Another Quote from Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Because for some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live an die. page 15

Discovered in a Walnut Ridge AR Antique Store

Last Monday, while in Arkansas visiting my folks, we trekked a few miles down to road to Cross Roads Antiques in Walnut Ridge where I found a hardbound copy of the1994 book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Am half way through it. It talks about writing - how to do it - and I found it to be a great help to me already. Here's one quote, a bit of food for thought.

"One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around."

These are good things to do even if you are not a writer.

William James and Doubt - It's a Good Thing

"This review not only clearly records James's impatience with determinism but shows his new agility - which owes much to Renouvier in particular - in turning pejorative terms into positive concepts. 'Doubt itself is an active state,' says James, and he quotes Renouvier for support: 'The radical sign of will, the essential mark of that achieved development which makes man capable of speculating on all things and raises him to his dignity of an independent and autonomous being, is the possibility of doubt.' "

from page 177 ch 27 The Trouble with Herbert Spencer of "William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism" by R. D. Richardson.


So it seems that doubt is a path to knowledge and progress.

William James was Depressed

I suppose I've always had the subconscious opinion that famous productive people live their entire lives self confident and psychologically healthy. It has been helpful to me to learn that the famous psychologist William James was depressed for most of the time from his twenties until his late thirties. He wrestled with it for a long time. I'm reading a biography of him ( "William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism" by R. D. Richardson.) and he is now in his late thirties, recently married, and it looks like he is finally going to win this battle.

Meister Eckart

Why do I find this fascinating? It is a quote from Meister Eckart.

I am as certain as I live that nothing is so close to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to my own self; my life depends upon God's being near me, present in me. So is he also in a stone, a log of wood, only they do not know it.

This is from page 511 of Campbell's book cited in the two previous posts.

Erich Smallwood

A close friend of two of my nephews in Northeast Arkansas is killed in Iraq. His name was Erich Smallwood. We honor you Erich.

Cool Quotes while thumbing through Soul Tsunami

Knowledge is both objective and participatory - Chemist Ilya Prigogine

Live with your century, but do not be its creature; render to your contemporaries what they need, not what they praise. - Poet Frederich von Schiller

from the first chapter of Soul Tsunami by Leonard Sweet

Rob Shaver visits Ocean Springs MS

My sister's son, Rob Shaver, visited Al Sturgeon of Ocean Springs, MS last week. I had visited Al's blog some time ago but had no idea that he was Rob's former basketball coach. The blog is Minutes to Memories and the May 23rd entry describes their visit which I reproduce here, minus the picture.

Then, best of all, my old friend Rob Shaver arrived from Arkansas to hang out with us for a while! Rob was my star point guard back in 1994 when we won our conference and had a spectacular season. He was an unbelievably quick, long-range bomber who scored points like John Dobbs collects blogs! In addition, he was a deep-thinking young man with whom I shared a lot of great conversations. A lot has changed since 1994. I hadn't seen Rob in ten years, and in that time he nearly died with Stage 4 cancer. In that battle, he had his left shoulder blade removed, and in awful irony, he can't lift his left arm high enough to even shoot a basketball anymore. But more importantly, it is inspiring to hear Rob talk about how cancer changed his life for the better - his new lease on life has translated into an even deeper place from which he approaches life.

Garden

In our backyard by the fence. Dorothy's flowers. This is VISUAL MUSIC. I am more of an auditory music person than a visual music person. But even I can appreciate this.

Return to the Source

Jan Van Ruysbroek, "the great Flemish mystic", said:

Knowledge of ourselves teaches us from whence we come, where we are and where we are going. We come from God and we are in exile.


I lifted this quote from The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience by Ralph Metzner


This theme comes up from all kinds of places, including the Gospel of Thomas.

Old Age and Mysticism

Occasionally in the past thirty plus years of my life, I would recall that I had read somewhere that a man becomes a mystic in his old age. I would wonder and hope that perhaps there is truth to mysticism and that a skeptical streak within me was a necessary stage along the way of a life's journey.

At last, when sitting in a restaurant Berlin last spring and reading an elementary dual English/German book*, I found the quote that spurred this thinking. It was a passage by Goethe.


Every age of man has its own appropriate philosophy. The child appears as a realist....The youth...is transformed into an idealist....the man has every reason for becoming a skeptic...The old man, however, will always espouse mysticism.


Maybe he is right. I used to think that mysticism was about believing things that were not true. I now believe it is about experiencing and perceiving certain things. I have not had those experiences. Or, perhaps I have had and don't yet know or remember it. Mysticism is fluid and paradoxical like that. I have more to learn.

* First German Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book ed. by H. Steinhauer. Library of Congress Number 64-7673. page 89-90.

