Pyramid Scheme
Tut tut, looks like Egypt will try to copyright the Pyramids...

Talk about a looooong statute of limitations!
posted by Dave at Friday, December 28, 2007 -

Authenticity
One of the blogs I check out with regularity is Port to check out the local Portland art scene (which is pretty active and - I am happy to say - very craft oriented).

This quote really resonated with me:

My greatest annoyance is with the art world's meaningless use of the word "Authentic." To me its like the yuppie approved packaging on overpriced ethnic dishes one can find at high end grocery stores. It almost guarantees it isn't the real thing but it's overpriced status intends to mitigate guilt while giving it a patina of legitimacy. To use Greenberg's term it's very middlebrow.

This applies to the use of the term in culture generally.

Many "postmodern" or "missional" churches have glommed onto this term thinking that they are making their churches more attractive to the 20 and 30-somethings that is their target audience.

Too bad they can't see through the shallowness of this word. Sadly authentic is rapidly becoming anything but authentic!
posted by Dave at Wednesday, December 26, 2007 -

How Not to Celebrate Christmas
(Actually Sint Nicolaasfeest - but the same message applies...) A kind public affairs message from your friendly Dutch Golden Age painter Jan Steen.


posted by Dave at Monday, December 24, 2007 -

Was Martin Luther a TKV Proponant?
Luther was certainly not a strict proponant of the Two Kingdom View. That is the conlusion of a study recently published in the Concordia Theological Quarterly (a Lutheran publication). Read excerps here, thanks to the post from Jeff Meyers.
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 20, 2007 -

Two-Kingdom Dualism
Most reformed proponants of the two-kingdom view of culture (Hart, Horton, et al) are quick to affirm that they are not dualists. They insist that they have a positive view of physical creation, the body, food, alcohol, art, etc. But when you look at their rhetoric, they almost always use platonic, dualistic language to affirm their position. Consider this paragraph from a recent post at the De Regnus Duobus blog:

...two-kingdoms thinking does not deny that there is cultic/cultural intersection and overlap in discussion about difficult issues. But it is crucial to remember that the tension does not lie in the kingdoms themselves. The kingdom of Christ is concerned with spiritual and eternal affairs and advances by Word and sacrament. The kingdom of man, on the other hand, is furthered by carnal weaponry for earthly and temporal ends. Both are legitimate and God-ordained, but distinct nonetheless.

Note the words used to describe the two kingdoms. The "kingdom of Christ" is spiritual and eternal; the "the kingdom of [mere!] man" is carnal, earthly and temporal.

Is spiritual better than carnal? Is eternal better than temporal? (Note that Rev. 22:2 makes it clear that life in the New Jerusalem will still be temporal - note that there will months in heaven!)

Much could be said about the prima facie dualism. I will point out my strong disagreement about the temporal/eternal claim. Even though scripture uses "passing away" language to describe what will happen to creation and culture, the bulk of the scriptural view favor renewal and healing, not total destruction (for example: Romans8; Rev. 21:24,26; Mt. 5:5, etc.). I argue for this position under the last section of my book.

Why is it that the TKV fall back on this kind of language to defend their position? Is culture good enough for heaven? Or is it strictly second class?
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 18, 2007 -

Salvation, Lordship and Culture
Here is a quote I discovered at Ironink blog which is part of post that is an excellent critique of the Two Kingdom View of culture.

“Because Salvation is a total concept, a savior has dominion and authority over every realm of life. If His Lordship is not total, his salvation is not effectual. Therefore, anyone who claims to be a savior must of necessity assert an overlordship over every realm of life and thought…. Churchmen, by withdrawing the idea of salvation to the soul, so that Jesus Christ is the Savior of men’s souls and not Lord of heaven and earth and the only Savior of all things, have thereby in effect denied that Jesus is savior. None can be savior who is not also Lord.”

-- R.J. Rushdoony, Christianity & The State – pg. 27

There is no doubt that Rushdoony is polarizing figure. Yet I think he is very insightful in this quote. I wonder what the neo-calvinist readers of this blog think of his quote?

Rushdoony's view is sharply opposed to the TKV understanding of salvation. This came up recently in a critique of Doug Wilson by OPC pastor Todd Bordow (see Wilson's thorough response here.) Here is what Bordow says about Wilson:

This abuse of language is common among FVers. DW states how the salvation Christ came to bring is not only the salvation of souls, but salvation of governments and cultures. How is a culture “saved?” What did Jesus mean then when he said he came to “save” the world? Is the “saving” of the soul the same as the “saving” of a culture? If so, what is the saving of the soul? Did Jesus have two definitions of salvation in mind? In FV speak, it is not even clear what “salvation” means.

Bordow later continues:

Again, anyone familiar with DW’s writings notes how commonly DW mocks those concerned with the soul’s eternal salvation over against the reformation of culture and society, labeling them “Gnostics.” DW is fully aware what a Gnostic really is, but this is a common scare tactic to draw true Christians away from the biblical Great Commission to preach the gospel to every creature. DW tries to squirm out of this accusation by redefining the gospel and salvation in such a way as to include his vision for politics and culture. Thus everything DW teaches about how society should be formed and how you should act is included under “gospel,” a classic liberal ploy. Both liberals and DW find their passion in reforming the cultures of this world, though their specific agendas to attain this goal may differ somewhat.

Obviously Wilson (& Co.) are using gnostic in a novel way to point to the "spiritual" character of the TKV position on culture and salvation ("spiritual" is their own choice of words). This neo-platonic-sounding dualistic approach to salvation really does seem to ignore the full reality and implication of Jesus' resurrection (as well as his incarnation - Word became flesh - yuk!). Salvation is physical and spiritual, ecompassing the restoration of all things: bodies, souls, thinking, creation, culture, etc.

That culture is being restored and transformed is good news as far as I can tell.
posted by Dave at Thursday, December 13, 2007 -

A Positive View of Work

"Virgil perceived that agriculture is fundamental to civilization, and he affirmed the dignity of manual labour. When the Christian monastic orders came into being, the contemplative life and the life of manual labour were conjoined … . Christianity established the principle that action and contemplation, labour and prayer, are both essential to the life of the complete man."

-- from T.S. Eliot's essay "Virgil and the Christian World" (1951), quoted in this review article of Medievalism, The Middle Ages in Modern England by
Michael Alexander

This is in contrast to the Greek (Homeric) decidedly negative view of work. This is at the heart of Platonic dualism which has often plagued the West.

Many monastic orders managed to set aside much of the dualism and, as Eliot points out, embrace labor for is positive, Creational virtue. This aspect of the creation mandate was still alive for many monastics. Yet they still failed to recognize that marriage and sexuality were an equally good gift from God as is work. Of course for many monastic orders (e.g. the Cistercians) the Benedictines did not go far enough. These orders sought to erase physical pleasure from life as much as possible and leave "worldly" labor to its barest minimum.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, December 11, 2007 -

U2 Reaches New Heights
Bono finds a new way to Babel: skyscraper building in Dublin.



The locals appear to have gotten vertigo over the project...
posted by Dave at Monday, December 10, 2007 -

Itty Bitty Drip Paintings
Gotta like these miniature artists studios, including the legendary barn-studio of Jackson Pollock located Springs on Long Island. (I have always wanted to visit.)

What's next?

Maybe a miniature Francis Schaeffer in finely detailed chalet at L'Abri?
posted by Dave at Wednesday, December 05, 2007 -

The Case Against Natural Law
Here is a review of David Van Drunen's A Biblical Case for Natural Law by Nelson Klosterman that appears in the Ordained Servant along with a reply from Van Drunen.

Klosterman does a nice job demonstrating the limitions of the Two Kingdom view. Here is a snippet:

Perhaps it is better, after all, not to speak of two kingdoms, but rather of various offices. Parents, for example, exercise both worldly and spiritual power over their children. Illustrative of the problematic two-kingdom construction being advocated by VanDrunen is the question: To which of the two kingdoms, worldly or spiritual, must we assign marriage and the family? Far better to speak of various offices (husband, father, citizen, employer, etc.), each of which demonstrates its own unique manner of service and rule. A prince, a father, an employer, a minister—each of them rules, but in very different ways. We must speak in a more pluriform fashion than Luther did. No one office is more or less worldly or spiritual than another, but all have been integrated and ordered in Christ Jesus.

posted by Dave at Monday, December 03, 2007 -

The Invitable Rise of Christian Culture
For many Christians - esp. Anabaptists and pessemistic two-culture types - Constantine was a low point in church history. The opportunity to shed our "resident alien" identitity and establish a Christian society/culture was a big mistake.

