Fast Times
From an article by Andy Crouch on his Christian Vision Project site:

Frederica and her family fast twice a week, a practice that goes back to the earliest Christian centuries and an ancient discipleship manual called the Didache. Along with Orthodox Christians around the world, the Mathewes-Greens observe this fast every Wednesday and Friday. It's not total abstinence from all food, but rather avoidance of foods that come from animals, whether meat, eggs, or dairy products—what we now would call a vegan diet.

Long before anyone invented the word vegan, Christians called this diet the "Daniel fast"—because it essentially replicates the diet Daniel and his friends adopted upon arrival in Babylon. The Christian version of the Daniel fast does not require us to abstain permanently from meat, Frederica pointed out. But it is a twice-weekly reminder that we are in exile and that our use of animals for food is itself tainted with echoes of the Fall. The Daniel fast is not just a discipline to develop self-control and dependence on God; it is a reminder that the abundance we enjoy cannot, in this life, be entirely separated from the alienation we endure from God and from God's creatures. It is a small act of reorientation, a small act of exilic consciousness in the middle of every week.

I'm not sure about having an "exilic" consciousness, but the idea of the Daniel Fast is intreguing. Anything that promotes deliberate living and self-consciously resisting the pull of anti-Christian culture that surrounds us is worth considering.
posted by Dave at Friday, December 29, 2006 -

Real Art History

Here and there, I am sure, you would find art history pursued as outlined above: as an educational endeavor concerned with genuine scholarship, an adventure in seeing, a collaboration that aimed above all at facilitating the direct encounter with important works of art. I want to stress this disclaimer. I do not say “I am sure” in the deflationary sense, meaning “perhaps, but probably not.” I mean it rather in an affirmative, a declarative sense. I can instantly think of several art historians and curators who are deeply engaged with the aesthetic substance of art. I mention several such figures in the course of this book: critics and historians and connoisseurs who like art, who delight in looking, and who seek to communicate this passion and delight. But that’s the end of the good news. Because the dominant trend—the drift that receives the limelight, the prizes, the honors, the academic adulation—is decidedly elsewhere. Yes, there are dissenting voices. But the study of art history today is more and more about displacing art, subordinating it to “theory,” to politics, to the critic’s autobiography, to just about anything that allows one to dispense with the burden of experiencing art natively, on its own terms.

--from the introduction to The Rape of the Masters by Roger Kimball

posted by Dave at Thursday, December 28, 2006 -

IAM Conference


Details on the conference I will be participating in February in NYC. I will be speaking on "What does "Redeeming Culture" mean?"

Maybe I will see some of you there?
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 26, 2006 -

Stuck in the Mud
Bog actually.

Story on an 8th Century Psalter found in an Irish bog recently. A wonderful reminder that God's providence included his preserving things as well!
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 21, 2006 -

Pretty Much my Position

In other words, amillennialists do not expect Christian cultural influence to progressively dominate the world, but as the arguments and behavior of some of their best contemporary theologians show they also do not expect Christians to be culturally marginal all the time. In the more robust forms of their view they have a significant place for Christians in culture, and I don’t see that it would take them far afield of their amillenialism if they imagined that a whole bunch of Christians doing some really serious cultural work would achieve at some point a sort of “critical mass” and bring about a real live Christian culture. This is enough, it seems to me, to allow an amillennialist to coherently hold the same basic positive cultural vision as the postmillennialist. The amil / postmil divide in terms of long-term cultural expectations need not, it seems to me, prevent them merely working together to form a stable, visible, significantly-impactive Christian culture.

--quote found on Tim Enloe's blog

Its time for Post-Millenialists to admit that its the hardcore Kuyperians - who are almost entirely amillenial - who have done a great deal (the most?) to promote and establish Christian culture in the last 100 years.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, December 20, 2006 -

X Factor
I think I have just figured out what is wrong with the way we celebrate Christmas in the US. It can be summed up in one word.

Santamentalism.
posted by Dave at Monday, December 18, 2006 -

Ramifications

"If you make a mistake in steel, you make a mistake that lasts a long time."

--blacksmith interviewed on Oregon Art Beat last night (local public television)

posted by Dave at Friday, December 15, 2006 -

Impressive
This article in the New York Times reminded me of how nice hand set letterpress printed books and broadsheets can be. To be able to run my hand over the paper and feel the indentations where the letters were impressed into the sheet is a wonderful pleasure. And the letters themselves can be so crisp.

Reminds me of the book arts major at the Oregon College of Art and Craft which isn't too far from where I live.

Maybe a second career after retirement...in addition writing more books!
posted by Dave at Wednesday, December 13, 2006 -

Definitely Worth a Read

"Reversing the Fall and Setting Creation Free" by Vern Poythress

(HT)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 12, 2006 -

Promising Book



Review (HT)
posted by Dave at Monday, December 11, 2006 -

"All the Rest Are Bores"
Here is a wonderful quote a came across from C.S. Lewis describing his view of literature before he became a Christian:

All the books were beginning to turn against me. Indeed, I must have been as blind as a bat not to have seen, long before, the ludicrous contradiction between my theory of life and my actual experiences as a reader. George MacDonald had done more to me than any other writer; of course it was a pity he had that bee in his bonnet about Christianity. He was good in spite of it. Chesterton had more sense than all the other moderns put together; bating, of course, his Christianity. Johnson was one of the few authors whom I felt I could trust utterly; curiously enough, he had the same kink. Spenser and Milton by a strange coincidence had it too. Even among ancient authors the same paradox was to be found. The most religious (Plato, Aeschylus, Virgil) were clearly those on whom I could really feed. On the other hand, those writers who did not suffer from religion and with whom in theory my sympathy ought to have been complete -- Shaw and Wells and Mill and Gibbon and Voltaire -- all seemed a little thin; what as boys we called "tinny". It wasn't that I didn't like them. They were all (especially Gibbon) entertaining; but hardly more. There seemed to be no depth in them. They were too simple. The roughness and density of life did not appear in their books.

Now that I was reading more English, the paradox began to be aggravated. I was deeply moved by the Dream of the Rood; more deeply still by Langland; intoxicated (for a time) by Donne; deeply and lastingly satisfied by Thomas Browne. But the most alarming of all was George Herbert. Here was a man who seemed to me to excel all the authors I had ever read in conveying the very quality of life as we actually live it from moment to moment; but the wretched fellow, instead of doing it all directly, insisted on mediating it through what I would still have called "the Christian mythology". On the other hand most of the authors who might be claimed as precursors of modern enlightenment seemed to me very small beer and bored me cruelly. I thought Bacon (to speak frankly) a solemn, pretentious ass, yawned my way through Restoration Comedy, and, having manfully struggled on to the last line of Don Juan, wrote on the end-leaf "Never again". The only non-Christians who seemed to me really to know anything were the Romantics; and a good many of them were dangerously tinged with something like religion, even at times with Christianity. The upshot of it all could nearly be expressed in a perversion of Roland's great line in the Chanson --

Christians are wrong, but all the rest are bores.

(source)

Isn't it wonderful how God used the vitality of Christian culture as a part of mix of providences that brought Lewis to the faith?!

Pray that this vitality will return to the Covenant community.
posted by Dave at Friday, December 08, 2006 -

Lecture at PSU
Went to a lecture by "landscape" (non-representational) painter James Lavadour last night. He is one of my favorite Oregon artists.

More about himhere and here.

I guess you can add him to the list of non-representative painters I admire (see discussion below).
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 05, 2006 -

Real van Rijn
I have posted a bunch of times this past year about Rembrandt, who has had his 400th birthday celebrated by huge number (more than a hundred!) exhibitions and symposia this year.

I also am intregued by the issues of authenticity and "found" art works. How important is it that an artwork is actually made by a certain individual? This issue is a really big deal (think: fraud) in the business world. But in the end does it really matter, as long as an art is ultimately recognized for its excellence?

For example, the so-called Polish Rider in the Frick Museum is doubted by the majority of art experts to be painted by Rembrandt. It is nevertheless a great painting.

Recently, two articles have could my attention on this issue (and on Rembrandt in particular) that are worth a look:

from the New York Times

from the Independant
posted by Dave at Monday, December 04, 2006 -

Selling Out?
From the New York Times review of Nativity Story:

The challenge in producing a movie like this is to find enough conventional movie elements — suspense, realistic characters, convincing dialogue — without selling out the scriptural source. How do you make piety entertaining without seeming impious? A certain degree of kitsch is inevitable, and perhaps even desirable.

