To quote Jerram Barrs, “The message of the gospel is timeless, but it is always revealed in time.” What does this mean? That the gospel is "once for all delivered to the saints" However, the gospel does not enter into a vacuum, but into a human culture. The gospel and culture are not in opposition, but there is a wonderful and perfectly fitting interplay between the two.
Christianity is incredibly adaptable. Over thousands of years history has seen it adapt to cultures across geography and time. This adaptability is not a strike against Christianity, as though its truth were by nature a compromise, on the contrary, adaptability demonstrates the truth of Christianity and is one of the reasons I am a Christian.
This is exactly what you would expect to be true of the real meta-story of the world, that the stories of every human culture (and human life) would have parallels to that meta-story, but none would have the full story. That would make the real meta-story incredibly “contagious” and incredibly durable. It would not be limited to one culture, but would still be “at home” in every culture it entered. No single culture would be able to contain it, to tell the whole story, but each culture would reveal new facets of the greater story. This is exactly what we find when we look at the interaction of Christianity and culture. This is a beautiful aspect of Christianity - culminating at the end of Revelation in which every nation brings their glory into the new Jerusalem.
The Bible is full of examples of the fact that this is how the writers of the Bible viewed the interaction of God's truth and culture. One of the best of these is Paul’s interaction with the Athenians on Mars Hill in Acts 17. (Jerram Barrs has been helpful to me in seeing this about Christianity. Most of the following comes from his course, Apologetics and Outreach, at Covenant Seminary. Specifically the lecture on Apologetics and Understanding.)
Paul speaks with the assumption that there are many things in pagan Athenian culture that overlap with God’s truth. Paul quotes two poems to the Greek God Zeus and uses them to say something true about God. Acts tells us that Paul has spent his time in the marketplace in Athens and studying their idols, and when Paul is addressing the Athenians he begins by pointing out an idol to an unknown god, and praises them for their spirituality. It is also possible that Paul alludes to some of Plato’s writing here, as he uses language that is identical to quotations from the Greek philosopher. We are told that Epicurean and Stoic philosophers his audience that day. The first half of Paul’s message (that god is not served by human hands) is something that the Epicureans would readily affirm, and the second half (that God gives men life and breath and everything else) is exactly what the Stoics would have said. Paul does not condemn their culture entirely false and backward, in fact, he has memorized their poets and reflected on them and how they point to the one true God. He has stayed up long hours of the night perhaps pouring over their philosophers. He affirms so much of their culture, and here we see the adaptability of Christianity at work in the hands of a master communicator.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Art Every Wednesday (25)
Denis Haack has posted some thoughtful and beautiful words on Sigur Ros on his website Ransom Fellowship. Here are some thoughts from the review:
"As a Christian I am drawn to Sigur Rós because in their music I hear an echo of my own heart. A deeply felt yearning for the something more that is hinted at beyond the narrow horizon of the islands we call home. The knowledge that as human beings we are invited to something beyond the broken beauty of the life we have known since birth. The invitation is innate, unrelenting, and certain, built by God into the fabric of our humanness and the glory of creation. We may try to drown out its quiet insistence with noisy busyness, but we can not deny it. Sigur Rós has heard the invitation and now seeks to capture it in music.
What seems to be missing in the lovely music of Sigur Rós is the understanding that the pilgrimage they invite us on is not a safe one. Not just any leap of faith will do—some end not in the clouds but in crumpled wrecks on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. The voice of mystic and Scripture are united: not every path leads to the light and most leaps of faith end badly. It is not the quality of our trust that finally matters, but what and who we trust."
"I wish you were in my living room, because I’d introduce you to Sigur Rós by having you watch the music video for “Glósóli,” which can be viewed online (www.sigur-ros.co.uk). A wonderfully simple yet creative film, we watch children on a strange yet enticing pilgrimage in the starkly beautiful and wild countryside of Iceland, drawn inexorably to something beyond. What is this pilgrimage? What is the relationship of the video to the lyrics of the song? How is it that the lilting music of the song seems to invite us to a similar leap of faith?
Now that you're awake
Everything seems different
I look around
But there's nothing at all
Put on my shoes, I then find that
She is still in her pyjamas
Then found in a dream
I'm hung by (an) anticlimax
She is with the sun
And it's out here
But where are you...
Go on a journey
And roam the streets
Can't see the way out
And so use the stars
She sits for eternity
And then climbs out
She's the glowing sun
So come out
I awake from a nightmare
My heart is beating
Out of control …
I've become so used to this craziness
That it's now compulsory
“Glósóli” (“Bright Sun”) on Takk"
For more on interacting with "secular" music from a Christian worldview here is this form Haack's blog: "Why do you review worldly music?"
"As a Christian I am drawn to Sigur Rós because in their music I hear an echo of my own heart. A deeply felt yearning for the something more that is hinted at beyond the narrow horizon of the islands we call home. The knowledge that as human beings we are invited to something beyond the broken beauty of the life we have known since birth. The invitation is innate, unrelenting, and certain, built by God into the fabric of our humanness and the glory of creation. We may try to drown out its quiet insistence with noisy busyness, but we can not deny it. Sigur Rós has heard the invitation and now seeks to capture it in music.
What seems to be missing in the lovely music of Sigur Rós is the understanding that the pilgrimage they invite us on is not a safe one. Not just any leap of faith will do—some end not in the clouds but in crumpled wrecks on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. The voice of mystic and Scripture are united: not every path leads to the light and most leaps of faith end badly. It is not the quality of our trust that finally matters, but what and who we trust."
"I wish you were in my living room, because I’d introduce you to Sigur Rós by having you watch the music video for “Glósóli,” which can be viewed online (www.sigur-ros.co.uk). A wonderfully simple yet creative film, we watch children on a strange yet enticing pilgrimage in the starkly beautiful and wild countryside of Iceland, drawn inexorably to something beyond. What is this pilgrimage? What is the relationship of the video to the lyrics of the song? How is it that the lilting music of the song seems to invite us to a similar leap of faith?
Now that you're awake
Everything seems different
I look around
But there's nothing at all
Put on my shoes, I then find that
She is still in her pyjamas
Then found in a dream
I'm hung by (an) anticlimax
She is with the sun
And it's out here
But where are you...
Go on a journey
And roam the streets
Can't see the way out
And so use the stars
She sits for eternity
And then climbs out
She's the glowing sun
So come out
I awake from a nightmare
My heart is beating
Out of control …
I've become so used to this craziness
That it's now compulsory
“Glósóli” (“Bright Sun”) on Takk"
For more on interacting with "secular" music from a Christian worldview here is this form Haack's blog: "Why do you review worldly music?"
