ancient-future approach to the christian faith, bdm contends that twenty-first century christians ought to learn from the various traditions and historic streams of the faith (ago, 18). i think he is absolutely correct. that said, i wonder how he can really expect to learn anything given his commitment to the philosophical system commonly known as postmodernism with its rejection of truth claims. if truth means nothing or next to nothing, how, then, can he hope to learn anything from christians, be they past, present, or future? what role does truth assume in the development of a genuinely gracious orthodoxy?
these questions lead me to the second part of my thinking about gracious orthodoxy, namely, that it must be based on something. without some foundation, which bdm really struggles to affirm, we have no orthodoxy to label as generous or gracious. whether one likes it or not, believing in something is a truth claim. of course, the question is: in what do you believe? if gracious orthodoxy is right thinking not only brought about by the grace of god but also reaching out to others in the same spirit of grace, then from whence does this thinking originate? my answer, which i will revisit in the coming weeks, is from god's gracious revelation to humanity, the christian scriptures. gracious orthodoxy must be based on a whole bible theology or it can be neither gracious nor orthodox. unlike bdm, however, i don't think that believers who affirm the trustworthiness of the scriptures must inherently be ungenerous. on the contrary, if edwards is correct in religious affections, especially in his discussion of the final sign that a person has truly experienced grace, and in charity and its fruits, then the exact opposite must be true. to the extent that christianity is not gracious or orthodox, it has failed to meet the standards of god's revelation.

update on gura

2005-03-15T08:20:00.000-05:00

some brief comments on philip gura's jonathan edwards, which i mentioned here. my copy was waiting for me when i returned from birmingham. so, i read it yesterday. initial reaction is simple: i liked it.
gura does a great job situating je in the emergent (a word he seemed to like) evangelical world of the eighteenth century. while he does not provide the context that marsden did in his offering of je's life, gura's volume is certainly more manageable for a classroom setting. at times, though, i would have liked some of the context that marsden established. without a knowledge of the indian wars of the eighteenth century, for example, one might almost think that je was only vaguely aware of his red neighbors prior to his friendship with brainerd and his time in stockbridge. perhaps even more disturbing for me personally was gura's almost complete avoidance of the existence of enslaved africans in the edwards's household. marsden's treatment of this subject wasn't that much more effective or compelling, but at least he made some comments (or allowed ken to do so). gura, on the other hand, only mentioned this fact in a footnote. i suppose i shouldn't protest too loudly, though, since i don't want people stealing any of my thunder.
my enthusiasm for this volume has not waned after reading it. it reminded me of all the good things about iain murray's biography of je without murray's penchant to promote his own theology. that's not to say that gura doesn't make je's calvinism very clear. rather, he does so without demeaning any other theology besides je's calvinism. while it may lack some of the details of marsden's telling, gura's consideration of je is a valuable addition to the literature. besides, as someone recently remarked to me, who needs to know every little detail of je's life? order your copy today.

go: introduction, part one

2005-03-14T08:55:00.000-05:00

orthodoxy, which means "straight or right thinking," by definition must be concerned with whether the thinking involved is correct. thus, like it or not, to talk about orthodoxy one must wrestle with both and right and wrong opinions. now, this may not be politically or theologically fashionable, but the concept of orthodoxy demands taking such a stance. the orthodox suggests the unorthodox.
this does not mean, however, that orthodoxy has to be ungenerous. in fact, one might argue that genuine christian orthodoxy is always generous, even when it combats unorthodoxy most vehemently. why? because genuine christian orthodoxy is a byproduct of grace. no, it's more than that. orthodoxy is a direct result of grace. graciously, god has instructed his people how to think rightly about their relationship with the triune god. knowing that their belief is a gift from god, the orthodox consequently ought to exercise grace toward those who do not agree with them in part or in whole.
while generous orthodoxy is an admirable goal, i think genuine christians ought to aim for more. our responses to fellow believers and to nonbelievers must be more than generous, they must be gracious. in the coming weeks, therefore, let's think about gracious orthodoxy, right thinking not only brought about by the grace of god but also reaching out to others in the same spirit of grace.

