A Giant Step Backwards
Jeff Meyers recently posted on reponses to his book: The Lord's Service Questions - All of Life is Worship?. Here is part of his post:

The point is: work is not worship. All of life is worship only in a metaphorical (though real) sense. You can work with a worshipful attitude. That's fine. You can and should by faith work for the glory of God keeping his law! That's great, too. But working with that motivation, goal, and according to God's standard comes about as the result of proper Sunday corporate worship. Fixing a meal for the family is not worship. Eating the Lord's Supper with your local body of Christ is. You learn how to eat gracefully at the Lord's Table. But eating dinner at your family table is different than eating at the Lord's Table with the church.

If what Meyers means is the work is not "formal worship" that is fine. I can agree with him. But if he means that our work is not worship in a very real sense, he is missing the point. He would appear to be returning the Medieval mess of a sacred/secular distinction. As Genesis 2:15 shows, abad, which refers to the cultural development of the earth means to work, to worship and the serve. Work was the same as worship in the garden. Shouldn't it be same today?

I develop this idea in the postscript of my book, "Culture and Sabbath".

I can't disagree enough with Meyer's take on this question. If we fail to see the our cultural endeavors are worship, they will always take a second place to formal worship. The monestery is only a couple of steps away...
posted by Dave at Friday, December 30, 2005 -

Worth a Look
Artisan Magazine out of the UK. For Christians in the Media, Arts and Entertainment. Features a monthly column by Nigel Goodwin.

While were on the topic of Christians involved in the arts, there is this conference in NYC sponsored by IAM.
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 29, 2005 -

Too Generous?
Some quotes from Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy taken from Doug Wilson's latest entry on on the book:

"I must add, though, that I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts. This will be hard, you say, and I agree. But frankly, it's not at all easy to be a follower of Jesus in many 'Christian' religious contexts, either." (p. 260)

"In this light, although I don't hope all Buddhists will become (cultural) Christians, I do hope all who feel so called will become Buddhist followers of Jesus; I believe they should be given that opportunity and invitation. I don't hope all Jews or Hindus will become members of the Christian religion. But I do hope all who feel so called will become Jewish or Hindu followers of Jesus." (p. 264)

At appears we need the Antithesis more than ever. What we need are Christians who ARE cultural Christians. More than ever.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, December 28, 2005 -

Sign of the Apocalypse?
Wonder Bread will no longer be available in Oregon.

We may have to buy some so my kids can at least experience it...
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 27, 2005 -

Big Apple
Article from Work Comment on ministering to NYC, particularly from Redeemer PCA's perspective.

A thought: the article notes that Redeemer currently has 4500 members. What if they broke the congregation down into 20+ congregations of 200 members each located in the various neighborhoods across the city. Wouldn't that make a bigger impact on the city? Wouldn't that make the church more visible?
posted by Dave at Friday, December 23, 2005 -

Daniel of the Year
From World Magazine: New York painter Makoto Fujimura.

Note to Makoto: don't eat the food.
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 22, 2005 -

Yikes
Rembrandt: the Musical.

This 400th birthday thing may be going a bit too far...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, December 21, 2005 -

Rookmaaker
The biography by Laurel Gasque has now been published individually by Good News/Crossway. (Before it was available only in the Complete Works of Rookmaaker.) You can read the first chapter here.

Gasque's biography was invaluable for my essay on HRR published by Comment.

As I say in the article, Rookmaaker is largely responsible for my involvement in art and Christian cultural activism.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 20, 2005 -

Confession
I have been really enjoying Doug Wilson's extended critique of McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy (link to series). If Wilson is even one-tenth correct in his analysis of McLaren, McLaren's book is very dangerous. It is liberalism dressed up in a cloak of purported humility.

Despite those who try to deny it, A Generous Orthodoxy is at the heart of the so-called emergent movement (not everyone in this movement may agree with McLaren, but the majority do). What is really frightening is how many reformed folk out there might be reading this book approvingly...
posted by Dave at Monday, December 19, 2005 -

Lord of the Wardrobe
Read the review by Nathan Wilson.
posted by Dave at Friday, December 16, 2005 -

The Play's the Thing
An article by Ben House on reviving Medieval morality-style plays - in his case using them as a part of a Christman festival at a Christian school.

Here is an idea (more in keeping with how these plays were originally produced): Put on a series of plays at a public square or park in your community. Each play could be sponsored by a local Christian business in much the same way the guilds sponored the plays in the middle ages. It would be a marvelous way to get the biblical message out to our neighbors, bring the Christian community together, and give Christian actors a venue for their craft.

(They did something similar with some of Doug Jones' plays in Moscow at last summer's Trinity Fest.)
posted by Dave at Friday, December 16, 2005 -

A Bit More on Johnny Cash
I just watched the music video Cash made of Nine Inch Nail's song "Hurt" on Yahoo Music. (This is the video mentioned in the Touchstone article mentioned in my earlier post.)

This video is super powerful, even more poinant when I realized that Cash was at death's door. Seeing the sadness on June Carter's face only added to the video's sober truth. Cash captures the message of Ecclesiates in the most haunting, beautiful way. (I could do without the images of Christ. But I can't have it all...)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, December 14, 2005 -

Evangelistic Tool?
Granted, this is a tiny sampling. But this excerpt from a Yahoo news story demonstrates the serious limitations of using stories for evangelism, esp. in a post-Christian, postmodern culture. But then this probably was not what Lewis was trying to do anyway.

Mom Cyndee Lord, 47, says the movie got raves from all of her children, ages 8 to 15. "They loved it." And the connections to Jesus "didn't really make any difference to them. I told them and they said 'Oh, really?' "

Chris Benson, 32, of Lithonia, Ga., says that's likely to be the response for many viewers. "It was a bit religious, especially Aslan's sacrifice for the sins of others and his subsequent resurrection, but it was just part of the story. I would guess that much of the younger audience won't even notice unless they're told about it."

Chelsey Panisch, 19, of Miami went to see Narnia because "Like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, there's something wonderful about going to see a story that has touched and influenced so many people. It was absolutely majestic."

She was aware of the faith element from media coverage. "For those who want to see a religious message in it and interpret it as something good, then more power to them. Otherwise, I don't think that will be much of an issue."

posted by Dave at Monday, December 12, 2005 -

More on Johnny Cash
from a nice article at Touchstone:

Cash always seemed to connect. When other Christian celebrities tried to down-play sin and condemnation in favor of upbeat messages about how much better life is with Jesus, Cash sang about the tyranny of guilt and the certainty of coming judgment. An angst-ridden youth culture may not have fully comprehended guilt, but they understood pain. And, somehow, they sensed Cash was for real.

The face of Johnny Cash reminded this generation that he has tasted everything the MTV culture has to offer—and found there a way that leads to death. In a culture that idolizes the hormonal surges of youth, Cash reminds the young of what MTV doesn’t want them to know: “It is appointed to man once to die, and after this the judgment.” His creviced face and blurring eyes remind them that there is not enough Botox in all of Hollywood to revive a corpse.

.....

Perhaps if Christian churches modeled themselves more after Johnny Cash, and less after perky Christian celebrities such as Kathy Lee Gifford, we might find ourselves resonating more with the MTV generation. Maybe if we stopped trying to be “cool,” and stopped hiring youth ministers who are little more than goateed game-show hosts, we might find a way to connect with a generation that understands pain and death more than we think.

posted by Dave at Friday, December 09, 2005 -

Smoldering Feminism
in the PCA? The most recent debate at ByFaith Online.
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 08, 2005 -

Unforgettable Fire
Doug Wilson has such a way of putting things:

"The critic of Thomas Kinkade paintings, where all the puddles on the ground have their eerie radioactive glow, and all the bungalows look like the living room has just caught on fire, is assumed to be a critic who is hostile to home, hearth, and wholesome family values. But the actual object of his hostility is the misrepresentation of home and hearth -- why must a friend of traditional values believe that the windows of homey little cottages must glow like they housed Nebuchadnezzar's furnace"

(from A Serrated Edge, p. 68).

Although I have to wonder: does anyone really think that a critic of Kinkade is an enemy of home and hearth?
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 06, 2005 -

Quote

"Every man knows he is a sissy compared to Johnny Cash."

--Bono
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 06, 2005 -

"Ships Passing in the Night"
Read about Francis Schaeffer's encounter with Malcolm Muggeridge. Talk about heavyweights!

(Love the illustrations)

posted by Dave at Monday, December 05, 2005 -

New Gadget out for the Holidays?

Congratulations on purchasing your new iPod Zepto.