It would seem that these critics fail to see what was accomplished. Sure it wasn't perfect or consistently biblical. But the accomplishments of Ambrose and Augustine and Alcuin and the author of Beowulf, etc. must be seen in a positive light. This is what Andrew Sandlin argues in "Our Post-Constantinian World":

Whatever one may think of the product of Constantine’s Edict of Milan (313), it ushered in an astoundingly extensive era of Christian culture. In fact, in the East, the longest-lived human empire in the history of the world was Christian — I am speaking, of course, of that centered in Byzantium. Constantine’s edict, it is sometimes presumed, explicitly established Christianity as the official religion of the Empire. This is not correct, as Charles Norris Cochrane observes in his great Christianity and Classical Culture. It truly was an act of political toleration, canceling persecution of the church and restoring its confiscated lands and other possessions, despite otherwise despotic elements. The fact that Christianity soon became the dominant cultural force in the ambiance of such relative political toleration lends credence to the idea that what is necessary for such dominance is not official political establishment, but only the absence of official political hostility. If given genuine religious freedom, all other factors being equal, Christianity tends to rise to the top.

posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 27, 2007 -

How Polical Correctness Has Changed over the Years
This came out last week, but I post it because it anyway. A very intreguing NYT article about how the early Seseme Street episodes from the late 60s are regarded as innapropriate or even dangerous for children today.

Here's a snippet:

I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”

Which brought Parente to a feature of “Sesame Street” that had not been reconstructed: the chronically mood-disordered Oscar the Grouch. On the first episode, Oscar seems irredeemably miserable — hypersensitive, sarcastic, misanthropic. (Bert, too, is described as grouchy; none of the characters, in fact, is especially sunshiney except maybe Ernie, who also seems slow.) “We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,” she said.

Snuffleupagus is visible only to Big Bird; since 1985, all the characters can see him, as Big Bird’s old protestations that he was not hallucinating came to seem a little creepy, not to mention somewhat strained. As for Cookie Monster, he can be seen in the old-school episodes in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble (“om nom nom nom”). Originally designed by Jim Henson for use in commercials for General Foods International and Frito-Lay, Cookie Monster was never a righteous figure. His controversial conversion to a more diverse diet wouldn’t come until 2005, and in the early seasons he comes across a Child’s First Addict.

The first time I saw Seseme Street was in the early 80s when I was in my 20s - I was babysitting for several families whose kids were regular viewers. Alistair Cookie was one of my favorites!
posted by Dave at Monday, November 26, 2007 -

Lost Heritage
From a review in Books & Culture:

...the fall of the Asian churches [during the Islamic conquest of the 7th century] made Christianity much less Semitic in thought and language. A thousand years after the world depicted in the Book of Acts, some of the world's most active and dynamic churches still thought and spoke in Syriac, a language closely related to the Aramaic of Jesus' own time. They still called themselves Nasraye, Nazarenes, and followed Yeshua. Through such bodies, we can trace a natural religious and cultural evolution from the apostolic world through the Middle Ages. If there is a decisive break between the New Testament world and modern Christianity, it occurs with the fall of these churches, chiefly during the 14th century. Christianity does indeed become predominantly "European," but about a millennium later than most nonspecialists think.

Not to mention the loss of the vibrant Christian culture in northern Africa that was wiped out.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 20, 2007 -

What Your Basic Approach?
Here is a really interesting item from David Bahnsen posted on Andrew Sandlin's blog where he talks about two kinds of post-mils:

There are two types of postmillennialists. Gradualists, who believe that there is subtle progress in all of history, and a long, progressive ride to kingdom conquest, and then there are the doomsdayers like some of the theonomists, who actually believe that things have to civilizationally collapse before the postmil predictions can be realized. Therefore, it is natural that the gradualists will be more Kuyperian, and a bit more assimilationist, while the doomsdayers will be more separatist, and tribalistic (i.e. ghetto).

A great manifestation of this fundamental difference is the knee-jerk reaction many have to various institutions. I was once one who immediately wanted to see "our own" version of everything (i.e. a third-party political alternative, new "Christian" universities, a "Christian music industry," a "Christian" news network, etc.). As my gradualistic and Kuyperian commitments have evolved, I now aspire to see the Republican party restored, the Harvards and Princetons re-captured, and Hollywood/New York subverted.

As I have said before, I am what I call an "earthy ammilennialist". I believe that Christian societal-cultural renewal is possible and worthwhile on a local/national level for a limited duration. And I think that a worldwide renewal is theortically possible but there is no biblical warrant for such an expection.

I have my doubts about the "subversion" of Hollywood/New York. Maybe it could happen over a long, long period of time (100 years at the very least). But am no catastrophic either nor am I a strict sepratist. I think we are better off working locally and building new Christian institutions and collaborating with non-Christians on a very selective basis.

I hold up what they are doing in Moscow, Idaho as a fine model.
posted by Dave at Friday, November 16, 2007 -

Theology of Culture Test
Match the quote below with the pastor/theologian who said it:

1. A church that regards such transformation as its primary goal may well miss its more fundamental calling to glorify God in preaching the gospel. Yet a church that minimizes the importance of its legitimate calling to cultural transformation may fail to do the full work of discipleship or of bearing full witness to the kingdom of God.

2. In addressing the question, "Is it the church’s responsibility to embrace or assume the civic responsibility of the state (e.g. education, the poor, social injustice, the arts, etc.)?", we need to consider the following. The church does not have any juridical authority in the city/state public square, but that does not mean that the Church ought to stay out in the periphery. The church does have the responsibility for acts of mercy and for engaging our community with acts of social justice (cf. Jas. 1.27). Paul states that "as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers" (Gal. 6:10). He is clearly referring to a deed ministry that should be shared with all people as they have need. . . . it is the church’s responsibility to pursue both public compassion and personal piety.

3. Combining these assumptions leads me to conclude that the church should focus on doing that which she is uniquely charged to do: guarding doctrine, preaching it boldly, and calling her members to live it out vigorously and practically in their communities. This excludes the church, as the church, from taking responsibility for the culture, though it does not exclude the church from changing the culture indirectly through the work of individuals. In fact, if a church is not expressing a Scriptural concern for those outside the church—leading and equipping her members to act—she is not preaching the whole counsel of God.

4. In my understanding, the local church is not free to do anything in Christ’s name that Christ himself—the King of the church—has not commissioned it to do. Preaching the Word, administering Baptism and the Supper, teaching, and providing spiritual fellowship and discipline receive clear mandates in Scripture . . . Now, as citizens of temporal kingdoms as well as the kingdom of Christ, believers are called to be husbands, wives, children, parents, employers, employees, voters, and neighbors in a variety of daily callings. In these vocations, they love and serve their neighbor. With no expectation that they are transforming the kingdoms of this world into the kingdom of Christ, they nevertheless "aspire to live quietly, and to mind [their] own business, and to work with [their] hands, so that [they] may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one" (1 Thes 4:11-12).

5. The task of the church is the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20)—to make disciples, teaching them "to observe all that I have commanded you." By God’s grace, we train believers in obedience. That obedience inevitably transforms culture, as it has done now for nearly 2000 years. Christians have made huge contributions to learning, the arts and literature, the treatment of women, the abolition of anti-biblical slavery, the care of the poor, the sick, the widows, and orphans. Sin, of course, has impeded our mission; but the grace of God working through his people has accomplished amazing things.


____ Michael Horton, professor at WTS, California
____ John Frame, professor at RTS, Orlando
____ Philip Ryken, pastor, Tenth Presbytian, Philadelphia (PCA)
____ Aaron Menikoff, elder and PhD student, Southern Baptist Conv
____ Steven Um, pastor, Citylife Presbyterian Church, Boston (PCA)

This is a self correcting test. Answers here.

Additional credit: Read Michael Hortons latest TKV screed here and related comments here and post a twelve word essay in comments below.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, November 14, 2007 -

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

"For whether you wish to comfort the sad, to terrify the happy, to encourage the despairing, to humble the proud, to calm the passionate or to appease those full of hate … , what more effective means than music could you find?"

--Martin Luther

(quote stolen from this article by Mark Noll on music in Books & Culture)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 13, 2007 -

The Myth of Neutrality Redoux
We return to Doug Wilson's critique/review of DG Hart's A Secular Faith. Wilson summarizes Hart's reasoning on why we shouldn't be concerned about the religious convictions of political candidates:

...All a man's convictions about what is to be done or not done in the public sphere [and by extension all other cultural endeavors] are his private convictions. And when an official acts in the "national or public interest," by what standard does he make these decisions? There is no such thing as a national or public decision made by an impersonal decision-making "locus" that is outside an individual who will answer to God for the decision.

