Currently Reading Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology see related

Ok, so it's a while since I last posted anything.  Issues, school, family, jobs, life in general ... all vie for priority of time and attention.  My daughter, Lydia Rayne, was born in May, and the whole paradigm shift from not-father to father is a transition not easily made.  Althought it was much easier than most people built it up to be.  Also, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel in regards to school.  December 17th is the official day of graduation and a BA in Philosophy will finally be in my possession.  The past year has been a whirlwind and one that has caused deep and drastic shifts in my theology, philosophy, and ethics.  There'll be more to say about this later, but for now here's a link to a great website for Christians who are concerned about the state of the Church in today's society.  Enjoy.  http://ekklesiaproject.org/

Currently Reading Cross-shattered Christ: Meditations On The Seven Last Words By Stanley Hauerwas see related

I felt it pertinent that just as school is getting back into full swing, to start the new semester off with a quote:

“[Christians need to] name the kind of ‘humiliation’ that is at the heart of the Christian worship of God.  I believe with all my heart that the constant temptation to betray the Gospel, a temptation amply displayed by the history of the church, cannot be resisted in our day by Christians trying to imitate the false humility of tolerance.  Rather, the only resource for Christians to resist the ideological distortions of our faith – distortions all the more tempting because to be ‘self-servingly dramatic’ seems a better alternative than to be boring – is our faith in the God to whom Christ prays on the cross.

That God, the God who prays the Psalms, is the God, as Denys Turner puts it, who is ‘beyond our comprehension not because we cannot say anything about God, but because we are compelled to say too much.’  It is not as if we are short of things to say about God.  But rather, we discover, a discovery nowhere more apparent than Jesus’ words on the cross, that anything we have to say about God does not do God justice.  The darkness of God, a darkness nowhere more apparent than in the cross of Christ, is the excess of light.  It is not that ‘God is too indeterminate to be known; God is unknowable because too comprehensively determinate, too actual.  It is in that excess of actuality that the divine unknowability consists’.  It is only because God is most determinatively revealed in ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ that Christians are forbidden from ever assuming they possess rather than are possessed by the God they worship.”

 - Stanley Hauerwas, The Cross-Shattered Christ

Currently Playing Letters By Butch Walker see related

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Alexpascal and Professor Murder – Thanks for the comments. I actually haven’t read much of Heidegger nor any of his aesthetic theories, so I unfortunately don’t know that I can intelligently comment on him. With that said, I’d have to agree with PM that it does seem as if the ‘expression’ and ‘reflection’ theories are very similar. Although, maybe Heidegger places a higher ontological status on art then does Tolstoy? Maybe??

PM- I also agree with Danto, but it is interesting that in the final pages of the Transfiguration, his dealings with Style seem to almost vindicate Tolstoy, especially in the area of sincerity. As far as a ‘true nature’ of music, I would also be unwilling to go that far realistically.Idealistically, however, I think it is something amusing to play around with and I think Schopenhauer would be right if his other metaphysical ideas were correct. I don’t personally agree with him, but do enjoy reading him.

What I’m tying to do is play around with possibilities and ‘as if’s”. I think part of the reason for the long life of Expressionism is the reason that it is ‘as if’ a work of art expresses the feelings and emotions of the artist to the audience, not that it actually does just that or that is its nature or purpose. I do think, however, that in the area of musical art, when a song is played, whether lyrical or strictly instrumental, that it does connect in many different ways with the emotions. And so, it is ‘as if’ the musician is trying to transmit some sort of emotion, be it joy, sadness, praise, anxiety, or hatred for injustice, etc. I can’t think of any type of musical genre (at least within our culture) that doesn’t do this. So for me, I think Tolstoy was at least on the right track, but derailed with his optimistic propositions with regard to the progress of mankind.

Sorry I’m low on time. I’m just trying to survive finals week. 5 finals and a 10 page paper before Thursday…

Currently Reading The Transfiguration of the Commonplace By Arthur Danto see related

Yes I'm still (re)reading Arthur Danto...

The final full day of this semester has finally arrived and hopefully tonight I can get the first full night of sleep since Monday a week ago.  I honestly feel that my kidneys are about to give out from the massive amounts of coffee that has traveled through my digestive system over the past couple weeks!  This semester is one that I am definitely not going to miss. 

Christmas vacation is only a couple weeks away.  An entire week in Chicago doing nothing but drinking wine and eggnog (not together), playing chess with my father-in-law, smoking my pipe, and reading … need I say more.  Of course I’ll make my routine visit to the Art Institute and after spending the day with Seurat, Brancusi, Monet, and Poussin, I’ll end the day by grabbing a beer at one of the various downtown blues joints where hopefully I’ll be the only white guy in the place.  

Next Thursday my wife has her ultrasound that will tell us whether we’re going to have a boy or girl. 

In the area of aesthetics, Leo Tolstoy’s expressionism may have been unfounded with regards to visual art, but perhaps might have some validity with regards to music.  Art as expression of feelings and emotions seems to be very true to the nature of music.  Perhaps intermingling Tolstoy’s and Schopenhauer’s aesthetic theories with regards to music may yield an amusing little concoction that may not be too far from the true nature of music.   Just a thought…

Currently Reading The Transfiguration of the Commonplace By Arthur Danto see related

Topic for further study:

            The Relation / Causal Connection between Conscience, Sin, and Christian Ethics. 

- 1 Peter 3:21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you--not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience--through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

- Hebrews 9:14  …how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 - Romans 2:13-16 …for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.  For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

 - In 1 Corinthians 8 – Paul argues that since we know that since we know that there is no other God but God, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with eating food sacrificed to idols.  It’s just food.  But because not every one knows this and believes it’s intrinsically wrong to eat sacrificed meat, we should restrict our own liberty.  The reason is because eating the meat could cause someone else to strive against his or her own conscience and that is sin.

Those who are not under the Law (Torah) show the law written on their hearts through acting according to conscience.  What is conscience?  Is it intrinsic to all?  Is it universal…Logos…socially constructed…all of the above… none of the above…?  Why the need for a good conscience and how does baptism give us this?

Good Conscience = Salvation?  

Does this mean there is a difference / relationship between ethical action as such and acting all things considered? 

Hebrews 10: 19-23   Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;

Quote of the Day, week, month, or so…

            “In truth we possess 11 senses: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, Touch, Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Syrah, Chardonnay, and the arguably underappreciated Riesling.”