Obviously we have to really, really careful that we don't have too much truth in our movies...
posted by Dave at Friday, December 01, 2006 -

Organization
My wife is a list maker and has slowly turned me on to the art.

For a while I used a Palm Pilot, but found it too bulky and buggy.

Now I used folded up envelopes (used reply envelopes from junk mail) on which I place various to-do lists, notes I write down in antique and book stores (to check on later), and other important addresses and phone numbers. Its pretty low tech.

I have to admire Gideon Strauss' hPDA (pictures) which is very elegant. I wonder a little about portability (does it fit in a pocket?). I really like it.

In his post he also mentions the Molskine which is the coolest notebook/pad ever.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 29, 2006 -

Non-Representational
When I was an undergraduate student hanging out with art majors, we used to joke about "abstract" art. We imagined the following imaginary conversation...

"Do you make abstract art?"

"Yeah, of course I do. If my art wasn't abstract, it would be real life."

I have always preferred the term "non-representational" rather than "abstract" to talk about art which does not depict/represent some aspect of the real (or imaginary) world.

Anyway, take a look at this review of Kirk Varnadoe's Pictures about Nothing from Books & Culture. Some "non=representational" artists that I like include

Agnes Martin

Richard Diebenkorn (esp Ocean Park series)

Sean Scully
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 28, 2006 -

Worth a Look
My pastor just gave a heads up on this address by George Marsden given at Grove City College.

Marsden argues for the necessity of scholars within the Christian community. But he seems to argue that we need scholars to support the other ministries of the church which are more important. He seems to fail to see how scholarship has instrinsic worth entirely by itself as part of the cultural mandate.

Pretty disappointing.
posted by Dave at Monday, November 27, 2006 -

Charm without the Sauce
Lauren Winner sings the praises of art of Grandma Moses in Books & Culture, which interestingly enough, has a Thanksgiving angle:

The art and the artist also embodied a certain kind of femininity that seemed under threat during wartime. When Grandma Moses appeared at Gimbels' Thanksgiving Forum, the department store advertised her appearance with this declaration: "She's more than a great American artist. She's a great American housewife. The sort of American housewife who has kept the tradition of Thanksgiving alive. Fussing with cranberry sauce may seem a bit useless in these turbulent times. It's not. A woman … can fight to make the world a pleasanter place by perfecting her cranberries." Women, in other words, didn't need to become Rosie the Riveter to support the triumph of democracy over fascism. They could serve the cause of freedom simply by turning out a tasty cranberry sauce.

I saw an exhibit of Grandma Moses' work at the Portland Art Museum several years ago. I tried really hard to like her stuff. I can't tell you how utterly unimpressed I was (as was my entire family). She was an keen observer of the details of country life. But as an artist she was incredibly poor. All charm but no depth.

I can't help wondering if the art world would make such a fuss if she was only 30 when the painted her stuff...
posted by Dave at Friday, November 24, 2006 -

What Organization Starts with the Letter M
has five letters and ends with an A?

Clue: The Italian government has been acting just like them is its blackmailing, shoot-in-the-back-of-the-head policies toward US art museums including the Getty Museum.

If the art is Truly stolen, fine. Return it.

But if its not clear, stop the threats of "cultural embargoes" and the like.

I would love to see all the major US museums band together and issue their own "cultural embargo" to retaliate this bullying. This would be real Culture War!
posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 22, 2006 -

Artistic Nicodemites?
Reading this article in Books & Culture about the musician Sufjan Stevens has me thinking. Is it wrong for an artist to hide his faith?

An excerpt:

As critical acclaim has mounted, though, he's become much more evasive when questioned about his faith. He routinely brushes aside the matter of his personal beliefs, strategically separating himself from the weird world of contemporary Christian music. He has a "knee-jerk reaction to that kind of [Christian] culture," he quipped in one interview. "Maybe I'm a little more empathetic … because we have similar fundamental beliefs. But culturally and aesthetically, some of it is really embarrassing." More bluntly, he has said, "I don't make faith-themed music."

This approach reminded me of a group of underground Protestants during the Reformation who were often called Nicodemites:

The term "Nicodemites" was applied to pseudo-Protestants who hid their convictions by attending the Mass and other Romish ordinances of worship. These secret Protestants lived in popish lands, and feared that an open declaration of their faith would bring persecution, or result in a loss of their possessions and social status. Some had appealed to the example of Nicodemus (who came to Jesus by night), as a pretext for keeping their views secret, even to the point of pretending to be Romanists in their outward deportment. Calvin rebuked the Nicodemites, by showing that the scriptures require believers to remain undefiled by idolatry (such as the popish Mass).

What do you think of Steven's approach? Should he be more up front about his faith? Or is better to pull those outside the covenant community in to hear what what have to say?
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 21, 2006 -

Art and Authenticity
This fairly brief article on authenticating art cought my eye. (Its partially related to the found "Pollock" that I blogged about last week.

On a related note: it makes me wonder about artists (many in my home town) who sell signed color reproductions (color photocopies or giclee prints) of their original paintings. This tends to rub me the wrong way. Does this tend to somehow undermine the meaning and value of art? Is it really no different (though on a much smaller scale) than what Thomas Kinkade does with his works? Or does this practice make it easier for people with limited means to enjoy art at a modest price?

What do y'all think?
posted by Dave at Thursday, November 16, 2006 -

Plowing Makes an Appearance
on Mr. Wilson's Bookshelf.

(and its not the Mr. Wilson that you might think.)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 15, 2006 -

Nice Quote

God gave his followers a cultural command as well as a missionary command. We should not set these up as rivals. To relinquish our presence in any cultural area only weakens the Christian voice in our culture as a whole and makes evangelism all the more difficult. Our attitude toward the arts says something about the God we proclaim, and I fear that we often send the wrong signal to our culture.

--Leland Ryken

posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 14, 2006 -

Food for Thought
On the way home from downtown Portland Saturday, I heard this on the radio - part of a KFC commercial:

"Food can be culture too."

So I guess the question is, how do you want your culture: Original, Extra Crispy, or Hot & Spicy?
posted by Dave at Monday, November 13, 2006 -

Historic Perspective on Culture

I would be asleep and at rest
with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built for themselves places now lying in ruins...

--Job (3:13-14)

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings

--Isaiah 58:12

posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 08, 2006 -

Did you Hear about
the truck driver that, like, maybe bought a Jackson Pollock for $5?

Maybe, maybe not...

Update: New York Times article. (Talk about 15 minutes of fame!)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 07, 2006 -

Rembrandt in St Louis
I know that several readers of this Blog live in or near St. Louis. If you are there, you should check out the Rembrandt print exhibition at the Art Museum. (Museum site & Article)
posted by Dave at Monday, November 06, 2006 -

A Kindness
"Zondervan scraps Inspirio gifts line"

The world will be free of a few more worthless "Christian" trinkets.
posted by Dave at Thursday, November 02, 2006 -

Celebrating Craft
I came across this site of beautifully crafted furniture designed by a Seattle architect. Worth a look.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 01, 2006 -

Another Take on the Reformation
from Mark Horne on the use of printing press to spread the 95 theses:

The Reformation was viral marketing. Luther was the first blogger.

posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 31, 2006 -

Celebrating the Reformation's Liberation of Art
From Abraham Kuyper's Stone Lectures:

Religion also rises to that higher plain where it graduates from the symbolical into the clearly-conscious life, and thereby necessitates both the division of worship into many forms, and the emancipation of matured religion from all sacerdotal and political guardianship. In the 16th century Europe was approaching, though slowly, this higher level of Spiritual development, and it was not Lutheranism with its subjection of the whole nation to the religion of the prince, but Calvinism with its profound conception of religious liberty, which initiated the transition. In every country where Calvinism has made its appearance, it has led to a multiformity of life-tendencies, it has broken the power of the State within the domain of religion, and to a great extent has made an end of sacerdotalism. As a result of this, it abandoned the symbolical form of worship, and refused, at the demand of art, to embody its religious spirit in monuments of splendor.


