The Native Tourist - Christianity and Culture

2008-09-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

More on Culture Making
the book by Andy Crouch.

Review by Gideon Strauss in Books & Culture

A thorough and fairly critical review by John Seel

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.

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.

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.

2008-08-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

More Cultural Convergence
I first heard about this book in a review from Comment:

Additional info and excerpts can be found here:

Covers much of the same terrain as Plowing.

Here's a quote I like:

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

2008-08-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

"a clumsy tumble like airport luggage"
So reads Larry Woiwode's self-description of his writing. Wrestling. Work. And Survival.

Here are a couple of reviews of Woiwode's most recent memoir, A Step from Death, one recently published in Books & Culture, the other from the Christian Science Monitor.

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.

2008-07-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

The Loss of Reading
The quotes are taken from an article from the New York Times looking at the effect of technology on the way people read:

"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."

-- Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts

"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."

-- Ken Pugh, a cognitive neuroscientist at Yale

This makes me that much more thankful for the Classical Christian education my kids receive.

2008-07-01T15:25:00.001-07:00

Thinking about Trees

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.

Essayist Alan Jacob's has a really fine piece in Books and Culture on trees well worth the read.

2008-06-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

Landscape Origins
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 American Heritage Dictionary via Answers.com:

[Dutch landschap, from Middle Dutch landscap, region : land, land + -scap, state, condition (collective suff.).]

It would be interesting to probe more the meaning of "scap" in Dutch.

Here is an additonal note on the origin of "landscape" fom Answers.com:

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. This delay suggests that people were first introduced to landscapes in paintings and then saw landscapes in real life.

2008-06-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Postumous Accolades
for Larry Norman's resently released (after his death in February) The Anthology (Rebel Poet, Jukebox Balladeer) which has received a review in Rolling Stone .

2008-06-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Perspective

2008-06-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Work: Back to the Basics
as in forming a biblical view of work. Work Research Foundation has just published a fine article on this from Ray Pennings. Here's a snippet:

Reformed, Calvinist teaching regarding work can be summarized as follows:

1. God works, and we are called to bear His image;
2. God derives satisfaction from His work;
3. God provides for us through our work;
4. God has commanded man to work, and to work within the framework of His commands;
5. God holds us accountable for our work and expects to be acknowledged through it;
6. God provides particular gifts designed to meet particular needs in the advancement of His kingdom;
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;
8. Work is an individual as well as a social activity;
God takes pleasure in beauty, and the Scriptures do not focus simply on the functional and utilitarian aspects of work; and
9. Christ worked as part of His active obedience, and the believer's work through Christ is part of that obedience.

A nice summary, dontcha think?

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:

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.

2008-06-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

More Busy Times
This is going to quite a summer! Our oldest daughter is getting married in July (to the son of neo-Calvinist history prof at George Fox University here in Newberg). My oldest son is busy gearing up for college applications next fall to a program in industrial design (we visited U of O Product Design program on Monday). And there is the usual array of house projects: I hope to install a retracting attic stair next week.

2008-05-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Frame on Culture
from Doctrine of the Christian Life By John M. Frame:

Chapter 45: What is Culture?

Chapter 46: Christ and Culture

Chapter 47: Christ and Our Culture

Chapter 48: Christians In Our Culture

Chapter 49: Culture in the Church

All of these are available via pdf, Word, html.

HT: Mark Horne

2008-05-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

The Times they Are a Changin'
I suppose this isn't exactly new news. But Cnet has a piece 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).

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.

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.

"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?

The answer is, of course, not a chance.

2008-05-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

You Are Here

This map gave me a pleasant chuckle.

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.

Crunch. Crunch.

HT: Alan Jacobs

2008-05-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Robert Rauschenberg is Dead

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.

He once quipped: "A pair of socks is not less suitable to make a painting with than wood, nails, turpentine, oil and fabric."

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 Off the Wall - really good read.

2008-05-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

Convergence?
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.

