#333 Interesting Links XXXIX

John Hobbins thinks the question of the whether the events in Joshua happened as narrated is a dumb question no matter who is asking it.  His post is lengthy, but here's an introductory remark: "In ancient Israel and ancient Greece, the texts which narrate the formative periods of their respective polities post-date the events they narrate by give-or-take a half millennium. The texts shape collective memories and traditions for patriotic purposes. The authors of Joshua and the Iliad and the Odyssey worked with the memories and traditions they had, not the ones we wished they had. They cared much about questions of virtue and ultimate loyalty and the interaction of gods and men, all of which are front and center in their respective narratives. They cared little at all about the kind of questions a historian is used to posing."

Rod Dreher has posted links to the ugliest churches of our time.  He describes the first as "an ottoman mating with an armchair."  Does anybody know where to find a listing (with pictures) of the most beatiful churches around the world?  I remember seeing a picture of one in Barcelona once that was pretty cool looking.  And that big marble-looking white one in Florence that I saw in person was pretty nice too.

Just last year, C-SPAN posted almost its entire video archive on the web.  Sounds like a pretty boring news story, but could create for some interesting YouTube mashups causing politicians to eat their words.

Burke's Corner reminds conservatives why they exist while Austin Bramwell compares that odious thing that used to be conservatism (the GOP) to Orwell's 1984.

Daniel Larison compares Barack Obama to Woodrow Wilson.

Brad Littlejohn takes the contrarian view on Christianity and property rights, and claims the support of Aquinas, Basil, and Chrysostom.

In the book of Revelation, seven letters were written to the city churches in what is modern-day Turkey.  We don't so much unite by city as the early Christians did, but rather denominate ourselves by the nuances of our belief systems.  So if a letter were to be written to the evangelical church in America, I would imagine it should contain something like this from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

This is your literature on drugs.

And finally, John Calvin sounding very Catholic here.

#332 One Hitters II

1. In what sense are prayers answered?  What does an answer look like?  Should we ever be saying things like, "that's an answer to prayer," or "my prayers were answered," or "prayer works"?  If prayers seem to go equally or exceedingly unanswered as much as they appear answered, and in a fashion unknown to man, how can we venture to say things like this?  When we do pray, we alternatively receive and fail to receive with no noticeable correlation with the prayer.  When we don't pray, we alternatively receive and fail to receive.  No correlation with not praying that man can see.  Anyway, as Garth Brooks has noted, sometimes God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

2. What is worth reading in the 800+ years between Augustine's Confessions (400 AD) and Aquinas' Summa Theologica (1274)?  What is worth reading in the nearly 400 years between Calvin's Institutes (1536) and Barth's Epistle to the Romans, 2nd ed. (1921)?  And what is worth reading in the 250+ years between Aquinas and Calvin?

3. If it's harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (read: impossible), then is it equally hard for the healthy man?

#331 Coinage

St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Magnesians on his way to die:

"It is right, therefore, that we not just be called Christians, but that we actually be Christians... For just as there are two coinages, the one of God and the other of the world, and each of them has its own stamp impressed upon it, so the unbelievers bear the stamp of this world, but the faithful in love bear the stamp of God the Father through Jesus Christ, whose life is not in us unless we voluntarily choose to die into his suffering."

-- The Letter of Ignatius to the Magnesians, 4:1-5:2

Jesus on his way to die:

"'Hypocrites!  Why are you testing me?  Show me the coin used for the tax.'  So they brought him a denarius.  Jesus said to them, 'Whose image is this, and whose inscription?'  And they replied, Caesar's.'  He said to them, 'Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.'"

-- Matthew 22:18-22

#330 Ecumenical Coetibus

Cardinal William Levada, head of the church office formerly known as the Inquisition but now renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the opportunity presented by Anglicanorum Coetibus:

"Union with the Catholic Church is the goal of ecumenism—one could put, “we phrase it that way”. Yet the very process of working towards union works a change in churches and ecclesial communities that engage one another in dialogue, in actual instances of entering into communion do indeed transform the Catholic Church by way of enrichment.  Let me add right away that when I say enrichment I am referring not to any addition of essential elements of sanctification and truth to the Catholic Church. Christ has endowed her with all the essential elements. I am referring to the addition of modes of expression of these essential elements, modes which enhance everyone’s appreciation of the inexhaustible treasures bestowed on the Church by her divine founder.

"The new reality of visible unity among Christians should not thought of as the coming together of disparate elements that previously had not existed in any one community. The Second Vatican Council clearly teaches that all the elements of sanctification and truth which Christ bestowed on the Church are found in the Catholic Church. What is new then is not the acquisition of something essential which had hitherto been absent. Instead, what is new is that perennial truths and elements of holiness already found in the Catholic Church are given new focus, or a different stress by the way they are lived by various groups of the faithful who are called by Christ to come together in perfect communion with one another, enjoying the bonds of creed, code, cult and charity, in diverse ways that blend harmoniously.