go: a preview

2005-03-13T17:57:00.000-05:00

as i mentioned here, i have been planning an interaction with a recent book i read. i have taken the last few weeks to think more about the book and am growing more comfortable with how i want to discuss it. so, over the coming weeks, i intend to consider the strengths and weaknesses of a generous orthodoxy.
as i mentioned in my earlier post, i initially picked up this book because a friend asked me to give it a read. i must admit that i knew relatively nothing about the emergent church movement with which this volume is associated prior to reading it. my comments, therefore, will have relatively nothing to do with that movement. instead, i simply want to use this as an opportunity to converse with my friends about some important and timely issues facing the evangelical community.

home again

2005-03-12T20:42:00.000-05:00

well, i am back in louisville. after yet another barbecue stop (this time way down snake road in clements, alabama) and a short traffic jam in nashville, my time in hot ol' birmingham has ended. now, it certainly wasn't hot. in fact, this morning was the first really pleasant morning of our week. it even allowed some well-spent time on a screened-in porch. but, for me, the week was a wonderfully refreshing time. in addition to making some good progress on chapter three, the time spent reflecting on and discussing the fellowship of saints was extremely encouraging and enlightening. much mary catherine's was consumed, though some of it was tainted with chocolate syrup. way too much food was eaten, though some will claim way too much came back to haunt them. a fair share of cynical comments were made, including a brilliant time discussing the "little" things in life. i need weeks like this.

that said, home feels great.

pathetic hilarity

2005-03-11T11:02:00.000-05:00

"that's hilarious." that was about all i could muster. to think that some people could be concerned with words that no one, with the possible exception of a few close friends, would ever see. still, though, he was made aware a continued affiliation with this guy might present a barrier to future opportunities that might come his way. "hilarious," however, rather quickly gave way to "pathetic." pathetic that strongarm tactics seem to be the primary option. pathetic that self-criticism seems not to be an option. pathetic that critique is only valid if it goes in one direction. pathetic that questioning anything else is not valid. pathetic that friends must say such things to one another. hilarious. pathetic. welcome to my world.

wb: poet-preacher

2005-03-10T12:16:00.000-05:00

as i have mentioned in various posts, i have matured into being a fan of the writings of wendell berry. his fiction, nonfiction, and poetry alike captivate me. one of my friends who turned me on to wb (though i never read any of his work until after this friend went into exile), has a wonderful treatment of berry's public theology. with a keen theological mind of his own, sean lucas provides a compelling analysis in "god and country: wendell berry's theological vision" in christian scholar's review xxxii:1 (fall 2002): 73-92. as i read sean's essay again, i couldn't help but imagine how wb's recent novel, hannah coulter, makes sean's argument even more impressive. focusing on the themes of the kingdom of god, creation, the gathered community, work as calling, and heaven, sean conludes that "Christians need Wendell Berry. Though he may not see himself this way, Berry is more than a poet, essayist, novelist, or farmer. Rather, he is a preacher. He proclaims his sermon in a variety of forms, but the message is the same. We live in the Kingdom of God. The creation is good and loved by God. We live as parts of a gathered community. Our work, to which we all are called, is good if it is done to God's glory and the others' benefit. When we live a life of harmony and love, we taste Heaven on earth. While Berry's sermon sometimes cuts the conscience, it also binds up the wounds with the salve of what life could be like if we would live in harmony with God's Kingdom" ("god and country," 91-92). well said.

on a side note: sean also has a book scheduled to hit your local bookstore any day now. so, please keep your eyes open for his robert lewis dabney: a southern presbyterian life. while i must admit i am not really a big fan of dabney (and sean's telling of his life only reaffirmed my distaste for much about the man), when i read this work in manuscript form i recognized it as a wonderful example of biographical writing. sean analyzes dabney's life without unduly praising or damning the man. such works not only illustrate the problem of sin in even the church's greatest saints and leaders, but they also manifest the glorious extent of grace. order your copy today.

bad stories

2005-03-09T15:30:00.000-05:00

while on the subject of books today, why are so many modern novels so bad? i am not even certain bad is the correct adjective. perhaps atrocious is more fitting. i generally have stayed away from most fiction in my reading career, though in recent months i have given the time to read the superb novels and short stories of wendell berry (see the power of words below). but the really popular novels are not those by accomplished artists like wb. instead the books that sell and consistently occupy a place on most best-seller lists read as if their authors have progressed only slightly beyond the level of most high schoolers forced to participate in a creative writing exercise. relying on what one of my co-directors calls a "nancy drew style," these would-be authors construct sentences that make you laugh. sentences like "our hero surpirsed our protagonist with a powerful kidney punch--the kind of punch that makes you double over in pain." yes, such sentences deserve a hearty chuckle, but only after an appropriate period of grief. why do so many of our "best-selling" authors insist on writing as if we can not even read? "In fact," asserted G. K. Chesterton, "a baby is about the only person, I should think, to whom a modern realistic novel could be read without boring him" (orthodoxy, 51). unlike berry, though, i won't lay much of the blame for such bad writing on the personal computer. no, bad writing is simply the fault of bad writers--the kind of people who write badly. or something like that.

