The PoMo Xian
Reimaging Xianity in the wake of Modernism's passing
Time is on my side
Jul 28th
My little boy goes back to day care the first week of August; my classes start the last week. This gives me three weeks of unscheduled time. Here is how I plan on using that time:
The Expected Gaze and Passivity
Jul 27th
In today’s quote, Lilian Calles Barger discusses the ramifications of the Gaze upon women. She uses the example of the Bride’s Entrance in modern wedding ceremonies and Queen Vashti from the book of Esther as her examples.
Interesting stuff. The last line is killer.
On Creating New Behaviors Through New Vocabularies
Jul 22nd
A while ago, I talked about the trouble that comes with attacking existing systems of thought and behavior. Today, I give you the remedy, courtesy of Rorty.
Interesting philosophy is rarely an examination of the pros and cons of a thesis. Usually, it is, implicitly or explicitly, a contest between an entrenched vocabulary which has become [...]
Communitas
Jul 21st
Community is beyond a buzz word in circles I inhabit – and for good reason. We are not plucked from the void and twisting in the wind. We jell and dwell within communities of our own construction. When we join good communities, our selves don’t melt-away, Borg-style; instead, we become something like the X-men, where we bring our whole selves to the game and we only succeed through contested teamwork. But, how should we construct and describe such communities? Let’s talk about it.
Psst: Jesus was a Pharisee
Jul 19th
Raise you hand if you think that the Pharisees were the evil brood of vipers that got Jesus killed. Such an assumption is as understandable as it is unjustified. Jesus levied a considerable amount of criticism towards the Pharisees and since his day and age, they have been Magneto to our Xavier. But, what if our reading of them, embodied within 2000 years of Western anti-Semitism, is fundamentally flawed?
Monday Morning Reading
Jul 19th
Here are a few interesting reads from this past week. There’s something for everyone.*
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | Atomic Robo vs. the X-Men in… “The Time Topic” – Self explanatory, meaning, if you don’t get it by the link title, you aren’t into comics or time travel and you should just go ahead and skip it.
On [...]
The Truth is not out there (Sorry X-Files Fans)
Jul 16th
Truth cannot be out there — cannot exist independently of the human mind — because sentences cannot so exist, or be out there. – Rorty.
Here, he takes on the notion of truth as a 1:1 correspondence with the world. Instead of talking about the correspondence of sentences to the world, the best test for the Correspondence theory of truth is to compare competing vocabularies. When you do that, things get much harder.
Read the full quote, and then join me in talking about its ramifications.
Short Convo on Eschatology and the Function of Apocalyptic Literature
Jul 15th
I like saving and posting interesting conversations from twitter. Today’s conversation is about optimism, apocalyptic literature and postmillennialism. I invite you twitter users to hope on and join in.
Bellah on Community and Individualism
Jul 15th
We find ourselves not independently of other people and institutions but through them. We never get to the bottom of ourselves on our own. We discover who we are face to face and side by side with others in work, love, and learning. All of our activity goes on in relationships, groups, associations, and communities ordered by institutional structures and interpreted by cultural patterns of meaning…
We are part of a larger whole that we can neither forget nor imagine in our own image without paying a high price.
If we are not to have a self that hangs in the void, slowly twisting in the wind, these are issues we cannot ignore. – Robert Bellah
Paul and Original Sin
Jul 14th
Scott asked me the other day what I thought about original sin. I told him that I did not buy into the Calvinist view of Original Sin, but that I knew that Wesleyan theology held to Original Sin but that we are still able to accept the gift of Salvation with free will. Not a very good answer, I know, but I was being honest. I think one view is foolish and unfounded, I know of another view which seems more palpable, but in the end, I have sinned and OS doesn’t really matter to me. It’s worth noting that I come from, though am no longer a part of, a denomination that has historically denied the doctrine.
But, as I was doing some fact-checking on McLaren’s sections on Romans, I came across this passage on Paul and Original Sin…
The Return to a Primitive Christianity is Impossible.
Jul 10th
Having rejected the aid of the community of interpreters throughout the history of Christendom, we have not succeeded in returning to the primitive gospel; we have simply managed to plunge ourselves back to the biases of our own individual situations.
- Lints, Fabric of Theology, 93
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Christian Carnival 334
Jul 9th
If you like good discussion on good topics which somehow pertain to God, Jesus, and this redemption stuff, head over to Rodney Olsen.net who is hosting this week’s Christian Carnival.
Some of my favorite posts:
It’s sad but true that many people feel most alone when they go to church. Quite a few are made more [...]
An artist’s unintentional discussion of free will and sovereignty.
Jul 9th
From Some Comic from Some Year in Something. (I forget, clipped the pic a while ago)
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Currently Reading
Jul 1st
Barger, Lilian Calles. Eve’s Revenge: Women and a Spirituality of the Body. Brazos Press, 2003.
Howard, Robert E. The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian. 4th ed. Ballantine Del Ray, 2003.
Mclaren, Brian D. A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith. 1st ed. HarperOne, 2010.
Prothero, Stephen. God Is Not [...]
Help Needed for Online Student Forum Participation and Grading
Jun 29th
This semester, my online class is doing so much better in terms of discussion. I attribute it tougher and more concrete requirements and I am forcing myself to give detailed feedback the day after the discussion posts are due.
While the content of the discussions are up (especially the posts), there still is a lingering problem of overall student cross-engagement. I want to improve the overall quality of discussion, not just increase individual outputs. So, I am thinking of trying out the following methods and I’d like to get your feedback on them.
Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck…
Jun 27th
Appearances can be deceiving:
Via: PAPA
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The pain of Asians in the Modern Age
Jun 26th
The effects of commodition , rationalization, and a host of other features of the modern age produces a profound sense of disconnectedness in our lives. Those of you that have worked in an office or factories know what I am talking about. Tetsuya Ishida lamented the effects of the modern age on the lives of the people of Japan in his surrealist paintings. Check them out. How much do they mirror our souls in this modern age?
I follow Bell, I follow Driscoll, I follow Piper
Jun 25th
I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear [...]
Guilty fabergé eggs
Jun 25th
I take it as a mark of godliness that my immediate Christian community is able to follow God’s command to be stewards of this Earth and we are beginning to be conscious of and find ways to evangelize without resorting to making asses out of ourselves and our Lord. And we do this while not merely inverting the fundamentalist/reformed paradigms. We still value just as much the seeking of Christ and faith in him for the acceptance of the forgiveness of sin. We still see the Bible as the only God-Stamped revelation. But, there is one thing we still lack…
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