tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36794832024-02-07T00:41:54.916-08:00The Native Tourist - Christianity and Cultureblog by<br>Dave Hegeman<br>
author of <br><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Plowing-Hope-Towards-Biblical-Theology/dp/1591280494/">Plowing in Hope</a><br><p>
<img SRC="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BfIi07%2BxL._AA240_.jpg" height=155 width=155 >
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<b>Dave is:</b><br>
husband of Marjorie<br>father of four<br>member of the OPC<br>lives in Newberg, OR<br>librarian<br>watercolorist
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email: house1870 -at- hotmailDavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comBlogger1029125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-32784623682658300292008-09-02T10:56:00.000-07:002008-09-02T11:24:12.459-07:00<strong>More on <em>Culture Making</em></strong><br />the book by Andy Crouch.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/005/2.10.html">Review</a> by Gideon Strauss in <em>Books & Culture</em><br /><br /><a href="http://www.newcitypres.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/material-boy.pdf">A thorough and fairly critical review</a> by John Seel<br /><br />Seel's lambasts Crouch for his failure to emphasize the role of institutions in culture-making. Instead, following the approach I largely espouse, he focuses on how individuals can and should get culturally involved. I think that this small-scale, local approach at the present cultural circumstances, makes the most sense.<br /><br />I suspect that the way one views culture has a lot to do with the macro vs micro approach. If you see culture in terms paintings, novels, poems and ravioli, the micro/local approach makes sense - it doesn't take much to get started in making faithful Christian culture on this scale. But if you see culture in terms of movies and ipods, individuals - even rich individuals - can't cut it. These kinds of cultural artifacts need institutions to make them.<br /><br />Of course this is not an eithor/or situation but a both/and. Though in the near term the local option seems to be the smarter play.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-34653250080483542002008-08-12T15:50:00.000-07:002008-08-12T15:58:12.385-07:00<strong>More Cultural Convergence</strong><br />I first heard about this book in a <a href="http://www.wrf.ca/comment/article.cfm?ID=669">review from <em>Comment</em></a>:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wrf.ca/comment/images/2008/08.08.08-MPetersen-CultureMaking.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://www.wrf.ca/comment/images/2008/08.08.08-MPetersen-CultureMaking.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Additional info and excerpts can be found <a href="http://www.culture-making.com/about/book/">here</a>:<br /><br />Covers much of the same terrain as <em>Plowing</em>. <br /><br />Here's a quote I like:<br /><br /><blockquote>Cultural goods too will be transformed and redeemed, yet they will be recognizably what they were in the old creation—or perhaps more accurately, they will be what they always could have been. The new Jerusalem will be truly a city: a place suffused with culture, a place where culture has reached its full flourishing. It will be the place where God's instruction to the first human being is fulfilled, where all the latent potentialities of the world will be discovered and released by creative, cultivating people</blockquote>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-38543776568967392662008-08-05T13:13:00.000-07:002008-08-05T13:21:40.148-07:00<strong>"a clumsy tumble like airport luggage"</strong><br />So reads Larry Woiwode's self-description of his writing. Wrestling. Work. And Survival.<br /><br />Here are a couple of reviews of Woiwode's most recent memoir, <em>A Step from Death</em>, <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/004/13.20.html">one recently published in <em>Books & Culture</em></a>, the other from the <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0325/p15s03-bogn.html"><em>Christian Science Monitor</em></a>.<br /><br />Larry is an excellent example of cultural providence. A hard life has - in the hands of the Potter - resulted in a rich body of literature.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-13294163897401588652008-07-29T07:44:00.000-07:002008-07-29T07:51:34.796-07:00<strong>The Loss of Reading</strong><br />The quotes are taken from an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">article from the <em>New York Times </em></a>looking at the effect of technology on the way people read:<br /><br /><blockquote>"What we are losing in this country and presumably around the world is the sustained, focused, linear attention developed by reading. I would believe people who tell me that the Internet develops reading if I did not see such a universal decline in reading ability and reading comprehension on virtually all tests." <br /><br />-- Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts <br /><br />"Reading a book, and taking the time to ruminate and make inferences and engage the imaginational processing, is more cognitively enriching, without doubt, than the short little bits that you might get if you're into the 30-second digital mode." <br /><br />-- Ken Pugh, a cognitive neuroscientist at Yale </blockquote><br />This makes me that much more thankful for the Classical Christian education my kids receive.