Nothing like a Little Rivalry
Proving the Reformation is eternally fought at Hillsdale College, a sign where students sign up for information about the Catholic Student Union reads:
We haven't had this this much fun since TRENT!
Aug 27, 2002
Aug 25, 2002
No Pushing, No Shoving
Bush hasn’t issued a single veto, according to The New Republic.
This is dreadfully disappointing. Why can’t he fight a little?
Couldn’t he veto something?
MORE OPTIMISTIC UPDATE: For encouragement in politics, always look at the other guys and remember the winners are the ones who make fewer mistakes. Still from The New Republic, we see the lovely Greens are taking on the liberals and, Thank you!, hurting their chances of beating the GOP in one Minnesota race with potentially terrific ramifications.
Bush hasn’t issued a single veto, according to The New Republic.
This is dreadfully disappointing. Why can’t he fight a little?
Couldn’t he veto something?
MORE OPTIMISTIC UPDATE: For encouragement in politics, always look at the other guys and remember the winners are the ones who make fewer mistakes. Still from The New Republic, we see the lovely Greens are taking on the liberals and, Thank you!, hurting their chances of beating the GOP in one Minnesota race with potentially terrific ramifications.
Lots of Muck, Few Pearls in Broadway’s Chicago
A story of murder, lust, greed, corruption, violence, adultery and treachery, Chicago was mostly lame. Telling us little about the human condition, the play gave a viewer scant return to make the dredging about in human muck worthwhile.
I didn’t know much about the play before I went—a friend arranged the tickets and I just said “Chicago, Jazz Age, court trial, Broadway, yeah let’s go”—and maybe that was part of my initial disappointment. I was expecting, well, something else. Rather than being on the way to the point, the debauchery was most of the point.
There were two brilliant exceptions to this, exceptions that made the show worth my half-price ticket.
We are given a good look into the character of Amos, the faithful, dopey, straight, longsuffering and highly boring husband of the adulterous star, Roxie. Amos is a kind man, considered a buffoon by the wild children of Jazz, caring and loving and common. He is completely ignored and pushed over by the world around him and, in the show’s best number, he thinks he is so unnoticed he should have been named Mr. Cellophane.
With great acting and a great number we actually get to see something of the humanity of this man, a man overlooked by his fast and rebellious age, a man terribly old fashioned and ridiculous. Taunted, ridiculed or ignored, Amos could and probably should have been the hero of the show, depicting a man at odds with the shifting world around him
The second bit of work that made the play worthwhile was at the climax of the show when one actor played the entire jury, shifting from seat to seat playing out the foibles of the American public. The actor was a nun praying, a middle-aged woman sympathizing, an old man sleeping and a workingman who doesn’t really care. It was a glorious bit of work hidden in a little sideshow of the three-ring circus of the trial.
But besides those two bits of brilliant work the show was too much “razzle-dazzle”, too much leg, an eminently forgettable score and not much insight into the human soul.
A story of murder, lust, greed, corruption, violence, adultery and treachery, Chicago was mostly lame. Telling us little about the human condition, the play gave a viewer scant return to make the dredging about in human muck worthwhile.
I didn’t know much about the play before I went—a friend arranged the tickets and I just said “Chicago, Jazz Age, court trial, Broadway, yeah let’s go”—and maybe that was part of my initial disappointment. I was expecting, well, something else. Rather than being on the way to the point, the debauchery was most of the point.
There were two brilliant exceptions to this, exceptions that made the show worth my half-price ticket.
We are given a good look into the character of Amos, the faithful, dopey, straight, longsuffering and highly boring husband of the adulterous star, Roxie. Amos is a kind man, considered a buffoon by the wild children of Jazz, caring and loving and common. He is completely ignored and pushed over by the world around him and, in the show’s best number, he thinks he is so unnoticed he should have been named Mr. Cellophane.
With great acting and a great number we actually get to see something of the humanity of this man, a man overlooked by his fast and rebellious age, a man terribly old fashioned and ridiculous. Taunted, ridiculed or ignored, Amos could and probably should have been the hero of the show, depicting a man at odds with the shifting world around him
The second bit of work that made the play worthwhile was at the climax of the show when one actor played the entire jury, shifting from seat to seat playing out the foibles of the American public. The actor was a nun praying, a middle-aged woman sympathizing, an old man sleeping and a workingman who doesn’t really care. It was a glorious bit of work hidden in a little sideshow of the three-ring circus of the trial.
But besides those two bits of brilliant work the show was too much “razzle-dazzle”, too much leg, an eminently forgettable score and not much insight into the human soul.
Two links for St. Bartholomew’s day:
A picture of his death and a piece on the massacre of the French Huguenots, which also took place today.
A picture of his death and a piece on the massacre of the French Huguenots, which also took place today.
Aug 24, 2002
Culture before Politics
The Native Tourist makes the eminently needed point that culture does not equal politics. Thus Christians must start engaging the culture. As important as the political realm is, it springs from the broader sphere of culture: education, art, media.
Seize the culture, the politics will follow.
The Native Tourist makes the eminently needed point that culture does not equal politics. Thus Christians must start engaging the culture. As important as the political realm is, it springs from the broader sphere of culture: education, art, media.
Seize the culture, the politics will follow.
What they Said
(an unrelated assortment of quotes I've been thinking about)
Kipling on Disillusion and Youth
We have done with Hope and Honour, we are lost to Love and Truth
We are dropping down the ladder--rung by rung
And the measure of our torment is the measure of our youth
God help us, for we know the worst to young!
Guthrie on Copyrighted Music:
"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."
[Quoted by Eric Costello]
Hemmingway on Writing Better than Those Before You:
H: There is no use writing nything that has been written before unless you can beat it. What a writer in our time has to do is write what hasn't been written before or eat dead men at they have done. The only way he can tell how he is going is to cmpete with dead men...
Interviewer: But reading all the good writers might discourage you.
H: Then you ought to be discouraged.
(an unrelated assortment of quotes I've been thinking about)
Kipling on Disillusion and Youth
We have done with Hope and Honour, we are lost to Love and Truth
We are dropping down the ladder--rung by rung
And the measure of our torment is the measure of our youth
God help us, for we know the worst to young!
Guthrie on Copyrighted Music:
"This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."
[Quoted by Eric Costello]
Hemmingway on Writing Better than Those Before You:
H: There is no use writing nything that has been written before unless you can beat it. What a writer in our time has to do is write what hasn't been written before or eat dead men at they have done. The only way he can tell how he is going is to cmpete with dead men...
Interviewer: But reading all the good writers might discourage you.
H: Then you ought to be discouraged.
Aug 23, 2002
Real Journalists Get Shot At
Suprisingly, war photographers deal with a lot of stress. If this suprises you then read the CJR piece exploring the topic.
But c'mon. All Journalists are a crazy breed, and those of us who look for the crimes, the gunshots, the exciting real world are more so. Real journalists get shot at and, yeah, they have psychological problems. That's sotra the definition of journalist.
Suprisingly, war photographers deal with a lot of stress. If this suprises you then read the CJR piece exploring the topic.
But c'mon. All Journalists are a crazy breed, and those of us who look for the crimes, the gunshots, the exciting real world are more so. Real journalists get shot at and, yeah, they have psychological problems. That's sotra the definition of journalist.
Listening to the blues, working on a paper redesign, putting together a killer masthead and pulling up a list of story ideas, life is certainly good in the Collegian newsroom.
Buy Books from the Legendary Powells
I wouldn't sell out to just anybody. But I'd do it for Powells, the glorious, legendary and incredible book store!
I've made pilgrimages to the store, the greatest bookstore on earth, and I've blogged my love for them. Now if you buy a book from the store through the link on my page you will also support me. I get 10 percent of all purchases made through the link.
Loads better than a measly and miserly tip jar and that terrible begging blogging, I say.
And books are always a good thing so go check it out.
Aug 20, 2002
Meanwhile...
Everything is slower than I presumed--what’s new about that?
Meanwhile...
I’m now in Salisbury, Maryland and on the cusp of a 12-hour drive back to school. Then things will once again return to normal speed, we pray. At least I’ll have 24/7 T-1 access.
So then all the promised posts and lengthy articles should come as I return to the scintillating and stimulating world of the college paper and general academia.
Meanwhile...
