FOMO

Andrew Schuman finds "FOMO" to be "one of the most useful acronyms to be added to the online urban dictionary." It stands for "fear of missing out" and, he argues, although characteristic of our times it is not new:

.... In 1681 Oxford University Chancellor and renowned theologian John Owen wrote the following: “The world is at present in a mighty hurry, and being in many places cut off from all foundations of steadfastness, it makes the minds of men giddy with its revolutions, or disorderly in the expectations of them…”

“Giddy with its revolutions” and “disorderly in the expectations of them”? This observation from over 330 years ago could describe our mindset today; it sounds like FOMO. Why all the hurry? Owen gives this explanation: “Men walk and talk as if the world were all, when comparatively it is nothing.

What Owen is suggesting is that FOMO is a symptom of the ancient biblical notion known as worldiness. When we believe that this world is all there is we instinctively valorize the fleeting over the eternal. We create cultural forms that embody these priorities and then we cannot help but feel like we are constantly missing out. Having no deeper realities to hold onto, we are left drifting from one momentary pleasure to the next in a world of passing beauty.

If worldliness is the cause of our collective FOMO, then the prescription for sanity in our hurried society is not to speed up or slow down, per se, but to comprehend the eternal beauty of God and let this affection produce freedom from fear.

It reminds me vaguely of this C.S. Lewis quote: “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”

This passage of Scripture from Jeremiah gives us wise counsel, pointing us forward by pointing us back: “Ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jer 6:16) [more]

Worldliness and Anxiety

"Give to the one who begs..."

In "What to Do When Met with a Beggar," Jared Wilson considers a circumstance that every Christian confronts — and, particularly if you live in a city or are a pastor anywhere, it arises quite frequently. Wilson:

C.S. Lewis’s stepson Douglas Gresham tells the story of Lewis and a friend walking along the street one day when a beggar approached them asking for money. Lewis’s friend kept walking, but Lewis stopped and emptied his wallet, giving the beggar its contents. After rejoining his friend, he was chastised. “You shouldn’t have done that, Jack. He’ll only spend it all on drink.” Lewis replied, “Well, that’s what I was going to do.”

Here’s what I think Jesus wants us to do, and our response to a beggar gives us the opportunity to do it:

The situation is a common one and ages old. We are no more faced with beggars today than the disciples were in the first century. In urban settings or rural, the specific approach and contexts may differ, but the neediness and the opportunities do not. What is your response when a stranger asks for money? ....

1. Hold our money loosely. I think that’s what Lewis was getting at in the exchange with his friend. He was comparing the beggar’s suspected frivolity with his own known frivolity. Only in the economy of self-justification is my spending $3 on a coffee or even a beer deemed more virtuous than, by presumption, a beggar’s doing the same.
2. Trust him with people’s sins. Maybe that person will squander what you give them. It’s not our job to manage the expected sins of others. It’s our job to be faithful to God, obedient to his commands. So the better hedging of the bets here is to give out of obedience and trust the beggar’s financial management to the only God who judges the living and the dead. Let us give, and let us let the Lord sort it out.

In one of his Letters to an American Lady, from which we get another version of the “spend it all on drink” story, Lewis writes these other pertinent words on giving to beggars:

It will not bother me in the hour of death to reflect that I have been “had for a sucker” by any number of impostors; but it would be a torment to know that one had refused even one person in need.

No, it’s not street smart or common sense to give to those who ask of you, but it is wise. Very, very wise. It is wise to obey Matthew 5:42 with as few loopholes as you can attach to it because doing so says you obey God, not your suspicions, and you hold your money loosely because God is your God, not money. .... [more]

What to Do When Met with a Beggar – Gospel Driven Church

"Let not ambition mock..."

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
From "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray (1762)

From "Meditation on Mortality | Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard" by John J. Miller:

Shortly after Abraham Lincoln secured the Republican presidential nomination in 1860, a reporter traveled to Springfield, Ill., to learn about the candidate's background. In an interview, Lincoln said his early life could be condensed into a single phrase: "the short and simple annals of the poor."

The words didn't belong to Lincoln, but rather to the 18th-century English poet Thomas Gray, and they came from "Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard." ....

There was a time when most educated people would have recognized Lincoln's reference: "Gray's Elegy," wrote Leslie Stephen (the father of Virginia Woolf), "includes more familiar phrases than any poem of equal length in the language." Its 32 stanzas burst with celebrated passages: "The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day"; "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen"; "Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife"; and so on. ....

...Gray's "Elegy" also rose above the ghetto of a genre, expressing universal ideas in lines that worked their way into collective memory. Samuel Johnson didn't care for most of Gray's poetry, but even he confessed an admiration for the elegy, praising its "images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo." .... [more]

Meditation on Mortality | Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard | Thomas Gray | Masterpiece by John J. Miller - WSJ.com

Sticky faith

Perhaps because I was a high school teacher I often notice research about the tendency of Christian young people failing to make the transition to a mature faith. There have been a depressing number of surveys indicating a falling off of faith just about as soon as young adults leave home for college or work. In "Sticky faith: What keeps kids connected to church?" Jen Bradbury, a youth minister, reflects on what might counter that trend and engender a faith that sticks:

.... I chose topics based on what I thought youth cared about, so we talked a lot about friendships, sex and alcohol. While I tied these topics to scripture, I rarely focused on Jesus. I assumed that the youth, who had grown up in the church, already knew the Jesus story well and were likely to be bored by it. Rather than help students cultivate a lifelong relationship with Christ, I focused on getting them to live a Christian lifestyle. I had zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior.

...[R]esearchers...conducted a six-year, comprehensive and longitudinal study from 2004 to 2010 called the College Transition Project. The study’s findings are found in Sticky Faith: Practical Ideas to Nurture Long-Term Faith in Teenagers, a 2011 book by Kara E. Powell, Brad M. Griffin and Cheryl A. Crawford.

The term sticky faith is defined by researchers at FYI as faith that is “part of a student’s inner thoughts and emotions and is also externalized in choices and actions that reflect this faith commitment.” .... It is this kind of sticky faith that we want to develop in students, for it is this kind of faith that becomes a way of life, capable of influencing people’s everyday decisions as well as their interactions with the world around them.

One of the key findings from FYI’s College Transition Project is that when it comes to fostering sticky faith, nothing is more important than “students’ view of the gospel.” Ministries that foster sticky faith, the report says, are centered on Christ.

.... Consider this finding: when students involved in the College Transition Project were asked what it means to be a Christian, 35 percent “gave an answer that didn’t mention Jesus at all.” ....

As my own early efforts demonstrate, youth ministers have often tried to attract teens by doing anything other than using scripture to connect them with Christ. In order to be politically or culturally acceptable, we’ve often stripped Christianity of Jesus or transformed him into a character he is not. .... In lieu of discipling teens, we’ve attempted to entertain them; we’ve tried to make our ministries cool enough to compete with other community activities.