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-10640794519700350282008-07-01T15:25:00.001-07:002008-07-01T16:08:25.959-07:00<strong>Thinking about Trees</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.curtispublishing.com/images/NonRockwell/9431016.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.curtispublishing.com/images/NonRockwell/9431016.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Trees are surely one of the marvelous parts of God's creation. They figure prominantly in scripture both in the original garden and the New Jerusalem as well as the place (figuratively at least) of crucifixion. <br /><br />Essayist Alan Jacob's has <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2008/004/1.14.html"> a really fine piece </a>in <em>Books and Culture </em>on trees well worth the read.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-31356667734902169062008-06-25T08:31:00.000-07:002008-06-25T08:50:16.094-07:00<strong>Landscape Origins</strong><br />According to one source, the two most used words in English taken from the Dutch language are aparteid and landscape. Here is the etymology of landscape from <em>American Heritage Dictionary</em> <a href="http://www.answers.com/landscape&r=67">via Answers.com</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>[Dutch landschap, from Middle Dutch landscap, region : land, land + -scap, state, condition (collective suff.).]</blockquote><br />It would be interesting to probe more the meaning of "scap" in Dutch.<br /><br />Here is an additonal note on the origin of "landscape" fom Answers.com:<br /><br /><blockquote>WORD HISTORY Landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed as a painters' term from Dutch during the 16th century, when Dutch artists were pioneering the landscape genre. The Dutch word landschap had earlier meant simply “region, tract of land” but had acquired the artistic sense, which it brought over into English, of “a picture depicting scenery on land.” Interestingly, 34 years pass after the first recorded use of landscape in English before the word is used of a view or vista of natural scenery. <strong>This delay suggests that people were first introduced to landscapes in paintings and then saw landscapes in real life</strong>.</blockquote>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-67976253824791725262008-06-17T10:30:00.000-07:002008-06-17T11:21:56.323-07:00<strong>Postumous Accolades</strong><br />for Larry Norman's resently released (after his death in February) <a href="http://www.arenarock.com/bands/larrynorman/">The Anthology </a>(Rebel Poet, Jukebox Balladeer) which has received a review in <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/20760102/review/20797028/the_anthology%E2%80%9D"><em>Rolling Stone</em></a> .Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-43807645075950266452008-06-11T09:08:00.000-07:002008-06-11T09:24:16.968-07:00<strong>Perspective</strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5MGYCNb4QqPaAxifeOTU2nli7LvVi497-Ae_sPZFmAu5dBDoH5e6YOI-UnoLm_egVYxk1yNtgQBFzL8azGHhEtIby-_9KyLz-GggZvzjVZ3zAAaWDPhYH3CBTlfU3Dpg_K3tX/s400/presbyterian+google+billboard.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5MGYCNb4QqPaAxifeOTU2nli7LvVi497-Ae_sPZFmAu5dBDoH5e6YOI-UnoLm_egVYxk1yNtgQBFzL8azGHhEtIby-_9KyLz-GggZvzjVZ3zAAaWDPhYH3CBTlfU3Dpg_K3tX/s400/presbyterian+google+billboard.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-73454565626201896352008-06-06T13:46:00.000-07:002008-06-06T13:55:58.898-07:00<strong>Work: Back to the Basics</strong><br />as in forming a <em>biblical</em> view of work. Work Research Foundation has just published a <a href="http://www.wrf.ca/comment/pov.cfm?povID=46">fine article on this </a>from Ray Pennings. Here's a snippet:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>Reformed, Calvinist teaching regarding work can be summarized as follows:<br /><br />1. God works, and we are called to bear His image; <br />2. God derives satisfaction from His work; <br />3. God provides for us through our work; <br />4. God has commanded man to work, and to work within the framework of His commands; <br />5. God holds us accountable for our work and expects to be acknowledged through it; <br />6. God provides particular gifts designed to meet particular needs in the advancement of His kingdom; <br />7. The Fall has radically affected our work. Work became toil; thorns and thistles frustrate our efforts. Fallen man seeks to glorify himself rather than his Creator through work; <br />8. Work is an individual as well as a social activity; <br />God takes pleasure in beauty, and the Scriptures do not focus simply on the functional and utilitarian aspects of work; and <br />9. Christ worked as part of His active obedience, and the believer's work through Christ is part of that obedience. </blockquote><br />A nice summary, dontcha think?