the perfect technology

2005-03-09T10:35:00.000-05:00

i love books. the characteristic smell of specific publishers. the crisp feel of a tight binding. the heft of a volume in your hand. good books are like friends, well, at least like good friends. they're reliable, loyal, and encouraging--even when they tell you things you don't want to hear.
also, i love technology. the click of the keyboard. the quiet hum of a fan. the spin of a harddrive. face it, i am a gadget-freak. i go few places without my ibook and ipod. i am accessing the net at this moment using an inspiring concoction of cable and cellphone. i long for apple to revive the newton. good gadgets are also like good friends. they're reliable, loyal, and encouraging--as long as the batteries are charged at least.
one might think (like wendell berry implies in his delightful essay, "why i will not buy a computer") that books and technology are incompatible. one might even be right in holding such convictions. that said, i think there is more to it than that. yes, there was a time when printed books were the ultimate technology. to a certain extent, it is true, such a time has passed. then again, however, i agree with stephen wrinn, the director of the university press of kentucky, who said, "Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I think the book is the perfect technology." perhaps that explains my affinity for tomes and technologies, things which seem so incompatible. or maybe my simple mind cannot shake its hobgoblin.

o kinky turtle

2005-03-08T10:53:00.000-05:00

"lead on, o kinky turtle, the day of march has come." or so leanne used to think ernest shurtleff's hymn began. and, well, that isn't really too far of a stretch. i thought of leanne and her inclination to sing these lyrics this morning during morning prayer when i read the following collect, which is a meaningful and hopeful prayer:

"O God, the King eternal, who dividest the day from the night and turnest the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep thy law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done thy will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when the night cometh, rejoice to give thee thanks; therough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen" (book of common prayer, 56).

burgers, barbecue, and baxter

2005-03-07T23:40:00.000-05:00

today a friend and i drove about six hours south of louisville to hot old birmingham. he is on a reading sabbatical and i hope to get a first draft of chapter three finished. on the way down, we were able to meet a dear friend of mine for lunch, sharing a wonderful time together over what might one of the best hamburgers in the known world. from dub's, we made our way to whitt's barbecue and, then, on to birmingham. i must say it was good to get here and see that baxter is doing well, despite his outpatient surgery today. the week promises to be a productive, encouraging, and enlightening time. much mary catherine's will be consumed. way too much food will be eaten. and cynical comments will be made. i need weeks like this.

a thought on 4 lent sunday

2005-03-06T16:58:00.000-05:00

"god's favor often leads into rather than away from difficulties."

this statement was one of several poignant remarks made by charles hawkins at st. mark's this morning. preaching from the ninth chapter of john's gospel, charles painted a beautiful picture of the dilemma often caused by faith. a faith in this chapter that occurs after the work of god through christ. what a provocative portrayal of salvation!

family

2005-03-05T20:06:00.000-05:00

today, leanne and i had the occasion to spend time with members of my mother's family. one of my cousins and her husband were given a baby shower in anticipation of their daughter emma, who they hope to be going to china for very soon to adopt. also, we got to visit with my maternal grandparents, who recently moved back to indiana from florida. it really is wonderful to have so many family members living within a two hour drive. with every opportunity we have to spend together, i realize that we don't take advantage of our proximity nearly enough. of course, everyone has busy schedules. such excuses, valid though they may be, mean little. i hope for change.

truth in spired

2005-03-04T09:52:00.000-05:00

"Lord, you have been our refuge
from one generation to another.

Before the mountains were brought forth,
or the lands and the earth were born,
from age to age you are God.

You turn us back to the dust and say,
'Go back, O child of earth.'

For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday
when it is past
and like a watch in the night.

You sweep us away like a dream;
we fade away suddenly like the grass.

In the morning it is green and flourishes;
in the evening it is dried up and withered.

For we consume away in your displeasure;
we are afraid because of your wrathful indignation.

Our iniquities you have set before you,
and our secret sins in the light of your countenance.