What every teen knows, however, is that the church is not cool. The good news is that the church does not have to be cool to be relevant. What the church has is Jesus, and he is enough. .... If the church matters because Jesus matters, then what youth ministries need more of are not entertaining activities but conversations about Jesus. ....

...[C]hurches should be concerned when young people abandon church even for a short time. When this occurs, “they are easily pushed by the shifting winds of their college culture.” Setting faith aside “affects the quality of their integrated thinking” and their ability to make “true-to-self decisions about their worldviews, romantic partners, career directions, or graduate school.” ....

To help teens form a lasting and consequential faith, I will continue pursuing the type of ministry the College Transition Project points us toward: one centered on Christ, infused with grace and built on intergenerational relationships and intergenerational worship. My hope is that in doing so, I will be able years from now to survey graduates of my youth ministry and find them still active in a church, committed to their faith and striving to live out their faith in daily life. .... [more]

Sticky faith: What keeps kids connected to church? | The Christian Century

"Just what I choose it to mean"

Annoyed again by those who seem to believe "Christian" is a word that means whatever they want it to mean I was reminded of this from Lewis Carroll. Having proved to his own satisfaction that un-birthday presents are superior to birthday presents because they can be given far more times in a year, Humpty Dumpty says:

“There’s glory for you!”

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’” Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously.

“Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’”

“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument,’” Alice objected.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

The illustration is a  classic by John Tenniel done for the original book.

The persecution of Christians

Christians — as those who have been paying attention know — are among the most persecuted of religious groups in the world today. But most people haven't been paying attention and, by and large, our news media haven't helped them to. In a review of Christianophobia: A Faith under Attack at the Christian Science Monitor.com, the author's conclusions about why such persecution tends to be ignored:

.... Rupert Shortt points out that “[o]ne reason why Western audiences hear so little about religious oppression in the Muslim world is straightforward: young Christians in America and Europe do not become ‘radicalized,’ and persecuted Christians tend not to respond with terrorist violence.”

Another reason for the silence, he adds, stems from the fear that criticizing Muslims will prompt charges of racism. A third explanation lies in the fact that many liberals in the West look askance at Christianity in the developing world due to a simplistic and often historically inaccurate belief that its spread was bound up with Western imperialism.

Shortt, religion editor at the (London) Times Literary Supplement and biographer of Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury), begins with the premise “that freedom of belief and association are unqualified goods” and proceeds to examine countries – including several non-Muslim ones – that deny them to Christians. .... [more]

Christianophobia - CSMonitor.com

Which translation?

If you've been contemplating buying a new modern translation of the Bible, this may be helpful: Which Bible Translation Should I Use?: A Comparison of 4 Major Recent Versions (the link is for the Kindle version — it is also available in paperback). From Amazon's description:

One of the most frequently asked questions related to the Bible is, “Which Bible translation should I use?” People often wonder what is the all-around best English Bible translation available. In this book, Douglas Moo, Wayne Grudem, Ray Clendenen, and Philip Comfort make a case for the Bible translation he represents: the NIV 2011 (New International Version), the ESV (English Standard Version), the HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible), and the NLT (New Living Translation) respectively.

In each case, the contributors explain the translation philosophy underlying these major recent versions. They also compare and contrast how specific passages are translated in their version and other translations.

Which Bible Translation Should I Use? is ideal for anyone who is interested in the Bible and wants to know how the major recent English translations compare. After you’ve read this book, you will be able to answer the title question with confidence. You will also learn many other interesting details about specific passages in the Bible from these top experts.

Thank you, Joel Osborn, for the reference.

Which Bible Translation Should I Use?: A Comparison of 4 Major Recent Versions: Andreas J. Köstenberger, David A. Croteau: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

The pursuit of happiness

Adam Grant considers the mistakes of a friend who seems to have finally found happiness only after a lenthy pursuit. He found it by ceasing to pursue it. Grant describes four typical blunders made by those who make happiness their goal:

.... The first blunder was in trying to figure out if he was happy. When we pursue happiness, our goal is to experience more joy and contentment. To find out if we're making progress, we need to compare our past happiness to our current happiness. This creates a problem: the moment we make that comparison, we shift from an experiencing mode to an evaluating mode. ....

The second error was in overestimating the impact of life circumstances on happiness. .....

The third misstep was in pursuing happiness alone. Happiness is an individual state, so when we look for it, it's only natural to focus on ourselves. Yet a wealth of evidence consistently shows that self-focused attention undermines happiness and causes depression. ....

The final mistake was in looking for intense happiness. When we want to be happy, we look for strong positive emotions like joy, elation, enthusiasm, and excitement. Unfortunately, research shows that this isn't the best path to happiness. .... When we aim for intense positive emotions, we evaluate our experiences against a higher standard, which makes it easier to be disappointed. ....

As...John Stuart Mill once wrote, "Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness."

"You know, these are yuppie words, happiness and unhappiness. 
It's not happiness or unhappiness,
it's either blessed or unblessed. 
As the Bible says, 
'Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.'"
Bob Dylan.

Adam Grant: Does Trying to Be Happy Make Us Unhappy?

"Those whom God hath joined together..."

In "Nuptial Matters" Ruth Graham (no, not the evangelical Ruth Graham) writes approvingly about the desire of couples to make the wedding ceremony personal, particularly in the secular poetry chosen for the ceremony. It is apparently very difficult to do so while maintaining originality and not descending into cliche. The real problem may be precisely that...

Like just about every other betrothed couple in America, we wanted our wedding to be “personal.” ....

There are still oases of resistence...

The Catholic Church still officially forbids couples from including secular readings in the ceremony; Orthodox Jewish ceremonies, too, allow only for set religious readings. ....

The advent of such narcissitic ceremonies does not surprise...

It was around the early 1960s that some Protestant denominations began loosening the strictures of approved readings and music.... Suddenly, weddings were taking place in parks, and couples were writing their own vows. As the journalist Rebecca Mead writes in her 2007 book about contemporary weddings, One True Day, the modern idea is that “a wedding ceremony, like a wedding reception, ought to be an expression of the character of the couple who are getting married, rather than an expression of the character of the institution marrying them.”

Nor does the then favorite wedding poet surprise...

The first poet embraced by backyard brides and grooms was Kahlil Gibran, the best-selling poet and symbol of a vague, mystic, sentimental sort of personal freedom. “Gibran was the big discovery of people in the 1960s, and that got woven into practically every marriage ceremony from then on,”

"For as long as we both shall love"...

.... We hope the marriage lasts forever, but we have to expect the wedding itself will age. Maybe we’ll all look back on our wedding poetry the same way we’ll look back on our wedding photos: with a fondness for those young, goofy people who had no idea how their tastes would change, or what was to happen to them.

