Lent V: That those who are called might receive

WE beseech Thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon Thy people; that by Thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [Thomas Cranmer]

CHRIST being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause He is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. [Hebrews IX]

ALMIGHTY GOD, by whose mercy I am now permitted to commemorate my Redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ; grant that this awful remembrance may strengthen my Faith, enliven my Hope, and encrease my Charity; that I may trust in Thee with my whole heart, and do good according to my power. Grant me the help of thy Holy Spirit, that I may do Thy will with diligence, and suffer it with humble patience: so that when Thou shalt call me to Judgement, I may obtain forgiveness and acceptance for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Amen. [Samuel Johmson]

"Every year you grow..."

The DVD of Voyage of the Dawn Treader arrived today and, having seen it for the first time, I can honestly say I enjoyed it. My expectation for films of books I love isn't actually very high and this film exceeded those expectations. The president of Walden Media, Michael Flaherty, gave another interview, this time to Christianity Today, in which he discussed the successes and failures of the series and plans for the future [The Magician's Nephew is next]. He also answered some questions about some of the choices made for Caspian and  Dawn Treader:

The part I was most disappointed in was the un-dragoning of Eustace. I know that for the sake of children, you couldn't show Aslan ripping Eustace apart. But it didn't seem evident that Eustace had first tried to tear off his skin, on his own. We just saw him scratch his chest one time, and then we saw Aslan pawing at the sand, and then we saw this transformation. Have you heard complaints that the un-dragoning wasn't handled well?

Yes. And we could see that coming even before we showed anyone the movie. What's interesting is that when you read the book, you actually don't see that scene; Eustace just recounts it when he gets back in the boat. We wanted to show it, but what we ended up doing was reinforcing that message when Eustace says later, "No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do it myself. And then he came towards me. It was a good hurt." Visually, I was pleased with it. But yes, there was a response where people wanted to see lion paw firmly placed in dragon flesh and ripping it off. That was a common disappointment.

Another big thing for people is Aslan's speech in the end, when he tells Lucy she'll know him by another name in her world. That dialogue was kept in the film, but I've heard there were some feisty conversations about that and that some people wanted to cut it.

With all the Aslan parts, particularly the dialogue, there's always a very spirited and healthy discussion, and generally any time there's a discussion, the tie goes to C.S. Lewis. So we always come to the agreement, "Listen, let's not think that we can reinterpret this and do a better job than Lewis. If we disagree about this, if people think there are different ways to say this, let's just make sure we preserve what Lewis said." That's a mistake we made with Prince Caspian, where we changed Aslan's dialogue with Lucy. [In the book, Lucy says: "You're bigger, Aslan." Aslan replies: "That's because you are older, little one." Lucy: "Not because you are?" Aslan: "I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger." In the film, Aslan says to Lucy: "Every year you grow, so shall I," which carries quite a different meaning.] We didn't get that one right. We learned our lesson from that. And so as we were trying to figure out the dialogue with this one, we decided that we would just go back to verbatim what we had in the book. .... (more)

The Lion, the Witch, and the Box Office | Movies & TV | Christianity Today

What are we saved from?

Mark Galli, in "The Problem with Christus Victor," believes the model has value but that the way it is described today — as an alternative to substitutionary atonement — is biblically inadequate and doctrinally distorted, and, moreover, may appeal to our contemporaries for the wrong reasons:

The Christus Victor model has much to commend it. The idea is this: Christ is victor. Christ in his death and resurrection overcame the hostile powers that hold humanity in subjection, those powers variously understood as the devil, sin, the law, and death. While the model assumes humanity's guilt for getting ourselves into this predicament—beginning with the original sin of Adam and Eve—the theory's anthropology (view of humanity) emphasizes not our guilt but our victimhood, at least the way it is often discussed today. ....

It is no coincidence in a society where we imagine ourselves mostly as victims of social or biological forces, in a culture increasingly illiterate in the language of guilt, sin, and personal responsibility, that Christus Victor is winning the day in the Christian world.  ....

I have noticed—and do tell me if you see otherwise—that in general those who publically champion Christus Victor don't pepper their talks and prayers with personal guilt for sin or the need for divine forgiveness. By way of contrast, note the oldest advocates of Christus Victor, the Eastern Orthodox. Personal sin and guilt, and the consequent wrath of God, regularly weave themselves into their prayers. Note this prayer recommended for each morning:

Arising from sleep I thank you, O holy Trinity, because of the abundance of your goodness and long-suffering, you were not angry with me, slothful and sinful as I am. Neither have you destroyed me in my transgressions, but in your compassion raised me up as I lay in despair, that at dawn I might sing the glories of your Majesty.