Atlas is sleeping, waiting for the first kiss ... I mean the return of school.
Check out Gideon Strauss’ heavy lifting. In a perfect world I’d be over there with him, feeling the weight of those theology book set the synapses firing.
Meanwhile...
I’m reading Irrational Man, apparently the book that introduced America to Existentialism, and soon I will be an expert or, at least, will blog on the subject.
Meanwhile...
We all ought to learn the art of the insult. If our cordial and academic exchanges must, occasionally come to insults then surely we can learn from the best of the insulters. Consider this list of Shakespeare's insults:
“What fools these mortals be.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act III
“Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon.”
Timothy of Athens, act IV
“I desire we may be better strangers.”
As You Like It, act III
“Were I like thee I’d throw myself away.”
Timothy of Athens, act III
“Thou clay-brained guts, thou knott-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch.”
Henry IV, part I, act II.
“Go thou, and fill another room in hell.”
Richard II, act V.
“You are a candle, the better part burnt out.”
Henry IV, Part 2, act I.
“A pox o’ your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!”
The Tempset, act I.
“A rascal, an eater of broken meats, a base, proud, shallow, beggardly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy-worsted-stocking knave ... and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander and the son and heir of a mongrel ... one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.”
King Lear, act II.
Everything is slower than I presumed--what’s new about that?
Meanwhile...
I’m now in Salisbury, Maryland and on the cusp of a 12-hour drive back to school. Then things will once again return to normal speed, we pray. At least I’ll have 24/7 T-1 access.
So then all the promised posts and lengthy articles should come as I return to the scintillating and stimulating world of the college paper and general academia.
Meanwhile...
Atlas is sleeping, waiting for the first kiss ... I mean the return of school.
Check out Gideon Strauss’ heavy lifting. In a perfect world I’d be over there with him, feeling the weight of those theology book set the synapses firing.
Meanwhile...
I’m reading Irrational Man, apparently the book that introduced America to Existentialism, and soon I will be an expert or, at least, will blog on the subject.
Meanwhile...
We all ought to learn the art of the insult. If our cordial and academic exchanges must, occasionally come to insults then surely we can learn from the best of the insulters. Consider this list of Shakespeare's insults:
“What fools these mortals be.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act III
“Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon.”
Timothy of Athens, act IV
“I desire we may be better strangers.”
As You Like It, act III
“Were I like thee I’d throw myself away.”
Timothy of Athens, act III
“Thou clay-brained guts, thou knott-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch.”
Henry IV, part I, act II.
“Go thou, and fill another room in hell.”
Richard II, act V.
“You are a candle, the better part burnt out.”
Henry IV, Part 2, act I.
“A pox o’ your throat! you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!”
The Tempset, act I.
“A rascal, an eater of broken meats, a base, proud, shallow, beggardly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy-worsted-stocking knave ... and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander and the son and heir of a mongrel ... one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.”
King Lear, act II.
Protein Wisdom has been acting a little strange and then, just all-of-the-sudden-like, he disappears on an alleged vacation.
Do you think "they" got him?
Do you think "they" got him?
Aug 18, 2002
Coming:
The Great Pugsley Masacre,
The Devil in Your Armchair,
A review of Pachino's "Looking for Richard,"
A review of Broadway's "Chicago."
All this and more coming as a drop of my friends, Jeff and Andrew, and spend another day at FEE until I catch the bus out of Irvington New York mid Monday.
The Great Pugsley Masacre,
The Devil in Your Armchair,
A review of Pachino's "Looking for Richard,"
A review of Broadway's "Chicago."
All this and more coming as a drop of my friends, Jeff and Andrew, and spend another day at FEE until I catch the bus out of Irvington New York mid Monday.
Aug 17, 2002
Blogging for the crowd of one
I've been pushing record numbers here in the blog and, at the current rate of steady increase, may soon reach the number of hits I had from the one link by Instapundit.
This is heartening and inspiring and does lead to steady posting, but I'd write this stuff if no one read it. I write what I would want to read and hope that some others--now over 40 others--will enjoy reading it.
I'll soon be upon six months of blogging and plan to run a few "best of" pieces to celebrate.
Joshua Claybourn and Ben Domenech have apt and fitting words on doing what you want on blogging strategies and doing what you want to do, words that fit my idea of blogging for myself and letting the world come and enjoy my site.
I've been pushing record numbers here in the blog and, at the current rate of steady increase, may soon reach the number of hits I had from the one link by Instapundit.
This is heartening and inspiring and does lead to steady posting, but I'd write this stuff if no one read it. I write what I would want to read and hope that some others--now over 40 others--will enjoy reading it.
I'll soon be upon six months of blogging and plan to run a few "best of" pieces to celebrate.
Joshua Claybourn and Ben Domenech have apt and fitting words on doing what you want on blogging strategies and doing what you want to do, words that fit my idea of blogging for myself and letting the world come and enjoy my site.
My Glasses were run over by a firetruck in the rain in New York.
This is true. I am currently squinting at the world, eyes dialated, painfully, attempting to bring in enough light that I can see the world.
That said, the story is not as interesting as the statement and I am going to get another pair in the morning.
If anything can be said for blogging, let us say that like writing itself it alleviates the tragedy of life. The irony, the absurdity, the insanity. Oh, to get ones glasses run over by a firetruck in the rain in New York!
UPDATE: Through the services of Lenscrafters' one hour photo, I can see once again. I even have a one year insurence against accidentally breaking this pair including, one thinks, being smashed by a firetruck.
This is true. I am currently squinting at the world, eyes dialated, painfully, attempting to bring in enough light that I can see the world.
That said, the story is not as interesting as the statement and I am going to get another pair in the morning.
If anything can be said for blogging, let us say that like writing itself it alleviates the tragedy of life. The irony, the absurdity, the insanity. Oh, to get ones glasses run over by a firetruck in the rain in New York!
UPDATE: Through the services of Lenscrafters' one hour photo, I can see once again. I even have a one year insurence against accidentally breaking this pair including, one thinks, being smashed by a firetruck.
Aug 15, 2002
The Euthyphro Quandry, or
Who Says God is Good?
Seraphim, in his constant work to elucidate all things Greek, explains the quandry of the explaination and definitional standard of God's goodness. As Seraphim says:
"Is an action holy because it is holy, or is it holy because God says it is so? Now, Euthyphro says the latter, but Socrates tears his claim apart by asking a good number of semantical questions, to wit: Do we say that something "is being carried" because it is a "being carried thing," or do we say something "is being carried" because it is, in fact, being carried by someone?"
I think I'd like to come to Euthyphro's defense against good old Soc, but I'm waiting to see Seraphim's work before I venture into these waters.
I have faced the question before. One occasion was when an especially lame Evangelical pastor asked the congregation how we knew God was just. I was bothered by the question because it forced God to come before our court and submit to our standards and understanding of justice. I have some other arguments and, I think, a case that some of Soc's problems of questions of definition but we'll wait to insure the maximum intelligence and optimum arguing capabilities.
Who Says God is Good?
Seraphim, in his constant work to elucidate all things Greek, explains the quandry of the explaination and definitional standard of God's goodness. As Seraphim says:
"Is an action holy because it is holy, or is it holy because God says it is so? Now, Euthyphro says the latter, but Socrates tears his claim apart by asking a good number of semantical questions, to wit: Do we say that something "is being carried" because it is a "being carried thing," or do we say something "is being carried" because it is, in fact, being carried by someone?"
I think I'd like to come to Euthyphro's defense against good old Soc, but I'm waiting to see Seraphim's work before I venture into these waters.
I have faced the question before. One occasion was when an especially lame Evangelical pastor asked the congregation how we knew God was just. I was bothered by the question because it forced God to come before our court and submit to our standards and understanding of justice. I have some other arguments and, I think, a case that some of Soc's problems of questions of definition but we'll wait to insure the maximum intelligence and optimum arguing capabilities.
The Beloved Creeds of Christianity
Greg Uttinger has published a thrid installement, one I didn't expect, on the Christian creeds, this time on the work proceeding from Chalcedon. He does an excellent job, as I thought he did on the original defense of creeds and the explaination on the Apostles Creed, and I applaud him for the work.
Greg Uttinger has published a thrid installement, one I didn't expect, on the Christian creeds, this time on the work proceeding from Chalcedon. He does an excellent job, as I thought he did on the original defense of creeds and the explaination on the Apostles Creed, and I applaud him for the work.
