Chaos in St. Louis

 

I am moving to yet another city named after the French king, Louis IX. This time it is St. Louis, MO. I’ve been accepted to study at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) for a MA in Philosophy. I’ll probably also do some coursework at St. Louis University and also Concordia Seminary.

UMSL’s philosophy department focuses primarily on philosophy of science and metaphysics and is ranked in the top 10 MA programs in the English-speaking academic community by the The Philosophical Gourmet Report.

Somehow in the middle of all of this maybe I’ll learn something about Louis IX. (Hey, anyone who thinks of himself as the “lieutenant of God on Earth” is bound to do something that grabs peoples attention.)

I’m waiting to sell my house, so if anyone is looking for a great 3br, 2 1/2 bt home on the ea

st end of Louisville please email!

I’ve gotta get my grades up

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There’s Humor in Theology 24

As Calvinism becomes more mainstream in evangelicalism, inevitably it will be communicated by some rather interesting  bizzarre characters (for anecdotal evidence of Calvinism’s mainstream status, see this article in CT by Collin Hansen, or a fuller account by the same author, see Young, Restless, Reformed).

A little scared? Well, you’re not alone. Hansen shares the story of one young woman who understands how you feel: “Nothing in her evangelical upbringing prepared Laura Watkins for John Piper. ‘I was used to a very conversational preaching style,’ said Watkins, 21. ‘And having someone wave his arms and talk really loudly made me a little scared.’ Watkins shouldn’t be embarrassed. Piper does scare some people.”

Picture by Tominthebox

Logic Riddles

Two professors at a math conference stand in front of a blackboard, on which is written the sentence “Only an idiot would believe a sentence like this!” The first professor asks the second, “Do you believe that?” The second answers, “Of course not! Only an idiot would believe a sentence like this!”

Or how about this one….

There Are Two Errors in the
the Title of This Book

Or…

1. No cat has eight tails.
2. A cat has one more tail than no cat.
∴ A cat has nine tails.

Was Christ Forsaken by His Father?

If you are a Christian you most likely hold a belief that goes something like this: during his crucifixion, Jesus Christ was forsaken by God the Father who, due to his intoleration of sin, “turned his back” on Christ as Christ took on himself the sin of the world by penal substitution.

The textual support offered for this doctrine is Christ’s quotation of Psalm 22:1 - ”My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34). Usually this verse is considered to be the showstopper for the question of whether Christ was forsaken by his Father. Despite the initial force of this interpretation there’s more to this issue than meets the eye since it faces challenges at both the exegetical and the theological level.

Exegetical Problems

The primary exegetical problem for this God-forsaken interpretation (pun intended) comes from the theme of the whole of Psalm 22. The psalm is not a psalm of despair and abandonment by God. The conclusion of the psalm indicates that the psalmist is confident of God’s presence and attention to his suffering:

Karl Barth Audio Lecture

I recently stumbled across this English audio lecture by Karl Barth on Evangelical theology. It’s moving. It’s inspiring. It’s profound. It’s convicting. It’s comforting. It’s powerful. Enjoy!

Luther, the Jews, and the Holocaust

We live in a post-Holocaust world. One of the consequences of this is that many people think that anything that even smells like anti-Semitism must in fact be anti-Semitism. We are right to express serious concern over the seeds of Jewish hatred because we have seen the devastation to which it can lead and have seen how deep that hatred can go. However, as valid as this concern may be, many have let it shape their reading of pre-Holocaust history and claim to see anti-Semitism where it doesn’t truly exist. This is true in the case of much of the historical scholarship that seeks to explain just how German Nationalism came about and what historical ideologies led to the Holocaust. One explanation commonly offered is that Martin Luther’s writings on the Jews was the precursor to late nineteenth, and early twentieth-century German anti-Semitism and that the ideological program for the Holocaust was energized by these writings.

There’s Humor in Theology 23

Once again Luther proves to be an abundant supply of theological humor. This advice is similar to what he said on other occasions (See “There’s Humor in Theology 5“).

Seek out the society of your boon companions, drink, play, talk bawdy, and amuse yourself. One must sometimes commit a sin out of hate and contempt for the Devil, so as not to give him the chance to make one scrupulous over mere nothings… (Martin Luther, LW 20, 5

Some Christians will no doubt find this strange if not ungodly advice. How could someone encourage someone to sin, and how could sinning show hate and contempt for the Devil? Others, perhaps out of an affection for Luther’s theology, might seek to exonerate Luther by pointing out that none of the things in Luther’s list are necessarily sins. It is no sin in itself to seek out one’s closest companions, nor is it a sin to drink (I rightly presume that he means alchoholic beverages). “Play” is a bit vague, but it is close to our contemporary admonition to “have fun.” I myself can find nothing necessarily sinful about talking bawdy. I cannot produce any cut-and-dry prohibition against the occasional use of George Carlin’s seven words in an accepting environment (of course one doesn’t even to have to go to George Carlin levels to be said to “talk bawdy”). To amuse oneself is certainly not necessarily sinful.