When you are angry, all our days are gone;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

The span of our life is seventy years,
perhaps in strength even eighty;
yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow,
for they pass away quickly and we are gone.

Who regards the power of your wrath?
who rightly fears your indignation?

So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

Return, O LORD; how long will you tarry?
be gracious to your servants.

Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning;
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us
and the years in which we suffered adversity.

Show your servants your works
and your splendor to their children.

May the graciousness of the LORD our God be upon us;
prosper the work of our hands;
prosper our handiwork."
(psalm ninety, book of common prayer)

truth in fiction

2005-03-04T08:41:00.000-05:00

"You don't have bad luck. Bad things happen to you because you're a dumbass."

so spoke the patriarch of the forman clan. in his usual manner, of course. over the past few years, i have developed an affinity for fox's that '70s show. now, we rarely ever watch episodes except in syndication. and we have seen most of these three or four times each. that said, the show is smart and funny. like our favorite brit-coms, we laugh at the same things every single time no matter how often we have seen that particular episode. so, when red explained to eric "why bad things happen to good people," i laughed. again. then, it struck me that his attempt at theodicy wasn't too far from correct. bad things do happen, clearly. such things happen largely as consequences of sinful choices. and what better appellation to describe sinners than the one red chose? now, the show can be completely redeemed if i can only ascertain the philosophical and theological value of "wearing your ass for a hat."

truth in verse

2005-03-04T08:34:00.000-05:00

Lurking in the darkness
making not a sound.
Quiet...shhh...Quiet.
Perhaps they'll bring him down.

Unawares they will not catch him;
quiet though they be.
Sneaking is not easy
when the Lurked lurks, see?

three "a" day: an announcement

2005-03-03T12:05:00.000-05:00

so, time for the final "a" of the day. sorry for the alliteration. despite some of my best efforts i remain a southern baptist. who ya' rootin' for? s b c! i digress, though.
a few weeks ago, at a friend's request, i read a book. that alone is not terribly extraordinary. this particular book, though, is one i would have never known about or more than likely even picked up otherwise. not only did i not know anything about this volume, but i also knew nothing about the "movement" within evangelicalism from which this writing had emerged. as an aside, i must add that this ignorance on my part, for which at times i am thankful, is one of the benefits of life outside an evangelical institution. but, as requested, i gave this book a read and, relative to my limited ability, an analysis. after i read it, i began to grow more aware of the babel that more than a few evangelicals are making over it. as one might guess, some significant southern baptists are lending their voices to the cacophony of criticism, much of which seems well-deserved.
now, perhaps because of my foray into a different discipline, i tended overall to find the book a useful read. yes, the author subscribes to a philosophical system quite different than, even anthithetical to, my own. yes, this system often plagues his conclusions, making it impossible for him to say anything substantive even if he wanted to (which he genuinely seems reticent to do). yes, these conclusions, such as they were, frustrated, discouraged, and frightened me. but. the possibilities these same incomplete conclusions offered also bolstered, encouraged, and excited me. furthermore, i was convicted about the state of both the evangelical church, especially the segment with which i am most familiar, and my own belief. there is something refreshing, dare i say glorious, about a faith that is most concerned, first, with loving god above all else, and, second, with loving one's fellow human beings. that, it seems, is a biblical faith.
so, after some reflection and because it affords the prospect of still more relection, i have decided that beginning in the next week or so, i aim to interact even more with the strained findings of this book. to be honest, i am tentative about doing so. i am also excited about trying to do so. both my reluctance and my enthusiasm stem, at least in part, from knowing some of you who actually visit this site from time to time. my reluctance--many of you are clearly more suited for such a task than i am. my enthusiasm--many of you will sharpen my thoughts with your comments, given as the circle demands via email, the phone, or other forms of conversation. my hope--simple: that my friends and i, who share a genuine passion for the state of both evangelicalism (not simply our own little slice of it) and our own belief, will emerge from our conversations and reflections more like christ. i hope, that is, that we come away with something, because, as theologian hans frei claimed, "Generosity without orthodoxy is nothing, but orthodoxy without generosity is worse than nothing." give me something.

