Holding the Center

Will we have the moxie to stand up and stick out like a sore thumb against the Lie?

From Doug Wilson:

A similar taunt of defiance was written by C.S. Lewis in his classic That Hideous Strength. Speaking of the "fabulously learned and saintly Richard Crowe" he notes that the last words of Crowe had been "Marry, Sirs, if Merlin who was the Devil's son was a true King's man as ever ate bread, is it not a shame that you, being but the sons of bitches, must be rebels and regicides?" Sons of bitches about pegs it.

I use these words deliberately, because it reveals how much postmodern thinking has penetrated the evangelical world. I am not here speaking of those writers who are openly cheering postmodernism and throwing their hats in the air. I am speaking of churches and individual Christians who flinch and wince at the free use of "sons of bitches" and who do not wince at all when someone says that "objective truth" may be a concept that will not serve us well evangelistically in these postmodern times. "Jesus is Lord" is a truth, to be sure, but it is a truth in our linguistic community. And the compromised say that they may not agree with this, but surely we can conduct our discourse on a higher level?

At the end of the day, any theologian who defends the truth as an objective reality apart from our experience of it will be charged with epistemic arrogance and hubris. This charge will be made regardless of his personal demeanor, grace, or graciousness. This charge will be made because the use of language in this debate is all about who will "have the center." The pomos want it, and they will lie to get it.

posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 28, 2004 -

Art What If...

"I'm convinced that had he lived another 10 years, he would have been as famous as Rembrandt and Vermeer."

--from Radio Netherlands program on the Dutch artist Carel Fabritius who died in an explosion in Delft at the age of 32.

posted by Dave at Wednesday, December 22, 2004 -

Put On

Putting on airs about what other people find pleasurable to eat, listen to, hang on their walls, etc. is contrary to the spirit of Christ. But does this include kitsch? Does it include pictures of Elvis on crushed velvet? Yes, after a fashion. We must not put on airs over such things, ever. But may we recognize cultural immaturity? Yes, but not in a way that becomes indignant over other people’s pleasures.

--from a recent Doug Wilson blog entry
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 21, 2004 -

Factoid
According to the Rijksmuseum web site, there were approxamately 5 million paintings made during the 17th century in the Netherlands.

The population of the United Provinces ranged from 1.5 to 1.9 million during the same time period.
posted by Dave at Monday, December 20, 2004 -

Minas Tirith and the New Jerusalem
This post is inspired by Matt Colvin's keen observation about the remarkable (at least!) similarity of Peter Jackson's Minas Tirith in LOTR and Bruegel's Babel (pictures of each are on Matt's site.)

I have made this observation earlier, but have not put it in writing:

Minas Tirith is an excellent visual example of how the New Jerusalem as described in Revelation 21 would look. Many critics of a (more or less) literal, concrete reading of that passage have seen the depiction as "silly". "Its just a big cube. How can a city be a big cube?"

For example, radical agrarian Howard King, in his review of my book, observes

Jerusalem means "City of Peace". It was a castle, a walled fortress, intended to be a place of wealth, of security, of stable order, of community, and of the presence of God. The New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse represents these ideals under a figure. The enormous precious and semi-precious stones of the foundations, the pearly gates, the streets of gold -- all suggest virtually unlimited wealth. The cube-shape and the massive foundations represent perfect stability. The tremendous wall represents absolute security. In words reminiscent of Isaiah's prophecy (54:11), " O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires," John describes the beauty and perfection of the foundations of the city. What do these precious stones represent? The doctrine of the apostles (Revelation 21:14). For the city itself is identified as "the bride, the Lamb's wife"(v. 9,10) . This can be no other than the church, which is the community of the faithful. God himself shall dwell there, with His people forever.

Rev. 21:15-16 states that

And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal.(KNJV)

Reading this as a cube is a very uncreative reading. Seeing the New Jerusalem as a vast pyramidal city built in a stepped fashion, like a wedding cake, or like Jackson's Minas Tirith, is a more sensible view. It also helps us see how the imagery of the New City comports with other prophetic language referring to the Mountain of the LORD (Heb. 12:22). And it demonstrates how culture is to be harmoniously integrated with nature.
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 16, 2004 -

Rock Concert Worship Experience

Bono and the Edge each take an octave on the final song Yahweh, a song destined to be this generation’s 40. With the lyrical flavor of a Take My Life and Let it Be and the musical flavor of a worship anthem, Yahweh is a worship song, plain and simple. It is a prayer and an invitation for God to turn “clenched fists” in to open hands, to “kiss” and heal a critical mouth, to restore the “city shining on a hill” if it “be your will,” to “take this heart and make it break.” That’s where the album ends, in fact, with those lovely, humble, prayerful words…take this heart and make it break. By now, your hands are raised, and you’re calling Ticketmaster for front row seats to what is sure to be another incredible worship experience – U2’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb tour.

(from a review in byFaith magazine)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, December 15, 2004 -

The Out-of-Context Bible Quote of the Year

The LORD has rejected the two kingdoms

--Jer. 33:24 (NIV)
posted by Dave at Monday, December 13, 2004 -

Effects
Doug Wilson, after a visit to a local bookstore, had this observation:

We are being disciplined by the modern market to live fragmented lives. The world insists upon it. We think we are not affected by it, but we are. Whatever valuable critiques of modernity might be brought by postmodernity, we have to fix it in our minds that postmodern fragmentation is a very great evil, and it is our temptation.

The effect of the culture around us is very subtle. We need to work hard to see its effects on us and take appropriate action.
posted by Dave at Monday, December 13, 2004 -

Culture is Local
Or at least it ought to be. Or at least that is where is starts.

R.C. Sproul Jr has it right:

I’m sure, had I so desired, I could have driven to Knoxville or Charlotte last night, and seen someone perform that you would have heard of. I certainly could have traipsed off to the movie theater and seen the latest scenes from Hollywood. I would have, in either case, had some minute point of contact with all those who watched with me. But that’s not what I did. Last night I visited the local coffee shop, Java J’s, owned by a local homeschooling family. There, playing their music up on stage, was the Ridgewood Boys. I suspect that it was an unpayed gig, though it was rather professionally done. Rick, the older of the two boys, sang well and earnestly while playing the stand-up bass. Chris, the younger of the two boys, added his voice and played alternately the banjo and the guitar. I was able to bring all six of my children along, and while I was there, got to visit with the eight to ten families from Saint Peter Church that showed up that night. The Ridgewood Boys are Rick Saenz and his son Chris, likewise members at Saint Peter.

(link)
posted by Dave at Friday, December 10, 2004 -

David Brooks Gets it
A couple of weeks ago Brooks wrote a piece in the New York Times recognizing that the John Stott is one pudits need to understand if they want to get into the head of evangilicals - more than, say, Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson.

He was so correct.

Two days ago he wrote another boffo piece on "natalists" - i.e. that segment of America (mostly conservatives - in the "red" states) who -- gasp -- have three or more kids.

Here is one amazing insight by Brooks:

If you wanted a one-sentence explanation for the explosive growth of far-flung suburbs, it would be that when people get money, one of the first things they do is use it to try to protect their children from bad influences.

This also explains the homeschooling and Christian Schools. But its not just about protection. Its about formation. Its about foundations. We want our kid's minds to shaped by the Truth without all the baggage that the world has to offer. They'll have plenty of time to battle that later when they are mature.

Brooks ends hid piece with this observation:

What they cherish, like most Americans, is the self-sacrificial love shown by parents. People who have enough kids for a basketball team are too busy to fight a culture war.

Well, not quite.

What these "natalists" have learned it that it is more important to build than to fight. Sum it up in one word:

Resitance.
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 09, 2004 -

Christianity as Resistance

The final essay in Shaming the Devil is a triptych in which Jacobs recounts his quest to learn Linux and buck the Bill Gates machine. It is called "Computer Control (the Virtues of Resistance)," and I very much like that parenthetical; it reminds me that Christians are called to be, inter alia, pockets of resistance to the powers and principalities.

--from a review of Alan Jacob's new book at ChristianityToday.com


posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 07, 2004 -

Right in my Backyard
Last week there was an article about the evangelical "scene" in Portland in the freebie alternative rag Willamette Week. In it they mentioned the Institute for the Theology of Culture which is run by a professor at Multnomah Biblical Seminary. The Institute even has a new journal Cultural Encounters coming out soon.