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Why I Am A Christian (5)
The gospel makes open-minded people. I don’t mean to say that gospel makes people for whom all truth claims are valid and equally right. I think that is a twisted definition of open-mindedness. It opens the mind precisely because it claims to be the True truth. There is a challenge here, of course. It is hard not to become unloving or arrogant in the way you communicate when you are convinced that what you think is right, and thus, what it would be better for everyone to think. However, understood rightly, the gospel makes us people who, rather than being territorial and arrogant, are:
1. Quick to love truth wherever it is to be found,
2. Free to pursue and encounter new ideas,
3. Have respect for other traditions and ideas.
Why?
1. In the Biblical worldview there is no truth that does not belong to God - that does not find its home and origin in him. It is not just "Christian truth" that is tied to the Christian God. If God is really the creator of all the world and everything in it, then he is not just a territorial deity whose realm does not extend past certain boundaries. It is all his. It is all borrowed from him, so to speak. This means that Christians should expect to encounter truth apart from the setting of the whole Christian framework. They should be the first to love it wherever they encounter it, and love it deeply, because they deeply love the God to whose realm it belongs.
2. If that is true then you can move through life and encounter new ideas, new experiences, new cultures and discern the falsehood as well as the truth in them. Christians do not have to be defensive and fearful, but should joyfully explore the world God has made. This reverses the paradigm that says the best place for Christians is sheltered away from the world where they will not be touched by (and cannot touch) the things that are false in the world. The place for Christians is in the midst of those things. That is woven into the very fabric of the identity of the church. The fact of the incarnation demonstrates that - at the heart of the Christian religion is a God who loved the world so much as to enter it although there was falsehood in it, and love it and work to save it. Christians ought to be so deeply rooted in the gospel that leaving places where there is only agreement is not a thing that holds any fear, but the gospel strengthens them to take those risks.
3. The Christian gospel contains God's revelation of himself to mankind and tells the story of how, in Jesus, God is reconciling the world to himself, but nowhere does it affirm the idea that because salvation exists in the Christian gospel alone that wisdom exists only within Christianity. Quite the contrary. And so Christianity gives solid grounds for increased respect for the wisdom contained in other traditions and religions. On top of that, it gives solid grounds for loving and respecting those who follow different traditions, because the same God that made the world made them also. All people, no matter what they believe, are made in God's image, and as such ought to be honored.
1. Quick to love truth wherever it is to be found,
2. Free to pursue and encounter new ideas,
3. Have respect for other traditions and ideas.
Why?
1. In the Biblical worldview there is no truth that does not belong to God - that does not find its home and origin in him. It is not just "Christian truth" that is tied to the Christian God. If God is really the creator of all the world and everything in it, then he is not just a territorial deity whose realm does not extend past certain boundaries. It is all his. It is all borrowed from him, so to speak. This means that Christians should expect to encounter truth apart from the setting of the whole Christian framework. They should be the first to love it wherever they encounter it, and love it deeply, because they deeply love the God to whose realm it belongs.
2. If that is true then you can move through life and encounter new ideas, new experiences, new cultures and discern the falsehood as well as the truth in them. Christians do not have to be defensive and fearful, but should joyfully explore the world God has made. This reverses the paradigm that says the best place for Christians is sheltered away from the world where they will not be touched by (and cannot touch) the things that are false in the world. The place for Christians is in the midst of those things. That is woven into the very fabric of the identity of the church. The fact of the incarnation demonstrates that - at the heart of the Christian religion is a God who loved the world so much as to enter it although there was falsehood in it, and love it and work to save it. Christians ought to be so deeply rooted in the gospel that leaving places where there is only agreement is not a thing that holds any fear, but the gospel strengthens them to take those risks.
3. The Christian gospel contains God's revelation of himself to mankind and tells the story of how, in Jesus, God is reconciling the world to himself, but nowhere does it affirm the idea that because salvation exists in the Christian gospel alone that wisdom exists only within Christianity. Quite the contrary. And so Christianity gives solid grounds for increased respect for the wisdom contained in other traditions and religions. On top of that, it gives solid grounds for loving and respecting those who follow different traditions, because the same God that made the world made them also. All people, no matter what they believe, are made in God's image, and as such ought to be honored.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Art Every Wednesday (24)
I think there’s something a little voyeuristic about it, but also, gosh. They are so incredibly frail and achingly personal and courageous. I read these, and it’s the same sigh of relief I get when one of my friends — who I always suspected was a thousand times more put together than I am — comes to me and says, “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
There’s satisfaction in that. Mostly because I stop feeling alone (I never really know what I’m doing).
PostSecret started with Frank Warren, this small business owner in Maryland who loves art, especially the mysterious, subversive, changing-definitions-of-what-art-is kind (he’s a fan of Dadaism, the art movement connected to art prankster Marcel Duchamp, also check out this article about Warren’s earlier, personal foray into anonymous art). He put his home mailing address on a stack of postcards in 2004 and asked people to just send him a secret anonymously — the only rules were that it has to be true, and it has to be something you’ve never told anyone. When he did this, he somehow spoke to a longing we have to share the deep parts of ourselves, and also the fear that keeps us from doing it. The postcardsjust started pouring in and now he gets about 1,000 in his mailbox every week. He still sorts through each of them personally, he told me on the phone on Monday (I love my job), and I think there’s something about that accessibility — it’s this one guy reading each one, not a committee or a structure or someone with another agenda — that creates a safe place. Like therapy.
Despite the self-help elements to it — Warren has received messages from people saying PostSecret in some way touched their lives, and even changed it dramatically (people have decided not to kill themselves, or to propose, or to share their secrets with loved ones), and part of the proceeds from the books go to suicide prevention efforts — Warren conceives of this most of all as an art project. “I see myself as a curator,” or “maybe a film editor taking these scenes from people’s lives and weaving them together to convey this cohesive narrative about all of us, told through the secrets we hide from others and ourselves,” he said.
It’s that narrative, I think, intertwined with the art (and some of it is so fantastic, created by people who don’t belong to the cultural/artistic elite of galleries and museums), that draws me in. Many aren’t just secrets in the traditional sense of the word, but they are also ambitions…longings…past memories…jokes. Some have brought me to tears, some are just kind of gross (Warren says in this amazing interview that the most common secret he gets is “I pee in the shower,” thanks for sharing people), others make you laugh. Some are just so mysterious. There’s one on my desk right now that shows the white stone statue of a lion and simply says, “sometimes…I miss God.” Or another, on a close-up of a girl’s brown eye and another’s blue, “I’ve been trying to be you for so long that I forgot what it’s like to be me.” Not surprisingly, it’s the sad ones that grip me. Why is that a secret? I want to ask of the person who misses God. What happened to you that made this feel so heavy you couldn’t share it with friends? Why is it our first instinct to hold in pain? Frank said he gets like one light, happy secret for every heavy one.