<br /><br />The article is also really worth reading for the excerpts from William Perkins "A Treatise of the Vocations or Callings of Men" which I had never heard of before. Perkins - the quintessential Puritan - sound like a Kyperian when he says:<br /><br /><blockquote>Every particular calling must be practiced in and with the general calling of a Christian. It is not sufficient for a man in the congregation, and in common conversation, to be a Christian, but in his very personal calling, he must show himself to be so. For example, a Magistrate must not only in general be a Christian, as every man is, but he must be a Christian Magistrate, in bearing the sword.</blockquote>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-10273329864737567072008-06-05T10:52:00.000-07:002008-06-05T11:01:09.054-07:00<strong>More Busy Times</strong><br />This is going to quite a summer! Our oldest daughter is getting married in July (to the son of neo-Calvinist history prof at <a href="http://www.georgefox.edu">George Fox University </a>here in Newberg). My oldest son is busy gearing up for college applications next fall to a program in industrial design (we visited <a href="http://pd.uoregon.edu/main/">U of O Product Design program </a>on Monday). And there is the usual array of house projects: I hope to install a retracting attic stair next week.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-21676196599310847502008-05-27T10:25:00.000-07:002008-05-27T10:35:41.957-07:00<strong>Frame on Culture</strong><br />from <a href="http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/frame_ethics.html"><em>Doctrine of the Christian Life </em></a>By John M. Frame:<br /><br /><br />Chapter 45: What is Culture? <br /><br />Chapter 46: Christ and Culture <br /><br />Chapter 47: Christ and Our Culture <br /><br />Chapter 48: Christians In Our Culture <br /><br />Chapter 49: Culture in the Church <br /><br /><br />All of these are available via pdf, Word, html.<br /><br />HT: Mark HorneDavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-1581074241891187422008-05-23T09:09:00.000-07:002008-05-23T09:43:23.929-07:00<strong>The Times they Are a Changin'</strong><br />I suppose this isn't exactly new news. But Cnet <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9950368-7.html">has a piece </a>on how the old audiophile approach to music is all but dead. The "high fidelity" approach to music is all but dead (or at the very least has been pushed to a far-off corner niche).<br /><br />It is striking how difference music listening is today. Ipods and the like have made music into a ubiquitous, mostly solo affair. When I was a college undergraduate audio systems were a pretty big deal (often literally). Listening to records was often a communal activity in a particular space. Now this is all but a ghost from the past.<br /><br /><blockquote>Music today is a commodity--ripped for free track by track, or bought for 99 cents and eventually added to a vast digital library, either destined to become a favorite, or more likely forgotten for good after a couple of listens. Today's music players are regarded the same way--mostly as disposable. Either the player will work for two or three years before sputtering and dying, or a newer, faster, smaller, better player that has far more cachet will be released in six months. <br /><br />"I often wonder about the 30-year-old iPod," Guttenberg mused. "Will someone still use an iPod in 30 years," like audiophiles do high-end speakers? <br /><br />The answer is, of course, not a chance. </blockquote>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-7403689848367827832008-05-19T09:57:00.000-07:002008-05-19T10:02:35.661-07:00<strong>You Are Here</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://media.tumblr.com/1MfGe5umU93t48oqSGZ4mesV_500.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://media.tumblr.com/1MfGe5umU93t48oqSGZ4mesV_500.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br />This map gave me a pleasant chuckle.<br /><br />According to the map I live in "U.L.M.P.", but experience tells me I am more likely situated in humble state of Granola. <br /><br />Crunch. Crunch.<br /><br />HT: Alan JacobsDavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-46876269646527899272008-05-13T10:08:00.000-07:002008-05-13T10:14:01.152-07:00<strong>Robert Rauschenberg is Dead</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Rauschenberg/images/Coke-a-Cola-Plan.L.