The orientation of the Institute seems to focus on contemporary issues and political involvement rather that culture-making. But it is still pretty cool!
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 07, 2004 -

Christmas and Culture

And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

That is, they presented to the King of culture gifts of human culture-making, forshadowing Revelation 21:24,26.
posted by Dave at Friday, December 03, 2004 -

Cool Dutch Art Site
If you have Flash on your computer, check out the Masterpieces of the Golden Age site at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Beautifully designed.

(Link to the site is on this page.)
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 02, 2004 -

Equipping for Christian Culture
Here is a cool service - Act One - which provides training, mentoring and critiques for Christians who want to be screenwriters.

We need more creative solutions like this.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 30, 2004 -

Article on Agrarianism
"The Task for Conservatism": Family Lessons From The New Agrarians, a talk delivered by Allan C. Carlson at the Kirk Center in Michigan.

As I've said before here on this blog, there is a lot to learn from agrarian thought. Our ties to the land are really important. Raising up crops from the earth is a core cultural activity. But I can't as far as may agrarians who condemn (nearly) all industrial activity and the importance (even necessity) of cities. Nevertheless, their critique of the scourges of industrialism is very important for a Christian approach to development and culture making. As such it is truly worth our attention.


posted by Dave at Friday, November 26, 2004 -

You Dropped What!

The dish, for years used to serve meals to a Bay Area family, sold for $5,726,250 on November 17 after competitive bidding via telephone from three international clients.

(Article)

posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 24, 2004 -

A Kinder, Gentler Culture War
is proposed by John Bolt in his lecture, "The 'Culture War' in Perspective: Lessons from the Career of Abraham Kuyper".

Yes, the purpose of politics should not be confused with the church's evangelizing, worshiping, discipling mission, but what is wrong with a separate and distinct political activity by Christian citizens? On any number of important issues many American evangelical Christians confuse the necessity of public civility with avoiding political conflict and mistakenly believe that developing personal relationships through friendship and witnessing is able to solve political conflict.

Bolt then asks:

Is it possible or responsible today to be a believing Christian and a conscientious objector to the culture wars?

I would say yes and no.

Christians should be culturally active. Both a makers and consumers. As we are faithful in our cultural pursuits self-consciously as Christians,merely doing so will enter us into the cultural fray. It can't be avoided unless you stop serving your Lord.

posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 24, 2004 -

Two Books that Have Caught my Attention


TOC from Substance
Exerpt from Having.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 23, 2004 -

I Take it all Back

He spoke this weekend of his strategy. It isn’t simply that we would infiltrate Hollywood, that if we would create enough Christian key-grips and best-boys, eventually we’d be in charge. Instead he wants us to make films to the glory of God. We can do it without them.

--R.C. Sproul, Jr, talking about Doug Phillips who organized the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival that met a couple of weeks ago.

Sproul was a judge/speaker at the event.

At first I admit that I made fun of this event. Doug Phillips hyper-patriot approach to politics and "homer" views are not my cup of tea. I was expecting something naive and amateurish. But my hat is off to him to organize an event that may actually promote the creation of real-live Christian culture. The stuff that culturally "engaged" Christian academics at evangelical colleges only dream about (if they even bother).

I hope that they publish the talks given at the festivals symposium. I want to hear them!
posted by Dave at Friday, November 19, 2004 -

Platonism
The New Yorker has a delightful article by John Updike musing over the new architectural digs of the Museum of Modern Art. Updike is a dazzling writer. Who else can use the word "skyscaperized" with seemless elegance?

In his article, he quotes the architect, Yoshio Taniguchi, who told the board of MoMA:

“Raise a lot of money for me, I’ll give you good architecture. Raise even more money, I’ll make the architecture disappear.”

Modernism was a quest for Platonic perfection. Pure form that would transcend the real world. Or at least approach this.

The irony is that to achieve "disappearance", attention to the physicality of the media used must be maintained at a feaverish pitch. Its all about craft.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 17, 2004 -

Kerry Stew
An angry piece just appeared in the National Review on NYC artists who were unabashedly pro-Kerry and produced art promoting their now fallen hero.

Lets not get too worked up about this.

What do you know: the avant garde art scene is liberal (how shocking!). But the joke is on them. They expend all their energy shouting out their message in ironic, conceptual, savvy ways. But absolutely nobody is listening (or looking). Nobody except the art-world cronies who are (for the most part) already die-hard liberals. (They are not as lucky as Michael Moore to be able to make a fast buck promoting the liberal agenda.)

WE MUST REMEMBER that outside of New York (and other art centers) there are hundreds of artists (Christian and non-Christian, liberal and conservative) who still make well-crafted, pleasure-giving art which the locals patronize and enjoy.

Leave the self-important avant-garde politkunsters to stew in their own juices.

Use the ink for better purposes.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 16, 2004 -

Blessing or Curse or ...


posted by Dave at Monday, November 15, 2004 -

Personal Update
I have not posted all that much this week. Besides having yesterday off, I have been busy finishing up work on the extension on our house (still!). It has been an amazing learning experience.

So far I have learned how to:

Install pocket doors.

Hang interior door.

Install interior trim.

Install cement siding.

Install exterior trim and vents - without a chop saw!

Install a deck.

Alas, this is stuff that a hundred years ago all men knew how to do. Basic carpetry was a regular part of life. How far we have come...

I am also thankful to God that I still have all my fingers.
posted by Dave at Friday, November 12, 2004 -

My Favorite Artist of the Moment
is Adriaen Coorte (Dutch, 1660 - 1706 ) who painted dazzling, small still-lifes which eerie stillness and monumentality despite their humble size.



Check out this brochure on Coorte from the National Gallery. (Notice who owns cat. no. 2!)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 09, 2004 -

Cultural Analysis of the Election
from Andrew Sandlin. He's doing his usual equating "culture" with politics (culture is much, much more than politics).

But he has this interesting analysis of the presidential election:

That message has been abetted by three vital political changes. First, as the fascinating article “Our Secularist Democratic Party” in the Fall 2002 issue of Public Interest documents, the Democratic Party has in fact become more secular over the last 30 years, while the Republican Party has become more Christian. This is a matter of documentation, not speculation, and it is a result, not a cause, of increasing Christian influence in American culture. As the message of Christian culture has spread, a political party has been obliged to make room for it. If you want to know why Republicans keep making gains, it is because as the Democrats have become more secular, the nation has become less secular. This is another way of saying that the Democrats have suffered from self-marginalization.

Too optimistic? Are Christians really more influencial in the culture at large?
posted by Dave at Friday, November 05, 2004 -

Kuyper's Cultural Classic is Online
Gemeene Gratie (=Common Crace)is available online in Dutch.

Here's Part I.

Links to other parts can be found here (start at 1902).

Yet another reason to learn Dutch!

posted by Dave at Thursday, November 04, 2004 -

New Article on Hans Rookmaaker
just out by yours truly.



HRR was my hero. He got me into art history.

What else can I say?
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 02, 2004 -

How to Scare the Living Daylights out of Scientists

STEP 1: Come up with an alternative scientific argument that demonstrates that evolution can't explain what it purports to explain.

STEP: 2 Begin to convince people that your alternative scientific argument casts serious doubts about evolution.

Somebody one said that if you want to find out what somebody's idol is, just poke around until they scream.

Well you can hear the screams over the challenge to evolutionary hegemony in Wired magazine.

I think I will forward this article to the headmaster of Veritas School (where my kids attend). It is a tour-de-force of journalistic bias.
posted by Dave at Monday, November 01, 2004 -

Even Abraham Kuyper
has a blog!
posted by Dave at Monday, November 01, 2004 -

Then There's the Grandaddy of Christian Realism


posted by Dave at Friday, October 29, 2004 -

More Christain Realism
Henk Helmantel of the Netherlands. Was featured in the Realism Revisited exhibit which toured the US in early 80s. (You can still find this catalog for sale on the internet!)


posted by Dave at Thursday, October 28, 2004 -

Christian Realism
One of my favorite contemporary Christian artists is Tim Lowly, who has a new show at Koplin del Rio Gallery in Los Angeles. He is a supurb technician working in a realist mode. But like all good realists, his paintings are really well thought out, equisitely finished, and full of emotion/feeling. His works have a haunting character that never leave me.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 27, 2004 -

Where Real Cultural Revival Comes FromMr. Doug Wilson flat nails it again:

But does this means that we should strive for a lack of scholarship in what we do? Certainly not, because anti-intellectualism has a bad case of its own besetting sins as well. Proud ignorance is no better than proud knowledge. The problem is the human heart, which is always about eighteen inches below the head, whether or not the head in question is full of axle grease or erudite learning. Why does Paul taunt the wise man, the scholar of the age? It was because with all his learning, he did not know God.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7). It may sound arrogant to us to say something like this, but it is really humility. "I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes" (Ps. 119:99). One of the foundational prerequisites for faithful study in any area, therefore, is a fear of the Lord, and a complete willingness to ground everything on the Word of God.

posted by Dave at Monday, October 25, 2004 -

Kapeesh?
Kudos to my covenant buddy Paul Otto on his article in Catapult on dah Yankee fans in Section 29.

