Berlin Trip Part 1: Kaiser Wilhem Memorial Church

I left Knoxville at 11:45 am Sunday May 21, flew all night, sleeping about 3 hours on the plane. Took a taxi, costing 40 eu (over $50), from Tegel airport in Berlin to the Dorint Hotel in Potsdam. After registering for my symposium, rather than going to bed, I asked a hotel clerk for directions to Kurfurstendamm Strasse. It is also known as Ku'dam.

The easier thing to do would have been to take a taxi there. But, I felt I needed a labor, or task, if you will. So, she wrote some notes for me with info on which bus and train to take to my destination. I felt discomfitted, nervous, and uncertain. I was afraid of making a fool of myself, afraid I'd mess up and get lost or something. I watched as the bus having the proper number came and passed me by. I was at the wrong stop on the opposite side of the road. Then, I crossed the street and waited another 20 minutes for the next one. I tried to pay the bus driver since I thought that was my instruction. He motioned for me to sit down. I then tried to put paper money into the automatic ticket dispenser. But it wouldn't work. Things were not going well. Thankfully a young man asked if he could help. I explained where I was hoping to go and he kindly assured me he'd show me what to do. When we arrived at the main train station of Potsdam, he showed me how to read the train schedule and showed me where to stand for the next train. Looking around, we didnt' see a ticket machine. He told me to climb on board anyway and to ask to buy a ticket if I was questioned. When he left, I went upstairs to the Reisezentrum (trip center) and bought an all day ticket. I preferred to have a ticket in hand rather than cause a possible problem. Later, while waiting for the train, an oriental man was asking people for help. I took him upstairs and showed him where he could buy a ticket. I climbed on board my train and two stops later was at my destination.

My first stop upon exiting the train station was the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtniss Kirche. This church, built in the late 19th century, was bombed and severely damage during WWII. It has been partially restored. Shrapnel wounds to the structure are apparent. The tower to one side in the left hand photo is a chapel where one can take a few moments to meditate, as I did. Musical programs are also presented there. I don't know why the background turned out pink. I must've accidentally set a weird setting on my camera.

Gone to Berlin

For my dedicated readers, all two of you if there are that many, I will be out of town till next week end.

The Beauty of Truth

Len L. Hjalmarson whose blog is Next Reformation always has thoughtful things to say and says it so well. This is from his post on The Beauty of Truth.

Ultimately I think this relates to the incarnation itself, where Word and Spirit embrace. Word.. the logia, the rational dimension.. and Spirit.. the power, the energy, the life. When these two embrace, we have something qualitatively different than when they stand alone.

Isn’t it interesting that much of our Scripture is written in poetry, and nearly all the prophets are also poets?

De-Pathologizing Doubt

Here's a great post from Richard Beck about having religious doubts and how acknowledging them can be a good thing. It is part 9 from a series of posts on the psychology of belief. They are really good.

Out of the Question ...Into the Mystery

Here are a few quotes from Leonard Sweet's book Out of the Question ...Into the Mystery. This book has had an immense effect on me.

"The way to save the world is not through more rules to live by, but through right relationships to live for." p 1

"We have much to learn about the truth of God that is revealed only through relationships." p 9

"Ultimate reality can be experienced only in relationships...Christianity is much more than a wisdom tradition or a moral system or a path leading to higher states of existence." p16

"Few were so careless of orthodox formulas as Jesus, and there is something more than a little precious in affecting a greater concern for orthodoxy than his" p 17 (he quotes this from C. K. Barrett from The Signs of an Apostle, the Cato Lecture p88)

A Church Splits?

It appears that our church will be undergoing a split. I am 55 years old and have never seen such a thing first hand before. It appears to me that it is a matter of good people having honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion. I've always thought that many congregations in our fellowship separated over rather minor things and that breaking up and forming separate groups was always wrong. In this case, though, I think it may be best for all involved. Time will tell.

Church Singing

Anne Lamott describes church singing, when it's done right.

Then the singing enveloped me. It was furry and resonant, coming from everyone's heart. There was no sense of performance or judgement, only that the music was breath and food.

Its a pleasure to say in this instance "been there done that", one of life's great joys.

Traveling Mercies, Anchor Books 2000 edition page 48.

Cleveland Here I Come

I travel to Cleveland Monday for the 52nd International Instrumentation Symposium. Will give a tutorial on phosphor thermometry and other sensor applications, along with two of my colleagues. Its a great town. I've been to the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame already and NASA Glenn as well. This trip we'll get to visit a local brewery when the conference breaks for tours on Wednesday afternoon. Will be back Friday evening. Next trip: Berlin.