Aug 14, 2002
Begger Threatens Bad Puns
Well the begging blogger thinks we owe him something and threatens to rise from his dirty begging blanket and tin cup with all his Irish ire to call forth damnation and lousy puns on all those who dare to question such pathetic whining.
"[N]aughty people who call me a whiner might be immortalized in bawdy verse full of cheap puns on their names and low, inexcusable rhymes, meters, and vivid, unforgettable imagery that will live on in people's minds long after this blog is dust. Never criticize an Irish writer, especially when he's engaging in shameless commerce," Shea said.
UPDATE: Gideon Strauss begs with humor, after complementing all concerned.
Well the begging blogger thinks we owe him something and threatens to rise from his dirty begging blanket and tin cup with all his Irish ire to call forth damnation and lousy puns on all those who dare to question such pathetic whining.
"[N]aughty people who call me a whiner might be immortalized in bawdy verse full of cheap puns on their names and low, inexcusable rhymes, meters, and vivid, unforgettable imagery that will live on in people's minds long after this blog is dust. Never criticize an Irish writer, especially when he's engaging in shameless commerce," Shea said.
UPDATE: Gideon Strauss begs with humor, after complementing all concerned.
Intellectualism, Charity and Intelligence
Does intellectual charity, granting that your ideological adversaries aren’t necessarily stupid and intentionally seeking evil, rise with education and intelligence?
I’m enjoying the exciting pleasure of joining with other highly intelligent home schooled students and discussing the flaws of the gold standard, the questions and problems with dualism, the flaw of basing systems of thought on natural order and general philosophical subjects such as the work of Descartes, Kant and Postmodernists.
It is amusing and amazing and delightful how home schooled students—now somewhere in their college education—recognize each other, feeling the resonance of a superior education and an insatiable desire for knowledge.
UPDATE: These comments were not intended to apply to Dawn Olsen’s assault on all things home educated, but it fits rather well. (Though I generally see no reason to take Olsen or her arguments seriously except in the fact that she made them and others read them.)
Of course, most of this debate is mere anecdotalism—which reminds me of my previously blogged conversation on the airplane—though I appreciated the comments of Ben Domenech.
Remind me, when I have some time, to post the three reasons why I believe home schooling is the only educational option.
Does intellectual charity, granting that your ideological adversaries aren’t necessarily stupid and intentionally seeking evil, rise with education and intelligence?
I’m enjoying the exciting pleasure of joining with other highly intelligent home schooled students and discussing the flaws of the gold standard, the questions and problems with dualism, the flaw of basing systems of thought on natural order and general philosophical subjects such as the work of Descartes, Kant and Postmodernists.
It is amusing and amazing and delightful how home schooled students—now somewhere in their college education—recognize each other, feeling the resonance of a superior education and an insatiable desire for knowledge.
UPDATE: These comments were not intended to apply to Dawn Olsen’s assault on all things home educated, but it fits rather well. (Though I generally see no reason to take Olsen or her arguments seriously except in the fact that she made them and others read them.)
Of course, most of this debate is mere anecdotalism—which reminds me of my previously blogged conversation on the airplane—though I appreciated the comments of Ben Domenech.
Remind me, when I have some time, to post the three reasons why I believe home schooling is the only educational option.
Will Blog for Free
Mark Shea tries to shame his readers into paying him something, anything.
C'mon Mark. You run a free site and there's no reason why I or anyone else should pay you. So please don't rattle the tin cup and beg. Either find a way to make the site pay without trying to use guilt and demand such benevolence like all those lousy public television advertisements, or find a job that pays you for your writing.
But really, stop the whining.
Mark Shea tries to shame his readers into paying him something, anything.
C'mon Mark. You run a free site and there's no reason why I or anyone else should pay you. So please don't rattle the tin cup and beg. Either find a way to make the site pay without trying to use guilt and demand such benevolence like all those lousy public television advertisements, or find a job that pays you for your writing.
But really, stop the whining.
Aug 13, 2002
Knowing Hollywood
Our common cultural knowledge, even among the well college educated, includes almost all movies but very little literature.
I’m not surprised or upset by the fact that it includes movies, but by the fact that it includes any and all movies and only a few books. (Unless the book has been turned into a movie, when the phrase: “You know it from the movie…” is employed.)
No matter how silly or lame or cheap or dumb or obscure the movie one can cite it as an example.
“Remember in that movie X when A does T? It’s like that when…”
When can we demand and assume that normal intelligent people have read a moderate selection of literature?
[NOTE: I apologize for the admitted redundancy of this complaint.]
Our common cultural knowledge, even among the well college educated, includes almost all movies but very little literature.
I’m not surprised or upset by the fact that it includes movies, but by the fact that it includes any and all movies and only a few books. (Unless the book has been turned into a movie, when the phrase: “You know it from the movie…” is employed.)
No matter how silly or lame or cheap or dumb or obscure the movie one can cite it as an example.
“Remember in that movie X when A does T? It’s like that when…”
When can we demand and assume that normal intelligent people have read a moderate selection of literature?
[NOTE: I apologize for the admitted redundancy of this complaint.]
Aug 12, 2002
At the Foundation for Economic Education:
I'm busily trying to avoid illogical bloviation, inflated rhetoric that, violating such constraints as deductive logic, could prove anything.
It's not all this way, but how much is needed to bring frustration?
I'm busily trying to avoid illogical bloviation, inflated rhetoric that, violating such constraints as deductive logic, could prove anything.
It's not all this way, but how much is needed to bring frustration?
The Seattle Taliban
The Seattle Times runs a really weird story today about a Seattle Mosque cleaning up the neighborhood and creating an strict Islamic world--Taliban style--on their block.
I admit I kinda like the "no drugs in our neighborhood" attitude and effectivness at fighting their own drug war, but some of therest of this stuff is scary.
The Seattle Times runs a really weird story today about a Seattle Mosque cleaning up the neighborhood and creating an strict Islamic world--Taliban style--on their block.
I admit I kinda like the "no drugs in our neighborhood" attitude and effectivness at fighting their own drug war, but some of therest of this stuff is scary.
$7.42 for a one topping large with a two liter of pop
Coming from a college where everyone has the phone number of the local pizza place, Hungry Howies, memorized and can tell you the best deal and the price of that college special including tax, I found Dean's comments about the sad state of pizza affairs interesting. Can't say I'm familiar with the situation though I wish him the best of luck.
Coming from a college where everyone has the phone number of the local pizza place, Hungry Howies, memorized and can tell you the best deal and the price of that college special including tax, I found Dean's comments about the sad state of pizza affairs interesting. Can't say I'm familiar with the situation though I wish him the best of luck.
A Blogosphere is not a Church
How can there really be a "Christian Blogging Community"? It doesn't make any sense.
I like Blogs4God--it's nice in giving us a list of others in such a classification (a semi definitive list, which is nice) and an interesting place to look around--butsome of these other little blips coming up that claimto be the next thing for "Christian Bloggers" and will really unite the community and set up real standards.
Well goody-gum drops but this isn't church. Christs mandate for unity was never interpreted as a mandate for a guild.
The whole idea of thisuniversial community is silly. I am in an online community with the people who read my site and the people whos site I read. The affiliation is purely one of readership and an invention of another association is unrealistic.
Even granting the impossibility of creating some sort of community where it does not exists, I have no reason to submit to anyones imposition of allegedly Christian standards. Even more than that, I'm not interested in using such a grid to decide if I will read someone's blog. How do I know if a blog is good? I read it.
No standardized test--even if I agreed with it, which is unlikely--is going to tell me if the writing is interesting.
Perhaps the whole idea is a joke nobody has gotten yet.
How can there really be a "Christian Blogging Community"? It doesn't make any sense.
I like Blogs4God--it's nice in giving us a list of others in such a classification (a semi definitive list, which is nice) and an interesting place to look around--butsome of these other little blips coming up that claimto be the next thing for "Christian Bloggers" and will really unite the community and set up real standards.
Well goody-gum drops but this isn't church. Christs mandate for unity was never interpreted as a mandate for a guild.
The whole idea of thisuniversial community is silly. I am in an online community with the people who read my site and the people whos site I read. The affiliation is purely one of readership and an invention of another association is unrealistic.