The objection that such a symbolic service had a place in Israel does not weaken my argument, it rather supports it. For does not the New Testament teach us that the ministry of shadows, naturally flourishing under the old dispensation, under the dispensation of fulfilled prophecy is “old and waxeth aged and is nigh unto vanishing away? ”In Israel we find a state-religion, which is one and the same for the entire people. That religion is under sacerdotal leadership. And finally it makes its appearance in symbols, and is consequently embodied in the splendid temple of Solomon. But when this ministry of shadows has served the purposes of the Lord, Christ comes to prophesy the hour when God shall no longer be worshipped in the monumental temple at Jerusalem, but shall rather be worshipped in spirit and in truth. And in keeping with this prophecy you find no trace or shadow of art for worship in all the apostolic literature. Aaron's visible priesthood on earth gives place to the invisible High-priesthood after the order of Melchizedek in Heaven. The purely spiritual breaks through the nebula of the symbolical.

...

Now of both these arts it is to be stated that, before the days of Calvinism, they soared high above the common life of the Nations, and that only under the Calvinistic influence did they descend to the so much richer life of the people. As regards painting, just recall the productions of Dutch art by brush and etching-needle in the 16th and 17th centuries. Rembrandt's name alone is here sufficient to summon a whole world of art-treasures before your mind's eye. The museums of every country and continent still vie with each other, to the utmost, in their effort to obtain some specimen of his work. Even your brokers have respect for an art-school whose returns represent so vast a capital. And even in our days the masters all over the world are still borrowing their most effectual motives and their best art-tendencies from what, at that time, demanded the world's admiration as an entirely new school of painting. Of course this does not say that all these painters were personally staunch Calvinists. In the earlier art-school, which flourished under the influence of Rome, the “bon Catholiques ”were also very rare. Such influences do not operate personally, but put their impress upon surroundings and society, upon the world of perceptions, of representations and of thought; and as a result of these various impressions an art-school makes its appearance. And, taken in this sense, the antithesis between the past and the present in the school of Dutch art is unmistakable. Before this period, no account was taken of the people; they only were considered worthy of notice who were superior to the common man, viz., the high world of the Church and of the priests, of knights and princes. But, since then, the people had come of age, and under the auspices of Calvinism, the art of painting, prophetic of a democratic life of later times, was the first to proclaim the people's maturity. The family ceased to be an annex to the Church, and asserted its standing in its independent significance. By the light of common grace it was seen that the non-churchly life was also possessed of high importance and of an all-sided art-motive. Having been overshadowed for many centuries by class-distinctions, the common life of man came out of its hiding-place like a new world, in all its sober reality. It was the broad emancipation of our ordinary earthly life, and the instinct for liberty, which thereby captured the heart of the nations and inspired them with delight in the enjoyment of treasures so long blindly neglected.

posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 31, 2006 -

Quote

Who said:

Those who seek in scholarship nothing more than an
honoured occupation with which to beguile the tedium
of idleness I would compare to those who pass their
lives looking at paintings.

posted by Dave at Monday, October 30, 2006 -

What Christian Culture Looks Like - Part IX



My younger daugher is working on a school project on an historical person from the Colonial/Revolutionary period. I suggested Paul Revere who not only was a war hero but a great craftsman/artist.



Revere's father was a Huguenot and silversmith. Even if Paul Revere had never made his "famous ride", he would still be important to American history. He is one of the greatest American silversmiths and was an innovator in the foundry industry.
posted by Dave at Friday, October 27, 2006 -

Haiku
I came across an idea in an article the other day which refered to boiling down an idea to its "haiku level". I kind of like that.

So what is Christian culture "boiled down to the haiku level"...
posted by Dave at Thursday, October 26, 2006 -

Shuffle
Alan Jacobs whos insightful A Visit to Vanity Fair is a wonderful expose of contemporary culture, turns his insightful eye to examine the iPod. (It is part of a review of The Perfect Thing - the book of the week at Books & Culture.)

An excerpt:

This little electronic gadget, like a pocket-sized Freudian analyst, has somehow revealed—worse, allowed me to reveal—my inauthenticity, as though its famously fingerprint-attracting polished metal back had lifted itself before my appalled face and cried, Behold!

posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 24, 2006 -

Skillen on Culture
Bill Edgar recently hosted a conference at Westminster Seminary on for his Gospel and Culture Project titled "Biblical Matters: Biblical Reflections on ‘Going Global’" One of the speakers was James Skillen, who made the following observation:

Recent Christian youth movements have issued a call to “redeem the culture.” As well-intentioned as this is, it is not really the call of Christ. It is not us redeeming culture and then offering it up to Christ as our gift to him, but rather our recognition that we are but servants of the Christ who judges and who himself redeems, not just our culture, but every culture of the world. We serve his kingdom, wherever we do so, as humble, repentant sinners, people who live out of deep gratitude. There is no shortcut to the redemption of all things. No political party, no economic plan, can bring it about. Neither is there a shortcut to global Christian unity. We must see ourselves neither as Americans first nor as anti-American, but rather first always as Christ’s disciples, ambassadors to all the world.

I agree with Skillen up to a point. We need to avoid provicialism of all forms as we approach culture-making. Our ultimate allegiance is to Christ. We also need to see that culture is a global mission. The is the upshot of Genesis 1:28ff. We fill the earth and we rule and develop the whole of it.

But do we really have a problem of being too focused on national matters? Are we focussed too much on American cultural ideas? Maybe so. Our vision can be too limited. But the antidote to the problem of nationalism is not globalism. Rather we need to focus on local development. We need to meet the needs of those who are in our immediate community - whereever in the world that might be. If we establish Christian culture in the local scene, we can expect the spillover to bless the nation and even the world.
posted by Dave at Monday, October 23, 2006 -

Better Now
The Native Tourist was feeling pretty sick this week. But now he is feeling much better.

I should be up to blogging soon...
posted by Dave at Friday, October 20, 2006 -

Cake
...as in "let them live in cake."

This little tidbit from the NYT review of Marie Antoinette got me thinking:

No mere backdrop, Versailles, where much of “Marie Antoinette” was shot, is the film’s subject and, in some respects, its star. Like Hollywood — which it resembles in some interesting and hardly accidental particulars — Versailles is a place with an aura and a power of its own, with an almost mystical ability to warp the lives of those who, by accident or choice, come to dwell on its grounds.

If this really is the undertheme of this movie - that decadant architecture/environment leads to a decadant lifestyle - then this is a message of which we all need to be keenly aware. Our cultural environment is shaping us. Whatever we choose to rub elbows with (and we DO have choice in most things) is going to have an effect on our thinking and values and even our beliefs. Which may be a reason to skip seeing Marie Antoinette.

We at least need to think about. We must be deliberate.
posted by Dave at Friday, October 13, 2006 -

Art Lecture
I did something I haven't done in a long time: I went to an art lecture at George Fox University, which is located a couple of blocks from our home. The artist was one of the faculty members: Tim Timmerman. (He also has a show where I work in Salem.)

At first, I wasn't crazy about his works. But hear him talk about his process and his symbols and his sources, I came to appreciate what he was trying to do. I think I like his more finished works better.

One thing I realized: when one works with very personal symbols (as Timmerman does), one opens oneself to have their art works misunderstood. The same happens in poetry. I guess the question is whether this is a problem...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, October 11, 2006 -

The Same Goes for Christian Art and Christian Culture in General

"But it is impossible to make a good omelet with rotten eggs. If staff members of a Christian school are not walking in fellowship with God, then they cannot be in fellowship with one another. If we walk in the light, John says, we have fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7). If the people working in the school are under the chastening hand of God, then it does not matter how many education conferences they go to. It does not matter how intelligent they are. It does not matter how many books they read. It does not matter that they adopted a classical Christian curriculum. The whole thing stinks. The enterprise is comparable to insisting on rotten eggs as ingredients and then determining to make the omelet good by improving the kitchen, firing the cook, or changing the recipe. Refusal to deal with sin is folly, pure and simple"

--Doug Wilson, The Case for Classical Christian Education, p. 175

taken from Doug's blog
posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 10, 2006 -

Walls
I recently stumbled over a unique, hand-built ediface called the Ecokathedraal which, in case you couldn't already tell in located in the Netherlands.

I'm not sure what it is entirely about, but it is a beautiful structure. (I guess I can read more about it here.) I really admire stone walls and brick work, and the way this is pieced togather with various subtle color variations and textures - and apparently no mortar.

I am currently landscaping our backyard, including some brick paths I have laid out, so I find this very inspiring!
posted by Dave at Friday, October 06, 2006 -

Another Cool Thing about Oregon
are its microbreweries!
posted by Dave at Thursday, October 05, 2006 -

Nothing to Sneeze at
Did Anyone Tell You thatits Archives Week?

It is in Oregon, and I suspect it is elsewhere too.

