A minor

The Sunset Limited: Behind the Scenes

2011-02-08T23:12:00.000-06:00

Dog of the South Quote

2011-01-16T18:14:00.003-06:00

"My new plan was to become a high school teacher. I had accumulated enough college hours over the years for at least two bachelor's degrees but I had never actually taken one. I had never stayed long enough in any one course of study. I had no education hours at all but I did have some pre-law at Southwestern and some engineering at Arkansas. I had been at Ole Miss too, where I studied the Western campaigns of the Civil War under Dr. Buddy Casey." (The Dog of the South by Charles Portis)

Strange Coincidences

2010-12-06T22:33:00.010-06:00

Growing up in Monroe, Louisiana, the power company was Louisiana Power & Light or LP&L (now Entergy), and LP&L trucks and billboards were commonplace. So when I first went to college all the way across the country in Moscow, Idaho, I was more than a little surprised to spot this book called Louisiana Power & Light by John Dufresne (Norton, 1994) in a used bookstore. Young and far from home, I was struck and intrigued by a title so familiar it was almost comforting. I should have bought it, but for whatever reason didn't, and yet I kept thinking about it and finally went back to get it, only to find it was gone.

What I didn't know at the time was that it was a novel set in Monroe and that our church secretary and her husband even made an appearance in its Prologue: "You should read this story with your eyes closed. You're out on Herb and Marilea Bryant's front porch, let's say, and it's dusk." I later ended up working for Herb Bryant* one semester (in 1997, I think) as a student worker in the English Department at the University of Louisiana Monroe, during which time John Dufresne visited (from Florida International University) and gave a lecture and Q&A that I attended with excitement. I asked him whether it was more difficult to write short stories or novels, and he said short stories, because you still have to have everything all worked out in your head - characters, place, plot, etc - but you don't have pages and pages to develop it.

At the time, I read his collection of stories, The Way That Water Enters Stone (Norton, 1991), but I never really read Louisiana Power & Light until now, living in Fayetteville, Arkansas - where he happened to do his MFA in creative writing here at the University of Arkansas (graduating in 1984). What led me to revisit Dufresne now was a friend in Monroe who mentioned on Facebook "two great weeks in the winding-down of [his] last semester. Highlights: a poetry reading by Jack Heflin (Local Hope) and another poetry reading by Davis McCombs (Dismal Rock)." I audited a creative writing course taught by Heflin back in the day, so I was naturally interested in his new book and, looking it up, saw a blurb for it by John Dufresne. (And strangely enough on the other poetry reading my friend mentioned by Davis McCombs... he currently directs the creative writing program here at Arkansas.)

A few weeks ago, another friend (whom I got to know in Idaho and who now lives in Florida, where he teaches high school and writes fiction) asked on Facebook, "What is the most generous, life-affirming poem of all time?" My first thought was Donne's "Death be not proud," but I knew there had to be a better answer, and I Googled generous+life-affirming+poem for more ideas, which led me to a volume of poetry called Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (edited by Neil Astley; Bloodaxe, 2002; Miramax, 2003). Reading through its table of contents and looking for poems that jumped out at me, a couple poem titles by R.S. Thomas caught my eye. I looked up R.S. Thomas and learned that he was not only a celebrated Welsh poet (1913-2000) but also an Anglican priest, and what little of his work I found online made me want to read more. So I searched for him in the public library last week and found one volume, Poems of R. S. Thomas, published - of all places - by the University of Arkansas Press (1985) here in Fayetteville.

Strange coincidences...

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* Incidentally, Herb Bryant was also a Lay Eucharistic Minister and Lay Reader at St Thomas Episcopal Church, which I later attended for a bit in 2005, with spiritual direction from Father Errol Montgomery (now Pastor Errol, having returned to his Lutheran-Missouri Synod roots).

Gilead Quote on Covetousness

2009-08-09T21:20:00.003-05:00

Today's Epistle reading mentions covetousness, and I was reminded of this quote from Gilead which made me look at covetousness from a different angle:

I don't know exactly what covetise is, but in my experience it is not so much desiring someone else's virtue or happiness as rejecting it, taking offense at the beauty of it.
That's interesting. There is certainly a sermon there. "Blessed is he who takes no offense at me." That would be the primary text. I hope I have time to think it through. (188)

(Matthew 11.4-6: "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.")

Home Passage on Prayer

2009-07-24T12:38:00.006-05:00

"She was less inclined to pray that she had been once. In her childhood, when her father, a tall man then and graceful, had stepped into the pulpit and bowed his head, silence came over the people. He prayed before the commencement of prayer. May the meditations of our hearts be acceptable. It seemed to her that her own prayers never attained to that level of seriousness. They had been desperate from time to time, which was a different thing altogether. Her father told his children to pray for patience, for courage, for kindness, for clarity, for trust, for gratitude. Those prayers will be answered, he said. Others may not be. The Lord knows your needs. So she prayed, Lord, give me patience. She knew that was not an honest prayer, and she did not linger over it. The right prayer would have been, Lord, my brother treats me like a hostile stranger, my father seems to have put me aside, I feel I have no place here in what I thought would be my refuge, I am miserable and bitter at heart, and old fears are rising up in me so that everything I do makes everything worse. But it cost her tears to think her situation might be that desolate, so she prayed again for patience, for tact, for understanding―for every virtue that might keep her safe from conflicts that would be sure to leave her wounded, every virtue that might at least help her preserve an appearance of dignity, for heaven's sake."

―Marilynne Robinson, Home (2008), pages 68-69

Gilead Walking Vigil Quote

2009-01-12T10:57:00.005-06:00

"People are always up in the night, with their colicky babies and their sick children, or fighting or worrying or full of guilt. And, of course, the milkmen and all the people on early shifts and late shifts. Sometimes when I walked past the house of one of my own families and saw lights on, I'd think maybe I should stop and see if there was a problem I could help with, but then I'd decide it might be an intrusion and I'd go on. [...] It was on the nights I didn't sleep at all and I didn't feel like reading that I'd walk through town at one or two o'clock. In the old days I could walk down every single street, past every house, in about an hour. I'd try to remember the people who lived in each one, and whatever I knew about them, which was often quite a lot, since many of the ones who weren't mine were Boughton's. And I'd pray for them. And I'd imagine peace they didn't expect and couldn't account for descending on their illness or their quarreling or their dreams. Then I'd go into the church and pray some more and wait for daylight. I've often been sorry to see a night end, even while I have loved seeing the dawn come."

―Reverend John Ames, in Marilynne Robinson, Gilead, p. 71

Friends on Gilead

2008-11-11T01:08:00.000-06:00

In the previous post, I mentioned Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. Here are some friends on it:

Jeff Meyers: one, two, three
Josh Anderson
John Barach, who links to this Books & Culture review
Peter Leithart; see also this post of his
Wayne Larson
Jamison Galt
Joel Garver

Obviously now I have to give it another try.

Marilynne Robinson, Home

2008-11-03T23:36:00.010-06:00

I haven't read much Trollope. I borrowed The Warden twice from the library and honestly can't remember if I finished it. (I tend to think not, but maybe so. Guess I need to check it out a third time in either case...)

Anyway, I haven't read much Trollope, and I've read even less Marilynne Robinson, but I'm interested in her new book, Home. Something makes me think she's continuing the tradition of Trollope and, more recently and perhaps more pulpishly, of Susan Howatch in writing clergy and "family saga-type novels which describe the lives of related characters for long periods of time fiction."

I read and enjoyed all of Howatch's church novels (the Starbridge series and St Benet's trilogy). A while back, I listened to the first few chapters of Robinson's Gilead on tape and just couldn't get into it at the time. I'll eventually give it another try. But I'm thinking of trying Home first.

Here are two articles that have whetted my appetite (thanks to Pastor Tom Clark of Tri-City Church & Academy in Somersworth, NH):

"Return of the Prodigal Son" by A. O. Scott in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, September 19, 2008
"At 'Home' With the Past: In Life and In Her Novels, Marilynne Robinson Looks Back to Find Meaning" by Bob Thompson in The Washington Post, Monday, October 20, 2008, Page C01

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Related post: "Clerical Fiction," which links to John Barach's post of the same title, which links to Lauren Winner's article, "Mitford Rules: Jan Karon and the clerical novel" (Books & Culture, Nov/Dec 2005, Volume 11, Issue 6), which mentions Trollope, Howatch, and Robinson all in the same sentence.

Koontz on Faith & Writing Odd

2008-10-22T21:25:00.005-05:00

From "Chatting With Koontz About Faith" (Tim Drake, National Catholic Register, March 11-17, 2007):

Spirituality has always been an element of my books. People who see it as a sudden development were just not perceiving it previously, when it was less central to the story. I write about our struggle as fallen souls, about the grace of God, but I never get on a soapbox about it. I'm first and foremost an entertainer.

...and...

While I was working on The Face, a line came into my head … "My name is Odd Thomas. I lead an unusual life." It had nothing to do with The Face, but suddenly I began writing longhand — which I never do — and finished a first chapter of Odd Thomas. That book, from beginning to end, was a flow-state experience of great joy.

In the Odd Thomas series, the overriding theme is the beauty and power of humility. The first three Odd books were gifts to me, and I can't wait to write the fourth. Alone at the keyboard, you find that writing is meditation, sometimes even prayer.

Read it all.

Odd Relationship Quote

2008-10-18T16:06:00.004-05:00

     "In spite of all that we had been to each other and all that we hoped to achieve together in the years to come, I had been able to hurt her―Why're you afraid of sex?―when she pushed me too hard about my fear of guns.
     "A cynic once said that the most identifying trait of humanity is our ability of be inhumane to one another.
     "I am an optimist about our species. I assume God is, too, for otherwise He would have scrubbed us off the planet a long time ago and would have started over.
     "Yet I can't entirely dismiss that cynic's sour assessment. I harbor a capacity for inhumanity, glimpsed in my cruel retort to the person I love most in all the world."

―Odd, in Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas, ch. 21

Odd Faith Quote

2008-10-17T13:03:00.005-05:00

"Most people desperately desire to believe that they are part of a great mystery, that Creation is a work of grace and glory, not merely the result of random forces colliding. Yet each time that they are given but one reason to doubt, a worm in the apple of the heart makes them turn away from a thousand proofs of the miraculous, whereupon they have a drunkard's thirst for cynicism, and they feed upon despair as a starving man upon a loaf of bread."

―Odd, in Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas, ch. 19

Odd Writing Quote

2008-10-15T00:57:00.004-05:00

"Writing isn't a source of pain. It's psychic chemotherapy. It reduces your psychological tumors and relieves your pain."

―P. Oswald Boone, a.k.a. Little Ozzie, in Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas, ch. 16

Ritual & Communion

2008-08-21T10:47:00.005-05:00

This post is a stroll through the links with little commentary. This week I've run across a few good discussions (or at least mentions) of the manner of celebrating the Lord's Supper:

Alan Knox writes about the "Lord's Supper as a meal in practice."
An article on the Visitor's Café at New St Peter's Church in Dallas mentions a list of common visitors' questions, including one that really intrigued me: "Why do you come to tables for the Lord's Supper?" (For what it's worth, I found this indirectly through my old friend Howard Davis, who became a fan of Elliott Greene on Facebook, which led me to Tyrannus Hall and New St Peter's.)
Jim Jordan writes about "Ritual Versus Christianity" on the BH blog.
Remy Wilkins builds on Jim's post, specifically on "The Order of the Eucharist."

Enjoy.

Garver, Jerome & Trent on Orders

2008-07-14T21:02:00.006-05:00

I asked Joel Garver the question from my previous post, and here's part of his reply:

Check out Jerome, Letter 146:
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001146.htm

This was a matter of ongoing discussion all through the middle ages. The dominant view was that the distinction between a presbyter and deacon is one of order, divinely established, while the distinction between a presbyter and a bishop is one of jurisdiction, established by the church, though perhaps with apostolic warrant.

According to the Council of Trent, there are 7 Orders: priest, deacon, subdeacon, acolyte, exorcist, lector, and door-keeper (Session 23). Bishops are a matter of "hierarchy" rather than "order" per se, according to Trent, though Trent does maintain that this hierarchy is divinely ordained.

"Peter Leithart, Irenaeus & Bishops"

2008-07-13T17:29:00.001-05:00

Just ran across this post by Taylor Marshall, which seems to assume the (majority?) view that presbyters/priests and bishops are separate orders. Somewhere I picked up the idea that presbyters and bishops are ultimately of the same order, as evidenced by the fact that bishops are not ordained to the episcopate, but rather consecrated. They were already ordained; they're just set apart among the ordained to serve as bishops, as pastors of pastors, cities, regions, etc. I seem to recall that this was a historically held position, although probably the minority (Eastern Orthodox?) view. Can anyone point me to some resources on this?

GAFCON Updates

2008-07-09T23:39:00.007-05:00

I keep adding to my GAFCON list below. Added more tonight. Wish I could post some stuff from a restricted email group, but alas. (Much of it's over the top anyway, but that's partly why I wish I could could post it.)

