Notice the sections of the book follow the diagram from part I in the top right around the circle to part III. It still will be a daunting task to ever read this book all the way through, but maybe this helps a bit.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
#276 Diagram of the Summa
Thanks to my benefactor I got Peter Kreeft's Summa of the Summa, which is an abridged, edited, and annotated introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica. The actual Summa is gigantic, but there's a pretty cool diagram in the front of the Kreeft's version which visually displays its contents and helps make a Herculean project just a bit more possible. I used iMac's Grab program to take this picture.
Notice the sections of the book follow the diagram from part I in the top right around the circle to part III. It still will be a daunting task to ever read this book all the way through, but maybe this helps a bit.
Notice the sections of the book follow the diagram from part I in the top right around the circle to part III. It still will be a daunting task to ever read this book all the way through, but maybe this helps a bit.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
#275 Teresa of Avila on Adoption
The ever quotable Saint Teresa of Avila on adoption as hope in a time of travail:
I like it. I can't find the source of this quote, but I like it.
"It is only mercenaries who expect to be paid by the day."
I like it. I can't find the source of this quote, but I like it.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
#274 My Point Exactly
The point I tried to make about Romans 13:1-7 in two posts, first here and then here, is made for me in fewer words by
My point was that 13:1-7 fits in, and only within, the context of chapters 12 and 14. But as Barth shows, you don't have to look that far to see why Paul made such an offensive statement.
"... the unmistakable fact that the passage dealing with human rulers follows immediately after the passage dealing with the enemy and is prefaced by the quite clear statement that men are to overcome evil..."
-- Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 484
My point was that 13:1-7 fits in, and only within, the context of chapters 12 and 14. But as Barth shows, you don't have to look that far to see why Paul made such an offensive statement.
Monday, January 18, 2010
#273 Interesting Links XXXII
Rojas at The Crossed Pond compares the handling of Plaxico Burress and Donte Stallworth and asks, is Plaxico Burress a libertarian martyr?
Mark Shea points out the specific ways in which George W. Bush has passed the torch of the Unitary Executive Theory on to Barack W. Obama.
David Rittgers looks at the sneak-and-peak powers we granted to the American monarchy when we got scared out of our wits and passed the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act. It's an example of how the powers we grant to big brother to fight foreigners for the illusion of security will always be turned on us in the end.
YouTube's greatest hits all mushed together in under four minutes. Charlie bit me!
Suzy Khimm asks if the 2016 Olympics will actually hurt Rio's poor?
This idolatrous piece ofart propaganda strangely includes several deists, anti-trinitarians, and even atheist Thomas Paine.
Apologetics annoys me and John Hobbins points out its limits.
Did Glenn Beck rape and murder a young girl in 1990?
Ta-Nehisi Coates makes the brief conservative case against the death penalty.
Glenn Greenwald shows how Orwellianisms are not limited to one political party. Obama won the Nobel Peace prize; look at the pictures on Greenwald's site. War is peace.
Mark Shea points out the specific ways in which George W. Bush has passed the torch of the Unitary Executive Theory on to Barack W. Obama.
David Rittgers looks at the sneak-and-peak powers we granted to the American monarchy when we got scared out of our wits and passed the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act. It's an example of how the powers we grant to big brother to fight foreigners for the illusion of security will always be turned on us in the end.
YouTube's greatest hits all mushed together in under four minutes. Charlie bit me!
Suzy Khimm asks if the 2016 Olympics will actually hurt Rio's poor?
This idolatrous piece of
Apologetics annoys me and John Hobbins points out its limits.
Did Glenn Beck rape and murder a young girl in 1990?
Ta-Nehisi Coates makes the brief conservative case against the death penalty.
Glenn Greenwald shows how Orwellianisms are not limited to one political party. Obama won the Nobel Peace prize; look at the pictures on Greenwald's site. War is peace.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
#272 January Modified Protestant Chronological Practical Bible Reading Plan
One of my new year's resolutions is to read through the Bible again. Here's what I call the modified chronological practical Bible reading plan.
It is chronological because it attempts to reconstruct the history in the order in which it is believed to have occurred.
It is modified because I didn't like how existing plans stuck Job right in the middle of Genesis. I think Genesis is better read as a complete unit. So I modified here for January and I'll possibly do so further down the road of the plan.
