Marilynne Robinson on the Book of Books
Posted: December 29, 2011 Filed under: Art, Biblical Studies, Culture Leave a comment »
As a follow up to my recent post dealing with the Bible’s complex relationship to literature (“Does Anyone in the Church Ever Think About Literature?“), here’s author and Pulitzer winner Marilynne Robinson in an outstanding piece from the NY Times.
Writing on “The Book of Books,” Robinson focuses much upon the iconic and prolific Christ-figure, used to great effect by, well… almost everybody. But especially Dostoyevsky and Faulkner.
“In our strange cultural moment it is necessary to make a distinction between religious propaganda and religious thought, the second of these being an attempt to do some sort of justice to the rich difficulties present in the tradition. The great problem for Christianity is always the humility of the figure in whom God is said to have been incarnate, and the insistence of the tradition that God is present in the persons of the despised and rejected ….
“In its emphatic insistence that the burden of meaning is shared in every life, the Bible may only give expression to a truth most of us know intuitively. But as a literary heritage or memory it has strengthened the deepest impulse of our literature, and our civilization.”
Read the full post here. This is strong, good stuff.
Whistling in Cyberspace
Posted: December 28, 2011 Filed under: Community, Creativity, Fun, Weird Leave a comment »One of my increasingly addictive hobbies is playing the penny whistle. I love folk music in general, and Irish folk-punk (ala the Pogues) in particular, and since getting my own cheap Clarke in D a couple Christmases ago, I’ve gotten hooked.
Since my innocent entrance into the whistling world, I’ve discovered that there is a subversive, worldwide collective of fellow “feadog” players who do mad things on the internet, like play enjoyable music, “cyber-jam” via shared videos, and film themselves playing endless versions of The Road to Tipperary for sharing on Youtube. I love it. It can also get a bit strange.
As a case in point, please enjoy this video of a sweet, talented whistler playing “Banish Misfortune.” Among other things, it involves combing a pet bird’s feathers with an electric toothbrush. All in good whistling fun!
Toot toot!
Does Anyone in the Church Ever Think About Literature?
Posted: December 26, 2011 Filed under: Art, Biblical Studies, Creativity, Culture 2 Comments »
For starters, this isn’t a post about poorly read Christians.
I recently stumbled across Eric Metaxas’ Fox News rant lamenting the sorry state of Scripture knowledge in the media (“Does Anyone in The Media Ever Read The Bible?“). Among other things, Metaxas is peeved with a recent flub by the NY Times. The gaffe credited W.B. Yeats with a quote modified from the Book of Hebrews – “Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise.”
To shorten a longish story, the quote is not original to Yeats, it was widely circulated by the press before the mistake was caught, and now everybody in Metaxas’ “middle America” (is that a thing now?) is grouchy about how bad the media is at reading Holy Writ. A subsequent correction by the Times was insufficient to calm things down.
Metaxas uses the situation (and a similar lyrical flub by rigorous biblical fact-checker Willie Nelson) as the latest evidence that the media and “Hollywood celebrities” are proving increasingly deficient in “basic Sunday School knowledge.”
While this is probably true, I think that reacting with slack-jawed astonishment at these and similar mistakes is a waste of time, as is finding it another opportunity to indignantly lament our culture’s slide to Sodomic destruction occasioned by the abandonment of cultural Christianity.
Instead, I think it’s an opportunity for believers and non-believers alike to pause for a moment and consider what and how the Bible contributes to our creative culture. This is a huge topic, far beyond my abilities to trace in a blog post. Really though, the root question here is pretty simple, and comes in two parts. First, how does the Bible contribute its wisdom, imagery, and language to a/our culture. Secondly, in what ways do we consider the Bible “static” literature, and in what ways do we consider it “living” literature? Read the rest of this entry »
Childbearing and the Holy Unknown
Posted: December 24, 2011 Filed under: Advent, Biblical Studies, Intentional Living, Love, Natural Living | Tags: advent season Leave a comment »
Over at her blog MilkThistle, my lovely wife Emily reflects on the connection between the birth of our son a few days ago, and the advent season.
