Initial Thoughts on "An Altar in the World"

Back from the Holidays. St. Louis, MO; Memphis, TN; and Jonesboro, AR.

A book I'm savoring right now is "An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith" by Barbara Taylor Brown. So many pithy thoughts and phrases jump off the page and into my head and mind. A few nights ago I started the first chapter. It was close to bedtime. I sat or rather lay too comfortably in my my recliner in my bedroom. Found the first chapter pleasant, though my drowsiness attenuated the experience. Took bite size pieces on successive evenings, not really having time for much more. Then, one night finally had time to read and let it sink in deeper into my psyche. What she is doing is becoming more apparent. Then next, it was a quiet time in the hotel lobby early last Tuesday morning and I re-read the first chapter. Amazing what I perceived that I hadn't earlier. The reason being more familiarity with her approach and how she was feeling it. There's lots of visual imagery. This is cool.

Touching the truth with our minds alone is not enough. We are made to touch it with our bodies.

One thing this book teaches is that the way to the spiritual life is through the sensual, physical world.

On Research - by Zora N. Hurston

I was in St. Louis on Tuesday with my son who was interviewing for med school at St. Louis University. While there and waiting on him, I wandered down a hallway toward the downstairs bookstore and came across an administrative department concerned with their research program. They had this very interesting quote on their bulletin board. This caught my attention because research and development has been my calling.

Research is formalized curiosity.

It is poking and prying with a purpose.

It is a seeking that he who wishes may know the cosmic secrets of the world and that they dwell therein.

Zora Neale Hurston.

The Emergence of Canonical Theism

The Emergence of Canonical Theism

Here's some heavy reading by a scholar who explains his thinking not with "cold-blooded, impersonal theses" but by telling his story. A fascinating one. His goal for the web site is the pursuit of something called "Canonical Theism". I'm still not sure what that is but he does cover some things of interest to me, the role of The Enlightenment in shaping the Protestant religion of my heritage and also the place of Postmodernism in critiquing it. He feels that the later while providing critique is not much of a help for proceeding further. He finds some inspiration in a Russian Orthodox writer. It seems to me he is working toward a definition of canon that extends well beyond the specific text of the Bible. I think what he is doing is worth exploring.

Naive Objectivism

Over at The Church and Postmodern Culture, they are reviewing a new book titled Whose Community, Which Interpretation: Philosophical Hermeneutics for the Church by Merold Westphal. Here is a snippet from a review of ch 1 and 2 by Carl Rashke, author of Next Reformation.

"I understand that evangelical Christians especially need to understand hermeneutics, because of their intractable legacy of naive objectivism (their own kind of "dogmatic slumber" at la Kant) and their fear of "relativism". But "relativism" is a phoney type of bete noire. Postmodernism doesn't solve the problem of relativism; it strategically ignores it, because it is, as Wittgenstein might say, a pseudo-problem indicated, relativism is a fact that requires interpretation masquerading as an interpretation, which it's not.

Ultimately, it all comes down to "how we do hear the very voice of God in our finite and fallen interpretations," and if that now be called a postmodern problem, I welcome it. "

Naive Objectivism .... that is us alright. I've wrestled with it all my life, I beginning to understand it only now.

Patrol Magazine - Young Post-Evangelical Writers

Came across this through surfing around. It is Patrol Magazine. This is lifted from their About page

Patrol is an independent daily magazine where young post-evangelical writers explore their interactions with art, culture, politics, and technology. We're based in New York City, but you'll find our contributors and readers all across the globe. Patrol began in 2006 as a blog covering Christian and independent music in Washington, D.C. We relocated to New York in 2008, where we expanded our scope to include broad swaths of arts and politics.

Patrol comes to life amid the angst of being a believer in the modern world: the conflicts between faith and science, religion and politics, the church and the arts, humanity and technology. Those are huge topics with vast implications—implications we think it's important that Christian writers wrestle through, publicly and without reservation, for the good of both our own and the good of the culture we're a part of. But let's face it: there aren't many places in Christian media where a writer has complete freedom to follow his search wherever it leads. That's what we're about. Patrol aims to be a "salon" for young writers to work out their ideas and chronicle their encounters with culture. And we hope all kinds of people drop in on the conversation.

Thought Spurred by Website of Unknowing

From Why Myticism Matters.

"Likewise, the shift from modernity to postmodernity has resulted in many Christians questioning the propositional, authoritarian nature of faith grounded in obedience to the church (Catholic) or the Bible (Protestant), and instead are looking for a more experiential expression of the faith, where their “obedience” is situated internally, toward a personal experience of God, Christ and/or the Holy Spirit."

I repudiate the propositional, authoritarian style of faith but I have always attended churches that affirm it. I have always thought that my fellow church goers would change. But they haven't. It is clear that a vast gulf exists between us. They keep getting more entrenched and holding on tighter. Why? It must have to do with what it is we desire to experience?

the Lost Symbol: Believe or Trust

Am half-way through Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Would have read it through last night but needed the sleep. Here's a thought from one of the characters to the hero, Langdon. He relates that one of Langdon's greatest strengths is his skepticism and at the same time it is one of his greatest weaknesses. And then he says:

"I know you well enough to know you're not a man I can ask to believe . . . only to trust."

There is a difference isn't there. I wish it would be the practice of those speaking and writing about our religion if they would emphasise trust more as opposed to belief.