In case a visitor to this blog hasn’t already followed a link from one of the numerous other blogs that have linked this article, here’s the Catholic Medical Association’s letter regarding the current scandal in the church.
TULIP II
Thanks to Carrifex for this link to Transformation TULIP. Here’s an interesting quote from this engaging article:
In such a context I would suggest that we always follow this hermeneutical rule: if our reading of Scripture always confirms our worldview and if the Scriptures never surprise, confuse, upset or disorient us, then we are undoubtedly misreading the Scriptures. A sure sign of ideology is when the Bible only functions as a text of orientation in our lives. If this text never disorients us, then it will never then have the resources to provide us with reorientation in changing and confusing cultural contexts.
There is another dimension of this loss of biblical dynamism that merits comment. One of the consequences of an ideological worldview and an ideological approach to the biblical text is that paradoxically the text tends to lose its currency in our lives. Moreover, I have observed that many of those who talk long and loud about biblical authority seldom find it necessary to deeply engage this text. You can see how this works. Once you think that you know what the Bible says, all that is left is to proclaim the authority of the Bible ever loudly. You don’t have to actually read the text or struggle with it because you already know what it is going to say. Sadly, however, what is really proclaimed as authoritative is not the Bible but the ideological worldview that we impose upon this text.
With the loss of biblical vitality, not only does the worldview become repressively ideological, the community also succumbs to biblical illiteracy. And when that happens, the death of the church and the various ministries and cultural expressions of the Christian community, including the Christian school, is not far behind.
Below the belt
Ouch! Look, I had an excuse. It’s been total chaos on hornes.org… some of my posts (and my brother’s) were lost. In fact, approximately 40 posts were lost… and strangely, the ones lost were randomly interspersed with posts that survived, making it look like I rarely blog. Seriously. No kidding. Truly. True.
Unintended Consequences
A search on Google for “cogito ergo” yields a hit on my blog with the following summary text provided:
… Friday, December 28, 2001. “Poopie’s hiding. He’s having lunch. He’s eating a poptart.” My soon …
Of all the possible entries to dislocate from its original context, why that one?
Arrogance
Despair.com has outdone themselves.
JRR Tolkien tribute
Here’s the concluding paragraph in a fascinating tribute to JRR Tolkien by Gene Wolfe, the main part of which is well worth the read (link courtesy KATA IWANNHN).
It need not be so. We might have a society in which the laws were few and just, simple, permanent, and familiar to everyone — a society in which everyone stood shoulder-to-shoulder because everyone lived by the same changeless rules, and everyone knew what those rules were. When we had it, we would also have a society in which the lack of wealth was not reason for resentment but a spur to ambition, and in which wealth was not a cause for self-indulgence but a call to service. We had it once, and some time in this third millennium we shall have it again; and if we forget to thank John Ronald Reuel Tolkien for it when we get it, we will already have begun the slow and not always unpleasant return to Mordor. Freedom, love of neighbour, and personal responsibility are steep slopes; he could not climb them for us — we must do that ourselves. But he has shown us the road and the reward.
Fun ‘n’ Games
Mark’s anniversary
Smoking
When I came across a link to A Smoker’s Paradise on jh3k and saw that the author’s name was Micah Weedman, I thought the whole thing was a setup for a bad joke. Come on! Micah Weedman writing on smoking? Smoking what?
It is actually a rather interesting article.