His observations remind me of Luke 23:12. What really binds people together?
posted by Dave at Monday, October 25, 2004 -

Trees
Some ruminations on these wonderful creatures from the Bruderhof.

To which I add Luther's quote:

If I knew the world was going to end tomorrow,
I'd plant a tree today

posted by Dave at Thursday, October 21, 2004 -

Contentment and Christian Culture
I believe strongly that there is such thing as Christian Culture and get excited when I see bits and pieces of Christian Culture being established.

Doug Wilson makes an excellent point that we will never really establish vibrant, extensive Christian Culture until we manifest in our thoughts and lives the fruits of the Spirit. Chief among this is

But the fear of the Lord is manifested, gloriously, in gratitude and contentment. It is not manifested first in conservative theology or family values. It is manifested in love, joy, and peace. Ungrateful and discontent peoplein short, worriers and complainerscreate problems, usually for themselves, wherever they go. People who are all in a dither about paper diapers and the environment, demanding we go back to cloth diapers are probably the kind of people who never thanked the Lord for either. St. Paul said he had learned contentment whatever the circumstance. When we are talking about health, diet, environment, etc. this must go in the first place. If it does not, then everything afterwards is skewed.

posted by Dave at Thursday, October 21, 2004 -

Gotta Love It
TV-B-Gone

Though I'm waiting for the model that vaporizes TV sets.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 20, 2004 -

Love and Law
In biblical thinking - and the application of the scriptures to culture - the moral law and love are not at odds, even thought they are repeatedly portrayed as opposites (at best) or mortal enemies (at worst).

We need to live by the "law of love" it is often said. But what is love? Without the moral law how do we know what a loving act is?

Consider this passage from a recent remembrance of the late Jacques Derrida, from Books and Culture:

But this is a picture of Derrida and deconstruction that one could maintain only by failing to read him. For in the end—or better, from the beginning—deconstruction is a work of love. Far from being a mere "method" for critique, Derrida was at pains to demonstrate the essentially productive aspect of deconstruction. "It is not negative," he once commented, "For me, it always accompanies an affirmative exigency. I would even say that it never proceeds without love."

Is it really loving to disregard or cast aspersion on authorial intent or lead reading into radical skepticism?

Self delusion runs deep.

Which is why we need a law to guide us.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 19, 2004 -

Well Worth the Download
Lectures by John Frame on "Christ and Culture". Very good discussion of the topic. I especially liked his critique of the Two Kingdom view.
posted by Dave at Monday, October 18, 2004 -

?



Read.
posted by Dave at Friday, October 15, 2004 -

A Salt on Culture
ByFaith.com online PCA magazine has two part (part 1, part 2) article, "Culture: Hate It? Love It? Redeem It!" by William P. Smith.

Some of what Smith says is really helpful. But some is off the mark. In Part 1 he contrasts two opposite extremes: "Denigrating Cultural Influences" and "Accommodating Cultural Influences ". About the former, Smith says

There are two problems, however, with this approach. First, it is not possible to isolate those inside the church from the surrounding culture. With society as intertwined as it is, you will always encounter non-Christian elements wherever you are, and you will always be affected by them—your kids (including those attending Christian schools) know about and admire the Hulk, SpongeBob SquarePants, and the Powerpuff Girls, even if you won't let them dress up to look like them. Doing nothing other than obtaining the necessities of life—buying groceries, getting gasoline, shopping for clothes—requires you to interact with others and their cultural influences. And lest you think you could avoid such influences by radically living "off the grid", remember that you, and those with you, being redeemed sinners, will generate your own culture with its attendant sinful distortions. To think that it is possible to avoid "contamination" by eliminating our interaction with those around us is a myth.

Second, trying to barricade the church doors against cultural imports results in the loss of salt and light to the world. Christian ghettos develop their own culture, with peculiar activities and language completely incomprehensible to society at large. That ghetto, foreign as it is, has no way to communicate to the larger society.

It may be indeed impossible to entirely avoid the corrupting influence of surrounding godless culture. But should we try to minimize it as much as possible? As Paul said, "Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits.""

Are we really going to be in danger of not being able to communicate with our surrounding culture? This didn't seem to be a problem for the early Apostles, who were culturally aware of Hellensism but not immersed.

Again, I ask, were is the antithesis.

Or, to put it another way: How are we to be salt unless we are salty.
posted by Dave at Thursday, October 14, 2004 -

Bureaucracy "Shake"-up
Headline: Mount Lebanon Cupboard Garners $178,250 at New Hampshire Shaker Auction


posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 13, 2004 -

Celebrating the Bard

He was a tender and gardener, and on his walks in rural Stratford he observed flowers and crops and wildlife with the eye of an ecologist; it is doubtful you will find in any writer so many varieties of plants given voice in their seasonal differences and profusion. What he saw once he preserved in an unassailable ether inhabiting his mind.

--Larry Woiwode, from an article on Shakespeare in Books and Culture
posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 12, 2004 -

Here's a Book I Hadn't Heard About!



From the publisher:

William Dyrness explores the roots of Reformed theology from sixteenth-century Geneva to seventeenth and eighteenth-century Puritan New England. Though this tradition impeded development of particular visual forms, Dyrness argues that it encouraged others, especially in areas of popular culture and the order of family and community. Exploring the theology of Calvin and others, Dyrness demonstrates how the tradition created a new aesthetic of simplicity, inwardness and order to express underlying theological commitments.

posted by Dave at Friday, October 08, 2004 -

While We're on the Topic of Architecture...
there is talk that Antoni Gaudi the Spanish expressionistic architect is being considered for sainthood.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 06, 2004 -

Some Books on Church Architecture

When Church Became Theatre: The Transformation of Evangelical Architecture and Worship in Nineteenth-Century America by Jeanne Halgren Kilde

Ugly As Sin: Why They Changed Our Churches from Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces and How We Can Change Them Back Again by by Michael S. Rose

I found these books when I was snooping the Sacred Architecture Journal site which is edited by Stroik. This journal is Roman Catholic in its orientation.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 05, 2004 -

Article on Architecure
The Roots of Modernist Church Architecture by Duncan Stroik, who is Roman Catholic and an arch defender of classicism. It would be fun to see Stroik debate Pugin, the 19th c architect who wrote vociferously that Gothic not pagan Classicism was the ideal for church architecture.

An interesting (telling?)quote from Stroik:

In the Reformation, Catholic churches were stripped of statuary, paintings and traditional symbols. New churches were designed as "meetinghouses", as if going back to early Christianity when believers met in each others' homes. Architecture, having lost its ability to signify the sacred, became seen as merely providing for the assembly's material or functional needs. The concepts of the church as auditorium and theater in the round derive from early Calvinist buildings which were designed to enable people to see and hear the preacher, such as at Charenton, France.

posted by Dave at Monday, October 04, 2004 -

Hideous Church Architecture
Link

(Don't say I didn't warn you!)

Got something worse? Post the url in a comment.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 29, 2004 -

Aspirations
From a review of C.S. Lewis' Collected Letters in Books & Culture:

There is never a pro forma response. Lewis' pen is like a magical stream which can run now fresh, now salt, now cream, now wine. His complete mastery of voice is an object lesson in the art of becoming "all things to all men."

Ah, to write like that!

(Or, why we need to give our kids a classical education.)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 28, 2004 -

Some Recent Church Interiors I Like

I




Cemetery Chapel. I love the simplicy, attention to detail and proportion.

II




Chapel in Seaside. Somewhat cartoonish (esp. the exterior). Maybe too stiff/cold. Again I like the simplicy, the clean lines and the sense of rhythm.

III



St. James, Fairhope, AL. Nice updating of traditional form and Carpenter Gothic details.