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Rauschenberg/images/Coke-a-Cola-Plan.L.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />His evocative works (along with Jasper Johns) were very influencial on my early interest in painting and art, though you would never know it today.<br /><br />He once quipped: "A pair of socks is not less suitable to make a painting with than wood, nails, turpentine, oil and fabric."<br /><br />He is usually called a pop artist, but his approach is actually closer to Dada. A really fine book that captures his early development and relationship to Duchamp is Calvin Tomkins <em>Off the Wall </em>- really good read.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-75755071452342075102008-05-13T08:07:00.000-07:002008-05-13T08:26:14.426-07:00<strong>Convergence?</strong><br />Its seems that I am running into the idea of our future life being lived on earth - with buildings and culture, etc. - more and more.<br /><br />The idea was first powerfully introduced to me in Richard Mouw's <em>When Kings Come Marching in </em>and was reinforced by Anthony Hoekema's books. But this idea goes back (at least) to Kuyper and Bavinck and can be seen in many other reformed writers. The idea is prominant in my book <em>Plowing in Hope</em>, and is featured in other recently published books such as Nathan Bierma's<a href="http://nbierma.com/heaven/"><em> Bringing Heaven Down to Earth </em></a>and Michael Wittmer's <a href="http://grts.cornerstone.edu/wittmer/toc.htm"><em>Heaven is a Place on Earth</em></a>.<br /><br />Most recently I saw this in a <a href="http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2008/april/13.36.html">book excerpt published </a>by Christianity Today by NT Wright:<br /><br /><blockquote>Thus the church that takes sacred space seriously (not as a retreat from the world but as a bridgehead into it) will go straight from worshiping in the sanctuary to debating in the council chamber; to discussing matters of town planning, of harmonizing and humanizing beauty in architecture, green spaces, and road traffic schemes; and to environmental work, creative and healthy farming methods, and proper use of resources. If it is true, as I have argued, that the whole world is now God's holy land, we must not rest as long as that land is spoiled and defaced. This is not an extra to the church's mission. It is central.</blockquote><br />This is a very powerful idea. I think it is key to healthy Christian cultural activity - in addition to the restorative work that Wright discusses in his essay.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-46408381192569165202008-05-06T10:26:00.000-07:002008-05-06T10:34:55.053-07:00<strong>Just Passing Through</strong><br />But Where?<br /><br />Doug Wilson <a href="http://www.christkirk.com/Sermons/outlines/1458.pdf">puts it quite well</a>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Many Christians believe the cosmos has an upper and lower story, with earth as the lower and heaven as the upper. You live the first chapters of your life here. Then you die, and you move upstairs to live with the nice people in part two. There<em> might </em>be some kind of sequel after that, but it is all kind of hazy. The basic movement in this thinking is from Philippi “below” to Rome “above.”<br /><br />But what Paul teaches us here is quite different. We are establishing the colonies of heaven here, now. When we die, we get the privilege of <em>visiting</em> the heavenly motherland, which is quite different than moving there permanently. After this brief visit, the Lord will bring us all back here for the final and great transformation of the colonists (and the colonies). In short, our time in heaven is the intermediate state. It is <em>not </em>the case that our time here is the intermediate state. There is an old folk song that says, “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.” This captures the mistake almost perfectly. But as the saints gather in heaven, which is the real intermediate state, the growing question is, “When do we get to go back home?” And so this means that heaven is the place that we are just “passing through.”</blockquote><br />As they say, home is where the heart is.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-84050038964350322842008-04-29T08:52:00.000-07:002008-04-29T09:10:45.451-07:00<strong>Just Incredible</strong><br />Please allow me to digress a tiny bit from my usual musings and discuss the all to common use of the word <em>incredible</em>.<br /><br />"Incredible" means/used to mean "untrue", as in "the slippery witness was utterly <em>incredible</em> in their testimony." Yet all too often the word is used to mean more or less the opposite: "this food tastes incredible." I suppose the idea is that such a something is too good to be true. <br /><br />Every time I hear the word used this way it is like fingernails on the blackboard. The epitome of this lexical abuse is phrase penned/spoken by Christians again and again: "God is so <em>incredible</em>." Ouch! Jesus is "the way, the <em>truth</em>, the life" and is so "incredible" is doing so.