Even granting the impossibility of creating some sort of community where it does not exists, I have no reason to submit to anyones imposition of allegedly Christian standards. Even more than that, I'm not interested in using such a grid to decide if I will read someone's blog. How do I know if a blog is good? I read it.
No standardized test--even if I agreed with it, which is unlikely--is going to tell me if the writing is interesting.
Perhaps the whole idea is a joke nobody has gotten yet.
Goldstein against blind Dwarfs with Super Soakers
Goldstein tells us that a "scholar" blaming female suicide bombers on world wide patriarchy should be treated as "a blind dwarf in clown makeup who tries mugging you with nothing more than an unloaded Super Soaker and some harsh words."
Which seems pretty rough on the dwarfs.
Goldstein tells us that a "scholar" blaming female suicide bombers on world wide patriarchy should be treated as "a blind dwarf in clown makeup who tries mugging you with nothing more than an unloaded Super Soaker and some harsh words."
Which seems pretty rough on the dwarfs.
Aug 11, 2002
The Neo-Factor
Gideon Strauss defines his self-definition of neocalvinism in a piece that's long on Presuppositionalism and the subsequent necessity--after we eliminate epistomological neutrality--for God's dominion to extend over every area, but really very short thosefive messy points.
Look at all the neat things you can do with a little neo!
Gideon Strauss defines his self-definition of neocalvinism in a piece that's long on Presuppositionalism and the subsequent necessity--after we eliminate epistomological neutrality--for God's dominion to extend over every area, but really very short thosefive messy points.
Look at all the neat things you can do with a little neo!
"Outside of our moms, who reads bylines?" Page asked. "And the Chicago Tribune has a slogan: 'If your mother says she loves you, check it out.' "
My letter on one of the talks at the National Press Club, published over at Poynter.
My letter on one of the talks at the National Press Club, published over at Poynter.
Aug 10, 2002
Blogging from the National Press club
I had a great day of journalism seminars today, hearing six speakers talking about this wonderful and crazy career. More will be coming as I get somewhere I can post my notes and observations from this center of world journalism.
Meanwhile check out Poynter.org, where a letter I wrote (in exchange for a free book) is due to be posted along with a picture soon.
I had a great day of journalism seminars today, hearing six speakers talking about this wonderful and crazy career. More will be coming as I get somewhere I can post my notes and observations from this center of world journalism.
Meanwhile check out Poynter.org, where a letter I wrote (in exchange for a free book) is due to be posted along with a picture soon.
Aug 8, 2002
Into the Wild Blue
My summer has ended. After 90 days at home from college, living with my five brothers and one sister, working at the daily newspaper, living within a few minutes of my good friend Jeff Nelson, within four hours of the greatest bookstore on earth, it is over and I am once again moving east.
I’m on a whirlwind tour of U.S. cities, hitting Portland yesterday (see the comment about the greatest bookstore on earth), D.C. tomorrow for a journalism conference and New York City on Saturday for a free-market economics conference. I should also briefly whirl through Baltimore, my own Seattle and Chicago.
I’m expecting to blog through all this, catching internet connections pretty much daily and having all sorts of thoughts and experiences to blog.
And so I go, riding into the wild blue yonder.
My summer has ended. After 90 days at home from college, living with my five brothers and one sister, working at the daily newspaper, living within a few minutes of my good friend Jeff Nelson, within four hours of the greatest bookstore on earth, it is over and I am once again moving east.
I’m on a whirlwind tour of U.S. cities, hitting Portland yesterday (see the comment about the greatest bookstore on earth), D.C. tomorrow for a journalism conference and New York City on Saturday for a free-market economics conference. I should also briefly whirl through Baltimore, my own Seattle and Chicago.
I’m expecting to blog through all this, catching internet connections pretty much daily and having all sorts of thoughts and experiences to blog.
And so I go, riding into the wild blue yonder.
Packing the Bags
It felt good to pack.
I pack lightly. Three bags total. Light enough I can carry them easily.
It is an act that brings order and forces evaluation and thrift, reaffirming the hard, lean and sparse existence befitting a reporter.
It is an act signifying an end and a beginning and excitement. And so I leave.
It felt good to pack.
I pack lightly. Three bags total. Light enough I can carry them easily.
It is an act that brings order and forces evaluation and thrift, reaffirming the hard, lean and sparse existence befitting a reporter.
It is an act signifying an end and a beginning and excitement. And so I leave.
Observing the Faces and the Character of Devout Catholic Youth
David Warren observes the faces of the Catholic youth attending World Youth Day 2002, finding them happy, good and respectful of each other, their elders and the Catholic faith.
Having interviewed two of the local young Catholic faithful attending the conference from Port Angeles Wash., Amanda Haas, 17, and Matt Dubeau, 21, of Queen of Angles, I would agree. I disagreed with much of their theology and much of their devotion, but seeing devout young Christians is always heartwarming.
I was glad I was the one to interview them and write the story because I could understand their faith, I wasn’t making fun of Pedophilia scandals and the feebleness of John Paul II.
As Warren said, “I'm an Anglican myself; but hurrah for the Catholics!”
David Warren observes the faces of the Catholic youth attending World Youth Day 2002, finding them happy, good and respectful of each other, their elders and the Catholic faith.
Having interviewed two of the local young Catholic faithful attending the conference from Port Angeles Wash., Amanda Haas, 17, and Matt Dubeau, 21, of Queen of Angles, I would agree. I disagreed with much of their theology and much of their devotion, but seeing devout young Christians is always heartwarming.
I was glad I was the one to interview them and write the story because I could understand their faith, I wasn’t making fun of Pedophilia scandals and the feebleness of John Paul II.
As Warren said, “I'm an Anglican myself; but hurrah for the Catholics!”
Aug 6, 2002
The Statement on Murray Street
Graffiti makes a comeback in New York City, according to the New York Sun.
So does this mean that Bloomberg just isn’t up to snuff?
Is graffiti the problem? Is it the cultural decay associated with graffiti?
Graffiti makes a comeback in New York City, according to the New York Sun.
So does this mean that Bloomberg just isn’t up to snuff?
Is graffiti the problem? Is it the cultural decay associated with graffiti?
Aug 5, 2002
Fighting Rome
Reading about the Anglican break from Rome, I am a little suprised to observe the number of objections to the Catholic Church that no longer apply.
One huge conflict was the Latin vs. Vernacular debate. This was vehement and violent and very, very important, but today the Catholics might have well been reformed.
Another example is Garry Wills, from his book "Why I am a Catholic," quoted in a review by Andrew Sullivan, backing out of a traditionally Catholic look at the verse used to support Petrine supremacy:
"When Peter was told, 'I will give you the keys of heaven's kingdom, and what you tie on earth will have been tied in heaven, what you untie on earth will have been untied in heaven,' he was standing for the entire church, which does not collapse though it is beaten, in this world, by every kind of trial, as if by rain, flood, and tempest. It is founded on a Stone [Petra], from which Peter took his name Stone-founded [Petrus]; for the Stone did not take its name from the Stone-Founded, but the Stone-Founded from the Stone - as Christ does not take his name from Christians, but Christians from Christ.... Because the Stone was Christ."
This is remarkably like the exegesis given by the Martyrologist John Foxe in the opening of his book, defining the Rock as Christ and identifying the promise with the Faith, not with a line of priests.
This doesn't mean the two sides have been rectified. Rather they muddle of a debate has, I think, been brought down to the real dividing question.
What is the final authority for Christian doctrine? The question deviding Rome from the Protestants is the question of the authority of the tradition and the authority of the scripture.
Once that is debated, all other Catholic-Protestant debates are easily decided.
[But of course, even granting tradition the Catholics may lose out to the Orthodox, who have some really good cases against the authoriuty of the "Bishop of Rome" based soley on tradition.]
Reading about the Anglican break from Rome, I am a little suprised to observe the number of objections to the Catholic Church that no longer apply.
One huge conflict was the Latin vs. Vernacular debate. This was vehement and violent and very, very important, but today the Catholics might have well been reformed.