"A Post-Protestant Model"

2008-07-03T15:22:00.004-05:00

Ever since discovering this post by Steven Wedgeworth a couple days ago, I keep coming back to it. Take a few minutes and read it. I think you'll be glad you did.

GAFCON

2008-07-01T09:35:00.023-05:00

Last night I finally had a chance to start reading GAFCON posts, and I woke up early this morning to read more. I'm especially interested in responses from local Episcopalians, as well as from key leaders. Here's a list of posts in the order I read them (I think):

I have added and will probably continue to add more to the above list as I go along. My own two cents:

I personally think the GAFCON Statement is hugely refreshing and a giant step forward. Not perfect, but I think it will spur all on to love and good works (action). It's not just more of the same, thank God. It's clear and concise, took guts, is deeply spiritual and charitable but has teeth, and it got ++Rowan Williams to respond quickly - and that's a real first! Jesting aside, I think the Archbishop of Canterbury makes some good points, and he seems to have GAFCON's best interests in mind, as does Bishop Wright. [I wrote this before Bishop Wright's second response appeared, and I realize now that it's not that simple.] As impatient as I'm tempted to get with them, ++Williams and +Wright are looking for a long-term solution (e.g. an Anglican Covenant), and that takes time. Great structures don't get built overnight. But I love the GAFCON Statement all the same, especially the confident hope in the last line: "We believe the Anglican Communion should and will be reformed around the biblical gospel and mandate to go into all the world and present Christ to the nations."

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Irenaeus Day Eucharist

2008-06-29T22:35:00.012-05:00

On Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful ecumenical Feast of St Irenaeus Eucharist at Calhoun's Mt Zion United Methodist Church. It was great to see Father Andy Powell again and hear him preach. One of the many highlights from working at Grace Church was having Father Powell come into my office for a break to just sit down and chat for a few minutes.

I have to say that I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this service, but God obviously blessed it, and Joe Trimble and others did a great job coordinating it. As someone put it, "It was indeed wonderful to experience a spontaneous (no-strings-attached) witness and worship by confessing Christians of Anglican tradition." And: "True ecumenicism coming about as a consequence of denominational decay." Amen.

Image sources:
http://faith.propadeutic.com/authors/preref.html
http://www.ricm.org/milan_reflections.htm

A City Church Thought Experiment

2008-06-02T20:58:00.032-05:00

This is the sixth post in a chain blog started by Alan Knox on the city church. I have been very encouraged by the other links/posts in this chain, and I hope my post will add something to the discussion - even if it ends up only serving as an example of how not to proceed with the city church!

This topic is of great interest to me, and I have previously written about it here several times before:

A City Church Event

The Unity of the Spirit

Parish Questions

Bledsoe Vision

Koivisto: Practical Suggestions

One Lord, One Faith

ECUSA and Denominationalism

Citywide Church

Thoughts on Apostolic Succession

However, before I started this blog, I wrote and emailed a thought experiment on the city church to over two dozen friends, many of them pastors and elders, as merely one young man's brainstorming about one possible way to hypothetically facilitate the revival of the citywide church. That was nearly six years ago, but I have finally posted that thought experiment below, virtually unchanged.

For what it's worth, I was raised in a conservative Presbyterian (PCA) church in Monroe, LA (where my parents, who grew up Southern Baptist, "became Reformed" through a small, new PCA mission church shortly after college). When I went to college in Idaho - where I lived when I wrote the following thought experiment - I joined a Reformed Evangelical (CREC) church. When my wife & I moved back to Louisiana, we joined a conservative Episcopal parish/diocese. Eventually, we moved back to our home church, which incidentally recently went from PCA to CREC, bringing us full circle (and then some). My church background definitely influenced my thoughts below, but I would be remiss to omit the disclaimer that the views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my past or present churches, or their local or denominational leadership. So, without further ado...

Date: 12 August 2002
Subject: city church thought experiment

Dear Friends,

I would appreciate any input you have on the following thought experiment. Let me begin with a quote:

...[In] the overall scheme of things, the associations between local churches (whether Presbyterian, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox, Methodist, Episcopal, etc) are more important than the association of the local Presbyterian church with its denomination's General Assembly. How this implication is to be worked out practically in the relationships between local churches is precisely the ecumenical difficulty and the possibility for ecumenical progress.
- Joel Garver, "Catholicity and Authority"
"Precisely the ecumenical difficulty and the possibility for ecumenical progress." That is well said, and it gives me hope, as well as a challenge. I find that church problems constantly motivate me to seek solutions. I have been brainstorming for a while now on the New Testament multi-congregation city churches and their implications for today, and I have come up with a few ideas, although it remains to be seen whether my ideas are any good or not. (For a succinct overview of the NT city church, see Mark Horne's "The Pastorate and the Presbytery.")

My most recent idea is of a parachurch ministry, or at least initially parachurch, called something like "The Church in Monroe, Louisiana [or whatever city] Ministries." This ministry could serve as a forum for conferences and seminars; could host meetings to discuss individual congregations' plans and difficult discipline cases; and perhaps most importantly, could help coordinate gatherings for prayer and worship, local charity, fellowship, festivals that make the local Mardi Gras parade look thin in comparison, etc, etc. As long as it remained a parachurch ministry, its doctrinal position would need to be fairly basic and ecumenical, e.g. affirming biblical infallibility and the historic creeds (Apostles', Nicene, etc) - simple affirmations that would nonetheless cause concern in some local heterodox churches.

This city church ministry would be different from the local ministers' association (though the two would cooperate) because it would have a director (and perhaps a board) whose whole vision and purpose would be to promote and build up the city church. This director would be the kind of man who, among other traits, could be trusted and respected by many local churches. He would probably have varied past experience in the different branches of the church and the different sectors of society. He would not be the senior pastor of one of the local congregations, but perhaps an associate pastor, chaplain, or teaching minister ("doctor of the church"), thus having more time to devote to the city church ministry and being less likely to promote the interests of one particular congregation. Long term, the ministry would be well served by a larger staff and facility - a facility that would ideally exhibit beauty, breadth, and strength. I have in mind something like the Biedenharn Museum & Gardens [image source], but I'm getting ahead of myself....

I'd like to think that, eventually, perhaps after a few generations, such a ministry would take on a life of its own as the local churches and leaders began working together. I can imagine its director or one of the local church leaders naturally earning a sort of primacy based on honor, age, wisdom, and caregiving among the churches (i.e. I would not be surprised or alarmed if the city church gradually, naturally developed and recognized episcopal leaders). With the Lord's blessing, such a ministry would organically grow into a city church (or presbytery or diocese) that would be closer to the biblical model than any of our current church polities. At that point, it would cease to be a parachurch ministry and would become an interchurch, transdenominational affirmation of the reality that, biblically speaking, exists as "the church in Monroe, Louisiana" (or, again, whatever city). It would become an ecumenical ekklesia - an assembly of the people of God who happen to inhabit the same vicinity - and these people of God would be assembled according to His terms, not ours.

Anyway, this is one of my visionary dreams. I do not pretend to have all the answers. In some ways, I'm hesitant about staking so much on a parachurch ministry; in other ways, I think it might be the most strategic route. Nonetheless, tongue-in-cheek, do bear in mind that my last name is Amos: "I'm not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but a simple shepherd and gardener - and yet the Lord told me to prophesy" (7:14 paraphrase). Seriously, though, if the Lord wants this (or something like it) to happen, I trust that He will make it happen; and if so, I hope that He will use you and me, at least in part, toward that end.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts.

Jon

PS: By the way, I originally wrote most of the above as an email reply to my friend Rick Capezza, who blogs at capezza.org/beautifulfeet. Rick had recently linked Jim Jordan's related article, "The Dominion Church," which also suggests practical steps of the more immediately applicable variety for recovering the geographically-oriented church.

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City Church Chain
Link 1: "City Church - A Chain Blog" by Alan Knox
Link 2: "City Church: Meeting" by Charlie Wallace
Link 3: "Roadblocks on the Path to City Church" by David Rogers
Link 4: "The Major Roadblock to a City Church" by Steve Sensenig
Link 5: "The Resurrection of the City Church: Who Will Move the Stone?" by Paul Grabill
Link 6: "A City Church Thought Experiment" by Jon Amos
Link 7: "The Restoration of the City or Locality Church and Apostolic Leadership" by James Goetz
Link 8: "Unity and the Church in a City" by Alan Knox
Link 9: ?

City Church Chain Blog

2008-05-31T00:46:00.004-05:00

Link 1: "City Church - A Chain Blog" by Alan Knox
Link 2: "City Church: Meeting" by Charlie Wallace
Link 3: "Roadblocks on the Path to City Church" by David Rogers
Link 4: "The Major Roadblock to a City Church" by Steve Sensenig
Link 5: "The Resurrection of the City Church: Who Will Move the Stone?" by Paul Grabill
Link 6: "A City Church Thought Experiment" by Jon Amos
Link 7: "The Restoration of the City or Locality Church and Apostolic Leadership" by James Goetz
Link 8: "Unity and the Church in a City" by Alan Knox
Link 9: ?

50 MP3s

2008-04-13T17:10:00.007-05:00

Long time no post. Sorry about that, but I'm sure you've noticed that this has become one of those blogs that's only updated every month or so. For more frequent updates, you can go to my Facebook. But I still want to put something up here from time to time, hence obligatory posts like this.

Since my last post, I finally got an iPod. Hollie got a new Shuffle and gave me her old one. She already had some good stuff on it, so I just took off a few things and started adding new stuff. Here's a list of what I've added so far:

The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton (Audiobook in 5 parts)
Brand New Day, Van Morrison (Moondance)
Caravan, Van Morrison (Moondance)
Crazy Love, Van Morrison (Moondance)
747, Kent (Isola)
Velvet, Kent (Isola)
OWC [=Off World Colonies per Kent FAQ], Kent (Isola)
Last Year's Man, Leonard Cohen (Best Of)
If It Be Your Will, Leonard Cohen (Live in Concert)
Take This Longing, Leonard Cohen (Best Of)
Famous Blue Raincoat, Leonard Cohen (Best Of)
Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen (Live in Concert)
If It Be Your Will, Antony (Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man soundtrack)
Chelsea Hotel No. 2, Rufus Wainwright (Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man soundtrack)
Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk (Reprise), Rufus Wainwright (Last Kiss soundtrack)
A Long Time Ago, Jim Croce (50th Anniv Collection, Disc 1)
Box #10, Jim Croce (50th Anniv Collection, Disc 1)
Tomorrow's Going To Be A Brighter Day, Jim Croce (50th Anniv Collection, Disc 1)
You Don't Mess Around With Jim, Jim Croce (50th Anniv Collection, Disc 1)
Which Way Are You Goin', Jim Croce (50th Anniv Collection, Disc 1)
Cigarettes, Whiskey & Wild Wild Women, Jim Croce (50th Anniv Collection, Disc 1)
The Downeaster Alexa, Billy Joel (Greatest Hits, Vol 3)
And So It Goes, Billy Joel (Greatest Hits, Vol 3)
Something's Always Wrong, Toad The Wet Sprocket (P.S.: A Toad Retrospective)
Modern Nature, Sondre Lerche & Lillian Samdal (Dan In Real Life soundtrack)
No Surprises, Radiohead (OK Computer)
Let Down, Radiohead (OK Computer)
Long As I Can See The Light, Creedence Clearwater Revival (Chronicle, Vol 1)
Lookin' Out My Back Door, Creedence Clearwater Revival (Chronicle, Vol 1)
Someday Never Comes, Creedence Clearwater Revival (Chronicle, Vol 1)
Have You Ever Seen The Rain, Creedence Clearwater Revival (Chronicle, Vol 1)
Who'll Stop The Rain, Creedence Clearwater Revival (Chronicle, Vol 1)
Old Love, Eric Clapton (Unplugged)
Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out, Eric Clapton (Unplugged)
The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me), Tom Waits (Small Change)
Step Right Up, Tom Waits (Small Change)
Behind Blue Eyes, The Who (Then And Now, 1964-2004)
Ashes Of American Flags, Wilco (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
War On War, Wilco (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
Yellow Ledbetter, Pearl Jam (Jeremy [UK])
Be Mine, David Gray (A New Day At Midnight)
A Message, Coldplay (X&Y)
When I'm Down, Chris Cornell (Euphoria Morning)
Redemption Song, Bob Marley & The Wailers (Legend)
Sometimes, My Bloody Valentine (Lost In Translation soundtrack)
Ain't No Reason, Brett Dennen (Big Change: Songs for FICNA)

Bill Caverlee

2008-02-28T20:06:00.021-06:00

Today Bill Caverlee came into Kinko's to copy a story of his in the current Saint Ann's Review, and I had the pleasure of catching up with him. Mr Caverlee is a local writer who makes a living as a carpenter, cabinetmaker, etc; when I was a boy, Mr Caverlee would occasionally work on projects around our house. We first got to know him through a mutual friend, Bill Smith. Mr Smith and Mr Caverlee were both English majors at LSU and later worked together as building contractors.