IV



Thorncrown Chapel, AR. A stunning space. Not very practical.
posted by Dave at Monday, September 27, 2004 -

"Culture Trumps Politics"
so says Andrew Sandlin.

Or is it just a case of my centrism is better than your centrism?
posted by Dave at Thursday, September 23, 2004 -

Informed but Not Biased
From an interview with poet and director Dana Gioia of NEA:

Q: How does your personal faith influence your work for the NEA?

A: One’s spiritual life nourishes and informs every aspect of one’s social and private life. I do not run the National Endowment for the Arts with any religious bias. But I do deeply believe in the spiritual power of art.

posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 22, 2004 -

Church Building
Our home church, Trinity OPC, is starting the process of building (or expanding) a new sanctuary space for our congregation. New seating capacity will be approx. 250.

Our trustees are wrestling with cost, possibilities with the land we own, zoning restrictions, etc.

I am really hoping that we can make a new facility that is truly aesthetic. But I realize that we need to be careful with the limited funds that we have. The two consultants/architects that the trustee have interviewed so far do really mediocre work (at best). It would seem that they could still be "basic" and yet get the details and massing and proportions right so that result is generally pleasant. But this does not seem to be the case.

Do any of you out there no any experienced artchitects who have designed church buildings that you like?

Or do you have examples (urls) of church buildings that you like?
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 22, 2004 -

How I'm Keeping Busy
Lately.

Toiling feaverishly, before the rainy season starts. (Last week it was very rainy, which, believe it or not, is unusual this time of year in Oregon!)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 21, 2004 -

Bashing Walmart
PCA gets into the act.

So does Gary North.

Also check out the engaging allwayslowprices blog put together by some economists.

I wonder what Mike Horton and Norman Shepherd think.

(Is it just me, or does the new PCA online rag By-Faith have a decided left-ish edge?)

posted by Dave at Thursday, September 16, 2004 -

Thumb
through some classic 16th century books by the likes of Dürer, Holbein and Palladio.

Or you can leaf through later books on Botany, Zoology or Newton's Optics.

Cool. And Free. (High res. versions are for sale.)
posted by Dave at Monday, September 13, 2004 -

Quote

"no part of a dollar spent for beauty is ever wasted."

--Edgar Kaufmann, the Pittsburgh department store owner who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater.
posted by Dave at Friday, September 10, 2004 -

Solomon the Culture-Maker
is a theme I explore briefly in Plowing. He is simultaneously a type of Christ - master-builder of the New Creation/Culture (it is no accident that he was a carpenter before he entered his "ministry"), and the prototypical redeemed man fulfilling - finally - his calling to tranform the earth. Peter Leithart recently explored this theme as well in a recent post. Here is a taste:

"I think this is best explained by seeing that Solomon, as son of David and son of Yahweh, is a creator-builder like his Heavenly Father. In 1 Kings 3:4ff, Solomon receives divine wisdom, the same wisdom that, by Solomon's own account, was a master-craftsman beside Yahweh as He created the world. Solomon is clearly organizing, dividing and distinguishing, shaping and filling Israel and then the temple."

posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 08, 2004 -

Making Flippy Floppy
In South Africa, a conceptual artist got his way and was given permission for his cutting edge installation. Here is the result:



He merely took a gallery of Dutch old master paintings and turned them around, so that the picture faced the wall. The sort of effacing gesture (and gesture is all it it is) has been tried before: notably Robert Rauschenberg's "Erased DeKooning Drawing". For many it will induce a wry smirk, for others laughter. The stuff of the evening news when they need something light hearted to soften the violence and gloom.

But I must say that as an art historian this is a wonderful opportunity. The backs of paintings are full of information: provenance records, notes, descriptive information, etc. And it gives us an opportunity to see the craft that goes into preparing panels and canvases for painting. I wish I could be there to view it.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 07, 2004 -

Needs and Work
I also just saw this article on work from ByFaithOnline. According to the article, work is for meeting basic human needs:

It was Martin Luther who most emphatically pointed out that work was instituted by God to make sure mankind’s needs are met. It is by our work in the secular world, Luther said, that the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, the sick healed, the ignorant enlightened, and the weak protected. It is through our work, he believed, that God’s people participated in his ongoing care for the human race.

Again, I have to say that this doesn't go far enough. Work is more than meeting basic needs. It is our calling to transform and develop the earth (Gen 2:15). Work is our calling to be faithful stewards in the broadest and most global sense.
posted by Dave at Friday, September 03, 2004 -

Becoming a Truly Wholistic Church
The PCA online magazine ByFaithOnline recently posted an article "Becoming a Church that Changes the World" which argues for the importance of reaching out into the community in ways that go beyond "mere" evangelism. The article approvingly sites Ron Siders book Churches That Make a Difference: Reaching Your Community with Good News and Good Works :

Part 2 [of the book] builds on this foundation by examining the essential components of a holistic congregation. Our research suggests that these elements include: 1) an ability to balance the nurture of members with outreach; 2) a knowledge of and love for the community surrounding the church; 3) a clearly communicated theology and vision for holistic mission; 4) an integration of a holistic vision into the internal life of the church; 5) a base of healthy, loving relationships; and 6) the leadership calling and equipping the members of the congregation to action.

The problem with the article (and Sider's book) is that it doesn't go far enough. Its vision of "good works" is too truncated.

"Good works" must include culture-making as well. That was our original calling to "work" in our pre-redemptive, pre-fallen state.

Culture is the missing ingredient toward making churches truly wholistic and balanced.
posted by Dave at Friday, September 03, 2004 -

Paved Paradise?
Roads are a key part of the cultural development of the earth. Streets are part of the fabric of the New Jerusalem. The Romans figure out quickly the importance of good roads. And we reap the benefits of the superhighway system today.

This theme was nicely commented on this blog entry (which I found via the CityComforts blog) which refers to a recent program on the History Chanel on "Paving America" which recounts the development of the highway in the US. (Here is Oregon we have the marvelously aesthetic Columbia River Highway which was developed by Sam Hill to transport grain from the eastern part of the state to Portland.)

An additional note: the blogger points out that suburban sprawl is because of the Interstate system. I disagree. Maybe a large part of the sprawl can be blamed on superhighways. But suburbs had their origin cities like New York (Long Island) and Philadelpha because of the development of the train and trolley.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 31, 2004 -

Did You Hear the One about...
the museum janitor, who accidentally threw out the artwork?

(For all of you out there who think contemporary art is trash - you know who you are!)
posted by Dave at Monday, August 30, 2004 -

Doug Wilson on the Second Commandment

Fifth: "But Jesus became a man. Why may we not have an image of Him? To deny images is to deny the Incarnation."

Answer: Jesus said that one who had seen Him had seen the Father (John 14:9). The same cannot be said of His images. We cannot even picture Christ accurately on the physical level; how much less are we able to represent Him as the God/man. The Incarnation means that had cameras been invented in the first century, it would not have been unlawful to take a photo of Christ. The mercy of God delayed the invention of the camera by 1900 years.

(read full blog entry here)

posted by Dave at Friday, August 27, 2004 -

The Genuine Article
can be found in the Christian Reformed Index of various periodicals associated with the CRC.
posted by Dave at Thursday, August 26, 2004 -

Christian Culture: Will Our Children Be Ready?
One thing I wish I developed more in my book is the God-ordained role of the family in culture. I point to it but I don't develop it at great length.

But others have done a fine job at this. One such person is Doug Wilson, whose recent blog entry fleshes this out even more.

The contemporary church's failure to enculturate their children in a biblical culture is an appalling tragedy. Yet in our desire for cultural engagement (if it in fact that and not parental neglect), we have raised a generation of covenant children who are woefully shaped by the world.

Here is some of the tragic evidence (from George Grant's blog on 8.18):

My friend Eric Holmberg, of Reel to Real Ministries, often makes presentations to church groups on the smothering influence of media in our lives. He sent me this very telling transcript of a recent encounter he had with a college fellowship group:

“Who's the character in Seinfeld with the funny hair?”

A chorus of hands shot up excitedly. “Kramer!” came the almost universal reply.

“What time does Friends come on?”

Again, there was no hesitation. “Eight!” “Thursday nights.” “NBC,” offered one young lady, nailing the coordinates in both space and time.

“Complete this line from Spiderman: 'With great power comes…?”

“Great responsibility!” over seventy-five voices cried in unison.

