tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74816388635531523642024-03-13T20:11:27.568-07:00the mystical limpetTheology, politics, culture, and random web driftwood all wash up here. Please take the time to disagree.Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.comBlogger198125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-38426527503729467992012-05-16T11:31:00.000-07:002012-05-16T11:43:43.429-07:00Ministry Within the StructuresFrom John Howard Yoder's <i>The Fullness of Christ</i>. A warning for friends who are chaplains, or will become chaplains, and most of all for myself:
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
A special category of problem is constituted by one of these "other social functions," the institutional chaplaincy. Here the "minister" finds an organized sub-community -- prison, parliament, hospital, factory, army, school -- where he can still have the privileged status which the parish minister previously had in the age of establishment. From the perspective of those universal human needs which have always called forth the universality of the office of religionist, these communities of special need are logical places for the survival of what was once a more widespread pattern. In modern society the chaplaincy pattern retains some of its old disadvantages:<br />
<ul>
<li>possible subserviency of the minister to the "patron," that is, the power centers in the institution, which authorize and sometimes support the minister;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>independence of any local congregation's authorization or supervision;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>temptation to see the "ministry" as focused on helping the individual to fit into a system which has overpowered him;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>temptation to see the "minister" as an authority figure speaking from a position of strength;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>concentration on basic individual needs (sickness, sadness) rather than the total spectrum of Kingdom righteousness</li>
</ul>
But it adds some new ones as well:<br />
<ul>
<li>Modern pluralism, where any doctrinaire stance is bad etiquette, tends powerfully toward welcoming all religions as equal, relativizing the truth question. Outright advocacy of any denominational conviction is practically or even formally forbidden; since, however, there is hardly any major question on which all denominations agree, the chaplain's role is limited to a listening, non-directive one.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The concern for a therapeutic, accepting climate in the institution works against recognizing any difference between Christians and non-Christians, or between active and inactive, or faithful and disobedient Christians. This further reinforces the sense of a least-common-denominator American civil religion, with everyone willy-nilly in the "parish" by definition.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>It is impossible for this minister to bring into being, or to be supported or governed by, a congregation. THe population served turns over rapidly for reasons unrelated to the church, families are not included in the institution's concern, and the powerful people in the institution usually do not consider themselves part of the parish. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The chaplain is tempted to feel like part of the institution's management team, all of whose other roles are determined apart from faith.</li>
</ul>
To recognize these difficulties is not to condemn outright all of this kind of service. Some of the pitfalls may be recognized and avoided. If the "chaplain" is morally and spiritually "sent" by a church rather than by the institution, if he or she can respectfully serve the unbeliever without hypocrisy and serve the weak without feeling strong, if the chaplain can be accepted in his/her "establishment" role without becoming morally dependent on the boss, there is no reason she or he should <i>have</i> to be unfaithful to the Gospel. But even if all the pitfalls are seen, and it is decided that the risks are worth running, this kind of service, for which numerous pastors leave their congregations, is again a refocusing of the clerical ministry, and again a reinforcement rather than a loosening of the clergy/laity polarity. </blockquote>
<ul>
</ul>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-62002258599909206832010-11-06T13:16:00.000-07:002010-11-06T13:24:58.180-07:00Desert Spirituality for the Emerging Church 7<!--StartFragment--> <p class="Body1" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The previous post in this series explored the historical significance of the Jesus Prayer in its original Eastern Orthodox monastic context. This post will discuss one example of how such an ancient prayer is being utilized fruitfully today.</span></span></p><p class="Body1" style="text-align:justify"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">At </span></span><a href="http://www.emmausway.net/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Emmaus Way</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">, our worship pastor, Wade Baynham, composed a contemplative musical version of the Jesus Prayer (available for purchase on iTunes </span></span><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=310811370&s=143441"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">here</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">). About 7 minutes long, the song shifts through a variety of musical styles and moods. Repeating only the lyrics, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner; Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me", the song begins in a minor, somewhat unsettling key, with strong percussion and a Middle Eastern sound. As the song continues, the music shifts from a minor to a major key, and becomes less percussive, signaling the shift from confession to absolution. Though the music is contemporary, the traditional repetition of the Jesus Prayer is emphasized. This musical version of the Jesus Prayer is </span></span><a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_1748710"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">available to be listened to online</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">, and our hope is that other communities and individuals would make use of it. Perhaps in this small way the Jesus Prayer can be experienced for the first time among those unfamiliar with hesychast tradition. </span></span></span></p><p class="Body1" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">In our present context we do not generally have a monastic cell we can retreat to. We certainly live in a time and place of much greater population density than the hesychasts. But many of us can put in earphones, shut out the world, and listen to contemplative music as a way of focusing the mind on God. As with the desert monastics' use of prayer techniques, using music in this way should be seen as a tool for growing still and focusing the mind on God for prayer and worship, and never overemphasized as an end in itself.</span></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-40541138106989130322010-10-22T13:14:00.000-07:002010-10-22T13:40:23.409-07:00Desert Spirituality for the Emerging Church 6<!