Capable of holding 12 million songs and only one-tenth the size of the head of a needle, the iPod Zepto is a revolution in sound. Once filled with music, the iPod Zepto will play for over 68 years without playing the same song twice.

Enclosed with your iPod Zepto are a USB 4.0 cable, an iTunes 12.1 starter disk, earphones, and a high-magnification lens. (An optional follicle-mounting strap is available.)

Read more.
posted by Dave at Friday, December 02, 2005 -

What to Make of This?
Andrew Sandlin now calls himself a Christian postmodernist.
posted by Dave at Friday, December 02, 2005 -

Conversion
One of the things I bought in Moscow while I was there was a used copy of Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming, a marvelous album which features Mark Knopfler's fine guitar work. Listening to the album again brought me back to the late 70s when I first heard the album on WNEW while working on an injection molder the size of house. I was so excited! There was no doubt about it: Bob was a Christian. And his songs were so deep and biblical and artful. The prospects for Christian culture seemed really encouraging...

What happened?

Now I read about novelist Ann Rice and her turnaround. Reportedly she is influenced by N.T. Wright, D.A. Carson, Leon Morris and Ken Gentry. I wonder where she will be in ten years...
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 01, 2005 -

Sir, There's an Alligator Next to That Painting...
At the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, they have taken the Baroque art collection and combined it with other period furniture and other "curiosities" to recreate several period rooms including a “chamber of wonders.” Very cool.

Read about it.

See a pic.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 29, 2005 -

Good Book Hunting
One of the nice things about living near Portland is the book stores. Besides book selling powerhouse Powells (which is really expensive even if it is impeccably organized) there is also Pilgrim Supply on the east side of Portland on Stark which has a wonderful array of used Christian books and well as new ones. (It also sells the "Christian" trinkets but, thankfully, they keep them safely away from the books.)

On Saturday I went there with a friend to buy my wife a new bible (an ESV). We went shortly before closing so we didn't waste too much time...
posted by Dave at Monday, November 28, 2005 -

An Observation
about college admissions marketing. Who is it that the college is actively targeting with their admissions materials?

What does this tell you about their view of the family?

Biblical?
posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 23, 2005 -

Wrong Turn

In the last 300 years Christianity has steadily lost ground as a spiritual force in Western culture. The secularization inherent in a highly developed Western philosophy has emasculated a Christianity that had already at crucial points made its peace with that very philosophy. Christianity has not escaped the bitter fruits of its early compromise with Greek thought — these fruits have now rendered it weak and effete in the face of secularism.

--from a post by Andrew Sandlin
posted by Dave at Friday, November 18, 2005 -

Blast from the Past
I was doing some snooping on New Saint Andrews College and I came across a comment made by yours truly that appeared in the comments to this post. Gave me one of thos "did I really say that" moments:

Post 7:
I am all for the liberal arts. I have a degree in art history. But I had to get a graduate degree in library science in order to be able to have a job that puts food on the table.

I wonder how ready the young men who get a bachelors degree from NSA are to provide for a family in terms of a salary? What kind of jobs (other that teaching, like you Jon) can a liberal arts graduate do which earn enough to provide for a family?

Augustine may not have had a degree in computer science, but he didn't have a family either (at least one that was legitimate and who he provided for.) While Augustine was busy turning the world upside down, he was single and lived in a quasi-monastic community. Augustine pushed the church in the direction of monasticism out of which the liberal arts in the west came into our age. Is this what the liberal arts produce? Virtual monks destined for a single life?

I am surely not arguing for monasticism or for an abandonment of the liberal arts, but these practical issues need to be worked out. Young men must be ready to provide for the families they will (hopefully) be head over.
by: The Native Tourist (URL) on 2003-04-15 11:24:23

This was in response to two articles critical of the radical liberal arts approach taken by NSA, which I bloged on here.
posted by Dave at Thursday, November 17, 2005 -

Crabby Authenticity

But our longing for “authenticity” also bears a suspicious resemblance to the latest plot twist in the story of consumer culture: the tendency to rapidly replace the squeaky-clean franchise with the “authentic” franchise. The leather seats in our sport-utility vehicle caress our stonewashed jeans as we put some blues-tinged pop on the radio and drive to the local Joe’s Crab Shack. It’s a ramshackle dive that you might think would fall down any minute, if you hadn’t seen it being built just eight months ago by a speedy professional crew that travels around the country building Joe’s Crab Shacks.

--from an article "Stonewashed Worship" by Andy Crouch

Sometimes "authentic" worship is the most phoney. But its important to be relevant...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 16, 2005 -

Kirker Poem
Speaking of Moscow: Aaron Rench (a former native of Oregon it needs to be said) who I met last weekend and who works at NSA has a poem published by Books & Culture. Kewl.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 15, 2005 -

Back
from a fact-finding mission in Moscow, ID. Some observations:

1. The Palouse is beautiful, even in November.

2. Bucers is super cool. No big surprise here. Had a token pint of Guinness.

3. NSA is impressive. Speaking as a dad, I really like the sense of community. I was also glad to see that at least come men didn't wear ties and some women wore slacks. And there is some ability for students to specialize via electives. I'm not sure I buy the professional education is evil rhetoric.

4. Moscow is has a lot going for it for a city of twenty thousand.

5. Moscow has real winter weather (unlike the Willamette Valley). The people I stayed with plug their cars in at night!

6. Worship a Christ Church is really, really big. I like the intimacy of our small congregation.
posted by Dave at Monday, November 14, 2005 -

Off to Moscow, Idaho
to visit New Saint Andrews College with my daugher. So blogging may be slow the next couple of days.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 09, 2005 -

Frightening. Utterly Frightenng.



(table of contents)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 08, 2005 -

Song
sung by yours truly at this years Reformation Day party at Trinity OPC:


REFORMATION MAN

There’s a man who lives a life of danger
A man who’ll share the truth with any stranger
You know that every step he takes
Could bring him closer to the stake
He knows He might fail to see tomorrow


Reformation Man
Reformation Man
He’s bringin’ you the gospel
That will take away your shame


Beware of inquisions that you find
Bishops robes can hide an evil mind
“Salvation is by grace”
Has the Pope’s men red-faced
He knows he might fail to see tomorrow


Reformation Man
Reformation Man
He’s bringin’ you the gospel
That will take away your shame

copyright, Dave Hegeman, 2005

(I'll leave it to you to figure out what tune this was sung to)
posted by Dave at Monday, November 07, 2005 -

In Praise of Helpful Summaries
and discussions.

Gregory Baus, who is taking an MA at the VU (Free University of Amsterdam) has this nice post summarizing a great deal of Dooyeweerd's and other reformational views/critiques. Very helpful.

While I'm at it, I would like to give kudos to Matt at Fragmenta for his ongoing effort to summarize/distill Schilder's Christ and Culture.
posted by Dave at Friday, November 04, 2005 -

Brown Gold
Reading my blog, you might think that I am fixated on 17th century Dutch art. And you would be not far from the truth. (Indeed, I hope to make it my next book project, Lord willing.)

Anyway, there is another show in Washington, DC of the work of "Claesz: Master of Haarlem Still Life" (see review from NY Times)

Claesz' paintings (along with Heda and lanscapist Van Goyen) have contributed to the stereotyoe of the "brown" old masters. But his small cabinet paintings are the epitome of gentle balance, subtlety and quiet grandeur. I still can't forget Francis Schaeffer discussing these dutch still life paintings in the film series How Then Shall We Live? For Schaeffer the embodied the very essence of protestant thinking/worldview.
posted by Dave at Thursday, November 03, 2005 -

Secular?
This comes from the review of the Ruisdael exhibition which is now in Philadelphia (from the Inquirer):

His paintings aren't concerned with religious belief - the 17th-century Dutch masters were doggedly secular - but in the Art Museum show he comes across as a confirmed pantheist.

This reporter needs to do his homework. The "secular" works produced by the Dutch masters had everything to do with their Christian understanding of the world, even thought they weren't about saints, biblical subjects, or doctine per se. They saw real value and spiritual meaning in ALL of reality. And they enjoyed it to the full.

It was exactly this embrace of reality in the full that allowed Ruisdael and his fellow landscape brethren to take joy in the creation that was their home. The review in the New York Times captures this beautifully:

That his landscapes are grand is remarkable, given the material he was working with. England had its Windermere, America its Rockies. Holland had duney flatness, with the occasional steeple poking up. But Ruisdael found this sufficient for starters: he painted what was in front of him and invented what was not.

He took full advantage of his country's greatest scenic resource: sky. It usually takes up at least half of any Ruisdael painting. It was Holland's Himalayas, awesome, many-hued, dominating all.