But for some reason, when the Christus Victor theory is extolled by Protestants today, personal sin and guilt take a back seat. Way back sometimes. .... [more]

The Problem with Christus Victor | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

"There are lots of important things that are separate from science"

The winner of the 2011 Templeton Prize is Martin Rees, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, who is described as a "theoretical astrophysicist." Since Templeton is interested in the relationship between science and religion it is interesting that Rees describes himself as having "no religious beliefs at all." Whether he is agnostic or atheist, he does have opinions about scientists pronouncing about religion. From an interview with Rees at the Guardian:

Ian Sample: You said in a BBC radio interview that one of the reasons you think science and religion can sit side-by-side and peacefully co-exist is that they deal with different realms.

Martin Rees: As I said earlier, I don't think they have much scope for constructive interaction, but they have in common perhaps an awareness of mystery.

IS: The suggestion is that science deals with the "material world" and religion deals with something "extra-material". Where does one end and the other start? There are aspects of religion that comment on the creation of Earth, the creation of the universe, the creation of humanity and the spread of HIV around Africa. Religion appears in those contexts, but are those not material issues?

MR: Yes. Obviously. But I think just as religion is separate from science, so is ethics separate from science. So is aesthetics separate from science. And so are many other things. There are lots of important things that are separate from science.

IS: If there is a clear and obvious boundary between science and religion, how does religion come to be used in these contexts?

MR: I try to avoid getting into these science and religion debates.

IS: Will you be able to stay out of them now you have the Templeton prize?

MR: It's my choice.

IS: There was an extraordinary fuss last year over Stephen Hawking's pronouncement that the creation of the universe did not require a God. What did you make of that?

MR: What I said at the time is that I know Stephen Hawking well enough to know that he has read little philosophy and less theology, so I don't think his views should be taken with any special weight.

IS: You have read on those subjects. What's your view?

MR: What's my view? Well, I'm not prepared to pronounce on these things. I think it's rather foolish when scientists do so.

Martin Rees: I've got no religious beliefs at all - interview | Science | guardian.co.uk

Giving the Middle Ages their due

I don't have a copy at hand, but my recollection is that in the introduction to The Discarded Image C.S. Lewis devotes himself to disabusing his readers of the idea that the Middle Ages were Dark Ages and that there was any real discontinuity between that era and the next. I just ordered The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution by James Hannam because it seems to extend that argument to the development of science and technology. From the Amazon description:

Here are some facts you probably didn't learn in school:

• People in the Middle Ages did not think the world was flat—in fact, medieval scholars could prove it wasn't;
• The Inquisition never executed anyone because of their scientific ideas or discoveries (actually, the Church was the chief sponsor of scientific research and several popes were celebrated for their knowledge of the subject);
• It was medieval scientific discoveries, methods, and principles that made possible western civilization's "Scientific Revolution".

If you were taught that the Middle Ages were a time of intellectual stagnation, superstition, and ignorance, you were taught a myth that has been utterly refuted by modern scholarship.

As a physicist and historian of science James Hannam shows in his brilliant new book, The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution, without the scholarship of the "barbaric" Middle Ages, modern science simply would not exist.

The Middle Ages were a time of one intellectual triumph after another. As Dr. Hannam writes, "The people of medieval Europe invented spectacles, the mechanical clock, the windmill, and the blast furnace by themselves. Lenses and cameras, almost all kinds of machinery, and the industrial revolution itself all owe their origins to the forgotten inventors of the Middle Ages."

In The Genesis of Science you will discover:

• Why the scientific accomplishments of the Middle Ages far surpassed those of the classical world;
• How medieval craftsmen and scientists not only made discoveries of their own, but seized upon Eastern inventions—printing, gunpowder, and the compass—and improved them beyond the dreams of their originators;
• How Galileo's notorious trial before the Inquisition was about politics, not science; and
• Why the theology of the Catholic Church, far from being an impediment, led directly to the development of modern science.

A colleague with whom I taught an interdisciplinary class—a science teacher—a non-Christian—would make the point about Galileo every semester.

"For behold, the winter is past...."

I have heard it said that Spring is a hazardous time for those inclined to depression, perhaps because optimism and hope can be so often dashed. But there is hope.