Wilson then quotes Hart:

"Despite the prominence of religion throughoug the history of American politics, the national or public character of government decisions has generally been the accepted norm" (p. 161).

Hart's naiveté at this point is stunning. Does he really believe that their is a "national" or "public" way of thinking that somehow rises above religious and ideological commitments.

Wilson nails it, when he concludes:

There are many aspects of my identity that are not essential to my standing in Christ. For example, I am a husband, an American, a conservative, a lover of the blues, a submariner, a son, and a minister. There are many fine Christians who are, to the contrary, wives, Englishmen, libertarians, jazz-lovers, aircraft carrier men, daughters, or laymen. This is why the hyphen must not set up a horizontal dualism, but rather point to a hierarchy. Whatever aspect of my identity exists in distinction from the legitimate identity of others must nevertheless be an aspect of my identity that is in submission to Christ. There is not one part of my life where Christ rules and another part where the "national character of public decisions" rule. I must only go with the national character of the decision if Jesus wants me to.

posted by Dave at Friday, November 09, 2007 -

Two-Kingdom Covenanters
Who woulda thought...Over at De Regno Christi comes William Chellis' argument for the otherworldliness of the Kingdom. Covenanters historically have vigorously insisted that Christ's rule should be acknowledged by civil as well as ecclesiastical authorites.

He takes a pretty standard, yet misguided argument, based on Matt. 18:

Against the violent backdrop of this world’s kingdoms, Christ vindicates Himself against the charge of sedition declaring, “ My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Emphasizing the spiritual nature of His kingdom, Christ explains, “if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews” (John 18:35,36).

...

As Christ stood before Pilate two kingdoms were in conflict. Before Pilate stood a king whose kingdom transcends the passing order of this present age. Asked, are you guilty of treasonous rebellion, Christ justified Himself as sinless by declaring, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Rather, He is king over an eternal realm, the concerns of which far surpass the mundane realities of earthly politics. In response, Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, brutal bearer of the sword, punisher of all rebellion against Caesar, justified Christ with his just pronouncement; “I find no guilt in him” (John 18:38).

Chellis (as do many other commentators) fails to hear Christ's words accurately. Jesus did not say, "My kingdom is not in this world", but, "My kingdom is not of this world". The preposition Jesus uses makes all the difference.

Christ is not talking about the location of the Kingdom but its holy nature. When the NT warns of being "not of the world", it is referring to the danger of being influenced or "possessed" as it were by the rebellious, God-hating system of those opposed to rule of Christ (e.g. John 17:14). In other places of scripture "in the world" refers to being in the physical location (the upshot of 1 Cor 5:10).

The ultimate irony of "heavenly" references to the Kingdom of God is that, at the end of history, heaven and earth will be made one. Such "heavenly" talk is really shorthand for the life we live on the renewed earth!
posted by Dave at Thursday, November 08, 2007 -

Kuyperianism Baptist-Style
Books & Culture has an interesting review of a book exploring the Baylor 2012 project/fiasco. Even though this was hardly a reformed venture, the prospect of a true doctorate-awarding research university that is distinctly Christian was exciting. But it met considerable resistance from the status quo at Baylor.

Here is a key part of the review:

The key was hiring Christian faculty. Sloan and his provosts aggressively recruited Christian scholars from every denomination and from all over the country. They also rigorously screened departmental hiring recommendations, and provoked much resentment by rejecting several each year. They weren't just looking for Christians; they sought those who could "integrate faith and learning" in a way that would "engage the world from a uniquely Christian perspective."

This is pretty standard broadly Kuyperian stuff.

Then there is this odd statement:

Lyon notes that the administration's hard push for integration stirred far more trouble than anticipated, and he argues that Baylor should also seek faculty who use a complementarian approach to faith and learning. Tellingly, Sloan continues to disagree. Baylor's trouble with this form of faith-and-learning integration suggests that, while adequate for a Christian college, it may be too narrow for a Christian research university.

Why is this the case? Is it due to a lack of teacher-scholars who hold to integration? Is there something about a research university that demands a weak commitment to the Christian faith?
posted by Dave at Tuesday, November 06, 2007 -

Lordship and Culture-Building
from Doug Wilson (in response to DG Hart's book):

There is also the question of what the Lordship of Christ means exactly. In my view, it means discipling the nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded. It does not mean, just to be clear, invoking the name of Jesus in order to justify every damn fool idea that might be floating around in our heads. It means preaching the gospel in the narrow sense, saving souls, planting churches, building parish life, and then expecting the right worship of God in that place to transform that region over the course of centuries, and eventually the world over the course of millennia.

I am curious how Wilson sees cultural transformation flowing out of worship (esp. formal worship), but it is a fairly fine quote. It mixes well with Phil Ryken quote - see below...
posted by Dave at Monday, November 05, 2007 -

TNT on the Road
Sorry for the quiet week. I was in very beautiful Monterey, Calif Saturday through Wednesday of this week for the Internet Librarian conference.

I enjoyed worshipping at Covenant OPC in Catroville and also (unexpectedly!) was able to attend a Reformation Day service at Covenant OPC in San Jose.

Besides the fellowship on Sunday and learning gobs of stuff at the conference (check out the Exalead search engine if you haven't already), I enjoyed the numerous used bookstores in the area and the sea air and views.
posted by Dave at Friday, November 02, 2007 -

Everyday Theology
is the title of a book edited by Kevin Vanhoozer (prof at TEDS) which explores cultural exegesis or hermeneutics from a Christian perspective. He picks up where Francis Shaeffer and Hans Rookmaaker left off - interpreting the culture we live in to see the challenges we face and help us interact with our neighbors in communicating the gospel.

You can read an interview with Vanhoozer: Part One and Part Two.

I learned a year or so ago that Plowing was used a text book for one of Dr. Vanhoozer's classes which is pretty cool. Turns out that the he has a brief recommendation for the book in a sidebar of Everyday Theology which you can read if you use amazon.com "search inside" feature.
posted by Dave at Friday, October 26, 2007 -

Finding the Balance
Philip Ryken, pastor at Tenth Pres in Philadelphia, says the following about the instutional church's role in cultural transformation:

There is a sense in which the answer to this question must be "no." The church's primary calling is to preach the gospel and to worship God in the ministry of the Word, the sacraments, and prayer. While the worship of God and the proclamation of the gospel have a transforming influence on the surrounding culture, this does not happen directly, but indirectly, as the people of God live out the implications of their faith in every aspect of life.

Yet there are also ways in which the answer to this question must be "yes." In its priestly ministry of intercession, the local church prays for the needs of its community -- all of the areas where the surrounding culture needs to experience the transforming influence of the gospel. In its prophetic ministry of preaching and teaching God's Word, the local church disciples its members to fulfill their various callings as parents, teachers, artists, students, politicians, business people -- callings that have culture-transforming power. In its diaconal ministry of mercy, the local church offers practical service in the name of Christ -- service that transforms the lives of the poor, the homeless, and the elderly, as well as children, prisoners, and internationals. In these ways, at least, the local church is called to the gospel work of cultural transformation.

I heartily agree!
posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 23, 2007 -

An Argument for Christian Plumbers



(HT: Russ Reeves)
posted by Dave at Monday, October 22, 2007 -

PDX Van Gogh
Kewl. Portland Art Museum has just received a Van Gogh!


posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 16, 2007 -

This Should Be Interesting
Doug Wilson has begun a series of posts critiquing D.G. Hart's book A Secular Faith.

Hart's book argues not only for the separation of church and state (which Wilson and I heartily agree), but also the separation of religious belief and state (which I find baffling for a reformed thinker). For Hart, culture is first and foremost a secular actity.

While we are on this topic, it is worth looking at this quote from an amicable review of Meridith Kline which recently appeared in the Ordained Servant:

Dr. Kline argues that, since the work of God during the six days of creation was a "holy kingdom-establishing activity," the work of Israelites during the six days must be the same. "This means that sabbath observance requires a theocratic as well as a covenantal setting, that is, a setting in which culture as well as cult is holy kingdom activity" (190). And we see only two historical situations that would fall into that category: Eden and Sinai. "In the New Covenant era ...in which the common grace principle is uniformly operative, the theocratic context prerequisite to the six-work-days component of the sabbath ordinance is missing" (190). Thus, the cultural activities of God's people in the New Covenant are not holy kingdom activities, they are common grace activities (194). So now "only one day then has a special significance in the covenant week under the New Covenant" (194). The covenant week under the New Covenant is "no longer a cultural-cultic sabbatical week" (196). Thus we cannot identify the sabbath with the Lord's Day. "And this means that contrary to traditional Sabbatarianism the distinctive first day of the new, dominical week is not a modified residue of the sabbath day of the fourth commandment, governed by the rules for sabbath observance, such as the prohibition of various non-cultic activities" (196). Thus the first day of the week is not the Lord's Day, as in the whole day set apart for us, but "simply the set time for believers to come together to meet with the Lord" (194).