I could tell there was something different about Mr Caverlee, aside from the fact that he was a middle-aged bachelor. Even though he didn't go to church, he was different. He was skilled but humble, and he had a soul. I really wished he went to church, but I still admired his soul and was curious as to its source of inspiration. Eventually I learned that he was a writer.

During my early high school years, Mr Smith was my informal writing tutor, and one day I asked him if he had any of Mr Caverlee's stories. He did, but he was cautious. Some of them were grown-up stories, he warned - stories with women who had "weathered breasts" and such. But after talking to my parents, he let me borrow them anyway, and thus I was introduced to the world of contemporary American short stories, particularly of the Southern variety.

This morning, after showing me his Saint Ann's Review story, Mr Caverlee told me about a piece of his in today's Christian Science Monitor and another in the current Oxford American. When I got home tonight, after suppper I found the delightful CSM piece about enjoying the richness of downtown Monroe as a boy in the late '50s, as well as an abstract for the OA piece about chess champion Paul Morphy. I also found a couple previous OA pieces of his - one on Flannery O'Connor and one on the Hollywood ending of Bonnie & Clyde - and his OA author bio.

I remember reading or hearing something (probably this NPR Fresh Air interview) about recent poet laureate and Pulitzer winner, Ted Kooser. I don't think I've ever read any of his poetry, but I was impressed by the fact that he worked for 25 years (as a life insurance executive), writing early in the morning before work. Bill Caverlee is a similarly inspiring example to me.

Incidentally, while I was on the OA site, I found another piece that some of you might enjoy: "HOW TO WRITE STORIES...and lose weight, clean up the environment, and make a million dollars" by George Singleton.

John Michael Talbot

2008-02-10T22:23:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Catholic Campus Ministries and Mike Dlugosh, tonight I was able to attend a John Michael Talbot concert at ULM's Brown Auditorium, across the street from our house. The theater was packed, and John Michael's sung prayers and classical guitar were heavenly and restorative. If ever you have an opportunity to attend one of his concerts, don't pass it up.

I've been interested in attending one of his retreats at Little Portion in Eureka Springs, and this only whetted my appetite even more. (For more background, see my old post, "Married Monastics.")

[Image source]

There Will Be Blood

2008-02-09T21:31:00.000-06:00

Finally saw it this afternoon and came home and read Josh Gibbs's insightful review. Just posted some counterpoint in the comments there.

A City Church Event

2008-01-26T12:43:00.000-06:00

Flipping through the channels last night, the local Christian station had two gentlemen talking about a community-wide interchurch event next weekend. Given my interest in the citywide church, my curiosity was naturally piqued.

Pastor Shane Warren of First Assembly West Monroe was talking with Dr Michael Walker, local dentist and one of the organizers of the event, discussing the details and strategic importance of this conference and community prayer service. The theme is "What Matters Now," and since it's Super Bowl weekend, the event is called "Super Soul Weekend"...yeah, not its best selling point in my opinion, but nonetheless. Sponsored by Community Prayer Partners, the conference is free and open to the public with no registration required.

On Friday, Feb 1 from 7-9pm and Saturday, Feb 2 from 9am-12pm, Steve & Debbie Wilson of Marriage Matters Now will be speaking at Parkview Baptist Church, with worship lead by songwriter, recording artist and First West contemporary worship pastor, Jonathan Wiggins.

On Sunday, Feb 3 from 2-3:30pm, the community prayer service will be held at the Monroe Civic Center auditorium. Author and evangelist Tommy Tenney will speak for 20-30 minutes, with the rest of the time devoted to prayer along the theme of "What Matters Now."

For more information, contact:
- Dr Michael Walker (dentistsb@gmail.com)
- Pastor Larry Stafford (First United Methodist Church)
- Pastor Mark Foster (The Pentecostals of the Twin Cities)
- Pastor Bob Clanton (Covenant Church)
- Pastor Whit Bass (Prayer, Urban & Ministry Teams, First West)

BH Blog(roll)

2008-01-18T09:21:00.000-06:00

Check out the new Biblical Horizons blog. You might also notice that I replaced a dozen or so blogroll links with one new one at the top (::biblicalhorizons::).

New Year's

2008-01-01T14:06:00.000-06:00

Watching Scotch mist off & on today ("a film with Radiohead in it / made for New Year's Eve, 2007"; hat tip to Barb & her Facebook note). Also picked up some Hennessy and finally opened last night's champagne.

Last night. Yeah. Our boys spent the night with Hollie's kind parents so we could go to the big New Year's Eve party for the first time in a few years, but when we got there, Ellie decided to fuss rather than sleep, so we eventually left a little before eleven. Tried to find some food for Hollie but everywhere was closed or closing. In bed by 11:30, disappointed and very sober, fell asleep to the sound of fireworks and Kathy Griffin on Bravo.

Today's been pretty good by contrast. Lunch at Applebee's with Hollie & Ellie. Boys happy to see us. About to watch The Simpson's Movie. Enjoying the occasional sip of cognac, bubbly, and Scotch mist ("with Radiohead in it"...I love that).

Good Cheap Wine

2007-12-15T18:58:00.000-06:00

Last night I had to work late and had a slight stomach ache, so when I got home and didn't feel like eating or drinking "the usual," I pulled out the last bottle of wine I bought a while back. A few months ago I decided to experiment with Cabernet Sauvignon of various prices under $20. I don't even remember what they all were now; I just know that the last bottle sat and sat. It was the cheapest of them all, the Tisdale 2004, price: $2.99.

As I sit here drinking another glass, I'm still amazed. I'm not a wine connoisseur by any means, but I've certainly had more expensive Cabernet that tasted much worse. I decided to look it up and found that one source - reviewing the 2005, not the 2004, I'd note - didn't have much good to say about it (although some of the replies are much more positive), but said it was much better after it had breathed. Then again, I see that others say that letting wine breathe is overrated. I only found one review of 2004 Tisdale, and it was Shiraz, not Cabernet, but it still seemed good and sensible and similar to my own experience.

One Down, How Many More to Go?

2007-12-11T15:15:00.000-06:00

In case you haven't heard, the Diocese of San Joaquin (California) has voted to leave the Episcopal Church.

"Please, young people... Elvis has left the building. He has gotten in his car and driven away.... Please take your seats."

Here is some interesting commentary from Kansas City Episcopal hospital chaplain, Father Marshall Scott.

Thanksgiving Prayer

2007-11-22T17:02:00.000-06:00

Following is a prayer I read this morning in Grace's newsletter (PDF, page 9), with an introduction by editor Robin Logan: "I wish that I had an exact copy of an eloquent prayer written by Father Leo Crawford when he was at Christ Church in Bastrop, but I will do my best to recreate the spirit of his offering. Please forgive me for not getting it exactly right."

Dear Lord, our God,
Though we may not always understand your ways, we take this time to thank you for the many blessings in our lives.

Thank you for our disappointments,
For through them we can recognize our happiness;

Thank you for our failures,
For they give us the strength and determination to succeed;

Thank you for our broken hearts,
For that teaches us how to love;

Thank you for your grace,
For that gives us peace and compassion;

Thank you for the promise of eternal life,
For that gives us hope for the future. Amen.

Horizons & Eclipse

2007-11-17T11:28:00.000-06:00

It's been almost a month, and I still don't have much to say. I've been busy with work, travelling a lot more than usual: two nonconsecutive weeks in Dallas for the company's leadership development program and a quick trip to New Orleans for a day-long meeting. I've enjoyed it all, though - learned a lot, gotten a better feel for various advancement opportunities (including, but not limited to, my current "carreer path" in retail operations management), and made some great connections (including at least one real friendship). I've applied for two positions and have a third area to pursue as well, so hopefully I'll be offered a promotion of some sort in the not-too-distant future.

In other news, I bought a pack of Eclipse cigarettes for my once or twice a day bad habit. The silver strip on the cellophane says it all: "THE FUTURE OF SMOKING IS HERE" - I kid you not. But they are different, primarily heating the tobacco instead of burning it (kind of like a hookah with its coal, etc, but without water) and thus drastically reducing secondhand smoke, lingering odor, ashes, etc. However, in 2000, the American Cancer Society cited the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's independent study of Eclipse cigarettes, confirming that, "um, smokin's bad. You shouldn't smoke, mkay?" You can read more on Wikipedia.

Society of the Blessed Bifurcation

2007-10-20T16:57:00.000-05:00

My Catholic friend Guido writes: "If the claims of the Catholic Church are true at all, they are all true and binding on every man. If they are not true, the whole system becomes the most damnable sort of lie." Likewise, Catholic husband of our old friend Sarah, Dave Hodges writes: "Either the Catholic Church is who She claims to be, or the Catholic Church is the grandest and most fraudulent lie ever conceived in the history of the world."

I understand what these guys are saying, but I believe they've set up what is ultimately a false dilemma. And I hate to say it, but such heightened rhetoric seems to be characteristic of relatively recent converts still in the "cage stage."

As a Protestant who grew up in a largely Baptist region and around Protestant confessions that call the Pope the Antichrist, I always wondered about Catholics and their standing in the Church. Then, sometime in high school or college (I forget), I read an endnote in Peter Leithart's The Kingdom & the Power (P&R, 1993, p. 238), and I never wondered again. Here's the relevant part of the endnote:

The question of Roman Catholicism is particularly pressing for many evangelicals, especially since some prominent Protestant leaders have recently converted to Rome. I have fundamental and serious objections to Roman Catholic theology and practice, but I do not believe that Roman Catholic churches are uniformly false churches. To put it briefly, I would argue that...many congregations of the Roman Catholic Church are, despite grievous errors, true churches of Jesus Christ. They adhere to many of the basic teachings of Scripture; though their interpretation of the sacraments is fallacious, they do administer the sacraments (sometimes more faithfully than Protestants); and they are frequently serious about discipline. Other Roman Catholic congregations differ little from the most radical sectors of mainline Protestantism, and have virtually nothing in common with orthodox Christianity.
For a provocative discussion of these issues, see James B. Jordan, The Sociology of the Church: Essays in Reconstruction (Tyler, Tex.: Geneva Ministries, 1986), 5-11, 51-82.

So, sorry, guys, as much as I'm tempted to bite and say, "Well, then, the Catholic Church is a lie," I don't really believe that. How could I, when so much of the Catholic Church has so much to commend it? But I do look forward to the day when you chill out, drop the exaggerated bifurcation of converts, and start thinking like more mature Catholics.

Catholic v Protestant Fiction

2007-09-26T17:19:00.001-05:00

Take a look at Londoner Steve Hayhow's post, "Protestant Fiction?" He quotes at length from Peter Leithart, who "locates the problem in the triumph of Zwingli's abandonment of the union of symbol and reality through his sacramental theology: memorialism."

This reminds me of something I just read about one of my favorite Flannery O'Connor stories: "In...'Parker's Back,' Miss O'Connor seems to have succeeded where the great Flaubert failed: in the dramatization of that particular heresy which denies Our Lord corporeal substance. We do not naturally like anything that is unfamiliar." (Caroline Gordon, quoted by Robert Giroux in his introduction to Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories [Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1971], p. xv.)

Update (10/3/2007): Here's another article very similar to Leithart's.

Angels & (Inter)Marriage

2007-09-15T19:05:00.000-05:00

Ethan changed the subject and asked why God made The Flood. We were driving around the mall while Hollie took care of some business, and all the other kids were asleep, so it was just Ethan and me. We were talking about geography, and I told him that all states have counties except Louisiana, which has parishes because of our French heritage and the Napoleonic code, which led to rabbit trails on Napoleon, war, the justice of war, etc. I told him I thought Napoleon was a bad guy, but I couldn't really remember, and Ethan asked how he could've been good if he killed a lot of people. I mention the context because I think Ethan's underlying question, which he later came out and asked, was: "Does God mean to kill good people in floods today?" Makes me wonder if he's had underlying questions all along about the justice of The Flood and of current natural disasters.

Anyway, I reminded him that God sent The Flood because the sons of God were marrying the daughters of men and that all the people (except Noah & his family) had become so wicked that the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually, so much so that God wished he had never made people. I told him that the sons of God marrying the daughters of men probably means God's people were marrying pagans, but that some people believe it means the angels were marrying human women. I told him this interpretation seems less likely because of the way the Bible uses "sons of God" elsewhere, and because the Bible later says "in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."

To be fair, though, I told him that this interpretation does help explain classical mythology and comic books and that it's the official interpretation of the Catholic Church, I think. I also told him that I didn't know whether angels have always been unable to marry, or if at one time they might've been able to marry each other and/or humans, but that God had since then made them unable to marry.

So here's my question for those of you who hold the comic book position or are Catholic (or both): When God judged the earth with The Flood, did he also sterilize the angels? Is this part of the tradition?

Mark Horne's 10 Things

2007-09-15T18:59:00.000-05:00

"10 things a church can do to change the world" - good stuff from Mark.

