Happy Christmas
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
Tags: photos
that moment of time gave the meaning
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
This sort of started from thinking about Christmas card designs, but wandered…
(photo plus sonogram, text with acknowledgements to T.S. Eliot.)
Tags: photos
Teach us to care and not to care
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
It’s been a long time since I last posted, but work has dominated the end of the summer and there wasn’t much mental bandwidth left.
At the risk of sounding like I only think about a very limited number of subjects, someone returned my copy of Engaging Unbelief and my thoughts wandered that way again…
I’ve been pondering why a lot of apologetics leaves me cold. I think perhaps it is because frequently the writes/speakers don’t seem to care about the questions, only giving the winning arguments. (I don’t want to imply that their motivation is necessarily poor. It may be presentation, it may be the situations in which I have come across the presentations, etc. And in many cases I have a lot of respect for the people.) What I really want to feel, even as someone in ‘the choir’ being preached to, is that the speaker cares deeply about the issues and has wrestled with them, not simply that they have figured out a convincing repost.
If you remember Engaging Unbelief looks at the apologetics of Augustine and Aquinas. For them, apologetics meant going inside the story of the people you are talking to and showing how Christianity resolves the plot tensions. I think this related to what I’ve been feeling. Loving apologetics, doesn’t look from them outside & point out problems; it gets inside and wrestles with the issues alongside those already there. More risky, perhaps, but only if we’re not sure that what we believe is true.
I think this is what Francis Schaeffer tried to do. You get the impression that he truly felt the issues he was addressing. And that he wrestled deeply with the intellectual problems of those he came into connect with. Consequently, I’m more than happy to listen to his arguments, even when some of my opinions have wandered from his.
Interestingly, I have a similar response, from the other side, when reading Terry Ealgeton’s review of Richard Dawkins. When someone takes time to get inside your worldview to that extent, you have to respect it. If, after such a presentation, Eagleton offers problems with Christianity, then I would feel it valuable to talk with him about them. If people come with arguments without really engaging with the issues, then my motivation to listen is far less.
Tags: apologetics, provocations
Mime
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
I’ve had a few photos from a friend’s mime evening hiding away on my site for a while. I’ve been waiting to do better scans, but that hasn’t happened, so here is one from the not-exactly-optimal scan session…
Tags: photos
Stories that matter
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
Although I don’t tend to do posts that are only links to other pages, I found an excellent interview with Daniel Taylor on stories and loved it so much I wanted to pass it on.
Some quotes…
Here is the story: it starts “In the beginning, God created”, and it runs through time and thru Biblical history and church history and now up to the present time. And now you come, too. You join the story, you be a character in the story. And that is a much more powerful invitation than “What you believe is false and what I believe is true.”
If you are an ethical storyteller you don’t waste the time of the listener. You try and tell a story that has significance.The great immorality of television is not its obscenity or violence or sex. It is that it wastes our lives. It often tells us thin unimportant stories.
Tags: story
Wedding photos (2)
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
I’ve put some photos from the wedding of some friends of mine at www.paulnorridge.co.uk/wedding2. Obviously limited interest if you don’t know Jess & Alex, but I think this one has wider appeal, at least…
Tags: photos
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...