It seems to me that if cultural activities are merely "common", they will never be taken really seriously. Kline and Hart and all other Two-Kingdom takes on culture will always gradually lead to cultural impoverishment.
posted by Dave at Monday, October 15, 2007 -

Imaginary Conversation
Can you imagine hearing the following conversation between two Christians?

Concerned Friend: "What is John Junior going to be studying in college?"

Parent (with a slight tinge of dissapointment): "Well, we were hoping that he would study art or engineering, but Johnny has decided to pursue pre-Seminary studies in view of becoming a pastor."

Concerned Friend: "Do I hear a little dissapointment in your answer?"

Parent: Sighs. "Yes, a little."

Concerned Friend: "Take heart, brother. Pastors have a place in building up the Kingdom too."

posted by Dave at Friday, October 12, 2007 -

Something to Look Forward to


posted by Dave at Tuesday, October 09, 2007 -

Kuyperian Polymath
Besides being a first-rate art historian and cultural critic, Hans Rookmaaker was also a lover and historian of Afro-American music. In fact, he might have been the leading European authority on Jazz and Blues during his time.

Here and here, you can see some liner notes HRR wrote for an Album by Blues artist Leroy Carr.
posted by Dave at Thursday, October 04, 2007 -

Reformed Cultural Stoicism
a.k.a. the "Two-Kingdom View of Culture" espoused by Lutherans and an increasing number of Reformed folk.

In the interest of fairness, I provide a link to a site with large number of sources on this point of view.

I am utterly baffled by the attraction of this view of culture. Why limit God's sovereinty and grace in this way? Why limit the transformative power of the gospel?

Such a view is really no different (functionally) from the position of the world-flight Dispensationalists. And we can all see the cultural mess they have left behind.
posted by Dave at Monday, October 01, 2007 -

New Saint Andrews
gets the New York Times treatment...

Doug Wilson clarifies a few things here.

In contrasting NSA with Patrick Henry College, he makes the following important distinction:

But the primary reference of this is to an honest difference in strategy -- do we fight the culture war politically, or culturally?

This is a point I address in Plowing and is a blindspot for many conservative Evangelicals who equate political activism with cultural activism.
posted by Dave at Friday, September 28, 2007 -

Food for Thought
The food scene in nearby Portland hailed by the New York Times!

A snippet:

To walk through a farmer’s market on a summer morning and to see beautiful golden chanterelles and organic cipollini onions, sweet cherry tomatoes, pattypan squash and bell peppers in purple, ivory and orange, is to have some idea of what you might find on Mr. Sauton’s lunch menu. You’ll even find glorious local corn on the menu, something you would never see in France.

“Well, we bend the rules a little,” he said.

posted by Dave at Thursday, September 27, 2007 -

Hidden

From the L.A. Times:

[The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art keeps] the outlaw paintings in the basement, locked in the museum’s vault. Not just the Picassos — the Kandinskys, the Miros, the Warhols. The Monet, the Pissarro, the Toulouse-Lautrec, the Van Gogh. Possibly the best Jackson Pollock outside the U.S. Ruled by one of the most vehemently anti-Western governments in the world, Iran is, by many assessments, home to the most extensive collection of late 19th and 20th century Western art outside the West. It is a treasure trove of masters that is all but forgotten outside knowledgeable art circles because, for all but a few of the last 30 years, it has been virtually unseen.

(found at the Art History Newsletter blog)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 25, 2007 -

My Visit to the Barnes
The year was 1980 as far as I can tell.

I was visiting my sculptor friend Tim who lived in Media, Pa., just outside Philadelphia. He offered to take me to this quirky little museum that I simply had to see. At the time I was deeply interested in modernism. My favorite painter was Cezanne and I loved Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Tim knew this and took me to one of his favorite haunts.

The museum was tucked away on a side street in a very wealthy suburb on the Main Line. It looked like any of the other mansions on the street - tucked behind the hedges as I recall. The museum was open only a couple of days a week. We got there early to ensure that we could get in. The admission price was $4 dollars. Exact change was required! And cameras and backpacks were abolutely forbidden.

What I saw when we went inside was mildblowing. The museum was stuffed with great art. There were dozens of Cezannes, two or three - maybe more - rose and blue period Picassos, murals by Matisse, a masterpiece by Seurat. It went on and on. The quirky rules and hodge-podge way of hanging the works didn't really bother me. It was, all in all, a delightful experience.

Now, the Barnes is on the verge of moving to new digs in central Philadelphia. This may enable more people to see Mr. Barnes great and quirky collection. I am glad I was able to experience what is was like when the Barnes was below the radar and behind the hedges.
posted by Dave at Monday, September 24, 2007 -

Wilson on Kuyperianism

True Kuyperian practice is not to go out into the world and do pretty much what everybody else is doing, only with a Jesus label attached. This is not the lordship of Christ -- rather it is Christians getting into the manufacture of knock-offs. If something gets popular in the world, the Christians are right there with a competing model made with cheap labor in a Third World factory and using a lot more plastic.

In order for the Kuyperian spheres to be rightly related to one another, it is necessary for all of them to be rightly related to worship, a worship of God that is at the center. In the first place, this means worship on the Lord's Day, and in the second place, worship in other settings -- like chapel at seminary.

(Doug Wilson's post goes on to propose that the chapel services at seminaries are a crucial barometer of the health of seminary.)

Purhaps a better indication of a correct posture towards worship is one's sabbath day observance - formal worship and keeping the rest of day holy.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 19, 2007 -

Begbie on Music
a must read essay from Books & Culture.

There is also a marvelous little riff by John Wilson on molecules and environmentalism from a free-market perspective.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 18, 2007 -

Dutch Irony

There is therefore a pleasing symmetry in the exhibit. The wealth and produce from the New World was transported across the Atlantic to Amsterdam, where it was used to record the lives of Dutch traders and employ the skills of painters like Rembrandt.

Two centuries later, the art recording that confident time was shipped back across the Atlantic, to what used to be New Amsterdam, where it adorned the drawing rooms of the new rich before arriving on the walls of the Met.

--from article on the exhibition "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art" that appeared in the New York Sun

"It's curious: The families with Dutch names had nothing to do with (The Met's Dutch collection)," says Liedtke, who organized "The Age of Rembrandt" and wrote the scholarly two-volume catalog.

If the Roosevelts and Vanderbilts of the world were uninterested in acquiring Dutch art, there were plenty of others to step into the breach.

--comments from from Met curator Walter Liedtke
posted by Dave at Monday, September 17, 2007 -

Culture without Common Grace
from an article by Protestant Reformed pastor/professor David Engelsma (the PRC has been the main historic reformed voice against the idea of common grace over the years):

The basis of the Christian's active involvement in the various ordinances, or spheres, of earthly life is also creation and providence. In creating the world for man in the beginning, God Himself structured human life in the world by certain "human ordinances" (I Pet. 2:13). These include the ordinance, or institution, of marriage and the family, the ordinance of labor, and the ordinance of civil government. The fall did not efface these institutions. The providential power of God maintains them. As structures of creation, these institutions are good. The saints live their earthly life in these ordinances, and are thus busy with "culture," because creation and providence so structure human life. Not common grace, but the providence that upholds creation explains why Christians are actively children in a family; husband or wife in marriage; parents in their own home; farmer, businessman, or laborer; and citizen of a nation.

Implied is the legitimacy, on the basis of creation and providence, of a Christian's energetic engagement with all aspects of God's rich creation. He may write books. She may paint pictures. He may explore the Amazon. She may discover drugs that alleviate the pain of arthritis. He may be president of a Christian college or a seminary. Communication, beauty, discovery, medicine, education-all are aspects of creation. In the course of this work, or recreation, the Christian may lawfully avail himself of the gifts, knowledge, discoveries, and inventions that divine providence has bestowed on, and produced through, the ungodly. All these things are simply part of the world that God gives to His children.