Just thought you wanted to know.
posted by Dave at Thursday, October 05, 2006 -

Playing House
Two interesting pieces on home design can be found at Books & Culture:

A look at Sarah Susanka "Not so Big House" series

Lauren Winner meanders throught a number of thoughtful books on house and home
posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 03, 2006 -

A Little Bit More than a Square Inch



and counting...

(HT: Gideon Strauss)
posted by Dave at Monday, October 02, 2006 -

Its Only Work
This C.S. Lewis quote on Doug Wilson's blog caught my eye:

"Artists also talk of Good Work; but decreasingly. They begin to prefer words like ‘significant,’ important,’ contemporary,’ or ‘daring.’ These are not, to my mind, good symptoms" (C.S. Lewis, The World’s Last Night, p. 72).

Not good symptoms indeed.

Rookmaaker and Seerveld emphasize again and again the dire importance of seeing art-making as a craft - as a job. Artists are not some sort of special case. Art-making is a vocation like any other vocation. That artists are like high-wire acrobats "working without a net" as they death defyingly slather paint across a canvas (or better yet, drip the paint on the canvas!) is a BIG FAT LIE of modernism. Christian artists need to avoid drinking that koolaid.

Which is why (see my previous post) Christians need to connected to the local body.

Now more than ever.
posted by Dave at Friday, September 29, 2006 -

Visit a Museum for Free!
If you haven't already heard about it, The Smithsonian is sponsoring a free pass for two to many museums (art, history and other) this coming Saturday (30th).

I don't know if I will have the time this Saturday to take advantage of this (if I do, I would like to see the Oregon Historal Society in Portland) because I am trying to get my back yard finished before the rainy season starts. But maybe...
posted by Dave at Thursday, September 28, 2006 -

A Daily Humble Job
I found this at Mark Bertrand's blog.

"Some readers by now are looking for my theory of the way to produce Christian art or write Christian fiction, since theories are what people believe govern the world. They don't, and I have none. I am working out my aesthetics (and perhaps salvation) with each book--with this one--and each book poses unique problems. But I can assure you that you will not begin to form your own aesthetics or way or writing unless you first belong to a church that teaches you fellowship and unity within Christ, and then begin to see writing as your daily humble job within that community. . . .

--Larry Woiwode, Acts (Harper Collins, 1993), pp. 74.

I don't think that this can be stressed enough: Christian artists need to be connected to a church community - and not just a bunch of believing artistic types, but a diverse (in age, background, vocation) body. Artists need to be connected to "regular" people.

When Woiwode wrote this, he was a member of a tiny OPC congragation (where he still is) on the North Dakota prairie. (About as far from a Starbucks as one can get in the US.)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 27, 2006 -

A Pretty Good Plow
From Books & Culture - a review of The John Deere Story:

Deere's 1837 creation wasn't the first steel plow, and John never claimed to have invented it. Others had bolted or otherwise used steel to cut the soil, but Deere's design was the best. His plow stayed clean and sharp and was said to sing as it cut through the tough prairie soil. When work as a blacksmith once again became harder to find, Deere began slowly shifting into the plow-making business. He built 10 plows in 1839, 40 plows in 1840, and by 1842 Deere was hammering out 100 plows.

The painting on the cover of my book is Fall Plowing by Grant Wood. When I found it (Doug Jones asked my to find a appropriate image) I thought it was the perfect image for what I was trying to say in Plowing. The iconic image illustrated perfectly how the prairie has been tranformed into the fruitful plains. This was largely due to Mr. Deere's plow.

The additional irony is that Wood's painting is owned by the John Deere Company in Iowa.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 26, 2006 -

Blast from the Past
That is to say, Pete Steen. Article by Bryan Borger on Comment.

Steen had an impact on my life, albeit indirectly. I met or heard him a couple of times circa 1980. In that way he didn't have that much of an impact. (I remember him being an energetic, funny loudmouth.)

His influence on me was more indirect. Steen's effect on others helped shape my Kuyperian approach to culture and art. Like my friend Ian who met Steen at Geneva College and through whom I first heard of Dooyeweerd. Ian scored a copy of Seerveld's A Christian Critique of Art and Literature from a tiny bookstore/office on Chatham College that was the first book I ever read on art from a Christian perspective. And there was Steen's influence on Coalition for Christian Outreach which sponsored the Jubilee Conference where I first heard Calvin Seerveld in 1977.

I never became a full-blown follower of Dooyeweerd. But I did become a Christian cultural activist. And in part this is due to Pete Steen.
posted by Dave at Monday, September 25, 2006 -

Baus on Frame, Kline and Dooyeweerd
Here.

A reponse to our discussion in comments to below entries on Sept. 18 and 15.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 20, 2006 -

Some Recent Plowing Sightings

Hearts & Minds Bookstore table

Southern Baptist Seminary

Teologia Brasileira
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 20, 2006 -

Elephant as Wallpaper



(read all about it)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 19, 2006 -

Our Scintillating Future
Anthony Hoekema:

The possibilities that now rise before us boggle the mind. Will there be "better Beethoven" on the new earth, as one author has suggested? Shall we then see better Rembrandts, better Raphaels, better Constables? Shall we read better poetry, better drama, and better prose?

Will scientists continue to advance in technological achievement, will geologists continue to dig out the treasures of the earth, and will architects continue to build imposing and attractive structures? Will there be exciting new adventures in space travel? Shall we perhaps be able to explore new Perelandras? We do not know. But we do know that human dominion over nature will then be perfect. Our culture will glorify God in ways that surpass our most fantastic dreams.

This all means a lot for us now. If there is continuity as well as discontinuity between this earth and the new earth, we must work hard to develop our gifts and talents, and to come as close as we can to producing, in the strength of the Spirit, a Christian culture today. Through our kingdom service, the building materials for the new earth are now being gathered. Bibles are being translated, peoples are being evangelized, believers are being renewed, and cultures are being transformed. Only eternity will reveal the full significance of what has been done for Christ here on earth.

A scintillating future awaits us—not a future of disembodied existence (though this will be an earlier part of it), but everlasting life in glorified bodies on the new earth. Compared with the immeasurable span of eternity, this present life is but a passing moment, a fleeting sigh.

We look forward eagerly to that new earth, which will far surpass in splendor anything that we have ever seen before.

posted by Dave at Monday, September 18, 2006 -

Ghost Story
The comments/responses in the post below from Baus make me think about nature of the Kingdom of God. Is the Kingdom only spiritual (now or in the future)? Or does the Kingdom involve physical things too (like painting and schools and lovemaking)?

Form many reformed Christians, the Kingdom of God is only a spiritual thing, as this article by DG Hart (see reference to his new book below) makes all too clear.

For me, one of GLORIES of the reformed faith is that it involves all of life including the physical stuff.
posted by Dave at Friday, September 15, 2006 -

Quote
Who said:

I believe that there is no work more worthy of pope or emperor than a thorough reform of the universities. And on the other hand, nothing could be more devilish or disastrous than unreformed universities.

posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 13, 2006 -

Do Not Be Conformed
More cultural wisdom from Doug Wilson:

We are not just entertained by our amusements, we are shaped by them. If those entertainments are worldly, the world behind them is working energetically to press us into its mold, and to make us conform to its wisdom.

...

But we want to come to worship God according to His Word. This means that we should frequently find our worldly assumptions affronted, sometimes insulted, and always challenged. Receive such challenges – such admonitions are oil upon the head. Remember that the kisses of an enemy are profuse – your entertainments are flattering you with countless lies. But faithful are the wounds of a friend. The worship of God in the beauty of holiness is the true friend of sinners.

Are you wounded by your worship?
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 12, 2006 -

More Pseudo-Reformed Silliness



I wonder if Hart makes a biblical argument for seperation. Or maybe its a natural law thing. Hmm.
posted by Dave at Monday, September 11, 2006 -

Thinking about Architecture and Cities
from a Christian Perspective.

That is what this article by David Greusel in Comment investigates.

This article from a Catholic perspective in First Things is also worth a look.

I had a terrific talk last Sunday with a friend and fellow member of the OPC who has been a planner for more than 20 years. Along the way we discussed New Urbanism and Jane Jacobs. We both thought that New Urbanist communities had a really fake quality about them (like Disneyland). His observation about Jacobs somewhat startled me. He saw Jacobs as primarly libertarian in her approach to cities - a response to the heavy-handed planning of modernists who wanted to raze neighborhoods and put in high rises. So the NU theorists (who claim to have Jacobs as their patron saint) are actually making the same mistake as the modernists - just in a quainter, gentler and more (to our eyes) aesthetic way.

