Saturday, March 29, 2008

Volf, Dawkins, Wright, Smith, Derrida, and Tim.

My friend Tim Barenscheer and I have been highly involved with each other's development as we journey through our philosophical wonderings and thoughts on the Kingdom of God. It's a beautiful thing having a contemporary and friend with whom honesty and vulnerability exist genuinely without pretense. I've been sharing my thoughts with Tim about my "Premodern, Modern, and Postmodern Philosophy" course including readings from Roxburgh's The Sky is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition, Dawkins' The God Delusion, and James K.A. Smith's Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church. Tim has been conversing with Caputo's What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church and has given me two of N.T. Wright's volumes, Jesus and the Victory of God and The New Testament and the People of God, that I've been wanting and will work through this summer following my course. I gave Tim Miroslav Volf's The End of Memory. Anyone desiring to have a greater understanding of Jesus, culture, and the Kingdom of God may want to check out any or all of the aforementioned texts.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

"Everything is Spiritual."

If everything is spiritual then nothing is spiritual because nothing is by its own existence something and therefore has to be part of everything. To say that nothing is spiritual is to affirm to a greater degree that everything is indeed spiritual.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Success makes me happy?

What is success?
What is happiness?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Top 5: Best Film, Athletic Theme

Top Five: Best Film, Athletic Theme
5. Rudy
4. Hoosiers
3.
Remeber the Titans
2. We Are Marshall
And the SRWGFA (Subversive Reformation Writers Guild Film Award) goes to:
1. Miracle

Top Five: Rocky Films
4. Rocky II
5. Rocky I
3. Rocky III
2. Rocky Balboa
And the SRWGFA goes to:
1. Rocky IV

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

I did.

After much deliberation I did decide to vote this year (at least in the Ohio, March 4 election). I primarily decided to vote due to a tax levy for the Knox County MR/DD. I could have justified voting "no" but after much careful consideration, prayer, and dialogue with intelligent, informed friends, I did vote yes for the tax levy. My primary dilemna was one considering the role of the Church and the role of government. Another post will further unpack said dilemna. The only other position for which I voted was the Democratic Party presidential candidate. I voted for Barack Obama. Once again, another post will further unpack my decision.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Walter Brueggemann

Author and Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann will be teaching tonight at Mount Vernon Nazarene University @ 7:30 p.m. in the R.R. Hodges Chapel Auditorium. For all friends and acquaintances we will be gathering in our apartment (Oakwood Hall RD Apt.) immediately following the lecture for coffee, tea, and something else equally arbitrary.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The Greatest Film of All Time is...

Most award or reality TV shows wait until the end of the show or for the season finale to reveal the ultimate winner of any given competition. The "Subversive Reformation Writers Guild Film Awards" however is neither an award/reality TV show nor a competition. Rather, the SRWGFAs exist to rearticulate the goodness of good films. All bad films have already been completely dismissed.

The Greatest Film of All Time is...
BRAVEHEART (1995)

Here are the reasons why BRAVEHEART is the SRWGFA Greatest Film of All Time:

Narrator: I shall tell you of William Wallace. Historians from England will say I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hanged heroes.

Narrator: In the Year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland - starving and outnumbered - charged the fields of Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets; they fought like Scotsmen, and won their freedom.

Princess Isabelle: The king desires peace.
William Wallace: Longshanks desires peace?
Princess Isabelle: He declares it to me, I swear it. He proposes that you withdraw your attack. In return he grants you title, estates, and this chest of gold which I am to pay to you personally.
William Wallace: A lordship and titles. Gold. That I should become Judas?
Princess Isabelle: Peace is made in such ways.
William Wallace: Slaves are made in such ways. The last time Longshanks spoke of peace I was a boy. And many Scottish nobles, who would not be slaves, were lured by him under a flag of truce to a barn, where he had them hanged. I was very young, but I remember Longshank's notion of peace.

William Wallace: There's a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.

William Wallace: It's all for nothing if you don't have freedom.

Malcolm Wallace: Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it.

William Wallace: Every man dies, not every man really lives.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

The Week of the Interview.

A week of interviewing 64 candidates for Resident Assistant and Spiritual Life Assistant positions caused a brief hiatus in my posting. It is intriguing to experience different personalities communicating and expressing themselves in both individual and group interview settings. Psychological and sociological observations could be conducted in the setting of an interview. I was fascinated.

I was also highly encouraged to be reminded of the energy and passion that college students have to be servants and to love incoming students so that they may experience the love of Jesus.

Matthew 5:38-48, NASB

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone want to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only you brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."