The idea was first powerfully introduced to me in Richard Mouw's When Kings Come Marching in 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 Plowing in Hope, and is featured in other recently published books such as Nathan Bierma's Bringing Heaven Down to Earth and Michael Wittmer's Heaven is a Place on Earth.

Most recently I saw this in a book excerpt published by Christianity Today by NT Wright:

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.

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.

2008-05-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

Just Passing Through
But Where?

Doug Wilson puts it quite well:

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 might 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.”

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 visiting 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 not 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.”

As they say, home is where the heart is.

2008-04-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

Just Incredible
Please allow me to digress a tiny bit from my usual musings and discuss the all to common use of the word incredible.

"Incredible" means/used to mean "untrue", as in "the slippery witness was utterly incredible 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.

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 incredible." Ouch! Jesus is "the way, the truth, the life" and is so "incredible" is doing so.

Does anybody else out there experience pain when they hear/read this?

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?

2008-04-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Origin of Spin?

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.

--from article on the crisis of writing on art from Wall Street Journal

2008-04-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

More on Cranach
(or More on Ancient Hip)

“It attracts crossover buyers, who are drawn by the artist’s sharp-edged, pared-down, weird modern aesthetic.”

--comments on the portrait of Princess Sybille of Cleve by Cranach which recently was auctioned for over 7 million dollars

(story)

2008-04-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

Survey Says...

Report: "Unchurched prefer cathedrals to contemporary church designs"

So much for "missional", "authentic" and "hip".

(HT: Russ Reeves)

2008-04-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

Should Art Take a Stand?
Before there was Thomas Kinkade there was the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach. There is a show of his stuff at the Royal Academy in London that has been getting some press.

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.

As one reviewer of the London exhibit observes:

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.

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.

How can we account for this duality? Was it the almighty Mark?

Or maybe it was because Cranach followed Luther in a Two Kingdom approach to artmaking?!!!

2008-04-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

Public Sculpture Turns the Church on its Head
Read about the controversy in Vancouver, BC here.

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.

I wonder what they are thinking about this at nearby Regent College...

2008-04-07T13:51:00.000-07:00

When in Seattle, do...
Sorry for the lack of posts last week.

Part of my busy week included a trip up to the Seattle Art Museum to see Roman Art from Louvre exhibit and the small display of three Gates of Paradise 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.

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.

I am glad my son could see this as well!

2008-03-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

Builder-King
Something to keep in mind: Jesus had a job:

He was a tekton, the son of a tekton, 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...

(quote taken from Doug Wilson's blog)

2008-03-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

Teaching Culture
Exerpts from the "Trinity Catechism" authored by Doug Jones focusing on our cultural calling:

V. What marriage in creation is this?

Adam and Eve were married in the Garden,
a king and queen, enjoying peaches, hawks,
each other, sent to build bridges, phones, toys.

...

V’. What is the purpose of this marriage of Son and Church?

This new Adam and Eve pick-up the work
abandoned by the first - to raise a godly
seed, expand the feast, and build a garden city.

Jones calls this a catapoem - and with good reason. It is truly a catachism and a poem rolled into one.

2008-03-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

More on the Exit of Polaroid Film
Article at the Boston Globe.

Here are some of my favorite creative examples of Polaroid film:

Talking Heads album cover.

David Hockney photo-collage (click on image to enlarge)

2008-03-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

Judging a Book...
Here some more background on the design of the new cover for Plowing from the Canon Press Blog:

Another cover that went through several revisions was Plowing in Hope written by David Hegeman. Once we eliminated the idea of a cello in the middle of a plowed field, simply because it was winter and the chance of finding a dirt field that wasn’t buried under snow was slim to none, David came up with the new concept. I wanted Brussels Sprouts on the cover and David initially stacked them on the picture frame. But he just couldn’t wrap his head around it, so you’ll now find a lone sprout on the back cover under a lighted pedestal. Here’s the little snippet from Plowing in Hope on The Brussels Sprouts Syndrome that captured my attention. If you look closely, you can see the Brussels Sprout on the white pedestal in the picture on the left.