As regards the Christian's motivation for life in the human ordinances, it is, on the one hand, obedience to God's calling. God commands the believer to live the Christian life in the ordinances, not outside them in asceticism and world-flight. "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake" (I Pet. 2:13). Renunciation of creation and flight from ordinary human life in it are not superior holiness, but the "doctrines of devils" (I Tim. 4:1). The reason is that God wants His holy people to show His glory in everyday, earthly life against the dark background of the ungodliness of the wicked in these same ordinances. Therefore, on the other hand, the motivation of the Christian life in the human ordinances is the desire to glorify God. But common grace has nothing to do with this aspect of the Christian's life in the world.

The way Engelsma uses terms like "providence" and "ordinances" and "creation" sound an awful lot like common grace, as it is often used to talk about culture making...
posted by Dave at Thursday, September 13, 2007 -

An Open Letter On “Ministry”

[I wrote this a number of years ago, when I still lived in Dallas, Oregon. The issues it discusses are of vital importance for the covenant community today, especially given the radical bifurcation of church and culture which is promoted by the Two -Kingdom proponants.]

Dear _____ -

Thanks for the heads up on your article interacting with my (and other’s) response to your earlier articles on ministry and the arts. Alas, I am still unconvinced by your (and Luther and Vieth's) arguments.

I think the bottom line is that you fail to acknowledge that the word "ministry" is really an archaic synonym for the word "service" (minister is directly taken from the Latin for 'servant'). The two terms can and should be used interchangeably. This follows the biblical usage of diakonos and its derivatives. It is not limited to ecclesiastical or pastoral situations. Rom 13:4 clearly demonstrates this:

“For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” (italics added; quoted from the NKJV)

Surely you do not think that Paul is arguing that the civil magistrate (“ruler” in verse two) is an ordained church officer! (It is interesting to note that in the British parliamentary system, cabinet members are called “ministers”. Likewise, here in the US, we commonly call government workers “civil servants”.) In a similar vain, note how the diakonos is used in Acts 6:2:

Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables’.” (italics added, NJKV)

“Serving tables” is contrasted with the “ministry of the word” (verse 4). Luke clearly indicates that there is more than one kind of ministry. This passage is usually tied to the office of deacon (1 Tim 3:8ff). It should come as no surprise that we often refer to diaconal work as the “ministry of mercy”. We could point to other examples as well (Mt. 4:11, 8:15; Luke 10:40). If the Bible does not limit the usage of the term “minister”, why should we?

As I pointed out in my earlier email to you, recovering the idea of 'ministry' and applying it properly to all vocations (not just those associated with formal church ministry), will go along way to shaping our understanding of what it means to be redeemed/restored human beings. The Hebrew word abad used in Gen. 2:15 simultaneously has incorporated in it the idea of service as well as work as well as worship. This was what mankind - in our pre-fallen state - was given to do on and to the earth, transforming it unto and for God. The service and work of culture-making are one and the same and have their roots in the cultural mandate given to us in the garden. Service - in all its aspects - is at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian (John 12:26).

The implication of this for a biblical understanding of the arts is important. Seeing art-making as a “ministry” is a powerful antidote to the self-serving and self-obsessed nature of the current “art for art’s sake” approach. When a Christian artist sees himself first and foremost as a servant, the focus turns to service rendered by the artist, whether it be the worship of God, the edification of the saints, or the challenging and healing of those outside the church.

Thus, it can be properly said that a Christian musician is a “minister”. Is such a musician a “minister of the word” as he composes or performs his music? Definitely not. But if a Christian musician is worth his salt, he will be serving his listeners; to do less is sub-Christian.

I find your last quote of Luther ironic. "The whole church could be filled with the service of God -- not just the churches, but the home, the kitchen, the cellar, the workshop and the fields." If you were to substitute the word 'service' for 'ministry', I think that would undo your whole argument.

There may be good reasons to keep the offices and tasks (="ministries") of the institutional church distinct from other types of work/ministry/vocations. But insisting the term "ministry" be applied only to church office/activities is linguistically and biblically unwarranted. (I would argue that this narrow usage among the Reformers is evidence of leftover sacerdotalism which had not yet been purged from their worldview.)

I am glad to see your efforts to put your ideas into print. There is way too little thinking on the arts in church – although this (thankfully) has been changing of late.

Regards in Christ,

Dave Hegeman
Dallas, Oregon
posted by Dave at Tuesday, September 11, 2007 -

NOT out of Commission
Here is an intreguing example of a commissioning service for artists and other cultural workers.

Although we need to make some distinctions (artists and engineers do not hold office in the instutional church!) it is time that we recognize that culture-makers are doing the Lord's work as much as ministers, elders and deacons, just in a different sphere.

I'm not sure we need commissioning services, but we do need to lay waste to the false dualism which denigrates the importance of our cultural calling.
posted by Dave at Monday, September 10, 2007 -

Christians on the Cutting Edge
On the cover of Art News! TM Sisters who were presenters at the IAM NY Conference in February.


posted by Dave at Thursday, September 06, 2007 -

Quote

“The thing I learned most at Cambridge was that you should be as brutal as possible toward ideas but as courteous as possible to the people who hold them. "

--Salman Rushdie, speech at Willamette University two weeks ago

posted by Dave at Thursday, September 06, 2007 -

My Laborings
(or should that be labourings?)

I spent my "Labor Day" working on our house as usual. The big job this weekend was installing a small eave on the west wall of our house to help keep the rain away from the outer wall and foundation on that side of the house. (A contractor friend of ours from rainy Seattle suggested this. It may help deal with some pesky small black ants that plague use - as they do many of our neighbors.) It is nearly completed. Next comes the gutters.

I have also installed shelves in the newer hallway of our house that were made from wood taken from a birch tree that had to be felled to put on the addition. The shelves are very near where the tree once stood...

Now to deal with some leaks before the rainy season!
posted by Dave at Wednesday, September 05, 2007 -

Machen the Neo-Calvinist

A third solution, fortunately, is possible—namely consecration. Instead of destroying the arts and sciences or being indifferent to them, let us cultivate them with all the enthusiasm of the veriest humanist, but at the same time consecrate them to the service of our God. Instead of stifling the pleasures afforded by the acquisition of knowledge or by the appreciation of what is beautiful, let us accept these pleasures as the gifts of a heavenly Father. Instead of obliterating the distinction between the Kingdom and the world, or on the other hand withdrawing from the world into a sort of modernized intellectual monasticism, let us go forth joyfully, enthusiastically to make the world subject to God.

...The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of all connection with Christianity. Christianity must pervade not merely all nations, but also all of human thought. The Christian, therefore, cannot be indifferent to any branch of earnest human endeavor. It must all be brought into some relation to the gospel. It must be studied either in order to be demonstrated as false, or else in order to be made useful in advancing the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom must be advanced not merely extensively, but also intensively. The Church must seek to conquer not merely every man for Christ, but also the whole of man. We are accustomed to encourage ourselves in our discouragements by the thought of the time when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. No less inspiring is the other aspect of that same great consummation. That will also be a time when doubts have disappeared, when every contradiction has been removed, when all of science converges to one great conviction, when all of art is devoted to one great end, when all of human thinking is permeated by the refining, ennobling influence of Jesus, when every thought has been brought into subjection to the obedience of Christ.

--from Machen's essay "Christianity and Culture"
posted by Dave at Thursday, August 30, 2007 -

Would the Real Luther Please Stand Up!
Many in favor of a culturally saavy and rich Christianity love to quote Luther about work:

"What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. For what we do in our calling here on earth in accordance with His word and command He counts as if it were done in heaven for Him"

"...it looks like a small thing when a maid cooks and cleans and does other housework. But because God’s command is there, even such small work must be praised as a service of God far surpassing the holiness and asceticism of all monks and nuns"

Yet Luther could also talk in astonishingly negative tones about earthy things:

"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."

How seriously are we going to take "everyday" life and work if it is only transitory?

This kind of escapism would make a dispensationalist blush. It would appear that for all his pro-work bravado he sometimes mustered, that Luther never entirely left the monastery.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 28, 2007 -

Marvin Olasky
I attended a benefit last night for Veritas School (where my kids attend) that when really well. It was a symposium Christians involved in the culture at large at the Newmark Theatre in downtown Portland.

I particularly enjoyed the comments of Dr. Olasky. He is so thoughtful and gracious. He challenged us to think about our stance toward ministering to cities - which really means ministering to people - the crown of God's creation and where cultural zeitgeist gets mainly formed. He was just named Dean of The King's College in NYC, where I used to be the library director many moons ago...
posted by Dave at Friday, August 24, 2007 -

Getting it Covered



Coming in October (or thereabouts) there will the a third printing of Plowing in existence. I guess this means I'll have to redo the colors of TNT!
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 21, 2007 -

Camp Times
We had a wonderful time among the Ponderosa Pines... I was able to attempt a watercolor landscape (first time in nearly a year!), talk to friends, play ultimate frisbee and kick back for some napping.