Birth is an experience that invariably shatters our personal illusions of control. But we still try to grab it.
Emily writes,
When it comes to pregnancy, our culture is obsessed with due dates. Invariably if you’ve been pregnant, one of the first questions people ask is “When are you due?” I’ve found that people aren’t quite satisfied with a general answer such as “In the fall” or “Around the holidays” or even “Late November.” We want to know the precise day. As our little bundle came four weeks past my initial “due date,” I can’t help but chuckle that baby Jesus arrives on the “due date” we’ve created for Him every single year without deviation.
But she also sees a source for joy in the process of letting go what we never really had in the first place.
If we let go of our expectations and embrace the sacredness of the holy unknown, that is when we find joy. Stress, anxiety, and inner turmoil arise from our futile attempts to control what we shouldn’t try to hold in our hands. We like to play god and when we feel the limits of our power, we panic…
Read the full post here for the full connection to the Advent season. It’s worth it.
And here’s to a woman who’s writing 3 days after an unmedicated homebirth. She’s a keeper.
Terrifying Second Hand Puppy-Children
Posted: December 23, 2011 Filed under: Community, Paranoia, Weird 2 Comments »At Geneva, IL’s recent Christmas Walk, my wife and I spotted these in a second hand store.
Welcome to the heartland. You can’t make this stuff up.
Welcome, Emmaus
Posted: December 22, 2011 Filed under: Intentional Living, Natural Living Leave a comment »On Dec. 20th, in a 100% natural homebirth, we welcomed our son Emmaus Paul into the world.
We could not be more in awe of the beauty and power of the natural process, nor more grateful to the Giver of life for our little son.
Thanks to those who know us for your prayers and support.
5 Tips for Winter Bike Commuting
Posted: December 19, 2011 Filed under: Bikes, Community, Intentional Living, Natural Living | Tags: bike routes, chicago winter, winter bike, winter biking 5 Comments »
As the Chicago winter grows fiercer, I’m still pedaling to work. This will be my first Midwest winter, though I cycled year round in the Pacific NW since college. Winter biking is just as do-able as summer, though you need to think carefully, and plan well to stay safe and warm.
I’ve learned (and am still learning!) a few good principles for winter bike commuting. If you’re on the fence about year round riding yourself, or just curious about what gets me there in one piece, here are 5 tips for safe and savvy human powered transit, even when the season turns on you.
1) Don’t Be Stupid. Read the rest of this entry »
R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens
Posted: December 16, 2011 Filed under: Culture Leave a comment »
Brilliant journalist, literary critic, and iconoclast Christopher Hitchens has died.
His career as a prolific thinker and intellectual was incendiary,volatile, and rarely safe. His opinions angered, encouraged, and confused the western world for decades; right and left, atheist and believer alike.
I remember him as a man who asked really good questions.
Fomalhout B Looks Suspiciously Like Oregon
Posted: December 15, 2011 Filed under: Art, Creativity, Fun, Oregon 2 Comments »Astronomers have recently found several planets in the “habitable zones” of nearby star systems. It’s time to start thinking about tourism.
From Chungkong’s recent gallery of future Exoplanet travel posters, comes this travel happy image. It looks suspiciously like home. Specifically, like my often hiked Punchbowl Falls in the glorious Eagle Creek canyon of the Columbia River gorge. You can dive off that rock in the upper left corner.
Does this mean that I am an alien?
View the full exoplanet travel gallery here.
The Death of the Comfortable Bohemian
Posted: December 14, 2011 Filed under: Culture, Intentional Living | Tags: bohemian lifestyle 2 Comments »
From “Apostasies” over at Zocalo Public Square, comes a smart, tongue in cheek piece by Calvin Alvarez on the untimely death of the hip, ironic, and doomed “comfortable bohemian” lifestyle.
“In case there’s any confusion about what I mean by “comfortable bohemian,” let’s start with what I don’t mean: a bohemian in the original sense. That’s someone in the creative class who lives with total disregard for society’s norms. It’s sexy. It’s a Hunter S. Thompson type of lifestyle. But living like a true bohemian almost guarantees a life of poverty and hardship. And that sucks. Read the rest of this entry »
Short, Sweet Christmas Music-tations
Posted: December 13, 2011 Filed under: Advent, Creativity, Fun, Makers 2 Comments »From good friends Idito the Chicken and Moonpie Nobot come a flurry of short and simple songs about Christmas.
