December 2010
31 posts
WatchDecember 2010 Blizzard Timelapse (by Michael Black)
Agnostic Slop
“‘We unbelievers are entitled to regard the Bible as magnificent literature. More is demanded from the faithful. Yet these days, even some soi-disant Christians would claim that the miraculous elements of the New Testament are only metaphors. To me, that is agnostic slop. Faith is more than literature. Faith is an epiphany of abasement, ardour and rigour, in the hope of grace, redemption and joy....
3 tags
All In Some Degree
“It is in this sense, I believe, that we should also receive the correspondences between the life of Adam Arnett and the life of Jesus, the Christ. Just as any Christian, no matter how flawed or how strayed from the true path, is a potential recipient of the stigmata, so any Christian, anyone welcomed into the church through the sacrament of baptism, no matter how limited in capacity, can bear the...
4 tags
The Year of Reading, 2010
Once again, here is the best of my reading from the calendar year, definitely not limited to stuff published during 2010. But having finished seminary in June, the year has been full of good, good reading. Onward:
NON-FICTION
My theological world for the last 12 months has begun and ended with John Webster. I have read as much as I can gulp down (or can afford; $95 for a paperback, really?) and...
4 tags
The Year of Reading, 2010
Once again, here is the best of my reading from the calendar year, definitely not limited to stuff published during 2010. But having finished seminary in June, the year has been full of good, good reading. Onward:
NON-FICTION
My theological world for the last 12 months has begun and ended with John Webster. I have read as much as I can gulp down (or can afford; $95 for a paperback, really?) and...
6 tags
Really to Read
“Christian reading of the canon is faithful reading, properly exhibiting the fundamental characteristic of all actions of faith, which is self-forgetful reference to the prevenient action and presence of God. Faithful action is action; its practitioners are agents. But both action and agent are defined by reference to that in the presence of which (of whom) they find themselves and before which...
Don’t Judge a Man by his Books - Sean Lucas @... →
“Some books we read because we had to (looking at you, Kenneth Scott Latourette); some books we read because we were curious; some books we read because they are challenging; some books we read because we need to stay abreast of issues; some books we read because they are devotionally satisfying. The reason why we read books are as varied as the place in life we are, the context in which we find...
5 tags
Goodness, Sacrifice, and Biology →
Please listen to this week’s RadioLab, in which they address theological concepts such as goodness, the Fall, the imago Dei, love, and regeneration. Well, some of it at least.
The guys ask a great question: “When you do see generosity, how do you know it’s really generous?” Unless one can answer with reference to some over-arching standard of goodness/generosity/etc., pure science gets to answer,...
“Another of the king’s chief men, approving of his wise words and exhortations,...”
– » The Venerable Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (II.xiii)
“The thing about prophets is that their hearers have no veto power”
– » Jason Stellman: Creed Code Cult: “No Nation Under God”
3 tags
In Memory and Retrospect
“I believe that the old man did indeed have far too narrow an idea of what a vision might be. He may, so to speak, have been too dazzled by the great light of his experience to realize that an impressive sun shines on us all. Perhaps that is the one thing I wish to tell you. Sometimes the visionary aspect of any particular day comes to you in the memory of it, or it opens to you over time. For...
The Unreal Genius Of Football Manager, Greatest... →
Can we start a support group or something?
“As a pretend manager, you can scale the heavens as mighty (um) Arsenal, or you can toil in obscurity with some quaint medieval afterthought, like Forest Green Rovers, or Newcastle.”
FAQ Pronunciation | Typophile →
Via H&FJ, how to pronounce typographical names. E.g., Univers: oo’-nih-VAIR. Really
3 tags
There Are No Ordinary Christians
More from the Webster interview:
Why should ordinary Christians care about such seemingly recondite matters as how to articulate the immanent being of the Trinity?
There aren’t any “ordinary” Christians; there are saints, a few of whom are appointed to the task of thinking hard about and trying to articulate the common faith of the church. We don’t usually need to use formal theological...
An [Old] Interview with John Webster
Does theology have anything to fear—or learn—from the “new atheists” such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens?
JW: The saints fear God, not their opponents, because God’s good and gentle rule outbids all that opposes the gospel. The “new atheism” looks to me pretty much like old atheism, but it is more aggressive, less historically informed and woefully ignorant of what...
The Canon Judges and Liberates
“Just as creation is the result of a conversation between the persons of the Trinity, the church is the offspring rather than the origin of the gospel. It is no wonder then that Paul compares the work of the gospel to God’s Word in creation (Rom. 4:16-17). While the covenant community is temporally prior to the inscripturated canon, the Word that creates ex nihilo asserts its temporal and...
kim jong-il looking at things →
A new Tumblr, which is awesome.
Servant, Not Lord
“A genuinely evangelical approach maintains that Scripture is sufficient, not just because it alone is divinely inspired (though that is true) but because these sixty-six books that form our Christian canon provide everything God has deemed sufficient for revealing his law and his gospel. Speculation will not help us find God, but will only lead us to some idol we have created in our own image. We...