The speaker at the camp, D.G. Hart, was by his own admission, provacative. He didn't really talk that much about culture as such, but his views came out here and there. He refered at one point to the church being "spiritual" and culture/government as being "earthly". During the Q&A I asked him to define "spiritual". He quickly admitted that he did not have some kind of gnosticism in mind, affirmed the goodness of creation, the resurrection of the body, etc. But he stressed the need to make a distinction between temporal and eternal things, something that Kuyperians failed to do.

Hart later elaborated on this some more, noting that Kuyperians failed to understand (or take into account) how Adam's originall calling was temporary and the when he was glorified, culture would no longer be part of his calling. I find this, at best, highly speculative, although such a view is widely heald in contemporary reformed circles.

Clearly this a key issue in the debate between many Kuyperians/tranformationalists and those in favor of the "Two-Kingdom" view. As I argue in my book, the Bible affirms that the earth will be renewed and that some parts of culture will be taken into the new heavens and new earth. The church isn't the only thing that is eternal. Culture is eternal too!

Hart also stressed that the Kingdom = Church. Nothing more, nothing less. (He appealed to WCF 25.2) On this, take not of Vos below. Another question to ponder: where does the Kingdom go the other six days of the week that the church is not formally gathered?
posted by Dave at Monday, August 20, 2007 -

Off to Family Camp
Back on Monday with a full report.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 15, 2007 -

If you Thought it Was Bad then...

"We have reason to fear that the multitude of books which grows every day in a prodigious fashion will make the following centuries fall into a state as barbarous as that of the centuries that followed the fall of the Roman Empire."

-- French scholar from the 17th century cited in an article from Alan Jacobs in Books & Culture on the history of information overload
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 14, 2007 -

Kewl Job
Materials Librarian at Nike
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 14, 2007 -

Common Grace
From Woody Allen's comments on the death of Igmar Bergman in the New York Times:

But I did manage to absorb one thing from him, a thing not dependent on genius or even talent but something that can actually be learned and developed. I am talking about what is often very loosely called a work ethic but is really plain discipline.

I learned from his example to try to turn out the best work I’m capable of at that given moment, never giving in to the foolish world of hits and flops or succumbing to playing the glitzy role of the film director, but making a movie and moving on to the next one.

posted by Dave at Monday, August 13, 2007 -

Artistic Roots
Ever since I was a young boy, I remember admiring the watercolor landscape that my maternal grandfather owned that was painted by his brother, my Uncle Lou. We now have that painting hanging in our living room. My own interst in watercolor painting no doubt has some roots in this - although I do not endeavor to paint like my Uncle.

He was employed by the Navy as a naval architect and painted watercolors as a very good amateur, active in San Diego.

I did a recent Google search and discovered that some of his work is in the San Diego Museum of Art. Pretty cool!

Here is one of his paintings. Looks like he was looking at modernists like O'Keefe.


posted by Dave at Friday, August 10, 2007 -

Vos the Neo-Calvinist

These various forms of human life have each their own sphere in which they work and embody themselves. There is a sphere of science, a sphere of art, a sphere of the family and of the state, a sphere of commerce and industry. Whenever one of these spheres comes under the controlling influence of the principle of the divine supremacy and glory, and this outwardly reveals itself, there we can truly say that the kingdom of God has become manifest.

--Vos in The Kingdom of God and The Church

So it would appear that for Vos the Kingdom is not entirely spiritual right now!

(Thanks to Greg Baus for pointing this out in the responses to my post on Aug 7. This quote is worth singling out...)
posted by Dave at Wednesday, August 08, 2007 -

Calvin the Neo-Calvinist
Did Jean Calvin believe the Bible taught the redemption and renewal of all creation - not just people?

By the way, on Andrew’s specific point that salvation is for the cosmos, I once checked how Calvin interpreted all of those cosmological passages about Christ saving the world — turns out Calvin only understood the cosmos to include beings with souls. God’s saving all things, then, was an assertion that he was saving men and angels. Not even Calvin was a neo-Calvinist. Could be because he was an Augustinian.

--Darryl Hart in a reponse to a post on De Regno Christi critiquing the Two-Kingdom View of Culture

But here is at least one place where Calvin talks this way:

But he means not that all creatures shall be partakers of the same glory with the sons of God; but that they, according to their nature, shall be participators of a better condition; for God will restore to a perfect state the world, now fallen, together with mankind. But what that perfection will be, as to beasts as well as plants and metals, it is not meet nor right in us to inquire more curiously; for the chief effect of corruption is decay. Some subtle men, but hardly sober-minded, inquire whether all kinds of animals will be immortal; but if reins be given to speculations where will they at length lead us? Let us then be content with this simple doctrine, — that such will be the constitution and the complete order of things, that nothing will be deformed or fading.

--Calvin's Commentary on Romans 8:21

It would appear that Calvin was a neo-Calvinist of sorts!
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 07, 2007 -

A Visit to the Gnostic Empire
Next week should be an interesting one for the Native Tourist. My family and I will be spending several days in eastern Oregon at First OPC Family Camp (we have attended this several times before).

This year the speaker will be Darryl Hart who will be taking his Two-Kingdom approach to Culture on the road.

So its kind of interesting that we have had two visiting preachers at our church the past two weeks who have preached from a Vos-ian church-as-"Spiritual" perspective the past two weeks. Lunchtime talks after the service were very lively. To put it bluntly, though these men would never admit outright, they see little worth in cultural endeavors. Culture is only temporary. Its all going to burn. Chrisians and the church are to be concerned with "heavenly" matters.

Such a radical position on culture isn't much better (or different) from dispensationalism.

So I have been boning up a little on this stuff. This blog has been really helpful.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, August 07, 2007 -

MP3s
of the "Redemptive Culture: Creating the World That Ought To Be" conference that IAM NY sponsored last February are now available. You an upload a copy of my talk "What Does 'Redeeming Culture' Mean?" for $3. I really recommend the two talks by Jeremy Begbie that were particularly excellent and encouraging (he even played excerps of several musical pieces on the piano to illustrate his point).
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 31, 2007 -

Cities of God Conference
sponsored by the John Jay Institute in Colorado Springs. Looks really promising. Here is a desription:

At one time Western religious belief and city building coincided. Informed by the Bible’s grand story from Genesis to Revelation, the idea of human culture as a development from seminal life in the Garden of Eden to full human flourishing in the City of God inspired the Christians to take city building seriously. Traditional western urbanism is a fruit of Christian civilization. Europe and North America’s most beautiful and early cities – places like Paris, London, Philadelphia, Annapolis, Charleston, Savannah, and Santa Barbara -- were in origin and consequence products of the Christian worldview, resulting in neighborhood designs in the form of street and block networks, plazas and squares, and monuments and civic buildings of stone and brick. Building upon and developing the received wisdom and insight from the ancients, Christian city builders endeavored to successfully integrate ecological, economic, moral, and formal orders to produce beautiful cities that we continue to enjoy today. What of tomorrow? Is the good city still possible? Have secularism, modernity, the automobile, therapeutic individualism, racial and class antagonism, and suburban sprawl made the restoration of the good city elusive, if not impossible? What about contemporary development and building culture? Can public officials, legislators, planners, traffic engineers, bankers, developers, and the homebuilding industry be persuaded to re-integrate traditional principles of city building into their professional work? And what role might Christians have to play in such a reintegration? This lecture series will explore biblical and theological themes specifically related to the building of neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Additionally, two historical case studies of American Christian city building – 17th Century Philadelphia and 19th Century Colorado Springs – will be examined for their practical lessons for today. Lastly, the series will present on an array of topics relevant to the ideas and strategies of the neo-traditionalist movement known as New Urbanism.

The first lecture will be by Ken Meyers: "Between the Garden and the New Jerusalem: a Trinitarian Vision for Urban Blessedness"

Synopsis
Modern societies are increasingly imperiled by diminished levels of civic commitment. As cultural and legal trends encourage more pervasive patterns of individualism and privatization, many citizens have a sense of being independent consumers of social goods and services rather than members of a body politic. Sacrificial commitment to the common good becomes more problematic when there is no notion of "the good" held in common by an increasingly diverse population. The lack of civic commitment is especially felt in America's heartland towns and cities. Once the local laboratories of political participation and incubators of republican virtues, today they increasingly call into question the sustainability of the American experiment. The precipitating crisis of the town soul presents an opportunity for Christians to re-examine their understanding of the nature and norms of civic life, as the love of neighbors requires caring for our neighborhoods. Since Christians believe that human beings are created in the image of a triune God, and thereby created for relationships, the Church must resist the temptations toward individualism and offer to its neighbors and neighborhoods an example of the meanings of membership and the contours of community. In this lecture Mr. Myers offers a survey of the biblical themes integral to a theology of urban blessedness, from the earliest experience of human community in the Garden of Eden to the full flourishing of eschatological urban dynamism in the New Jerusalem, providing practical implications for contemporary Christians living in America's cities and towns.

posted by Dave at Monday, July 30, 2007 -

12%
=number of people who admit to checking on their email while in church.

