The faith once delivered?

As a non-theologian who is nevertheless interested, I found Kevin DeYoung's post this morning about "The Making of American Liberal Theology" illuminating. He has been reading the first volume of The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion 1805-1900 by Gary Dorrien and provides quotations from the book intended to answer "So what is [theological] liberalism?" I've recopied the first and last points below but there is much more here. [The bold headings and unindented comments are DeYoung's. The indented material is Dorrien's.]

1. True religion is not based on external authority

The idea of liberal theology is nearly three centuries old. In essence, it is the idea that Christian theology can be genuinely Christian without being based upon external authority. Since the eighteenth century, liberal Christian thinkers have argued that religion should be modern and progressive and that the meaning of Christianity should be interpreted from the standpoint of modern knowledge and experience. (xii)

What’s more, Dorrien recognizes this rejection is something new in the history of the church.

Before the modern period, all Christian theologies were constructed within a house of authority. All premodern Christian theologies made claims to authority-based orthodoxy. Even the mystical and mythopoetic theologies produced by premodern Christianity took for granted the view of scripture as an infallible revelation and the view of theology as an explication of propositional revelation. Adopting the scholastic methods of their Catholic adversaries, Protestant theologians formalized these assumptions with scholastic precision during the seventeenth century. Not coincidentally, the age of religious wars that preceded the Enlightenment is also remembered as the age of orthodoxy.

Reformed and Lutheran orthodoxy heightened the Reformation principle that scripture is the sole and infallibly sufficient rule of faith, teaching that scripture is also strictly inerrant in all that it asserts. (xv)

Note that Dorrien does not believe inerrancy was a Princetonian invention.

DeYoung proceeds to quote Dorrien with respect to six more distinguishing characteristics of theological liberalism. The final point:

7. The true religion is the way of Christ, not any particular doctrines about Christ.

The Word of Christ is not a doctrine or the end of an argument, but a self-authenticating life; it is morally regenerative spiritual power claimed in Christ’s spirit…Moving beyond their mentor, the Bushnellians accented the humanity of Christ; Munger and Gladden lifted Jesus’ teaching above any claims about his person. In both cases, however, a self-authenticating moral image conceived as the power of true religion was in control. The true religion is the way of Christ. (399-400)

Dorrien observes that this kind of religion was a departure from historic orthodoxy.

Traditional Protestant orthodoxies place the substitutionary atonement of Christ at the center of Christianity, conceiving Christ’s death as a propitiatory sacrifice that vicariously satisfied the retributive demands of divine justice. (400)

The new progressive religion of liberalism understood Christianity quite differently.

By the end of Beecher’s life, it was almost prosaic for Munger and Gladden to assert that Christianity is essentially a life, not a doctrine. (405)

Liberalism is not a swear word to be thrown around. It is a diverse, but identifiable approach to Christianity, one that differs significantly from historic orthodoxy, not to mention evangelicalism and fundamentalism. Liberals believe they are making Christianity relevant, credible, beneficial, and humane. Evangelicals in the line of J. Gresham Machen believe they are making something other than Christianity.

As Shakespeare put it, “Ay, there’s the rub.”

The Making of American Liberal Theology – Kevin DeYoung

R. Austin Freeman

That which is referred to as the "Golden Age" of detective fiction is, roughly, the period between the World Wars, and the writers who continue to be most celebrated from that era are all women: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. At The American Culture Curt Evans writes about "The British Golden Age of Detection’s Deposed Crime Kings" in two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) regretting the neglect of some very good male crime writers from that period. One of those is R. Austin Freeman, also one of my favorites about whom I've posted before. Many of Freeman's stories are "inverted" detective tales, where you are told the story of the crime from the perpetrator's point of view including, of course, all the steps taken to conceal what he has done, and then observe the detective's inexorable discovery of the guilty. Evans says that Freeman was one of T.S. Eliot's favorite detective novelists, better than Christie. Evans on Freeman:

Although Freeman’s first detective novel, The Red Thumb Mark, appeared in 1907, well before the beginning of the Golden Age, Freeman, a contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle, continued writing mystery fiction until the year before his death in 1943. Between 1922 and 1938, Freeman published fifteen detective novels and three collections of detective short stories, all but one detailing exploits of his then-famous detective (and the greatest rival of Sherlock Holmes), medical jurist Dr. John Thorndyke. Two more Thorndyke novels appeared in 1940 and 1942, outside the proper span of the Golden Age.