Another example is Garry Wills, from his book "Why I am a Catholic," quoted in a review by Andrew Sullivan, backing out of a traditionally Catholic look at the verse used to support Petrine supremacy:
"When Peter was told, 'I will give you the keys of heaven's kingdom, and what you tie on earth will have been tied in heaven, what you untie on earth will have been untied in heaven,' he was standing for the entire church, which does not collapse though it is beaten, in this world, by every kind of trial, as if by rain, flood, and tempest. It is founded on a Stone [Petra], from which Peter took his name Stone-founded [Petrus]; for the Stone did not take its name from the Stone-Founded, but the Stone-Founded from the Stone - as Christ does not take his name from Christians, but Christians from Christ.... Because the Stone was Christ."
This is remarkably like the exegesis given by the Martyrologist John Foxe in the opening of his book, defining the Rock as Christ and identifying the promise with the Faith, not with a line of priests.
This doesn't mean the two sides have been rectified. Rather they muddle of a debate has, I think, been brought down to the real dividing question.
What is the final authority for Christian doctrine? The question deviding Rome from the Protestants is the question of the authority of the tradition and the authority of the scripture.
Once that is debated, all other Catholic-Protestant debates are easily decided.
[But of course, even granting tradition the Catholics may lose out to the Orthodox, who have some really good cases against the authoriuty of the "Bishop of Rome" based soley on tradition.]
Aug 4, 2002
Is it the ghost of Nietzche?
Jeff Nelson and I talk more about the link between Nietzche's power morality and Islamic Terrorism on Atlas.
Jeff Nelson and I talk more about the link between Nietzche's power morality and Islamic Terrorism on Atlas.
That Bad Conservative Feeling
Derbyshire peddles Conservative gloom. “It’s good! You’re supposed to feel bad! We’ve lost! The world is only getting worse!”
He offers us a list of things to bring back the bad feeling. His list is true I think, but he leaves out the premise, the very Conservative/Traditionalist premise, that things cannot improve. That’s the premise I, as a Christian and a Postmillenialist, reject.
I recognize the accuracy of his identifying this attitude as a Conservative attribute, in the Burkean sense of standing athwart history, of supporting yesterday opposing today.
I think this is wrong, from a Christian point of view. The Bible speaks of the triumph of the righteous, the progressive expansion of the kingdom of God, making the world a footstool for his feet. The army of the Christian Church marches into the future.
I am a Conservative only in the modern American political framework. I believe the future will be better than the past. I believe good will win and right will prevail.
Postmillennialism allows us to take on the world with the great and Christian belief that, with the redemptive power of Christ’s blood and the transformation power of the Holy Spirit, good will trump evil.
So stick out your tongue at pessimistic fatalism and engage the world around you! We can change things and we will push forward through all these bad times.
Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Derbyshire peddles Conservative gloom. “It’s good! You’re supposed to feel bad! We’ve lost! The world is only getting worse!”
He offers us a list of things to bring back the bad feeling. His list is true I think, but he leaves out the premise, the very Conservative/Traditionalist premise, that things cannot improve. That’s the premise I, as a Christian and a Postmillenialist, reject.
I recognize the accuracy of his identifying this attitude as a Conservative attribute, in the Burkean sense of standing athwart history, of supporting yesterday opposing today.
I think this is wrong, from a Christian point of view. The Bible speaks of the triumph of the righteous, the progressive expansion of the kingdom of God, making the world a footstool for his feet. The army of the Christian Church marches into the future.
I am a Conservative only in the modern American political framework. I believe the future will be better than the past. I believe good will win and right will prevail.
Postmillennialism allows us to take on the world with the great and Christian belief that, with the redemptive power of Christ’s blood and the transformation power of the Holy Spirit, good will trump evil.
So stick out your tongue at pessimistic fatalism and engage the world around you! We can change things and we will push forward through all these bad times.
Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Dylan Returns to the Newport Folk Festival
Bob Dylan came to the Newport Folk Festival again, for the first time since 1965 when he plugged in his guitar and went electric.
I wonder what went through his mind on that stage the other day. I wonder if he played a song for Pete Seeger who, legend has it, took an axe to the speaker system when Dylan plugged in, or for Alan Lomax, who dedicated his life to the music Dylan disrespected like a young punk, or for Joan Baez, the queen of folk who worshiped Dylan as the folk poet and troubadour.
Maybe he thought of Woody Gutherie, the man he once emulated.
I wonder if he bowed a little, apologizing for the anger of his youth.
Or, maybe, he just felt sorry the folk lovers had been a little more patient, less violent and less demanding he hold to an arbitrary acoustic dogma. I wonder if he wished they hadn’t forced him out of the folk festival for so many years, hadn’t insisted he be like them and not followed his own way.
I hope the man enjoyed the beat of his guitar and found a little peace from that frustrated day in 1965.
Bob Dylan came to the Newport Folk Festival again, for the first time since 1965 when he plugged in his guitar and went electric.
I wonder what went through his mind on that stage the other day. I wonder if he played a song for Pete Seeger who, legend has it, took an axe to the speaker system when Dylan plugged in, or for Alan Lomax, who dedicated his life to the music Dylan disrespected like a young punk, or for Joan Baez, the queen of folk who worshiped Dylan as the folk poet and troubadour.
Maybe he thought of Woody Gutherie, the man he once emulated.
I wonder if he bowed a little, apologizing for the anger of his youth.
Or, maybe, he just felt sorry the folk lovers had been a little more patient, less violent and less demanding he hold to an arbitrary acoustic dogma. I wonder if he wished they hadn’t forced him out of the folk festival for so many years, hadn’t insisted he be like them and not followed his own way.
I hope the man enjoyed the beat of his guitar and found a little peace from that frustrated day in 1965.
Acting a Man of God
Rod Dreher, talking about the just-released Signs, asks how often we see faith portrayed as manly in Hollywood. Well, pretty much when we watch Mel Gibson and, well, that's about it.
I'll watch Signs just for that.
Rod Dreher, talking about the just-released Signs, asks how often we see faith portrayed as manly in Hollywood. Well, pretty much when we watch Mel Gibson and, well, that's about it.
I'll watch Signs just for that.
Camping in Civilization
I’m not one for camping, really. I like nature but would much rather take a walk or a drive through the countryside. I like my clothes clean and my beds soft and my conversations interesting. The camping food is normally good, but I’d just as soon cook it in the back yard on a grill.
But the family wanted to go—it’s a great vicarious wild mountain man pioneer experience—and I’m leaving Thursday so I went. One day I said, I’ll be dirty and sleep on the ground and feel the cold water running through the creek.
They roll into the campground bringing civilization with them. Showers, beds, electric lights, razors and everything necessary to make the camping experience as much like the normal home life as possible.
So then I’m a camping purist. “It’s not camping if you bring a couch!” “What’s with coming in and plugging in the spotlights?” “A shower? You’re supposed to be dirty. That’s why they call it camping.”
And then I think maybe that’s why they like camping and I don’t.
I’m not one for camping, really. I like nature but would much rather take a walk or a drive through the countryside. I like my clothes clean and my beds soft and my conversations interesting. The camping food is normally good, but I’d just as soon cook it in the back yard on a grill.
But the family wanted to go—it’s a great vicarious wild mountain man pioneer experience—and I’m leaving Thursday so I went. One day I said, I’ll be dirty and sleep on the ground and feel the cold water running through the creek.
They roll into the campground bringing civilization with them. Showers, beds, electric lights, razors and everything necessary to make the camping experience as much like the normal home life as possible.
So then I’m a camping purist. “It’s not camping if you bring a couch!” “What’s with coming in and plugging in the spotlights?” “A shower? You’re supposed to be dirty. That’s why they call it camping.”
And then I think maybe that’s why they like camping and I don’t.
Aug 2, 2002
Blogging Itinerary
I’m off to a family camping trip for the next few days.
Posting is suspended while I’m in a tent reading and writing, or floating down Salt Creek to the Strait of Juan de Fuca in an inner tube.
Look for a return with doubly interesting posts Sunday afternoon.
I’m ending my summer break in Washington Thursday. I’ll be in D.C. for a journalism conference for a few days--where I hope to blog a bit--then in New York city for 10 days at an economic conference.
So look for interesting blogging from the ends of the Nation before a triumphant return to the fiefdom of Hillsdale.
Meanwhile: Get some sunshine, rest the computer and read a newspaper.
I’m off to a family camping trip for the next few days.
Posting is suspended while I’m in a tent reading and writing, or floating down Salt Creek to the Strait of Juan de Fuca in an inner tube.