--StartFragment--> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">This series has been looking at monastic spirituality and how it can be appropriated in the church for today. One essential practice of any Christian spirituality is prayer. The monks were certainly no exception to this, so let us turn to one practice from the Eastern church which I believe can be very fruitful for our postmodern context: the Jesus Prayer.</span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">The Jesus Prayer, according to John Meyendorff, is "at the center of all </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm">hesychast</a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro""> spirituality." It comes in a few different forms, but is most usually:</span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "></span></span></p><blockquote>Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.</blockquote><p></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">Practiced in primitive form since ancient times, the Jesus Prayer is a primary tool for pursuing the monastic goal of "circumscrib[ing] the Incorporeal in a dwelling of flesh" (St. John Climacus, from </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=HiTaxR0EU2MC&lpg=PP1&ots=T7KiZcUtSr&dq=the%20ladder%20of%20divine%20ascent&pg=PA71#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Ladder of Divine Ascent</a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">). According to Bishop Kallistos Ware (as cited by Father Edward Rommen), the Jesus Prayer has 4 main activities: </span></p><p class="Body1"></p><ol><li>devotion to the name of Jesus as something almost sacramental in nature </li><li>an appeal for divine mercy, accompanied by inward grief</li><li>frequent repetition</li><li>the quest for silence</li></ol><div>We are not monks. We do not spend 12 hours a day in prayer, nor are we free from the distractions of jobs, family life, and so on. Many of us, myself included, do not come from traditions in which we the use of formulaic prayers has been encouraged. Whether or not we should would require a whole separate series, but if we would like to begin learning from that tradition, the Jesus Prayer is a great place to start. It is not long, is easily memorized, and is useful for a variety of purposes, whether we are praying for some specific need, repenting of some sin, quietly contemplating, or in times of urgent distress. </div><div><br /></div><div>Up next: A musical interpretation of the Jesus Prayer</div><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-7582377263984249242010-10-12T17:27:00.000-07:002010-10-12T17:40:27.475-07:00Desert Spirituality for the Emerging Church 5<!--StartFragment--> <p class="Body1"><a href="http://mysticallimpet.blogspot.com/2010/10/desert-spirituality-for-emerging-church_09.html">Last post</a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro""> we looked at the monastic practice of poverty, and asked how this extreme way of live can be applicable today. </span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">I believe one way forward is to look not to the hermits and anchorites, who lived as individuals in isolation, but to the cenobites who lived in community. These monks would gather together under an abbot and share all resources, following the same rule of life. They gave up their claim to ownership as individuals, but shared all things in common. This sharing of resources, which so pushes against our desire to have our own things packed away in a little cubby somewhere, so as not to be inconvenienced or have to rely on others, is exactly what we need as an antidote to our consumeristic lives today.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"">My wife and I have begun to practice some of this on a small scale even now with people from our church. Three or four nights a week we share meals with another couple from church who live across the street from us. We trade back and forth cooking dinner and hosting. We also share many household things like tools. We say frequently in church things like, "I don't need to buy a weedwhacker if so-and-so has one". This sharing of resources has allowed us to live more simply, own less things, and go into less debt. </span></p><p class="Body1">It is not always easy. You sacrifice control; things aren't always available when you want them. Dinner isn't always what you would prefer. You sacrifice self-sufficiency; you have to ask people for things, and be interrupted by them asking you. But I am convinced that in this life of being both a borrower and a lender (contra Shakespeare) is the life of Christ. Because the truth is we aren't self-sufficient. Our very life comes from God, both directly and mediated through the created order and our community. We are not, ultimately, isolated individuals. Our value does not come from what we can do or how much stuff we have, but from receiving from God.</p> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">This small effort at communal life has been an experiment between two families in our church, but I think we can all pursue similar ideas in our own contexts.</span></p><p class="Body1"><b>What examples of living in community and simplicity have you seen or participated in?</b></p> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">But what about the inevitable complications? Human communities inevitably have to face their own brokenness and frustration. I think the example of the cenobitic house rule is helpful here. Living simply and in community is so contrary to our culture that we cannot expect these things to just happen. The monks are eminently practical about living as a group of human beings. They encountered the same frustrations, inconveniences, and struggles as we do as they collected diverse personalities and abilities under one roof. So even though their "one roof" was literal and ours may be figurative, we should learn from their life together. </span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">They knew that to live freely in common there had to be procedures in place, like the dry wood that allows spiritual fire to be kindled. Contrary to their image as people of harsh discipline, the monks knew how to bear one another's burdens, living by the gracious example of God. </span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">My favorite example of this comes from a story about two monks who go into town to sell their crafts. One monk falls into fornication, and tells the other monk he will not be returning to the monastery. The second monk, though he has done nothing wrong, says to the first monk, "The same thing happened to me; after I left you, I also fell into fornication. Let us go together, and do penance with all our might, and God will pardon <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">us sinners</i>." And so they both returned. </span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">We do not have to live in a monastery to practice this kind of sacrificial love and solidarity, healing one another's brokenness, creating an environment of non-judgmental confession, so that the grace of God rules over all.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p></o:p></b></p> <!--EndFragment-->Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-4042456646530787072010-10-09T09:25:00.000-07:002010-10-09T09:32:08.366-07:00Desert Spirituality for the Emerging Church 4<!