Freeman’s Thorndyke tales brought science and forensic medicine into the detective fiction genre in a masterful way. Compared to Thorndyke, Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is far less credible on scientific matters. P.D. James claims that the Golden Age detective novelists “had very little knowledge and even less apparent interest in forensic medicine”—a far too sweeping statement, evidently based mostly on her assessments of the Crime Queens, which does a grave injustice to Freeman, perhaps the single most important progenitor of the use of forensic medicine in detective fiction. ....

Though some of Freeman’s best works, such as The Eye of Osiris (1911) and the short-story collections John Thorndyke’s Cases (1909) and The Singing Bone (1912), were published before the Golden Age began, Freeman produced many superb Golden Age works, including the three later short story collections Dr. Thorndyke’s Casebook (1923), The Puzzle Lock (1925), and The Magic Casket (1927) and novels such as The Cat’s Eye (1923), The Shadow of the Wolf (1925), As a Thief in the Night (1928), Mr. Pottermack's Oversight (1930), The Penrose Mystery (1936), and The Stoneware Monkey (1938).

Freeman’s story collection The Singing Bone has been credited with creating the inverted mystery, and the later novels Wolf and Oversight are fine examples of that form. (more)

I don't possess all of those books, but of those I do own Mr. Pottermack's Oversight is a favorite, as are a couple he doesn't mention, A Silent Witness (1929) and For the Defense: Dr. Thorndyke (1934).

Curt Evans, "The British Golden Age of Detection’s Deposed Crime Kings (Part 2 of 2)", The American Culture

"I know the meaning of the cross"

Catholic critic of blasphemy law is shot dead in Pakistan:

Pakistan’s leading Catholic politician has been murdered in the capital Islamabad.

Minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti died this morning after gunmen opened fire on his car while travelling to work through a residential district.

Mr Bhatti, 42, a leader of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), had just left his home when at least two gunmen ambushed his car, police official Mohammad Iqbal said. He was rushed to the nearby Shifa hospital, but was dead on arrival.

Mr Bhatti had received numerous death threats after calling for changes to the country’s controversial blasphemy law. The blasphemy law carries a death sentence for anyone who insults Islam, and critics say it has been used to persecute minority faiths. In January, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had also opposed the law, was murdered by one of his bodyguards.

Catholic critic of blasphemy law is shot dead in Pakistan | CatholicHerald.co.uk

The turning point of history

Joel D. Heck gives us "C.S. Lewis and The Man Born to be King," about a series of radio plays by Dorothy L. Sayers about the life of Jesus Christ. I first read them in my college years. As valuable as the plays themselves are Sayers' introduction and notes explaining her dramatic choices. Excerpts from Heck's account:

In 1943, Dorothy L. Sayers’ script of twelve radio broadcasts was published by Harper & Brothers as The Man Born to Be King: A Play-Cycle on the Life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. She had written these dramatic episodes for the radio at a time when there was no precedent for such writing. Many deemed these broadcasts sacrilegious and some even considered them wicked. Far better, it was thought, to quote the Bible than to interpret it, especially on stage. ....

She wrote one Nativity story, six stories from the period of Jesus’ ministry, and five Passion plays beginning with Palm Sunday. Some characters had to be invented, such as Elihu, who was the captain of the guard at the tomb of Jesus, but Baruch the Zealot was the only main character of importance that she invented. Judas could not be a worthless villain lest Sayers cast a slur upon either the intelligence or the character of Jesus for choosing him as a disciple.

Sayers uses many direct quotations from the Gospels, then adds detail to the story for the flow of the narrative. Those details certainly could have happened, but they are invented for the sake of the story. ....

.... Finally, in addition to being the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, her episodes comprise “first and foremost, a story—a true story, the turning-point of history, ‘the only thing that has ever really happened’” (Sayers, 22). Especially in the post-resurrection conversations between Jesus and His disciples the message and implications of the Gospel are thoroughly explained. For Dorothy L. Sayers, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). ....