This is not to say that Ruisdael was a slavish follower of this reality - a pure realist. Rather, like a farmer or a gardener he embellished the original.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 01, 2005 -

Happy Reformation Day

Check out one of Luther's wedding gifts!

Also, check out this way cool Luther/Reformation digital library with many scanned books and manuscripts/documents from reformation times including this document from Calvin (very large)!
posted by Dave at Monday, October 31, 2005 -

Some Helpful Distinctions
and historical insights on understanding "environmentalism" from a post by Calvin Beisner in this "umpired debate" on Christianity and Environmentalism at the pcanews.com site.

From Beisner:

Historically, "conservationism," which honored the dominion mandate and saw creation as God-given resources to be managed well for the common weal, gave way in the mid-twentieth century to "preservationism," predicated on the view of man principally as a threat to earth, which in turn gave way to "environmentalism," which saw man as a destructive interloper and tended toward biological egalitarianism, naturalism, and sometimes Eastern mysticism (e.g., in the "Deep Ecology" movement).

Maintaining the distinction between "conservationism" and "enviromentalism" seems very promising. Christians should recapture this word and use it to promote a view which truly balances pro-development/cultural transformation and maintenance of the earth's beauty and fruitfulness ("work" and "keep" -- Gen 2:15).
posted by Dave at Thursday, October 27, 2005 -

Was Abraham Kuyper a Theonomist?
Check out this quote (from Mr. Baus' blog):

"One sole desire rules my life, a single urge drives soul and will:
to re-establish God’s holy ordinances in church and home, in state and school... to engrave those divine ordinances, to which Word and Creation witness, so clearly on the nation that once again we bow the knee to God."
--Abraham Kuyper

posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 26, 2005 -

Read It & Weep IV
More cultural pessimism from the gnostic reformed...

This time from a speech by D.G. Hart:

Calvinists and Lutherans both stand in the Augustinian tradition but the latter generally receive credit for better preserving the Christian notion of human life as one lived in exile. According to H. Richard Niebuhr, whose book on Christ and Culture continues remarkably to define American Protestant debates about culture, Lutherans conceive of Christ and culture in a paradoxical relationship while Calvinists believe in a cultural model of Christ transforming culture. Although Niebuhr has surprisingly little to say about eschatology, clearly, the Anglo-Protestants who tried to create heaven on earth exhibit the transformationist ideal. Conversely, the Lutheran outlook, which is closer to the Augustinian understanding, has been less attractive to American Protestants who, whether through the Social Gospel or faith-based initiatives, have been trying to Christianize American society. As Niebuhr put it, “Both Paul and Luther have been characterized as cultural conservatives,” by which he means that they “were deeply concerned to bring change into only one of the great cultural institutions and sets of habits of their times -- the religious.” Niebuhr does give Luther credit for understanding well “the actual struggles of the Christian who ‘lives between the times.’” Still the over all effect of the dualism inherent in Lutheran theology is the idea “that in all temporal work in culture men are dealing only with the transitory and the dying. Hence, however important cultural duties are for Christians their life is not in them. . . .”

Finding examples of this Lutheran ambivalence about culture is not difficult. Martin Luther’s most popular song, “A Mighty Fortress,” the one sung on Reformation Sunday by those Protestants who still sing hymns, has a final verse that supports Niebuhr’s contention that the Augustinian understanding of Christ and culture is insufficiently reform-minded:

That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

Of course, the line about letting goods, kindred and mortal life go is not exactly a blueprint for cultural renewal or preservation. In fact, that line has all the connotations of otherworldliness typically associated with fundamentalism. But not to be missed in the concluding stanza of “A Mighty Fortress” is the fairly explicit assertion of the two-kingdom theology for which Lutheranism is legendary. The “earthly powers” in the first line contrast sharply with God’s kingdom. The former is temporal, the latter is “forever.” Even more important for my purposes is the eschatology implicit in this contrast. The word of God, like his kingdom, transcends “earthly powers.” In fact, even without the help of those earthly powers, the divine purpose endures.

It gets worse. Hart quotes Luther's commentary on Hebrews 11:13:

we must not seek to build for ourselves eternal life here in this world and pursue it and cleave to it as if it were our greatest treasure and heavenly kingdom, and as if we wished to exploit the Lord Christ and the Gospel and achieve wealth and power through Him. No, but because we have to live on earth, and so long as it is God’s will, we should eat, drink, woo, plant, build, and have house and home and what God grants, and use them as guests and strangers in a strange land, who know they must leave all such things behind and take our staff out of this strange land and evil, unsafe inn, homeward bound for our true fatherland where there is nothing but security, peace, rest, and joy for evermore.

Ick. If we have to get our hands dirty with all this cultural business, we might as well make the most of it...
posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 25, 2005 -

Who Said This?
(its not who you would think!)

It is not only prayer that gives God glory, but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty. To go to communion worthily gives God great glory, but to take food in thankfulness and temperance gives him glory too. To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dung fork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give him glory too. He is so great that all things give him glory if you mean they should. So then, my brethren, live.

posted by Dave at Thursday, October 20, 2005 -

Hmmm...



(A book Lutherans apparently don't need to read.)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 19, 2005 -

Memory Lane
Did I ever tell you that I used to be a museum guard?

Its a pretty good way to get to know art really, really well.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 19, 2005 -

All the Great Guitar Licks
without the leftist lyrics. Bruce Cockburn's Speechless.
posted by Dave at Monday, October 17, 2005 -

Waning?
North Africa was once a vital Christian stronghold: a bastion of Christian culture. It was the region of scholars in Alexandria and of Augustine and his circle. Then Islam happened and in less than 100 years the church was snuffed out.

Wil; history repeat itself in Europe? William Murchison asks this question in a recent Touchstone article.

Here's a snippet:

The first is a strong suggestion in the Lord’s words that what’s wanted from the Church of God, in its relationship to the world, is stark clarity, and a certain boldness. What kind of religious enterprise are a bunch of fishermen likely to get going in the Greco-Roman world, lacking some confidence in the ultimate triumph of Jesus Christ the Messiah over Jupiter and Apollo and Venus and the whole marble-visaged crew positioned atop the physical and metaphysical heights of that world?

Yes, where was this Christ business going? Couldn’t it cause trouble—such as getting you nailed head-down to a cross or treated to other imperial inducements to religious quietism? What was this, though? The gates of hell would not prevail against you. You might just have a fighting chance. Indeed, given the authority with which these memorable words were delivered—though the voice must have been characteristically even in tone—you might have a sure thing. Not painless—sure and certain (as the old Anglican burial service would have it). That would make up for a great deal, it seems easy enough to say with proper distance from all the uproar.

posted by Dave at Friday, October 14, 2005 -

400 Candles
for Rembrandt in 2006. Some stuff to look forward to in the Netherlands:

all the paintings and drawings by RVR owned by the Rijksmuseum on display (not at the same time)

Rembrandt and Caravaggio at the Van Gogh Museum.

There is also a promising show in Milwaukie of all places. (Check out the link where they uncrate an RVR landscape!)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 12, 2005 -

Friday in Portland
I finally got to return to the Portland Art Museum after a long absence. (For two week there are free tickets to the museum in honor of its brand new North Wing.)

I had been longing to see the small mini-show of Dutch old masters from the Mauritshuis in Den Haag. It was a delightful sampler of what the Golden Age has to offer. I especially liked the flower piece by Oosterwyck.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 11, 2005 -

Quiz
Who said:

Brothers and sisters, love the earth. Be true to the earth, and do not believe those seducers who look longingly to the world beyond, casting suspicion on this world. Jesus is the greatest friend of the earth—Jesus who again and again, in the original spirit of Judaism, proclaimed love for this earth, love for the soil, love for the land.

posted by Dave at Thursday, October 06, 2005 -

Packaging
From a sermon by Andrew Sandlin on 1 Cor. 2:

I draw your attention to a great fact from v. 5. If we employ the classical rhetoric of the Greeks, we forfeit the power of the Holy Spirit. When we say, “Let’s make the Gospel sound urbane and cogent and persuasive in our speech,” God says, “Fine. You’ll have your impressive speech, and you’ll forfeit My power.”