“Now can someone tell me the difference between rap and hip-hop? Or emo and goth?” There was a brief silence as the audience cast about for the best spokesman to address the nuances of the question. But after a few initial observations were made, the response again became lively and democratic. Person after person shared either their thoughts on the distinctions or at least illustrated them by identifying their favorite artists in each category.

“OK,” the speaker said. “Let's now change gears a bit. Who was the prophet in the Old Testament who had no hair?”

Silence.

“What hour of the day did Jesus die on the cross?” Emboldened by the narrow range of possible answers, a few hands went up and numbers were offered. But it was obvious that nobody real knew.

“Complete this line from Proverbs 3: “Trust in the Lord with all you heart and….”

“…obey Him?” the NBC girl offered hopefully.

“Sorry, although obeying Him is certainly a good idea. OK, someone explain to me the difference between justification and sanctification.”

The silence among the church's college group was now deafening.

As HR Rookmaaker repeatedly said, we must "weep."
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 25, 2004 -

Good Work and Christian Culture
Are truly good works possible in this life?

How one answers this question has a profound bearing on how one views the possibility of Christian culture.

Here is an example of "good-work" and cultural pessimism from Gene Veith:

"There can be no such thing as a Christian culture as such, because Christianity comes from faith in the Gospel, not the works of the Law, and God saves individuals, not nations. Not every member of a culture is going to be a Christian. Since conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to coerce or require anyone to become a Christian. The unregenerate cannot obey biblical principles so as to be part of a Christian culture. Neither, while they are in their fallen flesh, can Christians."

Here is an example of good-work and cultural optimism from Calvin Seerveld (via Gideon Straus):

"[C]reaturely life is what the Lord wants redeemed (cf. e.g. Psalm 50, Matthew 6:7-15, especially verse 10); saving persons for bearing obedient fruit in all facets of our existence is what the Holy Spirit was given for after Christ ascended into heaven (John 16:5-15, 1 John 2:27); the world-wide ministry of reconciling everybody, everything, back to God out of the shaping grip of idolatry is what Christ's body is logically to be busy with here on earth (2 Corinthians 5:17-19, Romans 11:36-12:2), says the Scriptures. In old-fashioned language, I am talking about sanctification that is gritty and concrete. Not as a chore in work-righteousness. Not as a means to a guaranteed millennium on a stipulated timetable. But as the normal, happy task of God's trusting people who are eager to be claiming the riches of God's straightening-out gifts, embodying that insight and joy, showing all that the Rule of Jesus Christ begun is a Rule of understanding, love and shalom - that's enough to make almost anybody jealous of also belonging as adopted child to the Lord of heaven and earth (cf. Romans 11:11-16).

Two very different takes on the work of the Holy Spirit and culture.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 24, 2004 -

Hidden Motives
More wisdom from RC Sproul Jr.:

"A church on its own and alone, even if all the daughters are dressed demurely, even if the little ones sit quietly during worship, even if the heads of the women are covered, is just as worldly as the church down the street with the purple-haired youth guy, and the senior pastor in the clown suit. For the spirit of the age isn’t defined by what the eye can see, but by the heart that declares itself free of all constraints."

(a cautionary response to the Uniting Church and Family conference he recently attended)
posted by Dave at Thursday, August 19, 2004 -

I Wonder if This Is True?

"But very often, especially under modern farming practices, the farmer’s field is depleted and lacking in life and fertility, and other “weeds” invade, not with the intent to compete with the farmer’s crop, but rather to perform a service. Most “weeds” are actually reclaiming, restoring, and redeeming land polluted and spoiled by methods that eye profit alone with little or no homage to the creative life of our natural world."

(from the Bruderhof site)

Maybe that's why we have to put up the tares for now.

posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 17, 2004 -

The Tragic Ascendancy of Image over Word - More Evidence?
Poetry and the Novel are (allegedly) dying. What will fill the literary void?

Comic books!

So saith the New York Times. Read chunks of the article here.
posted by Dave at Thursday, August 12, 2004 -

Dutch Treat
Here in Portland its front page news! (view pdf)

A group of 17th century Dutch paintings, prints and other objects are coming to the Portland Art Museum from the Rijksmuseum. (If you haven't heard, most of the Rijksmuseum is closed for extensive renovations. So they are letting portions of their extensive collection tour the US and Japan.) I will only have to wait until 2007. Patience...

There will also be a small exibit of Dutch works from the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague coming this fall.

Needless to say, the Native Tourist is excited.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 11, 2004 -

First There Was the Naming of the Animals, Then...

Museums started out as Renaissance Wunderkammern -- private "wonder chambers" where the well-heeled could display their collections of wondrous stuff, whether made by nature or by man. They were about the pleasure to be had from the glories of God-given and man-made plenty. It turned out that one way to enjoy and profit from that plenty was to catalogue it, sort it out, find the laws and regularities behind it -- to learn from it and all about it. Most of the natural sciences and many of the humanities took off from those Renaissance treasure chests. The private displays themselves eventually evolved into public museums -- of art and history and science.

--quote from the Washington Post
posted by Dave at Monday, August 09, 2004 -

Now All We Need Is Some Time and a Comfy Chair...

About 100 million different books have been published in history, Kahle said, citing estimates from professor Raj Reddy at Carnegie Mellon University. About 28 million sit in the Library of Congress. On average, a book can be condensed to a megabyte in Microsoft Word. Thus, the books in the Library of Congress could fit into a 28-terabyte storage system.

"For the cost of a house, you could have the Library of Congress," Reddy said, adding that mass book-scanning projects are currently under way in India and China.

(Source of quote)
posted by Dave at Monday, August 09, 2004 -

The Other Shoe Drops
Howard King has just posted the second (and last) part of his scathing critique of my book. Needless to say he and I have drastically different worldviews - even though we are brothers in Christ.

He speaks of "Hegeman's carnal theory of culture", "Hegeman's materialistic view of Christian culture" and he states that "Hegeman's idea of culture is worldly, so his vision of the eternal state is worldly, as well."

I must plead guilty as charged.

I prefer "earthy" rather than "worldly", because of the negative overtones that the latter term has in the Bible. But the scriptures condemn "world" as a sinful, anti-Christian system - not the physical reality of the earth. Which IS eternal.
posted by Dave at Friday, August 06, 2004 -

Good Listenin' for Thursday Night
Heard North Carolina folk singer Jason Harrod last night at the Coffee Cottage. (He used to play in the group Harrod & Funck.)

What an awesome voice.

His Mad Girlfiend song is was hoot! "Tidewater" was allusively sublime.
posted by Dave at Friday, August 06, 2004 -

Where the Culture and "Great" Commissions Meet
is the Kingdom of God.

This is the argument put forth in Lester DeKoster's book Light for the City: Calvin's Preaching, Source of Life and Liberty.

From the description at Discerning Reader:

According to Lester De Koster, the doctrine of predestination as taught by Calvin makes building the kingdom of God, rather than evangelism, the sole and highest calling of Christians. Calvin's preaching, his Institutes of the Christian Religion, and his leadership of the church and government in Geneva were each directed toward establishing God's kingdom on earth. De Koster cogently argues this provocative case in the hope that, by properly understanding Scripture as a "dynamic creative Agent of the City," faithful preaching today, just as in Calvin's day, will strive to evoke the City of God on earth.

The New Jerusalem is more than people. Its culture too!
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 04, 2004 -

An Agrarian Take on Plowing In Hope

I just discovered a review/critique of my book by Howard King, who writes from from a radical agrarian perspective. (King wrote many articles for Patriarch magazine.) Here is the introduction to his article:

With the growing interest in a biblical theology of culture have come two irreconcilable theories. The one salient fact with which all must deal is that Biblical culture was agrarian -- and ours is not. There are only two alternative interpretations of this fact.

Modernists (in the broad sense -- I am not talking about theological liberals only, but anti-traditionalists of every stripe) explain this basic fact by ignoring the well-documented history of greed and the lust for power that shaped our modern world, and by claiming that the biblical agrarian culture was inferior to our own. They hold to a form of cultural evolution which assumes (but never proves) that the culture of the technological society is intrinsically superior to biblical agrarian culture. This seems self-evident to them, I think, because they share many or most of its ultimate values.

Biblical Agrarians, on the other hand, claim that our technological society is apostate and culturally degenerate, and that redemptive history will move us toward the goal of a restoration and perfection of the original decentralized agrarian social order, in which godly culture will flourish. These two theories are diametrically opposed.