Story
posted by Dave at Friday, July 27, 2007 -

Beauty
isn't always tidy and neat.

A case in point is this unique (at least to me) calligraphy by Betsy Dunlap. It verges on the chaotic and unkempt, but is has a charming sense of whimsy, dance and flow as well.



(I found her stuff at the Design*Sponge blog)
posted by Dave at Thursday, July 26, 2007 -

Wondering How to Slow the Spread of Islam?
Lob in a few pop culture bombs. That should do the trick...



(Picture is from Dubai)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 24, 2007 -

Exactly!

Nice quote from Ellul (HT: Doug Wilson):

"Thus the Lord himself is going to substitute his work for man's, and he will build lasting cities, different cities, the true cities of Judah, cities which will be under another sign and controlled by a power other than Cain's" (Ellul, The Meaning of the City, p. 27).

Its worth adding that these redeemed cities will be the work of redeemed people who will be doing God's work empowed by the Holy Spirit. This in part is what redemption is for.

I will have to take another look at Ellul's book sometime. I read the opening chapters when I was writing Plowing and found it pretty bleak...
posted by Dave at Monday, July 23, 2007 -

Roots
Getting at the underlying motives (i.e. worldview) of art is what art history is all about:

The discourse [on Renaissanc art] exemplified by Beck, Hartt, and others like them employs a methodology of stylistic analysis for which a detached objectivity has been tacitly claimed. It has, however, also been driven by humanist assumptions about Renaissance art and culture. Admired as the fountainhead from which modernity springs, Renaissance art is seen as manifesting the best of human endeavor when first liberated from the grip of medieval religion. It is at once more rational and less mystical, because no longer corrupted by the hocus pocus of religious superstition. It is not difficult, therefore, to see how and why a Marxist critique has exposed the alleged objectivity of stylistic analysis masking ideological agendas. After all, who—other than privileged white males and their decadent offspring—has either the time or money to bother themselves with the study of form and the contemplation of beauty? Besides, it takes but a second look to realize that such art was inevitably determined in myriad ways by its context—social, economic, political and religious alike. Thus, over the last decades, revisionist art historians have been looking more closely at the context, function, and meaning of art—in process often downplaying formal analysis and matters of style, but ideally integrating these concerns with the newer ones.

--from a book review by John Walford that appeared in Books & Culture

posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 17, 2007 -

Big Black Frames
I just saw this article on painter/sculptor Neil Jenny who makes works about ideas - conceptual in many respects - yet still has a real sense of craft. One of the most interesting aspects of his works are the black frames which he makes himself. In fact he prefers to think of his works as sculture rather than paitings.





They are very reminiscent of the black frames often used to display 17th century Dutch paintings.



(Well they weren't always black...)
posted by Dave at Friday, July 13, 2007 -

Generational Observation

One of the things they did right as parents was that they gave a lot of positive reinforcement to their kids. What they did wrong is they reinforced everything, any behaviors whatsoever, in the hopes that it would improve the kid's self-esteem, so that the kids would be better off than their parents were. But kids really want limits and structure, something these parents in many cases weren't giving them. They were pretty much letting the kids select their own structure. If the kids were on the computer, well that was just fine with the parents because the kids were in their room quiet and not bothering them when they needed to work in the other room or get dinner ready, if they ate dinner together.

--from interview with Larry Rosen on what he calls the Net Generation

posted by Dave at Tuesday, July 10, 2007 -

Home Brew
Another kewl thing about my home state is its "craft brew" heritage. Lots of tasty and unique beers are made here. My favorite is McMenamin's Terminator Stout.

I also pass several hop farms on my way to work every morning with their elaborate suspension systems.


posted by Dave at Friday, July 06, 2007 -

Found
I found this photo documentation of a group of paintings by Mako Fujimura in a new corporate headquarters near Kansas City. Gives a nice sense of the scale and tactile nature of Mako's work.
posted by Dave at Thursday, July 05, 2007 -

Dutch Art in Portland I
I went for another visit to the Rembrandt and Golden Age of Dutch Art at the Portland Art Museum last Friday evening.

One of the objects that caught my eye the first time and still marvelled at was a pair of portait ivories less that five inches high. They are attributed to Rombout Verhulst and are of exquisite detail and workmanship.



Curiously, both featured an unique position with the fingers which is still a mystery to its meaning.

Maybe the artist was thinking of Kuyper's "not one inch..."
posted by Dave at Monday, July 02, 2007 -

Formed from the Ground
I just came across the making of dorodango , a kind of hand-made shiny ball made from mud and dirt popular in Japan.

They sound relatively easy to make. I love their simplicity and austere beauty.

Anybody out there ever made one?


posted by Dave at Thursday, June 28, 2007 -

Gotta Love
those Beavs!!!
posted by Dave at Monday, June 25, 2007 -

Well Worth the Read
Comment has posted a summary of Richard Mouw's Abraham Kuyper Prize Lecture. Here is an excerpt:

It is Kuyper's sense that God loves manyness that also informs his sphere sovereignty doctrine. A healthy culture, Kuyper insists, will be characterized by many-ness, plurality. God built these patterns of associational diversity into the very fabric of creation. Families, schools, and businesses do not exist by the permission of governments or churchly authorities—Kuyper was equally critical of totalitarian states and politically powerful churches. God has ordained the plurality of spheres, and no human power has the right to inhibit their proper functioning.

posted by Dave at Friday, June 22, 2007 -

Ikea is Coming
to Portland in late July!
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 19, 2007 -

Update
Went to see the Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art show on Friday. It was really good - much better than I expected. There was a true reprentative sampling of painting and decorative arts from the period (much more than Rembrandt!) which clearly illustrated the wide variety of subjects and individual styles from the period.

I hope to visit the show several more times this summer and post more about it later.

We also stopped at the new Tillamook Forest Center on the way to the coast on Saturday. I really enjoyed the architecture and the arrangement. I only wish we had time to hike on the nearby trails...
posted by Dave at Monday, June 18, 2007 -

Away
I have been real busy this week hosting my sister who is visiting from the east coast. So far we have taken her to the Evergreen Art Museum (home of the Spruce Goose), Mount St. Helens, and the International Rose Garden in Portland. Today we hope to see the Rembrandt show at the Portland Art Museum.

You should check out this article on NYC artist Chris Anderson. I have know Chris for more than 20 years and she has tirelessly promoted Christian involvement in the arts in addition to keeping busy with teaching and art-making activities. Much of her work is bearing fruit in the likes of IAMNY.
posted by Dave at Friday, June 15, 2007 -

Throwing Stones
From a facinating article in the New York Times about Philip Johnson's (in)famous Glasshouse now open to the public in New Canaan, CT. The article features a wide array of comments from luminaries and neighbors, including this one from the latter:

It was John Cage music and Merce Cunningham’s dancers — beautiful dancers. Cage’s music had something to do with doors slamming and whistles going off. Then great balloons — some big and black, some small and red and yellow. It was very strange. I thought to myself: “Here we are in 1967, standing next to a glass house listening to doors slam and whistles going off. This is out of this world.” It was so out of context for suburbia in the 60s.

posted by Dave at Monday, June 11, 2007 -

Factoid

Number of Leonardo da Vinci drawings owned by the British Royal family:

300 (at least)

(I say "at least" because this is the number at Winsor Castle. They may own more elsewhere.)

Of course the Queen also owns a Vermeer.

(Source: Art History blog - really worth the read for a in depth post on an exhibition of Leonardo drawings in Cardiff. I especially liked the drawing of the hands - click on the pictures for nice large images!)
posted by Dave at Thursday, June 07, 2007 -

A Distinctive Spirit Yields...???
Many who doubt the existence of distinctively Christian art (or science, economics, business, etc.) often quote Christian poet W.H. Auden, who claimed:

There can no more be a "Christian" art than there can be a Christian science or a Christian diet. There can only be a Christian spirit in which an artist, a scientist, works or does not work.

