Books for boys

A few lists of books recommended to encourage teenage boys to read (I suspect girls would enjoy many of them just as much). 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. "contemporary" 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.

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.

Rev. Leroy Fouse Skaggs and Rosanna Pearce Skaggs

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 ....

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