Sayers and C.S. Lewis were friends. Heck quotes CSL about their relationship: "She was the first person of importance who ever wrote me a fan letter. I liked her, originally, because she liked me; later, for the extraordinary zest and edge of her conversation—as I like a high wind. She was a friend, not an ally." Lewis approved of The Man Born to be King:

Lewis enjoyed her play cycle so much that he read the plays in the year when her book was released and then every Holy Week thereafter. In fact, his first letter to her, on May 30, 1943, contained high praise:

Dear Miss Sayers—

I’ve finished The Man Born to be King and think it a complete success. (Christie the H.M. of Westminster told me that the actual performances over the air left his 2 small daughters with “open and silent mouths” for several minutes).

I shed real tears (hot ones) in places: since Mauriac’s Vie de Jesus nothing has moved me so much. I’m not absolutely sure whether Judas for me “comes off”—i.e. whether I shd. have got him without your off-stage analysis. But this may be due to merely reading what was meant to be heard. He’s quite a possible conception, no doubt: I’m only uncertain of the execution. But that is the only point I’m doubtful on. I expect to read it times without number again….

Yours sincerely
C.S. Lewis (Collected Letters, II, 577f)

.... The Man Born To Be King became one of the books he would recommend, along with the works of Chesterton, Charles Williams, George MacDonald, St. Augustine, George Herbert, and others, which is high praise indeed!  .... (more)

The Man Born to Be King is available in paperback at Amazon for about $14.

(The image is of my copy.)

C. S. Lewis Blog: C.S. Lewis and The Man Born to be King

Welsh hymns

March 1 is St. David's Day in honor of the patron saint of Wales, whence came some of my ancestors. Conjubilant With Song, a fine hymn site, celebrates the day with Welsh hymns. Links are provided to both the text and the hymn tunes.

...I thought I would take this day of Welsh celebration to gather together several of the Welsh hymn tunes already used here over the last three years. ...

• HYFRYDOL - Love divine, all loves excelling (and also here and here)
• CWM RHONDDA - God of grace and God of glory (also here)
• ST. DENIO - Immortal, invisible, God only wise
• ABERYSTWYTH - Watcher, tell us of the night
• TON-Y-BOTEL - Jesus Christ, eternal Savior
• LLANGLOFFAN - Sometimes a light surprises
• BRYN CALFARIA - Look, O look, the sight is glorious
• RHOSYMEDRE - O Source of Life divine
• MEIRIONYDD - You hide within the lily
• RHUDDLAN - Light's abode, celestial Salem

Conjubilant With Song: Saint David

Controversy

In the course of responding to the controversy about Rob Bell's video promoting his upcoming book, Kevin DeYoung makes an observation:

I know many young evangelicals barely have any stomach for controversy, let alone strong words about a serious topic. But if there is no way to be simultaneously bold and humble; if there is no way to be a gentle, caring person while still speaking in clear tones about hurtful error; if there is no way to correct those who oppose sound doctrine without being a moral monster; if there’s no way to love truth and grace at the same time, then there’s no way to be a biblical Christian.

Two Thoughts on the Rob Bell Brouhaha – Kevin DeYoung

Something worth doing is worth doing poorly

An interview with Peter Wehner, co-author of a recent book about Christian and politics is available at the Evangel blog at First Things. The first and last questions and answers from a much longer exchange:

Gayle Trotter: This is Gayle Trotter. I’m with Peter Wehner, author of City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era. When I was an undergraduate government student at UVA, one famous professor, Larry Sabato, adopted the slogan, “Politics is a good thing.” Is your slogan, “Politics is a good thing for Christians?”

Peter Wehner: Yeah, it’s a good thing for Christians with caveats. [Co-author] Mike [Gerson] and I argue in the book that Christians should care about politics because politics in its deepest and best sense is about justice and Christians should care about justice. And political acts can have profound human consequences and Christians should care about that, too. So as a general matter we think that that’s an arena that Christians should be involved in but it’s an arena that’s filled with traps and snares as well. ....