Sisters and brothers, when you declare the Gospel to your family and friends and neighbors, know that you don’t need persuasive words; you only need the power of the Holy Spirit. Too many preachers today lust for rhetoric and lack the power.

posted by Dave at Thursday, October 06, 2005 -

Poem
by another soon to be Canon Press author. Its cool that Canon seeks to publish literary type stuff. They put their publishing efforts where their mouth is.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 05, 2005 -

And You Thought it Was Hard to Be Human

A museum is a paradise for a work of art. There remains nothing more to be desired in the physical respect. In a museum the temperature and humidity are constant and travelling is done in a professional, air-cushioned manner. By day the public keeps a suitable distance, while as a protection against all too ambitious collectors, the stores are burglar-proof 24 hours a day.

A museum is also a hell for a work of art. You are collected with love and passion, but once you are in, there prove to be 122,999 other beloved works of art. And even if you are the most beloved of all, this involves yet other drawbacks. Before you know it, you are imprioned in a chest on the way to a blockbuster in Berlin or Amsterdam, or you have to endure a second life on a place-mat in a pancake restaurant.

--taken from the Boijmans van Beuningen Art Museum site
posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 04, 2005 -

What's NU
New Urbanism (NU) seems to be rapidly becoming the cool evangelical thing. Via Barb Harvey I came across yet another Christian take on this view of city making from Trevor.

As I have said before, NU has a lot of promise. As an appoach to shaping cities it far exceeds the Modernist debacle. But this it not saying much. Just about anything is better than the cold social engineering of Modernism.

But NU is just as much a social engineering agenda as Modernism; it is simply a kinder, gentler approach to social engineering with nice sidewalks and quaint front porches (which nobody uses).

Trevor sites principles from the Newurbaism.org site that assert that NU is the most sustainable appoach to city making and that it fosters class integration. I see no evidence to support this. In fact most NU project built so far are playgrounds for yuppie intellectuals (Bobo's) not the balanced utopias we might wish for. It would be great to have more aesthetic, more sustainable, more communitarian, more inclusive neighborhoods/cities. But does NU really fit the bill? This remains to be seen.
posted by Dave at Monday, October 03, 2005 -

Perspective

The old saying that we should “not be so heavenly-minded that we are of no earthly good” is true, as far as it goes. But it seems that in the modern world our earthly good depends on our heavenly-mindedness. In our present cultural climate, it becomes necessary for the Church to remember the words of C.S. Lewis who maintained that Christians who “did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought the most of the next”.

--from an article by W. Tullian Tchividjian
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 27, 2005 -

Two More Things I Liked in Seattle
were the two gardens we visited - which incidentally were also Japanese. They were also free:

Kubota Garden

and

Waterfall Park

The latter park was a block away from David Ishii's bookstore. Being in this tiny park was like being transported to another place. The roar and visual spectacle of the waterfall was so soothing.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 27, 2005 -

Its the Little Things
I was in Seattle saturday with my family visiting with my sister who had been out this way to go on a cruise. We spent some time wandering the Pioneer Square area near downtown - a very beautiful, old word feeling part of the city. One block I especially enjoyed on First Street which sported four used bookstores in close proximity!

One store - David Ishii Bookseller (video!) was especially noteworthy. My daughter found two books to her liking and at fair price. She payed for them in cash (cards not accepted) - and then, to our surprise, Mr. Ishii carefully wrapped her purchase in brown paper and tied the bundle with a ribbon with his name emblazoned on it. A neat package which only served to make the books all the more precious.

I couldn't help but think that this was an outgrowth of Mr. Ishii's Japanese heritage. Details and aesthetics matter so much in Japan. Or maybe its just an old fashioned bookseller practice - pre-paper/plastic bag.

At any rate, it made our day.


posted by Dave at Monday, September 26, 2005 -

Bono's
confession of faith. I wonder if John Robbins would approve.
posted by Dave at Friday, September 23, 2005 -

More from Doug
Gnostics beware.

"The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty . . . The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it" (Prov. 10:15, 22).

Everyone with eyes in his head can see that the wealthy are better off than those who are poor. The rich man has a strong city, and the poor get poorer. And of course, the normal route taken in both directions (toward wealth or poverty) is the route involving work (or lack of it), fraud (or lack of it), blessing (or lack of it), good service (or lack of it), or initiative (or lack of it).

Jesus pronounced a blessing on the poor, but it was a particular kind of poverty that He had in mind. Here Solomon pronounces a blessing on the rich, but it is a particular kind of wealth as well. One man has his business go extremely well, and God says to him, "You fool, tonight your life is required of you." And another man receives the blessing of the Lord, is made rich, and God adds no sorrow to it. This is an extraordinary (and rare) blessing.

(post)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 21, 2005 -

Doug Wilson: Grime Doesn't Pay
Wilson once again nails it. Grime does NOT equal truth. Alleged "realism" does not make a work of art valid.

Some excerpts:

The issue is always nobility. Nobility is good and it is very real. Sweety-nice and sentimental cliches set themselves up as good, but they are not real. The difference between Sam Gamgree and Elsie Dinsmore is vast. To complicate the picture further, hypocrisy pays lip service to that which is good, but lives in such a way as to say that the good is unreal in the hypocrite's experience. Those who live with the hypocrite come to agree, and as I wrote earlier, they go off to find authenticity on the seedy side of town. But there is just as much hypocrisy there -- the difference is the world is engaged in a vast conspiracy on this subject, and has agreed to not notice it. Church-going hypcrisy gets pounded, and we should have no problem with that. Go for it. It deserves everything it gets, good and hard. But the hypocrites of lowlife authenticity are just as bad, just as inconsistent. They just never get called on it. Why? Because they are living authentic lives. Why do we say so? Well, the grease for starters.

...

Grimy characters can certainly be real, as they are in the book God is writing. As Chesterton once put it, a book without a wicked character is a wicked book. But such characters are not good because they are real, and they most certainly are not more real just because they are real. They do not have any advantage over the noble, cute, pretty, or clean in that great footrace for the blue ribbon prize that we call being "realistic." Pious four-year-old girls with big blue eyes are real. Crack cocaine addicts are real. Both of them can share basically the same quadrant in the space/time continuum, the same zip code, and even the same mother. Some of these people who privilege grime over the good need to work through some basic questions of ontology, or, to pinpoint the problem more accurately, ethics.

(Also check out Doug's earlier related post.)
posted by Dave at Monday, September 19, 2005 -

An Artist in Residence
sponsored by a church communitity is an intreguing idea for me. Here is one church which has more or less done this. (From Catapult/CINO)

Maybe we can do this in Newberg some day...
posted by Dave at Friday, September 16, 2005 -

Mother of Invention
Just came across an amazing photo essay of the vast variety of
"anti-sit" design additions to walls, fire hydrants, etc. Some are elegant, some medieval, and some decidely folk. (Found at behond mag blog)

I have notices similar design adjustments here in the northwest to deter skateboarders...
posted by Dave at Friday, September 16, 2005 -

Quote

Imagine then the power of the dirt in Eden . Then there was no curse. Its abundance makes the astounding productivity of our day appear positively miserly. That superabundance, however, is not only behind us; it is yet before us. For Jesus is redeeming all the earth. He is taking us back to the garden. He will birth a new heavens and a new earth, and there will be no more groaning. Our labors in the dirt are a part of that process. For God, again the great poet, beautifully calls the dirt to call the dirt to productivity, in reflection of His glory.

--R.C. Sproul, Jr. from Every Thought Captive
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 14, 2005 -

Covergence
There have been a number of stimulating articles come out lately on Agrarianism and related concerns.

From WRF Comment:

The Cultural Mandate and the Spirit of Agrarianism

Life in a Machine: The Crisis of Modern Agriculture

These offer more or less opposing viewpoints on the issue. (See thorough discussion of this here.)


From New Pantegruel:

Agrarianism

Localism

Both are excellent overviews of their respective topic.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 13, 2005 -

Tragic Beauty


posted by Dave at Monday, September 12, 2005 -

Blinded by Sociology?
I have to admire Andrew Sandlin, even if I don't always agree with him. His latest post at Christianculture.com reports on James Davidson Hunter's lecture in Calgary, Alberta sponsored by the Work Research Foundation.

Hunter's lecture centered on the "Center" of culture and the vital importance (for him) of taking the center in order for Christian's to successfully change culture. Here is some of the summary excerpts cited by Sandlin:

- Culture has a rigid structure of centre and periphery, the centre with the highest prestige. In economics, quantity counts, but in culture, only quality or status. USA Today sells 10 times the copies, but the New York Times has 10 times the prestige.

- Cultures change from top down, not from bottom up — “the hardest thing for Christians to accept,” Hunter says. The root of every culture is a tiny network of intellectuals. In his Sociology of Philosophies, Randall Collins estimates that just 500 thinkers have been at the centre of 3,000 years of world civilization; and their total network comprised just 2,700 people, shaping the public vocabulary. Grass roots movements bring only temporary change, because they don’t build lasting networks, then institutions, to embody and preserve the culture.