The Tribune is asking people to make their own postcards and send them to me (101 North 4th Street) for a story I’m writing for Nov. 9. I hope I get a lot. I hope I feel more connected to and broken for the people in this community; I hope when I walk down Broadway I start looking into others’ eyes and wonder about them, instead of window shopping or sidestepping the ones who slow me down.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Church and Campus Ministries
Russell Moore on the role of church and the role of a campus ministry in the life of college students.
An excerpt from the article:
"Does the centrality of the church mean that campus ministry is irrelevant or redundant? No indeed. Should you be involved with a campus ministry at your college or university? Yes indeed. So how do you avoid the spiritual dangers of an unchurched spirituality?
An excerpt from the article:
"Does the centrality of the church mean that campus ministry is irrelevant or redundant? No indeed. Should you be involved with a campus ministry at your college or university? Yes indeed. So how do you avoid the spiritual dangers of an unchurched spirituality?
First of all, resist the temptation to keep your membership in your home church. Join a church in your college town, as soon as you find one with a commitment to Christ and the Scripture. Second, find a church where some people will know your name, and will know if you are not present. Find a place where someone will ask you, "Where were you?" if you miss a week. Third, spend some time with people in your congregation who are not in the same place in life as you--a lonely senior adult, a harried thirty-something Mom, a sarcastic fourteen year-old kid. Fourth, pester the church leaders of the church for some way for you to exercise your gifts in the congregation--and let the leaders recognize and encourage your gifts. This means submitting yourself to serve the Body in whatever way the church deems necessary. Most often, this will be something more Christ-like than glorious, such as cleaning toilets or restocking cookies and juice-boxes for Vacation Bible School. Fifth, find a campus ministry that seeks to work alongside the church. Look for a ministry that wants to enhance what is already happening in your life in discipleship and spiritual growth and mission in your congregation. Be very wary of a campus ministry that isn't constantly asking you, "Where are you in church--and what's happening there?" And be very, very wary of a campus ministry that seems to resent the time you spend with your church as "competing" with their ministry."
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Why I Am A Christian (4)
The Christian worldview provides me with a framework to understand and love beauty.
There is much beauty in the world. There is sadness and pain and ugliness, but there is no doubt that even in the midst of the most pronounced ugliness and suffering, beauty can be found. It can drive away the ugliness and plant new seeds of creation in the wake of its departure.
The Bible says that the source of all that beauty is the beautiful creator behind the creation. God makes the world overflow with grace and the world becomes beautiful because that is what he is. The beauty we see in the world is not an accident. It is not a chance alignment of particles. It is not a senseless preference. It pours like a fountain at all times from the maker of the world.
If that is true then:
1. It changes the way we interact with the beauty we see in the world
2. It changes the way we interact with the beauty we see in people
The world
If God has lavished his beauty on the world then there is nothing that does not retain traces of that beauty. Even the most ugly things in this world are simply “borrowing” from the good creation that God has made.
That means that as people shaped by the gospel we are not free to divide things into “sacred and beautiful” and “secular and ugly” categories, but we are now able to go wherever we must go and find and love the beauty that is there – and it is there. That means every inch of life. Christians must find and love the beauty in movies, in music, in literature, in animals, in plants, poetry, and the list goes on.
Think of the interaction between the beauty of God and the things of the world as the relationship between light and stained glass windows. A stained glass window separates light into a dazzling display of color. The beauty was always there, but you would not have been able to experience it in the same way if not for the tint in the glass. So it is with the things of the world and the beauty of God. You stand in that splash of color and are drawn to the light beyond the window. The beauty of the window does not diminish or rival with the beauty of the light, it glorifies it, so it is with the world.
People
Humanity is made in the image of God. That image cannot be erased. It is indelibly stamped into us. It is there even in the most wicked action of the most wicked person – it is still part of that person’s identity. Sometimes religion points to our fallenness as the fundamental part of our identity as humans, as if we were fallen before we were anything. But that is not the way it is. In order to be fallen you have to fall from something. When God made humanity it was very good, and that making has not been undone. Evil does not eradicate the original goodness of the creation; it just twists it, and the story of the gospel is the story of creation being untwisted – restored to what it was made to be.
So that is the fundamental identity of every human you have ever come in contact with. They are bearers of the image of God. C. S. Lewis puts it this way in The Weight of Glory, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship... There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal... Next to the blesses sacrament itself your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” That means there is beauty in the people in whom beauty is hardest to see, and that beauty can never be extinguished. Even the person whom you most enjoy to hate shares with you a common heritage, and that common heritage is a wellspring of goodness and loveliness in their life every day, even when it is hard to see and even if the person himself is not conscious of it. The Christian worldview gives resources to interact with one another based on that deep truth, not the surface ugliness. It lets us act in hope that all things, people especially, will one day find their fulfillment and restoration in returning to what they have always been even if that has become twisted from years of living in a fallen world with fallen hearts that do not yet reflect the beauty of their making as they were made to.
There is much beauty in the world. There is sadness and pain and ugliness, but there is no doubt that even in the midst of the most pronounced ugliness and suffering, beauty can be found. It can drive away the ugliness and plant new seeds of creation in the wake of its departure.
The Bible says that the source of all that beauty is the beautiful creator behind the creation. God makes the world overflow with grace and the world becomes beautiful because that is what he is. The beauty we see in the world is not an accident. It is not a chance alignment of particles. It is not a senseless preference. It pours like a fountain at all times from the maker of the world.
If that is true then:
1. It changes the way we interact with the beauty we see in the world
2. It changes the way we interact with the beauty we see in people
The world
If God has lavished his beauty on the world then there is nothing that does not retain traces of that beauty. Even the most ugly things in this world are simply “borrowing” from the good creation that God has made.
That means that as people shaped by the gospel we are not free to divide things into “sacred and beautiful” and “secular and ugly” categories, but we are now able to go wherever we must go and find and love the beauty that is there – and it is there. That means every inch of life. Christians must find and love the beauty in movies, in music, in literature, in animals, in plants, poetry, and the list goes on.
Think of the interaction between the beauty of God and the things of the world as the relationship between light and stained glass windows. A stained glass window separates light into a dazzling display of color. The beauty was always there, but you would not have been able to experience it in the same way if not for the tint in the glass. So it is with the things of the world and the beauty of God. You stand in that splash of color and are drawn to the light beyond the window. The beauty of the window does not diminish or rival with the beauty of the light, it glorifies it, so it is with the world.
