Most professors would like their students to be more rebellious and argumentative. But rebellion without a rigorous alternative vision is just a feeble spasm.
David Brooks, “How to Fight the Man.”
David Brooks: How to fight the man
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Category Archives: Culture, Society, and Politics
Can Religion Be Reproduced?
I saw this quote from famed magician/atheist/television personality Penn Jillette‘s new book on kottke.org:
There is no god and that’s the simple truth. If every trace of any single religion died out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.
Now, this might be true or it might not be true – it’s a thought experiment with no way of verification. It’s an assertion, not an argument. Thus, from the very beginning, the appeal to empiricism is weakened.
But this claim – “it would never be created exactly that way again” – is true of anything rooted in the passage of time: history, art, literature, even the progress of science itself. Continue reading
How to Ban Someone from Your Facebook Page
This morning, I discovered that a rather inappropriate Facebook Page had “Liked” the Emerging Scholars Network Facebook Page and was starting to “Like” posts. I figure it was only a matter of time before they started making comments or adding Wall comments to draw attention to themselves. I was able to ban them permanently from our Page, but it wasn’t an obvious process, so I thought it might be helpful to others to post instructions. Step-by-step instruction (with pictures!) follow below. Continue reading
True Images of Kentucky?
I have very mixed feelings about this beautiful photo gallery by Shelby Lee Adams in today’s NY Times Sunday Review. The photos, without question, show true aspects of Kentucky life: Appalachian Gothic, shirtless men and boys, hunting trophies, haphazard piles of junk, families who seem at once welcoming and off-putting. Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner come to mind, even though they were writers of the Deep South, which should never be confused with the Upland South. The photos are both beautiful and disturbing.
However, since this photo gallery appears in the New York Times, will the primary audience see anything besides rednecks and hillbillies? Won’t this gallery simply reinforce existing stereotypes of Kentucky among the East Coast elites? Will they have any insight at all as to how to interpret this quote from Adams that accompanies the gallery?
When I was young, I couldn’t wait to leave Kentucky. Now, as I get older, I value every day when I return.
Many people know about Kentucky author and farmer Wendell Berry, but I wish more people knew about Harlan Hubbard, classically trained painter and musician, an essayist who inspired Berry and who, like Berry, chose to live off the land in rural Kentucky rather than among the cultural elite. Hubbard is someone who gets you a bit closer to the paradoxical land that is Kentucky.
Mark Noll: The Atonement Points Us to Morally Complex Stories
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Since the atonement involves tremendous complexity and great mystery, the best narratives will not be simplistic (like movies were resolution comes through a car chase or gunfight). Neither will the best narratives be Manichean (where the good guys are all good and the bad guys are all bad). Nor will they be simply heroic (where protagonists triumph over obstacles through reliance on their own inner resources) or simply nihilistic (where the point is to enact the futility of human existence as in novels of Thomas Hardy like Jude the Obscure and Tess of the D’Urbervilles). Rather, the best narratives will be morally complex, as in fact the enduring tragedies, comedies, and novels — like Oedipus Rex, King Lear, Paradise Lost, and Crime and Punishment — regularly are. Such morally complex narratives are most satisfying because, in terms of atonement theology, they are most true to life.
Mark Noll, Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind, p. 71. Emphasis added.
The Complicated Tragedy of Columbus Day
I have torn feelings about Columbus Day. The “Columbian exchange” (Europe’s encounter with the New World) was a humanitarian catastrophe greater than any other in history. Charles C. Mann’s 1491 woke me up to this several years ago. As many as 90% – 90%! – of North and South Americans died from smallpox and other infectious diseases. Whole civilizations collapsed. This vacuum set the state for the tragic sins of slavery and anti-Indian oppression.
However, how much of this can be personally blamed on Columbus? He had no idea that Native Americans had no immunity to smallpox – no one even knew what caused smallpox. War was perhaps inevitable when the empires of Europe encountered the empires of America, but Americans did pretty well defending their territory until disease overcame them. Haven’t you ever wondered why it took 130 years for Europeans to begin settling North America after Columbus’ initial encounter? World history would have been very different if the New World had not been ravaged by epidemics.
Is there a way to mourn the tragic loss of pre-Columbian America without assigning personal blame to Columbus?
Andy Crouch compares Steve Jobs and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
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Andy Crouch on Steve Jobs, The Secular Prophet
Mr. Jobs’s final leave of absence was announced this year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And, as it happened, Mr. Jobs died on the same day as one of Dr. King’s companions, the Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, one of the last living co-founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Dr. King, too, had had a close encounter with his own mortality when he was stabbed by a mentally ill woman at a book signing in 1958. He told that story a decade later to a rally on the night of April 3, 1968, and then turned, with unsettling foresight, to the possibility of his own early death. His words, at the beginning, could easily have been a part of Steve Jobs’s commencement address: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now.” But here Dr. King, the civic and religious leader, turned a corner that Mr. Jobs never did. “I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything, I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”
Singing the praises of science fiction
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Singing the praises of science fiction
My new post at ThinkChristian.
Earlier this summer, NPR asked listeners to select the top 100science fiction and fantasy novels of all time. By some chance, the final list began and ended with the two most acclaimed Christian novelists of the twentieth century. J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy came in at No. 1, while C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy rounded out the list at No. 100.
Read the whole thing and join the conversation.
The News at Regent College: September 11 & 18, 2001
The cover of the Recent College Et Cetera from Sept. 18, 2001
Ten years ago today, I began my year-long run as editor of the Et Cetera, the official student “newspaper” of Regent College. I put “newspaper” in quotes because it’s not like most student newspapers around the country. Regent College is a fairly small, fairly tight-knit community of theology students, and our newspaper (when I was there) consisted mostly of run-of-the-mill announcements and anything-but-run-of-the-mill theological essays.
The first issue under my tenure was dated September 11, 2001. Obviously, I had no idea what would happen on that day, as you can see for yourself:
Regent College Et Cetera – Sept 11 2001 (PDF, 1.2 MB)
As I wrote a few years ago, I learned about the terrorist attacks just as I arrived on campus. A week of reflection, prayer, and mourning led to our second issue, which included liturgical readings, poetry of mourning, a cover essay by Mark Filiatreau, and a column by my assistant editor Leland Ferguson, but also a surprising number of “ordinary” items: an invitation to discuss the movie Contact, a warning about theft on campus, logistical announcements for the annual retreat:
Regent College Et Cetera – Sept 18 2001 (PDF, 888 KB)
Over the rest of that semester, our community debated the meaning of 9/11, the appropriate responses to violence, anger, and mourning, and any number of political and theological issues related to the attacks. In these first two issues of that year, you can get a sense for how the Regent community operates.
P.S. I’m fairly certain that I don’t have permission to post the contents of these two issues online, but I hope no one minds. If you’re one of the writers and you’d like me to take your article offline, just let me know.
My Reflections on Parks
Earlier this summer, I wrote a couple of articles about parks for two terrific websites. I’ll let you judge whether the articles themselves were terrific.
Parks and Recreation, Comment Online
A Biblical Basis for Parks, ThinkChristian.net
Enjoy!