In the Christian marriage ceremony there should be limits. Although the loving couple are the occasion for the ceremony, it is a Christian service, and all present — especially the couple — should be mindful of the fact that "we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this company...." Perhaps the readings and music should be chosen with compatibility with traditional Christian priorities in mind rather than endeavoring to make the wedding "personal." It is already personal — the couple are accepting — with joy one hopes — a great deal of personal responsibility.

Nuptial Matters by Ruth Graham

Bigotry

From the G.K. Chesterton page:

“It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.” — G.K. Chesterton

Prepared for resurrection

In "Tragic Worship" at First Things Carl Trueman argues that we need to re-orient worship so that it acknowledges reality:

...[D]eath is central to true Christian worship. The most basic liturgical elements of the faith, baptism and the Lord's Supper, speak of death, of burial, of a covenant made in blood, of a body broken. Even the cry "Jesus is Lord!" assumes an understanding of lordship very different than Caesar's. Christ's lordship is established by his sacrifice upon the cross, Caesar's by power. ....

Christian worship should immerse people in the reality of the tragedy of the human fall and of all subsequent human life. It should provide us with a language that allows us to praise the God of resurrection while lamenting the suffering and agony that is our lot in a world alienated from its creator, and it should thereby sharpen our longing for the only answer to the one great challenge we must all face sooner or later. Only those who accept that they are going to die can begin to look with any hope to the resurrection. ....

Of all places, the Church should surely be the most realistic. The Church knows how far humanity has fallen, understands the cost of that fall in both the incarnate death of Christ and the inevitable death of every single believer. In the psalms of lament, the Church has a poetic language for giving expression to the deepest longings of a humanity looking to find rest not in this world but the next. In the great liturgies of the Church, death casts a long, creative, cathartic shadow. Our worship should reflect the realities of a life that must face death before experiencing resurrection. ....

Only the dead can be resurrected. As the second thief on the cross saw so clearly, Christ’s kingdom is entered through death, not by escape from it.

Traditional Protestantism saw this, connecting baptism not to washing so much as to death and resurrection. Protestant liturgies made sure that the law was read each service in order to remind the people that death was the penalty for their sin. Only then, after the law had pronounced the death sentence, would the gospel be read, calling them from their graves to faith and to resurrection life in Christ. The congregants thereby became vicarious participants in the great drama of salvation.

There was surely catharsis in such worship: The congregants left each week having faced the deepest reality of their own destinies. Perhaps it is ironic, but the church that confronts people with the reality of the shortness of life lived under the shadow of death prepares them for resurrection better than the church that goes straight to resurrection triumphalism without that awkward mortality bit.

Tragic Worship | First Things

Irrevocably attached

Via the C.S. Lewis Blog, from a July 20, 1943 letter:

.... Nature as we see it is either what God intended or merely evil: it looks like a good thing spoiled.

The doctrine of the Fall...is the only satisfactory explanation. Evil begins, in a universe where all was good, from free will, which was permitted because it makes possible the greatest good of all. The corruption of the first sinner consists not in choosing some evil thing...but in preferring a lesser good (himself) before a greater (God).

The Fall is, in fact, Pride.

The possibility of this wrong preference is inherent in the very fact of having, or being, a self at all. But though freedom is real it is not infinite. Every choice reduces a little one's freedom to choose the next time. There therefore comes a time when the creature is fully built, irrevocably attached to either God or to itself.

This irrevocableness is what we call Heaven or Hell.

Every conscious agent is finally committed in the long run: i.e. it rises above freedom into willed, but henceforth unalterable, union with God, or else sinks below freedom into the black fire of self-imprisonment. ....

C. S. Lewis Blog: Are You Attached to God?

"Abba" doesn't mean "Daddy"

From the FactChecker at The Gospel Coalition Blog:

When listening to a sermon on the Fatherhood of God, we've heard it more times than we can probably count: the illustration that when Jesus refers to his Father as abba, it is a very comfortable, deeply intimate child-like term, interpreted as either papa or daddy. ....

This intimacy and love between the divine Father and his Son is as true as the existence of God himself, for it is his very nature. But it is simply not true that Jesus' use of the word abba means something a small child would utter in reference to his father. It does not mean "daddy" or "papa." .... [more]

FactChecker: Does Abba Mean ‘Daddy’? – The Gospel Coalition Blog

Graves

My brother and I just returned from a two-week excursion that included visits to some places associated with ancestors on our father's side of the family. My grandmother was a Whitney, Hettie Ann Whitney Skaggs (1877-1963), and we found her father's grave in the cemetery in Gentry, Arkansas. Edward L. Whitney (1846-1905), including information about his family, is described at a Whitney website:

Ed was claimed to be over seven feet tall. He always had to bend over to go through doors, and he would always sit down to have his picture taken. Nancy had grown up in Berlin, Wisconsin where her parents, Norman and Miriam Clarke were married. They were members of the Seventh Day Baptist church there. Her mother taught in an early pioneer school there. Her mother's parents, Jeremiah and Mercy Davis, had been early settlers in Berlin, moving first from Allegheny County, New York to Milton, Wisconsin in the early 1840's. They were charter members of the Berlin Seventh Day Baptist church in 1850.

Edward's address given on his marriage certificate (1876) was Plymouth, Iowa. The names of his parents, Ebenezar and Anna Whitney, are also given on the certificate.

Ed and Eve were married in Berlin (Green Lake County) Wisconsin in 1876, but moved to Iowa in 1878. They are listed there in the 1880 U.S. census. ....

1882 was apparently the year of the move to Dakota Territory. ...

Edward and his family moved back to Berlin, Wisconsin in 1890. .... Edward joined the Seventh Day Baptist church there by baptism, July 1892. His wife Nancy had been baptized and joined at age 16 (May 21, 1870); [with] their daughter Cora (baptized December 2, 1900) [they] were dismissed by letter to the Gentry, Arkansas, Seventh Day Baptist Church, November 9, 1901. (Hettie, their oldest daughter, was baptized & joined December 19, 1891, and Laura, second eldest daughter, October 27, 1894; both dismissed by letter to Milton, February 1902.)

They moved to Gentry, Arkansas in 1901. Edward died there in 1905. Eva married Martin Maxson in 1913. She died in 1917.

Not far from his grave was a Civil War memorial. I was curious about whether it would be Union or Confederate. It turned out to be a Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) memorial dedicated to those who had fought to preserve the Union. Whether Edward had served I have not yet discovered. So far, I am happy to report, I have found no evidence that any of my ancestors ever owned slaves and — although they lived in border states all of which were slave states — a good deal of evidence that they detested the institution.