People
Humanity is made in the image of God. That image cannot be erased. It is indelibly stamped into us. It is there even in the most wicked action of the most wicked person – it is still part of that person’s identity. Sometimes religion points to our fallenness as the fundamental part of our identity as humans, as if we were fallen before we were anything. But that is not the way it is. In order to be fallen you have to fall from something. When God made humanity it was very good, and that making has not been undone. Evil does not eradicate the original goodness of the creation; it just twists it, and the story of the gospel is the story of creation being untwisted – restored to what it was made to be.
So that is the fundamental identity of every human you have ever come in contact with. They are bearers of the image of God. C. S. Lewis puts it this way in The Weight of Glory, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship... There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal... Next to the blesses sacrament itself your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” That means there is beauty in the people in whom beauty is hardest to see, and that beauty can never be extinguished. Even the person whom you most enjoy to hate shares with you a common heritage, and that common heritage is a wellspring of goodness and loveliness in their life every day, even when it is hard to see and even if the person himself is not conscious of it. The Christian worldview gives resources to interact with one another based on that deep truth, not the surface ugliness. It lets us act in hope that all things, people especially, will one day find their fulfillment and restoration in returning to what they have always been even if that has become twisted from years of living in a fallen world with fallen hearts that do not yet reflect the beauty of their making as they were made to.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Art Every Wednesday (23)
Here are some excerpts from an interview with Katie Smith, a pianist in the music school at Mizzou, in which we talked about her thoughts on art, piano, and the interaction of faith and music.
Andy: What is one time that you’ve had an experience with art that has done that to you? That has reached you at a deep level, and what about the art did that?
Katie: There are many times when I will be at a concert and be moved. I was in Atlanta and saw Emanuel Ax play. He played Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto. It was so beautiful. The playing was excellent. Some pianists play as if they attack the piano, as if the piano is something to be mastered. He didn’t pay like that. He played as if he and the piano were old friends and that reached me as a fellow pianist. The second movement is traditionally a slower, more emotional movement, and it was the combination of that and the greatness of his ability... I was touched by the depth of emotion both in the music itself and in his ability to bring that out.
A: How do your faith and your piano playing interact. How are you a different pianist for being a Christian?
K: Ideally as a Christian pianist I would take time to rest like I should, and my identity as a pianist would not be found in the way I play. It would be found in the fact that when I play it is glorifying to god.
A: Why is it glorifying?
K: Because he ultimately gave us music and created it. Instrumental music declares truth. It can declare the goodness and beauty of creation and of God himself, or it can declare the fallenness of us as humans... If we view God as the creator, then we are mini-creators and he has given us gifts to make something beautiful to reflect him.
A: Has your playing piano made you trust the gospel more?
K: Being a musician and studying music in a college environment certainly has. It has made me more aware of what rest is supposed to be. There is a fine line between work and overwork and I cross it all the time. There is a drive in the art world toward perfectionism, and it feels like if you are not working towards perfectionism then you are not working hard enough. Granted, we should always strive for excellence, but we are people. We need to rest. I need to get better at taking intentional rest.
A: That is an ironic thing, because theoretically the music school is creating beauty and music students should be interacting with that more than anyone else. Yet through the drive to perfectionism they face the danger of missing out on it.
A: Think about the relationship between pain and good art. You hear in the art world that one requires the other, that you need pain and despair to make good art. What are your thoughts about that?
K: I think that in the Christian meta-narrative there is a struggle between good and evil and there is this pain that results, and good art reflects that in some way. It either captures the beauty of what is to come after the struggle is over, or what was before the struggle, or the beauty of the deep pain that we are in right now.
A: So you think that is art’s place - to capture that beauty?
K: Yes.
A: I love that as a way to look at what is happening every time you sit down at the piano.
A: Is art a powerful thing, if so, what is it’s power?
K: Art takes us out of the everyday, and yet relates to the everyday. That in itself is a very powerful thing. It take you out of the situation you are in and allows you to relate to that situation in a completely different way, and then you go back in to that situation and you are completely different.
A: Those are all my questions. Anything else you want to say?
K: One thing I want to say is that I feel that artists have largely excluded the rest of the population. That is something that as an artist I want to redeem. You sometimes see, for example, funding getting cut for arts programs in schools, I think that is the result of artists putting a privieleged box around art. It is saying, "only these people can understand it and you have to be born with this ability in the first place." That is crap. Art is an ability that can be developed just as much as sports abilities are. Inherent ability and talent isn’t everything. I'm no mathematician, but I can study math and become better, art and music are no different.
Andy: What is one time that you’ve had an experience with art that has done that to you? That has reached you at a deep level, and what about the art did that?
Katie: There are many times when I will be at a concert and be moved. I was in Atlanta and saw Emanuel Ax play. He played Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto. It was so beautiful. The playing was excellent. Some pianists play as if they attack the piano, as if the piano is something to be mastered. He didn’t pay like that. He played as if he and the piano were old friends and that reached me as a fellow pianist. The second movement is traditionally a slower, more emotional movement, and it was the combination of that and the greatness of his ability... I was touched by the depth of emotion both in the music itself and in his ability to bring that out.
A: How do your faith and your piano playing interact. How are you a different pianist for being a Christian?
K: Ideally as a Christian pianist I would take time to rest like I should, and my identity as a pianist would not be found in the way I play. It would be found in the fact that when I play it is glorifying to god.
A: Why is it glorifying?
K: Because he ultimately gave us music and created it. Instrumental music declares truth. It can declare the goodness and beauty of creation and of God himself, or it can declare the fallenness of us as humans... If we view God as the creator, then we are mini-creators and he has given us gifts to make something beautiful to reflect him.
A: Has your playing piano made you trust the gospel more?
K: Being a musician and studying music in a college environment certainly has. It has made me more aware of what rest is supposed to be. There is a fine line between work and overwork and I cross it all the time. There is a drive in the art world toward perfectionism, and it feels like if you are not working towards perfectionism then you are not working hard enough. Granted, we should always strive for excellence, but we are people. We need to rest. I need to get better at taking intentional rest.
A: That is an ironic thing, because theoretically the music school is creating beauty and music students should be interacting with that more than anyone else. Yet through the drive to perfectionism they face the danger of missing out on it.
A: Think about the relationship between pain and good art. You hear in the art world that one requires the other, that you need pain and despair to make good art. What are your thoughts about that?