How can they fit so much holiday cheer in under a minute? I don’t know. But they do. And then they share it.
They’ll be posting a new video every day, leading up to the big Dec. 25. All are available at tarehna’s youtube channel and their Facebook page.
Here’s a sample:
Thanks, Brandon and Tarehna! You guys rock.
Do Right, Bob Jones
Posted: December 12, 2011 Filed under: Culture, Intentional Living, Love 2 Comments »
Today’s Coffee Break Commentary takes us to Greenville, SC, where a group of concerned students at fundamentalist doctrine mill Bob Jones University are staging a silent protest. They are decrying their administration’s shameful responses to sexual crime highlighted by Tina Anderson’s recent heartbreaking police testimony and larger action to expose hushed up abuse by Christian leaders.
Beyond protecting abusive pastoral practice, according to student reports BJU and connected pastors have consistently fostered a shame culture that blames victims for the crimes they have suffered, while horrifically twisting Scripture to whitewash the tombs of their leaders.
Protesting students are calling for abuse victims within Christianity at large to come forward, while rallying around the motto “Do Right, BJU,” wearing red, and organizing via a blog and facebook page.
Though a protest on a normal college campus might not make the news, the context makes this not only unprecedented Read the rest of this entry »
Profoundly Affirming Blog Spam
Posted: December 11, 2011 Filed under: Love, Technology, Weird Leave a comment »
Spam is part of life on the internet. For the reasonably tech savvy web user, it’s not too difficult to identify and dispose of– assuming that it makes it through the increasingly effective blocking software most sites use.
But what about when spam gets friendly, and goes straight for the heart?
What about when a mal-bot says those things you want to hear?
I’ve noticed a trend in recent spam comments here on Sparks and Ashes. They’re overwhelmingly positive. I know they’re the trolling bait of some pimply hacker in Serbia. But they still make me feel so good.
For your reading enjoyment, here are the best of the worst – spam comments on my recent posts that I’d love to believe are true: Read the rest of this entry »
What Would Jesus Think?
Posted: December 9, 2011 Filed under: Biblical Studies, Culture, Intentional Living 4 Comments »
Over at the BBC, a well balanced article traces the history of the “What Would Jesus Do?” slogan, from its 1890s roots to modern day meme status.
Coined by Kansas minister Charles Sheldon in the novel In His Steps, the phrase gained modern popularity –and the WWJD? abbreviation– after its adoption by a Michigan youth group in the late 1980s. Decades since have seen it grow into a pop culture cliché; gracing t-shirts, bracelets, and window clings, and recently adopted by Occupiers.
But what are we really asking when we ask this question? Read the rest of this entry »
Derek Webb on the Wisdom of Free Art
Posted: December 8, 2011 Filed under: Art, Community, Creativity, Culture, Makers, Technology 3 Comments »
From Derek Webb, one of my creative heroes and co-founder of Noisetrade, comes an outstanding essay on why giving away art makes more sense than ever for full time creatives. Webb, a songwriter, naturally focuses his attention on the music market.
The changing digital arthouse is ripe with opportunity for talent, but it takes fresh eyes and a redefinition of success:
“There has never been a better moment to be a middle-class or an independently thinking artist making and performing music than right now. The costs and complications of creating, recording, manufacturing, and distributing music are at an all-time low, enabling more music to be made and more artists to make a living than ever before. If your ego can bear not being rich and famous, you can make a respectable and sustainable living as a blue-collar musician. The problem used to be access; now it’s obscurity. And this brings with it a completely new set of problems and opportunities.”
Read the full piece here.
The future of media will not look like big production houses, DRM and fat agents. It will look like cutting out the middle men with direct niche publishing, local performance, and a proliferation of outstanding creativity.