We then traveled to Christian County, Missouri, to try to locate the grave of my grandfather, Rev. James Leroy Skaggs's father, Rev. Leroy Fouse Skaggs (1845-1939), described as being near Boaz, Missouri. GPS was no help (Boaz doesn't seem to exist in Garmin) but we received a lot of assistance in the city hall in Ozark. Several people there helped us locate the cemetery — the Frazier Cemetery near where Boaz is (or was — we never went through anyplace with that designation). Many Skaggs graves are there including that of Grandfather's brother Hannibal. And we found the grave of Leroy Fouse Skaggs about whom I've posted recently. It was in a section containing many family graves including a depressing number of unnamed "Infant Skaggs" gravestones, one after another.

Exploring these locations was a very good part of our thoroughly enjoyable travels.

The retreat of liberal values

On the curious alliance of many Western liberals with the most reactionary and intolerant Islamic extremists, from "Feminism Or Islamism: Which Side Are You On?":

No group is better than liberal academics at illustrating how racist anti-racism has become. As liberals, they ought to respect individual rights and oppose reactionary attempts to corral and control. As academics, they ought to look for evidence that shakes comfortable opinions. As it is, they do neither.

In human rights organisations, leftish political parties, liberal newspapers and, above all, in the universities, committed and morally earnest people would rather die than admit that radical Islam is a murderous and oppressive movement. The effect of their evasion is to promote the racism they say they oppose, while denying their supposed allies in "Muslim lands" and immigrant communities the same rights as they enjoy. Hypocrisy is too meagre a word to cover their behaviour. ....

I don't mean to single out academics for special condemnation. The postmodern university may not be able to guide society, but it reflects its deformities and double standards. I know civil servants, liberal journalists, broadcasters, politicians, diplomats and police officers who never read an academic paper from one year until the next. They will condemn the gender pay gap or the sexual abuse of white-skinned women, but stay silent about the religious oppression of brown-skinned women. Fear of violent reprisals, fear of causing offence, fear that their enemies will denounce them for possessing a racial or sectarian hatred play their part. On the Left, there is the strong fear of accusations of complicity with the status quo, which never go down well in arts and humanities departments. ....

But we should be able to acknowledge that there is now a general taboo against discussing religious oppression, which is not confined to campuses or left-wing meetings. Universal standards are everywhere in retreat. ....

.... On the Left, radical Islam has taken the place once filled by socialism. As I said in my book What's Left?, when the dreams of Karl Marx died, many leftists concluded that any enemy of the West was better than none. It did not matter that the most violent enemies of the West were against everything leftists supported. They were also against America and that was all that mattered. Beyond the Left, in the politically indifferent mainstream, ignoring oppression has its advantages. Members of a consumer society do not want to campaign against the mistreatment of women in immigrant communities at home or support costly and dangerous interventions abroad. .... [more]

Feminism Or Islamism: Which Side Are You On? | Standpoint

Millenarianism and intolerance

It is perfectly possible to believe that, in many aspects of life, things are better now than they once were [and, on the other hand, that in other respects they are worse], without believing in Progress with a capital "P." 

Melanie Phillips, former Marxist, English controversialist, is the author of, among other things, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power. From her essay, "The new intolerance":

...[A]theism has given us...a faith which repels reason. Ideologies such as environmentalism, or the belief in the innate harmony of the natural world; scientism, or the belief that everything in the universe has a scientific explanation; moral relativism, or the belief that everyone's value system is equal to everyone else's; multiculturalism, or the belief that no culture can take precedence over any other; egalitarianism, or the belief that everyone is entitled to identical outcomes regardless of their behaviour. These all repel reason because, instead of looking at evidence to reach a conclusion, they start with the governing idea and force the evidence to fit it.

All these ideologies are secular, undermining some aspect of Judaeo-Christian belief or ethics. But here's the strange thing: they all display characteristics not just of Christian religious belief — a body of doctrine, a belief that their story is the sole pathway to virtue, an instinct to evangelise — they also share a feature common to the religious fanaticism of previous centuries (and past and present Islam): millenarianism.

Millenarianism is a religious belief in the perfection of mankind and life on earth, often associated with an apocalypse. It is a doctrine of collective and total salvation, and it leads inescapably to a totalitarian mindset. Because it is an unchallengeable doctrine of perfecting the world, any dissenter must be evil and so must be destroyed.

It is generally assumed that the Enlightenment put an end to that kind of religious fanaticism which gave rise to the terrible religious persecutions in the medieval world. In fact, the Enlightenment merely served to secularise millenarian fantasies. This was embodied in the core idea, no less, of the Enlightenment itself: that reason would bring about perfection on Earth, and that "progress" was the process by which utopia would be attained.

In the 18th century the Enlightenment thinker Condorcet wrote: "No bounds have been fixed to the improvement of the human race. The perfectibility of man is absolutely infinite..." In the 19th century Herbert Spencer, the apostle of Social Darwinism, similarly believed that life would get better all the time. He wrote: "Progress is not an accident but a necessity. Surely must evil and immorality disappear; surely must man become perfect." It was reason that would redeem religious superstition and bring about the kingdom of man on Earth.

Just as Lenin believed, whatever fosters the revolution is therefore good; whatever hinders it is bad. In the millenarian and totalitarian mind, there is never any middle ground; and truth and reason are turned upside down to fit. .... [more]

The new intolerance | Melanie Phillips

Books for boys

A few lists of books recommended to encourage teenage boys to read [I suspect girls would enjoy many of them, too]. Based on those among them I read as a boy—and since—the suggestions are worth considering...

• Best Books for Teen Boys

• 100 Books for Boys

• Best History and Non-Fiction Books for Teenage Boys

"Traditional" v. "contempoary" misses the point...

Michael Horton on "Why Do We Go to Church?":

.... For too long the “worship wars” have coalesced around style. These are not unimportant questions; how we worship says a lot about the object and significance of the event. However, all the sides (simplistically drawn between “traditionalists” and “contemporary-worship” advocates) in the debates share more in common than any do with the rationale of Reformation Christianity.

The most important divide is over this question: Do we come to church primarily to receive or primarily to do something? In other words, is God not only the object but the primary actor in the service, or are we? ....

Actually, what has now come to be identified as "traditional" worship has more in common with "contemporary" worship than either has with historic practice. There are many examples, but the most important is their shared emphasis on the public service as something in which we (rather than God) are the primary actors. We are the subject of most of the action verbs. We come to church to praise, to worship, to express, to rededicate ourselves, to serve, and so forth. ....

Is there room in the service for God to give us anything when we’re doing all the talking, blessing, expressing and acting?

Far deeper than instruments and music styles, this divide is the real one. Historically at least, Reformed and Lutheran churches believed that the Triune God is the primary actor in the public service. That’s one reason it was called “divine service”: the Father, in Christ, by the Spirit, serving his people with his good gifts. We find it referred to as “the divine service” routinely in churches of the Reformation over much of their history. ....