K: I think that in the Christian meta-narrative there is a struggle between good and evil and there is this pain that results, and good art reflects that in some way. It either captures the beauty of what is to come after the struggle is over, or what was before the struggle, or the beauty of the deep pain that we are in right now.
A: So you think that is art’s place - to capture that beauty?
K: Yes.
A: I love that as a way to look at what is happening every time you sit down at the piano.
A: Is art a powerful thing, if so, what is it’s power?
K: Art takes us out of the everyday, and yet relates to the everyday. That in itself is a very powerful thing. It take you out of the situation you are in and allows you to relate to that situation in a completely different way, and then you go back in to that situation and you are completely different.
A: Those are all my questions. Anything else you want to say?
K: One thing I want to say is that I feel that artists have largely excluded the rest of the population. That is something that as an artist I want to redeem. You sometimes see, for example, funding getting cut for arts programs in schools, I think that is the result of artists putting a privieleged box around art. It is saying, "only these people can understand it and you have to be born with this ability in the first place." That is crap. Art is an ability that can be developed just as much as sports abilities are. Inherent ability and talent isn’t everything. I'm no mathematician, but I can study math and become better, art and music are no different.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Why I Am A Christian (3)
If I were to make a list of reasons I am a Christian this one would have to be on the list also: it makes sense of life.
I met a guy in an airport once who was explaining to me his perspective on life. He was saying that it didn't matter what anyone believes about the universe because when we die we will find that all roads lead to the same place. It is like we are all climbing a mountain though it may look like we are all on different paths in life, one day we will meet at the peak and realize that every path was leading here all along. He seemed to be saying that no matter what our preconceptions of the universe is, the reality is such that it conforms to them all. I understand - I think - why that model of things makes sense, but I think the reality of the universe is different. The guy in the airport was saying that reality is elastic - it stretches so that no one's conception of reality is actually wrong. I want to say that the universe doesn't stretch - it is what it is. The reality of things is objective - it is one way and only one way. Think of it like a lock that only fits one key.
If that is true, then every worldview is a key that either fits the lock of the universe or it does not. In fact, every day each one of us is making our lives in to a key of a certain shape, as though we were betting without knowing it, that this is the shape of key that fits the lock. I am a Christian because I think that the gospel-shaped worldview is the key that fits the lock.
I believe this because of two things that have to be true of whatever the real key is:
1. The life lived according to the worldview that fits will not necessarily be perfect, but will be spared the friction that comes from living as though the universe is something it is not.
2. It makes sense of every inch of life.
I think Christianity satisfies both of these.
1. If the gospel is the key that fits the lock then the things that the gospel calls sin should really lead to destruction and pain, and things that the gospel calls righteousness should really lead to human flourishing. Morality is more than simply a list of do's and don'ts. Righteousness is a smooth click of the key in the lock. Sin is the painful grinding of trying to live a life against the grain.
Take the example of marriage. If the gospel is true then the list of things that it takes to have a good marriage should match the list of things people slowly become when they believe the gospel more and more. Or, to put it another way, as the gospel grows in a person and they become more patient, kind, joyful, honest, caring and compassionate, having a selfless, sacrificial love - more Christlike, they are growing the exact qualities that it will take to have a healthy marriage. If human relationships and morality are both part of the fabric of life then the worldview that fits the way life really is should create human relationships that flourish.
2. The Christian worldview makes sense of life. The Christian story is that everything was created good, it fell and was broken, and it is being made good again. This allows for us to take every new thing and know something about where it came from and where it is going. Take sex for example. Sex is something that was created good - it has a purpose and a place and that purpose is a glorious one. That is not the state we find sex in today. The gospel says that there is something wrong with our appetite for sex, as C. S. Lewis writes, "You can get a large audience together for a strip-tease act - that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage. Now suppose you come to a country where you could fill a theater by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let the every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop of a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food?" The gospel does not leave the issue there, however. It tells the story of sex redeemed, sex made right again, free of its abuses and the pain that comes of them.
That is just one example, but the Christians story makes sense of every area of life. The gospel-shaped worldview is a framework which contains every aspect of the human experience - it is comprehensive. There is a place in the framework for suffering, for happiness, for laughter and friendship, for love and heartbreak, for work, for politics, for every inch of life. It weaves them all together in a whole and makes a tapestry of them. Again, as C. S. Lewis said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." There is a place for everything in the story; it is the light by which all of life is made visible and understandable.
Series:
Why I am a Christian (1)
Why I am a Christian (2)
I met a guy in an airport once who was explaining to me his perspective on life. He was saying that it didn't matter what anyone believes about the universe because when we die we will find that all roads lead to the same place. It is like we are all climbing a mountain though it may look like we are all on different paths in life, one day we will meet at the peak and realize that every path was leading here all along. He seemed to be saying that no matter what our preconceptions of the universe is, the reality is such that it conforms to them all. I understand - I think - why that model of things makes sense, but I think the reality of the universe is different. The guy in the airport was saying that reality is elastic - it stretches so that no one's conception of reality is actually wrong. I want to say that the universe doesn't stretch - it is what it is. The reality of things is objective - it is one way and only one way. Think of it like a lock that only fits one key.
If that is true, then every worldview is a key that either fits the lock of the universe or it does not. In fact, every day each one of us is making our lives in to a key of a certain shape, as though we were betting without knowing it, that this is the shape of key that fits the lock. I am a Christian because I think that the gospel-shaped worldview is the key that fits the lock.
I believe this because of two things that have to be true of whatever the real key is:
1. The life lived according to the worldview that fits will not necessarily be perfect, but will be spared the friction that comes from living as though the universe is something it is not.
2. It makes sense of every inch of life.
I think Christianity satisfies both of these.
1. If the gospel is the key that fits the lock then the things that the gospel calls sin should really lead to destruction and pain, and things that the gospel calls righteousness should really lead to human flourishing. Morality is more than simply a list of do's and don'ts. Righteousness is a smooth click of the key in the lock. Sin is the painful grinding of trying to live a life against the grain.
Take the example of marriage. If the gospel is true then the list of things that it takes to have a good marriage should match the list of things people slowly become when they believe the gospel more and more. Or, to put it another way, as the gospel grows in a person and they become more patient, kind, joyful, honest, caring and compassionate, having a selfless, sacrificial love - more Christlike, they are growing the exact qualities that it will take to have a healthy marriage. If human relationships and morality are both part of the fabric of life then the worldview that fits the way life really is should create human relationships that flourish.