What Hunter argues is largely true, but is not entirely true. Culture is changed from grass roots efforts as well as from the "center". If this weren't the case, how would Marxism (to pick one example) ever have succeeded? How would a tiny group of monestaries turned nothern Europe upside down for Christ?

Hunter is a brilliant sociologist and it shows. But his institional focus blinds him to the power of small communities.

If we are lucky, the anti-Chrisian establishment will be blind to it as well. As we quietly educate and equip our children, and patiently make faithful culture in and for local Chrisian communities, we will build a distinct, biblical culture which will overtake the behemoth and leave it smoldering in our wake...
posted by Dave at Friday, September 09, 2005 -

What You Stumble across on the Net
like this paper on Christianity and the arts by Wheaton art historian John Walford.
posted by Dave at Thursday, September 08, 2005 -

Nasty Offender

I suspect that turning Edwards loose like that on modern evangelicals would grate on their modern sensibilities, too. But Americans, fearful and resentful of being thought provincial, have always been hungry for intellectual champions to put on a par with Europe. The same spirit that moved Benjamin Franklin to appropriate Bishop Berkeley's promise that "the Arts delight to travel Westward," and drove Thomas Jefferson to denounce the Comte de Buffon's sniggering mockery of America, drives us today to locate a legitimate 18th-century philosophical virtuoso in America, and Edwards has long seemed the most obvious candidate. But to place Edwards on that pedestal requires that we seal his contentious Calvinistic mouth. We need his genius, but we cannot accept it. And he would not be in the slightest degree surprised.

--from a review of Jonathan Edwards: America's Evangelical by Philip F. Gura
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 06, 2005 -

Full-Text
As a librarian and a writer/researcher I find the prospect of mass quantities of books skanned and searchable via the internet to be very exciting. YOu can already do this on Google and Amazon via A9. But of course this makes many people nervous.

This article seems to think that this will be no big deal. I hope so. But don't bet on it.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 06, 2005 -

Opportunity
The devastation and loss of life wrought by Katrina is a great tragedy. But it is also an opportunity for renewal - cultural renewal.

If only there were an army of Christians ready to step in and shape New Orleans and other effected areas by biblical principles (see post below)...
posted by Dave at Friday, September 02, 2005 -

Promising Book?



One thing I have often pondered is the aesthetic dimension of urban redevelopment.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 31, 2005 -

Junk
Nice piece on poet John Leax's use of wacky tabloid headlines to inspire poems.

Reminds me of Dutch-Canadian Henk Krijger's use of found junk to form his playful paintings.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 30, 2005 -

Scary
It just hit me...

For gnostic ammillenialists theology is nothing more than a ghost story.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 30, 2005 -

Who's to Blame?
Jeffrey Ventrella offers his take on the question of the origin of sinful cultural institutions:

One sign of a culture in decline is the content of its entertainment. But, the real culprit is not the consumers, but the producers. The Consumers' hearts are an issue to be sure: Producers produce what the consumers demand. What is craved and desired by the consumers? How are they satisfied? Upon what do they feed and derive sustenance? But, the producers stand to profit from the evil demands of the consumers and here's the key cultural point.

posted by Dave at Monday, August 29, 2005 -

Read it and Weap - III
Meridith Kline, "By My Spirit", part 2:

Envisaged as the consummation of the covenant order was a human temple transfigured into a radiant replica of the archetypal Glory-temple. Glorification, that final step in the construction of the temple, would be an act of the Creator. But meanwhile the cultural mandate of the covenant called on man to participate in this temple building by multiplying his kind, so producing the global community of mankind, God's people-temple. Embodied as it was in a royal mandate to subdue and occupy the earthly domain, this assignment to build the people-temple was also a royal commission. The covenantal service of temple building was a function of kingship. At the same time, since the temple is a house of prayer and worship, it is evident that performing the cultural task of the king served the purposes of the priest's cultic functioning. The telos of the kingdom is that God may be all in all.

Culture=people only?
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 24, 2005 -

Big Book
A little bit about where I work: TV newsstory on the Carlton Watkins album exhibit at the State Library.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 23, 2005 -

Read it and Weep - II
From Michael Horton:

Christianity is not a culture. At its best, its understanding of God, human nature and identity, the meaning of life and history, the problem of evil and redemption, and so on, can shape a culture for the better. Nevertheless, history offers ample testimonies to how easily appeals to Christian truth and its absolute values have been misused to justify evil. At its best, Christianity can influence even unbelievers who are influenced by it into being more humane neighbors…. But there will not be a redeemed culture until Christ returns at the end of human history.

(quote found here)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 23, 2005 -

Read it and Weep - I
A series of quotes from culturally pessimistic [gnostic] reformed folk.

Entry #1 is from Mark Karlburg's Covenant Theology in Reformed Perspective (from a book review of Antony Hoekema's Created in God's Image):

Hoekema proposes as another feature of man’s sanctification the development of a distinctively Christian culture (pp. 94-95, 201-2). He suggests that “the best contributions of each nation will enrich life on the new earth, and that whatever potentialities and gifts have been of value in this present life will somehow, in some way, be retained and enriched in the life to come. This implies that there will be continuity as well as discontinuity between the present life and the life to come, and that therefore our cultural, scientific, educational, and political endeavors today help to prepare for a fuller and richer life on the new earth” (pp. 94-95). It is not so certain, however, that this vision reflects the teaching of Scripture. Does not the radical and supernatural inbreaking of the Consummation necessitate the destruction of man’s cultural achievements (despite the fact that these cultural and technological pursuits are legitimate and necessary activities in the present course of history - activities deriving from the obligation placed upon the human race at creation [the cultural mandate], and made possible after the Fall through God’s operation of common grace)? How can we explain the fact that God has providentially entrusted the ungodly line with cultural development and advancement, whereas the godly line has been entrusted with the far more glorious ministry of reconciliation through the preaching of the gospel of salvation (cf. Gen 4:17-22; 2 Cor 5:18-19)? Are we justified in thinking that the works of the unrighteous will follow after them in the eternal kingdom while they themselves burn in hell-fire? In comparison, are the few and feeble (cultural) offerings of the saints to be transformed in the heavenly kingdom - a kingdom not made by human hands? Rather than speculate upon the enduring value of culture (which, as I read Scripture, will pass away), ought we not to glory in God alone?

posted by Dave at Monday, August 22, 2005 -

Back from Camp
OPC Family camp that is. Had a delightful, relaxing time. Rob Rayburn's talks on the "dialectical" or "polar" nature of biblical truth was excellent. Dr. Rayburn is also on the board of Covenant College, so I got an opportunity to talk to him about the college, which so far is on my daughter's short list. There was also an alum of Grove City College at the camp, who I asked a number of questions.... And I rediscovered how much I like to play hearts!

If I had only brought my watercolor set...
posted by Dave at Monday, August 22, 2005 -

Playing with A9 Street Map Interface
Historic Tenth Pres
First OPC in Portland
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 17, 2005 -

What Is in a Name
It kind of snuck up on me so I didn't post about it until now. But earlier this month TNT had its three-year anniversary. In case your wondering about why I named the blog "The Native Tourist", I explained this in one of my first posts, way back in August 2002:

What is in a name?
Okay, so why the name "The Native Tourist"? What is a "native tourist"? The title of my blog marries together two distinct ideas:

tourist = a traveller, a sojourner, one who is "just looking"

native = a local, a citizen, one who "feels at home"

I coined this term to get at a key paradox of Christian Existence: how we are on the one hand described as "aliens and sojourners" in this present world (1 Peter 1:2, 2:11; Hebrews 11:13), yet at the same time were called to be culturally involved with God's good ( Genesis 1:31; 1 Tim. 4:4) creation (Genesis 2:15 -- a seminal command which was never rescinded). For many serious Christians, being aliens in this world (and citizens in heaven -- Philippians 3:20) means that we should invest very little (if anything at all) in cultural, earth transformative works. We shouldn't get too attached to the things of this world. Were "just a passin' through." All that we see is going to pass away (burn actually). And after all, "You don't shine brass on a sinking ship." Augustine coined the term "resident aliens" to describe this idea. (See Andrew Sandlin's critique of this approach that has entered reformed circles of late.)