Via ArtHouse America, including image
Advent – His and Our Incarnation
Posted: December 8, 2011 Filed under: Biblical Studies, Community, Intentional Living, Love | Tags: Advent 1 Comment »A warm welcome to great friend and guest contributor Luke Cirillo. You can find more of Luke’s writing at PDX and Things. Today, he invites us to consider the implications of Christ’s Advent as an ongoing process, lived out in the lives of his followers.
–Paul
There has been quite a bit of conversation in recent times about the term “incarnational” and whether it’s a good idea to use the moniker when talking about the things Christians do now. The debate has basically hinged around whether incarnation as a theological concept can be applied only to the advent of Christ (example of this view here), or whether it can be more broadly used as a description of Christian mission (example of this view here).
You can spend many Blog-Years tracking this conversation across the internet and many real years reading books about it. Rather than rehash all of that, I want to talk about Advent and “incarnation.”
I think, without much qualification, that “incarnational” is an extremely valuable term in talking about Christian mission. One of the many reasons I believe that is because of the season we are celebrating right now: Advent. Read the rest of this entry »
Near Emmaus on Jesus and Occupy
Posted: December 7, 2011 Filed under: Biblical Studies, Community, Political Engagement Leave a comment »Over at biblioblog Near Emmaus, Brian Leport offers a balanced perspective on the relationship of Jesus to the Occupy movement. His perspective is mine, that where the values of the Kingdom align with the values of Occupy, Christians should be vocal, on the front lines of engagement.
But Brian encourages us to remember that:
“We need to avoid minimizing Jesus into a set of principles oddly similar to our own (much like Jesus’ temple cleansing has been used as a parallel for anti-Wall Street demonstrations). I don’t know what the response is to a government that seems to make it more and more difficult on the least of these, but I think it is somewhere between challenging the State and acting as part of the solution ourselves. Often it is the second half of that equation that is far more difficult.”
Yes Brian, often it is.
Read Brian’s full post here.
For Sparks’ previous posts relevant to this topic, please read here, here, and here.
Canta Si Puedes!
Posted: December 6, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »From globetrotting amigo Dave Tilton comes a heads up on “Canta Si Puedes” (“Sing if you Can.”)
The inbred lovechild of American Idol and Fear Factor, contestants in this Peruvian game show are judged on their singing as they undergo various horrors, including crooning from a bathtub full of rats, lying flat in a python enclosure, and battling a female wrestler.
This is the only game show about singing that I’d ever admit to enjoying. Not that I’m admitting to enjoying it. Just hypothetically.
Fine. IT’S AWESOME.
Thanks, Dave!
Chicago’s First Protected Bike Lane
Posted: December 5, 2011 Filed under: Bikes, Community, Intentional Living 2 Comments »For today’s lunch link, here’s a brief video and associated interview from Streetfilms on the new Kinzie Street protected bike lane. The project represents Chicago’s first successful effort to give cyclists their own space on the road. It’s located near the high traffic Loop.
Special attention was given to intersections and areas of car/bike interaction. Thanks to Eustace Cornelius for the heads up here.
Kinzie Street: Chicago’s First Protected Bike lane from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
As a bonus, here’s one cyclist’s reason for liking the new lane: Read the rest of this entry »
The Thinking Person’s Guide to Holiday Shopping
Posted: December 5, 2011 Filed under: Advent, Community, Creativity, Intentional Living, Uncategorized Leave a comment »
With last minute Christmas shopping howling outside like a prairie blizzard, here’s a holiday gift giving rubric to run through as you’re scanning your Christmas list. Or, for you overachievers, for you to print off and tape by your computer for when you start next year’s shopping on Dec. 26.
Our communities, local and global, flourish best when design and craft are put in the hands of independent artisans who use quality materials and responsible production practices.
When you can, be that person. When you can’t, support that person.
The true cost- and true benefit- of our gift giving is often invisible to consumers. To encourage the beneficial, community building aspects of holiday gift giving, here’s a list to keep in mind. I’d encourage you to try and stay in the lower numbers as you’re finishing off that shopping.