GT: In the book you give us three concluding propositions and one of them I just love because you had a G.K. Chesterton quote and I think he’s great; the quote is, “Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel.” What did you mean by that quote?

PW: Well, that was in the context of the complaints by people like Jim Hunter that Christians have often done politics poorly. But we say so did other people in the democracy and the answer is to do politics better, that political engagement isn’t a luxury and I think the way we put it in the book is, “The fighting of raging fires requires not contemplation but a fire extinguisher. Urgency can involve errors but these should be admitted and corrected. But, as Chesterton said, ‘Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel.’” .... (more)

Peter Wehner Discusses the City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era » Evangel | A First Things Blog

Religion by the numbers

Mark Tooley, in The American Spectator, notes some reasonably encouraging statistics about the state of Christianity in the nation and in the world:

Most secular media in the U.S. imply that the world is largely dividing between resurgent Islam and enlightened secularists, with isolated evangelicals and Catholics left on the sideline. A recent report by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research indicates otherwise, with one third of the world professing Christianity, virtually unchanged as a global percentage since 100 years ago. Christians today are estimated to number about 2.3 billion. About 1.5 billion are estimated to attend church regularly at over 5 million congregations, up from 400,000 100 years ago.

There are 1.6 [billion] estimated Muslims, 951 million Hindus, and 468 million Buddhists. Atheists are thought to be 137 million, a declining number. The report estimates about 80,000 new Christians every day, 79,000 new Muslims every day, and 300 fewer atheists every day. ....

A Gallup poll in 2010 showed the percentage of Americans reporting to attend church regularly (at least monthly) was 43 percent. In 1937 it was 37 percent, was slightly lower in the early 1940s, reached 49 percent during the 1950s, and settled at 42 percent in 1969, where it has remained steady for the last 40 years. .... A Pew survey found that about 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations since childhood. Mostly they are switching away from Mainline Protestantism. Forty-five years ago, about 30 million Americans belonged to the top 7 Mainline denominations, accounting for about one sixth of Americans. Today, it's about 20 million, accounting for about one fifteenth. .... [more]

The American Spectator : Thriving Christianity

Sexagesima: Against all adversity

O LORD God, which seest that we put not our trust in any thing that we do; mercifully grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
[Thomas Cranmer]

WHEN much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way-side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the way-side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with care and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
[Luke VIII]

Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord, who rises with healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain.

In holy contemplation we sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new.
Set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow bring with it what it may.

It can bring with it nothing but He will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing will clothe His people, too;
Beneath the spreading heavens, no creature but is fed;
And He who feeds the ravens will give His children bread.

Though vine nor fig tree neither their wonted fruit should bear,
Though all the field should wither, nor flocks nor herds be there;
Yet God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice,
For while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.
[William Cowper, 1779]

"Those who cause division"

Kevin DeYoung on the "Distinguishing Marks of a Quarrelsome Person":

You don’t have to be a card-carrying member of the nice Nazis to believe that quarreling is wrong. You only have to believe the Bible (James 4:1). Hot-headed, divisive Christians are not pleasing to God (Proverbs 6:19). We are told to drive them out (Proverbs 22:10) and avoid such people (Romans 16:17). This doesn’t mean we only huddle with the people we like. We are not talking about awkward folks or those who disagree with us. We are talking about quarrelsome Christians–habitually disagreeable, divisive, hot-headed church people.

So what does a quarrelsome person look like? What are his (or her) distinguishing marks?

And he proceeds to describe twelve "distinguishing marks" of the quarrelsome.

Distinguishing Marks of a Quarrelsome Person – Kevin DeYoung

Washington, on the anniversary of his birth

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate, uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting."

From the eulogy delivered by "Lighthorse" Harry Lee, 1799

"All the trees of the field shall clap their hands"

Alan Jacobs has created a beautiful site, G O S P E L  O F  T H E  T R E E S. He explains:

The Bible is a story about trees. It begins, or nearly enough, with two trees in a garden: the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The pivotal event in the book comes when a man named Jesus is hanged on a tree. And the last chapter of the last book features a remade Jerusalem: “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” If you understand the trees, you understand the story. ....