The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in his Heaven—
All’s right with the world!
[Robert Browning, Pippa Passes, 1841]

Less brightly optimistic, but hopeful nonetheless:

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
[T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland, 1922]

The poetic excerpts were used in a Weekly Standard editorial this week.

Power and idealism

In the New York Times Henry Kissinger reviews Bismarck by Jonathan Steinberg. The review will interest anyone convinced that the study of history is the only way to understand or predict. A couple of short quotations from the review:

.... Bismarck is often cited as the quintessential realist, relying on power at the expense of ideals. He was, in fact, far more complicated. Power, to be useful, must be understood in its components, including its limits. By the same token, ideals must be brought, at some point, into relationship with the circumstances the leader is seeking to affect. Ignoring that balance threatens policy with either veering toward belligerence from the advocates of power or toward crusades by the idealists. ....

Cynicism by itself produces a shallow opportunism. Any serious policy requires a fixed point from which to alter the world. .... [the review]

Book Review - Bismarck - By Jonathan Steinberg - NYTimes.com

"The fiction of reprobation"

J. Mark Bertrand, in "Writing About Reprobation," argues that noir fiction fits the Christian view of human nature better than the classic detective fiction of authors like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers:

.... When critics attempt to explain the appeal of the classic tales, they often invoke the Garden of Eden. The murderer enters, serpent-like, into the ordered world (creation), and by killing his victim shatters it (fall), casting the sleuth in the role of redeemer setting the broken world to rights. There is an appeal to this structure—certainly to Christian readers—but perhaps there is also a reactionary bent. In an age of lost certainty, readers yearn for what Eugene Peterson describes as “moral and intellectual breathing room.” ....

Dividing the world into good and bad people like this, pitting the “side of light” against the “side of darkness,” suggests a Manichean moralism much more than a Christian one. By positing a lost order susceptible to restoration by a lone, rational hero, the classic story offers an escape to readers who fear that, in the real world, no such restoration is possible. ....

On the other hand, noir authors [e.g. Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson] do better by recognizing the human reality Bertrand describes: "We can resolve to be good. But when it comes time to measure our actions against a moral yardstick, we’re forced to decide just how pure a deed must be in order to qualify. Nobody’s perfect, after all. If we’re honest, even our whitest whites can look a little gray."

.... What is true for a christened moralist does not apply to one who sees the corrupting effects of the fall as all-encompassing, who sees man’s depravity as total and therefore regards man’s institutions as structures in need of direction, not good in themselves. ....

So noir exists as the fiction of moral breakdown, the fiction of corruption, and yes, the fiction of reprobation. To its practitioners, this also makes it realistic fiction, because it depicts the world—this side of Christ's coming—as it truly is: not a realm of Newtonian regularity on the path to an ever brighter future, but a shattered, dystopian place only putting on a show of law and order. And for an unreconstructed Calvinist, a hint of noir helps capture a world where it rains on the just and the unjust alike, where fools are rewarded and wise men punished, and where to the making of many books there is no end. [more]

J. Mark Bertrand is a mystery author, but he first came to my attention at his great site, the Bible Design Blog, devoted to evaluating typeface, layout, binding—everything related to the quality of printed Bibles on the market today.

byFaith Magazine - Arts & Culture - Writing About Reprobation

Lent IV: Have mercy upon us

Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we, which for our evil deeds are worthily punished, by the comfort of Thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. [Thomas Cranmer]

This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. [1 John 1:5-10]

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against Thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare Thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore Thou those who are penitent; According to Thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for His sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of Thy holy Name. Amen. [BCP, ]

Are you blessed?

"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.'" That's one of my favorite quotations from Bob Dylan. In "Are you Happy?" Elizabeth Scalia, who blogs as The Anchoress, makes much the same point:

When my Elder son was very small, and was trying to figure out facial expressions, he would ask me, or my husband, or the lady at the grocery store, “Are you ‘appy?”

He was missing his h’s for a little while. ....

It’s a sweet question, and it always makes me smile, for the warm memories of my son at such a young age. But sometimes I wonder if, rather than asking people if they’re happy, we shouldn’t ask them, “are you grateful?” Because joy, or ‘appiness, I am convinced, comes from a capacity to actually see the good things in one’s life, and acknowledge them as good, and then be thankful.

Gratitude that one is employed; gratitude that one can walk across a room, unassisted. Gratitude for the senses. Gratitude for love, where we find it.