I find it interesting that Auden concedes that there is a definite Christian "spirit" in which Christian artists work that is different from the way that non-Christian artists ply their craft. But doesn't this "spirit" have an impact on the resultant artworks? Does it have no impact at all?

Auden's position on this is most curious.

(this post is inspired by this excellent article on Auden by Alan Jacobs)
posted by Dave at Tuesday, June 05, 2007 -

Radical Art

Artistically, technically, what is revolutionary about this Golden Age?

It is not a revolutionary time. The artists were simply concerned with making pictures for sale. That was new. That was revolutionary. That was the big change. That's a parallel to what's going on today. Previously, great art had been commissioned by the church or by princes. But this was a whole new world. It was an open art market where people with expendable income and assets were looking to buy pictures, in particular, but also silver, to establish who they were and what their values were for themselves as well as for their neighbors. It was self-definition through the purchase of art.

--from an article in the Oregonian about the Rembrandt show at the Portland Art Museum

This was one of the points that I made in my talk the IAM NY conference and is a key point made my Abraham Kuyper in his Stone lectures. The reformation liberated the visual arts from liturgy. What resulted was an explosion of new art...
posted by Dave at Monday, June 04, 2007 -

Its Here
The Rijksmuseum has landed in Portland!
posted by Dave at Friday, June 01, 2007 -

Church Architecture

What do you think of the design for new sanctuary at First Pres in Jackson, MS?
posted by Dave at Friday, June 01, 2007 -

The Heart of Missions
I don't agree with his "inclusivist" position in regards to the need for faith in Jesus Christ, but John Stackhouse flat out nails it when he says:

God is not interested in saving merely human souls. He wants human beings, body and soul. Furthermore, he does not settle for saving human beings, but the whole earth. He made it in the first place, pronounced it "very good," and he wants it all back. So he is saving us, the lords he put over creation, as part of his global agenda to rescue, indeed, the globe.

What God rescues us to, furthermore, is the original agenda he set out for us in Genesis 1, namely, to "fill the earth and subdue it." He planted a garden for us to tend (Gen. 2) and commanded our first parents to raise up generations of gardeners to fan out across the earth to till the rest of it. This is what it means to bear the image of God. We, too, are to improve the situation, to cultivate what we encounter, to make shalom in every sector of life. And such work is our ultimate destiny as well, as we are to "reign with him" over the new earth he promises (2 Tim. 2:12). Thus we are not going back to Eden, nor up to a (spiritual) heaven, but forward to the New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven to earth as our proper home (Rev. 21).

(from CT website)

posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 29, 2007 -

Conference Follow-up
The So Let your Light Shine: A Defense of Christian Culture conference heald by the Highlands Study Center in SW Virginia is now over. You can read fairly detailed summaries/transcriptions of the the sessions on this blog. (Thanks for the effort!)

There is a lot here to chew on.
posted by Dave at Friday, May 25, 2007 -

Historical Slander
Been reading some old Credenda Agendas lately, and this caught my eye from Aaron Rench:

"Of course, we are familiar with the slander known as the "Dark Ages," and we know that the phrase is just a euphemism for the idea that the church kills progress and culture. And whenever a medieval achievement is too wonderful to be suppressed or hidden any longer, modern historians have developed a mathematical formula, commonly called scholarly research, which can show how it actually had a secular origin and was part of a defiant revolution against all organized religion."

posted by Dave at Wednesday, May 23, 2007 -

More Summer Reading on Architecture
Comment magazine has been running a series of articles on suggested summer reading on various topics from a Christian perspective. The list on architecture/city planning books by Eric Jacobsen (author of Sidewalks in the Kingdom) caught my eye.

Jacobsens list is heavily weighted in favor of New Urbanism which is his interest. NU has a lot going for it, but is has some serious limitations as well.

I would like to add some additional titles to his list:

Learning from Las Vegas, the Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown has a quirky take on strip mall architecture (read more here)

Sprawl: A Compact History by Robert Bruegmann who argues that urban sprawl may not be as bad as we think it is.

and

Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville: Real Estate Development in America from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-first Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway by Witold Rybczynski

posted by Dave at Monday, May 21, 2007 -

Worth a Look
Small House Society
posted by Dave at Thursday, May 17, 2007 -

Falwell's Legacy
Now that Jerry Falwell is in glory, it is worth taking stock of his impact on Christian culture. His legacy is mixed.

One huge positive was the way he encouraged conservative Christians to get involved in the public square. Its hard to remember just how insular fundamentalist/conservative evangelical Christians were before the Moral Majority. Granted, the kind of influence Falwell encouraged was nearly entirely in the political arena or decrying the bashing of Christianity in the media, but at least this got Christians out of their cocoon.

Unfortunately (and this is the negative), many Christians influenced by Falwell (add Pat Robertson and James Dobson to the mix) came to see cultural involvement as political involvement, and failed to see that culture is way, way more than politics. In short, Falwell encouraged the culture-war paradigm which is helpful and appropriate as far as it goes. But we need an even bigger picture.

This is why I promote the biblical teaching on the protology of culture - to see our cultural calling from a pre-fall perspective. And to see where culture is going - culture from eschatological perspective. Looking at culture this way we see it for all its full-orbed glory and something that is being renewed as part of redemptive history.
posted by Dave at Wednesday, May 16, 2007 -

Words that Burn
I have to find time to ready Philip Jenkins writings on the changing shape/location of Christendom on planet earth.

These changes should have huge cultural implications. That is, the shape of Christian culture will change! Maybe this will be the opportunity to shake off the deleterious effects of Hellenism which has impeded the development of a pure Christian culture.

This review of Jenkins latest book in CT highlights the "new" Christendom's attitude toward scripture, which, if accurate, heralds great things to come!

To understand this approach to the Bible, Jenkins informs us of the ways in which the Scriptures, freshly translated, have been received into Asian and African societies. In many of these realms, people already were familiar with the idea of sacred texts, so the Bible was given special status from the start. In the hands of newly literate people, the power of biblical words has been explosive. Northerners need to recall the electrifying force in Reformation days of common-language Scriptures, made available to new readers. "It burns!" exclaimed one of the Puritan preachers about the Bible, and so it does today for Nigerians and Indians and Chinese.

posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 15, 2007 -

Mystery Poet Revealed
It wasn't really all that hard to find out with Google.

The poet is Geerhardus Vos.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 15, 2007 -

Art with Fizz
You probably know that Andy Warhol is one of the leading figures of Pop Art. But you probably didn't think of his art like this.
posted by Dave at Thursday, May 10, 2007 -

Howl!



Of course a picture like this deserves some context.
posted by Dave at Thursday, May 10, 2007 -

Mystery Poet

Who wrote this poem?

CANAAN
Love-land is Canaan’s land, fair open vales extending,
The star-near hilltops round baptized in limpid light;
Alas, the loveliest road, Southward to Zion bending,
Ends at an inmost shrine withdrawn from lover’s sight.

I'll post the answer in a couple of days...
posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 08, 2007 -

Metaphor of the Day

Other biographers have placed Bach as a synthesizer of various national styles, the cul-de-sac of Reformation music, or the artistic antipode of that other great figure of the age, Isaac Newton. Geck’s Bach, and in particular the Bach of the late instrumental works, is instead the conduit through which the primarily text-based aesthetic of the Baroque is transferred to the motive-based music of later centuries. Thus Bach not only becomes the culmination of the music of his predecessors but also the source for the compositional aesthetic of composers all the way down to Mahler (and perhaps even later). This is an original insight-or at least an original way of putting the matter-and I suspect it will prove to be foundational for future views of the composer.

--from a review of Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work, by Martin Geck in First Things

Bach is surely one the key people to study in coming to terms to what it means to practice art as a Christian.
posted by Dave at Friday, May 04, 2007 -

Thinking about Art Education
The article on the Aristides Atelier from Seattle's alternative newspaper The Stranger is very intreguing. A throwback to earlier times when artists learned their craft from a master in a workshop. This method was expecially in place during the Dutch Golden Age. Its hard to say exactly how much the Atelier really mimics the guild/workshop model or the Academy model which is slightly different. But both are hugely different from the way most colleges/universities train artists - which is based on the training methods of the Bauhaus.

One thing is clear: we need to really think through how we train Christian artists. What we have today at Christian Colleges essentially copies/baptizes what is happening at the secular institutions. Embedded in this system are an array of assumptions about the role of the artist, the nature of art, and, ultimately, the nature of truth and education.

Maybe someday I will have the time to think through this stuff, talk it over with some other Christian artists and come up with some sort of white paper or something.
posted by Dave at Tuesday, May 01, 2007 -