One of the entries:

Out of the fertil ground he caus’d to grow
All Trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste;
And all amid them stood the Tree of Life,
High eminent, blooming Ambrosial Fruit
Of vegetable Gold; and next to Life
Our Death the Tree of Knowledge grew fast by,
Knowledge of Good bought dear by knowing ill. — John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV

G O S P E L  O F  T H E  T R E E S

Presidents' Day

John Steele Gordon [who I quoted yesterday on Wisconsin's capitol building] shares my disdain for "Presidents Day" replacing celebration of the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln. Gordon:

When King George III learned that Washington had resigned command of the Continental Army rather than use it to make himself king, he supposedly said, “If that is true, then he must be the greatest man in the world.” But aside from diminishing the significance of Washington and Lincoln, Presidents’ Day also, by implication, increases the significance of the likes of James Buchanan, Warren Harding, and Jimmy Carter, who are to Washington and Lincoln as pebbles are to Everest.

The picture is of one of the many Presidents I do not honor, James Buchanan.

RE: Presidents’ Day « Commentary Magazine

The Wisconsin Capitol

John Steele Gordon at Commentary's Contentions blog notes that the venue for the current disputes in Madison is an extraordinarily beautiful building. I walk through it several times a week and confess that I have become so used to it that often I do not see. Gordon:

The State Capitol of Wisconsin is one of the greatest examples of Beaux Arts style architecture in the United States. It was built between 1906 and 1917, the third capitol building on the site. (The second building burned in 1904. In one of the more ill-timed cost-cutting measures in American political history, the legislature had voted to cancel the fire insurance on the building five weeks earlier.)

The architect was George B. Post (1837-1913), a student of Richard Morris Hunt. He also designed many early New York City skyscrapers, some the tallest in the world at the time, and the New York Stock Exchange Building on Broad Street.

Cruciform in shape, with four equal wings, the Wisconsin State Capitol has one of the highest domes in the country (only a few feet shorter than the U.S. Capitol) and the only one made of granite (the dome of the Capitol in Washington is cast iron). While grand on the outside, the inside is magnificent, abounding with Beaux Arts exuberance and luxury that never crosses the line into vulgarity.

Another Reason to Visit Madison, Wisconsin « Commentary Magazine, flickr

Septuagesima: Under the mercy

O Lord, we beseech Thee favorably to hear the prayers of Thy people; that we which are justly punished for our offenses, may be mercifully delivered by Thy goodness, for the glory of Thy name, through Jesus Christ our Savior, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
[Thomas Cranmer]

THE kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place, and said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
[Matthew XX]

Voice of the Lord, arise
Through man, in darkness and flame,
Till through his inner skies
Sounds the Unnameable Name;
Fashion the heavenly way
Till, last of His creatures, we,
In His union of night and day,
Know ourselves naught but He.

[Charles Williams]

Elections have consequences

Madison, Wisconsin, where I live, is the site of large and noisy demonstrations protesting legislation that would largely eliminate collective bargaining for state and local public employees. A few years ago I would have been in the middle of the protests. I was active in the teachers' union [several times its president] and genuinely believe in the importance of countervailing power. I think the governor's proposals go too far in limiting collective bargaining. Nor do many of them have anything to do with gaining control of the budget.

Nevertheless, the rhetoric is out of control. A few moments ago, listening to a recording of a hearing last night,  I heard a State Senator compare what is happening in Madison to the uprising in Cairo. The governor has been compared to Hitler and to Mussolini. And so on.... The lectures about civility and violent rhetoric we were all subjected to last month don't seem to have had much impact here.

Republicans in Wisconsin owe nothing to the public employee unions. Over the years that I was active in the state union it largely abandoned the practice of automatically endorsing any legislator, regardless of party, who supported their positions on a limited number of education and labor related issues. Instead it became a permanent adjunct of the Democratic party. That worked while Democrats were in power but it was perfectly predictable that at some point they wouldn't be. Every vote on this issue will be party-line. Once that would not have been true.

At the moment Democratic State Senators have absented themselves thus preventing the necessary quorum for action on bills affecting the budget. They may be able to leverage that absence into some compromise, but I doubt it. I suspect that the bill reported out of committee will pass  both houses, be signed, and become law. Elections have consequences. At one point during the debate leading up to the adoption of health reform our President reminded his defeated Republican opponent that he won.