.... [T]he problem in many of our churches today is not only that we aren’t God-centered enough. It’s that even in our attempt to be God-centered, the focus is on what we bring the table rather than actually being on God and that remarkable work that he is doing in delivering Christ to us with all of his benefits. Only when we recover the biblical emphasis on God’s ministry to us—where he has appointed, when he has appointed, and through the means that he has appointed, will the priority of God’s grace in his covenant mercies be central. And only when this is central is our desperate need for regular participation in this feast evident as well. We come to church regularly not primarily to do something again, but to receive something again—and, yes, also to respond in gratitude. True enough: it isn’t about us, but it is for us. And a funny thing happens when we surrender to this divine charity: we actually become active again in faith and its fruit of love and service to others. [Read it all.]

Why Do We Go to Church?

Be more displeased with sin than folly

Via Kevin DeYoung, advice for raising children from Rev. John Witherspoon (1723-1794), President of Princeton and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. I'm no parent, but these seem like sound advice to me.

John Witherspoon

1. The best exercise in the world for children is to let them romp and jump about, as soon as they are able, according to their own fancy.
2. A parent that has once obtained and knows how to preserve authority will do more by a look of displeasure, than another by the most passionate words and even blows. It holds universally in families and schools, and even the greater bodies of men, the army and navy, that those who keep the strictest discipline give the fewest strokes.
3. There is not a more disgusting sight than the impotent rage of a parent who has no authority.
4. I have heard some parents often say that they cannot correct their children unless they are angry; to whom I have usually answered, then you ought not to correct them at all.
5. Nothing can be more weak and foolish, or more destructive of authority, than when children are noisy and in an ill humor, to give them or promise them something to appease them.
6. Let it always be seen that you are more displeased at sin than at folly.
7. Nothing is more destructive of authority than frequent disputes and chiding upon small matters. This is often more irksome to children than parents are aware of.
8. I am fully persuaded that the plainest and shortest road to real politeness of carriage, and the most amiable sort of hospitality is to think of others just as a Christian ought, and to express these thoughts with modesty and candor.
9. Many parents are much more ready to tell their children such or such a thing is mean, and not like a gentleman, than to warn them that they will incur the displeasure of their Maker.
10. It is a very nice thing in religion to know the real connection between, and the proper mixture of, spirit [i.e., matters of the heart] and form [i.e., disciplines like family worship and church attendance]. The form without the spirit is good for nothing; but on the other hand, the spirit without the form never yet existed.

Advice for Raising Godly Children – Kevin DeYoung

Damned by fame

From Paul Johnson's review of C.S. Lewis: A Life, by Alister McGrath:

Addison's Walk

...Lewis was a genius.  I was never in any doubt about that.  The first grown-up book I read voluntarily, when I was 14, was A Preface to Paradise Lost, in which Lewis tackled the hugely difficult subject of the English epic, and made it enchanting.  When I arrived at Magdalen College, Oxford, aged 17, I was overwhelmed to find Lewis there, and friendly.  We many times went the famous circuit of Addison's Walk and Lewis's obiter dicta remain with me for life.  ('Imagine if Wordsworth and Coleridge had gone to Oxford, not Cambridge: the whole of modern English literature would have been quite different.')

He had a rich, fruity laugh which boomed out, dispelling his underlying sadness.  He was a superb lecturer, beginning as he entered Magdalen hall, and continuing after he passed out of the door at the end, and his powerful voice faded away.

He was also an excellent tutor, and for most of his time at Magdalen did 24 hours a week, a heavy burden on top of his lecturing, particularly since he prepared his work conscientiously and listened tenderly to his pupils' essays. ....

Unfortunately Lewis damned himself at Oxford by becoming famous. ....

.... Run-of-the-mill dons do not like fame, especially on the airwaves, and Lewis — like his Magdalen contemporary, A.J.P. Taylor, and for the same reason — was denied a professorial chair.  In Lewis's case, the rejection was severe because his Christian teaching was intimately linked to his love and understanding of English literature.  They were mutually self-supporting. ....

He deserves his lasting appeal, and for three reasons.  First he was immensely well-read, delving into every corner of English literature with intelligence and sympathy, and squeezing from it moral qualities which had been hitherto unsuspected in many works.  Second, he had an enviable clarity, so that his meaning, even when making rarefied distinctions, always leaps from the page.  Thirdly, he had excellent judgment in both literature and theology, and combined them both in fascinating books which never condescend and are always a pleasure to read.  Alister McGrath gives us much food for thought in this dutiful, sound and worthy book. ....

Paul Johnson reviews C.S. Lewis: A Life, by Alister McGrath

"Until then..."

Via Trevin Wax: "A Prayer of Anselm":

I pray, O God, that I may know you and love you,
so that I may rejoice in you.

And if I cannot do so fully in this life
may I progress gradually until it comes to fullness.

Let the knowledge of you grow in me here,
and there be made complete;
Let your love grow in me here
and there be made complete,
so that here my joy may be great in hope,
and there be complete in reality.

Lord, by your Son, you command,
or rather, counsel us to ask
and you promise that we shall receive so that our “joy may be complete.”
I ask, Lord, as you counsel through our admirable Counselor.
May I receive what you promise through your truth so that my “joy may be complete.”

Until then let my mind meditate on it,
let my tongue speak of it,
let my heart love it,
let my mouth preach it.
Let my soul hunger for it,
let my flesh thirst for it,
my whole being desire it,
until I enter into the “joy of the Lord,”
who is God, Three in One, “blessed forever. Amen.”

Anselm, Proslogion

I Want Joy – A Prayer of Anselm – Trevin Wax

"This above all: to thine own self be true"

In "The Death of Empathy" James Tonkowich argues that the reason for the appalling behavior of participants and bystanders in the Steubenville rapes can be explained by the disappearance of any sense of moral obligation:

.... Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith discussing the religious and moral lives of teens and emerging adults relates that researchers [asked] the young people they interviewed the same question: Is what you believe about God and morality true for everyone everywhere or is it just is it just a private belief that’s only true for you? That is, is spiritual and moral truth objective or subjective? The vast majority…didn’t understand the question. They were incapable of conceiving what objective truth and morality could possibly mean. ....

As this relates to empathy, Smith and his team found that emerging adults believe that no one is under any obligation to help others. It’s nice if you help if you feel like it, but no one should feel guilty for ignoring the needy. Thus in the Steubenville case teens saw the victim drunk, naked and unconscious and did nothing. They were, from their point of view, under no obligation to inconvenience themselves.

Add to that, the breakdown in the family, which also kills empathy. In her 2003 essay “Parents or Prisons,” economist Jennifer Roback Morse writes:

The basic self-control and reciprocity that a free society takes for granted do not develop automatically. Conscience development takes place in childhood. Children need to develop empathy so they will care whether they hurt someone or whether they treat others fairly. They need to develop self-control so they can follow through on these impulses and do the right thing even if it might benefit them to do otherwise.