"Since the Church is like a sacrament, she bears within herself the truth and grace of Christ. When we say that Christ reveals God, and that the Church bears the revelation of Christ in the world, we are admitting that the unenlightened human intellect is not up to the task of knowing God’s ways perfectly. We humans need revelation, enlightenment. Baptism as the foundational sacrament of Christian faith is the normal means for that enlightenment to begin to penetrate our intellects. Even so, while God in Christ has revealed as much about Himself and about our relationship to Him as we need, revealed truths about the infinite God still exceed our finite intelligence. There is always an element of mystery in our knowledge of God and God’s work. Therefore, we fully expect that, while we may accurately know what can be truthfully said, the full knowledge of what that means is enhanced by the contemplation of many groups of people on the same mystery...

"Visible union with the Catholic Church does not mean absorption into a monolith, with the absorbed body being lost to the greater whole, the way a teaspoon of sugar would be lost if dissolved in a gallon of coffee. Rather, visible union with the Catholic Church can be compared to an orchestral ensemble. Some instruments can play all the notes, like a piano. There is no note that a piano has that a violin or a harp or a flute or a tuba does not have. But when all these instruments play the notes that the piano has, the notes are enriched and enhanced. The result is symphonic, full communion. One can perhaps say that the ecumenical movement wishes to move from cacophony to symphony, with all playing the same notes of doctrinal clarity, the same euphonic chords of sanctifying activity, observing the rhythm of Christian conduct in charity, and filling the world with the beautiful and inviting sound of the Word of God. While the other instruments may tune themselves according to the piano, when playing in concert there is no mistaking them for the piano. It is God’s will that those to whom the Word of God is addressed, the world, that is, should hear one pleasing melody made splendid by the contributions of many different instruments... The experience we are embarking on with Anglicanorum Coetibus promises also to make the Church’s fundamental unity manifest by adding to her life distinctive expressions of Christ’s gifts."

Love the quote.  Nothing to add.  But it goes without saying that before the symphony could begin, the nitpicking church would argue about who gets to be the piano and who the tuba.  But it's a start.  Burke's Corner first reacts harshly (while making a fair charge) to a few Bishops making the switch , and then checks himself a bit.

#329 Rhetorical Palindrome

Speaking of Colossians, Peter Leithart notices what he calls a "chiasm" - which appears to be a word for a rhetorical palindrome - beginning at 1:16.  He comments,

"The structure, rather surprisingly, centers on Paul’s description of his own ministry.  All the exposition of the mystery and headship of Christ circles around Paul’s labor and struggle among the churches."

He sees another one beginning in the middle of the first on which he comments:

"One of the important results of this structure is to reinforce the connection between the cross and the 'circumcision of Christ'... the circumcision of Christ is not a description of baptism or any experience of conversion, but instead a description of the cross."

He's probably seeing things that aren't really there, but it could still be a useful tool to get an idea of what Paul is emphasizing. Check out the link to see the structure.

#328 Interesting Links XXXVIII

I saw this quote in the local paper about the local behemoth church: "North Point Community Church in Alpharetta has an annual budget of about $40 million, the church reports on its website. By comparison, the city of Alpharetta has an operating budget of $50.3 million for the 2011 fiscal year."

We are getting rid of cable soon and I need ideas for how to watch TV for free online.  So far the PBS site looks great with old episodes of Austin City Limits, American Experience, and Frontline available.  I've heard of Hulu, but where else do I go?

Sometimes it seems like the Protestant church is so concerned about something they call "works righteousness" that it's all they preach about.  Seems like I can't get through a Sunday without somebody reminding me that I can't please God and have to rely on his grace.  It's like we have no other sermon.  My concern is justified if it all leads to its logical extreme, as one Steven Anderson demonstrates.

So apparently Martin Luther had some pretty strange views on sex.  See here.

John Hobbins takes New Testament Christians to task.  An excerpt: "The Christians of the New Testament were Old Testament Only Christians. They had what we call the Old Testament, what they called Scripture, and they experienced what they took to be Christ crucified and risen in worship. If they were lucky, they knew someone who could share a few stories about what the guy did and said before he was crucified and God raised him from the dead.  That’s all they had, and that’s all they needed. They read Scripture, compared it with what the Holy Spirit was doing in their midst, and said, “This is that” (Acts 2:16). The last thing they needed was the New Testament."

