‘Yoder and the Work of Christian Theology’ →

Declan Kelly, reflecting on using John Howard Yoder’s contributions in theology without taking into account the type of life Yoder lived:

I approached his work entirely uncritically, and focussed solely on the fact that his exegesis of Scripture was convincing and convicting.

What I did was wrong, with or without the latest information regarding Yoder’s crimes (crimes for which he served no time in prison). To be uncritical is to cease to do the work of Christian theology. In truth, it is to cease to do the work of a Christian. A Christian is not a positive thinker. There should be no one more critical than a Christian, for there was no one more critical than Christ. We learn that from his first instruction as a wandering prophet: Repent! Why and how we do the work of criticism is another question, but there can be no question that it is work which must be done. The uncritical church will not be a “positive” influence in society. It will be a miserable place of secrecy and betrayal, with no hope of truthful communion.

(Via Kevin Hargaden)

John Mark Hicks’s Three Prayer Requests →

John Mark Hicks, writing for Wineskins:

(1) Pray for comfort and peace in Paris, but also in Beirut which was bombed the day before, families on the Russian airliner, and for Syria and Iraq where people suffer on a daily basis from the violence of ISIS.

I wonder why we painted our Facebook pages with French colors but not Lebanese or Russian. Perhaps I have some sense–we have a historic alliance with France….and because they are European…or perhaps the events in Paris are closer to home–they certainly are in terms of media coverage.

Whatever may be the case, we pray for France, but we also pray for everyone affected by ISIS’s violence. Perhaps this is a moment to deconstruct our Western centrism and embrace a desire for all human beings to live in peace. Consequently, we pray for all–including Syrians, Russians, and Iraqis–who have, in recent days, experienced the horror of ISIS violence.

Let us serve them as we are able.

I have lingering questions every time social media addresses tragedy with #PrayFor____. I appreciate John Mark’s specificity, as well as the appeal to a tangible action after each request.

‘The White Man in That Photo’ →

Moving story by Riccardo Gazzaniga, on Olympic racing, race, standing up for what you believe in—and suffering for it:

It’s a historic photo of two men of color. For this reason I never really paid attention to the other man, white, like me, motionless on the second step of the medal podium. I considered him as a random presence, an extra in Carlos and Smith’s moment, or a kind of intruder. Actually, I even thought that that guy – who seemed to be just a simpering Englishman – represented, in his icy immobility, the will to resist the change that Smith and Carlos were invoking in their silent protest. But I was wrong.

If you’re going to read one thing today, make it this. If you prefer, here’s the post in its original Italian.

Fu una gara bellissima, insomma.

After the story garnered so much attention, Riccardo got some pushback, to which he responds on his site (in English). Don’t miss the first comment, by Peter Norman’s nephew. What an amazing story.

(Via Alex Cone.)

Italo Calvino on Photographed Reality →

Maria Popova over at Brainpickings:

Through the words of one of his characters — a photographer named Antonino — Calvino channels the compulsive nature of our “aesthetic consumerism” and captures our tendency to leave the moment in the act of immortalizing it:

The line between the reality that is photographed because it seems beautiful to us and the reality that seems beautiful because it has been photographed is very narrow… The minute you start saying something, “Ah, how beautiful! We must photograph it!” you are already close to the view of the person who thinks that everything that is not photographed is lost, as if it had never existed, and that therefore, in order really to live, you must photograph as much as you can, and to photograph as much as you can you must either live in the most photographable way possible, or else consider photographable every moment of your life. The first course leads to stupidity; the second to madness.

Sins That Lead to Greatness →

Thoughtful, repentant piece by Brian Zahnd on Columbus Day:

Would it be too much to ask that we learn to lament the sins that made our greatness possible?

At least realize that we are all so deeply implicated in systemic sin that there are no quick fixes and there is no easy answer to the question of what justice looks like. We are all so deeply implicated that we should be quick to ask for mercy and slow to condemn anyone.

It's worth reading the whole article—he quotes both Columbus and Las Casas.