<br /><br />Does anybody else out there experience pain when they hear/read this? <br /><br />I know that language evolves over time but this seems to be a subtle undermining of God's absolutely credible character. Will you join me in stopping the abuse?Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-27183690482083035952008-04-21T08:14:00.000-07:002008-04-21T08:34:42.523-07:00<strong>The Origin of Spin?</strong><br /><br /><blockquote>Until Duchamp, criticism was aesthetically based. The critic talked about a painting's subject, the way the artist handled color, drawing, composition and the like. With Readymades, the object's appearance and beauty were no longer the issue -- indeed, they were irrelevant. What mattered was the idea behind the work -- the point the artist was trying to make. So art criticism moved from the realm of visual experience to that of philosophy. The writer no longer had to base his critical observations on a close scrutiny of the work of art. He could simply riff.<br /><br />--from <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120848379018525199.html?mod=taste_primary_hs">article on the crisis of writing on art </a>from Wall Street Journal</blockquote>Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-34134332257279222822008-04-18T14:55:00.000-07:002008-04-18T15:01:38.406-07:00<strong>More on Cranach</strong><br />(or More on Ancient Hip)<br /><br /><blockquote>“It attracts crossover buyers, who are drawn by the artist’s sharp-edged, pared-down, weird modern aesthetic.”<br /><br />--comments on the portrait of <a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/enlarged_image/27380/89239/">Princess Sybille of Cleve </a>by Cranach which recently was auctioned for over 7 million dollars</blockquote><br />(<a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/27380/christies-plays-yenta-for-old-masters-and-youngish-collectors/">story</a>)Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-8330608014112832652008-04-15T12:18:00.000-07:002008-04-15T12:24:34.993-07:00<strong>Survey Says...</strong><br /><br />Report: "<a href="http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2C1703%2CA%25253D167427%252526M%25253D201280%2C00.html?">Unchurched prefer cathedrals to contemporary church designs</a>"<br /><br />So much for "missional", "authentic" and "hip".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/images/lwcI_corp_news_exterior_1575x2117.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/images/lwcI_corp_news_exterior_1575x2117.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/images/lwcI_corp_news_worship_1573x1416.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/images/lwcI_corp_news_worship_1573x1416.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />(HT: Russ Reeves)Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-20695832344170759492008-04-11T08:50:00.000-07:002008-04-11T09:15:02.920-07:00<strong>Should Art Take a Stand?</strong><br />Before there was Thomas Kinkade there was the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach. There is a show of his stuff <a href="http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/cranach/">at the Royal Academy </a>in London that has been getting some press.<br /><br />Cranach had close ties to Martin Luther and is often heralded as an artist who embodied Reformation principles in his art. But a closer look at his art shows that he was more of an astute businessman that theologically driven/inspired artist. He employed a large workshop which produced hundreds of his popular portraits of Luther and other Reformational luminaries. But also continued to create devotional images of Mary and Saints for Roman Catholic clientele. <br /><br />As <a href="http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/visualart/story/0,,2261129,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=40">one reviewer </a>of the London exhibit observes:<br /><br /><blockquote>When Luther took the dramatic and scandalous step of marrying a former nun in 1525, the timid Melancthon stayed away, but Cranach was Luther's best man. He sold mass-produced sets of paired wedding portraits of the couple, a defiant proclamation of the reformer's evangelical freedom from monkish vows. Painter and preacher were godfathers to each other's children, and in 1527 Cranach painted tender portraits of Luther's aged father and mother. The insight into character and obvious affection of these great pictures were another testimony to the painter's love for Luther and his family.