This view has it all backwards. We are aliens to be sure: not because we don't belong here; on the contrary the earth has been and always will be our home (Revelation 21-22). We are aliens because of sin. Our new natures in Christ (Romans 6) clash with the reality and effects of evil, and we long for the redemption of all creation (Romans 8:17ff) so that we might delight in this world without hesitation or reservation. Peter addresses the recipients of his epistle as aliens (pilgrims) particularly because they faced a culture (Hellenism) which was hostile to the truths and values of God. In a less hostile cultural situation (such as those historical epochs where the transformative power of the gospel has shaped a society -- 17th century Holland comes to mind) the term would have been less appropriate. Thus it is better to say, not that we are resident aliens, but that we are alienated residents!

This is my Father's world, my home now and for all eternity, and -- though it is a struggle -- I plan to work and fight for its positive development, healing and transformation. Do you want to join me in this endeavor?

posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 17, 2005 -

Even More on Schilder
Matt continues his summaries of Schilder's Christ and Culture.

Along the way he has some nice things to say about my book. And has some insightful things to say about Kuyper's institutionalism...
posted by Dave at Monday, August 15, 2005 -

There is Still Hope
Word on the street is that Mac X works on x86 processor PCs!!!
posted by Dave at Monday, August 15, 2005 -

Nice
article at the WRF Comment site on Makoto Fujimura tireless efforts to organize and network Christian artists, especially in New York City.

I oft times wish that his art was more distinctive. But he is an excellent craftsman and he makes truly beautiful objects. These are the hallmarks of being a faithful artist.

Maybe someday I'll get to meet him.
posted by Dave at Friday, August 12, 2005 -

Flat Nails It
Mark Horne flat nails it in this blog entry, which I quote in full:

The big lie

Every time we Christians talk about our need to reach contemporary culture, we are telling a lie to ourselves and others--a lie that worsens the problem we're trying to address.

We are contemporary culture just like everyone else who is now alive. We don't have to reach anywhere. We're already here.

Speech about reaching contemporary culture reveals our ongoing effort to keep the gospel away from most of who we are.

posted by Dave at Friday, August 12, 2005 -

Hypocracy
Google style...
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 09, 2005 -

Fellow Authors
Over the weekend I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Mark Sumpter, pastor of Faith OPC in Grants Pass, Oregon. He shares the distinction with me of being published by Canon Press: Mark is one of the contributors to To You and Your Children: Examining the Biblical Doctrine of Covenant Succession. (I look forward to reading this book as well as meeting Rob Rayburn, one the book's principle authors, next week at family camp!)

The reason we were in Grants Pass was for the annual youth rafting trip Faith Pres sponsors every year. A great fellowship time in a beautiful, wild place. Next week we're off the ponderosas in Eastern Oregon.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 09, 2005 -

More Thoughts on Blue
Read another chapter in Blue Like Jazz last night. The chapter on love where Miller extolls the virtues of the hippies he lived with near Sisters, Ore. but found conservative Christians harsh and judgemental. While agree with his basic assessment of conservatives, I think that he is naive about the hippies. No doubt they were kind and excepting to him, but Miller makes the same mistake that Gaugin and Margaret Meade made about the natives in Tahiti and Samoa. They need to look deaper.

The subtitle of BLJ reveals the heart of Miller's project (and I think captures much of the heart of the "emergent" movement):

"Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality".

What does Miller mean by "nonreligious"? How one defines this term is key.
Are the experiences and anecdotes Miller so lucidly narrates really non-religious? They may stand outside the church. They may stand outside the mainstream. He reurns again and again to his time with the atheistic, nonreligious students at Reed College in Portland who he sees as uniquely virtuous. But he fails to see how entirely religious the academic community at Reed is. Reed is one of the most religious campuses in the world! (If you don't think this is so try stepping on one of their ideological idols and see what happens.)

I think that Miller slips into the old-fashioned dualism which has plagued historical evangelicalism and which Miller desires to overcome.

One of the glories of the Reformed theology is that it refuses into buy the secular/sacred dualism. We see that all of life is religious. Neo-Calvinist philosopher Roy Clauser puts it this way:

...one religious belief or another controls theory making in such a way that the contents of the theories differ depending on the contents of the religious belief they presuppose. In fact, so extensive is this religious influence that virtually all the major disagreements between competing theories in the sciences and in philosophy can ultimately be traced back to differences in their religious presuppositions.

This means that theories about math and physics, sociology and economics, art and ethics, politics and law can never be religiously neutral. They are all regulated by some religious belief. The effects of religious beliefs therefore extend far beyond providing the hope for life after death or influencing moral values and judgments. By controlling theory making, they produce important differences in the interpretation of issues that range over the whole of life .

posted by Dave at Friday, August 05, 2005 -

Greatest Painting
I just saw an article about how the BBC is sponsoring a poll on what is the greatest painting in the UK.

This got me thinking. What is the greatest painting in United States of America? (Not just limited to US artists.) Here are some candidates off the top of my head:

A Sunday on the Grande Jatte by George Seurat

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? by Paul Gauguin

A Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso

The Feast of the Gods by Titian and Bellini

The Polish Rider by Rembrandt

The Annunciation Tryptich by Robert Campin

I'm sure I'm missing some other obvious choices...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 03, 2005 -

Why Is Everyone so Jazzed about Blue?
I have heard bits and pieces about Blue Like Jazz. That it was cool. (With a title like that, how could it not be?) That is was admired by the "emergent" set - The Ooze.com crowd. That it was postmodern and Christian. I even saw that Donald Miller, the author was invited to speak at a $75-a-plate business luncheon by George Fox University - the local evangelical college. And there was the gushing review in ByFaith (PCA) magazine.

Well my wife's friend loaned her a copy of the book she had just finished reading. I picked it up started to read it Saturday during lunch. By last night I had read about 2/3s of it.

There is no doubt that Miller is a gifted writer. His prose is a pleasure to read - even intoxicating at times. He has had a quirky life and he is a supurb storyteller, using his unique life experiences to map out some basic Christian truths. I also like the fact that much of the book is about Portland. I have been to many of the neighborhoods and spots that Miller describes. It is familiar terrain for me.

Overall, though, I don't find him saying all that much. Challenging and insightful in spots. Full of relational awareness (which is a weakness of mine). Even though his mapping out the contours of the Gospel, he almost never (ever?) quotes scripture. But on the whole it is pretty weightless, really. I would say that Blue (as a whole) has the same weight as three or four paragraphs of John Piper or Sinclair Fergusson. Or maybe two paragraphs of Calvin's Institutes. The book is engaging but hardly profound.

Could it be that people are grabbing onto Miller's autobiographical, personal approach? Reading the book is like evesdropping on a conversation in a restaurant. You want to hear the conversation to the end. Anne Lamotte's books/essays are the same way for me. As are the early books by Annie Dillard. But is it really all that different from C.S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy? Of course there is grand-daddy of this form: Augustine's Confessions.

All this makes me want to find my copy of Larry Woiwode's What I Think I Did and finally get around toreading it. I doubt I'll be able to read 2/3s of it in a couple of days...
posted by Dave at Monday, August 01, 2005 -

In My Inbox this Morning
from Goodmorning Silicon Valley:

"Dear Sen. Clinton:

I'm writing to commend you for calling for a $90-million study on the effects of video games on children, and in particular the courageous stand you have taken in recent weeks against the notorious 'Grand Theft Auto' series.

I'd like to draw your attention to another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids -- a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing.

I'm talking, of course, about high school football."

-- Steven Johnson, author of the book "Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter," calls BS on Sen. Hillary Clinton in an open letter

At this rate we should be the most intellegent culture in the world in no time. Now I can stop paying all that money to send my kids to a Classical Christian school...
posted by Dave at Thursday, July 28, 2005 -

I Procrastinated Long Enough...
Its high time I posted on this fine series by Rick Saenz on "Getting Things Done". Some real good wisdom here.

Rick also has posted a list of blogs on agrarianism which I plan to check out.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, July 27, 2005 -

Oh No!
It looks like Christ Church in Moscow, ID is putting out a cookbook. Does this mean that hundreds of families (maybe thousands?) will now be eating the same thing for dinner?

(I wonder if each recipe comes with a suggested wine selection...)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, July 27, 2005 -

More Schilder
Matt posts another installment of his precis of Schilder's Christ & Culture.

Really, really helpful.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 26, 2005 -

Speaking of Plows
and pictures of plows, check this article on Yahoo news. (Has an Oregon connection too!)
posted by Dave at Friday, July 22, 2005 -

Cultural Algebra
I came across this engaging post on the possible interface between Reformed theology and the "emergent" church movement via Mark Horne. which in turn led me to this article by Mark Driscoll who has written an "emergent" book Radical Reformation. Driscoll is on the staff of Mars Hill church in Seattle which is very large and hip. The subtile says it all:

Reaching Out without Selling Out

Reformed folk have much to learn (or better we need to take notice and emulate) from the "emergent's" real concern for the hurting souls that are all around us - especially those in the inner city. But do we need to totally redesign our liturgy and even our theology to reach these people? Or do we need to simply REACH OUT to them, period.

