Hallelujah in Hell

"We Live in a Semantic Universe" - Random Thoughts 11/10/2016

We Christians sometimes talk about “obedience”.  If “obedience” is viewed in the abstract and as independent of or superior to faith, hope and love rather than as their manifestation, then “obedience” is a sham, a millstone tied around your neck, a bringer of death and division.

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“Every prayer is an expression of hope.  If you expect nothing from the future, you cannot pray.  Hope is based on the premise that the other gives only what is good.”  (Nouwen)  For what do we hope?  Or rather, to whom do we hope?  Is the “God” that we see one that calls our hearts and minds to that mode of existence that we call “hope”?

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Be aware of “the immense difference that exists between hope and wishfullness.” (Nouwen)

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The fact that the word “great” appears in “Make America Great Again” does not itself make self-evident what the term means.  Be assured that it doesn’t mean to Donald Trump what it means to you.  To understand what Donald Trump means by “great” we need only look at his words, actions, policies, pursuits, and (perhaps most importantly) who or what is sacrificed in the pursuit of “greatness”.

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To those evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who piously hold forth that God “intervened” to give the presidency to Donald Trump I simply ask “Did God’s intervention on behalf of Trump begin before or after the Republican primary?”  If before, you cannot absolve yourself of the ramifications of your support due to him being “the lesser of two evils” or “having no other choice.”

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When I look into the face

Of my enemy

I see my brother

I see my brother

(“Brother” – The Brilliance)

This prayer of faith is pious nonsense unless that which binds and gives life to humanity is eternal; deeper and stronger than those things that separate.  A true vision of our beginning and our end may yet bring a healing and reconciling word to our present, a word that renders the construct of “the enemy” as illusory.  As vapor.

The Flaming Toilet of Death

The Mystical World of George MacDonald (Parts 7 - 8)

The following videos are part of a 51 minute documentary entitled The Mystical World of George MacDonald.  The documentary is on YouTube as 8 separate videos.  Parts 7 & 8 (the final 2 parts) are below.

Parts 1 & 2 are here.
Parts 3 & 4 are here.
Parts 5 & 6 are here.

Part 7

Part 8

The Mystical World of George MacDonald (Parts 5 - 6)

The following videos are part of a 51 minute documentary entitled The Mystical World of George MacDonald.  The documentary is on YouTube as 8 separate videos.  Parts 5 & 6 are below.

Parts 1 & 2 are here.
Parts 3 & 4 are here.

Part 5

Part 6

The Mystical World of George MacDonald (Parts 3 - 4)

The following videos are part of a 51 minute documentary entitled The Mystical World of George MacDonald.  The documentary is on YouTube as 8 separate videos.  Parts 3 & 4 are below.

Parts 1 & 2 are here.

Part 3

Part 4

The Mystical World of George MacDonald (Parts 1 - 2)

The following videos are part of a 51 minute documentary entitled "The Mystical World of George MacDonald".  The entire documentary is available on YouTube as 8 separate videos.  Parts 1 & 2 are below.

Part 1

Part 2

Bono, Eugene Peterson, and the Psalms

Fuller Seminary just released a great video of Bono and Eugene Peterson talking about the Psalms.

It’s fantastic.  The two of them are so different in some ways, and yet display a very real friendship.  It’s made me consider about the role of the Psalms in my own life (or the lack thereof).  I confess to not knowing what to do with many of them, and to being positively revolted by some of them (like Psalm 137).  They defy categorization.  Frameworks like “biblical inerrancy” positively miss the point (at best) IMO.  Having come to that conclusion, I’m quite ready to give them another chance.

And honestly, who gets to bake cookies for Bono?!

Why George MacDonald "turned with loathing from the god of Jonathan Edwards" - Ron Dart

"In an interview between John Piper and Tim Keller, Piper quotes George MacDonald as saying, "I turn with loathing from the god of Jonathan Edwards." This leads Keller to question whether MacDonald was a Christian. Why would MacDonald say such a thing of this American hero of the Great Awakening? What was it about Edwards' Calvinist God that caused MacDonald to react to strongly? Ron Dart examines MacDonald's Calvinist roots and his connection with the Anglican scholar, F.D. Maurice, who played a role in liberating MacDonald to a new way of seeing God."

What Is "Useful" Knowledge?

"If the skill could not be practiced by anyone, anywhere, then it was useless knowledge."

I read that last week in Walking With Grandfather.

The quote is made in the context of survival skills.  It goes on to say:

"So, for example, there are over twenty ways to make fire depending on the terrain and weather.  Yet if you know two basic ways you can make fire in almost any circumstance."

So here, what qualifies something as true knowledge (contrasted with useless knowledge) is the applicability and perfection of a skill in such a way that it can be learned and effectively put to use by almost anybody (again, keeping in the mind the context of survival skills).  So knowledge is not necessarily "I learned 20 ways to make fire."

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I think Hardin would characterize the journey described in his book as one of knowledge. So it got me thinking more generally, what is knowledge?  What is "useless" knowledge?

Is knowledge synonymous with ideas?  The more ideas that one has - the more facts one knows, the more points of view that one can effectively understand, the more up to date a person is with current events - is that "knowledge"?

I don't think that the answers to these question are without ambiguity.  It can be yes or no, which tells me that there is something deeper and more fundamental to consider.

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Perhaps the more fundamental thing is the role that "knowledge" plays in a persons life.  "Knowledge" is in service to what?  What is it's end?  Is it it's own end?  That is, what does this knowledge imply about what it means to be, and in what way does it impact my being?  Does it draw me into reality, or away from it?  To what or to whom does it point?  Questions not easily answered.