Look for a return with doubly interesting posts Sunday afternoon.
I’m ending my summer break in Washington Thursday. I’ll be in D.C. for a journalism conference for a few days--where I hope to blog a bit--then in New York city for 10 days at an economic conference.
So look for interesting blogging from the ends of the Nation before a triumphant return to the fiefdom of Hillsdale.
Meanwhile: Get some sunshine, rest the computer and read a newspaper.
Artist explores contrasts on museum wall in 'act of drawing'
By Daniel Silliman
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES -- The artist’s notebook was sprawled open at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center Thursday, white pages open on the top of a piled stack of art books.
Spokane artists Melissa Lang’s neat printed writing and loose lines of drawing cross the blue grid of the book.
A loosely drawn bird, inked in black circles, perches on the thin line of a forked twig on the right side of the page. His head, cocked curiously, looks toward a list of the artists appointments to draw for children.
A phone number scrawled out upside down formed the ground beneath the bird.
Lang, an emerging Spokane artist working in residency on a mural beginning Thursday and lasting two weeks, stood against a large white wall in the Fine Arts Center.
Her hair was bound up in a red handkerchief, her denim jeans rolled up to her knees, the charcoal she was working with smudged across her jaw.
With a stick of charcoal in her hand, Lang gestured at the upper right corner of the wall, the emerging piece of art.
“I love the contrast between the delicacy of the lines and the dark foreboding,” she said.
She moves an outstretched hand in an arch. The charcoal scratched across the wall, leaving black and gray lines in a descending vine with tailing leaves.
Read the rest of my story of a charcol smudged postmodernist artist...
By Daniel Silliman
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES -- The artist’s notebook was sprawled open at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center Thursday, white pages open on the top of a piled stack of art books.
Spokane artists Melissa Lang’s neat printed writing and loose lines of drawing cross the blue grid of the book.
A loosely drawn bird, inked in black circles, perches on the thin line of a forked twig on the right side of the page. His head, cocked curiously, looks toward a list of the artists appointments to draw for children.
A phone number scrawled out upside down formed the ground beneath the bird.
Lang, an emerging Spokane artist working in residency on a mural beginning Thursday and lasting two weeks, stood against a large white wall in the Fine Arts Center.
Her hair was bound up in a red handkerchief, her denim jeans rolled up to her knees, the charcoal she was working with smudged across her jaw.
With a stick of charcoal in her hand, Lang gestured at the upper right corner of the wall, the emerging piece of art.
“I love the contrast between the delicacy of the lines and the dark foreboding,” she said.
She moves an outstretched hand in an arch. The charcoal scratched across the wall, leaving black and gray lines in a descending vine with tailing leaves.
Read the rest of my story of a charcol smudged postmodernist artist...
Enjoying Calvinists
Gideon Straus blogs about his love for the variety of Calvinism, even the stuff starkly different from his own Dooyeweerdian neoCalvinism.
Looking at his piece and the list of online sites he mentions I'd have to say that I, a Reconstructionist and an Anglican, also enjoy the Calvinists.
But I'm not one. Which is weird, I suppose, since I run (surf?) in all those circles read all those types of people and believe things said to be based on Calvinism. I even know who Kuyper and Dooyweerd are.
I just don't think the five point stuff works, is all. I understand it too.
But my logic can't make the stuff do anything positive. I can make it tie knots of meaninglessness. I can make produce determinism or fatalism. I can make it entirely irrelevant. I can make it dance on the head of a pin.
I just can't make Calvinism do a single positive thing for Christianity and find it stripping the absolutely necessary choice from the world we live.
But I love the Calvinists anyway.
Gideon Straus blogs about his love for the variety of Calvinism, even the stuff starkly different from his own Dooyeweerdian neoCalvinism.
Looking at his piece and the list of online sites he mentions I'd have to say that I, a Reconstructionist and an Anglican, also enjoy the Calvinists.
But I'm not one. Which is weird, I suppose, since I run (surf?) in all those circles read all those types of people and believe things said to be based on Calvinism. I even know who Kuyper and Dooyweerd are.
I just don't think the five point stuff works, is all. I understand it too.
But my logic can't make the stuff do anything positive. I can make it tie knots of meaninglessness. I can make produce determinism or fatalism. I can make it entirely irrelevant. I can make it dance on the head of a pin.
I just can't make Calvinism do a single positive thing for Christianity and find it stripping the absolutely necessary choice from the world we live.
But I love the Calvinists anyway.
Our Babel Fish
This site, which can translate blocks of texts and whole websites from one language into another, is pretty cool. It is still pretty limited, but certainly a good idea and a workable one.
I think the whole experience is rather heightened, though, by the association with the Babel Fish associated with Doug Adam's five book trilogy, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Universe.
I rather expected them to be more slimey, seeing Adam's description.
--From a place that is "Mostly Harmless,"
This site, which can translate blocks of texts and whole websites from one language into another, is pretty cool. It is still pretty limited, but certainly a good idea and a workable one.
I think the whole experience is rather heightened, though, by the association with the Babel Fish associated with Doug Adam's five book trilogy, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Universe.
I rather expected them to be more slimey, seeing Adam's description.
--From a place that is "Mostly Harmless,"
The End of Simon
A company owner by Bill Simon, GOP gubanatorial hopeful, was charged with fraud and required to pay $78 million in damages by a Los Angeles jury Wednesday.
Bill Simon isn't folding his tent in this Gary Hart like turn of events, but he should be. Nobody can have the support of a morally conservative base and run a proven fraudulent business.
I’m disappointed in the man, someone I would have supported and probably worked for until now.
I don’t wish he the verdict had gone another way, or that they hadn’t been tried, or that voters would overlook his fraud. I do think it was very unfair of him to cut out other contenders to fall like this. I feel betrayed and I just liked the fellow; imagine those that worked for him and backed him.
I wish the man had never won the primaries. I wish he'd never gone into politics, I wish he had left bloody well enough alone.
I hope the Calif. conservatives can hang on to their end of the political spectrum and run somebody next time without become stooges for a fraud.
A company owner by Bill Simon, GOP gubanatorial hopeful, was charged with fraud and required to pay $78 million in damages by a Los Angeles jury Wednesday.
Bill Simon isn't folding his tent in this Gary Hart like turn of events, but he should be. Nobody can have the support of a morally conservative base and run a proven fraudulent business.
I’m disappointed in the man, someone I would have supported and probably worked for until now.
I don’t wish he the verdict had gone another way, or that they hadn’t been tried, or that voters would overlook his fraud. I do think it was very unfair of him to cut out other contenders to fall like this. I feel betrayed and I just liked the fellow; imagine those that worked for him and backed him.
I wish the man had never won the primaries. I wish he'd never gone into politics, I wish he had left bloody well enough alone.
I hope the Calif. conservatives can hang on to their end of the political spectrum and run somebody next time without become stooges for a fraud.
Defending Creeds
In his second and concluding article in defense of creeds, Greg Uttinger on Chalcedon writes about the development of the Apostles Creed.
I was a little disappointed by this, though I love the creed and its use in worship. It's just that the title--the Apostolic conection--makes it slightly more palatable to primitivists who reject (or think they reject) any use the Church tradition in hermeneutics. As Uttinger points out the dates of the creed well past the death of the Apostles, the connection is often made for the uniformed Evangelical Primitivist.
I think the harder argument would have been another creed, and would have made for a better argument. However, if he felt the Apostles was the best, then the point should have been made that the Apostles' connection was given to creed because it was the traditon of the Church and any belief aligning with the traditon had the Apostolic seal of orthodoxy.
In his second and concluding article in defense of creeds, Greg Uttinger on Chalcedon writes about the development of the Apostles Creed.
I was a little disappointed by this, though I love the creed and its use in worship. It's just that the title--the Apostolic conection--makes it slightly more palatable to primitivists who reject (or think they reject) any use the Church tradition in hermeneutics. As Uttinger points out the dates of the creed well past the death of the Apostles, the connection is often made for the uniformed Evangelical Primitivist.
I think the harder argument would have been another creed, and would have made for a better argument. However, if he felt the Apostles was the best, then the point should have been made that the Apostles' connection was given to creed because it was the traditon of the Church and any belief aligning with the traditon had the Apostolic seal of orthodoxy.