three "a" day: an annotation

2005-03-03T08:51:00.000-05:00

early march in louisville. not quite winter. not quite spring. 26 degrees at 9 am. snow tonight. 54 degrees and rain tomorrow. now, unlike leanne, i like the cold weather. but, like leanne, i am ready for spring to arrive. in part i want this for selfish reasons, namely, so that i can ride my bike more. and in a few weeks i can say, so that i can ride my bikes more. so i selfishly want warmer weather by the time my new bike friday new world tourist arrives. but the prospect of the new season is not only exciting because of what it will offer me.
no, spring, it seems, serves as a powerful reminder of grace. "dead" things come to life and grow. the sounds of the world change. such budding life can be seen even among the iron boxes of the metropolis. of course, such a thought is by no means original with me. as i thought of these displays of grace while watching the cars, bikes, runners, and dogs go by my office window, i remembered the following verses penned by anne bradstreet, a seventeenth-century poet. bradstreet's many poems gave voice to her love for her god and her love for her neighbors. testifying to her belief in the grace and mercy of a sovereign god who cared for his own, she noticed the divine and the acts of the divine all around her. what a way to view life.

"As spring the winter doth succeed
And leaves the naked trees do dress,
The earth all black is clothed in green.
At sunshine each their joy express.

My sun's returned with healing wings,
My soul and body doth rejoice,
My heart exults and praises sing
To Him that heard my wailing voice.

My winter's past, my storms are gone,
And former clouds seem now all fled,
But if they must eclipse again,
I'll run where I was succored.

I have a shelter from the storm,
A shadow from the fainting heat,
I have access unto His throne,
Who is a God so wondrous great.

O hath Thou made my pilgrimage
Thus pleasant, fair, and good,
Blessed me in youth and elder age,
My Baca made a springing flood.

O studious am what I shall do
To show my duty with delight;
All I can give is but Thine own
And at the most a simple mite."
(the works of anne bradstreet, 256)

three "a" day: an advertisement

2005-03-03T08:11:00.000-05:00

i wanted to make my faithful readers aware of a new book that demands your attention. hill & wang recently released philip gura's jonathan edwards: america's evangelical. rather than writing a biography to rival george marsden's recent offering from yale university press, gura describes his book as a "consideration of Edwards," a "selective" meditation on certain themes in his life and ministry. i heard gura, who teaches english, american and religious studies at unc-chapel hill, present a portion of this treatment several years ago in washington dc and, as usual, was impressed by his work. how delightful to have a biography of je that, according to an early review, relies on "a forceful argument that's clear, accessible and arresting." order your copy today.

double double-consciousness

2005-03-02T09:34:00.000-05:00

throughout the month of february, i tried to read a selection from african american religious history: a documentary witness. reading the writings of african american men and women seemed one way to celebrate black history month. the confessions of nat turner. excerpts from the diary of jarena lee, a nineteenth-century female preacher in the african methodist tradition. martin luther king jr.'s "letter from a birmingham jail."
one of my readings, the 1818 farewell sermon of lemuel haynes, reminded me of a famous passage from w. e. b. du bois's the souls of black folks. "It is a peculiar sensation," wrote du bois, "this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of the world that looks on in amused contempt and pit. One ever feels his twoness,--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." lemuel haynes not only had a double consciousness, but as my friend, john saillant, demonstrates in black puritan, black republican: the life and thought of lemuel haynes, 1753-1833, haynes added a third and a fourth level of consciousness to the mix. a free black living in congregationalist new england his entire life, haynes did things that others in his situation only imagined. he fought in the continental army. he was the first african american ordained by any american denomination. he married elizabeth babbit, a white woman from massachusetts. he served as pastor of a white congregation in rutland, vermont. after thirty years, though, "race" issues in the new republic overwhelmed the congregation and they dismissed their pastor, deeming it improper to be taught any longer by a black man. he pioneered what became known as the abolitionist movement, relying in large part on his belief in new divinity calvinism and problack republicanism. lemuel haynes was "an American, a Negro" but he was also a puritan and a republican. this fourfold consciousness, however, did not protect him any more than du bois's double-consciousness. in the end, haynes lived behind the veil, plagued, as was du bois, by the problem of the color line.

lemuel haynes

starting the day the seventeenth-century way

2005-03-01T08:46:00.000-05:00

the 1662 book of common prayer included the following prayer as a part of its morning prayer order. some things need no improving.