All this development takes place inside the family. Children attach to the rest of the human race through their first relationships with their parents. They learn reciprocity, trust, and empathy from these primal relationships. Disrupting those foundational relations has a major negative impact on children as well as on the people around them. In particular, children of single parents — or completely absent parents — are more likely to commit crimes.

Such children develop attachment disorders and, as Morse writes, “An attachment-disordered child is the truly dangerous sociopath, the child who doesn’t care what anyone thinks, who does whatever he can get away with.”

The combination of single parents, absent parents, dual-income professional parents, daycare, after-care and easy, no-fault divorce have strained sometimes to the breaking point the relationship between parent and child, resulting in varying degrees of attachment disorder and thus children with insufficient discipline, compassion and empathy. .... [more]

The Death of Empathy | Juicy Ecumenism - The Institute on Religion & Democracy's Blog

Friendship's fatal disease

Samuel Johnson in Idler 23:

Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship. It is painful to consider that this sublime enjoyment may be impaired or destroyed by innumerable causes, and that there is no human possession of which the duration is less certain. Many have talked in very exalted language of the perpetuity of friendship, of invincible constancy, and unalienable kindness; and some examples have been seen of men who have continued faithful to their earliest choice, and whose affection has predominated over changes of fortune and contrariety of opinion. But these instances are memorable because they are rare.  ....

.... A dispute begun in jest, upon a subject which a moment before was on both parts regarded with careless indifference is continued by the desire of conquest till vanity kindles into rage, and opposition rankles into enmity. Against this hasty mischief I know not what security can be obtained; men will be sometimes surprised into quarrels, and though they might both hasten to reconciliation, as soon as their tumult has subsided, yet two minds will seldom be found together which can at once subdue their discontent or immediately enjoy the sweets of peace without remembering the wounds of the conflict. ....

The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too slender for complaint and too numerous for removal. Those who are angry may be reconciled; those who have been injured may receive a recompense; but when the desire of pleasing and willingness to be pleased are silently diminished, the renovation of friendship is hopeless, as when the vital powers sink into languor there is no longer any use of the physician.

Thanks to Alan Jacobs for referring to this essay.

Idler 23

Self-righteousness

Jared Wilson: "How do we become holy without becoming 'holier than thou'?"

.... By actually becoming actually holy.

Holiness and holier-than-thou-ness aren’t parallel phenomena. They run on different tracks. If someone is growing in arrogance, pride, and self-righteousness, by definition they are not growing in holiness.

The problem arises in equating holiness with religious behavior. Holy people do obey God, of course. But the character of holiness, in which the Spirit does his progressive sanctifying work in our hearts (and therefore in our thoughts, speech, and actions), produces qualities of humility, gentleness, kindness, and self-control. Any arrogant fool can abstain from certain sins.... [more]

Holy vs. Holier Than Thou – Gospel Driven Church

Vincit Veritas

I've been doing some random "Skaggs" internet searches. A coat of arms resembling this one was apparently awarded to an English Skaggs [or Skeggs or some other variant]. I can't claim any ownership but I certainly do like the motto which translates as "Truth Conquers."

A Skaggs coat of arms

What does it want me to want?

Two links about desires:

• In "Schools for Desire," Alan Jacobs considers "realism" in children's literature. What kind of books are best for children?

• In "The Sinister Nature of Dove's New Advertising Campaign," recognizing that the whole point of advertising is to create desire, it is pointed out that "...[Y]ou don't overcome a world where physical beauty is overemphasized by...emphasizing beauty. And self-esteem is never properly built from the outside in."

Schools for Desire | The American Conservative, The Sinister Nature of Dove’s New Advertising Campaign | Acculturated

Leroy Fouse Skaggs, 1845-1930

My brother and I intend to visit northern Arkansas and southern Missouri soon where we will seek out some of the sites associated with our Skaggs and Whitney ancestors. One of them was my Great Grandfather Leroy Fouse Skaggs who with Rosanna Pearce Skaggs, his wife, were the first Seventh Day Baptists on the Skaggs side of the family. I recently came across this:

From The Sabbath Recorder, Vol 109, No 12, p 356, Sep. 22, 1930.

Leroy Fouse Skaggs was a son of James Alexander and Maria Sterling Skaggs. He was born near Knoxville, Tenn., March 1, 1845. When he was yet a child the family moved to the vicinity of Bentonville, Ark. Before the Civil War the family moved again and settled in Green County, Mo., a few miles from the site of the city of Springfield.

At the age of sixteen years, as the Civil War had begun, he entered the service of the United States Government as a teamster and served for three years, helping to transport food and other necessities for the soldiers.

His educational opportunities were very limited, so far as formal schooling was concerned. However, he made sufficient progress in subjects usually taught in rural schools to be able to teach, and was engaged as a teacher for several years. He had a keen mind, good memory, a thirst for knowledge, and he spent much time in reading and careful study throughout the years of his active life. He often expressed regret that he had not been able to secure college and university training.

He was married December 5, 1872, to Miss Rosanna Pearce. They established a farm home southwest of Springfield, in Christian County, and near the James River. There came five children to this home. The first break in the family came in February, 1917, when the wife and mother died.

Rev. Leroy Fouse Skaggs and Rosanna Pearce Skaggs

All the children are still living and were at the bedside of their father as he passed away, August 14, 1930. The sons and daughters are in the order of ages: Mrs. Emma Conley, Dearing, Kan.; Hannibal M. and Mrs. Mary Caughron, Clever, Mo.; James L. and Mrs. Harriet Grant, Milton, Wis. He is also survived by twenty-one grandchildren, twenty-two great-grandchildren, one brother, James. G., Clever, Mo., and one sister, Mrs. Ida Forrester, Marionville, Mo.

In youth he became a member of the Baptist church. In 1872 he was by that church licensed to preach, and in 1876 he was called to ordination to the gospel ministry. The original certificates are in the possession of the family.

In 1882 he became convinced that Christians should observe the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath, and he added the observance of the Sabbath to his otherwise standard Baptist principles. Several other families in the community became interested, and a little later the Delaware Seventh Day Baptist Church was organized. The church had an active existence of twenty years or more and attained considerable influence in the community. Much of the time worship was conducted on both Sabbath and Sunday and many people attended who were not particularly interested in the Sabbath.

Nearly all the meetings of this church were under the direction of either Elder Skaggs or Elder W.K. Johnson. In 1889 the Seventh Day Baptist Missionary Society engaged the subject of this sketch as general missionary in southwestern Missouri, and his labors were continued in this field for about ten years.

Since the death of Mrs. Skaggs in 1917, he has lived most of the time in the homes of his son Hannibal and his daughters Emma, Mary, and Harriet. He passed away on August 14, 1930, at the home of his daughter Mary, near Clever, Mo. His body was laid to rest beside that of his wife in the local cemetery. The funeral service was conducted by Rev. Earl French, a Baptist pastor of Springfield, Mo.