Aug 1, 2002
Celebrating the Music of the People: The Life of Alan Lomax
Describing an honest folk song on an early, pre-electric album, Bob Dylan said: “This song wasn’t written up there in Tin Pan Alley, that’s where most the folks songs come from now-a-days. This song was written down here in the United States.”
Blues guitarist and singer Bill Bronzy, being asked to sing a folk song, said he only knew folk songs. After all, he “never had heard no horses sing.”
Alan Lomax knew what they meant.
Lomax was the great musicologists, archaeologists and folklorists. He was the man who saved the natural music springing from America’s earth and being sung by people who just needed to sing. He searched America, and then throughout the world, finding people who were singing on the mountains and in the dust, to the clinking of chains and the beat of hoes and the rhythm of life.
If Lomax hadn’t discovered the music, the last few refrains would have echoed off the mountains and fallen silent.
A man who couldn’t sing himself, Lomax was a song hunter. He scoured the land and found its music. He was discovered the great American music and saved it from silence. He was a song hunter. Lomax discovered American icons Muddy Watters, Lead Belly and Woody Gutherie. He was dedicated to knowledge and understanding, good music and the culture of rural peoples and most of all, the hearty need to sing.
When he asked, men sang of love and crime and dust and poverty and envy and happiness and longing and life. They sang to hammer beats while building roads, cutting throats while locked in chains, dirty feet and dusty hills. They sang of poverty and they sang for free.
They sang for the love of singing. They sang and he recorded.
Alan Lomax died Monday, July 19 at the age of 87 in his Florida home.
Immediately before his death, a few of the recorded songs were produced on the soundtrack for the Joel and Ethan Coen movie, “O Brother Where Art Thou.” The soundtrack became a bestseller, brining the work of the obscure musicologists again.
If any man was deserving of an ode upon his death, it is Alan Lomax.
And because of Alan, the songs are playing for everyone.
Describing an honest folk song on an early, pre-electric album, Bob Dylan said: “This song wasn’t written up there in Tin Pan Alley, that’s where most the folks songs come from now-a-days. This song was written down here in the United States.”
Blues guitarist and singer Bill Bronzy, being asked to sing a folk song, said he only knew folk songs. After all, he “never had heard no horses sing.”
Alan Lomax knew what they meant.
Lomax was the great musicologists, archaeologists and folklorists. He was the man who saved the natural music springing from America’s earth and being sung by people who just needed to sing. He searched America, and then throughout the world, finding people who were singing on the mountains and in the dust, to the clinking of chains and the beat of hoes and the rhythm of life.
If Lomax hadn’t discovered the music, the last few refrains would have echoed off the mountains and fallen silent.
A man who couldn’t sing himself, Lomax was a song hunter. He scoured the land and found its music. He was discovered the great American music and saved it from silence. He was a song hunter. Lomax discovered American icons Muddy Watters, Lead Belly and Woody Gutherie. He was dedicated to knowledge and understanding, good music and the culture of rural peoples and most of all, the hearty need to sing.
When he asked, men sang of love and crime and dust and poverty and envy and happiness and longing and life. They sang to hammer beats while building roads, cutting throats while locked in chains, dirty feet and dusty hills. They sang of poverty and they sang for free.
They sang for the love of singing. They sang and he recorded.
Alan Lomax died Monday, July 19 at the age of 87 in his Florida home.
Immediately before his death, a few of the recorded songs were produced on the soundtrack for the Joel and Ethan Coen movie, “O Brother Where Art Thou.” The soundtrack became a bestseller, brining the work of the obscure musicologists again.
If any man was deserving of an ode upon his death, it is Alan Lomax.
And because of Alan, the songs are playing for everyone.
Talking Theology
Discussing technicalities and complexities, I posted on Atlas about Revelation as an optional answer to the philosophical Is/Ought problem and David Heddle posts on his blog about the state of man after death and before resurrection, while I respond to his post (check the comment link below his post), complicating the issue.
Meanwhile, I’m looking for my pipe and armchair.
Discussing technicalities and complexities, I posted on Atlas about Revelation as an optional answer to the philosophical Is/Ought problem and David Heddle posts on his blog about the state of man after death and before resurrection, while I respond to his post (check the comment link below his post), complicating the issue.
Meanwhile, I’m looking for my pipe and armchair.
Avoiding Qwerty: Writers and the deadlines they ignore
A blogging fellow named Jimmy has an interesting post on the novel writer's deadlines and the sad state of the modern publishing industry.
All types of writers are bad at deadlines. It seems that deadlines are best met by those who are inspired and terrified by their editor. Of course, creative and selling novelists are just about the least likely to be those two things. They will also probably--unlike reporters who know the concrete reality of their stories--claim muses and whims and moods as reason to write or not to write.
Which is very bad, overall, for writing.
"I love the sound of deadlines," the hilarious science fiction writer Doug Adams once said. "I love the woosh they make when they go rushing by."
Novelists and other deadline-avoiding creatures should learn from the living reporter, who takes one of two routes:
1. Embrace the hack and pound the keyboard: the words must proliferate at your fingertips if you are to be happy.
2. Embrace the presure. You can't write without the energy, you must wait for the rising swell of the deadline wave and ride it down to publication.
A blogging fellow named Jimmy has an interesting post on the novel writer's deadlines and the sad state of the modern publishing industry.
All types of writers are bad at deadlines. It seems that deadlines are best met by those who are inspired and terrified by their editor. Of course, creative and selling novelists are just about the least likely to be those two things. They will also probably--unlike reporters who know the concrete reality of their stories--claim muses and whims and moods as reason to write or not to write.
Which is very bad, overall, for writing.
"I love the sound of deadlines," the hilarious science fiction writer Doug Adams once said. "I love the woosh they make when they go rushing by."
Novelists and other deadline-avoiding creatures should learn from the living reporter, who takes one of two routes:
1. Embrace the hack and pound the keyboard: the words must proliferate at your fingertips if you are to be happy.
2. Embrace the presure. You can't write without the energy, you must wait for the rising swell of the deadline wave and ride it down to publication.
Jul 31, 2002
Eschewing Contraception and Embracing Procreation
Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception finally came today—after weeks with a lame company working for Amazon.
So now I’m digging in to what looks to be a really good little book by Sam and Bethany Torode. It is easy reading and I'm finishing it off easily.
They are attempting to argue that sex has three purposes: a procreation, union and worship. Contraceptives try to divorce the procreative and, often, the sacramental reasons from the act.
A few jewels before I blog my overall response to the book:
Pope Paul VI said: “To experience the gift of married love while respecting the laws of contraception is to acknowledge that one is not master of the source of life, but rather the minister of the design established by the Creator.
The Torodes said: “The contraceptive mentality treats fertility as a sickness and children as inconveniences.
“Pregnancy is not a disease.”
“As the Bible makes clear, the mystery of marriage is not about becoming one mind or one soul, but one flesh, encompassing the totality of man.”
Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception finally came today—after weeks with a lame company working for Amazon.
So now I’m digging in to what looks to be a really good little book by Sam and Bethany Torode. It is easy reading and I'm finishing it off easily.
They are attempting to argue that sex has three purposes: a procreation, union and worship. Contraceptives try to divorce the procreative and, often, the sacramental reasons from the act.
A few jewels before I blog my overall response to the book:
Pope Paul VI said: “To experience the gift of married love while respecting the laws of contraception is to acknowledge that one is not master of the source of life, but rather the minister of the design established by the Creator.
The Torodes said: “The contraceptive mentality treats fertility as a sickness and children as inconveniences.
“Pregnancy is not a disease.”
“As the Bible makes clear, the mystery of marriage is not about becoming one mind or one soul, but one flesh, encompassing the totality of man.”
Metaredux
Seraphim further explain the metalife of the prefix.
Which is interesting, though it seems Arsitotle didn't have much of a knack for titles. I gather, reading all of this, that meta is a bloody interesting prefix.
He also points out, responding to my random question, that the Eastern Orthodox read Moses during their fasts.
I guessed that Catholics and Orthodox would--with worship based in a litergy--like us Anglicans read the greater portion of the Old Testament on a cycling basis. The Book of Common Prayer has readings, I think, for the entire Old Testament if you follow a year's worth of morning and evening prayers.
Seraphim further explain the metalife of the prefix.