It is practical because I've failed at reading through the bible before. I know that plans that require you to read every day just don't work. They are impossible. For example, there are some days where you wake up very early for work, have to rush out the door, come back from work and have to immediately get in the car to go out of town, or to an event. Once you arrive there are people to visit and then night comes, it's way to late to actually wrestle with the text, even if you wanted to. So to counteract that problem, I've divided up the year into three-day sets in which to read about twelve chapters. For example I can read four chapters a day to total twelve in three days. Or I can read all twelve chapters on January 1 and be too busy the next two days, or all twelve on January 3 because I was too busy the first two days. Or I can read six chapters on January 1 and six on January 3 because life intruding in between. As long as I get my twelve in over the course of three days.
It is biblical because the Bible is not a devotional, though it may profitably be used that way. The Bible is a historical record of a people who interacted with God. Therefore, it requires context and requires that we not miss the forest for the trees. It requires that we read large swaths of the Bible in one sitting, at times, so as to see the grand sweep of the story. This plan allows you to do that, while leaving you with the flexibility to do otherwise.
It is Protestant because we must acknowledge that we are leaving out certain books that other epochs of church history and other factions presently consider(ed) canon. Maybe I'll do a Catholic one next year because Protestant will have become so 2010.
It is a reading plan because that's what it is.
It is January because that's what it is.
Jan 1-3: Gen 1-11
Jan 4-6: Gen 12-23
Jan 7-9: Gen 24-36
Jan 10-12: Gen 37-50
Jan 13-15: Ex 1-12
Jan 16-18: Ex 13-24
Jan 19-21: Ex 25-35
Jan 22-24: Ex 36-40
Jan 25-27: Lev 1-13
Jan 28-30: Lev 14-27
Jan 31-Feb 2: Num. 1-12
It is chronological because it attempts to reconstruct the history in the order in which it is believed to have occurred.
It is modified because I didn't like how existing plans stuck Job right in the middle of Genesis. I think Genesis is better read as a complete unit. So I modified here for January and I'll possibly do so further down the road of the plan.
It is practical because I've failed at reading through the bible before. I know that plans that require you to read every day just don't work. They are impossible. For example, there are some days where you wake up very early for work, have to rush out the door, come back from work and have to immediately get in the car to go out of town, or to an event. Once you arrive there are people to visit and then night comes, it's way to late to actually wrestle with the text, even if you wanted to. So to counteract that problem, I've divided up the year into three-day sets in which to read about twelve chapters. For example I can read four chapters a day to total twelve in three days. Or I can read all twelve chapters on January 1 and be too busy the next two days, or all twelve on January 3 because I was too busy the first two days. Or I can read six chapters on January 1 and six on January 3 because life intruding in between. As long as I get my twelve in over the course of three days.
It is biblical because the Bible is not a devotional, though it may profitably be used that way. The Bible is a historical record of a people who interacted with God. Therefore, it requires context and requires that we not miss the forest for the trees. It requires that we read large swaths of the Bible in one sitting, at times, so as to see the grand sweep of the story. This plan allows you to do that, while leaving you with the flexibility to do otherwise.
It is Protestant because we must acknowledge that we are leaving out certain books that other epochs of church history and other factions presently consider(ed) canon. Maybe I'll do a Catholic one next year because Protestant will have become so 2010.
It is a reading plan because that's what it is.
It is January because that's what it is.
Jan 1-3: Gen 1-11
Jan 4-6: Gen 12-23
Jan 7-9: Gen 24-36
Jan 10-12: Gen 37-50
Jan 13-15: Ex 1-12
Jan 16-18: Ex 13-24
Jan 19-21: Ex 25-35
Jan 22-24: Ex 36-40
Jan 25-27: Lev 1-13
Jan 28-30: Lev 14-27
Jan 31-Feb 2: Num. 1-12
Saturday, January 02, 2010
#271 Brooks on Leviathan
David Brooks usually writes decent but not great articles. His latest, called The God That Fails, is one of his best and you should read the whole thing. He starts out with the country's all too predictable reaction in the wake of the recent attempted terrorist attack:
In the end he argues for decentralized action over against centralized, bureaucratized methods of keeping the country safe. Our security systems are only as good as their algorithms which can neither predict the future nor react to the present.
How true. But the problem of course is that, as a nation which occupies nearly twice as much square mileage as the Roman empire at the height of it's power, our unity forces us to centralize. After all, what did an Atlanta-based company named Delta Airlines ever do to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab? What transgression did the passengers on that particular flight do the Islam? Are people in Nigeria angry over Detroit's interference in their national affairs?
The only thing these groups and the victims of the 9/11 and Oklahoma city terrorist attacks have in common is that they, through no choice of their own, are under the yoke of a Leviathan at odds with the views of Mr. Abdulmutallab and criminals just like him. Remember, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed didn't plan an attack on the New York chamber of commerce or the D.C. police force. He attacked the symbols of American business and military force projection. Timothy McVeigh didn't bomb the Oklahoma state capitol. He bombed the Oklahoma City Federal Building.