The history of the Book of Common Prayer

Alan Jacobs, who is soon to move from Wheaton College to Baylor University, has resumed blogging and tells us:

I have edited the first proofs of my forthcoming biography of the Book of Common Prayer — and have I mentioned that I created a tumblelog where I can display notes and images related to the book?

From that link, one of the images:

I have enjoyed and profited from every book I've read by Jacobs. This will be one I'll buy in physical form. Jacobs writes that it will be published in November.

The Return of the Blogger | The American Conservative, The Book of Common Prayer

The perils of prediction

I was attending William & Mary on the first Earth Day and well remember the apocalyptic predictions. The environmental movement has done a lot of good since then but most of it could have happened without this sort of thing, which almost automatically ought to elicit skepticism. Via Walter Russell Mead, "Wild Green Alarmism Then and Now":

Earth Day 2008, compiled by the Washington Policy Center

• “...civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind,” biologist George Wald, Harvard University, April 19, 1970.
• By 1995, “...somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Look magazine, April 1970.
• Because of increased dust, cloud cover and water vapor “...the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born,” Newsweek magazine, January 26, 1970.
• The world will be “...eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age,” Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970.
• “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” biologist Barry Commoner, University of Washington, writing in the journal Environment, April 1970.
• “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction,” The New York Times editorial, April 20, 1970.
• “By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half...” Life magazine, January 1970.
• “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.
• “...air pollution...is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.
• Ehrlich also predicted that in 1973, 200,000 Americans would die from air pollution, and that by 1980 the life expectancy of Americans would be 42 years.
• “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.
• “By the year 2000...the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America and Australia, will be in famine,” Peter Gunter, North Texas State University, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

Earth Day 2008: Predictions of Environmental Disaster Were Wrong | Washington Policy Center

"He rules over the nations"

Via Justin Taylor in a post he titles "10 Scriptural Principles on the Nature of Human Government":

From J. Budziszewski, Evangelicals in the Public Square: Four Formative Voices on Political Thought and Action (Baker Academic, 2006):

1. God is the true sovereign; he ordained all human government for the good of man, whom he made in his image (Ps. 22:28; Rom. 13:1,3-4; Gen. 1:27).
2. Although God originally chose only one nation, he desires ultimately to draw all nations into the light of his Word (Isa. 49:6; Rom. 10:12; Rev. 21:23-24).
3. He disciplines the nations according to their deeds (Jer. 18:7-10; Jer. 5:28-29).
4. He also disciplines their rulers (Dan. 2:20-21; Jer. 25:12; Dan. 4:27).
5. In general, disobedience to human government is disobedience to God; indeed, government deserves not only obedience but honor (Rom. 13:1-2,7).
6. But there are exceptions: Any governmental edict that contradicts the commands of God must be disobeyed (Acts 5:29; Dan. 3:18; Ex. 1:17,20-21).
7. The just purposes of human government include the commendation of good, the punishment of evil, the maintenance of peace, and the protection of the oppressed (1 Pet. 2:13-14; 1 Tim. 2:1-2; Isa. 10:1-2).
8. In pursuance of these purposes, God authorizes human government to use force on his behalf and in grave cases even to take life, though never deliberately to take the life of the innocent (Gen. 9:6; Rom. 13:3-4).
9. Yet human government cannot fully or permanently redress wrong, because it cannot uproot sin from the human heart; this can be done only by the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ (Jer. 17:9; Isa. 64:6; Rom. 3:22-25).
10. Moreover, the community of redemption is not the state but the church. No matter how much respect is due to the state, the church is never to be identified with it (John 18:33-36; Acts 20:28).

10 Scriptural Principles on the Nature of Human Government – Justin Taylor

The pen and the keyboard

Charlotte Allen doesn't much care for the book she is reviewing about the disappearance of cursive handwriting, but she does use the opportunity to provide interesting information. For instance I had no idea [although I probably should have] that "italic" script originated in Italy.

.... During the 15th century, the Italian humanists developed a graceful script that slanted obliquely to the right and featured the joining of letters. This “italic” penmanship, one of whose virtues was that it allowed the writer to lift his pen from the page less frequently, and thus write even more speedily than the Gothic scribes, became the basis of modern cursive.

One of its offshoots was “copperplate,” so named because it was modeled after a hand used on copper engravings, whose clarity and delicate flourishes made it the dominant script of the 18th and 19th centuries in England and America (the signed fair copy of the Declaration of Independence was executed in copperplate), and it lives on among calligraphers. 

During the 1840s, an American, Platt Rogers Spencer, developed a simplified form of copperplate and also set up a school for teaching his new style of penmanship. Thanks to the energy of Spencer and his disciples, who traversed the American heartland promoting their invention, Spencerian script—most famously preserved in the Coca-Cola and Ford Motor Company logos—became the American standard until the 1920s, when the typewriter rendered it otiose for business correspondence and the Palmer method supplanted it in schools. Now, even the Palmer method—along with every other handwriting method—is on life support....

I’m now one of the few human beings I know who still corresponds with a pen on stationery. (Whether anyone can read what I write is a different story.) .... [more]

She writes that increasing numbers of school districts no longer teach cursive — concentrating instead on keyboarding.

It has been years since I wrote a letter in cursive and my handwriting is increasingly terrible. Even my signature is becoming less legible. Almost everything I write is through the keyboard even though I never learned touch typing. I don't miss writing in cursive but I would miss not being able to read it. It will be another sad disconnect with the past when we can't read our grandparents' letters and journals.

Is the Pen Mightier? | The Weekly Standard

Horatio Hornblower

Historical fiction was what first interested me in history.  Authors like Kenneth Roberts and Bruce Lancaster and, more recently, Bernard Cornwell and George MacDonald Fraser, make learning history fun. Of course it is fiction and needs to be leavened by the work of historians, but the best authors of such fictions are careful to present a credible account. One of the first I encountered, probably in the Saturday Evening Post to which my parents subscribed, was C.S. Forester. I still enjoy re-reading his books about Horatio Hornblower and war at sea during the time of the French Revolution and Napoleon.

From the Library of Congress description of Forester's Hornblower series:

In 1927, C.S. Forester purchased three volumes of The Naval Chronicle from 1790 to 1820. For the Chronicle, officers of the Royal Navy wrote articles on strategy, seamanship, gunnery, and other professional topics of interest to their colleagues. The Chronicle for those years covered the wars with Napoleon. Reading these volumes and traveling by freighter from California to Central America allowed the germination of the character Horatio Hornblower as a member of the Royal Navy in the late eighteenth century. By the time Forester's journey brought him home to England, the former medical student-turned-writer had plotted Beat to Quarters, and it was published in 1937. A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were published soon after, and in 1939 all three appeared as Captain Horatio Hornblower.