2. The Christian worldview makes sense of life. The Christian story is that everything was created good, it fell and was broken, and it is being made good again. This allows for us to take every new thing and know something about where it came from and where it is going. Take sex for example. Sex is something that was created good - it has a purpose and a place and that purpose is a glorious one. That is not the state we find sex in today. The gospel says that there is something wrong with our appetite for sex, as C. S. Lewis writes, "You can get a large audience together for a strip-tease act - that is, to watch a girl undress on the stage. Now suppose you come to a country where you could fill a theater by simply bringing a covered plate on to the stage and then slowly lifting the cover so as to let the every one see, just before the lights went out, that it contained a mutton chop of a bit of bacon, would you not think that in that country something had gone wrong with the appetite for food?" The gospel does not leave the issue there, however. It tells the story of sex redeemed, sex made right again, free of its abuses and the pain that comes of them.
That is just one example, but the Christians story makes sense of every area of life. The gospel-shaped worldview is a framework which contains every aspect of the human experience - it is comprehensive. There is a place in the framework for suffering, for happiness, for laughter and friendship, for love and heartbreak, for work, for politics, for every inch of life. It weaves them all together in a whole and makes a tapestry of them. Again, as C. S. Lewis said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." There is a place for everything in the story; it is the light by which all of life is made visible and understandable.
Series:
Why I am a Christian (1)
Why I am a Christian (2)
Friday, October 10, 2008
Project: Columbia - Food Bank (2)
Here is the rest of the interview with Peggy Kirkpatrick, executive director of the Central Missouri Food Bank:
A: In the 16 years you have worked at the food bank, how have you seen Columbia change?
P: I’ve been in Columbia since 1960 and what I have seen over those years is that it has grown from a rural community to much more of a metropolitan society. Some of the basic pillars that have made this community great are still here, namely, a huge capacity to care and to be generous to those around us. Of all of the communities we cover I never see a response to a need like I do in Columbia. Part of that is because of the University and the colleges here. Part of it is because people just have the sense that they are fortunate. I’ve seen a gap growing in this community between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” The middle class is disappearing. It is a very challenging time. Columbia has always been fairly immune to anything that is going on in the economy at a national level, and what is happening right now is that Columbia is starting to feel what everybody else has been feeling for years.
A: So you see the impacts of a downturn in the economy directly?
P: Oh sure, we see it in a couple of ways. We have extensive partnerships with the business community. Where a huge amount of our support comes from is individuals, businesses, and the faith community. The business community gives the most, then individuals, then the faith community. The business community is strapped right now, and we can see that from the point of view of donations. I’ve seen this community kick in to action when there is a need, but right now they are all looking around and saying “We don’t know what we can do.”
A: If you could give one message to the faith community in Columbia, what would it be?
P: It would be “believe God’s word.” You know that scripture, “faith without works is dead”? I see more of the church today saying, “I will believe it when I see it.” That’s not faith; that’s sight. Faith is getting out of the boat because Jesus said, “Come.” Jesus also said to feed the poor, to clothe the naked, and to visit the sick. He said that he will supply all our need according to his riches and glory. We don’t believe.
A: You are in an interesting spot because you are where the rubber hits the road and you get to see if the faith community in Columbia is really doing those things.
P: I have spent years seeing churches not do anything more than they put in their budget, and I can’t find anything in the Bible that backs that up. The Bible says that we are supposed to ask God, “What do you want me to do?” And if he calls you to do something he is going to provide for it. Living by faith is the most scary thing I have ever done, and yet it is the most rewarding thing also, and God proves himself every single time. That’s my heart cry. If I could reach any group in the world today it would be the church, because it breaks my heart. We as a church are looking at the world the same way the world is looking at the world. We are looking at man for our supply and there is nothing in the Bible that says that.
A: What do you think college students can do?
P: They can change the world if they want to.
A: What does that look like practically?
P: First of all, pray about it, and then get as educated as you possibly can about ways that you can get plugged in.
I can guarantee you you are going to start out with enthusiasm, then you are going to get somewhere in the middle then it won’t be fun any more. It is going to be boring, it is going to be yucky, it is going to cost you your time, your talents, your resources. They are not going to be grateful. You are not going to get great accolades from the world and every step of the way you are going to learn who you are really doing it for.
A: In the 16 years you have worked at the food bank, how have you seen Columbia change?
P: I’ve been in Columbia since 1960 and what I have seen over those years is that it has grown from a rural community to much more of a metropolitan society. Some of the basic pillars that have made this community great are still here, namely, a huge capacity to care and to be generous to those around us. Of all of the communities we cover I never see a response to a need like I do in Columbia. Part of that is because of the University and the colleges here. Part of it is because people just have the sense that they are fortunate. I’ve seen a gap growing in this community between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” The middle class is disappearing. It is a very challenging time. Columbia has always been fairly immune to anything that is going on in the economy at a national level, and what is happening right now is that Columbia is starting to feel what everybody else has been feeling for years.
A: So you see the impacts of a downturn in the economy directly?
P: Oh sure, we see it in a couple of ways. We have extensive partnerships with the business community. Where a huge amount of our support comes from is individuals, businesses, and the faith community. The business community gives the most, then individuals, then the faith community. The business community is strapped right now, and we can see that from the point of view of donations. I’ve seen this community kick in to action when there is a need, but right now they are all looking around and saying “We don’t know what we can do.”
A: If you could give one message to the faith community in Columbia, what would it be?
P: It would be “believe God’s word.” You know that scripture, “faith without works is dead”? I see more of the church today saying, “I will believe it when I see it.” That’s not faith; that’s sight. Faith is getting out of the boat because Jesus said, “Come.” Jesus also said to feed the poor, to clothe the naked, and to visit the sick. He said that he will supply all our need according to his riches and glory. We don’t believe.
A: You are in an interesting spot because you are where the rubber hits the road and you get to see if the faith community in Columbia is really doing those things.
P: I have spent years seeing churches not do anything more than they put in their budget, and I can’t find anything in the Bible that backs that up. The Bible says that we are supposed to ask God, “What do you want me to do?” And if he calls you to do something he is going to provide for it. Living by faith is the most scary thing I have ever done, and yet it is the most rewarding thing also, and God proves himself every single time. That’s my heart cry. If I could reach any group in the world today it would be the church, because it breaks my heart. We as a church are looking at the world the same way the world is looking at the world. We are looking at man for our supply and there is nothing in the Bible that says that.
A: What do you think college students can do?
P: They can change the world if they want to.
A: What does that look like practically?
P: First of all, pray about it, and then get as educated as you possibly can about ways that you can get plugged in.