--StartFragment--> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">The monks of the desert lived in near-total poverty. They were reacting both in obedience to their reading of Scripture (particularly the story of the Rich Young Ruler) and to the sudden influx of wealth and prestige the church experienced in the third and fourth centuries. Their choice of lifestyle seems incredibly extreme today. </span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">One story is told of a monk who sold even his Gospel book because it told him to sell all and give to the poor. To me, someone who has several Bibles on his shelf, and many other books besides, that way of life seems quite impossible. It is similarly hard to understand the sayings of the desert fathers which celebrate the sick and elderly who refuse to save, or even to accept, just a few coins for their own well-being. </span></p> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Except perhaps for the commitment to celibacy, poverty is the part of the monastic way of life that seems most out of touch and indeed inhuman to contemporary sensibilities. And yet it is for that reason the most needed, even if in a less extreme a form, because materialism and consumerism are surely the great idols of our age. </span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">We are addicted to products, and to the status they signify. When catastrophe strikes the nation, our leaders (of both parties) warn us to keep shopping, lest the terrorists win. We are, as a people and as a generation, deeply in debt. The recent economic meltdown has a complex variety of causes, but while fingers point in different directions, one thing is clear: there is no security in wealth.</span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">None of this is a new phenomenon, of course. The monks knew full well, as Jesus taught, the danger of placing one's trust and one's self-worth on material possessions. And modern culture is not blind to it either; the popular movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Fight Club</i> features a protagonist who, unsatisfied by his comfortable material existence, finds solace in a violent and nihilistic but arguably monastic way of life. </span></p><p class="Body1"><b>But how do we live out this monastic commitment to poverty today? Move to the woods and forage for food? Become homeless and live on the streets? Are those extreme examples our only options, or are there ways to begin incorporating a monastic vision of life into our ordinary lives as workers and consumers?</b></p> <!--EndFragment-->Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-51805605248712639612010-10-06T14:33:00.000-07:002010-10-08T05:46:28.916-07:00Desert Spirituality for the Emerging Church 3<!--StartFragment--> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";">Last post I discussed how the celebration of the Eucharist was essential for the desert fathers & mothers, despite their seeming individualism. </span><b>But what about us?</b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";"> To answer that question I'll look at my own specific church community: </span><a href="http://www.emmausway.net/">Emmaus Way</a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";">, a non-denominational emerging/missional church here in Durham, North Carolina. I won't make sweeping generalizations; certainly this proposal would not be appropriate in Catholic or Orthodox traditions. But for those from a more low-church background who are tired of downplaying the Lord's Supper, consider this one way back to a sacramental life in Christ.</span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";">Celebrating the Eucharist at Emmaus Way is very different than for Palamas, the hesychasts, and the other desert monastics in many ways. For one thing, we are free-church sacramentalists. For us, what makes Eucharist more than mere bread and wine is not the blessing of a specially qualified leader, but the involvement of the whole community in the act of Eucharist. We do not simply receive the bread and the cup, but all actively share it with those in line around us. When we break off a piece of bread for someone we say, "This is Christ's body, broken for you". When we pour wine or juice for one another, we say, "This is Christ's blood, shed for you." Additionally, we practice an open table at which all are invited to participate, which is a significantly different practice from traditions like Eastern Orthodoxy in which Communion is restricted to baptized and confirmed members of the Church.</span></p> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>But these not-insignificant distinctions aside, at Emmaus Way we share with the monastics the conviction that regular participation at the Table is essential for our life together as the people of God. With </span><a href="http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/maryegypt.html">St. Mary of Egypt</a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";"> we look forward to it with "irrepressible love and longing". It is the focus and high point of our gathered worship, which is liturgical in structure though not always in content; we use everything from contemporary songs to ancient hymns, organized so that before Eucharist we have a song of confession and a song of absolution, or sometimes we celebrate the </span><a href="http://www.revneal.org/communionlit1.html">Great Thanksgiving</a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";"> from the Book of Common Prayer. </span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";">We celebrate the Eucharist every week, which is somewhat unusual for people in the free-church tradition, but for us has become essential. Indeed our very name, Emmaus Way, reflects that focus. "Emmaus Way" comes from </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2024:13-35&version=NIV">the story in Luke 24</a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";">, in which two disciples are traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus after the crucifixion of Jesus. The resurrected Jesus appears to them as a stranger, and explains to them from the Scriptures the meaning of his death. When they arrive at their destination, the disciples invite Jesus in, and he breaks bread for them, finally revealing himself. </span></p><p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-Geeza Pro"font-family:";">This story illustrates so many of our values: the importance of hospitality, a passion for the Scriptures, the missional, on-the-road nature of Christian life. But as important as those themes are, from this story we learn that it is truly in the breaking of bread together that Jesus is experienced for who he is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="Body1"><b>What role does Communion play in your spiritual life and church community? Why is it important?</b></p><p class="Body1">Up next: Community/Simplicity</p> <!--EndFragment-->Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-48389623917595034252010-10-06T14:09:00.000-07:002010-10-06T14:25:52.183-07:00Desert Spirituality for the Emerging Church 2<!--StartFragment--> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">When one thinks of the monastic life, isolation usually comes to mind. The hermit or monk would seem to be removed from the communal life of the church as celebrated in sacraments like baptism and Eucharist (aka Communion, or the Lord's Supper). But for the Eastern Orthodox monastic movement known as hesychasm, best summed up by the figure of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Gregory_Palamas">St. Gregory Palamas</a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">, Eucharist was essential:</span></p> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro""></span></p><blockquote>"The Christian mystic seeks a new life in Christ, an active life for his whole<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>being, and he knows that the grace of baptism and the eucharist have already given him that life; moreover he seeks it in the interior of his own being. That is why the hesychast movement of the fourteenth century never deteriorated into individualistic and subjective mysticism but led in fact to a revival of ecclesiastical sacramentalism. Palamas himself says of baptism and the eucharist that in these two sacraments our whole salvation is found, for they sum up the dispensation of the God-Man...he also advises what would seem to be daily communion."