More thoughts from Hardin:

"Later I would learn still other fears.  My entire existence was one lived in fear, except for books.  The world of ideas was not a fearful one.  Until I became a born again Fundamentalist, then fear came back with a vengeance."

"I had to keep my heart closed; it was the way I learned to survive.  Later in life I would use alcohol and drugs to mask my feelings; and when they weren't available I had "my books and my poetry to protect me" (Paul Simon, I Am a Rock).

"I liked living in my head.  Ideas were much better than feelings.  Ideas could change the world; feelings were just subjective states to which I had never been."

I hear echoes of myself in this quest for certainty and objectivity and the driving force of fear.  Questions about "useless" knowledge isn't about "mere" ideas (as if there is such a thing), or how practical something might be, or books, or extroversion/introversion, or being friendlier or nicer, or avoiding solitude as if it's a waste of time at best.  Far from it.

Rather, it's about the degree to which knowledge cuts us off, perhaps leading us to believe that we are neutral observers.  It's about the way that the pursuit can snuff out the flame of wonder, mystery, and gratitude, closing us within an intellectual box observing a life that we aren't really living, observing a world that we aren't living in.

Interestingly, the subatomic world calls into question this idea of objective observation, arguing for the connectivity of all of life.  Sounds new-agey and dangerous?  Perhaps I'll explore that in a future post.

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There are a multitude of ways of speaking of knowledge within the scriptures:

We know that "We all possess knowledge." But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.
--1 Cor 8:1 NIV

But there is also:

In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
--Colossians 2:3 KJV

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"The Big Story" by Biologos

This is quickly turning into science week.

Biologos has released a video entitled "The Big Story".  They call it "a poetic re-telling of the history of the universe".  A visual presentation of the "epic, sweeping, and continuing story of God that stretches from creation to new creation."

Watch the video here.

Some brief thoughts:

1. It's well done and very basic.  Production value is high.
2. It's aptly titled.  It very much focuses on the "big story" rather than any one aspect of the narrative.
3. Being that the video is presented as a story, it doesn't aim to be technical.  It isn't an exercise in apologetics or a tool to teach any technical intricacies (Biologos does have those types of videos as well).  It seems to be intentionally open ended in many regards, not wanting any technical particulars to distract from the simple hearing of this story.
4. It avoids making claims on the theological issues that often divides Christians.  For example, being that the narrator has a reformed background, I assume (perhaps unfairly) that there are certain beliefs ungirding his "big story" about atonement, predestination, scripture, etc.  It seems to me that an intentional attempt is made to keep these sorts of things at arms length.  Out of necessity, whatever is there is a bit fuzzy.
5. "The fall" seems to be characterized as a gradual thing.  
6. There is no mention of death, suffering, or predation within the context of "The Big Story". 

In particular, I wish there'd been some discussion of #6 - the essential role that death plays in this "big story".  It's a thorny issue that demands careful thought and theology.  A short video may not be a suitable medium for such an exercise, but I don't think that one can or should ignore it completely.  Practically any story can appear grand and epic if one leaves out anything that might make it seem otherwise.

In any case, I think the video is well done.  It strikes a balance between being broad enough to effectively cover a lot of ground, while also permitting the narrative to highlight some of the core components behind Biologos' mission in a way that they can (and should) lead to further investigation for those who desire to do so.

I'm very interested in the intersection of science and faith, and the ways in which they don't overlap in that they speak to different things.  It's important.  Most importantly, it will be important to my daughter (now 2.5 years old) who I expect will one day begin asking questions for herself.  You had better be ready for that, church.

What Happens When Black Holes Collide?

Perhaps you've heard that scientists have recorded the sound of two black holes colliding.  This sent gravitational waves (or ripples in the very fabric of spacetime) hurdling towards the earth, confirming a prediction of their existence made by Einstein over a century ago via the Theory of Relativity.

Forget about "how they know this".  That itself is a black hole to me as are a great many other things.  My cosmological ignorance goes on full display when I hear of black holes and spacetime and my mind immediately travels to Interstellar or A Wrinkle In Time.

I don't understand it.  I've tried to find the equivalent of "Black Hole Collisions and Space Time for Dummies" but to no avail.  There's simply too much underlying terminology and conceptual framework needed, and a person can't simply skip over all of that.

But this stuff absolutely fascinates me, this idea that space and time are dynamic and interactive.

A few articles on the story are here (NPR), here (New York Times) and here (Vice.com).

Also, check out this video on "What Happens When Two Black Holes Collide".

I suppose the NPR article linked above tells most of us all that we need to know about this and a great many other cosmological mysteries:

"The universe is stranger than any kind of fiction we could imagine.  I mean, it's preposterous."

Dust We Are And Shall Return (The Brilliance)

I need to be reminded.

It isn't just me that wears the ashes.  

I think I could live with that.  

It's the ashes on my wife.  

On my little girl.  

On all the rest.

May Ash Wednesday yet be sweet as this song?

Be still my soul.  

From dust we’ve come and dust we are and shall return
Be still my soul and let it go, just let it go

Glory to God
Glory to God in the highest
Glory to God
Glory to God in the highest

Naked we came and shall return into the grave
Be still my soul and let it go, just let it go

Glory to God
Glory to God in the highest
Glory to God
Glory to God in the highest

Be still my soul, Lord make me whole, Lord make me whole
Be still my soul, Lord make me whole, Lord make me whole, Lord make me whole 
Be still my soul, Lord make me whole, Lord make me whole

Glory to God 



Song: Dust We Are And Shall Return by The Brillance (On either Lent or Brothers Albums)

Leader? Or lone nut?

When are you a leader, and when are you just freakin' crazy?  It's a fine line....