Useful idiots

Peter Berger reflects on the phenomenon of "Revolutionaries with American Passports." It would appear that political fundamentalism shares some of the unfortunate characteristics of the religious variety, perhaps particularly "the denial of realities that contradict the ideology."

.... There has been for close to a century a long parade of admirers of socialist tyrannies, all the way back to the Western supporters of the Soviet Union, whom Lenin is reputed to have called “useful idiots.” The Soviet Union was succeeded as tyranny du jour by China, Vietnam, even Communist Albania (upheld by some Western admirers as the last stronghold of true Maoism after the Chinese regime began to show signs of pragmatism). There are two requirements for any regime deemed worthy of admiration: It must claim to be socialist; and it must be vocally anti-American. The degree of bloodshed does not appear to be a relevant criterion. It will either be denied or ideologically justified. For anyone who has faith in reason as a factor in history, there is here a sad and discouraging story. ....

For over fifty years now, cohorts of young, well-educated Americans have become supporters of a long string of bloody revolutions and tyrannical regimes, united by the two traits of socialist ideology and hostility to the United States. What is one to make of this? ....

...I did propose the first theorem of this putatively historic opus: Any identity is better than none. I still think that this proposition can take us quite a long way. It can help explain the continuing dance around the icons of utopian revolution.

For reasons which are not mysterious and which can be analyzed sociologically, modernity undermines taken-for-granted identities. No longer an unavoidable destiny, an individual’s identity increasingly becomes a matter of choice. This can be experienced as a great liberation, especially in its early phases. It can also be experienced as a burden. There is a deep human longing for certainty concerning the things that matter most—among which, as Immanuel Kant classically formulated it, is an answer to the question “Who am I?” As a result, there is a market for any movement that purports to provide a certain identity, one that can be relied upon beyond the precarious products of individual self-construction. That is the great attraction of all totalitarian movements. It is the psychological benefit of all fundamentalisms—religious or secular. The promise is always the same: “Come and join us. And we will give you what you have longed for—you will know who you really are.” The promise is kept—if and as long as the individual adheres to the ideology of the movement. Part of such adherence may be the denial of realities that contradict the ideology. .... [more]

Revolutionaries with American Passports | Religion and Other Curiosities

"Goodness beyond ourselves"

Elijah Davidson, at Patheos, in "Truer Grit", explains why he thinks this film version of True Grit is so good:

.... What is the ethic of this film? From my seat, it is that justice must be done, and if grace exists (and it clearly does), the giving of it may be the privilege of God alone. "Is grace, like vengeance, Thine?" the film asks of God. "And have You left justice up to us?"

Now some might argue that this Western, like many others, is about revenge. I disagree. Young Mattie Ross is not seeking vengeance for the death of her father. There is no wrath in her relentless pursuit. There is determined confidence in the rightness of her aims. She wants justice to be served. In fact, she demands it. ....

...[W]oven through our tale of cold justice served is a soundscape of hymns subtly reminding us of Goodness beyond ourselves. ....

There is very little different plot-wise in this new film compared to the old one, but the Coens have managed to imbue this plot with more darkness and stronger light. They have given the tale truer grit, if you'll allow the pun, but also truer grace.

And they have done this by making a better movie than the original. True Grit, whether with intention or not, theologizes using the conventions of film—through narrative structure, cinematography, and soundtrack. The film wrestles with issues of justice and grace and God's part in it all, and it invites its audience to do the same. .... [more]

This is one of those films that—like the first one—I will watch again and again. It is already available for order at Amazon, although there is not yet a release date. I was also motivated to order the book on which the movies are based. I once had the paperback but it disappeared at some point since the '60s.

Patheos: Truer Grit

Vision

Via Wilderness Fandango:

Daniel, the senior pastor of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky, says his vision statement is, ”Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.”

Wilderness Fandango: 3 Things

KJV only?

This is the 400th anniversary of the King James Version [KJV] of the Bible. Glenn Reynolds advances a new argument for that version being divinely inspired.