Thoughts?
posted by Dave at Friday, September 08, 2006 -

Worth Reading
A kind of prelimary review of the new multi-volume history of Christianity by Cambridge Univ Press by Philip Jenkins. Jenkins includes a summary of his view of overall historical trends and where he sees the contemporary church going in the coming decades.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 06, 2006 -

Wham!
John Frame bodyslams TKV.

Exerpt:

This Kuyperian approach should not be taken to imply that state and church should be merged, or that human cultural effort alone brings in the kingdom of God, or that all the arts should devote themselves entirely to evangelism, or that the church should become worldly. A number of people, such as Michael Horton, have charged that the Kuyperian view leads to such errors. But all the Kuyperians want to say is that Christian involvement in all cultural areas should be governed by the word of God. Of course, if the word of God says that state and church should be merged, then state and church should be merged. But it doesn’t say that. Some Christians in the past have erred in this respect, as when they have tried to achieve power for the church by wielding the sword. But they have erred, not in seeking to bring Scripture to bear on public life, but in misunderstanding what Scripture requires. And, although the errors of our ancestors should motivate more humility on our part when we try to apply Scripture to society, these errors are entirely irrelevant to the question of whether we should today seek to apply Scripture to culture.

posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 05, 2006 -

Writing in Books
I presently rarely write in books. I occationally put little brackets or dots next to a sentence or paragraph that I want to find later. But actual words and signs I tend to avoid.

I really hate books that others have marked up. It can be unnerving to find a used book that I always wanted to own that has highling or underlining. So I try to keep my own books unmarked in the thought that someone else might end up using them.

With all this in mind, it really interesting to read about John Adams marginalia in the NYT Book Review. There is an exhibit of his books at the Boston Public Library and there is web site as well. To ready his notations is to see inside Adams brilliant mind. To eavesdrop in on a conversation. I guess I'll forgive him for his transgression.

(This review piece by Garrison Keillor on photography and 9/11 is also worth a read. What an overdocumented world we live in...)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 05, 2006 -

Light



Photograph by Luisa Lambri Untitled (Barragán House, #20)
posted by Dave at Friday, September 01, 2006 -

Book I Want to Read



link
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 30, 2006 -

Doubtfire
I came across this interestin' booklet yesterday. There is an irony here. But I can't say much more about it...


posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 30, 2006 -

Daddy, Why is there a Warm Glow Coming from that Prison Window?
The continuing saga of Thomas Kinkade.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 29, 2006 -

Um, I Think Your Bitterness is Showing
I always thought that historian Randall Balmer had a smug edge. I sensed this in his PBS series on Evangelicals from the 80s. But if John Wilson's review of Balmer's new book is any indication, Balmer really has it in for evangelicals.

As Wilson shows, Balmer misunderstands many parts of the evangelical movement such as homeschooling and the writing of George Marsden. But maybe Balmer ultimately really gets it (in a way that Wilson perhaps does not). Many of us are not ready to compromise our faith. We are not willing to play the compromise game that is at the heart of American politics and the academy. That's why we go through the trouble to homeschool our kids (or send them to Christian schools). And this rankles genteel scholars the like Balmer to no end.

Let us hope we stay that way...
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 29, 2006 -

More Fun with Quotes
Who said:

"History belongs . . . to the man who preserves and honors, to the person who with faith and love looks back in the direction from which he has come, where he has been. Through this reverence he, as it were, gives thanks for his existence. . . . Because we endure and do not collapse overnight."

(answer)
posted by Dave at Monday, August 28, 2006 -

More Glass

This time it is a Glass museum wing built to house a collection of glass.
posted by Dave at Thursday, August 24, 2006 -

News Bulletin:

Postmodernism = Theonomy

(Just in case you hadn't heard)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 23, 2006 -

Tagged

1. One book that changed your life:

Being Human: The Nature of Spiritual Experience by Barrs and MacAulay.

This book helped me to see that denying myself meant denying my sinful nature, so that I can affirm - truly - my human nature renewed by the Holy Spirit.

Two other books that changed my life: Escape from Reason by Schaeffer and Art Needs No Justification by Rookmaaker.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once:
Plowing in Hope :^)

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:Besides the Bible, maybe Calvin's Institutes.

4. One book that made you laugh:
Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy (esp the chapter "The last Phil Donahue Show").

5. One book that made you cry:
Well almost cry: The Huguenot Garden by Douglas Jones (chapter "Stars and Sand").

6. One book that you wish had been written:
Sevententh Century Dutch Art: a Reformed View by Hans Rookmaaker.

7. One book that you wish had never been written:
Where in the World is the Church; A Christian View of Culture and Your Role in It by Mike Horton. (destructive Two-Kingdom banter)

8. One book you’re currently reading:
Future Men by Doug Wilson.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Art and Soul by Brand and Chaplin.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 22, 2006 -

Those Dark, Brown Paintings

“It was a dark, brooding painting that was thought to reflect Rembrandt’s depression at the time of his bankruptcy. Then, with conservation, it was revealed that this deep, brooding tonality was in large part dirty varnish. It’s got a wonderful blue sky and clouds, which had not been seen since the beginning of the 19th century. It was hugely shocking.”

--Arthur Wheelock quoted in an article in ArtNews on Rembrandt.

posted by Dave at Monday, August 21, 2006 -

Those Who Have Glass Houses...
should give tours.

The notorious/elegant Glasshouse by Philip Johnson will go on tour soon, according to the New York Times.

The idea of this house might sound silly at first. But when you realize that it was built to be on an a large, secluded estate, it is not as crazy one might think. The idea of a living space which visually opens up to nature (blurring the boundry between architecture and nature) is quite appealing. Kind of a garden-city idea, if you ask me.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 16, 2006 -

Imago Discussion
As I have blogged many times before, the fact that mankind is created in God's image is key to our understading our role in culture-making.

Thus this review from Books & Culture on two books which tackle this idea is worth a look. Includes a discussion of what place our bodies have in the imago.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 15, 2006 -

Looks Like the Cat Is out of the Bag
regarding the future speaking engagements of The Native Tourist.

Looks like I'll get to meet Jeremy Begbie. Cool.
posted by Dave at Monday, August 14, 2006 -

Evasion
Can you too move to the Netherlands and avoid paying millions in taxes?
posted by Dave at Friday, August 11, 2006 -

How Many Avant-Garde Architects
does it take to design an NFL stadium? Apparently just one.

Just think if Frank Gehry had been the designer...
posted by Dave at Friday, August 11, 2006 -

Just another Frustrated Artist?

Perhaps if his art had been better received and he had developed a successful career as an artist rather than being rejected by the art establishment, he would not have become the man he did, ultimately responsible for the death of millions of people.

--Ian Morris, auctions manager for Jefferys auction house that in September will offer 21 mediocre watercolors possibly painted by Hitler

HT:CultureGrrl
posted by Dave at Friday, August 11, 2006 -

Our Built-in Need for Structure

Older writers used to speak about the grace of law. In our day we, too, need to understand that obedience to the Lord's commands is not legalism, any more than learning the keys on the piano, or following the composer's score, is a form of musical legalism. Rather, it is the means by which we learn to make music!

--Sinclair Ferguson in Faithful GOD

(HT: David Booth)
posted by Dave at Thursday, August 10, 2006 -

Potpourri

Interesting article by Quentin Schultze on "Technology and Worship" posted at ByFaith.com. The article hinges on the idea of "fittingness". But how is this to be defined?

Excerpt:

Fittingness is not just a matter of style. In fact, the so-called worship wars between contemporary and traditional services are leading us astray. The question is not whether worship is contemporary or traditional, high-tech or low-tech, PowerPoint-inclusive or PowerPoint exclusive. Instead we need to ask the more difficult questions about fittingness: Is God being glorified and praised? Are we being moved to worship in Spirit and truth? Do we "hear" from Jesus during the service? Do we "see" our sins more clearly? Are we filled with gratefulness for the journey ahead? Are we challenged to go out into the world as agents of God's Kingdom?

I also found out yesterday that my poet friend in Newberg participates in The Critical Poet which is a forum where one can have their poetry critiqued.

Here is a well written article on Jackson Pollock from The New Yorker.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 09, 2006 -

Studio Visit
As I said before, one of the highlights of my visit to New York City last month was getting together with Kirk Irwin and Mako Fujimura. We fist talked about an hour at a noodle place about Christian involvement in art and culture and the ways in which they have been encouraging students and local ministries to see the big picture in terms of culture-making being a Kingdom priority. I was happy to hear that they have using my book to help Christians get in touch with this vision.