Are you ‘appy?

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow."

Are you Happy? | The Anchoress

"In sure and certain hope"

Mollie Hemingway, reacting to a Wall Street Journal article, "Putting the fun in funerals," about the increasing use of humor in funeral services, expresses something that has increasingly bothered me - at least with respect to the funerals of Christians. Funerals are, of course, for the bereaved and about the one who has died, but for Christians the service, like every service, should primarily be about the gospel. Funerals [like weddings] are becoming disproportionately about us and what we think we need rather than placing our needs in the context of worship. Hemingway:

.... This whole practice is very foreign to my religious upbringing. Confessional Lutherans believe that a funeral is a worship service not terribly unlike any other worship service. And that means that we don’t worship the person being buried but, rather, Jesus. This is how all Lutheran worship goes and it goes triple for a funeral because it’s a great time to remind the deceased’s parish, family and friends of what Jesus did for them.

But because Lutheran funerals are somewhat different from what I’ve experienced elsewhere, I can confidently state I’ve seen attempts at humor at other religious and secular send-offs for 30 years. I mean, I still shudder with absolute horror at the United Church of Christ pastor’s attempts at humor at my grandmother’s funeral. ....

Quoting from the Wall Street Journal story:

.... Some clergy say eulogies laced with humor can come at the expense of the religious significance of funeral services which traditionally weren’t focused on individual loss but community piety. For example, the Kaddish, the Jewish mourner’s prayer is an ode to God that never mentions someone has died. The funeral liturgy in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer didn’t include a mention of the deceased’s name until modern editions.

Today’s funerals are shielding mourners from facing the sorrow of death, says theologian Thomas Long. “A good funeral is now marked by the level of laughter” ....

The Anglican Book of Common Prayer service for "Burial of the Dead" is mostly a collection of appropriate quotations from Scripture alternating with prayers. The service isn't long [choices are made among the suggested Scriptures] but it seems to me that it strikes the correct balance. I chose from that service for my mother's funeral. These words are found near the end:

REMEMBER Thy servant: O Lord, according to the favour which Thou bearest unto Thy people, and grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of Thee, he may may go from strength to strength, in the life of perfect service, in Thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

At the grave
UNTO Almighty God we commend the soul of our brother departed, and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; at whose coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in Him shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto himself.

Then shall be said or sung,
I HEARD a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours.

Putting the fun in funerals » GetReligion, The Book of Common Prayer, New York, 1928.

"For reading and declaiming aloud"

The celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible has occasioned many appreciations. This is the best I've read. Ann Wroe, "In the Beginning Was the Sound":

The King James now breathes venerability. Even online it calls up crammed, black, indented fonts, thick rag paper and rubbed leather bindings—with, inside the heavy cover, spidery lists of family ancestors begotten long ago. To read it is to enter a sort of communion with everyone who has read or listened to it before, a crowd of ghosts: Puritan women in wide white collars, stern Victorian fathers clasping their canes, soldiers muddy from killing fields....

...[T]he grandeur of the language gives momentousness even to the corner of a room, a drain running beside a field, a patch of abandoned ground:

I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
And lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
Then I saw, and considered it well; I looked upon it, and received instruction.
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep… (Proverbs 24:30-33, KJV)

In such places shepherds “abide” with their sheep, motionless as figures made of stone. This landscape is carved broad and deep, like a woodcut, with sharply folded mountains, thick woven water, stylised trees and cities piled and blocked as with children’s bricks (all the better to be scattered by God later, no stone upon another). A sense of desolation haunts these streets and gates, echoing and shelterless places in which even Wisdom runs wild and cries. Yet within them sometimes we find a scene paced as tensely as in any modern novel, as when a young man in Proverbs steps out,

Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. (Proverbs 7:8-10, KJV)

Just as stained glass shines more brightly for being set in stone, so the King James gains in splendour by comparison with the Revised Standard, Good News, New International and Heaven-knows-what versions that have come later. Thus John’s magnificent “The Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1, KJV), has become “The Word was already existing,” scholarship usurping splendour. That lilting line in Genesis (1:8, KJV), “And the evening and the morning were the second day” (note that second “the”, so apparently expendable, yet so necessary to the music) becomes “There was morning, and there was evening,” a broken-backed crawl. ....