</blockquote><i> -<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">-John Meyendorff,</span> </i><i>St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality</i><p></p> <p class="Body1"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro"">So Eucharist was central for the monastics. </span><b>But how can those of us who have very different theologies of Communion and very different ecclesiologies</b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro""> (how the church should think about and organize itself) </span><b>practice this contested rite in continuity with the desert fathers and mothers? </b></p><p class="Body1"><i>Up next:</i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family: "Geeza Pro""> A "case study" of Eucharist in one missional church</span></p><p class="Body1"><i>Series Index: </i></p><p class="Body1"><a href="http://mysticallimpet.blogspot.com/2010/10/desert-spirituality-for-emerging-church.html">Introduction</a></p> <!--EndFragment-->Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-2436153614220307912010-10-05T16:49:00.000-07:002010-10-06T14:27:27.809-07:00Desert Spirituality for the Emerging Church 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.phototravels.net/namibia/ndp2/namib-desert-air-p-50.2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 490px; height: 328px;" src="http://www.phototravels.net/namibia/ndp2/namib-desert-air-p-50.2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><div> <!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Church life in America, borrowing from the culture around it, heavily emphasizes the new. The weight of history has no weight. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But Christianity is a historical religion; it is about God's faithful saving action in history, through Jesus Christ and his people. We can and must learn from the great Christian movements of the past. To borrow Leonard Sweet's image of the porch swing, we must lean back in order to move forward. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In the next few blog posts I will trace connections between monastic spirituality and our own present-day context. </span></span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I will be observing both differences and similarities, and proposing ways in which these ancient voices can be a resource for today, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">particularly for churches or individuals that are part of the emerging/missional church conversation.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I will focus especially on three areas of monasticism: emphasis on the Eucharist, commitment to living in community and simplicity, and the Jesus Prayer. </span></span><!--EndFragment--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Geeza Pro";mso-hansi-font-family:"Geeza Pro"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-USfont-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Up next: </span><a href="http://mysticallimpet.blogspot.com/2010/10/desert-spirituality-for-emerging-church_06.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Eucharist</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span></div></span></span>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-52418390299592528232010-09-24T12:33:00.000-07:002010-09-24T12:52:04.457-07:00The Pillars of the Earth and the Legitimacy of Hell<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I'm about halfway through the Starz! miniseries of </span></span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1453159/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The Pillars of the Earth</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">, based on </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">the </span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pillars-Earth-Deluxe-Oprahs-Paperback/dp/B003PBULTG/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285357094&sr=1-3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">book</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> of the same title by Ken Follett. The story is takes place during medieval times, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">and is about the events surrounding the building of a cathedral. Trust me, it's more interesting than it sounds.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Comic Sans MS';color:#CCCCCC;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">As is usual, the book was better. But once you get past the exposition-heavy first </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">episode, the series isn't bad. The cast is well chosen, and though the production values </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">are spotty in places (this is no Lord of the Rings), they're pretty good for television (it's </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">also no Xena: Warrior Princess).</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 516px; height: 290px;" src="http://www.download-tvshows.com/userfiles/image/pillars-of-the-earth.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The interesting thing for me is how both series and book demonstrate the uses of the </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">idea of hell. The main villain character, a nobleman who does the usual rape/pillage/</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">oppression thing, is occasionally kept at bay by the good guy (a priest/monk) using the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">fear of hell and damnation. This in a book written by an atheist.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The specific question of hell aside (especially since I'm not sure how much it </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">was actually historically used to afflict the powerful and comfort the afflicted), thinking about it this way can show us something about </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">judgment</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. We normally think judgment is inherently bad, but in the Bible it is basically synonymous with </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">justice</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. For oppressed people, the idea that someone is going to rout the bad guys and make things right is a very good thing.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Is judgment bad? If we fear judgment/justice, is it possibly because we might find ourselves among those first who will be last? </span></i></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For further thought: David Opderbeck posted some very interesting thoughts in regard to justice, the coming of the Lord, and child sexual abuse </span><a href="http://www.