Forester's interest in the Romantic period and the political and military maneuvers of the early 1800s continued, and the Hornblower saga was produced. Subsequent volumes in the series were sequels to the original trilogy or filled in its gaps. The episodic quality of the novels is due partly to their having appeared serially in magazines, primarily the Saturday Evening Post.

Most of the books were written around the time of World War II, which influenced Forester to concentrate on strong military leaders and heroic deeds in the earlier world war he described. Hornblower's complexity has endeared him to readers. He is cynical but compassionate, courageous but not without fear. Self-conscious and socially unconfident, his marriage is a mismatch, and he finds himself in love with the Duke of Wellington's sister. Above all he is a consummate seaman, deserving of the loyalty of his men.

The achievement of Forester, who led a quiet, contemplative life and suffered from serious illness, was that in conjuring up person, period, and place—rousing sea battles, eventual shore life, England, France, Central America—he made it easy for readers to believe they were there. ....

The books, arranged not in the order written but chronologically according to Hornblower's experience — the order in which I would read them:

Book Title:	Date Published	Period Covered
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower	1950	June, 1794-March, 1798
Lieutenant Hornblower	1952	May, 1800-March, 1803
Hornblower and the Hotspur	1962	April, 1803-July, 1805
Hornblower and the Atropos	1953	October, 1805-January, 1808
Beat to Quarters	1937	June-October, 1808
Ship of the Line	1938	May-October, 1810
Flying Colors	1938	November, 1810-June, 1811
Commodore Hornblower	1945	May-October, 1812
Lord Hornblower	1946	October, 1813-May, 1814
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies	1958	May, 1821-October, 1823

 adapted from C.S. Forester, The Hornblower Companion: An Atlas and Personal Commentary on the Writing of the Hornblower Saga, 1964.

Here is a link to Amazon's The Horatio Hornblower Series. The page also has links to the Companion, the Gregory Peck film, and the A&E television series.

Worshiping worship rather than God

From the first chapter of Worship by the Book, by D.A. Carson:

.... Although there are things that can be done to enhance corporate worship, there is a profound sense in which excellent worship cannot be attained merely by pursuing excellent worship. In the same way that, according to Jesus, you cannot find yourself until you lose yourself, so also you cannot find excellent corporate worship until you stop trying to find excellent corporate worship and pursue God himself. Despite the protestations, one sometimes wonders if we are beginning to worship worship rather than worship God. As a brother put it to me, it's a bit like those who begin by admiring the sunset and soon begin to admire themselves admiring the sunset.

This point is acknowledged in a praise chorus like "Let's forget about ourselves, and magnify the Lord, and worship him." The trouble is that after you have sung this repetitious chorus three or four times, you are no farther ahead. The way you forget about yourself is by focusing on God—not by singing about doing it, but by doing it. There are far too few choruses and services and sermons that expand our vision of God—his attributes, his works, his character, his words. Some think that corporate worship is good because it is lively where it had been dull. But it may also be shallow where it is lively, leaving people dissatisfied and restless in a few months' time. Sheep lie down when they are well fed (cf. Ps 23:2); they are more likely to be restless when they are hungry. "Feed my sheep," Jesus commanded Peter (John 21); and many sheep are unfed. If you wish to deepen the worship of the people of God, above all deepen their grasp of his ineffable majesty in his person and in all his works. .... [D.A. Carson, Chapter 1: "Worship Under the Word," Worship by the Book.

Worthless

Via the G.K. Chesterton Facebook page:

All the thinkers who really think, and all the theorists whose theories seriously count, are growing more and more skeptical about the very existence of progress, and certainly about the desirability of this sort of self-swallowing and suicidal kind of progress. The notion that every generation proves worthless the last generation, and is in its turn proved worthless by the next generation, is an everlasting vista and vision of worthlessness which is fortunately itself worthless.”

G.K. Chesterton: “Are the Artists Going Mad?”

Worship under the Word

I was once responsible for planning worship and preaching for one of my denomination's annual conferences. One of my goals, only imperfectly realized, was to demonstrate by example that good worship — worship focused on God rather than self — could take place in any of a variety of worship styles. That seems to be the thesis of Worship by the Book, edited by D.A. Carson, with chapters by Mark Ashton, R. Kent Hughes and Timothy Keller. In the Preface, Carson writes:

This is not a comprehensive theology of worship. Still less is it a sociological analysis of current trends or a minister's manual chock full of "how to" instructions. We have not attempted detailed historical analyses of our respective traditions, nor have we devoted much space to interaction with other discussions. Rather, after a preliminary chapter on the biblical theology of worship, the remaining three chapters move from theological reflection to practical implementation of patterns of corporate worship in the local churches we represent. Complete service outlines are included, for many ministers will find the arguments more helpful and fruitful if they are fleshed out in detailed outlines. ....

.... What unites us is our strong commitment to the ministry of the Word; our respect for historical rootedness; and our deep commitment, nevertheless, to contemporaneity and solid engagement with unconverted, unchurched people. We are as suspicious of mere traditionalism as we are of cutesy relevance. What we provide is the theological reasoning that shapes our judgments in matters of corporate worship, along with examples that have emerged from our ministries. In each case we have tried to interact with our respective traditions without being padlocked to them. ....

In addition to the chapters there are extensive appendices. This looks like something that would be useful to any pastor or worship leader interested in, as the title of chapter 1 puts it, "Worship Under the Word."

"Unconditional" love?

Justin Taylor summarizes David Powlison in "Why We Shouldn’t Settle for God’s “Unconditional Love." From that post:

...David Powlison suggests that people who use the term often have good intentions, wanting to affirm four interrelated truths:

1. “Conditional love” is bad—unconditional is shorthand for the opposite of manipulation, demand, judgmentalism.
2. God’s love is patient—unconditional is shorthand for hanging on for the long haul, rather than bailing out when the going gets rough.
3. True love is God’s gift—unconditional is shorthand for unearned blessings, rather than legalism.
4. God receives you just as you are: sinful, suffering, confused—unconditional is shorthand for God’s invitation to rough, dirty, broken people.

These are true—and precious. But...

.... God’s love is more than unconditional, for it is intended to change those who receive it. “Unconditional” often connotes “you’re okay.” But there is something wrong with you. The word “unconditional” may well express the welcome of God, but it does not well express the point of his welcome. ....

Powlison says, “We can do better”:

Saying “God’s love is unconditional love” is a bit like saying “The sun’s light at high noon is a flashlight in a blackout.”

Come again?

A dim bulb sustains certain analogies to the sun.

Unconditional love does sustain certain analogies to God’s love.

But why not start with the blazing sun rather than the flashlight? ....

God does not accept me just as I am;

He loves me despite how I am ....

[more]

Why We Shouldn’t Settle for God’s “Unconditional Love” – Justin Taylor