Bryn

2007-08-23T20:26:00.001-05:00

In case anyone's curious about Ellie's middle name, a big part of the inspiration for it, at least on my part, was the hymn tune, BRYN CALFARIA, which is Welsh for the hill (bryn) of Calvary (Calfaria). As it happens, I've mostly sung Psalm 80 (mp3 sample - I especially like the lines near the middle of this sample: "God, we pray, O, turn us, bring us back; make your face shine and we are saved") and one or two other hymns to the tune rather than "Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor" (as good a hymn as it may be) - probably due to the fact that I grew up in church music tradition that was more Scottish than English. Of course there's also Bryn Mawr, which I'm sure is a great school, but we're not trying to sound "Ivy League" (or, technically, "Seven Sistersish"). We just like the name, and I've always liked the tune. I have a thing for minor keys, y'know. But I'm rambling and should probably get back to the hospital.

Ellie's Debut

2007-08-23T14:18:00.000-05:00

Ellie Bryn was born yesterday at 2:01pm - 8lb 2oz and 21in. More pictures to come, but here are few for now:

Hot Fuzz

2007-08-06T22:29:00.000-05:00

Saw Hot Fuzz yesterday. Could've watched it again today. Funniest thing I've seen in a while!

Brothers & BH

2007-08-02T20:02:00.000-05:00

It's been a while. To update, three of my little brothers flew down (from Moscow, Idaho) to visit for a couple weeks. Parker & Christian went with me to the BH conference in Florida, and Hampton was kind enough to stay here in Monroe to help Hollie with the boys. We didn't take nearly enough pictures while they were here, but I'll try to upload at least one later.

As for the conference, on the original schedule, Peter Leithart was to speak on Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, but sadly Peter's mother passed away the day before the conference began. Bill DeJong filled in with some excellent lectures on 1 Timothy, and Burke Shade gave a really lame talk on hair in the Bible, in which he argued against men having long hair...just kidding... he actually presented a good concordance study that fit nicely with Jim Jordan's lectures on Nazirite vows. Mark Horne gave several stimulating lectures from his forthcoming commentary on Ephesians (in Athanasius Press's Through New Eyes Commentary Series). Blake Purcell spoke on the modern Russian Orthodox situation, on a few Russian Orthodox heroes of the faith, and on his mission as rector of the Slavic Reformation Society and Biblical Seminary of St Petersburg, Russia. And Rich Bledsoe spoke on everything, including triangulation. It was a good time and the largest conference to date - I think this was the 17th annual - held this year in the nice new fellowship hall of Trinity in Valparaiso.

Gordon Anderson+

2007-07-16T18:04:00.001-05:00

I followed a comment link from B.J.'s blog (interesting musings on election, by the way) to Father J. Gordon Anderson's blog, where I found many wonderful sights to behold:

First, his office. (Yeah, I'm a geek, but I appreciate the niceness and minimalism of his space.)
Second, his church's building - browse through the whole site to see more photos, and see more interior photos here.
Third, his art. I especially like "Elegy to Baltimore 2."
Fourth, his post archives. His priesthood reflections - here, here & here - are particularly encouraging.

While I'm personally less inclined toward certain aspects of Father Anderson's traditionalist continuing Anglicanism, I still found his posts very rich. And, of course, his art and his church's architecture speak for themselves.

"Prowl" by James B. Ginsberg

2007-07-09T09:20:00.000-05:00

I've been encouraged to blog the first few lines of this poem I found by James B. Ginsberg. The whole thing is called "Prowl" and is remarkably similar to Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," almost to a fault - it's as though Jim just took "Howl" and switched out some words. At any rate, here are the opening lines:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
       madness, satisfied hysterical collarless,
dragging themselves through the Memphis streets at dawn
       looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded preachers burning for the ancient heavenly
       connection to the starry Wesminster in the blindness
       of night,
who decreetally justified and adopted and being sanctified sat
       up blogging in the supernatural darkness of
       cold-water hotel rooms floating across the tops of
       cities contemplating Blue Like Jazz,
who bared their brains to Hell under the El and
       saw Federal Vision angels staggering on
       church roofs illuminated,
who passed through seminaries with radiant cool eyes
       hallucinating St Louis-iana and North-light tragedy
       among the scholars of war,
who were hired by the academies for crazy &
       publishing god-awful theology on the windows of the
       skull,
who cowered in clean-shaven rooms in tighty-whities, burn-
       ing their Bibles in wastebaskets and cheering
       for Sproul on the big screen,...

Maybe I'll post more later.

Saltwater Fishing

2007-07-06T09:29:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Reuben, Jonathan, Bart and I went saltwater fishing in the gulf with Reuben & Hollie's grandfather. He put us up at his camp in Chauvin, about ten miles north of Cocodrie, where we set out from CoCo Marina.

We didn't have the best of luck - didn't catch anywhere near our limit the first day, boat wouldn't start the next day, and I had food poisoning - but we still had a good time.

Here are some pictures for now, but I hope to update with more.

Bart

Jonathan

Reuben

me

the family

the guys

The Pirate Preaches

2007-06-20T21:47:00.000-05:00

I recently started occasionally reading The Fearsome Pirate Josh's blog again. His "Method of Church Growth" post should explain why.

Radnerian Ecclesiology

2007-06-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

I've begun reading this amazingly erudite book that's way over my head, but here's a paradigm-shifting quote that I was able to comprehend, at least somewhat, from Ephraim Radner's Hope Among the Fragments: The Broken Church and Its Engagement of Scripture (Brazos, 2004; available from CBD for $4.99):

If there is a whole Scripture, then in Christ, its whole embodiment in the connoted Church and world is guaranteed; the Church will be Israel in mercy and judgment; the Church will take the form of all nations, in judgment and mercy; the Church will die and rise in Christ, as mercy and judgment meet in him. As a result, there is no saving the Church, no discovering the Church afresh, no growing the Church or even tearing it down (Paul prescinds both!). There is only living with, within, for, beside, and for the sake of the Church, for Jesus Christ has created us in and for this, and we cannot escape from this vocation and reality. Hence, it is sure; for he is faithful.

May God give us increasing faith in this certainty - and help us live faithfully in light of it.

(Good medicine for those of us disappointed by the PCA GA's adoption of the FV Report today; more good medicine here, here, and here.)

Office Spinoff: The Church

2007-06-11T19:45:00.000-05:00

Just saw this yesterday after it was linked on a discussion list:

"The Church" (spinoff of TV show "The Office")
Made for Providence's Spring Film Contest-Team 2
Starring: Monte Shields, Clay Phillips, Brian Carter, Jeff Meyers...

Horse Racing & Chaplaincy

2007-06-04T17:19:00.000-05:00

As Hollie mentioned, we sunk to a new low and went to the horse races last Friday. Actually, it was pretty fun (and much cooler than our house; thankfully our AC repairman got us up and running again this morning). I was surprised at how nice the Louisiana Downs facility is, with tons of indoor stadium seating and concessions (as well as the 150,000-sq-ft casino adjoining the racetrack with several restaurants and 1300 slot machines on the gaming floor).

In looking for Louisiana Downs images, I ran across one on the Race Track Chaplaincy site, where there's an interesting story (scroll to the last article) on the Louisiana Downs chaplain and his ministry in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I knew there were chaplains for NASCAR and other motor racing sports, but I didn't know there were horse racetrack chaplains. I guess it makes sense, though, if we're to disciple all nations, redeem all areas of society, and minister spiritual healing especially wherever ambulances are found.

Garver on Depression & Hope

2007-06-02T22:06:00.000-05:00

Joel is blogging again - always good news - and his latest post, "The Virtue of Hope," is especially good. Using a Walker Percy quote on depression as a springboard, Joel goes on to discuss Aquinas and Christian hope.

Bucer: Critical Appraisals

2007-05-30T14:55:00.000-05:00

For what it's worth, here are some quotes from a few of the top Google results for Martin Bucer, with critical appraisals ranging between the more "popular" and the more scholarly:

For a clear statement of doctrine he was ever ready to substitute vague formulas in the interest of unity, which even his able efforts could not establish among the Reformers.
—Catholic Encyclopedia, "Martin Bucer"
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03025d.htm
On the question of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, Bucer's opinions were decidedly Zwinglian, being the author of the Tetrapolitan Confession, but he was anxious to maintain church unity with the Lutheran party and constantly endeavoured — especially after Zwingli's death — to formulate a statement of belief that would unite Lutheran, south German and Swiss reformers; hence, the charge of ambiguity and obscurity which has been laid against him.
—Wikipedia, "Martin Bucer"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bucer
Bucer also spelled Butzer: Protestant Reformer, mediator, and liturgical scholar best known for his ceaseless attempts to make peace between conflicting reform groups. He influenced not only the development of Calvinism but also the liturgical development of the Anglican Communion.
—Encyclopædia Britannica, "Martin Bucer"
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9017859/Martin-Bucer
While all fervently sought the unity of the churches of the Reformation, no one pursued this goal with as much vigor and effort as Martin Bucer, the Reformer of Strassburg. His entire ministry can be characterized as a pursuit of unity.
Yet, in his zeal to bring unity to the church of Christ, he often sought unacceptable compromises which made true unity impossible. Not only did he wish to bring Lutherans and Calvinists together; he did not even rest in his efforts to unite Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. In his burning zeal for unity, he forgot that unity is essentially a unity of the truth as it is in Christ and revealed in
the Holy Gospel.
—Herman Hanko, Portraits of Faithful Saints, Ch. 27, "Martin Bucer: Ecumenist of the Reformation"
http://www.prca.org/books/portraits/bucer.htm
Whatever views be held of Bucer's efforts for union, especially in the eucharistic controversy, his honest intention and his unselfish zeal to serve the Church are beyond all question. His diplomatic tactics were not always such as to inspire confidence, and they gave offense to other parties besides Luther. Bucer himself felt it afterward and honestly acknowledged that he had not always interfered in a discreet manner. The whole subject of controversy was of less interest for Bucer than for Luther, hence Bucer's readiness to make concessions and ever new formularizations.
—Philip Schaff, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. II, "edited for greater clarity" by tlolgical.net webmaster John M. Fritzius
http://www.tlogical.net/biobucer.htm
In consequence, soon the image ensued of Bucer as a spineless and accommodating theologian, more interested in the effectiveness of his conciliatory formulations than in God's revealed truth. [...]
In a rapidly and thoroughly changing world, Bucer was bent on understanding others and coming to an agreement with them. This was hardly a craving for harmony and appeasement at any, or almost any, price. It is perhaps most fitting to describe Bucer as a theologian of dialogue. This does not mean he was not sure of what he believed. On the contrary, his own theological standpoint was quite clear and firm. But he did not use it primarily to contrast his own position over against that of his opponents, but rather as a point of departure for embarking in an exchange with them.
—Martin Greschat, Martin Bucer: A Reformer and His Times (Westminster John Knox, 2004), pp 252ff
http://tinyurl.com/ypbjes

I'm tempted to try to get copies of Bucer's Latin works and start slowly and painfully trying to translate them (poorly, I'm sure). I do have 30 hours of college Latin, after all, enough for an undergraduate major...might as well put it to some use.

Here's his Opera Latina, published by Brill for eleventy billion dollars:
http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=73&pid=7872
(But where's Vol. 1? Is it out of print? I see it referenced in this review:
http://tinyurl.com/29xd82.)

Last but not least, here's a review of the latest and greatest Bucer bibliography:
http://www.sehepunkte.de/2006/06/10317.html
Unfortunately the bibliography is in German, but the review is in English, by Amy Nelson Burnett, who appears to be the preeminent Bucer scholar in the US. See her list of publications on her Nebraska faculty page:
http://www.unl.edu/history/faculty/Burnett_Amy.html

Wipf & Stock

2007-05-13T17:09:00.000-05:00

Today it occurred to me that four of the books that have most influenced my theological and ecclesiological perspective were published (or republished) by Wipf & Stock in Eugene, Oregon. (The books are The Sociology of the Church by James Jordan; From Sabbath to Lord's Day, edited by D.A. Carson; One Lord, One Faith, by Rex Koivisto; and The Priesthood of the Plebs by Peter Leithart.) Searching for more information about Wipf & Stock this afternoon, I ran across this article: "The New Monastics: Alternative Christian Communities" by Jason Byassee (Christian Century, October 18, 2005). Here's a lengthy quote:

Something of a different animal from Reba is the Church of the Servant King in Eugene, Oregon. Many of its members are evangelicals who originally joined a parent congregation of the same name in 1978 in Gardena, California. The Eugene congregation was planted in 1987. Most of its key leaders have been living together in intentional community since the '78 founding.

Servant King started as an evangelical effort to live out scripture's vision of the church. A commitment to nonviolence evolved slowly, partly as members read the works of Stanley Hauerwas, partly as they decided who would clean the bathrooms. Peace is not merely about a position on the war in Iraq; it is about how one relates to one's neighbor, one's spouse and one's adversary in the community. Community leader Jon Stock points out that most intentional Christian communities that are not committed to nonviolence don't survive, because when arguments erupt, someone has to win—and the community loses. The Gardena congregation that planted Servant King has had such a rupture and is now on strained terms with its ecclesial offspring in Eugene.

Servant King's members say that a key to its survival is its "overcoming of pietism." They are not rigid about drinking, smoking or cursing; the atmosphere there can seem a bit like the early hours of a fraternity party. This is intentional. Members have worked hard to avoid any sense of competition over righteousness, both as individuals and in comparing Servant King to the wider church. Such pride can splinter a community, as in the Gardena congregation's case.