The "David" here is David Dalbey. You can read the designer's thoughts on other cover changes as well.

2008-03-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

Say What?
Here is a thesis only a Two-Kingdom advocate could love"

Keynote Address : James Elkins

“ON THE STRANGE PLACE OF RELIGION
IN CONTEMPORARY ART”

On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art explains the curious disconnect between spirituality & current art. In his talk, Dr. Elkins will show why committed, engaged, ambitious, informed art does not mix w/ dedicated, serious, thoughtful, heartfelt religion. Wherever the two meet, one wrecks the other. Modern spirituality & contemporary art are rum companions; either the art is loose & unambitious, or the religion is one-dimensional & unpersuasive. That is not to imply the two sides should maintain their mutual distrust, but that talk needs to be very slow and careful.

--from a symposium held at Biola University this past weekend.

Hmm. I wonder if Elkins has ever heard of, say, Michelangelo or Rembrandt or Roualt or...

2008-03-14T08:41:00.001-07:00

Degas at the PAM

I went to the Portland Art Museum last night with my wife, daughter and a friend to see the Degas, Forain and Lautrec show.

The Degas artworks were particularly excellent. There was a veriety of oil paintings, pastel works, sketches and monotypes all based around the theme of dance/ballet. He is an absolute master of drawing - a few quick marks or smudges capturing the essence of a scene or thing. He also excels in adding just the smallest bit of extra color to his studies to give them a bit of extra life and interest.

Makes me want to draw more...

2008-03-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

Stop Thinking Dualistically Now!
One of the ways that Christians devalue the physicality of creation and culture-making is to talk about the afterlife as "heaven." We are not going to spend eternity in heaven but rather on the New Earth.

Or more correctly, heaven and earth will be joined together as God's-realm - heaven - will be married to the earth. God will dwell with redeemed men and women on the redeemed earth. One such argument can be found in this essay by Richard Middleton:

Heaven is also the realm—in contradistinction to earth—where God’s will is perfectly accomplished prior to the eschaton. This is the assumption behind the prayer Jesus taught his disciples: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). It is the biblical eschatological hope that one day God’s salvation (which is being prepared in heaven) will be manifest fully on earth. Then earth will be fully conformed to heaven

But “heaven” simply does not describe the Christian eschatological hope. Not only is the term “heaven” never used in Scripture for the eternal destiny of the redeemed, but continued use of “heaven” to name the Christian hope may well divert our attention from the legitimate biblical expectation for the present transformatin of our earthly life to conform to God’s purposes. Indeed, to focus our expectation on an otherworldly salvation has the potential to dissipate our resistance to societal evil and the ddication needed to work for the redemptive transformation of this world. Therefore, for reasons exegetical, theological and ethical, I have come to repent of using the term “heaven” to describe the future God has in store for the faithful. It is my hope that all readers of this essay would—after thoughtful consideration—join me in this repentance.

2008-03-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

Bad Instant Karma
I suppose this is somewhat old news. But I just heard on NPR Friday that Polaroid will soon stop making instant film. I find this really sad.

I have been a fan of Polaroid film for years. I own an SX-70 and an old peel-apart camera (the kind with the bellows) which I have used off and on for years. These cameras have always intregued me.

I can only hope (along with countless artists) that someone steps up to the plate and licenses these products and continues to make this wonderful film.

2008-02-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

Two Books I'm Looking forward to Reading

2008-02-26T07:22:00.000-08:00

Larry Norman, R.I.P.
A friend sent me an email that Christian Rock legend Larry Norman died Sunday. My first encounter with Norman's music came when I was a new Christian in the 70s: his song "I Wish we'd All Been Ready" was featured in the goofy apocalyptic movie A Thief in the Night.