Every mention of Columbus Day in my Twitter timeline yesterday was critical of it (except for this more parodic slant). I wondered if what I saw was a reflection of a new majority position or simply self-selection based on who I follow. It may be some of both, and is probably the sort of argument where the only people vocal about it take an opposing stance. Still, I think more people are thinking before they launch a “Happy Columbus Day!” into the world.

Not Just Quality Time—Quantity Matters Too →

Pointed reflections by Frank Bruni, in an op-ed in the NYT:

There’s simply no real substitute for physical presence.

We delude ourselves when we say otherwise, when we invoke and venerate “quality time,” a shopworn phrase with a debatable promise: that we can plan instances of extraordinary candor, plot episodes of exquisite tenderness, engineer intimacy in an appointed hour.

We can try. We can cordon off one meal each day or two afternoons each week and weed them of distractions. We can choose a setting that encourages relaxation and uplift. We can fill it with totems and frippery — a balloon for a child, sparkling wine for a spouse — that signal celebration and create a sense of the sacred.

So it’s not just about a few undistracted minutes. Why?

But people tend not to operate on cue. At least our moods and emotions don’t. We reach out for help at odd points; we bloom at unpredictable ones. The surest way to see the brightest colors, or the darkest ones, is to be watching and waiting and ready for them.

(Via Craig Mod.)

NT Wright Speaks in Silicon Valley →

NT Wright spoke at Google back in June as part of the Talks at Google program. The first half is a lecture by the good professor himself. The second half is a question and answer session with people in the audience.

The context for this talk features two things I love: theology and technology. Along those lines, I liked this bit:

There’s a difference between information and wisdom.

I love that Wright was forced to speak with a different audience in mind. So often he speaks to Christians or others familiar with Christian jargon. The message in this talk was typical for him, but the way he went about it showed he was sensitive to the venue. Really cool.

Global Population Shifts By the Year 2100 →

Ana Swanson at the Washington Post:

The world is expected to add another billion people within the next 15 years, bringing the total global population from 7.3 billion in mid-2015 to 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion by 2100, according to new estimates from the UN.

Currently, 60 percent of the global population lives in Asia, 16 percent in Africa, 10 percent in Europe, 9 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and only 5 percent in North America and Oceania. China and India are the largest countries in the world, together making up almost 40 percent of the world population.

But those numbers won’t stay that way for long.

It’s all about Africa.

The UN’s projections for Africa are pretty mind-blowing. Africa is expected to more than double its population by 2100. Africa currently accounts for 16 percent of the global population. The UN expects that proportion to rise to 25 percent in 2050 and 49 percent by 2100.

These are astounding predictions. The charts that accompany the article help grasp the magnitude of the population shifts we‘re talking about. And though the year 2100 looks like an impossible date written out, it suddenly doesn’t sound too far off.

‘The Problem We All Live With’ →

Another incredible episode by the folks at This American Life.

Jason Kottke’s tweet sums it up well:

This American Life episode on a failing US school district is terrific, sad, and rage-inducing.

Rachel Held Evans With a 10-Question Rant About Boys’ and Girls’ Toys →

Speaking of the CBMW argument against Target, Rachel Held Evans asks them ten questions about their position. The questions are more provocative and rhetorical than designed to start a conversation, but numbers three and four get to the point I was making:

3) You say, “The Bible teaches that men are wired by God to protect and to pursue…” Where? Where does the Bible say this?

4) You say, “The Bible teaches that…women, on the other hand, are wired by God to nurture and be pursued…” Where? Where does the Bible say this?

It’s worth visiting the post if only for the video that kicks it off. Hilarious.

Hemingway: Know Everything →

Good collection of Hemingway quotes by Maria Popova at Brain Pickings:

In an observation particularly applicable to the sensationalist faux-grandeur of web journalism, Hemingway admonishes against the cult of the epic:

Mysticism implies a mystery and there are many mysteries; but incompetence is not one of them; nor is overwritten journalism made literature by the injection of a false epic quality. Remember this too: all bad writers are in love with the epic.