I can guarantee you you are going to start out with enthusiasm, then you are going to get somewhere in the middle then it won’t be fun any more. It is going to be boring, it is going to be yucky, it is going to cost you your time, your talents, your resources. They are not going to be grateful. You are not going to get great accolades from the world and every step of the way you are going to learn who you are really doing it for.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Project: Columbia - Food Bank (1)
Here are some excerpts from an interview with Peggy Kirkpatrick, executive director of the Central Missouri Food Bank. We had a chance to talk about the Food Bank and what it does to help combat poverty, what poverty looks like in Columbia, and what the faith community can do to help.
Andy: Tell me a bit about the Food Bank. How did it start?
Peggy: The food bank started in 1981. It was started by an interesting group of people: the community action agency here in town, a social work class at social work class at Columbia College, and areas churches. The whole purpose of food banking is to keep good, edible food out of the landfill, and take it from the growers, producers, manufacturers, etc. and get it to the people who need it. We started in October of 1981 and distributed about 18,000 pounds of food. To use a business analogy, a food bank is like a wholesaler. We bring in food form all over the US, warehouse it in this building, and then redistribute it out to 145 relief agencies in 32 counties. That is our service area. The retailers in this equation are food pantries, shelters for the homeless and the abused, senior programs, rehab centers, etc. We are the only food bank in the state and only one of five in the country that gives our food away for free.
A: How did you get involved?
P: Before I came to the food bank I was a computer programmer and analyst at the University of Missouri – not even close to what I do now. Now, if you know anything about the University, where you work and where you park your car are never close together, and I had about a 2 block walk to get to my building. My path took me down alleys behind fraternity houses, where I would see homeless people in the dumpsters. I thought they were digging for cans to redeem for money to use it for whatever drunks and bums use money for. As I walked by I would pacify my conscience by saying “at least they are doing something for the environment.” One day I walked by the dumpster, being fairly nosy and being fairly self-righteous, and I saw a homeless guy eating the garbage in the dumpster, not getting the cans. I grew up in Columbia and that is the last thing in the world I expected to see. It absolutely horrified me, but not enough to change the way I went to work or to be determined to do something about it – it just horrified me. My very first thought was “it is the government’s job to do something about this. They need to be feeding these people,” or “It’s the city’s job. They shouldn’t let homeless people in the dumpsters.” It never occurred to me that as a Christian it was part of my responsibility. For seven and a half years I looked at that, I looked away, and I kept walking. One day walking by looking at the same sight I said probably the sorriest prayer anyone has ever said, “God, this is wrong. You need to do something about this or send somebody to do something about this.” I always tell people “be careful when you pray that prayer” because that somebody just might be you. The next thought that came into my mind was “What about you, Peggy, why don’t you do something. You’re somebody.” Two months later I was at the Food Bank.
I didn’t want to come here, but I have been here 16 years. People don’t expect you to preach the gospel by what you do every day in a secular organization – which is an unfortunate statement – but I have had more opportunities for that here than I ever would have had in a church.
(On the types of poverty in Columbia)
P: There’s really two types of poverty. There is generational poverty and there is situational poverty Generational poverty is the people for whom hunger is just symptom of the problem. They usually have been in poverty for 3 or 4 generations. They have educational issues. They have abuse issues. Usually bad parenting and role models. They don’t know how to handle their finances. It is just a lot of stuff and food is just one of their problems. They need a lot of help to get out of poverty.
Then the situational poverty folks are the ones who have the basic life skills, it’s only that a situation has caused them to be in need at this point in their lives. For example, the plant they worked at closed, they are stricken with illness, even a divorce can cause someone to be in poverty. You get that situation resolved and they are back on their feet, they are back to being productive citizens. What we are seeing today is a huge increase in situational poverty.
Andy: Tell me a bit about the Food Bank. How did it start?
Peggy: The food bank started in 1981. It was started by an interesting group of people: the community action agency here in town, a social work class at social work class at Columbia College, and areas churches. The whole purpose of food banking is to keep good, edible food out of the landfill, and take it from the growers, producers, manufacturers, etc. and get it to the people who need it. We started in October of 1981 and distributed about 18,000 pounds of food. To use a business analogy, a food bank is like a wholesaler. We bring in food form all over the US, warehouse it in this building, and then redistribute it out to 145 relief agencies in 32 counties. That is our service area. The retailers in this equation are food pantries, shelters for the homeless and the abused, senior programs, rehab centers, etc. We are the only food bank in the state and only one of five in the country that gives our food away for free.
A: How did you get involved?
P: Before I came to the food bank I was a computer programmer and analyst at the University of Missouri – not even close to what I do now. Now, if you know anything about the University, where you work and where you park your car are never close together, and I had about a 2 block walk to get to my building. My path took me down alleys behind fraternity houses, where I would see homeless people in the dumpsters. I thought they were digging for cans to redeem for money to use it for whatever drunks and bums use money for. As I walked by I would pacify my conscience by saying “at least they are doing something for the environment.” One day I walked by the dumpster, being fairly nosy and being fairly self-righteous, and I saw a homeless guy eating the garbage in the dumpster, not getting the cans. I grew up in Columbia and that is the last thing in the world I expected to see. It absolutely horrified me, but not enough to change the way I went to work or to be determined to do something about it – it just horrified me. My very first thought was “it is the government’s job to do something about this. They need to be feeding these people,” or “It’s the city’s job. They shouldn’t let homeless people in the dumpsters.” It never occurred to me that as a Christian it was part of my responsibility. For seven and a half years I looked at that, I looked away, and I kept walking. One day walking by looking at the same sight I said probably the sorriest prayer anyone has ever said, “God, this is wrong. You need to do something about this or send somebody to do something about this.” I always tell people “be careful when you pray that prayer” because that somebody just might be you. The next thought that came into my mind was “What about you, Peggy, why don’t you do something. You’re somebody.” Two months later I was at the Food Bank.
I didn’t want to come here, but I have been here 16 years. People don’t expect you to preach the gospel by what you do every day in a secular organization – which is an unfortunate statement – but I have had more opportunities for that here than I ever would have had in a church.
(On the types of poverty in Columbia)
P: There’s really two types of poverty. There is generational poverty and there is situational poverty Generational poverty is the people for whom hunger is just symptom of the problem. They usually have been in poverty for 3 or 4 generations. They have educational issues. They have abuse issues. Usually bad parenting and role models. They don’t know how to handle their finances. It is just a lot of stuff and food is just one of their problems. They need a lot of help to get out of poverty.