"O, LORD , our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen"

the beloved community

2005-02-28T10:10:00.000-05:00

last week i had the opportunity to spend a few hours with an acquaintance who serves as pastor at a local congregation. we spent a few hours catching up with each other. how our families were doing. how work was progressing. how church was going. in the course of our conversation several things brought the idea of "church" to my mind (things he saw as "problems" within his church; his unstated, but obvious uncertainty about my participation in our church; and, for that matter, whether we are even in a "church"). for the last few days, then, i have occasionally migrated back to my thoughts on this subject. what is the "church?" what does it mean to be a member of the "church?" as my thoughts ramble back to such things, i am reminded of an essay i read the morning following the time spent with this acquaintance. in "writer and region," wendell berry hopefully defines the beloved community as "common experience and common effort on a common ground to which one willingly belongs" (what are people for?, 85). while he is not speaking specifically of the "church," his definition is quite applicable to the community of saints. the beloved community. the community of the beloved.

be still

2005-02-27T23:10:00.000-05:00

as the offering was being taken and the eucharist was being prepared this morning, the choir at st mark's sang an arrangement of be still, my soul, a beautiful hymn written by katherina von schlegel in the eighteenth century. one of my favorite renditions of this hymn is by joanna hogg of the group iona on her solo album looking into light.

"Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, be leaving, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine."

the joy of brit-coms

2005-02-26T22:31:00.000-05:00

''Some men find it embarrassing to talk about their droopy-do-dahs."
--Tom Ballard

so said the hero of one of my favorite british comedies, waiting for god, as he faced the plight of prostate cancer. certainly not a funny topic, but tom and diana dealt with the subject with their usual crotchety grace and adroit cynicism. two of the reasons i love this show. leanne and i spend most saturday evenings watching the brit-coms on ket. at present, we try to catch the broadcasts waiting for god and as time goes by every week. occasionally we also watch keeping up appearnaces. no matter how many times we have seen the week's episode (and usually we have seen it quite a few times), we laugh. almost every week, one or both of us remarks, "that's such a good show." and i know we mean it every single time. now, i suppose i could go on to lament the blight of much of american television, such as the plagues of survivor or american idol. i'll resist that urge, strong though it is. instead, let me simply say that i look forward to our saturday evenings alone watching tom, diana, lionel, and jean. i look forward to hearing those five familiar words, knowing we always mean them and enjoy saying them together: "that's such a good show."

what is wanted is a learner

2005-02-25T08:37:00.000-05:00

preparing to be somewhat ready for the jobmarket next fall, i have spent a fair amount of time perusing job announcements. one thing i have seen relatively often in these postings is a request for teaching portfolios that include a philosophy of teaching statement. so, i talked with my advisors about such a beast and googled it as well. the advice i have received so far from all my sources on the topic of writing a philosophy of teaching statement is simple: think about what you hope to accomplish in the classroom and how you plan to reach such goals. then, put that on paper.
so, i think about it. i think about the classes for which i ta'd at uk. i think about the classes i taught at ius. i think about the classes i will teach in the next academic year. then, as i was reading wendell berry's poem healing a few days ago, i made to a starting revelation. i do not want to teach. what i want is to foster learning. when i think about the profs whom i enjoyed the most and grew the most under, they were men and women more concerned with helping me learn than they were with teaching me specific things. so, i think i may have a place from which to begin my philosophy statement.

"VIII
There is finally the pride of thinking oneself without teachers.

The teachers are everywhere. What is wanted is a learner.

In ignorance is hope. If we had known the difficulty, we would not have learned even so little.

Rely on ignorance. It is ignorance the teachers will come to.

They are waiting, as they always have, beyond the edge of the light."
(wendell berry, "healing" in what are people for?)

who you calling a wimp?

2005-02-24T09:47:00.000-05:00

a friend made me aware of the following commentary written by the president of sbts, al mohler. now, since al signed the diploma from my master's program, i think that makes it ok for me to interact with his many social commentaries. and i suppose i ought to admit that for the most part, i generally agree with him, though i almost always wonder about his inability to see exactly what he is really saying.

a nation of wimps?

"Are we raising a nation of wimps? That's the surprising question raised by a recent article in Psychology Today. Writer Hara Estroff Marano argues that America's parents are coddling our kids into wimps--leaving them unable to cope with challenge, difficulty, or disappointment.
She points to the playground, where kids are surrounded by rubber, lest they scrape their knees--and parents who won't let their children play along with other kids, but supervise every moment and call it "play."
These parents demand that their kids get special attention, want every child on the team to receive the same award, and then send their kids off to college with the cell phone as a virtual high-tech umbilical cord.
Observers warn that American parents are turning their kids into permanent adolescents who never make it to adulthood. Parental "hyper-concern" has replaced the parent's goal of raising mature adults. This is a warning we all need to hear."