Women as Church Administrators

The post below was made by the late Dr. Ken Schrable on the BereanSpirit newsgroup on Tue Oct 15, 2002 9:18 pm

This was a year or so before his death. He was a psychologist who was originally from the area around Mammouth Spring, AR. and was raised in the Church of Christ there. He attended Pepperdine and was a university administrator in the Northeast, if I recall correctly.

-----------
----- Original Message -----
From: "swallison"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 5:53 AM
Subject: [BereanSpirit] Re: Woman as Administrators -- Secret of the
Universe


--- In BereanSpirit@y..., "Kenneth Shrable" wrote:
>
>...............
>
> TO: Steve Allison
> FROM: Kenneth Shrable
Steve, I inadvertently deleted your follow up post which
clarified further your statement above to the effect that "'the instructions
from Paul (concerning women) were clearly a function of his time and place"
and your later post explicated the basis for "it would be a great thing to
have women elders". I wish to agree with what I judge to be your thesis but
propose a variation in wording. .............
>
Grace, in Christ
Kenneth Shrable
Vancouver, WA


Thanks for the many interesting thoughts, Ken. They evoke a number of
feelings on my part. It is instructive that you mention the word
"elder" along with other offices of ancient times like
"procurator" etc. And, that they had a complex of meanings for people
living in
those times in their specific cultural situation. In order to
understand our scriptures and our heritage, it helps to know as much
as possible about the world of our first century spiritual forbears.
It helps to know what they meant with such terms. The frustrating
thing is that we know so little. In addition, knowledge about those
times is growing but difficult to access. You point out that the
qualifications for elders are similar to those for Roman Army
officers. You cite a book reference for that. I am sure there is
lots of relevant information on this topic but most of us do not have
easy access to the kinds of libraries that would have the kinds of
books and periodicals necessary to dig it out. It is hard work to put
it all together.

TO: Steve Allison
FROM: Kenneth Shrable

Steve, forgive my delay in responding to your thoughtful comments.
I will provide you with an abbreviated summary of the reference which I made
to Onosander's statements about the qualifications for a general. Liddell
and Scott (Greek-English Lexicon) reference the time of Onosander as the
beginning of the first century A.D. This would place him just prior to the
time of Jesus and the apostles.

There are discussions of the comparison between Onosander and the
Pastoral Epistles with regard to the qualifications of a general and that
of the overseer in first Timothy 2 and Titus 1 in several scholarly
publications. An extended treatment of this topic can be found in the
commentary by Martin Dibelius and Hans Conzelman in the Hermeneia Series.
The qoute from Onosander is in the Hermeneia volume on the pastoral epistles
published by Fortress Press in 1972. The discussion of the qualifications
of the general as listed by Onosander is found on pages 158 through 160. I
will quote the opening paragraph on page 158. Onosander writes as follows:

"I believe, then, that we must choose a general, not because of noble birth
as priests are chosen, nor because of wealth as the superintendents of the
gymnasia, but because he is temperate, self-restrained, vigilant, frugal,
hardened to labor, alert, free from avarice, neither too young nor too old,
indeed a father of children if possible, a ready speaker, and a man with a
good reputation. "

Steve, the requirements of a tested and mature person for leadership
as expressed by Onosander seem self-evident in the culture of the period of
our NT. In other words, the culture understood such matters as the
requirement of demonstrated maturity when it came to the social role of
leader. What I find of most interest is the fact that both Paul and
Onosander provide an introductory statement concerning the importance of the
office in question and then take up their qualifications. Onosander follows
his abbreviated listing of the qualifications with an extended statement of
a rationale for each of his qualities. Similarly, Paul introduces his qualif
ication list with a statement of the importance or nobility of the office
and then provides a rationale for at least three of his stated qualities.
For example, 1 Timothy 3:4-5 provides a rationale for the requirement of
household management. First Timothy 3:6 also provides a rationale for the
requirements that one not be a novice. Again, in 1 Timothy 3:7 there is a
rationale given for requiring the overseer to have a good reputation. What
I find of interest is that the apostle seems to follow the format found in
Onosander except for the fact that Onosander provides a rationale for each
of the qualifications which he lists.

There are important similarities as well as significant differences
between the two lists just as one would expect. The apostle Paul has his
focus on the matter of proper conduct in the household of God (1 Tm. 3:15)
and his statement of qualifications would be expected to pertain closely to
the office in question wherein the example of Jesus as Lord and servant
leader would be foremost. In order that you might have a feel for the
fascinating way one can compare these two lists of leadership qualifications
from the first century, I will cite the qualification with regard to
reputation which gives the flavor of the way Paul and Onosander elaborate on
the statement of qualifications.

(Paul in 1 Timothy 3: 7). "He (the overseer) must also have (qualification)
a good reputation with outsiders, so that (rationale for qualification) he
will not fall into disgrace and into the Devils' trap" .

