Half Past Noon

That’s it, we’re done with media temple hosting. This site is ridiculously slow. Look for changes in the next few days.

Everyone should take the “post something” challenge. I challenge y’all to post something.

“I think one of the under-recognized strengths of Lost is how the structure of the storytelling reflects what the show is about. Long before the characters started traveling through time, we were traveling through time, via flashbacks and flash-forwards. And now it seems that this season—in which the story is split between two realities—is going to be devoted to alternate realities within the two realities. Choosing a side in the coming island conflict isn’t just a matter of allying with friends against enemies. It’s also about subscribing to a worldview. It’s about picking a reality to live in.” Noel Murray

“a mission that rejects violence as a way to ground peaceful community and instead witnesses to the Lord’s life of rejection and crucifixion by living it in publicly perceivable communities derisively called Christian.”

Great First Things article.

This Must Be the Place – great cover by Miles Fisher.

I have fixed the plaid, and also (for the sake of our dear friend and reader B.O’D.) placed one of my old sundial sketches in the header.

Now that I’ve marked the tree, as it were, I’ll probably stop by to sniff it a little more often.

I feel like only half the discussion is getting voiced.

Question for discussion:

Let’s all close our eyes and imagine a certain post-theonomist, VanTillian definition of the antithesis. Got it? Can you picture the black and white edges, the smooth categorical texture, the easy duality of ascribing a grand unity of instinct and action? (Readers of Dutch Reformed theology may notice that this philosophical concoction is an unfair exaggeration of Dooyeweerd and perhaps Van Til; but can we admit that we ourselves have all at some point used such a caricature of the antithesis?)

Okay. Now where does love of neighbor fit in? Where is our theology of creation? Where is our (Calvinistic) humanism? How do we not end up with a conversionistic piety which consumes us with doubt about whether our actions are pure enough?

I’m reading George Marsden’s biography of Jonathan Edwards (a really fun read, btw) and I think there’s a very strange connection between late Puritan piety (of the navel-gazing, half-way-covenant variety) and modern day exaggerations of the antithesis. Both are preoccupied with the possibility that an impure heart (perhaps undetected) might spoil seemingly “good” actions. Edwards’ father styled himself as a expert in discerning true conversion from false conversion. False conversion would result in seeming piety, only to sour and later reveal that nothing of true worth ever came out of the original “awakening.” Of course, for Jonathan and others, this led to a paralyzing doubt: what if their conversion was empty and all the good works were devoid of value?

All this to say, I’m not convinced that the antithesis, as sometimes used, is a helpful way of living the Christian life. Is there an ultimate dividing of sheep from goats? Of course. But goats make milk, too.

Very confused here. I went to HPN, signed in, and I got this thing saying “Hi, Gabe. Whatcha up to?” Is this the new theme?
-Thag

I had a great time talking about Politics, Religion, and Economics with Chris, Justin, Davey, and Gabe last night. I hope I didn’t provoke Chris too much – Chris, I hereby acknowledge that you arrived at every position I now cherish a week before I did. Davey completely messed up my entire rhetorical strategy with his confounding “don’t immanetize the eschaton” business. And Gabe brought many new questions to the table. Let’s do it again, soon. I’d like to continue to talk about how to talk about these things as much as the issues themselves. I’d really like to get Brendan in the mix, too.