now, since i am fairly certain that mohler experienced some of his life as a "wimp," i suppose that he has some credibility when it comes to speaking of such things. of course, i can make that same argument for myself. so, my comments on al's comments. as usual, i think he says much that should serve to alarm responsible christians of societal tendencies. again, as usual, though, i think he fails to see where many responsible christians are implicated in this tendency. i have known many "responsible" christian parents who send their children to private christian institutions, especially during the elementary, middle, and high school years. all too often, the unstated motivation for doing this was not so that the young persons in question might get a better education. no, it was for their protection. protection from the trials of life. protection from skinned knees. maybe, a parent might argue, the attendance at such schools is part of raising a child in the nurture and admonition of the lord. i suppose it can be. but given the spiritual climate of so many private christian institutions, i doubt this usually happens. especially if many of these concerned christian parents are shirking their responsibilities and expecting the school to provide the bulk of the nurture and admonition. no, seems very similar to the padded playgrounds to me. and, as any one over the age of 25 or so knows, those things suck. in the end, i think al is correct. but, lamentably, responsible christians are part of the problem, raising a nation of spiritual wimps.

on a side note, a longer version of this commentary can be found at mohler's blog, which i must say is a fun place to keep up on all sorts of things that matter to all sorts of varying degrees. sometimes the subjects even matter as much as al contends.

sound like anyone you know?

2005-02-23T09:45:00.000-05:00

while on the 17th floor in lexington last week waiting for dan to end a phone call and talk with me about a chapter submission, i read all the newspaper clippings on dr. c's door. most of the said clippings were comic strips, but there were a few op-ed pieces about any number of political ruminations. one particular paragraph from an editorial by molly ivins from the june 29, 2003 issue of the lexington herald-leader caught my attention. while the essay focused on the issue of global warming, i felt the spirit of a few particular sentences could be applied way beyond global warming (maybe i thought this due to recent developments in "biblical" counseling). anyway, maybe these lines can be applied to some of your life experiences as well:

"Fond as I am of many of API lobbyists I have known over the years, I am not quite sure I want these bozos calling the shots on global warming. They have no scruples, they have no decency and they have no shame. Also, they lie."

the power of words

2005-02-22T10:17:00.000-05:00

beginning in early december, i started reading wendell berry's fiction. i only wish i had followed the urging of several friends and visited the world of the port william membership even sooner. last night, i came to the end of the port william stories (at least as of this moment). in hannah coulter, wb once again was masterful. every one of his stories, frankly, had moments that amazed, grieved, amused, and brought ecstatic joy. the passing of uncle jack beechum in the memory of old jack. the impromptu funeral in a place on earth. a barber's love in jayber crow. the death of a husband as remembered in light of his life in hannah coulter. in the hands of an amateur, words are deadly. but in the hands of an artist, those same words are powerful beyond measure. wendell berry certainly belongs to the latter category.
now, i suppose i might move on to read some of wb's nonfiction and poetry. without doubt, though, i know i will revisit several passages from the stories i only recently finished. the world that berry has created is not a perfect world, by any stretch. but it is a very real world, marred by sin and changed by grace. his stories about this community could be seen, i believe, as a sort of port william theology, which teaches much about god's grace to a fallen and sinful world.

"As I have told it over, the past visible again in the present, the dead living still in their absence, this dream of time seems to come to rest in eternity. My mind, I think, has started to become, it is close to being, the room of love where the absent are present, the dead are alive, time is eternal, and all the creatures prosperous. The room of love is the love that holds us all, and it is not ours. It goes back before we were born. It goes all the way back. It is Heaven's. Or it is Heaven, and we are in it only by willingness. By whose love, Andy Catlett, do we love this world and ourselves and one another? Do you think we invented it ourselves? I ask with confidence, for I know you know we didn't." (hannah coulter,158-9)

views from my office away from home

2005-02-21T14:25:00.000-05:00

on a somewhat dreary day in mid-february, the window table at heine bros. remains inviting. a welcoming place to read, write, and observe the day. even the nearby conversation between a male sbts student and a female sbs student (yes, the absence of the t is presciently intentional) can't quite ruin the view, even though he did just say, "ain't nobody fightin' to get out of here. we're beatin' 'em off with a stick." part of an attempt to make some sort of theological argument about the superiority of the united states in light of the opinions of peoples from other countries around the world. i must admit i do like this place much more when such students frequent java down the avenue.

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