<br /><br />And yet, during these same years, Cranach's workshop was also turning out scores of Catholic pictures for Catholic patrons, including Luther's bête noire, Cardinal Albrecht, the archbishop of Mainz. These included altarpieces for Albrecht's cathedral, devotional panels of Christ as the Man of Sorrows (an image closely associated with the doctrine of transubstantiation), images of favourite Catholic saints, or of Mary assumed into heaven. Cranach and his assistants painted Cardinal Albrecht himself as Saint Jerome in his study (in a composition borrowed from a famous print by Dürer), and as witness to the miraculous Mass of Saint Gregory, a subject associated not only with transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass, but also with the release of souls from purgatory, and so absolute anathema to Luther. Characteristically, however, Cranach never drew Albrecht from the life, and probably never met him: instead, he copied Albrecht's features from Dürer's 1519 portrait.</blockquote><br />How can we account for this duality? Was it the almighty Mark?<br /><br />Or maybe it was because Cranach followed Luther in a Two Kingdom approach to artmaking?!!!Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-46489670814317134832008-04-08T09:31:00.000-07:002008-04-08T09:47:17.196-07:00<strong>Public Sculpture Turns the Church on its Head</strong><br />Read about the controversy in Vancouver, BC <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080403.wevil03/BNStory/Entertainment/home">here</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20080403/wevil03/0403sculpture500big.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/images/20080403/wevil03/0403sculpture500big.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The title of the work by artist Dennis Oppenheim is "Device to Root Out Evil". Is this a light flight of whimsy, or sly put-down of Christendom? Hard to say.<br /><br />I wonder what they are thinking about this at nearby Regent College...Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-20220499009700060582008-04-07T13:51:00.000-07:002008-04-07T14:19:36.548-07:00<strong>When in Seattle, do...</strong><br />Sorry for the lack of posts last week.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/e932/visart2-480.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;"src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/e932/visart2-480.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Part of my busy week included a trip up to the Seattle Art Museum to see <a href="http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/interactives/rome/rome.asp">Roman Art from Louvre</a> exhibit and the small display of three<a href="http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibit/exhibitDetail.asp?eventID=11541"> Gates of Paradise </a>panels by Ghiberti from the Baptistry in Florence. Both shows were wonderful. The Louvre show was truly exceptional - at least here on the West Coast of North America. Dozens of life-size sculptures and friezes, plus pottery, glass and silver from the period. Much better than I expected.<br /><br />See the Ghiberti panels in person (since I have never been to Florence) was also worthwhile. Its always nice to actually encounter something that is so prominantly featured in my art history classes.<br /><br />I am glad my son could see this as well!Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-39884727159484869562008-03-31T13:13:00.000-07:002008-03-31T13:20:48.823-07:00<strong>Builder-King</strong><br />Something to keep in mind: Jesus had a job:<br /><blockquote><br />He was a <em>tekton</em>, the son of a <em>tekton</em>, which meant that He was a builder of some sort. Most have taken this to mean carpenter, but Schneider suggests the additional possibilities of masonry, or jack of all trades. I have elsewhere seen the suggestion that it may have meant an architect. In any case, it was a respectable trade...</blockquote><br />(quote taken from <a href="http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=5270">Doug Wilson's blog</a>)Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3679483.post-10584175027387283202008-03-26T08:15:00.000-07:002008-03-26T08:27:37.577-07:00<strong>Teaching Culture</strong><br /><a href="http://www.credenda.org/issues/17-4thema.php">Exerpts</a> from the "Trinity Catechism" authored by Doug Jones focusing on our cultural calling:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><strong>V. What marriage in creation is this?</strong><br /><br />Adam and Eve were married in the Garden,<br />a king and queen, enjoying peaches, hawks,<br />each other, sent to build bridges, phones, toys.<br /><br />...<br /><br /><strong>V’. What is the purpose of this marriage of Son and Church?</strong><br /><br />This new Adam and Eve pick-up the work<br />abandoned by the first - to raise a godly<br />seed, expand the feast, and build a garden city.</blockquote><br />Jones calls this a catapoem - and with good reason. It is truly a catachism and a poem rolled into one.Davehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06884949261215225295noreply@blogger.com