Everywhere modern translations are more specific, doubtless more accurate, but always less melodious. The King James, deeply scholarly as it is, displaying the best learning of the day, never forgets that the word of God must be heard, understood and retained by the simple. For them—children repeating after the teacher, workers fidgeting in their best clothes, Tyndale’s own whistling ploughboy—rhythm and music are the best aids to remembering. This is language not for silent study but for reading and declaiming aloud. It needs to work like poetry, and poetry it is. ....

Undoubtedly the King James has been enhanced for us by the music that now curls round it. “For unto us a child is born” (Isaiah 9:6, KJV) can’t now be read without Handel’s tripping chorus, or “Man that is born of a woman” without Purcell’s yearning melancholy (“He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down” Job 14:2, KJV). Even “To every thing there is a season”, from Ecclesiastes (3:1, KJV), is now overlaid with the nasal, gently stoned tones of Simon & Garfunkel. Yet the King James also lured these musicians in the beginning, snaring them with stray lines that were already singing. “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love” (Song of Solomon 2:5, KJV). “Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns” (Psalms 22:21, KJV). “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalms 19:1, KJV). “I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls” (Job 30:29, KJV). Or this, also from the Book of Job, possibly the most beautiful of all the Bible’s books—a passage that flows from one astonishingly random and sudden question, “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” (Job 38:22, KJV):

Hath the rain a father? Or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Plaeiades, or loose the bands of Orion? (Job 38:28-31, KJV)

The beauty of this is inherent, deep in the original mind and eye that formed it. But again, the translators have made choices here: “hid” rather than “hidden”, “gendered” rather than “engendered”, all for the very best rhythmic reasons. We can trust them; we know that they would certainly have employed “hidden” and “engendered” if the music called for it. Unfailingly, their ear is sure. .... [read it all]

[Note: I added the "KJV" to all of the scripture references, although that should be obvious, because that allows an online link to the passage in that translation.]

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE SOUND | More Intelligent Life

“What Would Jesus Want Me To Do?”

Joe Carter offers "Six Thoughts About Jesus", first observing:

...I rarely have fresh insights about Jesus (those are best left to theologians and heretics) but I had six thoughts that, however banal or obvious, might be worth sharing.

Two of the six:

• “Jesus is not a Republican or a Democrat,” said my friend John Mark Reynolds, “He’s probably a monarchist.” When I first heard that claim I thought it was clever; now I find it to be a profound insight. Jesus constantly talked about the Kingdom of Heaven. So why do so few Christians talk about it? One reason, I believe, is that we are now all republicans and democrats (small-R, small-D) and simply don’t understand what Jesus is talking about. We may use the term “Lord” and “King of Kings” but—unlike the vast majority of people throughout history—we do not comprehend what it means to live under the reign of a king. We need some remedial training on how to live as subjects in a kingdom. We may be justified in rejecting the divine right of kings to rule but we cannot justify rejecting the rule of our divine king.

• In 1896 a Christian socialist named Charles Sheldon wrote a book called In His Steps which popularized the slogan “What Would Jesus Do” and inspired two of the most well-intentioned but misguided fads of the twentieth century: the Social Gospel movement and the marketing of WWJD paraphernalia. The problem with both is that they are based on WWJD and that is the wrong question.

The gospels provide us with a clear record of what Jesus did—healed the sick, preached, traveled, made disciples. While we may also be expected to do these types of things, they were essential to Christ’s earthly mission. If he were walking the streets of America he would likely still be doing the same thing. But is this what we should be doing? Not necessarily. We are not Jesus; we are his disciples. Our mission is not his mission but the mission he assigns us. The question we should keep constantly before us is “What Would Jesus Want Me To Do?” But then WWJWMTD isn’t as easy to embroider on a bracelet or fit on a bumper sticker. .... [more]

Six Thoughts About Jesus | First Things

The Christians of Egypt

Peter Berger provides a fascinating short essay answering "Who are the Copts?" at his blog at The American Interest:

.... Who are these Copts? Certainly they are correctly identified as Christians. They are also correctly described as constituting some 10% of the Egyptian population and as the largest Christian minority in the Middle East. But they are also described as “Orthodox” Christians. That is a more iffy term. The Patriarch of Constantinople, for one, would not agree that the Coptic church is “Orthodox.” ....