Yet, a book from Doug Wilson's publishing house, Canon Press, called Plowing in Hope: Toward a Biblical Theology of Culture, by David Bruce Hegeman seeks to reconcile the two. This is a useful book, for it gathers together most of the data of Scripture that must be systematized in order to answer the question, "What is the biblical concept of culture?" It makes the fatal mistake, however of attempting to steer a middle course between the two opposite theories. This is appealing to those who want the best of both worlds, but it cannot be done with intellectual integrity. You cannot have the technology of the industrialized world without the pollution, the vice, the waste, the corruption, the warfare, the destruction of life that has always gone hand in hand with it. You cannot have an urban civilization without the agglomeration of wealth and power that have always motivated and dominated it. You cannot have the beauty of a world-wide garden and the peace of the rural countryside without the greater part of men living by subsistence farming. This book, by its failure to discern the conflicting formative and sustaining principles of urban and agrarian societies can only promote confusion."

Read more of King's article here.
posted by Dave at Friday, July 30, 2004 -

Undoing Babel
Some insightful words from Peter Leithart:

"In Christian civilization, this Pentecostal emphasis has been at the core of what it means to be civilized, educated, cultured. Exposure to other civilizations and languages and literatures has been at the heart of education since the Renaissance. Subtract Pentecost from history (as Stanley Fish and others attempt to do), and we'd all be living in our little tribes, our language incomprehensible to anyone else. And we'd be perfectly content to continue that forever."
It is this uniting of peoples of different languages and cultures - under the Lordship of Christ - which has given the West its vast cultural richness. It is a glorious outworking of the Gospel.
posted by Dave at Thursday, July 29, 2004 -

Getting the Cultural Commission Right
Chuck Colson can be so right at times about culture. So full of insight. And he can be infuriatingly wrong so often as well. A case in point is this piece from ChristianityToday.com:

"That people still raise this question surprised me. "Of course we're called to fulfill the Great Commission," I replied. "But we're also called to fulfill the cultural commission." Christians are agents of God's saving grace—bringing others to Christ, I explained—but we are also agents of his common grace: sustaining and renewing his creation, defending the created institutions of family and society, critiquing false worldviews."

Colson continues:

"Understanding the cultural commission is especially critical as we approach a decisive election. We know what a key role our elected leaders play in culture war battles. But many pastors question whether it's appropriate to urge their flocks to vote for politicians who support moral issues—or even to engage in moral debates."

First of all Colson does what so many evangelicals do: he mixes up (or at least equates) culture-making with political involvement. Politics is important, but it is only one tiny part of culture.

Second, he fails to see that the "Great Commission" and the "cultural commission" are not separate, parallel commissions but are one and the same thing. People are saved and restored in order that they may fulfill the original edenic commission, as I have argued in Plowing and elsewhere.

The church will get nowhere in cultural matters until we get this right.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 27, 2004 -

Solid Theology
Gideon quotes an interview with NT Wright, who speaks about our resurrected bodies being

"more solid than the present one - not less. We tend to think of a new state which will be a less solid thing. But what the New Testament is talking about is a new creation which would be a more solid thing, whatever that will be like."

We have to throw off the neo-platonic, quasi-gnostic view of our bodies (and by extention, physical creation and culture) so popular in evangelical circles for a more biblical understanding.
posted by Dave at Monday, July 26, 2004 -

I'm Back
Last week I was behaving as a . . . well, tourist.

My sister came out for a visit. We went to the Columbia River Gorge where we hiked Oneonta Gorge and Beacon Rock. Then on the hottest day of year we went to Astoria to Fort Clatsop and Fort Stevens State Park. It was the warmest day at the ocean I have ever seen in Oregon - 85F!. Saturday Newberg had a parade and fireworks.

Fireworks are surely one of the most delightful cultural developments.
posted by Dave at Monday, July 26, 2004 -

Something I'm Looking Forward to



Hear a cut.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 20, 2004 -

Feel Left Behind?

The Millenium is here.
posted by Dave at Monday, July 19, 2004 -

A Culture of Life (What Christian Culture Looks Like - Part X)
from the Bruderhof.
 
I may not agree with their theology or the specifics of their values and culture, but they earnestly seek out to live out what the believe. And much of what they believe is based on and shaped the scriptures.
 
"The Living see beyond themselves and their own desires.
The Living see the basic needs and hopes of others as the same as their own.
The Living know that even “dead men walking” can turn away from death toward life.
The Living recognize and practice a “community of life.”
The Living know good and evil tendencies are in every human being.
The Living practice repentance and forgiveness.
The Living are peacemakers.
The Living seek justice for all.
The Living are informed by history.
The Living see beyond their generation into the future.
The Living seek the same opportunity for others that they seek for themselves.
The Living respect, conserve, and share the resources of the Earth.The Living serve the spirit of love.The Living would rather build than destroy.
The Living seek truth instead of lies and illusions.
The Living choose trust over suspicion.
The Living celebrate life:  
  In the smile of a child,
   In the loving touch of hands,
   In the sharing of food and drink,
   In the healing of the sick,
   In the unique quality of each individual person,
   In shared laughter,
   In shared work, 
   In the beauty and sternness of nature,
   In song, dance, and story."


posted by Dave at Friday, July 16, 2004 -

Comprehensive Vision
This recent blog entry from Doug Wilson is so good I quote it here:

"The Lord Jesus resisted temptation by quoting from the book of Deuteronomy. One of the things he quoted was the famous passage on not living by bread alone. But the passage says more than what we do not live on. Scripture goes on to say that we are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Put simply, we are to live in an environment dominated by the Word of God. Scripture is to be the air we breath as we undertake anything. Cornelius Van Til put it well when he said that Scripture was authoritative in everything it addresses, and it addresses everything.

There is no area of our lives where we can go stand and be free from the authority and direction of Scripture. Landscaping, chemistry, physics, medicine, changing diapers, law, backhoe operation, etc. all fall under the lordship of Christ. The kingdom of God is not like a poor cell phone plan that gives you places to go where you don’t have coverage."
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 13, 2004 -

Understatement

"To think that part of my job is to go into the galleries and sit and look at Rembrandt and Vermeer and Hals and Rubens and Van Dyck, and think about these paintings and just enjoy them is -- it's a wonderful opportunity . . ."

-- Arthur Wheelock, curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and expert in Vermeer
posted by Dave at Monday, July 12, 2004 -

Articles on Art and Art Making
Came across "Imagination as a Means of Grace" by Leland Ryken.

And Gideon Strauss has had a couple of posts quoting Calvin Seerveld from Rainbows for the Fallen World on the basic approach to Christians need to take in art making (esp. post from July 7). Really good advice.
posted by Dave at Friday, July 09, 2004 -

Songs For Saplings
We just got the hot new CD from our friend Dana Dirksen (she often performs with my wife Marjorie). An alphabet of simple scripture songs to help hide the Word in a child's heart. A great supplement to Jamie Soles and Judy Rogers.
posted by Dave at Thursday, July 08, 2004 -

The Answer is
$30 Million
posted by Dave at Wednesday, July 07, 2004 -

Luther the Metaphysical Dualist
Read quote from Galatians commentary at Rabbi Saul's blog.

You can take the Monk out of the Monestery...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, July 07, 2004 -

Is She or Isn't She?
Tonight's the night this little baby (8x10 inches) goes up for sale.



Is it a genuine Vermeer? If so it is the only work of his to likely go up for sale, purhaps forever. The physical evidence appears to be good. But the quality is sub-par. But then again many other Vermeers are weaker that the others.

It would be nice to see a museum like the Getty step up to the plate and use their sizable resources to snap up this work. But I'm afraid it is far too risky for that. Or is it?

(See article on this painting and another on a painting by DeHooch also up for sale.)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, July 07, 2004 -

More on Portland's Pearl District
(See earlier discussion here.) Is the Pearl District really a haven for the so-called Creative Class (Richard Florida-speak), or something a bit different? This article from the Oregonian examines the real truth (sort of).
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 06, 2004 -

Truth in Labeling
Bopped over to Relevant Magazine site and found Dan Buck's "Getting out of the Faith Getto" .

"We have categorized ourselves out of the world. Life is one category. Good music, good art, good health and good prescription drugs are innately spiritual if they are in fact good. We don’t need to label something Christian to the exclusion of the rest of the world for it to be good and pure. Because all things that are good and pure are of God, whether the name on it is Rich Mullins or David Gray. All truth is God’s truth. If we are seeking God out in everything we do He will inevitably show up."