Unconscious Assumptions

Something else from A. N. Whitehead from the book Science and the Modern World (chapter II):

Each generation criticises the unconscious assumptions made by its parents. It may assent to them, but it brings them out in the open.

My generation of moderns will probably continue to duke it out over a liberal/conservative divide. It's my hope the younger crowd will move beyond this and get to the real business of saving the world.

And check this out too, its a list of ANW quotations.

I didn't rig this

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Intelligent Design and Alfred North Whitehead

ANW believes in evolution. The following comes from his Science and the Modern World, Chapter 6 - The Nineteenth Century .

The general principle is that in a new environment there is an evolution of the old entities into new forms.

and in the next paragraph

The main work, proceeding during this pause at the end of the nineteenth century, was the absorption of this doctrine (ANW's organic conception of evolution) as guiding the methodology of all branches of science. By a blindness which is almost judicial as being a penalty affixed to hasty, superficial thinking, many religious thinkers opposed the new doctrine;

But ANW is an anti-materialist. Continuing the sentence:

although, in truth, a thoroughgoing evolutionary philosophy is inconsistent with materialism. The aboriginal stuff, or material, from which a materialistic philosophy starts is incapable of evolution. This material is in itself the ultimate substance. Evolution, on the materialistic theory, is reduced to the role of being another word for the description of the changes of the external relations between portions of matter. There is nothing to evolve, because one set of external relations is as good as any other set of external relations. There can merely be change, purposeless and unprogressive.

Interesting. What would he say today about Intelligent Design? I think he defies common categories.

Science and the Modern World - Alfred North Whitehead

A few weeks ago I was rummaging around looking for a book when I discovered that I had a copy of Alfred North Whitehead's Science and the Modern World. This paperback book is so old it's list price was thirty five cent. Turns out, I bought it when in Memphis between '72 and '74 and had forgotten about it all these years.

I'm so happy I found it. I've been gravitating towards what he writes about. Not long before finding the book, I had even bought a book on process philosophy which he and Charles Hartshorne developed.

The book is full of marvelous insights. The language is wonderful.


The book is critical of scientism. It has a postmodern feel. From reading it you would not neccessariy know that he spent much of his life doing mathematics. He coauthored with Bertrand Russell (who adversely influenced me when I was younger) a massive tome the Principia Mathematica in which they take about 70 pages to prove that 1 is greater than 0, or some such thing.

By the time he wrote this book (published when he was about 64), he had crossed the channel and become a Harvard philosophy professor.

He criticizes a mechanical view of the universe. I recall that his old buddy Russell once said something about us being an accidental collocation of atoms, or something like that. Whitehead on the other hand recognizes that there is more. There is no light or color as a fact in external nature. There is merely motion of material. He says that these things are the offspring of the mind. Nature gets credit which should in truth be reserved for ourselves; the rose for its scent; the nightingale for his song; and the sun for his radiance. The poets are interely mistaken. They should address their lyrics to themselves, and should turn them into odes of self-congratulation on the excellency of the human mind. Nature is a dull affair, soundless, scentless, colourless; merely the hurrying of material, endlessly, meaninglessly.

The book is definitely postmodern, even though written in 1925.

I'll post more on this book. Gotta get to work now.

Creation, Wisdom and the Mystical

Striking quote by way of Gideon Strauss' blog. Check out his site, his neocalvinism links, and the New Pantagruel.

Creation not only exists, it also discharges truth. ... Wisdom requires a surrender, verging on the mystical, of a person to the glory of existence.

Gerhard Von Rad

I find this edifying

From an article by Len Hjalmarson and Rob McAlpine

"What are some of the facets of postmodern culture that offer a unique opportunity for the Gospel? Let's list them:

* recognition of the essentially spiritual nature of life
* openness and desire for community
* rejection of authority in position and acceptance of authority in relationship
* emphasis on participation over spectator mentality
* leadership by wisdom and example not knowledge or position
* emphasis on practical answers, "walk" over "talk"
* emphasis on journey and process over goal
* desire for experience over knowledge, the "subjective" and mystical dimension
* spontaneous order over rational structure, webs of connection and meaning
* recognition of truth in paradox, images and story "

Yet Another Transitional Fossil

Chris Heard states pretty well how i feel about the matter.

The fossil is Tiktaalik roseae.