When I asked Stock whether he considers his community a model for the rest of the church, he almost visibly shuddered: "I'm much more comfortable talking about the mistakes we've made." Though smoking and drinking are permitted, the group is traditional in other moral matters. "We're quite conservative in what we do with our genitals. You have to get money, sex and power straight or they'll ruin you."

Pietism can create artificial boundaries between a community and the wider church. Communities like these are born precisely out of impatience with the mainstream church, which they regard as compromised by or indistinguishable from the world. Servant King has, with some difficulty, reembraced the wider church. It follows the lectionary in its preaching and celebrates the Lord's Supper weekly. It invites prominent theologians to visit and teach in its midst.

On the Sunday I visited, the community added a new member to the group, which Stock says is made up of 23 adults, eight teenagers and "I can't remember how many" children. The group gathers in the largest living room of its several houses in Eugene to sing "Down to the River to Pray" and to accompany the new member to her baptism—in a large tub in the backyard. She makes a public confession of sin, saying she has "idolized relationships above all." Stock almost whispers, "The Lord forgives." His fellow pastor, Brian Logan, shouts St. Paul's words as he dips her under the water: "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation!"

In a liberal university town on the west coast, Servant King seems strange not because it's a commune of sorts, but because it's Christian. The community works to be known as such among its neighbors. It runs Windows bookshop, a used bookstore with mostly theology texts on its rough-hewn shelves. Ten years ago the bookstore birthed Wipf and Stock Publishers, which employs many of Servant King's members. The community also runs a coffee shop. All these activities take place in a city block-sized building that includes a pizza parlor and a stage for performances, which draw others in. Eugene's small number of Christians (it has the fewest churches for a city its size in America) know the church, as do the colorful assortment of folks who stop by for pizza, coffee, books or conversation.

By comparison with Servant King's members, Reba's Mennonites seem a bit more pious and plain. Reba's participation in a network of similar Anabaptist fellowships in the Shalom Mission Communities also stands in contrast to Servant King's independent status. But the two groups have some things in common. The life of the mind is important to both (one makes its living by selling books; the other has bookshelves filled to overflowing). Both communities are also quite wealthy. Reba's real estate is worth a fortune in the overheated Chicagoland housing market, and Servant King's property has tripled in value during the recent housing boom.

Yet these communities are not investors. Their property is important to them only as a way of allowing members to live near one another and share life together, as Stock writes in the New Monasticism book, or of enabling them to offer low-cost housing to their neighbors. When I asked Stock and Logan what they plan to do when their members retire, they looked befuddled. Christians don't retire, in their view. "Florida is not on the Christian map," Stock says. They plan to work until they cannot, at which point they will trust others to take care of them.

If their care for one another now is any indication, others will be there for caregiving. Stock and Logan kiss each other on the cheek when they part for a journey of a few days, suggesting that three decades in intentional community has led to a deep friendship. "What we're after is a place that tastes and smells like the kingdom of God," Stock says. One gets a sense of such a place at the party after the baptism. The new member has requested a traditional backyard barbecue, but I'm told she could have chosen any food she liked. Really? Even lobster? Sushi? Caviar? "Sure, she's a new member of Jesus' body—when else do you celebrate?" Servant King is not opposed to extravagance as such, but wants to see it in the service of building the kingdom of God rather than in private consumption.

[...]

The communities I visited have important differences in organization, style, finances and even theology. Some are churches, like Church of the Servant King and Church of the Sojourners. Some are related to churches. Reba sponsors two ecclesial gatherings nearby, so that one can worship with a Reba congregation without participating in Reba's common-purse arrangement. Rutba looks for support and wisdom from nearby St. John's Missionary Baptist Church, but members do not have to attend. Grace Fellowship is simply a mainline church committed to more radical living. Reba folks have a common treasury and give a stipend to members; Sojourners members maintain an agreed-upon standard of living and give the rest of their income to the church. Servant King members tithe 15 percent and open their books to one another to account for the rest. Servant King's rough speech and petty vices would make some people at Reba uneasy.

These communities can seem a bit inbred. Jonathan Wilson, coiner of the phrase new monasticism, is father and father-in-law of the key members of Rutba, which hosted the conference, edited the book and sponsors the Web site by the same name. The woman I saw baptized at Servant King is Jon Stock's niece. Stock runs Wipf and Stock Publishers, which prints Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's work. Members of Sojourners and Grace Fellowship spoke at a conference organized by the Chicago-area seminary professors who send students to Reba.

Another problem the communities face is the challenge of transcending divisions along the lines of race and class. While those who do join are drawn to the scriptural norm of communities that transcend racial and financial barriers, they tend to be white, college-educated folks, despite great effort to reach out. For example, one of the Sojourners' original goals was to serve some of the tens of thousands of refugees displaced to San Francisco as a result of civil war in El Salvador. Three Salvadoran families joined the church and benefited from its legal clinic and job preparation aid. As soon as they acquired the resources, the families promptly bought minivans, left the church and moved to the suburbs. Perhaps those who have had less of a chance at pursuing the American dream are not yet ready to be disenchanted with it.

Even with these difficulties, the new monastic communities say they are adding new members, and various new communities are sprouting up around the country. Camden House in New Jersey has planted a garden in an area of postindustrial blight, where homeless people can get fresh vegetables. The Open Door in Atlanta is billed as a sort of "Protestant Catholic Worker" house, where members staff a soup kitchen for the homeless and agitate for justice in the city. Others communities have arisen in such unlikely places as Shreveport, Louisiana (emphasis mine—JA); Omaha, Nebraska; Waco, Texas; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Lexington, Kentucky, now linked as part of the informal new monasticism network. Each has its own gifts, idealism, quirkiness and commitment to local community. And each claims to be an alternative to the now-regnant empire and a foretaste of a coming kingdom.

Each of the communities I visited seeks also to serve the wider church—and even to convert it. Monastic communities have always had greater influence than their numbers. For one thing, they enable preachers and other Christians to point and say, "See, someone does try to live out the costly demands of Jesus with regard to possessions, family, nonviolence and love." Their presence also encourages more traditional churches to alter their life in small but significant ways.

Even if the effort doesn't have that effect, its adherents view it as worthwhile. As Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove says, "Whether these communities proliferate or not, this life is good enough in itself."

(Anybody know what community he's referring to in Shreveport?)

30 Reasons

2007-05-10T11:13:00.000-05:00

From the new Reformed News site: "PCA Minister Responds to PCA FV Committee Report." (And sadly, no, the 35th GA image on Meyers's blog is not a spoof.)

Federal-vision.com also has an html version of Meyers's 30 Reasons.

Casinos & Catholic Coel's Fiction

2007-05-04T21:23:00.000-05:00

Photo of Red River from Sam's Town hotel room by Pete Geniella; see his whole Shreveport post.

I'd like to think that most any pride I used to have is gone. Case in point: Hollie and I are staying at Sam's Town Casino Hotel in Shreveport this Sunday night. We've been wanting to get away for a weekend or a day off, and Hollie's dad ran across this $45/night Sam's Town deal for us.

Snob than I am, I always looked down on casino hotels, but I've been impressed with the Horseshoe (Harrah's) in Bossier City - although I've only eaten there - and we've had fun at the Ameristar in Vicksburg, where we've seen a couple bands and played the slots a little. I've never been to Sam's Town, but I just read that it was the original Harrah's in Shreveport; it opened in 2001 and sold to Sam's Town / Boyd Gaming in 2004, presumably around the time that Harrah's bought the Horseshoe. I'm sure the Horseshoe is more luxurious, but I've heard the Sam's Town is a close second. According to the 2006 Best of Southern Gaming Awards, for the Mid-South region (which includes the casinos in Shreveport, Bossier City, Vicksburg, Marksville, LA, and Philadelphia, MS), the Shreveport Sam's Town ranked #3 Best Overall Property, #1 Best Spa, and #1 Best Promotions. Well, they got us on the promotions. As for the spa, it's not free, but then again, what spa is? And it doesn't look outrageous to me. Maybe I'll talk Hollie into getting a massage or something and she can give us her assessment.

Incidentally, I've been reading this novel about corruption in an Indian casino. No, I don't have a gambling problem - I hardly even gamble - but if I did, this novel might help cure me! No, I just happened upon another novel (The Story Teller) by the same author recently - it was mixed in a box of assorted murder mysteries Hollie picked up on eBay once and was about to recycle on paperbackswap. Thumbing through it, I was intrigued enough to pick it up and read it, and I ended up liking it so much that I got Killing Raven from the library. It's not as good at Story Teller, but it's not bad. I'll keep reading Margaret Coel. Here's a good article about her, her faith, and her fiction, with photos from the real Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming, where her novels are set.

Contranemesis

2007-05-02T15:15:00.000-05:00

For those who haven't seen, my friend Rob Maddox, M.D., has started blogging at contranemesis - "exploring the Medical Nemesis, in philosophy, history and practice." Go check it out.

Fackre on the Center (1)

2007-04-20T21:36:00.000-05:00

Today I read the following (and more to come) and was stuck by it such that I had to type it up and blog it. I hope you like it as much as I did.

The first feature of the center is its role as a bridge over the chasm between right and left. [...] The church of the center as "span" entails providing a safe space where otherwise hostile partisans can cross culture-war boundaries and speak to one another.

[...] The rise of ecclesial tribalisms cries out for a witness to catholicity. Honor the diversity, but attend as well to the Pauline counsel: "the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'" (1 Cor 12:21). A bridge-building center constitutes a meeting ground for civil conversation among disputants. Here the diversity is understood as charisms reaching out to one another, seeking a fuller body of Christ.

The church of the center in its bridge-building role, while an alternative to ecclesial war-making, does not gloss over differences. Bridge talk includes mutual admonition as well as mutual affirmation, the formula ventured by the recent North American Lutheran-Reformed dialogue. [Note 16 here references Keith F. Nickel and Timothy F. Lull, eds., A Common Calling: The Witness of Our Reformation Churches in North America Today (Augsburg Fortress, 1993), p. 29-32, 66.] The eye has every right to remind the hand that "standing" alone, a hand is an odd-looking body. And vice versa. As such, the invitation to mutual fructification is a model of diversity juxtaposed to the currently popular "theological pluralism." In the latter case, a plea is made to recognize the equal legitimacy of alternative understandings of the Christian faith, in popular lingo, "different strokes for different folks...you do your thing and I'll do mine." Theological pluralism, so understood, is a justification of the status quo. Paul's Corinthian catholicity rejects this static view, demanding an interactive diversity, one in which the "variety of gifts" are engaged in a demanding mutual encounter, learning and growing into and as the body of Christ.

The center as span is grounded deeply in the classical theological commitments, especially in the doctrine of the Trinity. The triune God as Three-in-One affirms the diversity and distinctions of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a perichoretic unity. In this "coinherence," God is not just loving; God is Love - Mutuality, Community, Sociality, Life Together. [Note 17: "So stressed in the recent works on the Trinity, as in Jurgen Moltmann...; Wolfhart Pannenberg...; Thomas Torrance...; Colin Gunton...; Catherine Mowry LaCugna...; Leonardo Boff....] And who God is constitutes what God wills for the world: community, shalom, a life together in freedom and peace. The church, the body of Christ on earth, is thus called with is many parts to live and work in a mutually enriching ecclesial koinonia - a church of the center performing its "bridge-work."

From Gabriel Fackre, Restoring the Center: Essays Evangelical & Ecumenical (IVP, 1998), p. 32 ff. (Currently available from CBD for $3.99!)

Catfish Festival Tomorrow

2007-04-13T21:28:00.000-05:00

Just saw a commercial for the Franklin Parish Catfish Festival - the 21st Annual, no less. (My family is from Franklin Parish.) Apparently it was even in this month's Southern Living; see below. I don't recall ever going, and unfortunately tomorrow is already full. Maybe next year.

"Clerical Fiction"

2007-04-08T07:22:00.000-05:00

I ended a recent post by saying, "...I had to learn the hard way how to lighten up and read some genre fiction. More on this later...."

I'll still write more later, but for now, I refer you to John Barach's October 31, 2005 post on my genre of choice, "Clerical Fiction."

I'm still trying to think of the best term for the genre. John mentions the problem with "pastoral" (given that "the historical use of the word...call[s] up images of shepherds in Arcadia"), but I wonder if "clerical" might be just as problematic (conjuring thoughts of office work, secretaries, etc). Would "clergy fiction" be better?

Children in Church

2007-04-08T07:15:00.000-05:00

I recently happened upon a church site with a good page on children. Here are some quotes from St Andrew's Episcopal, Grand Prairie, Texas:

John Westerhoff, a leading educator in the Episcopal Church believes that children are necessary in worship.

Relax! God put the wiggle in children...don't feel you have to suppress it in God's house.

Help your child find the pages in the prayer book. It is okay if they stand on the pew to see and sing.

Always remember that the way we welcome children in church directly affects the way they respond to church, God and Christ. Let them know that they are at home in this liturgy of praise and thanksgiving.