Then the situational poverty folks are the ones who have the basic life skills, it’s only that a situation has caused them to be in need at this point in their lives. For example, the plant they worked at closed, they are stricken with illness, even a divorce can cause someone to be in poverty. You get that situation resolved and they are back on their feet, they are back to being productive citizens. What we are seeing today is a huge increase in situational poverty.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Art Every Wednesday (22)
This post is about the theology of the beauty of the ordinary. God is himself an artist. That is, in essence, the reason for having Art Wednesday be a part of this blog at all - to get people to buy into the idea that God is an artist and then to view all the art they encounter in the world through that lens.
The beauty of God's art "flames out" in all of creation. Religion has at times seemed to portray God in a light that implies that he has dull aesthetic sense, as though God's sense of beauty were bland and utilitarian. But this is not a Christian thought. The Bible portrays a God who delights in beauty simply because it is beautiful, and, in fact, all beauty in the world is borrowing from God. He is the reason there is any beauty in the world at all. He is the beauty of the world. He is the reason that, no matter how we abuse and "trod on" the world, it's beauty will never be extinguished. Creation is God's work of art.
The following is a poem that is the best articulation of the theology of the beauty of the ordinary I have come across. This poem always runs through my head when I am outside and see the beauty of the things God has made. Below it are images from photographers of nature (combining God's art with our art). The poem and the photos seem to go together and each informs the other.
God's Grandeur
Gerard Manley Hopkins
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
The beauty of God's art "flames out" in all of creation. Religion has at times seemed to portray God in a light that implies that he has dull aesthetic sense, as though God's sense of beauty were bland and utilitarian. But this is not a Christian thought. The Bible portrays a God who delights in beauty simply because it is beautiful, and, in fact, all beauty in the world is borrowing from God. He is the reason there is any beauty in the world at all. He is the beauty of the world. He is the reason that, no matter how we abuse and "trod on" the world, it's beauty will never be extinguished. Creation is God's work of art.
The following is a poem that is the best articulation of the theology of the beauty of the ordinary I have come across. This poem always runs through my head when I am outside and see the beauty of the things God has made. Below it are images from photographers of nature (combining God's art with our art). The poem and the photos seem to go together and each informs the other.
God's Grandeur
Gerard Manley Hopkins
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Free Audiobook of the Month
It's a new month, and that means ChristianAudio.com has a new free Christian classic available to download. This month is Charles Spurgeon's book All of Grace.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Yes, but...
My thanks to Pat Miller for this concise, creative excerpt. In it he tries to answer the question "What is Postmodernism?" in a fresh way.
"If reality itself is a mini-narrative constructed from personal experience and belief, then meaning cannot exist on a large scale. Grandiose, all-encompassing meaning requires equally grand mega-narratives. The greatest religious, philosophical, and political thinkers drafted the mega-narratives within which we live today. Yet culture often clashes with these ideas and asks “yes, but…” Loving Jesus is great, but why shouldn’t everyone go to heaven? Consumerism is dandy, but what if there’s more to life than just buying things? Communism is swell, but what if I don't want to start a war?
With inexhaustible “yes, but…” questions, postmodernism aims to snuff and overburden the gatekeepers of knowledge, steal their keys, make copies and pass them out to everyone free of charge. Eventually, postmodernism bought the most breathtaking Xerox machine ever imagined, and made copies of every word written. Then it built a library for every person, and said “This is the house of your truth, take this lighter and scanner, burn that with which you disagree, and copy that which you love. Then, know in your heart that this is truth of equal value to the truth next door, and truth universes away.”
In this way meaning lost it’s structure and it’s house. If each library is created equal, then it’s truth must be equal. Its truth is separate from all other truth, and it’s meaning is different from all other meanings. Its voice is loud, but no louder than anyone elses. In miserable failure, the old gatekeepers wept at the foot of the gates of wisdom. This is the postmodern epic of reality."
"If reality itself is a mini-narrative constructed from personal experience and belief, then meaning cannot exist on a large scale. Grandiose, all-encompassing meaning requires equally grand mega-narratives. The greatest religious, philosophical, and political thinkers drafted the mega-narratives within which we live today. Yet culture often clashes with these ideas and asks “yes, but…” Loving Jesus is great, but why shouldn’t everyone go to heaven? Consumerism is dandy, but what if there’s more to life than just buying things? Communism is swell, but what if I don't want to start a war?
With inexhaustible “yes, but…” questions, postmodernism aims to snuff and overburden the gatekeepers of knowledge, steal their keys, make copies and pass them out to everyone free of charge. Eventually, postmodernism bought the most breathtaking Xerox machine ever imagined, and made copies of every word written. Then it built a library for every person, and said “This is the house of your truth, take this lighter and scanner, burn that with which you disagree, and copy that which you love. Then, know in your heart that this is truth of equal value to the truth next door, and truth universes away.”
In this way meaning lost it’s structure and it’s house. If each library is created equal, then it’s truth must be equal. Its truth is separate from all other truth, and it’s meaning is different from all other meanings. Its voice is loud, but no louder than anyone elses. In miserable failure, the old gatekeepers wept at the foot of the gates of wisdom. This is the postmodern epic of reality."
Friday, October 3, 2008
Global Mind: Miniature Earth
If the whole population of the earth was scaled down to 100 people, this would be true...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Art Every Wednesday (21)
Gardening is art.
Gardening is working with living things God made to grow and display beauty. As Tolkien said, we are "sub-creators." That is the art. We can't make the dirt or the seeds or the growth. Human art comes in arranging, ordering, sub-creating within the things God as made. In gardening humanity puts its hands on green, living things to collect the beauty God gave them in one place.
Here are some images of guerrilla gardening from WebUrbanist.com, to cite some creative examples of gardening in urban areas.
Tree Sculptures. Look at these patient, wonderful works of art integrating what God made with what humanity re-organizes to multiply beauty in the world.
Look closely. This artist has taken the idea of garden-as-art one step further, attaching pens to the end of a the branches of a weeping willow, and letting the natural movements of the wind make the marks on the canvas.
And our beloved campus, which (trivia point for the day) is actually a botanical garden.
Gardening is working with living things God made to grow and display beauty. As Tolkien said, we are "sub-creators." That is the art. We can't make the dirt or the seeds or the growth. Human art comes in arranging, ordering, sub-creating within the things God as made. In gardening humanity puts its hands on green, living things to collect the beauty God gave them in one place.
Here are some images of guerrilla gardening from WebUrbanist.com, to cite some creative examples of gardening in urban areas.
Tree Sculptures. Look at these patient, wonderful works of art integrating what God made with what humanity re-organizes to multiply beauty in the world.
Look closely. This artist has taken the idea of garden-as-art one step further, attaching pens to the end of a the branches of a weeping willow, and letting the natural movements of the wind make the marks on the canvas.
And our beloved campus, which (trivia point for the day) is actually a botanical garden.
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