The Coptic church in Egypt is commonly described as “Oriental,” a geographically confusing term. It is grouped with a number of other churches in Africa and the Middle East who share one important characteristic—they are not in communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople. In addition to the Coptic church in Egypt, these include sister churches of the latter—the churches of Ethiopia and Eritrea, and churches resulting from Coptic missionary activities in other African countries, and, very significantly, the Armenian church. There is also a scattering of related churches in Iraq and Syria (some called “Assyrian”). Theologically, all these churches are often called “Monophysite” (literally in Greek, “of one nature”). They don’t like this term. They prefer “Miaphysite” (literally, “of a compound nature”)—both adjectives refer to understandings of the relation between the divinity and the humanity of Christ. The least controversial designation of this ecclesiastical aggregation is “Non-Chalcedonian”—all these churches have rejected the Christological definitions of the Council of Chalcedon.

Berger then describes the theological issues addressed by Chalcedon pertaining to the relationship of human to divine in the person of Jesus Christ which "defined Christ as being both fully human and fully divine." And then:

Back to the Copts: They claim that their church was founded by the Apostle Mark in Alexandria as early as the middle of the first century. Leaving aside the role of Mark (which is hard to establish), the early date is very probably valid. Thus the head of the church carries the melodious title of Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy See of Saint Mark. The current incumbent is Pope Shenouda III. The Byzantine authorities, which had little tolerance for any Christian churches not under the control of Constantinople, set up an imperial (“Melkite”) patriarch in Alexandria with exactly the same title. It is not surprising that the Copts were not greatly upset when in the seventh century Arab armies incorporated Egypt in the burgeoning Islamic empire. Copts, along with Jews and other Christians, became dhimmis under Muslim rule—second-class citizens, but protected and given far-reaching rights as “People of the Book”. All the same, there were great benefits connected with conversion to Islam, and the Christian population of Egypt shrank over time. Today the great majority of Egyptian Christians are Copts. They can rightly claim to have the most ancient roots in the country. While their spoken language is now Arabic, their liturgical language is the vernacular version of ancient Egyptian as it was spoken around the time of Chalcedon—a remarkable cultural survival. .... [more]

Who are the Copts? | Religion and Other Curiosities

"So it is written, so shall it be"

I just finished watching the approximately four hours of the newly restored version of The Ten Commandments [Blu-ray], 1956, with Charlton Heston as Moses. It is beautifully restored—surely one of the best ever restorations. I think I can recall seeing it in a theater when it first came out and I surely saw it on black and white TV in the mid-sixties and later, but I hadn't seen it in years. I think only Ben Hur comes anywhere close to its quality among the biblical epics of the time—a time before CGI when spectacle actually depended on a "cast of thousands."

John Nolte's review begins with a quotation from Cecil B. De Mille's introduction to the film:

"The theme of this picture is whether man ought to be ruled by God’s law or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like Ramses. Are men property of the State, or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today...."

Nolte's response to the DVD is as enthusiastic as mine:

What’s most remarkable about the new Blu-ray is that it is easily the most beautiful film I’ve ever screened on television. Though the print I saw in the theatre Thursday night was a full, frame by frame restoration and jaw-dropping all on its own, the Blu-ray is, impossibly, even more beautiful. The VistaVision widescreen Technicolor pops right off the screen in ways I didn’t think possible. The richness of the colors, the stability of the blacks, and the details of everything, including fabrics and architecture, pull you deeper and deeper into the world of the film. ....

Though God is obviously DeMille’s star, Heston is the sun around which everything else revolves. His ability to speak some very difficult lines with complete sincerity is probably the greatest testament to his abilities as an actor. For any actor, that kind of straightforward dialogue, much of it spoken as grand proclamations, is a tightrope without a net. The risk of looking foolish is enormous and yet Heston never comes close. It’s a legendary and iconic performance no amount of words can do justice. ....  [more]

Big Hollywood ‘Ten Commandments’ Review:’ Cecil B. DeMille’s Masterpiece Arrives on Blu-ray Today

"Very wicked indeed"

From the very end of Evelyn Waugh's Scott-King's Modern Europe:

Later the headmaster sent for Scott-King.
"You know," he said, "we are starting this year with fifteen fewer classical specialists than we had last term?"
"I thought that would be about the number."
"As you know I'm an old Greats man myself. I deplore it as much as you do. But what are we to do? Parents are not interested in producing the 'complete man' any more. They want to qualify their boys for jobs in the modern world. You can hardly blame them, can you?"
"Oh yes," said Scott-King. "I can and do."
[....]
"What I was going to suggest was - I wonder if you will consider taking some other subject as well as the classics? History, for example, preferably economic history?"
"No, headmaster."
"But, you know, there may be something of a crisis ahead."
"Yes, headmaster."
"Then what do you intend to do?"
"If you approve, headmaster, I will stay as I am here as long as any boy wants to read the classics. I think it would be very wicked indeed to do anything to fit a boy for the modern world."
"It's a short-sighted view, Scott-King."
"There, headmaster, with all respect, I differ from you profoundly. I think it the most long-sighted view it is possible to take."