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed/2010/09/24/somewhere-today-by-david-opderbeck/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. </span></span></div></span></span>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-60420065360874257442010-09-16T13:58:00.000-07:002010-09-16T14:04:15.111-07:00Quote: The Neighborly Love of God<blockquote>This love, moreover, counts every human being as a neighbor. The Lord, after all, censured on man on this very score, a man who held that a righteous soul does not owe the duties of a neighbor to a soul that is entangled in wickedness. For this very reason, moreover, he constructed the parable that tells how a certain man fell among thieves while going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he blames the priest and the Levite who passed him by when they saw him lying half-dead, but he approves of the Samaritan who had compassion; and by the response of the man who had asked the question he established that the Samaritan was a neighbor to the victim, and said, "Go, and do thou likewise" (Luke 10:37). <div><br /></div><div>For by nature we are neighbors to one another; but by works of love a person who can do good to one who is unable to do so becomes a neighbor. Hence too our Savior became a neighbor to us. He did not pass us by while we were lying half-dead from wounds inflicted by thieves. So it must be understood that love directed to God is always moving toward God, from whom it takes its origin; and it has regard for its neighbor, to whom it is akin as being similarly created...</div></blockquote><div></div><div><br /></div><div>-- Origen</div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-70132200388272338952010-08-03T07:49:00.000-07:002010-08-04T11:13:23.715-07:00Quote: N.T. Wright on Church<blockquote>...the task of the church can't be attempted without the Spirit. I have sometimes heard Christian people talk as though God, having done what he's done in Jesus, now wants us to do our part by getting on with things under our own steam. But that is a tragic misunderstanding. It leads to arrogance. burnout, or both. Without God's Spirit, there is nothing we can do that will count for God's kingdom. Without God's Spirit, the church simply can't be the church.<br /><br />I use the word "church here with a somewhat heavy heart. I know that for many of my readers that very word will carry the overtones of large, dark buildings, pompous religious pronouncements, false solemnity, and rank hypocrisy...<br /><br />But there is another side to it...For many, "church" means just the opposite of that negative image. It's a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life. It's where the homeless drop in for a bowl fo soup and the elderly stop by for a chat. It's where on group is working to help drug addicts and another is campaigning for global justice. It's where you'll find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptation, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry that purpose out. It's where people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. No church is like this all the time. But a remarkable number of churches are partly like that for quite a lot of the time...<br /><br />I would rather rehabilitate the word "church" than beat about the bush with long-winded phrases like "the family of God's people" or "all those who believe in and follow Jesus" or "the company of those who, in the power of the Spirit, are bringing God's new creation to brith." But I mean all those things when I say "church".</blockquote> <div><br /></div><div>N.T. Wright</div><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Christian-Christianity-Makes-Sense/dp/0061920622/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280945575&sr=8-1">Simply Christian</a></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-63307652879578873712010-07-24T14:36:00.000-07:002010-07-24T14:40:18.420-07:00Review: Inception<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://wallpapers.oneindia.in/d/227309-2/inception01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 1024px; height: 768px;" src="http://wallpapers.oneindia.in/d/227309-2/inception01.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />My review of Inception is up at Jesus Creed. <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2010/07/friday-night-at-the-movies-inc.html">Check it out</a>.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-27484045058647373392010-07-19T11:56:00.000-07:002010-07-19T12:03:58.844-07:00Women in MinistryKurt Willems at <a href="http://groansfromwithin.com/2010/07/19/liberating-women-for-ministry-part-1/#comment-1995">Groans from Within</a> has begun a series on women in ministry which I plan to follow closely. He begins with the basic questions:<div><br /></div><div><blockquote>Can women serve in any role within the church? If so, how does this compare to most modern evangelical churches? If not, what are the boundaries for women in ministry? How does the New Testament serve as a guide on this issue?</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>This was, in part, my response:</div><div><br /></div><div><div>I am a proponent of full inclusion of women in all areas of ministry and leadership...I became an egalitarian (really, I’m what <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/">Scot McKnight</a> calls a mutualist; I believe in male/female complementarity without hierarchy) when I realized:</div><div><br /></div><div><ul><li>The overwhelming majority of churches would shut down, <i><b>today</b></i>, if not for the involvement, including leadership and teaching, of women. This includes churches that claim women cannot lead or teach. It is particularly maddening when churches allow women to hold positions like “Director of XYZ” when they clearly have the same status as any (male) “Minister of ABC”. This is just hypocrisy and cowardice. I try to maintain the point of view that complementarians are genuinely following what they believe the teaching of Scripture to be, but it is hard in the face of such cognitive dissonance.</li><li>It’s far from clear that Jesus and Paul held to some kind of hard complementarianism. There is the oft-quoted verse mentioned here, but Paul also frequently alludes to women prophesying, leading churches, and so on, and the gospels are full of images of women as leaders in Jesus’ movement, like the first witnesses of the Resurrection, and Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet in the posture of a rabbi’s disciple.</li><li>Even if Jesus, Paul, and the early church were indeed hard complementarians who would have restricted women from certain roles, that does not in any way make those sorts of gender relations normative for all time. The NT also implicitly accepts slavery. The Bible is not a book of rules that we just have to follow blindly. We are called to ethical discernment. I am persuaded by the<a href="http://krusekronicle.typepad.com/kruse_kronicle/2005/07/redemptivemovem.html"> redemptive movement hermeneutic</a> that, like with slavery, the overall thrust of Scripture’s narrative is firmly in favor of emancipation.</li></ul></div></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>What do you think?</i></b></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-54784079173387474002010-07-02T07:15:00.001-07:002010-07-02T07:19:11.200-07:00Quote - Incarnation<blockquote>We are invited to trust, to trust this one human being with our pain and suffering, our dreams and hopes. Only when trust has been established can there be a joining <i>to his flesh</i>, a sharing in his mission and ministry, and a participating in his life. For those who would follow him, this is indeed entrance into the saving action of the triune God in Jesus. In order for salvation to be made real, those who would follow Jesus must trust fallen human flesh, flesh fully human, weak and vulnerable. There is no way around it -- both with Jesus himself, and with his company of disciples -- there is a priority of trust. And what will bind them together as a community of believers and as those sent into a world will be this same trust.</blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Willie James Jennings</div><div>"He Became Truly Human": Incarnation, Emancipation, and Authentic Identity</div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-6408450280493499682010-06-29T08:42:00.000-07:002010-06-29T08:43:34.866-07:00What kind of bird is Big Bird?<object width="425" height="319"><param name="movie" value="http://pecha-kucha.org/embed.swf?id=200"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"></param><embed src="http://pecha-kucha.org/embed.swf?id=200" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="319" bgcolor="#000000"></embed></object><div><br /></div><div>HT: <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/">BoingBoing</a></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-8544495256883729272010-06-28T10:01:00.000-07:002010-06-28T11:12:49.966-07:00Mission and CreationAt <a href="http://www.emmausway.net/">E-Way</a> last night we talked about mission. It's part of our ongoing look at our <a href="http://www.emmausway.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=69&ac=0&Itemid=108">Minister's Liturgy</a> (our rite of belonging/statement of values). Specifically it says this:<div><br /></div><div><blockquote>To engage missionally in Durham and our larger communities as a redemptive presence and in faithful service. </blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>We talked a lot about mission being redemptive. Mission is about God's purposes. Mission reveals to us our own brokenness and the brokenness of the world, and calls us to participate in God's redemption of us and our world. Christian faith is inherently mission-driven. It is outward- and other-oriented.</div><div><br /></div><div>Which is all great, and true. But in the back of my mind I thought there was a missing dimension to our dialogue. </div><div><br /></div><div>God didn't start having purposes when human beings started sinning. No, mission isn't just about redemption, but about creation. God is characterized by love, and love is inherently relational. The back-and-forth dance of love at the heart of the Trinity always expressed this relational love, and God graciously and purposefully decided to share that love by creating a whole universe (or more, for all we know) and life capable of receiving love.</div><div><br /></div><div>So mission is built into the very fabric of creation. The world has a <i>telos</i>, it exists for a reason, and that reason is good. God's purpose for the world is shalom -- peace, not just in the sense of absence of conflict, but in terms of completeness. Wholeness. Thriving. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, where that world has gone astray mission will necessarily involve restoration and redemption. And God's redemption is graciously participatory; He invites us along for the ride. But even when all that work is finished, when the kingdom of God is consummated and we all gather around Jesus' table, there will still be mission. Life will still have a purpose -- to receive and to share the love of the Triune God.</div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-72281614298796192232010-06-22T09:02:00.000-07:002010-06-22T09:11:59.058-07:00Peace Quote<blockquote>In the end, then, we have to decide which blessing we value more: social freedom, though at the cost of losing our moral integrity by starting a nuclear war; or moral integrity as a nation, though at the cost of losing our social freedom by allowing our country to be overrun. If this might one day be the option for us, I hope we should know which to choose. It would be better to suffer physical defeat than moral defeat; better to lose freedom of speech, of assembly, even of religion, than freedom of conscience before God.</blockquote><div><br /></div><div>-John Stott, Human Rights and Human Wrongs</div><div><br /></div><div>Shamelessly stolen from <a href="http://postyesterdaychurch.blogspot.com/">Josh Rowley at the post-yesterday church</a></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-61042563443144510762010-05-25T12:41:00.000-07:002010-05-25T12:46:19.671-07:00Quote: Tolkien on JonahI was unaware of this, but J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, worked on a <a href="http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/888-Book_of_Jonah_Translated_by_Tolkien.php">translation of the book of Jonah</a> for the Roman Catholic Jerusalem Bible. Here is a quote from a letter to his grandson Michael, in 1957:<div><br /><div><blockquote>Incidentally, if you look at Jonah you'll find that the 'whale' - it is not really said to be a whale, but a big fish - is quite unimportant. The real point is that God is much more merciful than 'prophets', is easily moved by penitence, and won't be dictated to even by high ecclesiastics whom he has himself appointed.</blockquote></div></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-7099533999746586702010-05-24T11:55:00.000-07:002010-05-24T12:09:54.850-07:00On the LOST finale<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/20090311/560.lost.promo.lc.031109.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 560px; height: 400px;" src="http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/20090311/560.lost.promo.lc.031109.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">LOST ended last night, and we had a viewing party at our place (and us without a kitchen!) with friends new and old to celebrate/mourn the passing of a great show. I personally thought it was great. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I’m not going to start gushing theories about what the Island really is or what the deal with Walt was or how the smoke monster worked. I just thought I’d reflect a bit on the overarching themes and meaning of the show.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If you'd asked me before the finale</span></span><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-Times New Roman";mso-bidi-language:AR-SAfont-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> what LOST, ultimately, was about</span></span><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, I'd have answered with an oft-repeated quote from the</span></span><span style=" font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language:AR-SAfont-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">show: Live together, die alone. After last night, I'd amend i</span></span><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">t to</span></span><span style=" font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language:AR-SAfont-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(and</span></span><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-Times New Roman";mso-bidi-language:AR-SAfont-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">this is vague but might be slightly SPOILER-y, so fair warning): Find meaning in life together, die together.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Lost is about many conflicts: science vs. faith, good vs. evil, self vs. community, free will vs. destiny,</span></span><span style="font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-Times New Roman";mso-bidi-language:AR-SAfont-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">but mostly it's about finding connection with others in the chaos of life, and pursuing purpose together with them, even when the mysteries remain mysteries, or simply lead to more questions.