(Onosander. ). "The general should be (qualification) a man of good
reputation, because (rationale for qualification) the majority of men, when
placed under the command of unknown generals, feel uneasy. For no one
voluntarily submits to a leader or an officer who is an inferior man to
himself. It is absolutely essential, then, that a general be such a man, of
such excellent traits of character as I have enumerated, and besides this,
that he have a good reputation".

Steve, I hope this will be helpful in supplying the information of interest.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, J.W. McGarvey published a small
volume on the eldership in which he contends that the qualifications for the
elder are both general and specific. For example, the requirement "apt (or
able) to teach" would be both general and specific; in that ability to
teach, though somewhat generalizable, would vary with the constituency of
the congregation in question. Similarly, reputation will be both general in
an abstract sense and specific to a given community. One could extend
consideration to the way we might specify leadership qualities in a
community in a third world country versus the leader qualities required in
an advanced Western Democracy. Social roles are somewhat culturally
specific, as I would understand them.

Thank you for your kind comments.

Grace, in Christ
Kenneth Shrable

Onosander's list of Qualifications for a General

Below is a list of qualifications for a general that was written about the time of Jesus birth. You will note a similarity with Paul's list of qualifications for elders.

--------------
Onosander, De imperatoris officio*

1. I believe, then, that we must choose a general, not because of noble birth as priests are chosen, nor because of wealth as the superintendents of the gymnasia, but because he is temperate, self-restrained, vigilant, frugal, hardened to labour, alert, free from avarice, neither too young nor too old, indeed a father of children if possible, a ready speaker, and a man with good reputation.

2. The general must be temperate in order that he may not be so distracted by the pleasures of the body as to neglect the consideration of matters of the highest importance.

3. He must be self-restrained, since he is to be a man of so great authority; for the licentous impulses, when combined with the authority which confers the power of action, become uncontrollable in the gratification of the passions.

4. Vigilant, that he may spend wakeful nights over the most important projects; for at night, as a rule, with the mind at rest, the gneral perfects his plans.

5. Frugal, since expensive attendance upon th eluxurious tastes of commanders consumes time unprofitably and causes resources to waste away.

6. Hardened to labour, that he may not be the first but the last of the army to grow weary.

7. Alert, for the general must be quick, with swiftness of mind darting at every subject - quick, as Homer says, 'as a bird, or as thought.' For very frequently unexpected disorders arise which may compel him to decide on the spur of the moment what is expedient.

8. Free from avarice; for this quality of freedom from avarice will be valued most highly, since it is largely responsible for the incorruptible and large-minded management of affairs. For many who can face the shields and spears of a host with courage are blinded by gold; but gold is a strong weapon against the enemy and effective for victory.

9. Neither too young nor too old; since the young man does not inspire confidence, the old man is feeble, and neither is free from danger, the young man lest he err through reckless daring, the older lest he neglect something through physical weakness...

12. I should prefer our general to be a father, though I would not refuse a childless man, provided he be a good man. For if he happens to have young children, they are potent spells to keep his heart loyal, availing to bind him to the fatherland. . .

13. A ready speaker; for I believe that the greatest benefit can accrue from the work of a general only through this gift. For if a general is drawing up his men before battle, the encouragement of his words makes them despise the danger and covet the honour; . . . 16. No city at all will put an army in the field without generals nor choose a general who lacks the ability to make an effective speech.

17. The general should be a man of good reputation, because the majority of men, when placed under the command of unknown generals, fee uneasy. For no one voluntarily submits to a leader or an officer who is an inferior man to himself. 18. It is absolutely essential, then, that a general be such a man, of such excellent traits of character as I have enumerated, and besides this, that he have a good reputation.

*from the commentary by Martin Dibelius and Hans Conzelmann, The Pastoral Epistles, page 158-160, Fortress Press, 1972, ISBN-0-8006-6002-1.

Women Make Good Church Leaders

Here is part of a post (August 16) by a blogger calling themself "anthropos" at the Blog called "Theo Sunergos". It gives a succint list of reasons for women leading in the church. I've seen a lot of well reasoned articles on this but this list provides a greathard hitting summary, easy to remember and easy to communicate. I came across anthropos at another interesting site, The Church and Postmodern Culture.

Biblical Support for Female Leadership in the Church

1. Men and women are created in the image of God.
2. All four Gospel's record women as the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.
3. At Pentecost the spirit of prophecy fell upon both men and women.
4. Junia was recognized by Paul as an apostle herself.
5. In Christ the distinction between male and female is overcome.
6. There are numerous scriptural references to women excercising leadership in the early church.
7. Passages in the NT in traditionally thought to be in opposition to female leadership in the church are either interpolations or capable of being interpreted in non-oppositional ways, and with good reason.

The Way People Do Church is Changing

And I'm glad.

See Wade Hodges post to his blog. He has an article in Leadership Journal about it. For example, they have changed the name of his church from the Garnett Church of Christ to the Garnet Event Center. Quite a few other churches now use/rent their facility. This sharing of resources sounds great to me. Interesting things are happening.