Evelyn Waugh, Scott-King's Modern Europe, Boston, 1949, pp. 88-89.

Note, 3/30: I changed the title of this post.

Breeding

Theodore Roosevelt has always been one of my favorite Presidents, admired for his character and many of his policies. But if I had known that he harbored opinions like these my admiration would have been considerably tempered. From a letter written and signed by Roosevelt to a prominent eugenicist:

.... I agree with you if you mean, as I suppose you do, that society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind. It is really extraordinary that our people refuse to apply to human beings such elementary knowledge as every successful farmer is obliged to apply to his own stock breeding. Any group of farmers who permitted their best stock not to breed, and let all the increase come from the worst stock, would be treated as fit inmates for an asylum. .... Some day we will realize that the prime duty - the inescapable duty - of the good citizen of the right type is to leave his or her blood behind him in the world; and that we have no business to permit the perpetuation of citizens of the wrong type. .... [more]

Letters of Note: Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind

Useless counsel

Although he has a lot of respect for John Piper, Chaplain Mike at Internet Monk reacted negatively to Piper's statement that when people are affected by events like the tsunami in Japan "...sooner or later [they] want more than empathy and aid—they want answers."

.... People ultimately want love, not answers. Answers are not the capstone; love is. Most can do without specific explanations. No one can do without love. Even when sufferers cry out, “Why?” they are not asking for answers. They are expressing pain and hoping someone is there to hear their cries. Above all, they want to know they are not alone, not abandoned, not rejected. They want love. They want the presence of someone who cares. They want reassurance that someone is there to embrace them, listen to them, hold their hand, be their friend.

To believe that “answers” are the ultimate solution is to take the position of Job’s comforters. ....

The Book of Job is about the limits of wisdom. This book shows the insufficiency of “answers” in the face of human suffering. It is a critique of the approach we are always tempted to take—thinking that talking and teaching and reasoning and giving divine “answers” to life’s mysteries and problems are our greatest gift to the world. ....

.... Take a lesson from Job’s friends at the beginning of the book (Job 2:11-13). They simply came and sat with their friend. And they accomplished more in those seven days than in 38 chapters of speeches trying to explain the mysteries of God.

People don’t ultimately need answers from their friends. They need love. Before God, they need the faith and humility to know that he is bigger than any explanations, and that all humans are so limited that we can never figure out the mysteries of his ways. It is best simply to clasp one’s hands over one’s mouth. .... [more]

Addicted to “Answers” | internetmonk.com

Inclusivism

PETA: Don't call animals 'it':

PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is calling for a more animal-friendly update to the Bible.

The group is asking translators of the New International Version (NIV) to remove what it calls "speciesist" language and refer to animals as "he" or "she" instead of "it." ....

PETA is hoping the move toward greater gender inclusiveness will continue toward animals as well.

“When the Bible moves toward inclusively in one area ... it wasn’t much of a stretch to suggest they move toward inclusively in this area," Bruce Friedrich, PETA's vice president for policy, told CNN. ....

Whether their arguments will be enough to sway the translators is yet to be seen. Friedrich said he has yet to hear back from the Committee on Bible Translation.

PETA: Don't call animals 'it' in the Bible – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Lent III: Purify my thoughts

WE beseech Thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of Thy humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of Thy majesty, to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [Thomas Cranmer]

BE ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. [Ephesians V]

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, who hast created me to love and to serve Thee, enable (me) so to partake of the sacrament in which the Death of Jesus Christ is commemorated that I may henceforward lead a new life in Thy faith and fear. Thou who knowest my frailties and infirmities strengthen and support me. Grant me Thy Holy Spirit, that after all my lapses I may now continue stedfast in obedience, that after long habits of negligence and sin, I may, at last, work out my salvation with diligence and constancy, purify my thoughts from pollutions, and fix my affections on things eternal. Much of my time past has been lost in sloth, let not what remains, O Lord, be given me in vain, but let me from this time lead a better life and serve thee with a quiet mind through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [Samuel Johnson, 1758]