The “Be Thoughtful” Holiday Gift List:
1). Buy less stuff. This is the big one. Often, the real value of a gift is in the thought behind it. Communicating your love and appreciation for a person is what people really remember. Write a thoughtful letter. Give a serious compliment. Organize a positive, affirming family “roast” instead of a Secret Santa exchange.
Bottom line, buy less stuff and make things more meaningful. Consider if your intended recipient would appreciate a donation in their name to a charity. Give a shared experience, like snowshoeing or a brewery tour. Be creative. Read the rest of this entry »
An Expensive Shot of Haystack Rock
Posted: December 3, 2011 Filed under: Creativity, Fun, Oregon, Weird Leave a comment »Bummer. But really, wasn’t the viral video sort of worth it? No?
Well, bummer.
how to lose $2400 in 24 seconds from Kurtis Hough on Vimeo.
Via Neatorama
The Jobs Bill
Posted: December 2, 2011 Filed under: Community, Culture, Intentional Living, Political Engagement Leave a comment »Sparks and Ashes is pleased to welcome longtime friend Eustace Cornelius in this guest post. Last week, the administration’s proposed “Jobs Bill” was heavily covered by the media. Today, Eustace challenges our understanding of what makes a healthy economy–and why, in the long run, more isn’t as urgent as right.
Planning for the future
Just before my wife and I got married, we met with a financial planner to discuss our economic strategy for a healthy and conflict-free marriage. We covered the usual things – achieving and maintaining financial independence from the parentals, merging bank accounts, expected standard of living, goals for the future, and children.
The only thing left was to weigh our debts against our assets. So, after listing all of our bills next to all of our income, we only had one small issue – we were almost two thousand dollars short! The well-meaning lady slowly put down her pen and looked up blankly at my fiance and I, at which point, I think I was full-out laughing and my wife-to-be was starting to tear up. As if informing an adult on the need to breathe oxygen, the financial planner looked at me and suggested that we make an effort to increase our income.
This dismal outlook was no surprise, my wife and I knew what we were walking into, but we never once doubted the choice or the timing. We adapted.
I started bussing tables at a restaurant, working the returns counter at a outdoor retailer, and trying to sell video surveillance systems. My wife continued teaching dance and took odd-jobs cleaning houses and baby sitting. I know for certain that we were not unique. Many people in the younger generation have moved on from the college years with extensive debt and no available job in their field of study.
With a positive attitude and an abundance of creativity, our generation is making it work. Unfortunately, our parent’s generation is not. Many of them are unemployed or underemployed while trying to maintain an unsustainable standard of wasteful, consumeristic living. Read the rest of this entry »
“Occupy Everywhere” Panel Broadcast
Posted: December 1, 2011 Filed under: Community, Culture, Intentional Living, Political Engagement 1 Comment »Democracy Now! covers an excellent recent panel on the Occupy Movement. Participants include Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, and William Greider.
For a savvy perspective on what Occupy is contributing to our political discussion, and why the establishment just can’t wrap their minds around how important it is, take the time to view the broadcast.
Panelists discuss OWS’s connection with Bradley Manning, why grassroots organizing works, and how OWS is shaking a generation out of political apathy.
My highlight is Patrick Bruner’s respectful props to the Tea Party (around minute 13:00), and sharp expression of why our generation feels unbelievably, royally screwed.
Whatever your views have been on OWS, I urge you to consider it as a movement, a “shifting of public will.”
Why? Well, because that’s exactly what it is.
EDIT: Video has been taken down from Youtube. I’m tracking down another. – Paul
Thanks to Eustace Cornelius for the head up on this one.
Babel, Zephaniah, Pentecost
Posted: December 1, 2011 Filed under: Biblical Studies, Creativity, Love 2 Comments »
For those interested, here is a brief review of my Master’s thesis, as presented last April by Scienta et Sapienta.
Dr. Marc Cortez covers my exegetical work in the book of Zephaniah.
Several people remarked after my Spring presentation at the NW Regional ETS meeting that they’d like to read the paper. So, I’m posting it here.
Sorry for the delay.
If you’re ready to wade into some exciting intertextual arcana, here’s a full text copy of Echoes of Pure Speech.
