To Do

Sunday June eighth, I will leave my university’s campus and move to the city of Toledo, in northwest Ohio. Then for the following thirteen weeks, I will be working forty hours a week as a Supply Chain Intern with Owens Corning, and using the rest of my time to read, think, write, and pray.

There are several things on the immediate writing agenda:

• In December of 2006, at the conclusion of a class on Comparative World Religions, I wrote an essay about Christianity’s place among other religions. I plan to revise this and expand upon it.
• In a Philosophy of Religion class which I took one year ago, I encountered John Hick’s “soul-making theodicy.” My final paper for the class presented a more Christian, more biblical adaptation of Hick’s general thesis which I’ve since dubbed a “saint-making theodicy.” Since then, I’ve realized that this idea echoes more and more scripture, and I’ve continued to refine it. I’ll commit the current version to paper over the summer.
• I want to write my take on the argument from morality for the existence of God, with a focus on what can be properly grounded only in belief in God; or, what must be abandoned along with abandoning belief in God.
• I plan to clearly and concisely articulate my main criticisms of the American Church.
• I’ll write my understanding of how Christians are to see the Old Testament.
• Lastly, I have a larger project on soteriology, or the theology of salvation. I’ve done a lot of thinking and questioning on this, culminating in carefully reading straight through the New Testament with soteriological questions in the very front of my mind, and recording every scripture which seemed to speak to them. This blog has certainly reflected this studying, but largely in short polemics. I want to pore over my lists of verses, and articulate my conclusions more fully.

Then come the questions which I hope to answer over the summer:

• Given the criticisms of the American Church which I mentioned above, what should the disciple’s relation to this Church be?
• There is much talk among Christians of the goodness of the created order, and of the human body, and of other such natural things. But I’m more inclined to focus on things the New Testament says about the flesh, worldliness, self-denial, and self-mortification. But then again, I do realize the New Testament’s affirmations of things like family, and honest work. How do all these things work together? How can we embrace those affirmations of certain “natural” things without diluting the radical denunciation or transcendence of other “natural” things?
• Art.
• What should a Christian’s political involvement be? I’ve heard much talk of fighting systemic injustice, and defending the rights of the oppressed – but in the New Testament this talk is strikingly absent, and I see instead commands to submit to authorities, even evil ones, and to feed the hungry, rather than try to change the system which leaves them hungry. But are these things absolute, or should they still be coupled with some political action? And what of a situation like mine in America where I’m simply handed the political clout of a vote, at the very least?
• Christians should look different from the world. Besides avoiding pharisaical showmanship, are there any limits or qualifications placed on Christian differentness?

Stay tuned.

Choruses From ‘The Rock’

Here are parts of Choruses From ‘The Rock’ by T.S. Eliot:

The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, but ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.

...

Silence! And preserve respectful distance.
For I perceive approaching
The Rock. Who will perhaps answer our doubtings.
The Rock. The Watcher. The Stranger.
He who has seen what has happened
And who sees what is to happen.
The Witness. The Critic. The Stranger.
The God-shaken, in whom is the truth inborn.

...

I say to you: Make perfect your will.
I say: take no thought of the harvest,
But only of proper sowing.

...

I have given you power of choice, and you only alternate
Between futile speculation and unconsidered action.

...

And the wind shall say: ‘Here were decent godless people:
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls.’

...

When the Stranger says: ‘What is the meaning of this city?
Do you huddle close together because you love each other?
What will you answer? ‘We all dwell together
To make money from each other’? or ‘This is a community’?
And the Stranger will depart and return to the desert.
O my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger,
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.

...

Though you forget the way to the Temple,
There is one who remembers the way to your door:
Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
You shall not deny the Stranger.

Tremble

Listen to Jesus Christ: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell – and great was its fall.”

This is the Jesus we meet in scripture, the Jesus who offers us salvation and calls us to follow Him as disciples. His words above reveal what a difficult and terrifying thing it is to follow Him. Inasmuch as we change discipleship into a safe and easy pastime, or change Jesus into a harmless buddy, we turn away from Jesus Christ, and His call, and His path which leads to life.

Broken Lungs

My co-favorite band Thrice is coming out with a new album on the 15th. It’s actually the second half of a concept album called The Alchemy Index, which consists of four EPs themed to the classical elements of fire, water, earth, and air. One song from the air EP, "Broken Lungs," is already up on Thrice’s MySpace page, and I’ve been listening to it quite a bit for the past week. I think it’s an incredible song. One high point is the surprising marriage of frontman Dustin Kensrue’s roaring scream with the song’s air vibe at the end. It doesn’t come off as just a departure from the airy atmosphere to toss in some screaming. No, Kensrue’s slide from roar into falsetto, and the brilliant instrumentation, makes this feel like surging gusts of air.

All my listening to the song has led to some serious analysis of the lyrics. They go something like this:

Woke up to a brand new skyline.
We licked our wounds and mourned the dead.
Swallowed the story hook and sinker.
Is that what we meant when we said
That we never would forget?

Aren’t we fools and cowards all
To let them cover up their lies?
‘Cause we all watched the buildings fall
And watched the scales fall from our eyes.

A fire burns beneath Manhattan,
Still we breathe with broken lungs.
We act like none of this matters.
Is that what we meant when we said
That we'd sing what must be sung?

Aren’t we fools and cowards all
To let them cover up their lies?
‘Cause we all watched the buildings fall
And watched the scales fall from our eyes.

We want justice!
Scream from the ruins!
We want justice!
We want the truth!

I see two mains possibilities for interpretation. The shallower one would refer to the Bush administration’s “lies,” and cry out for the truth about Iraq’s detachment from the attacks of September 11, 2001. The deeper interpretation, which can either supplement or replace the prior one, would refer to lies about war itself, and about vengeance and violence in general. Then it would end, perhaps, with screams for real justice apart from all our endless wars.

Then consider the 'cause in the chorus: “Aren't we fools and cowards all, to let them cover up their lies? 'Cause we all watched the buildings fall, and watched the scales fall from our eyes.” Going on the deeper interpretation, this would mean that the scales fell from our eyes, revealing the lies of violence, and making us want true justice. But then, even in this revelatory light of September 11th, we still went along with war and revenge, which makes us fools and cowards.