I wonder how Buck's approach would work in a culture, say, like Nazi Germany?

The key phrase here is "if they are in fact good".

Sure, merely slapping the label "Christian" on something doesn't make it good and pure. And there are many things which do not have the explicit label "Christian" which are good and pure. Most of this stuff (all?) if it truly good and pure, must be Christian anyway, or be thoroughly influenced by biblical principles and values.
posted by Dave at Thursday, July 01, 2004 -

Sticks and Stones
Doug Wilson says that all art historians are back seat drivers. Maybe that's why they're always so carsick? (I thought it was the art.)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 30, 2004 -

A "Christian Woodstock"
(Found this on the Touchstone blog)

What happens when you take Willow Creek, and blow it up, say 100,000 times bigger? And make it global while you're at it, rather than Mid-Western bourgeois.

Well you get "New Christianity" . A quote from the article:

"The only Vatican correspondent who noted the impact of this image on the world, John L. Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, put the problem this way: “Can a robust Catholic identity really be forged by mimicking the modes of expression of the larger culture? Or would the Church do better to foster its own distinctive speech, prayer and devotions?”"

Seems I'm not the only one asking this question.


posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 29, 2004 -

Pleroma?


posted by Dave at Friday, June 25, 2004 -

More on Buildings and Food
(well I lied about the food)

See fairly thoughtful article on urban design by Christopher Leerssen over on the PCA online mag. Leersen laments about the usual stuff: big box stores, surburbia, etc., but never really comes down on whether or not the civil nagistrate should intervene.

But I fully agree with him when he observes:

"These days, sidewalks are the exception, the town square is a quaint and nostalgic idea, and public benches and places to sit are discouraged. The neighborhood park often is an enormous tract of land on the outskirts of town; some might drive there, but no one really owns it. Where, in today’s communities, are the places that parades are held and speeches given? Where is the special nook for young lovers to become engaged to be married? Where can neighbors be neighbors to one another, and where can rich and poor walk down the sidewalks as fellow citizens? "

Purhaps no one builds city squares any more because no one knows what to do with them. Our culture by and large has no need for a place for public rallies, civic speeches, etc. But you WILL find loads of people at parks that have playgrounds, ball fields and picnic shelters. These are still included in new developments within cities.

Purhaps the key ingredient for community in our cities are families. Kids are frequently what bring households together.

Could it be that family are more important than the shape of the built environment?
posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 23, 2004 -

See
discussion of John Davidson Hunter's "How to Change a Culture" over at Gideon Strauss' blog.

Here is a summary from David Koysis:

Hunter argues for five propositions: (1) "Culture is a resource and as such, a form of power"; (2) culture is deliberately produced; (3) "cultural production is stratified in a rigid structure of 'center' and 'periphery'"; (4) cultural change comes from the top down and hardly ever from the bottom up; and (5) "world-changing is most intense when the networks of elites and the institutions they lead overlap."
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 22, 2004 -

Well Versed
It must be in the air. A poetic convergence.

Matt Colvin quotes C.S. Lewis on appreciating Classical poetry in the original languages.

Doug Wilson laments the fact that boys today fail to appreciate poetry (see CA article on the topic).

Wilson also puts in a plug for Doug Jones' writing tutorial service. Jones' Scottish Seas (my favorite novel of his) is chock full of men reciting and composing poetry, including the psalms.
posted by Dave at Monday, June 21, 2004 -

On Diversity and Calling
Some nicely put observations from Touchstonemag.com blog:

"The same is true of men. Each of us has been made differently, according to our many kinds, qualities of race, sex, mind, and body, and to the combination of them that makes a unique self, according to the mind and will of the Creator. We are never remiss if we seek to perfect what we see ourselves made to be, if we seek within ourselves the Glorious Design.

...

What happens to the Christian who is seeking to do the will of God in such matters, I believe, is that he works to become what he finds has been placed within him, and that as this grows and matures and bears fruit he has something excellent to offer to the Lord. In offering that excellent thing (in imitation, and indeed, in the person, of Christ) he discovers and takes up his cross—which means he finds his pain and his shame, but also his joy and his glory."

posted by Dave at Friday, June 18, 2004 -

Two Sources of Pleasure

1. Paper + Pencil = Joy

(what a simple, portable technology with unlimited potential)

2. We get to hear the Arizona-based music group CAVU tonight at the Coffee Cottage. We heard them three years ago and they were terrific. Real musicians.
posted by Dave at Thursday, June 17, 2004 -

Are Cultural Distinctions a Mirage?

From "Some Thoughts on Musical Style" by Kevin Twit at the ModernReformation.org site. The author defends the adaptation of new tunes to old psalm and hymn lyrics. I should point out that I have no real problems with this although I do question whether it is necessary.

At any rate, Twit says at one point:

"The rigid dichotomy between high art and pop art is unhelpful and naïve

Actually the historical basis of this is a rather racist argument. I am not saying that anyone who holds this distinction is a racist, but am pointing out a matter of historical origins. This distinction is really only about 150 years old, emerges during the nineteenth century as people try to separate themselves from the massive influx of Eastern European immigrants, and falls prey to a classic logical fallacy: just because something is popular does not mean it is of inferior quality! It may mean that it is of great quality and has connected with a large number of people for really good reasons! In addition, the attempt to make a big distinction between folk art and pop art fails to understand how popular art functions. I believe more Reformed thinkers need to appreciate those thinkers who understand culture in dynamic terms, rather than merely static ones."

To back up his claim, he sites this article from Calvin Theological Journal.

I wonder what Ken Myers would say about this? Could it be that there was a substancial shift in society 150 years ago that might account for this? Like say, immigration?
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 15, 2004 -

Another Doug Wilson Nugget
on the difference between Work and Jobs
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 15, 2004 -

Real and Pretend Urbanism
A little more about cities, "new" (="revitalized") neighborhoods and the "rise of the Creative Class".

Last week ago Thursday my wife and I went to First Thursday in Pearl District in Portland. (This is an evening when all the art galleries in the district are open, as well as the other shops, and in the summer the close down some of the streets and there are art and craft vendors.) What a zoo. Crowds. Loads of people clearly from outside of Porland (i.e. the suburbs) trying to be cool, pretending to be art connoiseurs, being entertained. It was the place to be. And it all seemed so fake.

I can remember regularly going to the galleries in Soho in New York City when there were only four or five galleries on West Broadway (circa 1979). It was still industrial back then. Artists living in lofts was a radical new idea. Then the neighborhood began to change. More galleries and soon upscale clothing stores, furniture "galleries" and craft boutiques. It was cleaned up. All the grit was gone.

My friend aptly called it "little Rodeo Drive."

Later came the rise of Tribeca and now I understand that Chelsea has followed suit. Most of the artists moved to Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where there is now a lively gallery scene. (Will this be ruined too?)

Richard Florida may talk about "authenticity" being a value New Urban Creatives desire in their neighborhoods. But any vestage of authenticiy disapears as soon as the upscale stores move in and things are cleaned up. It then becomes a tourist destination - not a real neighborhood. Besides who can afford $350K for 1000 sq ft loft in the Pearl?

When we were first married, we lived for two years in the West 50s in Manhattan. Hispanic men played dominoes on the street on card tables for hours Ninth Avenue. People hung out windows and talked to their friends on the street. The local waitress in the Diner new us by name. This was authentic neighborhood.

These new cool urban neighborhoods are about as "authentic" as Disneyland or Colonial Williamsburg. But the tourists like it.
posted by Dave at Friday, June 11, 2004 -

The Limits of City Planning

By now many of you know about my article on Richard Florida and the Rise of the Creative Class (it is being discussed at GideonStrauss.com). It infaces with many issues of city planning, which is an interest of mine.

I regularly read David Sucher's CityComforts blog. Lately he has been (page by page) posting the intro of the new edition of his book. He says in part:


"The work of Christopher Alexander was inspirational. In an essay, “Cities as a Mechanism for Sustaining Human Contact,” he says that people come together in cities not only for the traditional reasons of trade, politics, and security, but because cities allow people the chance to increase their human closeness. The way to measure the success of a city, he says, is by how well it fosters and encourages human communication."

This sounds really, really good. I love cities and neighborhoods with a vibrant street scene. And are aesthetic. But to what extent can this be created by city planners?

