Saturday, May 28, 2005

Yar! So much to do, so little time

I finished writing one of my two final essays. It started out being about Isidore of Seville (first Christian Encyclopedist) and ended up being about Neo-platonism and Nietzsche. Here is my conclusion:
The rejection of Ireland, Scotland, and Turkey as being genuinely European all have something to do with how Isidore’s worldview shaped Europe’s view of itself. McPharson’s wanting to enter the closed literary canon of Europe could in some way be connected with Isidore’s reliance on Neo-platonism, though the case for this is weak and the issue itself is more complex. Nietzsche is definitely reacting against Isidore’s way of thinking by attacking systems of value that are derived from the non-empirical. He is in some ways attacking the entire system of Europe and the West that emphasizes morals built off abstracts. Some of his other work also attacks order and logic. All that is left of the European idea is expansion.

So I have a sermon tomorrow, and it hasn't been written! Preaching tomorrow! Yarrr! And after that I still have a 15 page paper about the Binding of Isaac in the book of Jubilees. Yarr!
Peace,
Chris

Friday, May 27, 2005

Starwars parody, great fun

Lord tader, Cuke Skywalker, Ham Solo, Chewbroccoli, Tofu D2, and more. Check it out, it is worth a watch.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

A discussion about Miles view of Jesus' sexuality

I just finished Miles' section titled, "Interlude:The Asexuality of t he Father and the Sexuality of the Son." It was interesting, though not entirely for the theological stuff. The most interesting thing, in my mind, was the evolution of sexuality since Freud. Freud saw sex as, "highly personal, intensely subject-centered" "intenssely private." whereas "in our own era, sexual matters are decreasingly private, increasingly impersonal, and decreasingly consequential." "Everyone's sex life is just part of a large, collective, impersonal, well-understood, but ultimately meanginless process."
As I said in my response to Melancthon Miles talks first about God as the repression of sexual feelings in comparison to other dieties, but later on when he talks about Song of Songs, Ezekiel 16:25-41, 23, and so on he says God is kind of more sensual than the Greek gods. I found that a little weird, perhaps I'm misreading it slightly.
He also talks about Genesis 6:1-4, sons of God and such. He uses them to talk about the "sensuous immortals." He also lumps Adam into that as well, as he knows about his nudity (a sensous thing). Miles' point about the "sensuous immortals" is that whenever an immortal tries to have sex God snuffs them out. Miles contends the reason for this is simple, "everything sexual dies," and "everything that does not die is not sexual."
Well, I've messed around enough online for the day, I'm going to get to work, I have a sermon to write, and two 15 page papers to write as well.
Peace,
Chris

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Faulkner's speech

I think I've posted this before, but it is one of my favorites. I'm using a section of it as an introductory quote for my final project in Creative Writing.

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work--a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand where I am standing.

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed--love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Post about great professor who is leaving from a friend

We had a goodbye party for Timothy, a Professor at the U of O on Sunday night. It was really moving. He's an amazing man. Kevin said it better than I could.
Peace,
Chris

An email from a friend

Chris, I came across this quote in the New York Times
and, frankly, was shocked. I suppose I shouldn't have
been, but I've never seen the connection made so
blatantly between capitalism and Christianity - as
opposed to "anti-business" socialism?? What are your
thoughts? Would you be willing to share the quote with
other Christian friends for comment?


"Evangelical Christians have to be extremely cautious
about supporting any group that would sympathize with
a socialist or communist philosophy or world view,
which is completely in conflict with an Evangelical or
Christian world view."

Hmmmm ...

kyla
-Rev. Rob Schenck
-Faith and Action Christian Lobby Group, Wash. DC
-New York Times, 10 May 05


I also heard the representative of a Christian
organization comment, concerning efforts elsewhere in
the US to make crimes against gays Hate Crimes, that
this and other goals of the Civil Rights movement were
had over-stepped their bounds and were destroying
Christian values (blacks rights?!)

(I forgot to write down the title of the first article
- I'll get it for you. And I get an exact quote and
source for the second as soon as I can.)

This seems not surprisingly product of the
Conservative/ Christian union. At the same time so
grossly a perversion of Jesus' teachings!

Monday, May 23, 2005

Hebrew in Starwars

Yoda=The Knower
Ben Kenobi=Son of My Father is Cain (Qain Abi)(this was suggested by Prof. Falk.
Then there is some hebrew lettering on Vader's chestplate. An internet rumor claimed it said "His deeds will not be forgiven, until he merits" but Prof. Falk looked at it, the second line in upside down, pretty much gibberish.
Peace,
Chris

Sunday, May 22, 2005

I'm preaching next week

I'm preaching on Matthew 7:21-29 next Sunday. Should be interesting, as I need to find the good news in the fact that some who cry out "Lord Lord," will be told by Jesus that "I never knew thee. But those who do the WORKS of the father know me."
I could bust out a sermon against believer baptisms. Still, works... funny enough one of the other texts is Romans 3:22-28, where Paul is all "Works bad." Maybe I'll end up talking about parodoxes... We'll see.
Peace,
Chris