Paul Griffiths urges a middle ground between ignoring the news and being a news junkie, calling the pagan world "an arena of grace."

Walter Russell Mead sets up a liberal straw-man and said liberal straw-man equates the Israeli government with the Myanmar, Eastern Congo, and Darfur governments.  The problem is no such straw-man even deserves knocking down if one existed.  The point was never that the crimes of the Israeli government against the Palestinians are in any way equal to those of more terrible regimes around the world.  Only Mead is "ranking sufferings."  The point of debate is that, in the words of Greg Scobelete, "by virtue of its aid and diplomatic support, the U.S. is implicated in Israel's behavior in a way that it simply is not with other countries."

What has a society come to when its Chief Justice of the Supreme Court can make a statement like this: "What is morally just and right—that’s not my job"  What would Augustine and Aquinas have thought of John Roberts?  Surely that the decline and fall of American was imminent if not complete.

Bin Laden won a far greater victory on 9/11 than anyone was willing to admit.  In a way, that day was the end of America.

Justin Taylor sets us straight, but is it possible that some of the same individuals who urged people not to fill out the census this past summer would also lambaste people who refuse to vote?  The census is one of the view constitutionally valid powers that our government exercises.  Civic duty is great and all, in November.  But when it interferes with a power grab, civil disobedience is the name of the game.  And to think, the people of Minnesota re-elected this crazy witch hunter.

#327 Colossians 1:15-20

Now that the Colossians have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, the king of their new domain is described:

He is the image of the invisible God, firstborn before all creation, because in him all things were created - things in heaven and things on earth, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers - they have all been created through him and for him.  He indeed is before all things, and they all cohere in him; he is also the head of the body, the church.  He is the beginning, firstborn from the dead, that he might be preeminent in all things, because in him it was decreed that all the fullness should take up residence and that through him [God] should reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross - [through him], whether those on earth or those in heaven.

So Paul begins with a simple statement of the lead fact: Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  The rest of the early Christian hymn describes what that means.  It means that at the center of everything that a doing God does is Christ.  YHWH is a creating God and does so through Christ.  YHWH is sovereign over the powers and is so by Christ.  YHWH reconciles and accomplishes this in Christ.  So all of God's action vis-a-vis the world finds its agency in Christ.  This is what it means to say that Jesus Christ is God incarnate.

Against the pre-Gnostics, Christ is not at variance with the creator god; he is in fact Israel's creator god.  He is here seen to be doing all of the things that a first century Jew would've expected YHWH to be doing.  This concept of Jesus fulfilling what a first century Jew would've expected YHWH to fulfill is argued at length by N.T. Wright in Jesus and the Victory of God.

What is the fullness that was decreed to take up residence in Christ?  I'm having trouble with this one.  Could it possibly have the same meaning as the "pleroma" in Romans regarding the salvation of the Gentiles or is Paul battling pre-Gnostics here?

If similar to the meaning in Romans, then maybe as Christ is the head and the firstborn, fullness simply means that the church - being the subsequently born - proceeds to take up residence as the body of the head so as to avoid a disembodied head.  Stated more succinctly, he is the head because he's where the fullness is taking up residence.  The fullness is not taking up residence because he is the head.

It is as if the so-called "Colossian heresy" was fundamentally a wrong answer to the following question, "Where will we as a body take up residence if not with the principalities, powers, thrones, and dominions?"  Paul's answer: God has decreed, "with Christ!"  He is, after all, the firstborn from the dead, and since you are next to be born from the dead, it only makes sense.  Otherwise, you're dead.

All creation seems to have been at war with God and with itself and since God only acts toward humanity via Christ, Christ is the agent who brings peace.  Somehow this blood is the method whereby YHWH fulfills his agency of peacemaking.

#326 Broken for Who?

The pastor at church Sunday said something to this effect when introducing the Eucharist: "If you are not a believer, then it wouldn't make sense for you to participate in this meal."  Pastors always say something to this effect to discourage non-members from communion.
Do they know why they say this?  I don't believe there's anything explicit in Scripture to this effect, so we can't say with any confidence that it is apostolic teaching.

At the inaugural Eucharist, Jesus pre-enacts his sharing of himself with, among the other disciples, Judas Iscariot, the wheat among the tares.

The criticism Paul has in I Corinthians 11 is of the congregation's failure to share enough, not their sharing too widely.  Whatever else Paul believe about drawing a fence around the Eucharist, support will have to be found elsewhere than in I Corinthians 11.

If Jesus broke his body and shared it with the world, why should we break it and hoard it amongst ourselves?  Are we failing to do precisely what Jesus asked us to do in remembrance of him?

Related posts:
Sacraments for Infants
Do What in Remembrance of You?