Next, I was honored with visit to Mako's studio in Tribeca. I hadn't visited a artists studio in some time. It was a pleased to see a number of his paintings up close and personal (he had a large one from his Water Flames series that he had just completed). I enjoyed talking to Mako about his processes, the kind of aesthetic effects he is trying to capture in his pieces and some of the artists he admires. (We both shared an interest in Archile Gorky which we had both seen at the Guggenheim Museum in the 80s!)

Here are some pictures documenting our afternoon together (sorry about the poor quality):



Kirk and Moi



Mako and The Native Tourist
posted by Dave at Friday, August 04, 2006 -

Anniversary
TNT is now been going four years!

(Actually the anniversary date was yesterday)

If you want to know why its called The Native Tourist, you can read about it here.
posted by Dave at Friday, August 04, 2006 -

Simply Amazing
The Shakers continue to garner astonishing prices at auction, as evidenced by this recent sale. Not bad for an obscure sect obsessed with a no-nonsense, pragmatic approach to life and the making of objects...

Who thought something to basic could be so beautiful?
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 02, 2006 -

In the Enemy Camp
Now here is a strange place for my article on Rookmaaker and Schaeffer to turn up.

Funny, I never saw this piece as promoting culture wars...
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 01, 2006 -

Just another Saturday in my Hometown
After spending all day finishing up the fence project in our back yard - mainly cutting down and installing latches on the gates, our family enjoyed some delightfull cultural moments including:

1. A Thai dinner celebrating my daughter's 18th birthday

2. Listening to boffo NC folk singer Jason Harrod sing at the Coffee Cottage

3. Watching a first rate (astonishing really) fireworks display that is part of Newberg's Old Fashioned Festival.

God is so gracious!
posted by Dave at Monday, July 31, 2006 -

Cool Conference



hosted by St Peters Church in Abingdon, VA. Speakers include Ken Myers and Gene Veith. I wonder how Veith's Two-Kingdom Lutheranism will interact with R.C. Sproul Jr.'s transformationism. Hmm.
posted by Dave at Friday, July 28, 2006 -

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

to NYC:

1. Had some wonderful times visiting with "old" friends from our former church Messiah's in Brooklyn including an evening with the Setyons (our gracious hosts) who provided some authentic Italian food.

2. Listened to my wife sing concert/coffee houses in Brooklyn and Greenwich Village (at the facilities of the Neighborhood Church on Bleeker Street - cool!)

3. Visited two art museums - the Metropolitan and the Frick while dodging thunderstorms in Manhattan.

4. Made contact with several Christians involved in the arts including Kirk Irwin, Mako Fujimura, and members of Messiahs who are jazz musicians and graphic designers.

5. Visited the Garage flea market on 25th Street.

6. Enjoyed visiting my Dad and sister on LI as well as a drive through my old haunts Locust Valley and the North Fork.

7. Sunday worship at Messiahs

8. Eating. You can't visit Brooklyn without eating!
posted by Dave at Thursday, July 27, 2006 -

Postcard


We are having a great time in New York, even with all the humidity. Viting with our old friends and meeting new ones has been wonderful! Spent all day Friday at art museums. Marj's concerts in Brooklyn and Greenwich Village went really well. Will show pix soon...

Ciao----Dave
posted by Dave at Monday, July 24, 2006 -

Found Art
Yesterday evening, after I got home from work and had eaten dinner, I headed down the alley that is next to our house to begin to work on the fence I have been repairing/installing in our back yard. And there, sitting in the iris beside our house was a PAINTING! Its not old and appears to be a student or an amateur production. On canvas with no frame.

Its signed "Wheezer 07" and is of the Edmund Fitzgerald in a stormy sea.

I wonder what this means?
posted by Dave at Wednesday, July 19, 2006 -

A Little Bit More on Rembrandt
One of the books I was asked to read in art history grad school was W. A. Visser’t Hooft's Rembrandt and the Gospel. It is a modest little paperback but is a marvelous read and has some interesting speculation about RVR's religious beliefs: Visser’t Hooft argues that RVR was a "generic protestant" and "biblcial" Christian, not committed to either the Reformed or the Mennonite communities (though he was clearly influenced by both). One can not underestimate his interaction with the Jewish community in Amsterdam, which gave Rembrandt a deeper insight into the Old Testament.

This article on RVR's hometown of Leiden is also really good.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 18, 2006 -

More Rembrandt
works that I love:

Rembrandt's Mother as the Profetess Hannah

Self Portrait, Wide-Eyed

The Jewish Bride

The Artist in His Studio

Cone Shell
posted by Dave at Friday, July 14, 2006 -

Over de Rijn
Saturday will be Rembrandt van Rijn's 400th anniversary of his birth. RVR is not only one of the greatest artists of all time, he is one of the greatest Christian artists of all time: even though his Christianity is difficult to classify and his life choices were not always the best. (Maybe he was a 17th century version of Bono?)

RVR is perhaps the most gifted artist of all time in depicting the inner psychology of his sitters. But he was also a master technician and had astonishing versatility as an artist, excelling in oil, drawing and etching/drypoint.

I especially like his landscapes, which are a tiny part of his oevre. Here are two examples: a virtuosic etching and a deceptively simple drawing.
posted by Dave at Thursday, July 13, 2006 -

More on NYC Trip
Marj and I will be in the Metropolitan area July 20 thru July 26. We will be staying in Brooklyn with our friends from Messiah's Congregation till Sunday. Monday and Tuesday we hope to visit my sister and Dad out on Long Island. I may even get to visit my home town of Locust Valley which I have not seen in a long time.

Marj will be doing a number of singing engagements while we are there and I hope to have some time to visit art museums.

It will especially be great to catch up with old friends.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 11, 2006 -

Is Work Pariah?
Do you want to know what happens when one fails to see that WORK was part of Edenic life before the fall (and is therefore a good thing!)?

Read this sorry article in ChristianityToday.com for the answer.

Greed and envy are poor (maybe even evil) motivations for work. And toil due to the curse (Gen 3) makes work irksome. But work rightly considered in itself: work restored, is blessing.

And I thought TKV was bad...
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 11, 2006 -

Prowl
The Native Tourist may be coming to NYC soon! details coming...
posted by Dave at Thursday, July 06, 2006 -

A Lack of Support?
ByFaith online has the following item/survey:

One Minute Survey on Supporting Christian Artists

In the introduction to his new book, Art for God’s Sake (P&R Publishing, 2006), Philip G. Ryken, senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian (PCA) Church in Philadelphia, says this: “...things are even more difficult for the Christian artist [than for the secular artist]. Some churches do not consider art a serious way to serve God. Others deny that Christians in the arts have a legitimate calling. As a result, Christian artists often feel like they have to justify their existence. Rather than providing a community of support, some churches surround them with a climate of suspicion.” Does your church provide a community of support, a climate of suspicion, or are you somewhere in between. And why? Click here and take our one minute survey: http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/9961/PCAJul06C.htm

I will be really interested to see what the results of this survey will be. Do artists in contemporary churches - especially reformed churches - really have that much lack of support within their congregations? Sure there may be a lack of monetary support, but is there a lack of general encouragement?

I wonder if in many cases the artists bring suspicion upon themselves when they adopt the approach of the non-Christian artistic mainstream rather than orient themselves to serve the community as a craftsman...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, July 05, 2006 -

Plowing the Da Vinci Code???
I wonder if its too late for me to cash in the book publishing craze.

Seems like everyone else has...
posted by Dave at Monday, July 03, 2006 -

Been Away
Doin' some fence building.

Next up: finishing the lower deck and paving a small area near the deck and side gate.

Cultural stuff: you know, transforming a tiny bit of the earth for God's glory.
posted by Dave at Monday, July 03, 2006 -

Is There a Christian Plumber in the House?
In case you haven't already discovered it yet, I strongly committed to the idea that there is a distinctive Christian culture: that NOTHING in the cultural arena is in any sense (especially regiously) neutral. Many Christians (including many Reformed Christians who should know better) disavow this idea.

Now I don't know why, but discussion about this issue always seems to come down to plumbing. This seems to be the ultimate candidate for possible neutrality.

