Things that helped this week…
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
A couple of things this week that were immensely helpful…
The first was a post by Don Miller on his blog: The Context for Spirituality is not Spirituality
If we think we are going to grow in faith by sitting around at a Bible study, we are wrong. That stuff is fine, but without a story, without diving into something really difficult, something that requires us to look to God for support and wisdom and comfort, it will be more difficult to become a person of great faith.
The second was an old talk by Tim Keller: The New Jerusalem. The stand-out for me in this was his discussion of the statement in Revelation that God is ‘making all things new’. He brought out the distinction – lost in english — between chronological newness and the quality of newness/freshness. That everything that God touches becomes fresh and new; there is endless opening up and discovery. We’re so used to decay and deterioration that we only experience this with chronologically new things, but with God and in the New Creation all that changes…
Desiring the Kingdom
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James K.A Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom is one of the most interesting books that I’ve read this year. I’ve just found an mp3 of a talk based on the book at www.calvin.edu/january/2010/smith.htm. It picks up on a lot of the key points from the book, so makes a great intro if you haven’t read it…
Hauerwas on the Life of a Theologian
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Havel on politicians
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In honour of tomorrow’s events…
It is my profound conviction that the world requires – today more than ever – enlightened, thoughtful politicians who are bold and broad-minded enough to consider things which lie beyond the scope of their immediate influence in both space and time. We need politicians willing and able to rise above their own power interests, or the particular interests of their parties or states, and act in accord with the fundamental interests of today’s humanity — that is, to behave the way everyone should behave, even though most may fail to do so.
Vaclav Havel
Partially quoted by James Sire in Vaclav Havel: The Intellectual Conscience of International Politics and in full on Project Syndicate.
You can become all flame…
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
from Desert Perspectives
Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, ‘Abba as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?’ then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you will, you can become all flame.’
from stories of the desert fathers (HT: Daniel Siedell)
Tags: photos
Stealing Transcendence
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
“…wilderness cannot be home because it does not provide the necessary culture-forming resources to make it home….The wilderness is preeminently the place where it seems impossible to fulfil our calling to be God’s image-bearing agents in creation. It becomes a place where [we are] reawakened to the gift character of the world.”
Middleton & Walsh (from “truth is stranger than it used to be”)
I’ve been experimenting a little with some photo ‘re-mixes’. Taking an old desert photo of mine (from a visit to Joshua Tree National Park) and ‘borrowing’ some textures from Makoto Fujimura (taken from his Countenance donation at The By/For Project.)
Here’s a taster
For more see the Desert Perspectives album.
“Thank God for hard stones; thank God for hard facts; thank God for thorns and rocks and deserts and long years. At least I know now that I am not the best or strongest thing in the world. At least I know now that I have not dreamed of everything.”
G.K. Chesterton
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...