I really only listened Larry Norman's music after I got married. He was a bit before my time. But he and the other "Jesus Music" pioneers of the late 60s/early 70s are hugely influential on the present-day church. Just as we owe the present state of cultural involvement to the likes of Francis Schaeffer and Hans Rookmaaker and their influential books, we also owe a large portion of this to the Christian musicians who broke away from frozen, mediocre cultural hegemony of the conservative church in the 60s. They made it much easier for the rest of us.

Larry Norman lived in Salem, Oregon, which is where I work. Maybe it will work out for me to go to his funeral. We'll see.

2008-02-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

Top-Down or Bottom-Up?
From an book-review essay in Comment by John Seel"

This strategy stems from a general acceptance that cultural change is top-down and guided by strategically placed gatekeepers. Infiltrating these gatekeeper networks has been one of the overarching objectives of these institutions. . . . Latent evangelical populism has resisted this overt elitism. Charles Colson writes, "I don't believe societies are moved as much by the social elites as they are by changes in the habits of the heart. I think you have to give people, the mass of people, a different vision to live by . . . John Naisbitt said that fads start from the top down, movements from the bottom up."

And yet, the reality-defining institutions of the academy, art, media, and entertainment, which are controlled by economic, social, and cultural elites, shape the "habits of the heart" of any given society. Having once worked for John Naisbitt, I can say with confidence that he was speaking about consumer trends, not cultural dynamics. The achievement of these institutions is to be applauded.

Readers of TNT will know that I largely reject the top-down approach to renewing culture. Working on the local level and on a smaller scale, and working and expanding from there - all the while remaining exclusively and distinctly Christian - is the way to grow a genuinely Christian culture. Compromise and cooperative ventures end up with a diluted product - losing most of its saltiness in the process.

What we need, I think, is a Christian subversive sub-culture and a patient, long-term, outlook. We also need at the same time to actively resist the mind-shaping effects of the dominant culture around us ("be not conformed...") and we celebrate the cultural offerings of the local Christian culture around us...

2008-02-25T12:23:00.000-08:00

Five-O

Not the Hawaiian kind. The mid-life "crisis" kind...

Your's truly turned a half-century old a week ago.

I'd like to blame my lack of posts last week to old age. But this, alas, would be highly untrue.

2008-02-14T14:31:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday
I went to see the James Lavadour exhibit during lunch at the local art museum. What a treat to have this (albeit small) resource right near where I work!

Lavadour has such a unique way of making his panels: a series of squeegyings, scrapings, transparent layers, irredecent pigments. He really captures something of the open landscape of the American West.

2008-02-12T09:18:00.000-08:00

Perpective & Generations
Doug Wilson has been observing the scene in the UK. In the course of his analysis, he makes the following comments worth pondering...

Re: Christian cultural change/transformation:

we have constantly urged "reformation, not revolution," and one godly pastor here put the same need in terms of "evolution, not revolution." Patience and balance are key.

Re: the mutual exasperation between the younger and older generations within the church:

As these two generations of evangelicals talk with each other, there is a basic attitude that should be remembered by all -- those who are coming up through the ranks should cultivate a deep spirit of gratitude. Without the previous work of "unreasonable and intractable conservatives," there would be nothing here to work with. And those older heads who see the newer generation coming up, more filled with beans than wisdom, the sensation should be gratitude as well. The glory of young men is their strength, and the wisdom will come in due course. This is God's way. Each generation should be grateful to the other, and both to God.

I know I need to take this to heart...

2008-02-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

Reformed Aesthetic Heritage
I don't usually provide links to Ebay listings - but check this listing on a book on Calvinistic Churches in Hungary. Lots of Pics!

For the most part the spaces celebrate simplicity - with rich carvings in pulpits, ceilings and pews. It also seems that family arms are prominantly featured. I wonder if this is because of an emphasis on covenant succession?

2008-02-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

Educational Opportunities
I recently came across this article about an LDS member who has made his old master print collection available for display as LDS churches in the Denver area.