Eric Jacobsen (author of Sidewalks in the Kingdom) laments that Seaside, Florida, the poster child of the New Urbanist movement, fails to function as it was intended. He observes that even though every single house in Seaside has a front porch, the residents rarely use them. The community/communication that "ought" to be promoted by such design features does not come into fruition. Why? The residents prefer to stay indoors (to take advantage of air conditioning), to watch tv or they use back porches for more privacy. In short most of the residents of Seaside choose to live what amounts to a suburban lifestyle even though they live in a ideal "urban village".

Ethnic groups that value social interaction will do so even when the physical structure of the environment works against it. The bottom line is that most Americans want to be left alone.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 09, 2004 -

More from Doug Wilson
on establishing Christian culture:

"This is the basis for wisdom in Christian business as well. Woodworkers are called to Christ first, the glories of wood second, and their business with customers third. Auto mechanics are called to Christ first, the mysteries of the internal combustion engine second, and their business with customers third. History teachers are called to Christ first, their historical materials second, and their students third. Moreover, this ranking does not represent any kind of competition between them, but rather a ranking of wisdom. If this order is not present, then everything in the list eventually gets short shrift, and something else comes in to take their places. And it is usually mammon that performs that service, together with all his greasy crew."
posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 09, 2004 -

Wipe Out
I guess surfing is culture too.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 08, 2004 -

Doug Wilson
has a wonderful post on some simple (but not simplistic!) steps we can take toward establishing Christian culture.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 08, 2004 -

Someone Is Talking
about Veggie Tales (lots of people, actually) over at the one-time august Touchstone magazine blog.

Where is the world headed!!!

Okay, true confession time: what is your favorite Veggie Tale video?
posted by Dave at Monday, June 07, 2004 -

Hideous
defined.
posted by Dave at Friday, June 04, 2004 -

What the Cultural Mandate Is Really all about
Chuck Colson in a recent Breakpoint seriously misconstrues the core meaning of the cultural mandate when he says:

"If Christians do not seize the moment and act on the cultural commission, there soon will be no culture left to save. But when we do our duty, we can change the world."

This a common mistake. The cultural mandate isn't about tranforming existing culture. It is about tranforming the earth.

As the "salt of the earth" we may have a responsibility to inhibit our culture from becoming a festering mess. But even if it does crumble to the ground, there will still be plenty of cultural development for Christians to be involved in.

We need to get the BIG cultural picture.
posted by Dave at Friday, June 04, 2004 -

Parable
There once was a man who loved hamburgers. In fact he loved them so much that ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was pretty much all that he ate. No vegetables or salads, no potato chips, not even dessert.

And he always ate his hamburgers the same way: smothered with catsup, mustard and relish. He couldn't imagine eating them any other way.

Then a remarkable thing happended. By a string of circumstances not worth going into here, for six months the man was unable to purchase additional supplies of the condiments he put on his beloved hamburgers. The day finally arrived when he was forced to face the really of eating his hamburgers (gasp!) plain.

At first it was horribly boring. But after two or three days he began to notice how truly delicious the hamburger itself actually tasted. He learned gradually to notice the subtle flavor of the meat and the delicate nuances of the seseme seeds on the buns (which he had never even seen before). Then a more remarkable thing happened. Having learned how to actually taste food, he began to try other things. He learned to enjoy the taste of carrots and turnips and broiled flounder, ginger scones and mint chocolate-chip ice cream. "How could I have missed all this good food all these years!"

At the end of the six months he still enjoyed "naked" hamburgers (they were still his favorite). In fact he found that he loved them even more than he did in his "catsup, mustard and relish days".

Needless to say when the condiments came back into the market, he didn't rush out to buy them.

"What! And ruin my tasty hamburgers! Never!"
posted by Dave at Thursday, June 03, 2004 -

Preaching with Powerpoint
or how to turn your church into an executive seminar. From an article in the New York Times (found this over at Gideon's blog.)

"It's a countercultural thing," said Tim Lucas, 33, pastor of an emerging ministry called Liquid in Basking Ridge, N.J. On a recent Sunday, Mr. Lucas wore a Hawaiian shirt and used images from the "Lord of the Rings" movies and a clip from "Amadeus" in a sermon about I Samuel.

Liquid?

"This cohort may yet make its own demands. Mr. Lucas, the pastor at Liquid, speculated that hip, high-tech churches like his own might soon generate their own backlash. Already, he said, college students who wander in find the 45-minute sermon insufficiently interactive. "The church my daughter grows up in will be a critique of what we do at Liquid," he said. "She'll say, 'Why all this multimedia? What happened to sanctuary? I come to church because I want to be still in the presence of God.' I can see that coming very quickly."

"Popular culture is a wonderful buffet to dine at," he said. "But it's easy to overeat."

Think potato chips. Without the salt. Definately without the salt.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 01, 2004 -

"a design that Darth Vader would approve of"



The new Central Library in Seattle. Quote comes from a guest review at City Comforts blog.

I will suspend judgement until I visit it. One thing that is cool (from my perspective as a librarian) is that it has an automated conveyor system which deposits returned books to appropriate range in the stacks.

Maybe I will see when we hopefully visit Seattle Art Museum for the "Van Gogh to Mondrian: Modern Art from the Kröller-Müller Museum" show.

posted by Dave at Friday, May 28, 2004 -

Just Say No
The new PCA online rag has an article on reality tv. It ultimately pans it. But did it really take that much text to arrive at this conclusion?

The attitude of this article is symptomatic of what I see in many corners of the evangelical (and reformed) church. Far too often we are like a moth circling round and round a candle, seemingly obsessed with it. From time to time we get too close and we get our wings singed -- or worse.

Or as another commentator put it, we are willing to swim to the bottom of a cesspool to get at the silver dollar at the bottom.

It isn't worth it.

Lets use our time for better pursuits.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, May 26, 2004 -

Aphorism
I was at the Coffee Cottage the other night listening to Newberg's own Celtic band Roughly Hewn. And had the following epiphany:

Blacks have the Blues

but

The Irish have ballads
posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 25, 2004 -

Old Best Dreams

"In the late spring of 1927, something bright and alien flashed across the sky. A young Minnesotan who seemed to have nothing to do with his generation did a heroic thing, and for a moment people set down their glasses in country clubs and speakeasies and thought of their old best dreams."

--F. Scott Fitzgerald on Charles Lindberg's solo-crossing which happened on this day
posted by Dave at Friday, May 21, 2004 -

Amillenial Dispensationalism
Mark Horne recently posted a portion of an article by Michael Horton which included this juicy tidbit:

"The Old Covenant contains both the covenant of works (the typological land with its conditional promises) and the covenant of grace (heavenly land with its unconditional foundation in Jesus Christ who has fulfilled the covenant of works)."

This dualism focused on the land ("typological land" vs. "heavenly land") is remarkably similar to the dualism between Israel and the Church that one finds in classic dispensationalism.

Just as there is a radical continuity between the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and "New" covenants (and this is surely the heart of covenant theology - the bedrock of the Reformed faith!), so we must recognize that there is a radical continuity between this present earth and the New Earth to come. But we must not stop here. There is also a radical continuity between Christian culture today and culture we will enjoy on the New Earth.

Fail to see the cultural continuity and culture necessarily suffers. Fail to see the radical continuity of the present/New earth, and all we're left with is a gnostic ghost of a faith. Horton may talk all he want about a wholistic Christianity, and complain about how cultrally irrelavent or uninformed Reformed believers are, but his theological system at this point is part of the problem.
posted by Dave at Thursday, May 20, 2004 -

Factoid
Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time was rejected by twenty-six publishers.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 18, 2004 -

Wanted: Prayer Warriors

"In order to really pray "thy kingdom come," we need to expand the definition of "kingdom" with the concept of "culture." Then we begin to see that Jesus is not a representative of a quaint forgotten kingdom, nor a fairy tale figure, nor a dress-up character wandering the world like Mickey; he is the King of the universe who has established a contra-culture that is growing to overthrow the dominion/culture of sin and death. The Sermon on the Mount is the primary text for us to understand the "culture" Jesus is establishing and the Lord's Prayer is the distilled essence of this Christian Magna Charta."

-- from article by Sam Wheatley the ByFaith online PCA mag.
posted by Dave at Monday, May 17, 2004 -

Design as Religion Externalized

"In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service."

--Steve Jobs (for more quotes on design see this page)
posted by Dave at Friday, May 14, 2004 -