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:";color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So far the internet consensus on the finale is mixed, and a lot of people seem genuinely not to understand it (no, it was not all a dream, nor were they all dead the whole time). But while I have some disappointments (I wanted more closure for Sawyer) , I thought it was overall pretty great, and a fitting end to a sure-to-be classic show.</span></span></p></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-62609354000843318702010-05-14T13:05:00.000-07:002010-05-14T13:06:50.573-07:00PowerFrom <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/may/16.33.html?start=5">this Christianity Today interview</a> with James Davison Hunter:<div><br /></div><div><blockquote>There are four characteristics to the social power that Jesus exercised. First, his power was derivative—originating from intimacy and submission to his Father. Second, his power was humble—rejecting the privileges of status and reputation, suffering indignities with joy. Third, his power was compassionate—serving the good of all and not just the good of the community of faith. And fourth, his power was noncoercive—blessing rather than cursing "the other," as we can see from his encounters with Samaritans and Romans.</blockquote></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-4281284199097443842010-05-11T07:58:00.000-07:002010-05-11T08:01:10.518-07:00France's burqa ban<div><i>Note: I also posted this at <a href="http://thecenterway.wordpress.com">The Center Way</a>.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>In <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2253493/">this article</a> in Slate, Christopher Hitchens wastes his considerable wit arguing stupidly in favor of France’s burqa ban, which is supported by French president Nicolas Sarkozy. He compares burqas to the masks of the KKK and posits that in a democracy, we all have the right (!?) to see each other’s faces.</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote>So it’s really quite simple. My right to see your face is the beginning of it, as is your right to see mine. Next but not least comes the right of women to show their faces, which easily trumps the right of their male relatives or their male imams to decide otherwise. The law must be decisively on the side of transparency. The French are striking a blow not just for liberty and equality and fraternity, but for sorority too.</blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>He also contends that “pseudoliberals who take a soft line on the veil and the burqa” only make this allowance for one religion, Islam. No. It is the backers of this proposed law who single out Muslims. I have yet to hear of a French ban on prescribed coverings for, say, nuns. The law is paternalistic and the implications are xenophobic. Hitchens gives the game away with this line: “The burqa and the veil, surely, are the most aggressive sign of a refusal to integrate or accommodate.” Ah, yes. We must strip away all differences. You have to dress as the French dress, speak as they speak, (worship as they worship?), or you have no place in France. Hitchens exposes his devotion to the secular state, where any separation from Enlightened Society (TM) must be eliminated.</div><div><br /></div><div>The irony is that by trying to aggressively force this kind of cultural assimilation, France sets itself up as antagonistic toward Muslims, and is probably driving greater wedges between the segments of its society. I would never claim that the U.S. has no history of shame in the area of ethnic and cultural differences, but I know this kind of law would never fly here.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I understand the concern of French legislators for women in patriarchal family groups who are forced to wear the burqa and endure other restrictive and abusive practices. I personally find the burqa oppressive. But I’m not the boss of how other people dress. And you aren’t going to overcome centuries of tradition with a law like this. Those women who do not choose to wear the veil (there are many who do choose it, including many converts to Islam), but are forced to, will be just as oppressed. Only now they won’t be allowed to go outside.</div><div><br /></div><div>So here’s my view, which I think is pretty common sense: nobody should have to wear anything they don’t want to wear, and also nobody should have to not wear anything they do want to wear. Where there is an unavoidable conflict between religious law/ethnic custom and some legitimate safety need of the government (like taking photographs of one’s face to get a driver’s license) then public safety comes first and some folks might not be able to participate. But that should be a last resort, and the law should bend over backward to allow people to express their faith as they see fit. And if you are bothered by women in hijabs, Sikh men in turbans, or Jewish men with payot, that probably says something about you.</div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-44400298760878973432010-05-06T13:53:00.000-07:002010-05-10T09:15:03.901-07:00The end of the world<blockquote>The better way to talk about the end of the world is to lean on another meaning of the word “end.” What’s the world for? What’s its ultimate purpose and destiny? For those of us in Christ that destiny is one of hope: creation restored, sin erased, all creatures able to live into the future God wishes for them, all of it glorified and in communion with the God who created us in love. It’s especially good news for those who have it roughest now, and perhaps not such good news for those at the top now. The most basic of biblical prayers, like Miriam’s song and Mary’s Magnificat, witness to that basic Christian truth.</blockquote><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.faithandleadership.com/blog/05-03-2010/jason-byassee-stephen-hawking-and-jesus">Jason Byassee</a>, at Duke's Call & Response blog</div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-7183068074455694392010-05-06T13:30:00.000-07:002010-05-06T13:33:20.733-07:00The Christian Mystery of Physical Resurrection - Newsweek.com<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/235418?obref=obinsite">The Christian Mystery of Physical Resurrection - Newsweek.com</a><div><br /></div><div><div></div><blockquote><div>Even in biblical times, resurrection deniers who hoped for an afterlife took an alternative route. This is what scholars call "the immortality of the soul." Embraced by Plato and popular today especially among progressive believers (Reform Jews and liberal Protestants, for example) and people who call themselves "spiritual but not religious," the immortality of the soul is easier to swallow than resurrection. After death, the soul—unique and indestructible—ascends to heaven to be with God while the corpse, the locus of our senses and all our low human desires, stays behind to rot. This more reasonable view, perhaps, has a serious defect: a disembodied soul attaching itself to God in heaven offers no more comfort or inspiration than an escaped balloon. Consolation was not the goal of Plato's afterlife. Without sight or hearing, taste or touch, a soul in heaven can no more enjoy the "green, green pastures" of the Muslim paradise, or the God light of Dante's cantos, than it can play a Bach cello suite or hit a home run. Rationalistic visions of heaven fail to satisfy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another popular way out of the Easter conundrum—"I want to believe in heaven but can't get my head around the revivification of human flesh"—is to imagine "resurrection" as a metaphor for something else: an inexplicable event, a new kind of life, the birth of the Christian community on earth, the renewal of a people, an individual's spiritual rebirth, a bodiless ascension to God. Progressives frequently fall back on resurrection-as-metaphor, for it allows them to celebrate Easter while also expressing a reasonable agnosticism. They quote that great theological cop-out: "We cannot know what God has in store for us."