Very encouraging.

Fiction & True Confessions

2007-04-03T09:06:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, I was an English major. Then I lost my mind, moved to Moscow, Idaho, and tried to simultaneously attend two schools, studying theology & literature at the Christian liberal arts college and music, English & classics at the state university (while also working a job, eventually getting married & starting a family, and attending a church that was pretty absorbing). After the first day of class with the medievalist in the university English department there, talking with him about my various interests, studies, work, etc, he told me straight up that I was going to have to make some choices. I should have listened, but I didn't want to believe him. In time, of course, I moved back to Louisiana without a degree.

Anyway, once upon a time, I was an English major with thoughts of getting a PhD in English or medieval studies. I've long since abandoned such thoughts, which (what do you know?) has freed me up to read more fiction, among other things. Before, I seldom read much fiction, and what I did read was either really old - often ancient - or the sort of contemporary literary fiction that gets academic critics going. I did not read trade paperback fiction, and I certainly didn't read potboilers.

Part of reading more fiction has honestly been a survival mechanism, a means of escaping the stress of still working a job (or sometimes jobs) that I'd hoped to quit a few years ago. But part of it has also come from abandoning the stupid levels of vain ambition I used to possess (or be possessed by) and allowing myself to sometimes just read for fun now, rather than for assignments or a straining desire to better myself and my education. I realize this should be no big deal. Many, many people read "consumer" fiction - and not for work, but for pleasure or recreation. But I had to learn the hard way how to lighten up and read some genre fiction. More on this later...

The Unity of the Spirit

2007-04-02T07:38:00.000-05:00

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:1-16)

This passage and the ones below prevent me from being part of any particular group that considers itself to be the true church at the expense of other Christians whose churches are less than true. I believe in the true church - one, holy, catholic and apostolic - and I believe that eventually the unity we possess will be better known by us and more apparent to the world. But I believe this unity is and will be a unity of the Spirit rather than an institutional unity. Not that I'm anti-institutional-unity or anti-institution: Key to the church's maturing spiritual unity, I believe, will be a renewal of unified citywide or metropolitan churches, with each city having its own overseeing bishop and each bishop recognizing the bishops in other cities as equals in office. Sure, primacy might be given to this or that bishop, but the first will be last and the last first, which means the bishop of Rome will recognize the bishop of Monroe or the bishop of Moscow, whether he happens to be a black baptist or charismatic (the sort of bishop I'd imagine for Monroe just from looking around right now, à la the CoGiC or someone like TD Jakes) or a white evangelical or academic ecumenist (e.g. Jim Wilson, Peter Leithart, or someone like I imagine Armand Larive was in Pullman).

All of this obviously keeps me from being Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Truly Reformed, Truly Anglican, Truly Lutheran, Truly Spirit-filled Apostolic, Truly Denominational or Truly Nondenominational. I long for unity with all of these folks, but until that longing is reciprocated in a way other than a desire for my conversion to their particular tradition, all I can do is pray and seek to cooperate with them as much as possible in light of our varying levels of impaired communion. And I trust that such cooperation will help us mutually grow up into the unity of the Spirit.

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. (Philippians 2:3)

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:20-23)

Sunday Brunch, Wednesday Eucharist

2007-03-22T23:47:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in the previous post that I when I first started reading blogs, I read a lot of stuff by and about folks in house church-emerging-catholic-missional-whatever communities. Another person and group I followed was Mike Bishop, What is Church?, and their Vineyardesque community in Florida. Revisiting the whatischurch mustard seed blog tonight, I ran across spaceforgod and thought their Vineyard Community services sounded right up my alley:

We regularly come together each week on Wednesday evening. After unwinding from the day, we worship using a liturgy that includes the weekly lectionary reading and the Eucharist. We cherish this time as it centers us on God and one another.

On Sunday mornings we take time to eat a common meal and focus on spiritual instruction for our children. These sabbath mornings are relaxed and simple.

(Out of curiosity, I wonder if Alison & Mark Bishop [spaceforgod] in Minnesota's Twin Cities are any relation to Amber & Mike Bishop [whatischurch] in Florida's Palm Beach County?)

Kyle Potter

2007-03-20T09:29:00.000-05:00

A couple days ago I Googled "simplified anglican chant" and stumbled across Vindicated: The Amazing Blog of Kyle Potter - Captain Sacrament, no less. Since then, I've poked around his archives a bit and really enjoyed what I've found: a good sense of humor, a rich theology conversant in ancient and modern thought and practice, and an overriding concern for the community life of the body of Christ. I look forward to reading his Master of Theology thesis when he finishes it, provisionally titled "Encountering the Christian Colony: An Evaluation of Hospitality as Proclamation in the Post-Christian West." Kyle's posts on vocation, on his journey toward the Anglican tradition, on five things he believes and trusts and five things he rejects especially resonate with some of my own thoughts and experiences. For more about him, see "Who is this Guy?"

When I first started reading blogs about five years ago, I regularly read things by and about folks in house church-emerging-catholic-missional-whatever communities, e.g. Matthew's House (CA), Jason Evans, etc, and I saw the name Alan Creech a lot. Though Anglican, Kyle currently lives in the community where Alan serves as abbot. Sometimes I seem to reach the end of the Internet and start over: it all comes full circle again after a while.

Another Seminary Post

2007-03-15T03:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning I read a good post by John Armstrong about his move into the Reformed Church in America (RCA). Naturally I then looked up the RCA's denominational seminaries - again - but this time I found something new, at least to me: Western Seminary now offers a distance learning MDiv program, and it looks really good. Here's the program's FAQ page.

Last night I also ran across this interesting Boston Globe article: "Conservative path offered on Episcopal training." Incidentally, Gordon-Conwell's Semlink is one of the more affordable and reputable seminary distance ed programs, although I believe only individual courses are offered, not a full degree program. As I've mentioned before, though, Nashotah House has proposed a distance/modular Master of Arts in Ministry program. And interestingly The Boston Globe article contains the following quote from Nashotah's Dean & President: "You have a number of Anglicans or Episcopalians in the New England area who are looking for a theological education of a biblically faithful and theologically orthodox nature, and recognize Gordon-Conwell is capable of giving that."

Moviefilms

2007-03-11T23:55:00.000-05:00

I watched Stranger Than Fiction last night and again today. Wow. More thoughts on Matt Yonke's blog.

Watched Punch-Drunk Love again tonight. Been thinking about it for some reason lately and finally got around to watching it tonight. I've watched Hard Eight recently, so I guess I ought to see Magnolia again now. Wonder what P.T. Anderson's new movie will be like? Maybe I should read the novel.

And, yes, my post title is from Borat, which I saw this weekend with a couple old friends. I'm not recommending it, but I laughed a lot.

Drell Digest

2007-03-08T00:24:00.000-06:00

4. Bishop MacPherson's Address To The Primates Meeting

3. Been Busy Practicing Law And Teaching School While The Anglican Wars Continue And My Life Gets Interesting Spiritually, I've Run Out Of Arguments, And That Ain't The Hardest Part

2. Bishop MacPherson Writes The Diocese About The Primates' Communique From Tanzania

1. My thoughts on the latest developments in TEC and the AC

There is no way, on God’s green earth, that the TEC House of Bishops can implement the Primates Communique. If they did, their liberal patrons in the clergy and laity would have them defrocked, fired, or whatever. [...] All we can do at this point is to watch realignment happen.

(For more about Mr Drell and his blog, see his church bio PDF and/or one of his first posts, Why the Descant?)

Moltmannian Eschatology & "Dying" Churches

2007-03-06T10:02:00.001-06:00

Browsing through Justin Donathan's archives yesterday, I ran across this eschatology quiz again. This morning, with that still clanking around in the back of my head, I googled "moltmannian eschatology" and ran across a couple interesting things:

Google's first result was from the author of the quiz. Here's his explanation:

Moltmannian Eschatology

I put this one in because although he is little-known outside academic circles, Moltmann has done a more thorough systematic examination of eschatology than perhaps any other theologian. If you're eschatological interest is concerned with figuring out the hidden meaning of Daniel's 'seventy weeks' or what theologians think the Mark of the Beast might be then you'll be sorely disappointed. Moltmann begins with the cross and resurrection and uses them to interpret history. Just as Christ shared in the sin, suffering and darkness of creation on the cross, so by taking it on himself and being raised to new life he becomes the prototype of what God intends not only for humanity, but the whole of creation itself. God has made the resurrection a promise of what he one day intends to do for all creation - to make it new and free it from the power of sin, injustice and death.

Christians then are to radically affect the present in the light of what God has promised about the age to come. The key to this is the Holy Spirit, who is the 'power of the age to come'. Our discipleship is a discipleship of the cross and so we too must identify with and fellowship with the outcasts, the victims, the poor and the downtrodden as we take up our cross, because the way to the resurrection is via the cross. God has already announced and guaranteed that in the Future Kingdom of God there will be no suffering, pain, injustice, or death and so our mission in the present is to transform the lives and circumstances of people so that God's kingdom comes upon them. Eschatology is not like the appendix in the book of history, it is the story of history itself.

Moltmann is highly controversial in places and despite his Lutheran background, much of what he says will seem unfamiliar to most evangelicals but it's quality stuff. He has written a 400 page systematic doctrine of eschatology called 'The Coming of God', but if heavy theology isn't your thing then his book 'Jesus Christ For Today's World' is a good start and is highly readable.

Google's second result was a blogger who scored Moltmannian Eschatology on the quiz. I went to his "about me" page and then his front page, which led to an interesting series on "dying" church experiences - part 1: a Presbyterian Church (USA); part 2: an Episcopal Church.

Ros Clarke on the Song

2007-03-06T09:50:00.000-06:00

David Field pointed to this today on an email list: Ros Clarke on the Song of Songs. Here are a couple quotes from her Master of Theology thesis:

A number of scholars have recently admitted doubts about a solely literal interpretation of the Song, recognising the force of the allegorical interpretations without endorsing their methodology.39 What seems to be required is something akin to the typological interpretation that allows the text to function at the literal level with all its poetic artistry and yet to maintain its spiritual application by means of a proper concern for its biblical context. Such an interpretation cannot, however, be arbitrarily imposed on the text but must be shown to be required by the text itself. (Page 12)

[...]

It follows, then, that since the proper view of the metaphor in the Song is as a depiction of the relationships between the Lord, the land and the people using the vehicle of human marriage, the primary use of the Song in the church must be to teach about the Lord-land-people relationships. This liberates the Song from its restricted use in instructing married couples and allows it to profit the whole people of God, without denying its value in teaching about marriage. Indeed, this value will be increased if it is recognised that the marriage in the Song is not only an ideal marriage but also a metaphorical counterpart to the Lord's relationship with his people. (PDF page 56)

Great stuff. Ros also has a tag for Song of Songs posts on her blog.

"New Heavens, New Earth"

2007-02-23T05:23:00.000-06:00

Lately I've become very interested in "theologies of hope" or robust eschatologies that deal very much with the here-and-now and the life of the age to come as inaugurated by Jesus. I've begun working through titles by and about Moltmann and Pannenberg [here's a good Amazon list], and I'll probably post more about the work of these theologians as I dig into them further.

For now, though, the best introduction I've found by far is NT Wright's 20-some-page "New Heavens, New Earth: The Biblical Picture of the Christian Hope," available from Grove Books for £2.95 plus shipping, or as an ebook for £2.95 (with no shipping, of course; Grove sends you a link [to a PDF] that expires after three uses).

Originally delivered as the 1993 Drew Lecture on Immortality at Spurgeon's College, London, and later slightly updated and published in Called to One Hope: Perspectives on Life to Come: Drew Lectures on Immortality Delivered at Spurgeon's College, edited by John E. Colwell (Paternoster, 2000; currently out of print), I can't recommend Wright's "New Heavens, New Earth" more highly. Get it and read it this week!

(Thanks again to Josh Anderson for referring me to this.)

Monroeblogs

2007-02-20T10:00:00.000-06:00

Calling all Monroe-area bloggers! Go sign up to have your blog entries displayed on monroeblogs.com. A while back, someone signed up the RSS feed of the Capezzas' blog, Hollie's blogs, and my blog - and of course Christin, LesBourgeoisie, Uncle Josh and others are already indexed there since their blogs are hosted by monroeblogs - so it's now a great one-stop index page for several local (or formerly local) bloggers. You can read more technical info here and here.

Yeah, that's right, Emily, Thomas, Jennifer, Lacey, Matt, Annie (& Spa Bella), Sarah, Jarrod, Ragan, Duane and others, I'm talking about you. I doubt it will work for people who've enabled Xanga Lock (ahem), but I hope the rest of you will sign up. Don't make someone else sign you up like they did me!

Steve Harvey

2007-02-18T17:06:00.000-06:00

Speaking of clean standup, this afternoon I caught part of Steve Harvey's Don't Trip...He Ain't Through With Me Yet! It's from Bishop T.D. Jakes' MegaFest 2005 - but I caught it on BET, not some white Christian network, of course. Harvey was hilarious, and I was amazed at his self-control to make it through an hour on stage without cussing.