On novels infused with “intellectual musings”:

No matter how good a phrase or a simile he may have if he puts it in where it is not absolutely necessary and irreplaceable he is spoiling his work for egotism. Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over. For a writer to put his own intellectual musings, which he might sell for a low price as essays, into the mouths of artificially constructed characters which are more remunerative when issued as people in a novel is good economics, perhaps, but does not make literature. People in a novel, not skillfully constructed characters, must be projected from the writer’s assimilated experience, from his knowledge, from his head, from his heart and from all there is of him. If he ever has luck as well as seriousness and gets them out entire they will have more than one dimension and they will last a long time.

On the necessity and process of acquiring knowledge:

A good writer should know as near everything as possible. Naturally he will not. A great enough writer seems to be born with knowledge. But he really is not; he has only been born with the ability to learn in a quicker ratio to the passage of time than other men and without conscious application, and with an intelligence to accept or reject what is already presented as knowledge. There are some things which cannot be learned quickly and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a man’s life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave.

‘The Pixar Theory of Labor’ →

To live is to work is to live.

James Douglas, writing for The Awl:

It is in the nature of modern capitalism that corporations, especially ones of a certain size and influence, glaze a veneer of enlightenment over a brutal, instrumental value system. This is why Facebook and Google go on worldwide fishing expeditions for new users, but frame it publicly as bringing the internet and opportunity to the developing world; it’s why Whole Foods tells its customers they’re helping to save the planet by buying organically farmed produce, but often neglects to specify how far that produce has been shipped. Pixar has created a stable of films for children that is founded on narratives of self-actualization—of characters branching out, embracing freedom, hitting personal goals, and living their best lives. But this self-actualization is almost exclusively expressed in terms of labor, resulting in a filmography that consistently conflates individual flourishing with the embrace of unremitting work.

Interesting lens through which to understand Pixar movies.

African Cities Urbanizing at China-Speed →

Quartz Africa:

It’s easy to see China’s footprint in Africa. On the outskirts of Nairobi, a new highway built by a Chinese firm is crowded with bumper-to-bumper traffic, many of the cars set on tires imported from China. The landscape is dotted with construction sites and, every so often, the logo of another Chinese construction firm. Across the continent, Chinese companies are building highways, railways, sports stadiums, mass housing complexes, and sometimes entire cities.

But China isn’t just providing the manpower to fuel quickly urbanizing African cities. It is exporting its own version of urbanization, creating cities and economic zones that look remarkably similar to Chinese ones. Journalist Michiel Hulsof, based in Amsterdam, and architect Daan Roggeven in Shanghai, began visiting the continent in 2013 to document and investigate whether China’s model of urbanism can work in Africa.

Great interview. Fascinating photos. It's not the typical Africa narrative, which is why it must be told. This is the reality for hundreds of millions of people on the African continent.

The Elusive ‘Ideal City’ →

Jared Keller, writing for Aeon Magazine:

With its soaring concrete apses and vibrant, welcoming bell-casting community, Arcosanti doesn’t necessarily capture the futurism of Soleri’s more ambitious and intricate designs in Arcology. But Arcosanti is a living argument that the idea of a city can continue to evolve and improve without wreaking fresh havoc on the planet’s already-scarred ecosystem, so long as such a guiding hand as Soleri’s can midwife its development.

Soleri in 2006:

‘Can anyone imagine a frozen tundra or a scorching Sahara colonised by millions of hermitages, single homes?’ asks Soleri. ‘A nightmarish American Dream incapable of supporting any kind of dignified life, let alone the evolution of a civilisation. Is the exurban (ever-expanding suburban) metastasis a bejewelled dream? Of food and shelter, the two indispensable needs of life, shelter is the direct responsibility of planners; architects, urban planners, builders, developers, speculators, politicians, students … time to wake up!’

This Week’s Worst ‘The Bible Says…’ →

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood’s executive director Grant Castleberry:

The Bible teaches that men are wired by God to protect and to pursue, so it is not surprising that they naturally like toys that by-and-large involve fighting, building, and racing. Women, on the other hand, are wired by God to nurture and to be pursued, so it is also not surprising that they largely enjoy playing with American Girl Dolls, Barbies, and Disney princess dresses.

No, the Bible doesn’t teach that.