</div><div><br /></div><div>The intellectual flabbiness of this approach causes agonies for such orthodox Christians as N. T. Wright, the Anglican bishop of Durham, England. "People have been told so often that resurrection is just a metaphor," he once told my editor Jon Meacham and me in an interview for this magazine. "In other words, [Jesus] went to heaven, whatever that means. And they've never realized that the word 'resurrection' simply didn't mean that. If people [in the first century] had wanted to say that he died and went to heaven, they had perfectly good ways of saying that." The whole point of the Christian story is that the Resurrection really happened, Wright insists. The disciples rolled back the rock on the third day, and Jesus' body was gone. This insistence on the veracity of resurrection is no less sure in Judaism, where the Orthodox pray thrice a day to a God "who causes the dead to come to life," or in Islam. "I swear by the day of resurrection!" proclaims the Quran. "Yes, Indeed!"</div><div><br /></div><div>And so, the paradox. Resurrection may be unbelievable, but belief in a traditional heaven requires it. I think often of Jon D. Levenson, a Jewish scholar at Harvard Divinity School who hopes to bring the idea of resurrection back to mainstream Judaism, where it has been lost in practice for generations. I visited him one cold November afternoon because, as a literal-minded skeptic, I wanted him to explain to me how it works. How does God put bodies—burned in fire or pulverized in war—back together again? Levenson looked at me, eyes twinkling, and said, "It's no use to ask, 'If I had a lab at MIT, how would I try to resurrect a body?' The belief in resurrection is more radical. It's a supernatural event. It's a special act of grace or of kindness on God's part." </div></blockquote><div></div></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-90235767191564699832010-04-20T13:28:00.000-07:002010-04-20T13:33:20.240-07:00Dad is Dead: Rebutting Roger Ebert - PC Feature at IGN<div>Mike Thomsen rebuts Roger Ebert, who claims (say it ain't so, Rog) videogames will never be art. I agree with Mike: <i>bullshit</i>.</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/108/1084661p1.html">Dad is Dead: Rebutting Roger Ebert - PC Feature at IGN</a><div><br /></div><div><div></div><blockquote><div>At the end of his essay, Ebert asks a pointed question. "Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art? Bobby Fischer, Michael Jordan and Dick Butkus never said they thought their games were an art form. Nor did Shi Hua Chen, winner of the $500,000 World Series of Mah Jong in 2009. Why aren't gamers content to play their games and simply enjoy themselves?" </div><div><br /></div><div>The answer is simple. Videogames are not games, and there is more in them than winning and enjoyment. The reason football is not art is because its rules were designed with the primary goal of competition. Competition is only one of a great many different experiences that a videogame can create. Games can also be about losing, and not competing at all. They can be about love, the impossibility of relationships, the beautiful indifference to our individual life choices, urgent intimacy in the shadow of death, sexual anxiety, and confrontation with life choices to which there are no right answers. There are games that, using the language of authored interaction, invoke all of these ideas, and many more beyond. </div><div><br /></div><div>What's most ironic about Ebert's latest round of criticism is that it's based on an invalid reading of the works he's arguing against. After watching a video of "Waco Resurrection," Ebert concludes that it is a "brainless shooting gallery." Of Braid, he says the time reversal mechanic breaks the "discipline of the game," and doubts that "I can learn about my own past by taking back my mistakes in a video game." Ebert concludes by addressing Flower: "Nothing she shows from this game seemed of more than decorative interest on the level of a greeting card." He reaches these conclusions by virtue of having streamed clips of each work online. This would be the equivalent of dismissing a film after having read a dismissive essay about it. </div></blockquote><div></div></div>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481638863553152364.post-5862558976920444332010-04-19T11:23:00.000-07:002010-04-20T10:16:52.648-07:00What is the best way to give advice? | Psychology Today<div><a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201004/what-is-the-best-way-give-advice"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">What is the best way to give advice? | Psychology Today</span></a></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><div></div><blockquote><div>A paper by Reeshad Dalal and Silvia Bonaccio in a 2010 issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes looked at several different kinds of advice that people get and give to understand how likely people are to use them. They distinguished between four types of advice.</div><div><br /></div><div>Advice for is a recommendation to pick a particular option.</div><div><br /></div><div>Advice against is a recommendation to avoid a particular option.</div><div><br /></div><div>Information supplies a piece of information that the decision maker might not know about.</div><div> </div><div>Decision support suggests how to go about making the choice, but does not make a specific recommendation. (For example, you might recommend that a friend looking to go to a movie check out a website that aggregates movie reviews. You aren't recommending a particular movie, but just a technique for making a decision.)</div><div><br /></div><div>In the studies, college students were asked to imagine making a particular decision. Some participants considered a choice of a job after graduate school. Others selected among candidates for officers in a student group. They were given a variety of different kinds of advice and asked how satisfying and useful the advice was for making a decision.</div><div><br /></div><div>In general, people found all of the types of advice to be useful to some degree. However, information was the most useful kind of advice across the studies. That is, people found it most helpful when people told them about aspects of the options that they might not have known about already.</div></blockquote><div></div></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; font-size:small;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:9.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">What implications does this finding have for evangelism? </span></span></p></span></span>Travis Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595790311812320371noreply@blogger.com0