Which is interesting, though it seems Arsitotle didn't have much of a knack for titles. I gather, reading all of this, that meta is a bloody interesting prefix.
He also points out, responding to my random question, that the Eastern Orthodox read Moses during their fasts.
I guessed that Catholics and Orthodox would--with worship based in a litergy--like us Anglicans read the greater portion of the Old Testament on a cycling basis. The Book of Common Prayer has readings, I think, for the entire Old Testament if you follow a year's worth of morning and evening prayers.
Jul 30, 2002
News and Technology
The internet seems to be edging out newspapers in the time readers spend with each medium, according to a report of a survey on Benediction.
A thoughts though, the is comparison between the entire internert and most people only read one or two newspapers, which is kind of misleading. A single advertisement in a newspaper is going to get more viewers than a single advertisement on the web. Think about every page being like A3729 in a newspaper. Yeah, your stuff is buried.
Besides, except for the printers, most of us in the noble old newspaper industry would have jobs in a digital world. So the hype isn't really that scary. In the new world of the computer, the same people will be covering the news.
The internet seems to be edging out newspapers in the time readers spend with each medium, according to a report of a survey on Benediction.
A thoughts though, the is comparison between the entire internert and most people only read one or two newspapers, which is kind of misleading. A single advertisement in a newspaper is going to get more viewers than a single advertisement on the web. Think about every page being like A3729 in a newspaper. Yeah, your stuff is buried.
Besides, except for the printers, most of us in the noble old newspaper industry would have jobs in a digital world. So the hype isn't really that scary. In the new world of the computer, the same people will be covering the news.
Covering Crime
A good piece on the wonderful and crazy and freaked out world of the night cop reporter.
Slugging my way through some lame general assignment work without any room to fly, I envy this guy. Soon though, very soon I will be there, working on the deadline drenaline.
A good piece on the wonderful and crazy and freaked out world of the night cop reporter.
Slugging my way through some lame general assignment work without any room to fly, I envy this guy. Soon though, very soon I will be there, working on the deadline drenaline.
Students more moral after Christian cultural efforts
Christian cultural leadership has worked and is working in one area—abstinence.
Maggie Gallagher, in an opinion piece on Yahoo!, reports that virginity among high school students is up from 10 years ago and so is marriage. The only thing that’s really changed, she said, is the abstinence programs pushed by Christians.
It is slow, progressive work, but we will win.
Christian cultural leadership has worked and is working in one area—abstinence.
Maggie Gallagher, in an opinion piece on Yahoo!, reports that virginity among high school students is up from 10 years ago and so is marriage. The only thing that’s really changed, she said, is the abstinence programs pushed by Christians.
It is slow, progressive work, but we will win.
The Proliferation of the Blogging Renaissance Man
Joshua Claybourn has added my site to his list of permanent links, which I heartily thank him for.
I've been reading his site regularly, we've exchanged a few e-mails, he linked to my last theology post over on Atlas and maybe I'll even write for his Hoosier Review. He tells me it pays twice what I make writing here.
Joshua Claybourn has added my site to his list of permanent links, which I heartily thank him for.
I've been reading his site regularly, we've exchanged a few e-mails, he linked to my last theology post over on Atlas and maybe I'll even write for his Hoosier Review. He tells me it pays twice what I make writing here.
Apex and meta: Seraphim takes on the fools
Mr. Danckaert has a few interesting posts up taking on the foolishness of the world around us.
He hits on those thinking they are at the apex history, smiling at their brilliance and the stupidity of all who thought before. Specifically, he's talking about medicine but he also uses (as always) the Greeks. Aristotle—current reactions to him and his own understanding of himself—serve to illustrate and highlight his point excellently.
He takes on those who think “meta-” means better. Using the title of a book by our dear prop Aristotle, he writes how “Metaphysics” doesn’t mean better than physical things, as some have misunderstood, but simply those things beyond the physical.
It seems a simple mistake though, when considered from the only-too-prevalent Gnostic view that the physical and material are somewhat to really evil. Metaphysics is seen as a way to escape physics, even though that's not the actual meaning of the prefix.
Thinking of metaphysics reminded me of my Philosophy professor, Dr. James Stephens, explaining the prefix: “The philosopher says, if you can do it, I can do it ‘meta-‘” .
Anyway, go read his posts.
Mr. Danckaert has a few interesting posts up taking on the foolishness of the world around us.
He hits on those thinking they are at the apex history, smiling at their brilliance and the stupidity of all who thought before. Specifically, he's talking about medicine but he also uses (as always) the Greeks. Aristotle—current reactions to him and his own understanding of himself—serve to illustrate and highlight his point excellently.
He takes on those who think “meta-” means better. Using the title of a book by our dear prop Aristotle, he writes how “Metaphysics” doesn’t mean better than physical things, as some have misunderstood, but simply those things beyond the physical.
It seems a simple mistake though, when considered from the only-too-prevalent Gnostic view that the physical and material are somewhat to really evil. Metaphysics is seen as a way to escape physics, even though that's not the actual meaning of the prefix.
Thinking of metaphysics reminded me of my Philosophy professor, Dr. James Stephens, explaining the prefix: “The philosopher says, if you can do it, I can do it ‘meta-‘” .
Anyway, go read his posts.
Jul 29, 2002
With typical unperdictability and suprise, Credenda Agenda has published another issue that slipped right by me.
Christian Blogger Taxonomy
Martin Roth, et al, have organized the Christian bloggers list and given it its own site.
It looks like a workable system. I haven’t, however, figured out most of the new stuff, rankings, polls and such. But, I’m happy with it and with my place over there.
I'm still watching to see what kind of use the thing is put too.
Martin Roth, et al, have organized the Christian bloggers list and given it its own site.
It looks like a workable system. I haven’t, however, figured out most of the new stuff, rankings, polls and such. But, I’m happy with it and with my place over there.
I'm still watching to see what kind of use the thing is put too.
Protestants Arguing over Communion
I have run a longer piece over on the Atlas site on Calvin’s decidedly unknown view of the presence of Christ in the elements of Communion. Take a look.
The post springs from my summer reading of England's history of worship and theology. This is summer reading at its finest. Eucharistic controversy in Europe in the 1500s. Oh yeah.
Personally, I’m currently holding to the view of Consubstantiation. I've shifted here in the last year from an uncomfortable relationship with Memorialism. It may not last, but I am happiest, I think, with the ramifications this leaves me in the morning.
The meaning of "This is my body" is a difficult debate for Protestants to have. No scriptural text rules out any of the four views and the question is, instead, decided by hermeneutics, by reactions and by ramifications.
Thus the debate seems to be perpetually curious and always flying, like a one-winged chicken, unexpectedly.
I have run a longer piece over on the Atlas site on Calvin’s decidedly unknown view of the presence of Christ in the elements of Communion. Take a look.
The post springs from my summer reading of England's history of worship and theology. This is summer reading at its finest. Eucharistic controversy in Europe in the 1500s. Oh yeah.
Personally, I’m currently holding to the view of Consubstantiation. I've shifted here in the last year from an uncomfortable relationship with Memorialism. It may not last, but I am happiest, I think, with the ramifications this leaves me in the morning.
The meaning of "This is my body" is a difficult debate for Protestants to have. No scriptural text rules out any of the four views and the question is, instead, decided by hermeneutics, by reactions and by ramifications.
Thus the debate seems to be perpetually curious and always flying, like a one-winged chicken, unexpectedly.
Jul 28, 2002
Laughless on the Right
Last night I watched But … Seriously, a collection of political comedy from 1950 to about 1993. It was enjoyable and mostly funny. But watching the thing I had to wonder: Where are the Conservative Comedians?
Is it something about comedians, about comedy? Perhaps we’ve just abdicated in that field?
Maybe we just don’t laugh?
UPDATE: Sorry, I seem to have lost an "h."
I'll say that Blogger ate it but you shouldn't believe me.
Last night I watched But … Seriously, a collection of political comedy from 1950 to about 1993. It was enjoyable and mostly funny. But watching the thing I had to wonder: Where are the Conservative Comedians?
Is it something about comedians, about comedy? Perhaps we’ve just abdicated in that field?
Maybe we just don’t laugh?
UPDATE: Sorry, I seem to have lost an "h."
I'll say that Blogger ate it but you shouldn't believe me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)