Anyway, one thing in Driscoll's article I really liked was his algebraic analysis of the church:

Gospel + Culture - Church = Parachurch

Culture + Church - Gospel = Liberalism

Church + Gospel - Culture - Fundamentalism

I think we need to be careful to define culture as "cultural involvement in culture making" rather that "engagement" with the existing increasingly post-Christian culture. I also wonder if the is any real way that the gospel can be abstracted from the institutional church. But this is really good stuff.
posted by Dave at Friday, July 22, 2005 -

Notice Anything Familiar?



(a new book from Eerdmans)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 19, 2005 -

One Man's Junk...
I was busy this past weekend with a garage sale, hence the absense of posts lately. Alas, it was also the same weekend as the giant Portland Antique & Collectable Show so the high powered buyers were absent. Superb weather though.
posted by Dave at Monday, July 18, 2005 -

JVR
One of my favorite artists of the moment is Jacob van Ruisdael, Dutch landscape painter par excellence. As I have noted, there is a major show of his work in LA right now which will also be in Philadelphia in the fall.

You can read an LA Times article on the exhibition here or the press release here.

One of the things that makes me laugh are all the people crowding to the see the King Tut exibit which is showing the same time as the Ruisdael exhibit. Alas, Ruisdael is may not be glamorous enough for Southern California...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, July 13, 2005 -

Speaking of Fat...
Here's an article about an artist who made soap from fat -- but not just any fat. Bizarre.

Make Gideon Strauss recent post on the need for a definition of art all the more apropot.
posted by Dave at Monday, July 11, 2005 -

Fat of the Land
I was struck this morning on my ride to work (I drive approx. 30 miles from Newberg to Salem, mostly through beautiful farmland in the heart of the Willamette Valley) of the agricultural variety and bounty of the land here. What a delightful fulfillment of Gen. 2:15. The earth's potential is brought forth.

Here is a list of what I see growing on any given morning:

Filbert and Cherry Orchards

Vinyards

Nursery stock

Wheat

Dairy cows and sheep at pasture

Grass (this area is a big into grass seed)

Hops

Assorted vegtables

Mint
posted by Dave at Friday, July 08, 2005 -

Just in Case You Haven't Heard
that big city in my back yard is perfect.

Well, a city with 34 microbreweries can't be all bad...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, July 06, 2005 -

Building Advice
One book that was brought to the attention of the trustees at our church and the building committee is When Not to Build by Bowman and Hall. While I don't agree with everything in the book (esp. the the chapter "The Myth of Sacred Space" which I thought was gnostic), the book helped me look at our church facility situation in a new light.

We are still moving a ahead with a master plan which will give us an idea of what the costs and possibilites are with our property. Then we can make some real decisions.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 05, 2005 -

The Heart of Christian Culture - The Next Generation
Some sobering thoughts from R.C. Sproul, Jr. on reaching the hearts of our kids. More reason to call out to God for his grace...

There is danger on both sides. A pathological fear that if you send your child to get a pop out of the machine in the lobby, that such might mean they might ride an elevator with a peer is just a little over the top. On the other hand, the notion that everything is just ducky because our teens are hanging out with teens of parents just like us is just a little head-in-the-sand. A seething child that is always at your side has already left you. And a child that cheerfully tips his or her hat at your values on the way out the door has already left you, even if they have a nice, respectable haircut.

What you want is both proximity without apron strings, and a loyalty that runs through you to the King. This is how you grow men and women who will become brothers in arms. Otherwise you’re just whistling in the dark.

posted by Dave at Thursday, June 30, 2005 -

New Urbanism in LA
A conference on new urbanism that is - from a Christian perspective. As reported in the LA Times:

Jacobsen recently left a pastorate in Missoula, Mont., to complete his doctorate in theology and built environment at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. He says churches have contributed to the deterioration of cities by building warehouse-like edifices in the suburbs with huge parking lots. Those mega-churches are too isolated to connect with people's "ordinary lives," he said.

"I'll be the first to admit that Christians in this country have failed to live up to the standard set by their own Scriptures," said Jacobsen, an adjunct professor of theology and culture at Fuller. "Rather than taking the Bible seriously, we have allowed the American idols of individualism, conspicuous consumption and privatism to influence our approach to church building as well as our impulses toward the urban landscape."

In contrast, a church that is "embedded in the neighborhood with doors that come right up to the sidewalk" reflects Christ's approach to ministry. He cited All Saints Episcopal Church and Pasadena Presbyterian Church in downtown Pasadena and Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles as positive examples.

Eric Jacobsen is the author of Sidewalks in the Kingdom , which I have commented on numberous times in this blog.
posted by Dave at Monday, June 27, 2005 -

Artistic Monkey Business



Chimp art sells for more than $25k. Story.
posted by Dave at Thursday, June 23, 2005 -

Maybe this Is why I Enjoy Golf so Much

You hit a near-perfect iron to the green, so accurate it strikes the flag stick—and then ricochets off and ends up in a sand trap. So much for your perfect iron. On the next hole, you wickedly slice a drive into a thick cluster of trees, hear a frightening thud—and see your ball magically bounce out into the middle of the fairway. This sort of thing happens in every round. There is no sense shaking one's fist heavenward or cursing the ways of this inscrutable god. If one wants to get on in the life of golf, the best posture is to humbly accept this god's complete sovereignty and prepare for the next shot.

In this regard, golf is Protestantism on steroids. It is a purely individual sport. In team sports, the weight of salvation is shifted constantly, from pitcher to shortstop to batter, or from quarterback to lineman to linebacker. No one player has the burden for more than part of the game, and every teammate is there to bring encouragement one to another. In golf, the burden rests squarely on the shoulders of the golfer for every shot, from start to finish.

(quote form Books & Culture )
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 21, 2005 -

Reformed Churches in My Neck of the Woods
via MSN Search
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 21, 2005 -

Resolution Follow-Up
Some friends asked about the actual wording of the resolution (not an overture) voted down by the PCA on educaction. Here is the conclusion.

Therefore, be it resolved that the 33rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America encourages all her officers and members to remove their children from the public schools and see to it that they receive a thoroughly Christian education, for the glory of God and the good of Christ's church.

You can read the entire resolution here.

"Encourage" seems pretty weak to me. Why couldn't the PCA muster a fifty percent majority to pass this?
posted by Dave at Monday, June 20, 2005 -

Crash...Boom
The sound of the Overture to the PCA GA encouraging parents to educate their children in a Christian manner crashing and burning on the assembly floor.

So much for a distinctive Christian culture.

But that wouldn't be relevant...
posted by Dave at Friday, June 17, 2005 -

Gnostic Shortcomings
as illustrated by the Star Wars Epic.

Or, the problem with disengagement...
posted by Dave at Friday, June 17, 2005 -

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
especially in the case of the "cartoon" version of The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Heyak.



What it even more amazing is that this appeared in Look magazine. Radical libertarianism in a mainstream magazine? Wow.
posted by Dave at Monday, June 13, 2005 -

Sounds Like a Hoot


A nice companion to Nathan Wilson's Right Behind series!
posted by Dave at Friday, June 10, 2005 -

Who Said:

Faith becoming music is part of the process of the word becoming flesh …When the word becomes music, there is involved on the one hand perceptible illustration, incarnation or taking on flesh, attraction of pre-rational powers, a drawing upon the hidden resonance of creation, a discovery of the song which lies at the basis of all things. And so this becoming music is itself the very turning point in the movement: it involves not only the word becoming flesh, but simultaneously the flesh becoming spirit.

Clue: He also said:

... Rock music seeks release through liberation from the personality and its responsibility ... [it is] among the anarchic ideas of freedom which today [1985] predominate more openly in the West than in the East. But that is precisely why rock music is so completely antithetical to the Christian concept of redemption and freedom, indeed its exact opposite. Hence music of this type must be excluded from the Church on principle, and not merely for aesthetic reasons, or because of restorative crankiness or historical inflexibility.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 08, 2005 -

Right?

posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 08, 2005 -

Just What We Need
art historical self-help books. Sigh.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 07, 2005 -

The Next Generation
One of the key ways that the contemporary Christian church is resisting the cultural status quo is through the education of their covenant children. Deliberately eschewing the government schools for private or home schooling were true education can take place founded and permeated by biblical truths, a new generation is being raised up who have been trained to think like Christians - not like prevailing unbelief we see propagated all around us (sadly, even among far too many Christians).