Harvey's act in The Original Kings of Comedy is one of my all-time favorite moments in standup, particularly the part about going to church all the time as a kid and about slightly senile Sister Odell - who all she does is watch TV and go to church, so sometimes she stands up to "testify" and blends gospel with TV theme songs - and about finally finding a reason to love going to church when he heard Sister Odell cuss one day:

When you go to church that much when you're a kid, you don't really care for church that much. So what you got to do is find little things to like about church, that make you want to go. And the one thing I liked about my church might seem a little strange to you. But the one thing that made me want to go all the time was when I found out that there was people that cussed at the church. That might not do it for y'all, but dammit, that done it for me.

Well, it's time for church....

Jim Gaffigan

2007-02-16T23:48:00.000-06:00

If you like standup and haven't seen Jim Gaffigan: Beyond the Pale, you should check it out. One nice side feature is that, for standup, it's relatively clean. I still don't know if my mom would like it all, but your mom might. "Did he just call his mom a prude and say my mom has no standards? This guy's a jerk!"

You might've already seen or heard his Hot Pockets routine, but as one who (I confess) has eaten his fair share of Hot Pockets, that bit still gets me. I love the way he sings the Hot Pockets jingle in his distant falestto, kinda like the way does asides in the voice of an audience member all the way through, e.g. "Ridiculous," "This guy's obsessed with cake!" As this columnist wrote:

Most of the jokes end with a falsetto voice that comes from Gaffigan, vocalizing an assumed outraged audience member questioning the previous joke. These asides generally lead into the theme of the next joke.

These ingenious little transitions again run thin as the album progresses because Gaffigan begins to use these asides as punchlines. It's like he doesn't bother with a true punchline.

I, however, think these asides are part of Gaffigan's genius.

Melbourne MDiv

2007-02-05T18:09:00.006-06:00

From time to time I think about trying to transfer overseas with FedEx, e.g. to the UK or Australia - and between the two, Australia seems smarter given the cost of living and current exchange rate. Today, with this in my mind, I looked up the Anglican theological colleges in Australia and ran across this:

The Melbourne College of Divinity, in a joint program of Trinity College Theological School, University of Melboune and the United Faculty of Theology, offers an online Master of Divinity degree. A total of 270 points (18 semester units) is required for the degree, and the Graduate Coursework fee for 2007 is $850 per 15-point semester units.

Double-check my math:
270 points / 15-point semester units = 18 semester units
18 semester units at $850/unit = $15,300 AUD
According to XE.com, $15,300 AUD = under $12,000 USD

This has to be the cheapest reputable MDiv program I've seen.

Updated May 31, 2008:
18 semester units at $936/unit = $16,848 AUD = $16,091 USD

Updated Sep 16, 2008:
18 semester units at $936/unit = $16,848 AUD = $13,389 USD

Updated Sep 11, 2009:
18 semester units at $936/unit = $16,848 AUD = $14,558 USD

Updated Mar 17, 2010:
18 semester units at $1,188/unit = $21,384 AUD = $19,726 USD

Smart+ Net

2007-01-15T10:15:00.001-06:00

The internet is such a weird thing. This morning, reading Chaplain Marshall Scott's blog, I read about Christ Church, Overland Park, KS, for the first time. Then, later in the morning, I read in Grace Notes that the parish has been assigned to the Mid-Continental Convocation of the Anglican Communion Network under the Very Revd D.O. Smart, Executive Pastor of Christ Church, Overland Park. (Just now, I found Dean Smart's bio. What an accomplished man?!)

Dunlap, "Why Remain Anglican?"

2007-01-15T08:02:00.000-06:00

Dr Dan Dunlap has given three reasons to the question of why he remains Anglican, here and here. (Also check out his posts, "The Anglican Practice of Open Communion: A 'Barthian' Take" and "Questions recently asked of me...and the answers I gave.")

Technical Difficulties

2007-01-12T21:24:00.000-06:00

Last night I tried out a new Blogger feature: publishing on a custom domain. Since I own aminor.us (which has been forwarding to blogspot), I thought this would be a nice, easy switch. Apparently I don't know what I'm doing, though, or maybe I'm just impatient. Blogger Help's entry did say:

Once you've told one particular DNS server about your new domain, it will have to transfer that information to all the other servers on the internet, which could take a couple of days. So be aware that your new domain won't necessarily be working instantly.

I'm just not at all sure I correctly changed my DNS settings, created a CNAME record, etc, so tonight I switched back to blogspot hosting and aminor.us forwarding. Guess I should've left well enough alone.

Mercersburg in Monroe

2007-01-12T20:55:00.000-06:00

My father-in-law, Gary White, told me tonight about a website he found on Mercersburg theology. He recently picked up a copy of Nichols' Romanticism in American Theology: Nevin and Schaff at Mercersburg, and I greatly enjoyed reading most of his copy over a Sunday afternoon or two and Thanksgiving at Hollie's parents'. Mr Gary's been reading up on Mercersburg in general lately. He picked up a Schaff title (Principles of Protestantism, I think) at the conference this week; hopefully I'll get to read it soon, too. Anyway, based on his description of the website, turns out he was reading the Mercersburg subdomain of Reformed Catholicism, and apparently a bit of Reformed Catholicism itself; he mentioned the "Dispatches from Auburn Avenue" (Parts 1, 2, 3). I haven't been reading blogs much lately, so I haven't read much by Jamey Bennett, but I'm sorry I didn't know he was here - it would've been nice to meet him. Glancing over the Mercersburg site, most of it appears to be authored by another name I haven't read much: Jonathan Bonomo. Looks like these guys are doing some good work.

The Sunset Limited

2007-01-05T02:55:00.000-06:00

Just heard about this today. Cormac McCarthy's new play premiered May 18, 2006 at the Steppenwolf Garage Theatre in Chicago, but was apparently published in paperback October 24.

Six Weird Things

2007-01-01T11:32:00.000-06:00

Thanks, Guido. Forget the rules, though; I don't feel like tagging anyone.

When I was a young teenager, I wore white polo shirts everyday by my own choosing. I must've had at least five or six of them.
When I hold something out the car window, I often have a false but strong sense that I'm going to drop it, e.g. if I'm pouring something, the cup's in danger; if I'm holding my hand out the window, my wedding ring's going to fall off. I also sometimes have strong premonitions of being in a violent car accident (as strong as memories, although I've never been in anything worse than a fender-bender). Doesn't keep me from driving, though, or from holding my hand and stuff out the window.
I don't play the guitar much anymore, but I keep my fingernails for those rare moments when I do. Plus, I've gotten used to having long nails on my right hand; they're incredibly strong and useful (maybe because I've kept them long for half of my life), and I'm sure God didn't give them to us just so we could cut them off.
There was a time when I hardly read any fiction. With so much important non-fiction to read, I felt like I didn't have time for fiction. Now I probably read more fiction than non-fiction, and I'm convinced that the path of wisdom is filled with as much good fiction as non-fiction (if not more).

In addition to patterns of reversal like this, my life has also followed other patterns, sometimes cyclical, sometimes chiastic, sometimes cyclical-chiastic-snowball. There's the whole Monroe-Moscow-Monroe-Moscow-Monroe thing, aka the NSA-ULM-UI&NSA-UI-ULM thing (and no, I don't plan to go back to NSA to complete the pattern). Then there are areas of vocational interest over the years: pastorate, music, military, medicine, academia, music, teaching, military chaplaincy, hospital chaplaincy. Even my work experience illustrates a weird theme-and-varations pattern with elements of the cyclical-chiastic-snowball effect: medical office cleaning, real estate appraisal office work, construction "apprentice" grunt work, foreign language computer lab and English department office work-study jobs, Christian summer camp counselor, Kinko's (from part-time basic position to full-time specialist position), Christian school teacher, Kinko's (from full-time advanced position to full-time specialist and then part-time specialist), church office work, FedEx Kinko's (assistant manager, interim manager, assistant manager).
I don't post a lot these days, so I don't get many readers, but I still occasionally get contacted out of the blue by interesting readers. Once, a local Target worker struck up a conversation with me that went like this: "Hey, you're Jon, aren't you? I recognize you from your Blogger profile...saw that you listed liturgy as one of your interests and thought, 'Wow, not many people are interested in liturgy, but here's someone locally!' I assist in the liturgy at Christ the King Chapel and am a student worker at ULM's Catholic Campus Ministry. Come join us sometime!"

Last week I received a letter in the mail, handwritten and dated Christmas Day, from the Rt Revd Michael Olsen of Louisville, Kentucky, abbot of Pine Abbey and rector of Iona Community Church (Diocese of Saint Cuthbert). He writes:
Dear Jon & Family,
Came across your blog, just thought I would drop you a note about our little Abbey here in Kentucky. We are with the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, also known as the Communion of Convergence Churches [CEEC/CCC; see also the Wikipedia entry, "Convergence Movement" -jon]. We have several new "monastic families" that have started recently. Perhaps you could begin one yourself! Blessings to you all!
Love in Jesus,
+Abbot Mike Olsen, O.S.C.
(Order of Saint Columba)
I believe that, biblically and hence ontologically, the church exists on a metropolitan level. It exists on other levels, too, but one of the potentially strongest levels is the citywide ecclesia, the presbytery or diocese that matters most, despite an often unofficial and transdenominational character.

Reader Quiz

2006-12-21T00:27:00.000-06:00

via Josh McInnis

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Literate Good Citizen
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

The Believer Magazine

2006-12-11T21:00:00.000-06:00

Anybody ever read The Believer, the monthly magazine affiliated with McSweeney's? I ran across it for the first time the other day searching for reviews of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. (See the first two paragraphs of The Believer's review here.) Their "About" page alone tempts me to subscribe.

King's College Lessons & Carols

2006-12-08T09:53:00.000-06:00

~~Can you help get this live, historic service broadcast locally on KEDM? Find out how at Know Tea~~. UPDATE: RevJATB reports that the broadcast has been underwritten by OIB President Whitty Hood.

For more about the service itself, see Wikipedia's entry.

Currently Doing

2006-12-07T20:46:00.000-06:00

In what little spare time I've had lately, I've been...

reading:
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
- G. P. Taylor, Wormwood
- Friedrich Zuendel, The Awakening: One Man's Battle with Darkness
- Dennis Bakke, Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job
- Armand Larive, After Sunday: A Theology of Work

watching:
- Hard Eight
- Primer
- Grilled
- Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
- The Da Vinci Code

listenting to:
- Remy Zero, Villa Elaine
- Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head
- See this post.
- And this one.
- Rufus Wainwright, "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (Reprise)"...gay as can be, but nevertheless

Tom Waits

2006-12-03T09:18:00.000-06:00

This morning I woke up and felt like listening to Tom Waits. I just have his Small Change album, but I've been told it's his best anyway, cover photo notwithstanding. Whatever the case, it's hard to beat "Step Right Up" [lyrics; Amazon sample] and "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)" [lyrics; Amazon sample]. Special thanks to Kilgore Trout for introducing me to this album ten years ago and to Deacon Blues for giving me a copy last year.

Olsan on Fandal

2006-11-26T22:23:00.000-06:00

Here's an encomium on one of Hollie's and my favorite former Latin professors (and our dean) by another of my favorite former professors (and the best academic advisor I ever had...too bad I didn't take more of her advice).

If you don't have time to read it, Dr Fandal is alive and well. He just returned to "what is truly close to the heart of all academic professionals: students, research and professional service" after thirteen years as dean.

Thanksgivings

2006-11-23T09:36:00.000-06:00

I almost forgot that Thanksgiving Day is a Major Feast Day according to the current Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (1979 BCP, p 17), as Fr Riley points out every year - and I did forget about Grace's Thanksgiving Eve Eucharist last night. (Fr Riley's own former admin assistant...I should be ashamed of myself.) But here are a few prayers to help my memory, which needs all the help it can get:

First, "A Litany of Thanksgiving" ("For optional use on Thanksgiving Day, in place of the Prayers of the People at the Eucharist..." BCP 836-7):

Let us give thanks to God our Father for all his gifts so
freely bestowed upon us.

For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and
sky and sea.
We thank you, Lord.

For all that is gracious in the lives of men and women,
revealing the image of Christ,
We thank you, Lord.

For our daily food and drink, our homes and families, and
our friends,
We thank you, Lord.

For minds to think, and hearts to love, and hands to serve,
We thank you, Lord.

For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and play,
We thank you, Lord.

For the brave and courageous, who are patient in suffering
and faithful in adversity,
We thank you, Lord.

For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice,
We thank you, Lord.

For the communion of saints, in all times and places,
We thank you, Lord.

Above all, we give you thanks for the great mercies and
promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord;
To him be praise and glory, with you, O Father, and the
Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

And here's the "The General Thankisgiving" (Contemporary) from Morning Prayer (BCP 101):

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks
for all your goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all whom you have made.
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,
that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise,
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
by giving up our selves to your service,
and by walking before you
in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory throughout all ages.