‘When God Stops Making Sense’ →

Peter Enns has been set free from Patheos and is writing on his own site:

Here on earth, tsunamis take out coastlands and tens of thousands of lives. Mudslides, hurricanes, tornadoes, and volcanoes hit with little or no warning. Our environment is hostile, and we know, despite what an occasional crackpot T.V. preacher says, that God doesn’t cause these disasters because America has ceased being a “Christian nation.”

Sentient beings kill and eat each other. The entire evolutionary process is fueled by suffering and death on a massive scale.

So what kind of God is this, who abides by this clash of interests–a God who is good and just, expecting the same from us, but whose universe operates by a different standard?

In light of this question, Enns likes Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms.

The question then is whether the non-sense leads to disbelief in God or becomes an invitation to seek God differently–even through confrontation and debate, as these biblical books model for us.

I too love these books. Within the narrative arc of the Bible these authors challenge the majority position on life and faith. It’s like they open their eyes to the reality of the world in which they live and ask a whole new set of questions.

A World With More Pies →

Peter Greer, writing for PovertyCure:

It is because I follow Jesus—not in spite of it—that I cannot simply ignore the evidence showing that systems based solely on the redistribution of wealth never work. Historically, they promise utopia and deliver misery. As I once heard economist Jay Richards say, “Systems of forced redistribution don’t just fail to promote freedom—they fail at producing food.”

More importantly, systemic redistribution misses the beautiful truth that God created a world in which there is the possibility to create—and that as God’s image-bearers, we are to be co-creators.

Wealth is not a fixed pie from which we must shave off meager slices but something that can be multiplied. Instead of focusing on cutting up a single pie, what if we focused our efforts on working together to make more pies?

Here’s the video of Greer’s friendly debate with Shane Claiborne from this past March.

Farfalle Trance →

Captivating.

Peter Enns: ‘We Are the Apologetic’ →

Peter Enns on his distaste for Christian apologetics:

I’m not a big fan of Christian apologetics. Nothing personal, and I know some smart people who engage in it.

It’s just not for me.

I’ve never seen an argument for why Christianity is true that can’t be met by some alternative argument.

And I am not interested in whether Christianity is “reasonable”–a lot of things are reasonable and I don’t center my life around them.

Nor am I interested in whether Christianity is probable or possible–a lot of things are probable and/or possible but I don’t dwell on them.

The very notion of “Christian apologetics” presumes that the intellect is the primary place of engaging the truth of Christianity.

And that hasn’t worked very well.

Instead, Christians should live faith out as an apologetic:

Living out the notion that, “The church must recapture its identity as the only organization in the world that exists for the sake of its non-members.”

That is the apologetic that can work, and that is much harder than a string of arguments.

We are the apologetic.

Side note: I’m thrilled that Pete is moving his site from Patheos to peteenns.com later this week. There are some incredible people writing at Patheos, but I cringe every time I click a link. The pages are ugly and the ads are awful. I hope more writers will follow Pete’s lead.

Peaceful Resistance and Subversive Conformity →

John Mark Hicks consistently churns out thoughtful (and timely) content on his site. His latest post is no exception. He walks through 1 Peter 2:13-17 to talk about “living as exiles in an empire.” If you have ten minutes, read the whole article and chalk it up as your theological workout for the day (don’t worry, it’s a light workout that leaves you feeling accomplished—not dead—at the end of it).

If you can’t spare ten minutes, here’s the turn from 1 Peter to reflecting on current events in U.S. America:

I find it rather distressing (saddened rather than distraught) that Christians in the United States live in such fear of the future, specifically the loss of a “Christian nation.” This fear generates anger, suspicion, hateful rhetoric, and despair. It is misplaced “fear,” and reflects misplaced allegiance (or authentic fear, the worship of God).

1 Peter called its first readers to live in hope, gentleness, love, and reverent awe among the nations. Without doubt, the imperial Roman culture was saturated with non-Christian values, commitments, and practices. These shaped every aspect of that culture—education, entertainment, and civic religion. Their children, nor anyone else, could escape that cultural reality and influence, and they won’t escape in our present culture. Yet, Peter—though realistic about the harsh criticism and hostility of that culture—calls believers to a way of life that is saturated with goodness and hope.