The following is an excerpt from a paper (The Politics of Pilgrimage) that I’ll be presenting at Wheaton this Saturday. Most of the paper is literary criticism, but this one section sets the stage for the theme I tease out of the literature I engage—pilgrimage as an interpretive category for the Christian life.
___________________
[...] For a [...]
Tags: centrality, dissemination of knowledge, grand visions, human society, literary criticism, pilgrimage, political purpose, political vision, tower of babel, wheaton
We Protestants enjoy asserting the ordinariness of Mary (the mother of Jesus), her humanity, the sinfulness we assume to be her natural portion. Riding on the (diminishing but powerful) tide of Reformation politics, we mostly avoid meditating on the person of Mary as distinct from other people, instead preferring to meditate upon her as similar [...]
Tags: baby jesus, Body of Christ, christ on the cross, confrontation, elders, election, expectation, Gabriel, god, Israel, Jesus, jesus in the temple, Mary, mary the mother of jesus, messiah, night, parental perspective, prophecies, prophecy, protestants, reformation, simeon, stumbling block, Value
This morning was the first instance of our experiment in communal prayer and meditation. I almost forgot! But one of the brotherhood stopped by my room a little before 10:00 to ask if we could do it together. Already the value of accountability is making itself known.
It was strange feeling our way toward an appropriate [...]
Tags: accountability, brother, brotherhood, chaff, communal prayer, discipline, disintegration, god, green leaf, implantation, prayer and meditation, prosperity, psalm 1, unity
Blowing me away with their enthusiasm, my guys agreed to the devotional experiment. We talked about the regularity a community of practice will help us maintain in our spiritual discipline, and we talked about the difficult, sometimes dry, task of meditation. Then we watched the Can I Have Your Number? clip as an example of [...]
Tags: brotherhood, communal prayer, Devotion, god, meditation, psalm, psalter, rich blessing, spirit, spiritual discipline, tight community
The “reformational” thought rampant at Dordt demonizes, among other things, “dualisms.” This term of opprobrium extends, in reformational thought, to things like body/soul, work/worship, nature/grace, etc. But two dualities are endorsed: God/Creation, and Good/Evil.
Sometimes thinkers in this tradition point to a “supernaturalistic view of miracles” as an example of an improper dualism. This line of [...]
Tags: dualism, dualities, emergency measure, god creation, history of christianity, human sense, Incarnation, interruption, miracle, Miracles, miraculous occurrence, paradoxes, providence
Here in the Dutch Reformed atmosphere of Dordt College, my ecclessially ambiguous self has been given the job of Resident Assistant to about 30 guys. Part of my job is leading a “wing bible study.” Tonight we’ll meet for the first time—myself and the ten or so guys who wanted to participate—and we’ll discuss how [...]
Tags: bible study, bonhoeffer, communion, Devotion, dorm, environs, job, prayer and meditation, resident assistant
James Smith speculates that the role of the Christian university should be to produce doubt.
The Ten Points of Evangelical Calvinism / the Rest of Bobby Grow’s new blog, as well.
Halden speculates about what freaking out tells us about Conservatism.
The results of the Worst Preacher Ever 2009 are in…
Why books are better.
Tags: blog, calvinism, christian university, Conservatism, doubt, preacher, Sundries
Is it disrespectful (or perhaps merely amateurish) to talk about why we enjoy certain kinds of inquiry? Or is it bad form these days to treat study, like meals, as a source of pleasure as well as a regimen or diet? I enjoy theology, philosophy, literature, and music. I also have certain overweaning impulses to [...]
Tags: flavors, good books, good company, good manners, intuitions, knees, old men, philosophers, prose style, spectators, theologians, Theology, word of god
“Here’s how I wander about at home [rather than wandering about on long and expensive pilgrimages to pray at shrines]. I go into the living room and see that my daughter’s chastity is safe. Coming out of there into my shop, I watch what my servants, male and female, are doing. Then to the kitchen [...]
Tags: colloquies, Erasmus, pilgrimage, religious culture, satire