Anyway...Over at the De Regno Christi blog, in response to this post, D.G. Hart has this to say in the comments:

For what it's worth, plumbing is a common activity that Christians and non-Christians pursue. Its norms come from the created order, and are conditioned by such things as metric versus US standard measurements. Not to sound biblicistic again, but I don't see plumbing norms revealed in holy writ, which is where we find Christ revealed, not in the created order. So plumbing is a common as opposed to a holy activity. It will for the Christian produce sanctification and allow him or her to love God and neighbor. But I see no reason to call the actual work of plumbing Christian. For that reason, I don't go to the Christian yellow pages to look for someone to fix my toilet.

Sure, there is nothing in the scriptures about fixing a leaky faucet. But this misses the point. As I remarked in this post several years ago:

So is there really a Christian way to do plumbing? I would argue that there is! When a plumber is installing or repairing pipes and fixtures correctly, he is performing his task in a Christian (i.e. faithful) manner, even if he is not a believer. In order to do the job effectively (and this applies to any endeavor, not just plumbing) a plumber must work with Christian presuppositions, such as the uniformity and predictability of God's created order, the actual existence of pipes, solder, faucets, etc., standards of what constitutes a task well-done and a correct view of ethics which governs how the job is to be done. Plumbers who don't operate by these presuppositions won't be effective plumbers. Thus, a consistent Hindu or philosophical skeptic will be a lousy plumber. But God in his common grace makes many non-Christians inconsistent in the way they approach fixing pipes, so that they submit to the norms of creation even though in their hearts they rebel against them and the God who established them. Conversly, many Christians are also sadly inconsistent in this regard; they are unfaithful to the Christian worldview as it governs plumbing even though they might otherwise embrace the Gospel.

Why is this so difficult?
posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 28, 2006 -

How 'Bout Them Beavs!
Oregon State Wins the Baseball National Championship
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 27, 2006 -

Almost a Lost Art
One of the most interesting posts I have read in some time: "The old way of singing" over at the Dry Creek Chronicles. In the comments there are some mp3s one can down load to further investigate...
posted by Dave at Friday, June 23, 2006 -

Cool Course
while snooping around Joel Garver department's web site at La Salle U (which he noted in his blog) I noticed this course description:

PHL 269 Work and Culture
3 credits/patterns 2 or concentration option
Offered in both Fall and Spring semesters

A philosophical consideration of the relationship between work and other dimensions of human life. Topics include: work and society, work and rationality, work and morality, work and play, work and creativity, and work and alienation.

posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 21, 2006 -

Salting Cities
A one-evening seminar Stained Glass Urbanism is being put on by Work Research Foundation in nearby Vancouver, B.C. this coming Wednesday. Along with the seminar, it has published a string of articles on urbanism from a Christian perspective worth taking a long look at.

Their approach (see their white paper) might see New Urbanism through slightly rose-colored glasses. Brand new NU projects (such as Seaside, Fla) often come off as urban Disneylands rather than real cities. But it better than the suburban alternative. Purhaps NU holds more promise giving guidance to the restoration of cities neighborhoods - which is how WRF is seeing it.

If only it were a bit closer than a six hour drive! Alas.
posted by Dave at Monday, June 19, 2006 -

FO in CA
The latest Credenda Agenda has some interestin' artikulls on Flannery O'Connor by Doug Jones and Peter Leithart (not online yet). I have to read and comment.

I had my Flannery phase about 20 years ago: but I got over it.
posted by Dave at Friday, June 16, 2006 -

Rules of Engagement

"My answer to the question about Christian involvement with popular culture is essentially the same. You can enjoy popular culture without compromising Biblical principles as long as you are not dominated by the sensibility of popular culture, as long as you are not captivated by its idols." [Kenneth Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), p. 180].

HT: Doug Wilson
posted by Dave at Thursday, June 15, 2006 -

One Giant Step Back
I have been looking over De Regno Christi blog that I first discovered at Greg Baus' blog (and see his comment below). There could be an opportunity for an interesting discussion from those of varying Reformed positions regarding Christianity and the Civil magistrate, and, secondarily, of culture in general.

As I read through the various posts by the members of the blog, I was taken aback by the position of David Van Drunen, which seems even more negative on cultural redemption than the White Horse Inn crowd. In fact, Van Drunen's position seems to be virtually anabaptistic on its view of culture:

...But I would suggest that as far as the nature and role of civil government and the Christian’s attitude towards it, the work of Christ’s first coming has meant simply the abrogation of the Israelite theocracy and a return to the days of Noah, Abraham, and the Babylonian exile for God’s people as far as civil affairs go.

...

The purpose of civil government as discussed in the Old Testament (looking at non-Mosaic theocratic contexts, for numerous reasons) is to avenge great wrong-doing by the power of the sword (e.g., Gen 4:15; 9:6) and, more generally, to provide a measure of peace and prosperity in the world (e.g., Jer 29:7). The New Testament provides nothing remotely resembling a political (or other social/civil/cultural) program, but what it does say echoes the OT teaching very closely. It’s still about avenging wrong-doing by the power of the sword (Rom 13:1-7) and providing a measure of peace and prosperity in the world (e.g., 1 Tim 2:2). Nowhere is there any command for Christians to seek a Christianized state or other social institutions, but they are commanded to look to the state for those same basic functions that the (non-theocratic) state was always supposed to provide.

posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 14, 2006 -

You Painted over What?!!!
Headline: Popular 'Ed Ruscha' Mural Abruptly Painted Over (story from LA Times)
posted by Dave at Monday, June 12, 2006 -

More from William Edgar
on Good Entertainment
posted by Dave at Friday, June 09, 2006 -

Lotsa Good Stuff
from Reformation 21 on culture, including:

The Dynamics of Cultural Change by William Edgar

Johann Sebastian Bach: Model for Cultural Change Through the Arts by Greg Wilbur

A review of Philip Ryken's Art for God's Sake
posted by Dave at Thursday, June 08, 2006 -

Misc

Plowing + Hip Hop + Fuller Seminary = ??? (Answer)

Books & Culture does suburbia

We have met the enemy - and it is cul-de-sacs...
posted by Dave at Wednesday, June 07, 2006 -

Those Pilgrims Knew How to Party!
Maybe the Canadians have it right:

The feast happened; it lasted for days. The participants consisted of about 50 colonists and 100 Pokanoket Indians. It seems to have taken place not in November but in late September or October; we don't know about turkeys, only that the men went "fowling." One reason this feast became fixed in our collective memory is due to an accident of timing: the description of it is found in an account of doings in the colony — written probably by Edward Winslow and William Bradford — that was sent back to England; the ship carrying it sailed in the late fall, so that the narrative ends with the pleasant event, giving readers —then and later— a sense of hope and promise.

--from a review of Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick in the New York Times

posted by Dave at Monday, June 05, 2006 -

Who Are You Working for?
from "God's Calling and our Daily Work " by John Armstrong:

Luther’s view opened the door for real change, but it did not go far enough. Whereas Luther argued that vocation was “a station in life,” Calvin developed this thinking further and concluded that “one can change the world through vocations” (Gritsch, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, p 245). For Luther the law showed what we could not do but for Calvin it did more, showing us what we should do and could do, by the power of the Spirit. Calvin further connected vocation to the doctrine of predestination, arguing that one proved their calling and election by the “posterior signs” of a divine call which were linked to one’s specific calling, or vocation, in this life. Simply put, the whole Christian life should be lived for the glory of God thus the believer who lives under God’s grace, in his or her vocation, “confirmed their calling and election” (2 Peter 1:10). This background is the context for the oft-debated “Protestant work ethic.”

...

[Most modern Christians] simply don’t know who they work for. As a result of this failure to understand our purpose we live our daily lives without meaning. We do not know why we work, struggle with the effects of the fall, or serve our neighbors. Because we have no one to work for, in terms of God’s calling, we find little meaning in what we do.

posted by Dave at Friday, June 02, 2006 -

Priceless
British artist Damien Hirst has plans to create the most expensive contemporary artwork ever made: "a life-size human skull cast in platinum and encased entirely in diamonds - some 8,500 in all. It will be the most expensive work of art ever created, costing between £8m and £10m."

'I just want to celebrate life by saying to hell with death,' said the artist, 'What better way of saying that than by taking the ultimate symbol of death and covering it in the ultimate symbol of luxury, desire and decadence? The only part of the original skull that will remain will be the teeth. You need that grotesque element for it to work as a piece of art. God is in the details and all that.'

posted by Dave at Wednesday, May 31, 2006 -

Discovery
The Portland Art Museum was free yesterday and really wanted to see the show of Italian painting from the Brescia city/region.