Amen.

travelog retrospective: playlist

2006-11-19T21:11:00.000-06:00

after these messages, regular punctuation will be right back...

hollie already mentioned a bit, but here's the full list (in no particular order):

1. garden state soundtrack
2. jackie brown soundtrack
3. oasis, (what's the story) morning glory?
4. leonard cohen, the best of leonard cohen
5. baby bunny classics, travel time baby
6. r.e.m., in time: the best of r.e.m. 1988-2003
7. counting crows, recovering the satellites
8. guster, lost and gone forever
9. dora the explorer
10. veggie tales, bob & larry's sunday morning songs
11. st clair baby's first, piano please!
12. last kiss soundtrack

travelog13

2006-11-13T16:44:00.000-06:00

monroe, louisiana - made it back home last night around 1. man, that's a long drive. i need a vacation.

travelog08

2006-11-08T13:50:00.000-06:00

moscow, idaho - we made it. got in last night between 10:30 and 11.

setbacks here & there included levi throwing up a couple times, high winds in wyoming monday (causing us to stay the night in casper instead of in sheridan or billings montana as hoped), and a combination of wind, rain & fog last night on the last, most curvy, uphill/downhill part of the trip (starting around butte montana).

otherwise, great trip. having made this drive more times than i remember, this might have been the best yet (and with three little ones! mad props to their momma).

travelog06

2006-11-06T08:06:00.000-06:00

norman, oklahoma - on vacation this week. after going back & forth on what we were going to do, finally decided saturday night to take a cross-country road trip and visit family in idaho. left sunday morning after 8am service at st thomas.

had a good driving day yesterday, but ran into heavy rain in oklahoma, averaging 45mph for well over an hour. hoped to make it to wichita or salina kansas, but finally decided to stop earlier than planned due to rain. picked up little caesar's and ate in the hotel room. norman seems nice. go sooners.

hopefully tonight we'll make it to wyoming or, if a miracle happens, montana.

Mark Horne on Madonna & Geneva

2006-10-30T09:38:00.000-06:00

Take a few minutes to read Mark's extended post, "What Hath Madonna to do with Geneva? Thoughts for Reformation Day." The quotes from Luther were a good reminder - especially for those like me who sometimes romanticize life in monastic service and community - that raising children in God's service in a "life of Christian normalcy" is itself a great gift and missional opportunity.

Leithart Visit

2006-10-30T08:48:00.000-06:00

Saturday I attended Peter Leithart's lectures on postmodernism for the Dabney Center's Fall Special Session. If you're looking for a well-read overview of the history, theory, and implications of postmodernism set against the backdrop of Ecclesiastes, you'll want to get these lectures from Auburn Avenue Media. You'll also want to listen to his Sunday morning sermon on Ecclesiastes. I'm sure his Sunday School lecture on 1 & 2 Kings and his evening sermon at John Knox were good, too, but I didn't hear those - yet. I also didn't really talk with Dr Leithart other than to shake his hand, say hi and thanks, but that's what BH conferences are for; hopefully I'll be able to continue my accidental tradition of going to the BH conference every-other year (2001, 2003, 2005) and make it next year. Worship and biblical-theological talks by day; afternoons off to go to the beach, visit, shop, rest, whatever; more worship and biblical-theological meditations, followed by eating, drinking, smoking and fellowship by night - doesn't get much better than that.

(Photo snagged from someone who took a bunch of pictures at my sister's wedding a couple years ago.)

Nashotah's Proposed MA

2006-10-23T08:14:00.000-05:00

I'm more and more interested in this program, especially after talking with Grace's new curate, the Revd Deacon Bill Estes, who finished his MTS at Nashotah in May. Bill's background is Presbyterian and Reformed Episcopal, and he's good friends with Franklin Sanders (who himself is now vicar of an REC mission church in Lawrenceburg, TN, Christ Our Hope). Here's the proposed degree program design:

The proposed requirement for the M.A. in Ministry degree is 48 semester hours of credit to be earned by taking eight six-credit modules, one at a time [each costing about $2,000, making the degree's total tuition around $16,000 -jon]. Modules are planned to be approximately three months in duration and consist of one week of intensive residential study on the Nashotah House campus with the remainder of the module consisting of lectures, assignments and class interaction through online distance education. The eight modules will be based on the seven subject areas specified for ordination preparation in the Episcopal Church Canons of the General Convention, Title III, Canon 8, Section 4, item (e).

While I'm sure it would be better, faster, and even easier in some ways to just move to Nashotah and become a regular, residential student there, this seems like a good alternative in the event that such a move weren't feasible, or until such a move were feasible. Plus, it would cut down on the required amount of time in residence at Nashotah to earn the MDiv, probably cutting 3-4 years down to 1 or 2. This is an especially big pro for Hollie since she can hardly bear the thought of spending even one winter in the Milwaukee area.

Google Docs

2006-10-21T05:57:00.000-05:00

Why am I just now finding this? I just went looking for a big form to type in or cut & paste online (to aid proofing, spell checking, etc), and I found something that kept a revision history, allowed me to save as PDF, etc - all things Word doesn't even do. Google never ceases to amaze me.

It's the Same Old Song

2006-10-18T21:50:00.000-05:00

Today, driving home from New Orleans, all my radio could pick up for a bit was a country crossover station, and I heard this song that sounded really familiar musically. I just looked it up and learned it was Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats." Anyway, after listening for a minute, I placed the famliar sound as Aerosmith's "Dream On." Anyone else noticed the similarity?

At All Times

2006-10-15T09:54:00.000-05:00

Probably the one thing I appreciate more than anything else about the Catholic tradition is the way they have church all the time. And by "all the time," I mean a lot more that once or twice on Sunday. If you miss the 10am Sunday service, you can go to the noon service or the 4pm service, or you can plan ahead and go to the Saturday vigil or the 8am Sunday service. If you wake up at 6am on a weekday and think to yourself, "Man, I could really use church right now," you're in business. If you leave work early or manage to pull off a long lunch break, there's probably a weekday noon service at a Catholic parish or chapel somewhere in town.

If Protestants could learn one thing from Catholics, I think it would be this: Yeah, they have their carnal Christians, who pride themselves on their Catholicism but live like hell and go to church maybe once a year - but we have those people, too. Where they have us beat hands-down is in having church without ceasing, serving both their devout members and the down-and-out who show up for weekday or alternate weekend services.

If the church exists for the life of the world - if the church is the mission of God to the world - how can we be content to celebrate the Eucharist once a week on Sunday morning? The world needs more than that. I have a feeling that we'll all eat together with Jesus a lot more than once a week in the kingdom, but you wouldn't know it from our life here & now in the church. Why is that? What else are we doing that's so important?

On Controversies Between Christians

2006-10-14T14:34:00.000-05:00

Josh Melton pointed out this good post by Josh McInnis: "Everything You Need To Know About The Alluded To Controversies Between Christians."

Clarification: Note the "Not"

2006-10-08T09:15:00.000-05:00

The post below was not written by someone on the brink of "converting" to the Roman Catholic Church. It was written by a reformed catholic evangelical who, despite strong disagreements with Roman Catholicism, is far from being anti-Catholic. I believe that the same Holy Spirit who leads me also leads my Catholic brethren, and with Christ, my prayer to the Father is that we all may be one.

That said, I don't think the reunited church of the future will be Roman Catholic per se. With Lutheran theologian Carl Braaten, I do think it will have a pope and a college of bishops in apostolic succession, but I think these "papal and episcopal structures will only be acceptable to Protestants...when they have been divested of every authoritarian feature, both in theory and in practice" (Mother Church, page 32). Likewise, I doubt they'll be based out of Rome, at least not all (or even most) of them. I think the bishops who rise to primacy will continue to serve in their native sees, whether Nairobi, Seoul, Pittsburgh, Buenos Aires, or Rome. I also believe the reunited church of the future will have embraced the firstfruits of the Protestant Reformation.

So while I'm far from being anti-Catholic, I'm also far from being Catholic. I blogged the post below so that I'd have it in my archives for future reference, not to generate discussion, concern, or excitement. I'm grateful to my Protestant friends for writing and encouraging me to keep the faith, and I'm grateful to my Catholic friends for writing and encouraging me to embrace the fullness of the faith, but you can all chill now. Sorry if my post below was unclear and alarming, but like I told one friend, I fully expect that I'll always be reformed and reforming, just like I'll always be white.

Confessions: Why I'm Not Roman Catholic

2006-10-04T21:50:00.000-05:00

I cut & pasted (and slightly edited) the following from an extended conversation some friends and I recently had with a buddy who's becoming Roman Catholic. In my usual conflicted way, I both sympathized with him and gave him my unabashed reasons for deciding against his path.

Lately I've wondered if the main thing keeping me from becoming Catholic is fear. I'm afraid of losing dear friends and being viewed as an idolater by heroes and mentors. What scares me, though, is how lame a reason that is. Fear. "Have I not commanded you, 'Be strong and courageous'? Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged, for Yahweh your God will be with you wherever you go." Call me a weaker brother for kinda wanting to be Catholic, and I'll tell you I'm a weaker brother because I'm too chicken to do it.
Even though I'm about as ecumenical as they come, I'm pretty stubborn theologically, and I don't buy a lot of Roman Catholic stuff, from magisterial infallibility and celibacy as the norm for priests to anti-contraception and all manner of lingering Marian superstition. I wouldn't be willing to "renounce my former heresies" or whatever (if there's really such a line in the vows) and commit to being a blind follower. In my less wussy moments, it's that stuff that keeps me from becoming Catholic, not fear of rejection by my Protestant friends.
Have you ever seen the "true church" syndrome run amuck? It's not pretty. That's really what keeps me from converting. (I know, this is the third reason I've given for why I'm "really" not Catholic.) I can imagine myself as a Roman Catholic, but not as a "true church" convert. I've already had my fill of that BS in my short, blessed life. Consider the arrogance and divisiveness (KJV, "heresy") of "true church" claims. No thanks, man.

On Finn's First Birthday

2006-09-29T21:02:00.000-05:00

Heavenly Father, you sent your own Son into this world. We thank you for the life of this child, Finn, entrusted to our care. Help us to remember that we are all your children, and so to love and nurture him that he may attain to that full stature intended for him in your eternal kingdom; for the sake of your dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(The Book of Common Prayer [Episcopal Church, 1979], page 841, "Thanksgiving For the Gift of a Child")

28th Birthday

2006-09-23T09:59:00.000-05:00

After I miraculously managed to leave work a few hours early yesterday, we opened presents (bottle opener, The Office Season Two, shirt, candy and original cards from the boys), went out to lunch at O'Charley's, and dropped off the boys at Hollie's parents', where they stayed the night. Hollie & I ended up driving over to Vicksburg again and playing penny slots at the Ameristar. Got a free drink and won $28 (Coincidence? I think not!), which more than covered gas (down to $2.05 in Tallulah) and dinner at Waffle House. Yeah, we sound like old losers, but I'm pretty sure they were the ones still pouring into the casino when we left - I was just too tired to keep up with them, despite the fun of playing penny slots with my beloved penny pincher.

Books from Vicksburg

2006-09-16T23:59:00.000-05:00

We went to Vicksburg this afternoon, drove through the military park and then hit the outlet mall, where the Book Warehouse is closing shop tomorrow and all paperbacks are $1 and all hardbacks $2. Pretty picked over, but I still came out with a handful of books for about $10:

George MacDonald: An Anthology - 365 Readings (plus a bibliography), edited and with a preface by C.S. Lewis (1946). HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. From the back cover: "According to C.S. Lewis, everything he wrote was influenced by the genius of George MacDonald. Lewis said, 'I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.' George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a popular Scottish lecturer and writer of novels, poetry, and fairy tales. Born in Aberdeenshire, he was briefly a clergyman, then a professor of English literature at Bedford and King's College in London."
Breaking the Fall: Religious Readings of Contemporary Fiction, by Robert Detweiler (1989). Westminster John Knox, 1995. Winner of the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in Publishing. Reviewed by Eugene Peterson in Theology Today. Detweiler is professor emeritus of comparative literature at Emory.
Wormwood, by G.P. Taylor. Putnam, 2004. Taylor began his working life as a punk-rock promoter in the music industry, became a social worker, then a police officer, then a Church of England vicar and exorcist, and is now a bestselling author of youth fantasy with a multi-million-dollar movie deal. He's also hosted a TV series on the paranormal and continues to serve as a now-itinerant priest.
Recycling Biblical Figures: papers read at a NOSTER colloquium in Amsterdam, 12-13 May 1997, edited by Athalya Brenner and Jan Willem van Henten. Also published as Studies in Theology and Religion 1, edited by Johannes C. De Moor on behalf of the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion (Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Theologie en Religiewetenschap = NOSTER). Leiden: Deo, 1999.
Bobos* in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There, by David Brooks (*bourgeois bohemians). Simon & Schuster, 2000.
William Law: Selections from A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. Forward by Walter Wangerin, Jr (2005). Edited by Emilie Griffin, HarperCollins Spiritual Classics. Original translation published by Paulist Press, 1978. From the back cover: "William Law (1686-1761) was an Anglican priest who specialized in providing spiritual direction."

Even if I never read any of these, I at least enjoyed finding them for little of nothing.