Not So Neutral

This post has been sitting incomplete in my writing files for more than a year. I just needed a reason to complete it. Thanks to the discussion on the previous post, “Common Misconceptions of the Christmas Story” I was given new motivation and food for thought to complete it. Now, it is never been my custom to use a post to criticize a commentator on my blog, but the comments on the previous post have opened the question of how we should understand the intersection of evidence, presuppositions, and interpretation and have overconfidently criticized much of the theology expressed on this blog. For this reason, I find it necessary to explore some of the claims made.

Common Misconceptions of the Christmas Story

A good case can be made that this post is a bit untimely (not unlike my family’s Christmas cards which haven’t gone out yet), but I find that there’s a benefit in looking at this subject post-Christmas season. For one, the chances of yule-tide sentimentality obstructing a sober-minded look at the events of the Christmas story are certainly diminished.

I love the Christmas season as much as the next person, but every year as I pass road-side nativities and receive Christmas cards with silhouetted images of the holy family, I am reminded of the flaunted Christian ignorance of the events of Christ’s birth. This picture (left) represents what I think is a typical depiction of the nativity scene of the birth of Christ. The events identified in the picture is commonly what we find Christians believe about the birth of Christ. 

My interest in exposing and correcting the apocryphal Hallmark-card understanding of Jesus birth (which I will hereafter dub the mythical view) comes about for several reasons: 

Strange Google Searches: the Lutheran Edition

What do Lutherans and metaphysics have in common?

Uh….

Can Lutherans get drunk?

No, we cannot. We have a built in alchohol governor designed to measure alchohol intake and automatically shut off the inhibiting effects of alchohol just before we reach drunkeness. This is why you see lots of buzzed Lutherans but not very many drunk ones. Become a Lutheran and the Holy Spirit will develop within you the inability to reach inebriation. This is what Lutherans call sanctification.

How to find a church without traditions

Good luck…evangelical.

Martin Luther on dispensationalism

I suppose we should also try to find out what Newton thought about the atom bomb or the string theory of the universe. Or maybe what Jefferson thinks about the creation of a Palestinian state. I’m only kidding. The honest answer to this query is that Luther thought the same about dispensationalism as Paul did.

Lutheran sacramental confusion

There are two ways to take this inquiry: either the person is looking for information on the ways in which Lutherans are confused about the sacraments (in which case I can’t help much) or the person is looking for information on the ways in which the confusion occurs on the part of non-Lutherans about the Lutheran view of the sacraments (in which case I will gladly explain this confusion and point out a great deal of anecdotal information from this blog).

Law and Gospel According to Johnny Cash

I hate country music. I hate its general lack of musical and lyrical depth and its snivling whine over the same worn out issues. There is one exception to this paradigm: Johnny Cash. To me there is something mystic, something possessing, something downright hymalaan about the music of Johnny Cash (though he is still country enough to include the obligatory song about a man who’s dog died and wife left him). I recognize that the music of Cash is a benign experience for many (mostly those with a hole in their soul such as my wife, Emily), but when you are among those caught by it you know that you owe something to it and it demands payment. Cash demands that you be stripped of your excuses and forces you to confront what’s inside yourself - not because he preaches from a platform of elitist piety - but because he is a man stripped of his own excuses and unfolding before you is a man confronting himself. When you listen to his music, you are evesdropping on his own internal conflict and sometimes his own wrestling with God and when the dust settles you find that you were somehow dragged into it. When you witness a confession and the laying bare of so much humanity it incites you to join in the guilt and shame.

Winter Hope

I used to write rather mediocre poetry. I still write rather mediocre poetry, but fortunately for others I don’t write it as often. Here’s something that came to me as I was looking out on a dreary, winter day. If you don’t like amateur poetry just move on…

“Winter’s Hope”

Grey, bleak, wind-blown,
Tenebrous, dull, leaf-strown

Winter stirs malaise of soul,
Bane to thoughts of summer year,
Illumines dolor on the whole,
And mitigates all Christmas cheer.

Each leafless tree proclaims them dead
The many things I wish would last.
Not only nature’s dappled spread
But my own fleating, hopeful past.

My hopes to rise above the gloom
May yet find reasons to rejoice.
For many winter souls felt doom
And heard from cattle stall the voice

Of infant King of humble birth
Who strikes the pain of winter’s deeds.
His own soul’s grief was turned to mirth
When dawning morn from grave proceeds.

The wint’ry night turns summer day
In the joint of earth and heav’n.
How then shall I in sorrow lay
When such a promised joy is giv’n?

Hay, reak, sheep-bleat,
In manger find the mercy seat.