It was all pretty art historical, which I love. There were a number of high quality Rennaissance portraits. Even some Dutch lanscapes (some of these guys got around!) But the delight of the entire show was a group of paintings by Giacomo Ceruti of peasants painted in greys and tans against plain backgrounds. These were simply stunning.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 30, 2006 -

Green Roots?
From Andrew Sandlin:

Enlightenment thinkers externalized the world, but Rousseau re-interiorized it in dramatic ways. While for Enlightenment, nature is to be harnessed by man, for Rousseau, “an emotional attunement to it can transfigure human existence.” To oversimplify, man does not harness nature so much as nature harnesses (or should harness) man. Indeed, for Rousseau, man’s main problem has been his retreat from nature, his creating “culture,” with all its conventions that shield him from a simple, direct unity with nature. To Rousseau the great Edenic “Fall” is the fall not from God, but from nature. This “back to nature” program has been the clarion call of various Western revolutionaries...

Sound a bit like the environmental movement?

(I've some non-environmental Christians talk this way as well, denying the goodness of call to make culture.)
posted by Dave at Friday, May 26, 2006 -

Taste and See
Calvin Seerveld on how faith-based artwork doesn't have to be overtly "religious" in order to be fully Christian:

The Bible often enters artistry as a leaven in ways one cannot clearly point to as so much taste in the artistic bread distributed.

(from Hearts & Minds Booknotes)
posted by Dave at Thursday, May 25, 2006 -

Bob
turns 65 today.

Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.

posted by Dave at Wednesday, May 24, 2006 -

Sfumato and Mirrors
I really like Gideon Strauss' terse entry on Code and its attendant hype.

Gets me thinking: Is Da Vinci overrated? I think he is definitely overrated as a painter. But he was a great, great draftsman and his drapery studies are electrifying.

I can't imagine seeing this movie anytime soon. Maybe when the local library gets it and its free.
posted by Dave at Monday, May 22, 2006 -

Veith and Duchamp
I would never for a moment accuse Gene Veith of being a promoter of Dada "art" theory. For example, he says this about the contemporary art scene:

"Art is whatever an artist does. In a kind of crazed secular Puritanism, contemporary theorists have been seeking to ‘purify’ art, to strip it of its human content and to reduce it to its barest minimum. The consequence has been the dehumanization of art." [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), p. 59]

But when he implies a fairly informal (loose?) definition of art, as he does here:

"The art world today tends to scorn art that is ‘merely decorative.’ Choosing a painting because it matches the furniture does tend to minimize the work of art. The meaning of the work and its self-contained identity is neglected, giving the object of art no more status than the coffee table or the wallpaper. Decorative art fades into the background. And yet, decoration is a legitimate function of the arts. When we decorate our homes, we are, in effect, turning where we live into a work of art." [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), pp. 33-34]

he is moving perilously close to the everthing-is-art mentality of Duchamp & Co. A living room may be artistically (aesthetically) decorated and may contain works of art, but it is not a work of art. And to paraphrase Gordon Clark: sometimes everything means nothing.

(quotes stolen from Doug Wilson's blog)
posted by Dave at Thursday, May 18, 2006 -

Mediator with Dirty Fingers
from a review of Vigen Guroian's The Fragrance of God which appeared in Books & Culture:

Rather than interloper or exploiter, Guroian argues, man's essential role on the Earth is that of a gardener, gifted with the responsibility to cultivate creation and offer it as thanksgiving to God. We are "apprentices" to the "Master Gardener." "Paradise is not wilderness," he writes, which will surely provoke discussion among his readers. "Paradise is a garden, cultivated by Adam and blessed by God." Without human presence, he argues, creation is mute and cannot glorify the Creator. He quotes Byzantine churchman Leontis of Neapolis to bolster his argument: "The creation does not venerate the Creator directly and by itself, but it is through me that the heavens declare the glory of God, through me the moon worships God, through me the stars glorify him, through me the waters and showers of rain, the dews and all creation, venerate God and give him glory."

posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 16, 2006 -

Why Buy a Painting
when you can actually live in one of those cute little cottages?

(Come to think of it, its not too far from Christ Church and NSA in Moscow, ID...)
posted by Dave at Monday, May 15, 2006 -

Quote
Who said:

"But frankly, I don't think it [The DaVinci Code] has more harmful ideas in it than the Left Behind novels."

posted by Dave at Friday, May 12, 2006 -

Tid Bits

Frank Gehry: The Movie

The man who would be a Christain Art Dealer
posted by Dave at Friday, May 12, 2006 -

Fathers Be Good to your Daughters
One way we do that is to classically educate them. Touchstone magazine as a delightful article "Not Harvard Bound" which celebrates the classical Christian school movement. This discussion of the young student "Promise" sounds much like vision we have for our daughters. Rigorous intellectual development is not the enemy of femininity. Rather it enhances it.
posted by Dave at Friday, May 12, 2006 -

Well Said
Doug Wilson:

The problem is that subtle minds want to be subtle all the time, and everything ain't subtle. The problem is that simple minds want to be simple all the time, and everything ain't simple. Scriptural leadership means being simple where God is simple (what part of "thou shalt not" went over your head?) and subtle when God is subtle (some things in Paul's letters are hard to understand, and which ignorant and unstable people twist to their own destruction).

posted by Dave at Thursday, May 11, 2006 -

Group Hug
presbyterianstogether.org
posted by Dave at Thursday, May 11, 2006 -

Too Good/Bad to Pass Up



HT
posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 09, 2006 -

Is Google the Perfect Postmodern Company?
From a perceptive article in the Weekly Standard:

Consequently, each unconventional soul becomes, in the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, "enclosed in their own hearts." Originality replaces a common ethical code as the source of individual morality. The result is the countercultural ethic of "doing your own thing" in which everyone is free to pursue their own conscience.

This ethic of authenticity is the key to understanding Google and, as a bonus, gives us a sneak preview of the next big thing in the global economy: authentic capitalism.

...

So, is Google good or is Google evil?

Perhaps the best answer is the Nietzschean idea of being beyond good and evil. The ethic of authenticity, known to philosophers like Charles Taylor as radical moral relativism, is the new new-thing in Silicon Valley. Google's moral self confidence, its eagerness to do its own thing, whether in Africa, China, or outer space, makes it a pioneer of authentic capitalism. Google's moral code, its sense of right and wrong, its definition of justice, is what it says it is.

posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 09, 2006 -

Shhh!
This is an Idea Store. People are trying to study in here...
posted by Dave at Monday, May 08, 2006 -

Distant Relative?



Link
posted by Dave at Friday, May 05, 2006 -

Like the Maytag Repairman
conservative librarians are a rare breed. So I took note of this fine article on librarianship which recently appeared on Catapult.
posted by Dave at Thursday, May 04, 2006 -

Rite Turn
"The Liturgy of the Street" An article on New Urbanism from a Catholic perspective.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, May 03, 2006 -

Half Full or Half Empty?



More pessemistic (empty?) theology from Dr. Horton.

Sure the hyper optimism of name-it-and-claim-it crowd is tragically wrong. But to embrace the morbid pessism of Luther's "theology of the cross" is equally devastating. Does God use suffering in this life to shape us into the image of his Son? Surely. Does God allow us frequently to have success in doing his will in this life and fill our lives with peace, happiness and feasting in this life? This is surely true as well. In both a spiritual and physical/material sense.

Additional note: I can't wait to see the rush for these mugs in Christian bookstores...
posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 02, 2006 -

Theological Myopia
Here is a tragic quote from Al Mohler, who should know better:

The goal of Christianity is not cultural renewal, but rather, preaching the Gospel to sinners.

Two responses:
One from Pastor Shaun
One from Pastor Mark (:HT)

Mohler's view reminds me of the man who went to visit a national park, drove in, immediate turned around and left, saying, "really nice entry road."
posted by Dave at Monday, May 01, 2006 -

Worship Technology
In C-Net Today:

In recent years, members of the clergy have begun competing with MTV, video games and the Internet by jazzing up sermons with image magnification systems and large-screen video displays, a la Apple Computer's Steve Jobs at a product launch. The trend has evolved, and churches now are Webcasting to distant parishioners with sophisticated multicamera operations and pumping up the volume inside worship areas with state-of-the-art sound systems.

"It's like going to a rock concert," says Patrick Teagarden, one of the growing number of sound-and-video technicians whose main customers are churches. "It's a fact: Media helps make it easier for people to pay attention."

posted by Dave at Friday, April 28, 2006 -