This has me thinking. Why not do the same thing for and by evangelical Christians. We need to get rank-and-file church members exposed and thinking about the arts - especially examples of well crafted art works. Having a loan collection that can be temporarily displayed at churches, Christain schools, and Christian colleges would do much to increase cultural literacy and appreciation in the Christian community.

Of course this should be limited to visual art. Opportunities for prefessional quality performing art concerts, plays and dance should also be considered.

2008-02-05T09:28:00.000-08:00

Jordan Responds
You can read James Jordan's response to my question regarding his view of tools in the garden of Eden here. (Part of the comments to a post by Barb Harvey)

2008-02-04T11:31:00.000-08:00

Curious
I wonder why James Jordan would propose this:

Musical instruments were not in Eden. No tools were. It is when we graduate from Eden into the world that we use tools to make bread and wine and to play music.

It is when the Kingdom comes that instruments come, and instruments are particularly given as weapons to war against demons. Demons are not allowed near until David has a weapon to drive them away. The demon David drove from Saul is the first demon to appear.

No tools in Eden? How did Adam "work" or "till" the garden (Gen 2:15), with his bare hands?

2008-02-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

Exhibitions
A couple of weeks ago we visited the Portland Art Museum where I saw a very interesting show on the printmaking of Chuck Close. Often called a photorealist, Close's art is really about process. Many of his monumental prints (some over 7 feed!) were displayed in various sequential states. One silkscreen he did had more than 120 colors. Having done prints in the past - some with as many as 14 colors, this is an amazing thing. Printmaking on this scale is surely a team effort.

I also saw the new Van Gogh.

I am looking forward to:

James Lavadour at the Halley Ford Museum in Salem two blocks from where I work (Lavadour is my favorite contemporary Oregon painter - aguably the best in our state right now)

The Dancer at the Portland Art Museum (featuring Degas a great draftsman)

The Gates of Paradise and Roman art from Louvre at rhe Seattle Art Museum

Also I might go to see Inspiring Impressionism at Seattle Art Museum which compares Old Master works with the Impressionists

2008-01-28T09:51:00.000-08:00

Kewl
Frederica Mathewes-Green is lecturing two blocks from my house tonight and tomorrow night at George Fox University.

Part of a lecture series that included Craig Detweiler and Paul Marshall of Heaven is not my Home fame.

2008-01-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

Just Say No! to Hyphens
Richard M Gamble reviews D.G. Hart's Secular Faith and summarizes his take in part the way:

Hart's argument stands on the refreshingly countercultural premise that Jesus and the apostles founded Christianity to be an otherworldly, apolitical, and unavoidably divisive faith practiced largely in private by adherents who live "hyphenated" lives as citizens of two cities. Hart sees these attributes as normative for the Christian life.

Refreshing?

While I agree the Christian faith is certainly devisive, even polarizing (can someone say antithesis?), our faith NOT otherworldly or apolitical.

Christianity is decidedly THISworldly - that is to say the next world IS the world we are now living in. There is a profound continuity. Likewise, I would say that Christianity is not apolitical but transpolicial. Christianity involves the political sphere and everything else in creation - church, culture, family, the academy, etc. The Bible has much to say about political/governmental matters even if it doesn't offer a "blueprint". To stick with this metaphor, purhaps it is best to say that Christianity offers a "building program" - an outline or set of contours to direct us in politics and the rest of life.

Christians should be anything but hyphenated. Our cultural calling isn't an add-on. Its completely integral to our faith and who we are.

2008-01-24T07:58:00.000-08:00

The Ceiling Turns 500
This newspaper article discusses the creation of Michelangelo's Sistine chapel ceiling, which be began five centuries ago (it was a long project). The author does a good job pointing out the mysteries of just how the artist actually planned this monumental work. This especially is true if, as recent scholarship proposes, many of the "working" drawings for the ceiling are fact copies of finished ceiling.