Two weeks ago we attended the graduation at Veritas School where our oldest daugher is due to graduate next year. I was especially taken by the following speech by Nolan Lynch, one of three graduates who spoke eloquently at the ceremony. It is a remarkable piece of literature, indicating what the "lost tools of learning" can produce at a relatively early age:

The phrase “classical education” calls up an image of a dark, crusty-manuscript-and-cobwebby-halberd-bearing-suit-of-armor-filled stone chamber. Its sole inhabitant is a lonely pupil who reads by candlelight, under the watchful, commanding eye of a bust of Caesar. In short, classical education is usually thought of as dark, dusty and dead. The student thinks he has been locked in by his gray-bearded tutor, who carries a large bundle of keys and, in all likeliness, wears a tie. That student’s mistake, however, was that he refused to light more than the necessary single candle. Lighting the numerous wall-torches would reveal that the room is much bigger than it first appears. The cobwebs do not seem so plentiful. The chamber is actually a great hall, ancient and beautiful, built ages ago by men who are far older and wiser than we will ever be. Along the walls are strong, intricately carved, oak doors. Behind those doors lie greater halls, some containing magnificent feasts, others hiding vast treasures guarded by goblins and giant spiders (dragons being remarkably rare in our sheltered society). A few of the highest chambers hold captive damsels in distress, which are, sadly, even rarer than dragons. A grand adventure, full of learning, songs, and peril, lies behind any of the doors, which, by the foolish student’s own wish are obscured in darkness. Besides the fact that he wants no part in any adventure that does not involve an electronic screen, he has also bought into the modern version of classical education, complete with a bust of a dead, white, upper-class, European male. The only thing making that pitiable student’s education dull is his own lack of imagination. Adventure and glory can be found in the most insignificant corners of the classroom for those willing to look about and put in some effort of his own. For those willing to step into an available suit of chain mail and set off to explore the remote regions of the tower, torch and sword in hand, there are thrilling and exciting deeds to be done. The students who look for excitement will find it.

Veritas is rather like the preliminary adventure in the long journey of life, where travelers learn to use their weapons and their wits. The skills learned in that first journey to the top of the tower will prove vital in the more dangerous, more exciting quest that begins with graduation. We have pushed open that last, particularly heavy trapdoor, while fighting off the various nasty goblins of laziness, stupidity, sickness, and anxiety. It is difficult, but exhilarating. We have all seven of us come out on the topmost course of the great tower victorious, and the stronger for the battle. Before us lies great fields, mountains, forests, and rivers waiting to be explored and conquered as well. The time has come for us to continue on our journey. My classmates and I have reached that highest level of the tower, and as we have no higher to go, it is only natural that we would move on to bigger and better things. However, I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil. But remember that we cannot stay; it is our quest to go out and wage war on the world. This is what we have been trained to do. The training is done; the real adventure begins now. In the words of J. R. R. Tolkien:

The road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began
Now far ahead the road has gone
And I must follow if I can

Pursuing it with weary feet
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet
And whither then I cannot say

(copywrite Nolan Lynch, 2005)

posted by Dave at Monday, June 06, 2005 -

Say Chezz
Lookin' forward to hearing blues historian and musician Steve Cheseboorough at the Coffee Cottage tonight. Caught some of him last month and he was amazing. Finger style and bare bones. He just moved up to Portland from Mississippi a couple of month ago.
posted by Dave at Friday, June 03, 2005 -

Outside Looking In
John Stackhouse reviews The Church on the World's Turf: An Evangelical Christian Group at a Secular University by Paul A. Bradmadat. Bradmadat is a Unitarian who observed an IVCF group for a year at McMaster University. Sounds a lot like my IV experiences 25 years ago:

At least one more thing keeps Bramadat from embracing this group's religion: its lack of serious intellectual interest and ability. Here, at one of Canada's most selective and productive research universities, the students at IVCF seem much more interested in the affective, relational, and moral dimensions of their faith than the intellectual. That perhaps is not entirely surprising. But when the intellectual aspect of Christianity is directly on trial, it is disappointing to find that representatives of the group fail badly to meet the challenge.

Stackhouse also observes:

. . . In what might count as the most surprising chapter in the book, he discusses "The Role of Women" who make up the majority of the membership. He concludes that IVCF provides several crucial services to evangelical women: it offers them positions of leadership in a subculture that still generally does not; it gives them a safe place to negotiate the competing truth claims offered in the secular university; and it worships God in a style of piety that is suited especially to single women, with quasi-erotic and feminine imagery in prayers and especially in songs.

This last point might discomfit some readers, but Bramadat details his findings, citing lyrics from what he calls "repetitive, yearning songs" sung at IVCF events. He also notes that IVCF men refer to Jesus in typical masculine roles as "judge, father, teacher, mentor, and, least frequently, friend," while the women envision Jesus as "the kind, sensitive recipient and unconditional requiter of love." What Bramadat sees here in microcosm, of course, other observers have noted throughout contemporary evangelical piety.

(found at the Common Ground blog)
posted by Dave at Thursday, June 02, 2005 -

Back
after a short break over an extended Memorial Day weekend.

I am getting back into the rhythm of working on our house. The exterior little details are almost complete (including finishing paint). Then there is landscaping...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 01, 2005 -

Cool Schools
If (BIG if) I had a spare $75K I would consider these graduate programs:

Master's programme in Dutch Art in European Context

MA in the History and Culture of the Dutch Golden Age

one-year MLitt, or the two-year MPhil, in Theology, Imagination and the Arts

Or maybe I could learn how to build boats or fine furniture...
posted by Dave at Friday, May 27, 2005 -

Ben House is Complaining
that there aren't any Reformed Novelists:

I’m jealous. I love literature and I love Reformed theology. Sad to say, but literary greats and Reformed theologians live in separate worlds. We have produced lots of theologians and preachers, but few poets and almost no novelists.

I don't know what rock Ben has been hiding under.

Let's see, to name just a couple, there's

Larry Woiwode (OPC elder and North Dakota poet laureate)

James Schaap

Doug Jones

others?
posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 24, 2005 -

More Antithesis Hitting the Fan
this time in Grand Rapids...

(or by I won't be sending my kids to Calvin College)

Additional note: to be fair, it should be noted that the letter signed by Calvin faculty and students was kindly worded (read it here). Never the less there is lot of anger too. But, hey, how many presidential addresses mention Abraham Kuyper?
posted by Dave at Monday, May 23, 2005 -

Keeping Higher Christian Education Christian
A keen observation from a review of God on the Quad:How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation Are Changing America by Naomi Schaefer Riley on the Books and Culture website:

Riley is at her independent-minded best in the chapter entitled "The Classroom as Chapel," which deals with the integration of faith and learning, a principle central to the identity of all her evangelical colleges and of some of the others, too. She hears the case against integration at Yeshiva, and Soka seems included largely to serve as a contrast here, since it flatly rejects this concept. Riley ends up siding with institutions engaged in the integrative project; these are the heirs of the long history of education in the West that accepts the compatibility of liberal learning and religious beliefs. Thus, she challenges the view that religious colleges indoctrinate, a piece of conventional wisdom held by well-educated, right-thinking people who know little of evangelical colleges and less of the historical record. In a provocative reversal, she turns the charge of indoctrination back against the secular university. Also, she boldly offers a sharp warning to evangelical-college professors who—in response to peer pressure, she thinks—blur their "Christian perspective" by importing some postmodernism. "But one might well wonder whether …. the historicist denial that we have any access to a reality that transcends our particular perspectives does not undermine the notion of religious truth itself."

Reread that last sentence again.

Of course there is no truth that isn't "religious truth". Thus all truth is threatened.
posted by Dave at Friday, May 20, 2005 -

More from Eric Jacobsen
I just heard about a course Jacobsen is teaching at Fuller this summer, TC515: TOPICS IN THEOLOGY AND CULTURE: THEOLOGY AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT.

He also has an intersting article on "The return of the neighborhood church" in the New Urban News.

Good Stuff.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, May 18, 2005 -

Some Good Reading on Cities
Joel Kotkin on "CITIES: Places Sacred, Safe, and Busy" from the journal The Next American City.

From an earlier issue on the theme Religion and the City, check out "GOD'S GREEN EARTH: Christianity and the Environmental Movement" by Benita Singh, which interacts with Jacobson's Sidewalks and the Kingdom.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, May 18, 2005 -