So while Brooks is right to emphasize that a myopic focus on a one size fits all, top-down security system is missing the point, it also needs to be remembered that our unity is the very cause of any anguish which occurs outside the city limits of Washington, D.C. is our unity in the first place. Local actors such as the people of Oklahoma City, New York, Detroit, and the customers of Delta Airlines suffer as part of the beast. If you sleep with Leviathan, if you need Leviathan, if you feel some patriotic connection to Leviathan, if you keep propping up Leviathan by legitimating him through participation in him, then be prepared to suffer with Leviathan. If you feed the beast, be prepared to suffer with the beast.
As Brooks says, "In a mature nation, President Obama could go on TV and say, 'Listen, we’re doing the best we can, but some terrorists are bound to get through.'" In other words, we can't prevent every wound such a large beast will incur as it romps all over the globe, and we can't predict the precise location of where those wounds will occur on the body of the beast. So take your lumps with honor knowing that you are an integral part of the beast. The Chinese government is not afraid to tell their people the plain truth that their individual lives are subservient to the good of the community, that they must worship the beast, that they must sacrifice to the beast. Americans want Leviathan to be their god too. They're just not willing to believe that it will be anything other than almighty, all-knowing, and all-seeing. They're not willing to believe that America is a god that fails and that they and their families will be the sacrifice that atones for its failure. Until our nation has ears to hear this mature message, we're all targets. "But," as Brooks says, "this is apparently a country that must be spoken to in childish ways." Because these children certainly can't stomach anyone who will speak to them otherwise.
"There have been outraged calls for Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security to resign, as if changing the leader of the bureaucracy would fix the flaws inherent in the bureaucracy. There have been demands for systemic reform — for more protocols, more layers and more review systems...
Dick Cheney argues that the error was caused by some ideological choice. Arlen Specter screams for more technology — full-body examining devices. 'We thought that had been remedied,' said Senator Kit Bond, as if omniscience could be accomplished with legislation.
Many people seem to be in the middle of a religious crisis of faith. All the gods they believe in — technology, technocracy, centralized government control — have failed them in this instance."
In the end he argues for decentralized action over against centralized, bureaucratized methods of keeping the country safe. Our security systems are only as good as their algorithms which can neither predict the future nor react to the present.
How true. But the problem of course is that, as a nation which occupies nearly twice as much square mileage as the Roman empire at the height of it's power, our unity forces us to centralize. After all, what did an Atlanta-based company named Delta Airlines ever do to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab? What transgression did the passengers on that particular flight do the Islam? Are people in Nigeria angry over Detroit's interference in their national affairs?
The only thing these groups and the victims of the 9/11 and Oklahoma city terrorist attacks have in common is that they, through no choice of their own, are under the yoke of a Leviathan at odds with the views of Mr. Abdulmutallab and criminals just like him. Remember, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed didn't plan an attack on the New York chamber of commerce or the D.C. police force. He attacked the symbols of American business and military force projection. Timothy McVeigh didn't bomb the Oklahoma state capitol. He bombed the Oklahoma City Federal Building.
So while Brooks is right to emphasize that a myopic focus on a one size fits all, top-down security system is missing the point, it also needs to be remembered that our unity is the very cause of any anguish which occurs outside the city limits of Washington, D.C. is our unity in the first place. Local actors such as the people of Oklahoma City, New York, Detroit, and the customers of Delta Airlines suffer as part of the beast. If you sleep with Leviathan, if you need Leviathan, if you feel some patriotic connection to Leviathan, if you keep propping up Leviathan by legitimating him through participation in him, then be prepared to suffer with Leviathan. If you feed the beast, be prepared to suffer with the beast.
As Brooks says, "In a mature nation, President Obama could go on TV and say, 'Listen, we’re doing the best we can, but some terrorists are bound to get through.'" In other words, we can't prevent every wound such a large beast will incur as it romps all over the globe, and we can't predict the precise location of where those wounds will occur on the body of the beast. So take your lumps with honor knowing that you are an integral part of the beast. The Chinese government is not afraid to tell their people the plain truth that their individual lives are subservient to the good of the community, that they must worship the beast, that they must sacrifice to the beast. Americans want Leviathan to be their god too. They're just not willing to believe that it will be anything other than almighty, all-knowing, and all-seeing. They're not willing to believe that America is a god that fails and that they and their families will be the sacrifice that atones for its failure. Until our nation has ears to hear this mature message, we're all targets. "But," as Brooks says, "this is apparently a country that must be spoken to in childish ways." Because these children certainly can't stomach anyone who will speak to them otherwise.
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