I was fortunate to have as an undergraduate an entire course on Michelangelo taught by David Summers who is a leading authority on the artist. It was an amazing course. Although I don't favor the ceiling's blatant breaking of the fourth commandment, it is a great aesthetic achievement nontheless. Surely Michelangelo is greatest artist who ever lived.

At the bottom of the article the author gets into the question of assistants helping, or some cases, primarily making works of art. This is a vexing question. I have thought about putting together an essay exploring this practice viz. the artistic production of everyone's favorite wipping boy - Thomas Kinkade.

2008-01-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

Kuyperian vs. TKV Discussion
Russ Reeves wrote a really good pro-Christian culture response to this recent anti-Kuperian post on Heidelblog.

The discussion continues (briefly, so far) here.

Worth a read.

2008-01-15T13:11:00.000-08:00

A Lost Art?
One of the things that should mark Christian culture is Eloquence. John Wilson of Books & Culture discusses this lost virtue. Classical Christian schools are trying to capture this, yet it is somewhat elusive...

Yes, all true, and this is why eloquence is precious. "Eloquence, as distinct from rhetoric, has no aim: it is a play of words or other expressive means. It is a gift to be enjoyed in appreciation and practice." Those earnest folk who scorn frivolity should recognize that their argument is with God himself. He has given us this world, with all its wonders and perplexities.

2008-01-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

A Blog for a Friday
Simply Breakfast

Surely one of the great blessings of life is a fine breakfast. (In our house we frequently have breakfast for dinner!)

While we're on the topic of breakfast, its worth mentioning the dutch "breakfast piece" still life form. Here is a link to such a painting by Peter Claesz.

2008-01-09T09:38:00.000-08:00

Homage

Some copies of the new edition of my book arrived yesterday. What you can't see (below) is the back cover - which has a subtle reference to one of the sidebars I wrote: "The Brussels Sprouts Syndrome".

You read this in its entirely here.

2008-01-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

Its Official!

The new edition of Plowing is now out. Only minor edits. But it is still in print after eight years...

2008-01-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

Quote
In response to a recent situation which came a Calvin College where a professor was dismissed because they would not join the CRC, Russ Reeves remarks that

the life of the renewed Christian mind cannot be separated from the renewing power of the Church as the body of Christ. To require Christian thinking without regard to Christian worship is a peculiarly modern heresy, and if a college is going to adopt a confessional requirement at all, it seems to me essential that some requirements for worship be included as well.

To fill this out a little bit: Calvin College takes this position as a matter of eccliastical authority (rarely enforced), not worship per se. The worship styles and content within the CRC are very diverse, esp. within the churches in the Grand Rapids area.

Still, this is a great summary about why worship, church membership and Christian thinking matter.

2008-01-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

Googling for God
Google has recently put out its 2007 Year-End Zeitgeist. Under the category "Mind - Who Is...", "Who is God" ranked 1, "Who is Jesus" ranked 4. ("Who is the devil" came in number ten. "What is love" was first in the "What is..." category.

Now here is a scary thought: what do people find when they do these searches?

(Are they feeling lucky?)

2008-01-02T15:23:00.002-08:00

Treat
While I am waiting for something significant to say, you can check out illustrator John Hendrix blog. He had a show in September.

You can also ponder what Mako Fujimura's new book River Grace might be like.

2007-12-28T10:30:00.000-08:00

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

Talk about a looooong statute of limitations!

2007-12-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-12-24T08:53:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-12-20T10:57:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-12-18T12:19:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-12-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-12-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-12-10T08:14:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-12-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-12-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-26T08:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

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)

2007-11-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-11-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-11-05T13:55:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-11-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-10-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-10-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-10-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

An Argument for Christian Plumbers

(HT: Russ Reeves)

2007-10-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-15T10:51:00.001-07:00

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.

2007-10-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

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."

2007-10-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

Something to Look Forward to

2007-10-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-10-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-09-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-09-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

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"

2007-08-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-08-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-08-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

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!